GRI Wildlife Vet Program/Annekim
Three people are in custody, and a mother and baby pangolin are finally safe, after a two-week ordeal that could have drastically altered their lives forever. After a week-long search by investigators in Zambia, the mother and baby were found on Sunday, cowering together against their captors. Dodo Shows Odd Couples Dog Is So Gentle And Patient With Her Foster Kittens GRI Wildlife Vet Program/Annekim Pangolins, scale-covered mammals who live off insects, are known to be "secretive and nocturnal and characteristically roll up into a ball when threatened," according to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF). "From the poor condition of the mother and baby, it is thought that they had been in captivity for over two weeks," Vicky Flynn, a representative for the DSWF, told The Dodo. Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked wild mammal in the world, Flynn said. This is because of illegal hunting stemming from a high international demand for their meat and scales in Asian markets. GRI Wildlife Vet Program/Annekim The pangolin trade has reached epidemic proportions, according to DSWF. An estimated one million pangolins were traded illegally in the last decade, and demand keeps growing: Between 2011 and 2013, an estimated 116,990 to 233,980 pangolins were killed. But the two pangolins discovered clinging to each other have been spared this cruel fate. While they are still very weak from their ordeal, the DSWF-supported GRI Wildlife Crime Prevention Project is helping the two animals recover. When they are healthy enough, they'll be released back into the wild expanse of Kafue National Park, the largest in Zambia. The baby pangolin, now in safe hands, being weighed at the rehabilitation facility | GRI Wildlife Vet Program/Annekim "They seem to be eating, which is a great sign," Annekim Geerdes, of the GRI Wildlife Vet Program, said in a statement. "They will be given a chance to rest and eat well again." GRI Wildlife Vet Program/Annekim Maybe it took a crisis to give Volkswagen the push it needed. The German automaker, still mired in its self-created defeat device scandal, should be credited now with a wholesale rethinking of its operations, to the degree that it can barely even bring itself to utter the word car. As it heads into its annual general meeting Wednesday, VW has lots to say about the future of automobility or sustainable mobility, making a big push against old-school car people and old-school ideas of what defines an automaker. A substantial part of the remake is the planned launch of more than 30 purely battery-powered electric vehicles by 2025. Thats an audacious goal, matched by the companys projections that electric vehicles will comprise 20 to 25 per cent of unit sales by that time, pacing what VW expects will be the global transformation of the auto market. Then theres Gett. The name likely wont resonate with drivers here at home, but the Israeli-based entry into the ride-hailing market has earned a high profile in Europe, offers fixed-fare black cabs in London and has marked its entry into New York with luxury cars on demand. The business market is a primary focus, part of the appeal for VW, which invested $300 million (U.S.) in Gett last month. Driverless is in the mix too, as Volkswagen promises the in-house development of a self-driving system by the end of the decade. So this has morphed into a story about transformation, albeit with the not very enticing corporate moniker Together Strategy 2025. Projected investments are imprecise the double-digit billion range doesnt quite translate but the numbers are big. Details will be provided before the end of the year when the company presents its strategy in detail, with set goals and financial targets. This is progress. In December, newly installed CEO Matthias Mueller said the company needed to be set on a more pioneering, innovative path. He wanted Volkswagen to be staffed with the curious and the independent-minded. Silicon Valley became the obvious comparison. At the time, the company announced that its Das Auto branding line would no longer tag its global marketing efforts. The move seemed such an insubstantial nod to a crisis, one that Volkswagen would be lucky to survive. Wasnt advertising beside the point? Interviewed by industry bible AdWeek, one branding consultant described the move away from Das Auto as Not much of an idea at all cosmetic at best. VW, he said, blew the believability tire, a breach of trust that no branding efforts would repair. Except that the tag line wasnt just associated with turfed CEO Martin Winterkorn. Or anal-retentive German engineering. Or the past and bad behaviour. By simple translation Das Auto was The Car and therefore couldnt convey VWs evolution into a world-leading provider of sustainable mobility. None of this erases Dieselgate, and the ongoing fallout from the actions of VW engineers who rigged emissions tests via software the defeat devices that altered nitrogen oxide readings. It was, as has been described, a massive deception, and somehow especially surprising coming from the makers of the peoples car. Initial congressional hearings drew memories from congressmen who remembered their mothers first beetle, or a much-loved Passat. Then one likened VW to the Lance Armstrong of the industry. The software, remember, could detect whether the automobile was on the street or in the lab. Clever and a decades-long problem, as the first investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency makes clear; the year was 1973. Initially, the company tried to pass off the contemporary disaster by blaming a couple of employees who made bad decisions. For a second, they thought the damage could be contained. Any outside observer could see the folly in that. Heading into the annual meeting next week, VWs main task will be to sell shareholders on its vision for the future. Executives have come up with a smartly positioned plan. Exciting, even. It wont work without winning back the trust of car buyers. Or rather, mobility enthusiasts. SHARE: BRUSSELSThe European Union has extended for another year some of its sanctions targeting Russia over its annexation of the Crimean peninsula. For two years, the 28-nation EU has imposed ever more punitive measures on Russia to protest what it calls the illegal annexation of Crimea and deliberate destabilization of Ukraine. The sanctions target imports from the peninsula and investment there, among other measures. The announcement came one day after EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. After the EU first imposed sanctions two years ago, Moscow retaliated by banning imports of meat, vegetable and dairy products from the EU, a blow to many of the blocs members. Read more about: SHARE: Linamar Corp., a Canadian auto-parts maker, has talked with Apple Inc. and Google about potentially supplying the technology giants if they begin making cars. In an interview, chief executive officer Linda Hasenfratz declined to give specifics about the discussions but said she was excited about the potential to work with new players in the auto industry. Theyre interested in partnering with people in the industry as well because obviously weve got the experience and we know what we need to do in order to build a high-quality vehicle, she said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Canada. Were quoting work and designing product that could be utilized in those vehicles. Apple didnt immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. A Google spokesman declined to comment. Alphabet Inc.s Google announced a deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV in May to work together to develop self-driving vehicles. Apple has never confirmed it is working on a car but has been assembling a team of experts in batteries and robotics technology needed for autonomous, electric vehicles. German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported in April that Magna International Inc., another Canadian auto manufacturing company, was working with Apple. Theres lots of opportunity, Hasenfratz said. I love the idea of having some new customers to work with. Canadas second-largest auto-parts maker specializes in power units for hybrid vehicles and drive trains. The company is working on a new drive train for electric vehicles, Hasenfratz said in a May 4 conference call with analysts. Read more about: SHARE: They are 150 Canadians ranging from lawyers to photographers to artists to athletes, apparently united only by their inclusion on a terrorist target list. The purported kill list of 8,300 individuals around the globe that was posted to social media by a pro-Daesh hacker group is nevertheless being taken seriously by Canadian police and security authorities, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Thursday in Ottawa. When this kind of threat to Canadians is put into the public domain all of the security and police and intelligence agencies in the government of Canada respond in a robust way to keep the country safe, he said. A spokesperson for the RCMP said that the force is working with local and international police as well as intelligence agencies to assess the information and notify those Canadians who have been included on the list. The people on the list that the Star talked to on Thursday said police had not contacted them. I have to say that this is one of the stranger calls Ive had in my life, said one man, a Toronto resident who works for the Ontario government. The man, whose current home address and email were included, had read the news about the existence of the list but was shocked and unable to figure out anything that would have led to his inclusion. He asked that his identity be withheld: Im hoping its not serious or a real risk, but who the hell wants the attention? The vast majority of the Canadian names on the list were women. Among them were a tattoo artist, the owner of a production company, a resident of a tiny town in Nunavut and an elite athlete. The address listed for the athlete, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, is the current address of her parents. If you look at what they believe in and their dogma I am someone they would absolutely not want to tolerate, she said. To them Im probably absolutely disgusting in their eyes. The fact that none of those individuals contacted by the Star had yet been approached by police or government officials about their inclusion on the list was a worry for some. For others it was a relief. I dont think this is as big as people think it is. If it was, the RCMP would have been at my house this morning, said the athlete, who said she could recall incidents in the past where it appeared that her email accounts had been hacked or shown signs of irregular activity. Its not exactly like Im careful with where I shop online or what I do. I just think if somebody really wants your information theyre going to get it. Nothings all that secure. There are also questions about when this information was compiled. One woman who lives in Guelph and works as an artist was listed as living in another Southern Ontario town, a place she moved away from two years ago. The only reason she could think of that might bring her to the attention of a terrorist group or its supporters would have been when she waded into a social media frenzy during last falls federal election. But she acknowledged that this would in no way merit her inclusion on a kill list, she said as she headed out to do the groceries Thursday afternoon. Part of me wants to LOL and part of me wants to freak out a bit. Its really weird that Im a target. Im just a gal who hangs out with her dog, knits and paints a little. Read more about: SHARE: OTTAWAConservative MP Candice Bergen is angry that the government has had dozens of web pages from Stephen Harpers days as prime minister deleted from Google search results, but the Liberals say its just a matter of keeping websites current. The prime ministers website is not his own website to do with as he pleases, it belongs to the Canadian people, Bergen said in the Commons on Thursday. It cannot just be changed at the whim of the Liberals. Documents tabled in the Commons in response to a written question from Bergen detail the deletion requests, showing that the Privy Council Office (PCO) requests for deletion from Google began last Nov. 4, the day the Trudeau government took office. They continued into January. The Prime Ministers Office called it a technical matter: public servants wanted the change so that searches produced the latest material. The government said the Harper material was neither deleted nor destroyed and remains available. All of the previous prime ministers archived web content can be accessed via Library and Archives Canada along with other archived government materials, Treasury Board President Scott Brison told the Commons. Canadians expect government websites to reflect the most up-to-date information and accurate information when they are searching on these sites. No one wants Harper forgotten, Brison said, prompting guffaws of laughter from the Liberal benches. Our government hopes that the memory of the former Conservative prime minister lives in the minds of Canadians for a very long time. Google said in a statement it just wants to ensure that its searches reflect the contents of websites. We dont take a view on what is appropriate for site owners to feature on their own websites, it said. But, like any website owner, they can submit a request (via a form we make available to all website owners) to update our search results to include the latest, most recent version of their website. The government search result requests covered Harpers daily posts and his 24-Seven video diary as well as news releases in both French and English. On Nov. 9, the PCO asked Google to clear its index for any page published on the domain pm.gc.ca before Nov. 4, but Google did not offer such a service. In January, requests were made for more deletions year-by-year through Harpers tenure and the government reply says pages no longer show up search results. In all, the PCO asked Google 51 times to remove Harper material from its search results. The office said, however, that Harpers website material was saved in its entirety in the archives. This application went live in April and a link to it has been added to the PCO website, said Raymond Rivet, director of corporate and media affairs for the PCO. A few other agencies made a handful of requests to Google asking that documents be removed from web searches. For example, the RCMP asked that one news release be removed because charges had been dropped and that another be deleted because a publication ban had been imposed in a case. National Defence asked Google to remove an older version of a document from its cache because it included personal information about a member of the Forces. The Treasury Board asked for a change after finding that Google searches tied a photo of Bill Matthews, comptroller general of Canada, to biographical information for Bill Matthews, a former MP from Newfoundland and Labrador. Read more about: SHARE: MASON CITY | The Rev. Kathy Graves, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, will celebrate 25 years of ordained ministry on Sunday. She will be recognized during the 9 a.m. outdoor service in the courtyard, followed by an open house reception in the Fellowship Hall at 10 a.m. All are invited. Graves has served as pastor to senior adults at Trinity since 2007. From 1995 to 2007 she was the coordinator of spiritual care for Hospice of North Iowa. She also served as a chaplain at Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa and in congregations in Minnesota and Massachusetts. OTTAWAIn a landmark move, Canada has legalized medically assisted death for gravely ill Canadians after a Senate vote that suddenly broke a legislative logjam Friday. After a wrenching debate, a majority of appointed senators voted to accede to the will of the elected House of Commons. They dropped their efforts to expand the right to die. Under the law, only patients suffering from incurable illness whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable are eligible for a medically assisted death. Senators voted 48-22 to accept a government motion that rejected the Senates earlier amendment to include others who are not terminally ill or near death. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Health Minister Jane Philpott, in a joint statement, said the vote to pass the legislation is an important one, but it is not the last step in this journey. They insisted the law strikes a balance between the rights of the gravely ill and the need to protect vulnerable others at risk of a premature death. It gives dying patients who are suffering intolerably while in decline on a path toward death the choice of a medically assisted death. And they promised Health Canada will work with provinces and territories to implement the bill, and study medical assistance in dying in the context of mature minors, people for whom mental illness is the sole underlying condition, and advance requests. The Canadian Medical Association welcomed the new law, saying it supported robust federal legislation to ensure access is not impeded, protects vulnerable patients and respects the personal convictions of health-care providers. However, advocates of broader access say the law excludes an entire class of desperately ill Canadians who were otherwise eligible under the Supreme Court of Canadas 2015 decision in Carter v. Canada. Today, we mourn for those Canadians who were promised compassionate choice by the Supreme Courts decision, only to have that choice taken away, said Shanaaz Gokool, head of Dying With Dignity Canada. When this government came into power, its leaders vowed to respect Canadians hard-won Charter rights. Bill C-14 represents a breach of that promise. Under the new law, doctors, nurse practitioners and pharmacists who provide or help to provide medical assistance in dying will be exempt from prosecution under the criminal code. Two independent medical practitioners must sign off on a patients request and certify he or she is eligible under the governments strict criteria. And there must be a 10-day waiting period between the request and administering of any medical aid to die. The Commons accepted certain Senate amendments, for example, to require patients be told of medical options, including palliative care services, and to bar beneficiaries from administering medical assistance in dying. But MPs couldnt live with the biggest change urged by the Senate: to expand the right to die. By Friday, a majority of senators gave up on a second try to force the issue. Sen. Serge Joyal had proposed another amendment to require the government to refer the bill to the Supreme Court of Canada for a constitutional opinion. A majority defeated the amendment, and within two hours, voted to accept the bill. It quickly received royal assent with the Senate clerk rushing the bill over to Gov. Gen. David Johnstons residence and bringing it back to the Senate for a last acknowledgement of its proclamation. It had been, at times, an emotional debate. Not all who voted to pass the bill said they supported it, but in the end they said the Senate had to defer to an elected Commons. We have done our job and although it breaks my heart, I am going to continue doing my duty by voting for the bill as sent back by the peoples representatives, said Sen. David Tkachuk. Those who voted against the bill did so for strikingly opposite reasons some said it still does not contain enough protections for the vulnerable, whether disabled individuals or people with mental illness. Others opposed it because they are convinced it is not liberal enough and fails to comply with the Carter ruling. I think there was a moral fatigue said Joyal afterward. At this point in time, seeing there was no will on the part of the House to make any kind of movement of humanity, he said, there has been some kind of wrenching realization that its almost hopeless. Joyal and others decry the fact that suffering Canadians who dont meet the governments restrictive eligibility criteria will now have to bear the cost of going back to the courts to challenge it. He urged provinces to refer the question to the Supreme Court so that individuals dont have to. SHARE: CALGARYPolice charged a man with first-degree murder on Friday in the stabbing death of the owner of a Chinese wellness centre in Calgary. Jin Huang, 42, is scheduled to appear in court on Monday. The man who died ran the Perpetual Wellness Chinese Medicine Centre and has been identified by police as 51-year-old Tiejun Huang. Even though the two men share the same last name, police say it's not believed that they're related. The accused allegedly brought a knife with him to the clinic on Thursday, Insp. Don Coleman of the Calgary police department's major crimes unit told a news conference. "It would appear that the accused wanted to confront the doctor in relation to his perception of some sort of relationship between the doctor and the accused's wife," he said. "I believe he was quite agitated, attended the clinic, searched out the doctor and engaged in a verbal altercation, which ultimately led to the physical altercation and the stabbing of the victim." None of the allegations made by police has been proven in court. Police know of one report of a "domestic incident" in the past between the accused and his wife, Coleman added. He said he believes the couple lived together and have children. She's been a patient at the clinic for a "substantial period of time," he said. On Thursday afternoon, police were called to a shopping centre north of downtown Calgary amid reports of multiple stabbings. The accused was treated for minor injuries on scene before he was arrested. A woman who was a patient at the clinic not the accused's wife sustained minor injuries and has been released from hospital, police said. There were large drops of blood leading up to the door of the second-floor clinic on Thursday. Yellow police tape blocked off the section of mall while bystanders looked on. Maggie Law, who runs a spa a few doors down, said she saw people from a nearby restaurant running over to help yelling "bring more towels, bring more towels! There's a lot of blood." Coleman praised those who came to the clinic owner's aid. "It's always heroic in nature when people can spring into action like that," he said. "I can guarantee nobody expected to be in that position that day. It's impressive to know that there's people who are willing to help in those situations, especially when the offender is still at the location." Read more about: SHARE: Police say they have found the puppy that was stolen last week from Mississauga after a family saw the nine-week-old wandering in Whitby. Peel police received a call for the theft at around 7:54 p.m. on June 8 in the area of Morning Star Dr. and Goreway Dr. in Mississauga. Three people posing as buyers of the puppy, which the owner advertised on Kijiji, had pepper-sprayed the owner, grabbed the dog and fled, according to police. The 27-year-old male victim suffered minor injuries as a result. The trio escaped in a four-door Honda Civic with the puppy. A week later, a family, who recognized the puppy from media coverage and photos released of the animal, found the puppy wandering in the Whitby area, police said in the news release. Police were contacted and were able to retrieve the puppy in healthy condition. It has since been returned to its rightful owner. Police say the three suspects of the puppy theft still remain at large. They have described the first suspect as an East Indian male in his late teens to early twenties, with a skinny build, dark complexion, and a beard from his chin tapering to his ears. Police say he was wearing glasses with thick frames and dark clothing. The second suspect is also described as an East Indian male in his late teens to early twenties, about 5-feet-10tall and 180 lbs. with short hair. He was wearing earrings about a quarter-inch wide on both ears, according to police. The third suspect is an East Indian female in her late teens to early twenties, with a thin build, long black hair, and a possible name of Karen, police say. They are asking anyone with information on this incident to contact police at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Read more about: SHARE: Three Toronto Star journalists won laurels at the Canadian Journalism Foundations awards gala Thursday evening. Columnist and feature writer Catherine Porter claimed the Landsberg Award for her examination of womens equality issues. Taking the baton from Star columnist Heather Mallick, who won last year, Porter called out the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario in 2015 for turning a blind eye to one doctors history of sex assault. As debate around the niqab reached dog-whistle pitch, Porters focus on social justice also led her to argue for womens right to don the headscarf. The foundation bestowed the award on a second set of recipients as well, Radio-Canadas reporter-producer duo Josee Dupuis and Emmanuel Marchand. Matt Galloway, a jury member and host of CBC Radios Metro Morning, praised Porter and the Radio-Canada team for exposing bias, challenging the establishment and ultimately leading to significant change. Their work is vital, and its a pleasure to celebrate this recognition. The Stars Jayme Poisson, part of the Stars investigative team, won the Greg Clark Award for early-career journalists. She earned the plaudit, along with a $5,000 stipend, after proposing to effectively camp out at two information offices at the provincial and federal level to study how they handle access-to-information requests. Access to information is an area that isnt well understood, noted Marissa Nelson, a jury member and CBC regional director. Freedom of information requests can be an exceptional tool for journalists to access the unvarnished, un-spun truth, said Poisson, known for reporting on sexual assault in Canada and the saga of late former mayor Rob Ford. The information we obtain through this process allows the public to scrutinize how government is performing and how policy decisions are really made. Katie Daubs, a Star feature reporter, took over a William Southam Journalism Fellowship from colleague Emily Mathieu, granting Daubs and four other fellows a year of study at the University of Torontos Massey College. Eduardo Lima, a freelance photographer whose work has appeared in the Star, won the Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award. Introduced by Star editor-in-chief Michael Cooke, Boston Globe Spotlight team reporters Sacha Pfeiffer and Michael Rezendes and their editor Walter Robinson added another garland to their pile, taking a special citation for their work uncovering child abuse and the resulting cover-ups in the Catholic Church in Boston, the foundation stated. Receiving his award, Robinson said hed been limited to three sentences: Im an editor and I know how to make use of a semicolon. CBC News won the Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism, largely for its reporting on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Said the evenings MC and CBCs The Current host Anna Maria Tremonti: We have seen a year of traumatic stories. All of it a reminder of why journalism matters. Kicking things off, CJF chair and former Star publisher John Cruickshank said his enthusiasm for journalism hasnt waned in fact, its utterly restored. The Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy sponsored jointly by the Atkinson Foundation, the Honderich Family and the Star went to Catherine Wallace. She plans to examine the state of Canadas news industry and emerge with proposals to keep it dynamic and relevant. Former CTV National News anchor and Canadian broadcasting legend Lloyd Robertson now hosting CTVs W5 garnered a lifetime achievement award. Two lights that have illuminated the Anglo-American media landscape for a combined 100 years of editorship were recognized at the gala. Tina Brown, whose star has only risen since she left London-based lifestyle glossy Tatler to join Vanity Fair and then the New Yorker, earned a tribute Thursday. So did her husband and Reuters editor-at-large Sir Harold Evans, a veteran newspaperman formerly of the Sunday Times. His unflinching series have spurred both legislative and court-ordered change overseas, paving the way for cervical cancer smears for British women and a settlement for British Thalidomide victims. SHARE: The man convicted of killing 8-year-old Victoria Stafford seven years ago is asking for a new trial, arguing there was too much weight given to the testimony of the unsavoury main witness. Michael Rafferty was convicted in May 2012 of kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm and first-degree murder in the death of the Woodstock, Ont., girl. His appeal is set to be heard Oct. 24. Raffertys former girlfriend, Terri-Lynne McClintic, pleaded guilty in 2010 to first-degree murder, initially telling police Rafferty killed the girl, but testifying at his trial that she delivered the fatal blows. Raffertys lawyer, Paul Calarco, argues in documents filed with the Court of Appeal for Ontario that the judge made several errors, including failing warn the jury against relying on the testimony of McClintic, a person of unsavoury character, with a serious history of violence and lying. The Crowns case was strongest on the kidnapping count, Calarco concedes, but since forensic evidence could not prove a sexual assault, that conviction was almost entirely dependent on McClintics version of events, he argues. While the Crown had some evidence against Mr. Rafferty, the worst aspects of the case depend almost entirely on McClintics evidence, Calarco writes. It was essential the trial judge give a clear, sharp warning against relying on her in the absence of substantial corroboration. Rafferty did not testify at trial, but argues in his appeal that he was at most an accessory after the fact to murder a concept the judge did not put to the jury. His actions proven by evidence other than McClintics testimony, such as cleaning the scene, destroying evidence and giving a false alibi, are equally consistent with being an accessory, Calarco writes. McClintic told court a horrifying story of a drug-addled couple abducting a young girl at random for the mans sexual pleasure, then killing her with inconceivable brutality. She claimed Rafferty was directing her every step of the way, ordering her to snatch a young girl for him, making her buy a hammer and garbage bags then getting her to help him clean up at the murder scene. The Crown at trial argued it didnt matter whether McClintic or Rafferty physically killed Tori, he was guilty because they acted together. Raffertys trial lawyer, Dirk Derstine, portrayed his client as an innocent dupe. McClintic had a troubled upbringing and a violent past including beating her mother and injuring a dog so badly it had to be put down. The Appeal Court ruled in 2013 that Raffertys appeal should be publicly funded because it would be too complex for Rafferty to handle on his own with the assistance of duty counsel. SHARE: The minister who oversees Canada Post has issued an order to stop the distribution of Your Ward News, a Toronto publication that has been called anti-Semitic and racist by its critics. I have issued an interim prohibitory order to this individual, who is its editor-in-chief, advising him that he can no longer use Canada Post to spread this offensive material, reads a statement issued by Judy Foote, minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada. Your Ward News, which describes itself as an anti-Marxist publication, is distributed free to more than 300,000 homes in Toronto and often includes articles and illustrations of religious caricatures, among other controversial features. At the centre of the controversy surrounding the publication is a cover image from last year that featured a postal carrier wearing Orthodox Jewish garb and glowing red eyes spitting and yelling about the Holocaust while dropping a bagel. The same cover also depicted two lawyers with overly large noses, speaking in Yiddish slang. Last year the Toronto police hate-crimes unit investigated the publication after a Beaches resident complained about receiving it in the mail. The investigation was closed after police deemed the publication was not committing a hate crime, but many disagreed. Its hate material, said Mike Palecek, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. Theyve published anti-Semitic images, caricatures of letter carriers and our members should not be subjected to that sort of hate material in their workplace and the community should not be subjected to it in their mailboxes. Palecek said some of his letter carriers had been disciplined for refusing to distribute the paper, and called Footes decision great news earlier this month, Canada Post issued a statement saying it had received the ministers order and would comply immediately. Members of the public who have been lobbying to block Your Ward News also celebrated Footes order. Lisa Kinsella, a founding member of a group called Standing Together Against Mailing Prejudice (STAMP) which has campaigned against the paper, explained that a prohibitory order criminalizes any attempt by a particular mailer to send offensive material through Canada Post. We are ecstatic about the ministers decision, said Kinsella. Minister Footes swift and decisive action means that this disgusting material will no longer be landing in the mailboxes of people who dont want it. However, James Sears, the editor of Your Ward News said he has officially requested a board review of the order and intends to fight it. Judge Judy has violated multiple sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and I will for sure be lawyering up for battle, he wrote in an email to the Star. Sears argues that by shutting down the only ultra-right wing satirical newspaper in Canada the government is violating freedom of speech laws. He insists Your Ward News has done nothing wrong. If we were spreading hate or libel of a criminal nature, we would have been charged a very long time ago, Sears added. Sears said Footes decision has delayed the papers 2016 summer issue as apartment mailboxes, which make up a large portion of the circulation, are only accessible by Canada Post, but added that if the postal service refuses to back down, the paper could be distributed by hand. If we must, we can get a stormer army of free speech volunteers to hit houses with the papers (we would just distribute all 305,000 copies to houses instead of apartments, and double the distribution area to compensate for the extra copies), he wrote in an email. With files from Star staff Read more about: SHARE: Forecasting for a clear and sunny Fathers Day weekend in the city, events will be hitting the streets of Toronto literally. North from the Yorkville Exotic Car Show and down to the lake for the Luminato Festival, this weekend is one for walkers, runners and bikers, but drivers be warned, a ton of road closures are coming your way. Here are some traffic warnings and road closures to look out for: Full Weekend: The Taste of Little Italy kicks off today, and so do the road closures. College St. will be closed in both directions from Bathurst St. to Shaw St. from 6 p.m. tonight until Monday at 3 a.m. The Luminato Festival will be taking over the streets this evening for a free two-day backyard party on Front St. Roads will be closed on Front St. in both directions from Bay St. to York St. at 7 p.m. tonight, until Sunday at 11 p.m. Its that time of year again! Fans will be taking over the streets for the 2016 Much Music Video Awards this Sunday. Queen St. W. between McCaul St. and Beverley St. will be blocked off at different times throughout the weekend for rehearsals and set up: Friday, from 6 p.m. to Saturday at 3 a.m. Saturday from 4 p.m. till midnight. Sunday from 8 a.m. until Monday at 3 a.m. Saturday June 18: The Highland Creeks Heritage Festival in Scarborough will be closing off Old Kingston Rd., from Watson St. to Kingston Rd., as well as Morrish Rd. from Kingston Rd. to the south side of 226 Morrish Rd. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Additionally, Lawson Rd. will be closed from the west side of Meadowvale Rd. to Old Kingston/Kingston Rd. from 10 a.m. to noon for the parade. Sunday June 19: The streets of Bloor-Yorkville will be blocked off with luxury cars for the 6th annual Yorkville Exotic Car Show on Sunday. Several streets in the area will be closed from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Bloor St. W. will be closed from Avenue Road to Bay St. Bellair St. will be closed from Bloor to Critchley Lane. St. Thomas St. will be closed from Bloor to Sultan St. Major north and south streets, such as Avenue Road, Queens Park Cres., and Bay St., will stay open. The Princess Margaret Hospital foundation will be hosting the 4th annual Journey to Conquer Cancer Run/Walk 5k. The event starts at 9 a.m.; however several streets will be closed as early as 8 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Wellesley St. W. will be closed from Bay St. to Queens Park Cres. Queens Park Cres. will be closed from Bloor St. south to College St. University Ave. will be closed from College St. to Wellington St. Orde St. will be closed from McCaul St. to University Ave. Public Transit Click here to see TTC service updates related to these road closures. Service updates for Go Transit are available here. SHARE: Students at a Scarborough high school hoped the viral success of their Hamilton tribute clips would get them the right to stage the Broadway musical, but they were shocked to learn that the shows PR company wouldnt even let them stay on YouTube. Students at Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts had uploaded unofficial music videos of three numbers from the smash-hit, multi-Tony-Award-winning, historical-and-hip musical to the site with the aim of catching the eyes and ears of its creator actor/songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, currently starring in his play on Broadway. This was the kids love letter to Lin-Manuel from Wexford Collegiate, said Ann Merriam, the schools artistic director who oversaw the campaign to bring Hamilton to Toronto. We spent hours and hours and hours to do these three music videos and to be shut down like this . . . we dont understand. Prior to their takedown, the schools versions of the shows costumes, swagger and rap battles proved to be a hit online. In particular, the students take on Right Hand Man had racked up over 21,000 times since it was posted a week ago. On Thursday, however, each of the three clips was pulled from YouTube after a press agent representing the Broadway production flagged the clips for copyright infringement. The school has contacted Hamiltons media relations office seeking further explanation. The public relations firm did not immediately respond to the school or to the Stars request for comment. Jamie Fiuza, who performed as a dancer in the Wexford production, said she was devastated after learning the footage had been removed from the global video-sharing website. We just wanted to show the cast of Hamilton and really anyone who saw the video, just how much we loved it, the said. I know well figure it out but we are still proud of the work we have done. Still, the Grade 12 student added her love of musical and theatre remains unfazed. I understand there are sometimes bumps in the road but it doesnt change my passion for what we did at our school, she said. Grade 12 performer Daniel McCormack questioned why Wexfords video was removed while a Chicago high schools rendition with a view count of 265,000 was allowed to remain online. Most of us just really wanted our hard work out there for the public to appreciate, he said. I just dont understand why they chose to remove it. School principal Tom Lazarou said the videos removal was disappointing given the amount of time and effort students invested in the project. Hopefully we get some answers as to why it was taken down so there can be some learning from this, he said. Grade 11 student Savion Roach played the shows title character, American founding father Alexander Hamilton, during a media performance Wednesday. Like many of his peers, Roach said he was drawn to the shows casting of people of colour as white historical figures. They changed the ethnicities of those naturally white characters . . . which shows you dont need to be a certain way to prove your worth in the world, he said. The students efforts were further motivated following the recent deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. For Grade 12 student and lead dancer Madelaine Hodges, the tragedy made the productions themes of unity and friendship more poignant than ever. That club was a safe place for people like Wexford is such a safe space for us, she told the Star. So its heart wrenching to see a safe haven demolished in such a way. The musical equivalent of a summer blockbuster earned universal acclaim following its debut on Broadway just under a year ago. Last weekend, it took home 11 awards at the 70th Annual Tony Awards in New York City. Although the stage show is based on the United States humble beginnings as a country, Merriam said the story is universal and represents more than just history. Its about passionate, determined people coming together to create a country, she said. Its borderless. Its a worldwide phenomenon. According to Merriam, production materials such as sheet music and scripts for big hits like Hamilton usually become available for high schools to lease two or more years after a shows debut. The fees to purchase these licenses arent cheap, though. Wexford is usually charged between $2,000 to $4,000 US by licensing firm Music Theatre International for rights to perform Broadway hits like Rent or Annie. SHARE: BIRSTALL, ENGLANDPolice investigating the killing of British lawmaker Jo Cox said Friday that the suspect's mental health and possible links to right-wing extremism are both important lines of inquiry for detectives. Campaigning in Britain's European Union membership referendum and normal political life were suspended as the country absorbed the slaying with shock and worry that the political fury unleashed by the EU campaign was somehow connected to the killing. Temporary chief constable Dee Collins of West Yorkshire Police says counter-terrorism detectives are helping with the investigation. "We are aware of the speculation within the media in respect of the suspect's link to mental health services and this is a clear line of inquiry which we are pursuing," she said. "We are also aware of the inference within the media of the suspect being linked to right wing extremism which is again a priority line of inquiry which will help us establish the motive for the attack on Jo." Collins said the suspect, named locally as 52-year-old Thomas Mair, was examined and declared fit to be interviewed by detectives. Heidi C. Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center said Mair had been a supporter of the National Alliance, "the most dangerous and violent neo-Nazi group in the United States for decades." The centre, an Alabama-based group that monitors hate groups, said it had obtained documents showing that Mair bought books and magazines from the National Alliance on three occasions in 1999 and 2003. On its website, the centre published copies of receipts showing that in 1999 a Thomas Mair of West Yorkshire the county where Cox and her suspected killer both lived bought publications including "Chemistry of Powder and Explosives" and "Improvised Munitions Handbook." In 2003 he purchased a subscription to the group's magazine, "Free Speech." The address on the receipts corresponded to a house that was cordoned off by police tape and guarded by uniformed officers on Friday. The National Alliance was founded by William Pierce, whose book "The Turner Diaries" has been called a grisly blueprint for a race war. Timothy McVeigh based the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, which killed 168 people, on a truck-bombing described in the book. Beirich said while most of the violence by people associated with National Alliance has been in the United States, the organization has always had a "global footprint." "They do not define themselves by country. They define themselves by race," she said. A Thomas Mair of Batley the town where the suspect lives was also named as a former subscriber to pro-Apartheid publication SA Patriot. In 2006, the online newsletter of far-right group the Springbok Club said Mair was "one of the earliest subscribers and supporters of SA Patriot." Cox was shot and stabbed outside a library in her northern England constituency. The suspect's brother, Scott Mair, told reporters his brother had a history of mental illness, but was not violent. Witnesses said Cox, a 41-year-old Labour Party legislator, was attacked by a man with a homemade or antique-looking gun. Clarke Rothwell, who runs a cafe near the scene, said the assailant shouted "Britain first" or "put Britain first" several times. Britain First is the name of a far-right group, which disclaimed any connection to the killing. Cox was a former aid worker who had championed the cause of Syrian refugees and campaigned for Britain to stay in the EU when it votes in a referendum on Thursday. The referendum has sparked an intense debate about immigration and Britain's place in the world. "Leave" campaigners have said voters should quit the EU to take their country back from bureaucrats in Brussels and curb large-scale immigration from other EU nations. Both sides in the referendum halted campaigning activity after Cox's death. Rival groups Britain Stronger In Europe and Vote Leave said they were cancelling rallies and major events planned for Saturday, though local door-to-door leafletting could resume. Politicians from all parties have paid tribute to Cox, and Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II had written to her husband, Brendan Cox. The couple had two young children. In a show of political unity, Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn visited the site of the killing in Birstall, 200 miles (320 kilometres) north of London. The two men added bouquets to a huge mound of flowers left in tribute to Cox. Cameron urged people to "value and see as precious the democracy that we have on these islands." "Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance, we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities," he said. Corbyn said the slaying of Cox was "an attack on democracy." "It's the well of hatred that killed her," he said. Corbyn said Parliament would be recalled from a break on Monday so that lawmakers could pay tribute to Cox. The House of Commons had not been due to resume meeting until after the referendum. Rows of police combed the sidewalks around the site of the attack outside the library in Birstall. Mothers walked their children to the town's primary school past the spot, some wiping away tears. Others stood talking quietly in small groups about the brutality of the killing, its exceptionally public nature and whether anyone could have done more to stop the attacker. Flowers also covered the houseboat on the River Thames where Cox and her family lived when they were in London. More mourners left flowers outside Parliament, and some linked the heated atmosphere of the referendum to the attack. "I didn't know her, but she stood for everything that this country should be standing for at the moment and I have two young children and I am just so angry," said teacher Joanna Chidgey, whose father is a former lawmaker. "Well, angry is not the right word at the moment, but these people who are whipping up bigotry and racism and hatred and intolerance at the moment, they should hang their heads in shame." Violence against British politicians has been rare since Northern Ireland's peace deal two decades ago. Cox is the first serving lawmaker to be killed since Conservative politician Ian Gow was killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb in 1990. While Parliament is protected by armed police, lawmakers spend large amounts of time in their home districts, generally without dedicated security. Since 2000, two lawmakers have been attacked and wounded while meeting with constituents. Cameron's office said a reminder of safety guidance has been sent to members of Parliament, suggesting they go to local police if they have concerns. "I know MPs are scared," said Dan Jarvis, Labour member of Parliament. But he said lawmakers would continue to meet with constituents. "We'll be reviewing our security, but I'll walk through Barnsley today like every Friday," said Jarvis, an army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many female lawmakers, in particular, say they have been subject to online abuse and threats, and a man was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of sending a "malicious communication" to Cox. London's Metropolitan Police said the man received a police warning, and he "is not the man in custody" over Cox's death. ___ SHARE: Joanne Barnaby was deep in the deadfall, smeared in mosquitoes and blood, dehydrated and near exhaustion, when she heard the call of a mama bear searching for its cub. Barnaby couldnt believe her luck. Twelve hours earlier, she had been picking mushrooms in the remote Canadian wilderness when she had heard a growl behind her. She turned around and saw Joey, her faithful mutt, locked in a snarling standoff with a skinny black wolf. For 12 hours, the wolf had pursued Barnaby and her dog through the wildfire-scorched forests of the Northwest Territories. And for 12 hours, the starving animal had tried to separate Barnaby and Joey, driving them all deeper into the bush. Night settled around Barnaby, hiding the swarms of mosquitoes that blanketed her arms, legs and face. And still the wolf snapped and growled, waiting for the woman or her dog to drop their guard. Barnaby was near collapse when dawn began to creep across the sky. Thats when she heard the bear grunt. And thats when she got an idea. It was an idea so outrageous that some critics would later accuse her of making the whole story up. Yet, Canadian officials and close friends confirm Barnaby was missing in the woods. And she is sticking by her story that an outrageous idea of pitting one predator against another saved her life. - Joanne Barnaby knew better than to leave her gun at home. She had grown up in the Northwest Territories, a huge and rugged region of Canada stretching north of Alberta to the Arctic Ocean. Part Dene Indian, or mixed blood, as she would say, Barnaby spent much of her childhood in a residential school, run by the Catholic Church and designed to assimilate Inuit into mainstream Canadian culture. They tried to take the Indian out of us, she told the Washington Post. When she grew up, Barnaby chose to work with indigenous communities. She often went hunting and hiking through the wildlife-rich forests, always remembering to pack her rifle. On the morning of June 10, she and a friend, Tammy Caudron, decided to hunt for morels. They climbed into Barnabys truck and drove east from Hay River along the highway. Barnaby didnt want her rifle on her back as she stooped to pick up the pricey mushrooms. So she left it behind. It was a stupid mistake, she said. I paid a big price. The incredible story of how that small mistake nearly cost Barnaby her life was first reported by CBC Wednesday. Barnaby spoke to the Post by phone on Wednesday night. Barnaby parked her truck near the highway at around 11 a.m. The two foragers then walked in different directions in search of morels. Barnaby had with her a basket, a can of beer and Joey, her black and yellow mutt. Joey was Barnabys guard dog. When a bear would approach her log cabin-style house in Hay River, Joey would race outside and chase them off. So when, after about five hours of mushroom hunting, Barnaby heard a growl behind, she knew there could be trouble. She turned around and saw Joey muzzle to muzzle with a black wolf. The wolf was skinny probably cast out of its pack, Barnaby thought but still twice the size of Joey. And it was between her and the highway. He looked old to me, but he was smart, she said. It took me a while to realize how smart he was, and that he was actually being very, very strategic in trying to separate me from my dog and wear me down. I dont think he was strong enough to take us both on. And I think he knew that. Joey tried to scare away the wolf, as he did with bears, but it didnt work. The wolf was just watching them, legs spread apart as if ready to pounce, lips curled back to show sharp teeth. It scared the hell out of me, Barnaby said. The wolf was hunting her. Whenever Barnaby tried to angle back towards the highway and her truck, the animal cut her off. She found herself drifting deeper into the woods. He was directing me. There was no question about it. He was pushing me further and further from the highway, she said. He was stalking me. He was literally stalking me. Thats when it dawned on her. She might die. - - As the wolf drove Barnaby and Joey deeper into the woods, the landscape shifted. The relatively flat, burned forest floor gave way to thicker foliage. Dusk fell and still the animal pursued them. Barnaby only had her now empty beer can: no food, no water. A cloud of mosquitoes followed her. Even as the wolf watched, Barnaby developed a habit of rubbing her hands over her exposed face, arms and legs. My hands were just full of blood and mosquitoes, she said. So many swarmed her face that at some points it was hard to see. She tried rubbing poplar powder on her skin to keep the insects away, but it did little good. She was exhausted, hungry and dehydrated. The day had been hot. The night was cold. She was nearing her breaking point. Then the sky began to brighten in the east, and she heard a grunting sound. She could barely hear it over the whine of the mosquitoes, but it was there, in the distance: a sound she recognized well; the call of a mother bear. I actually sat down on a log and really concentrated, she said. I heard the cubs response. It was coming from another direction, away from the mother, so obviously the mother was calling her cub. The wolf, meanwhile, was watching. I sat there and I thought about it and I prayed about it, Barnaby said. She struck upon a seemingly insane plan. She would put herself between the mother bear and her cub in the hope that the mama bear would drive off the wolf. I decided I would take a chance, she told the Post. Of course, her plan could backfire. The bear could attack her instead. As she walked towards the cub, she could hear its calls getting louder. Before she ever saw the animal, however, the forest erupted behind her. All of a sudden I could hear this crashing behind me and this yelping and growling and howling, she said. I just got out of there as fast as I could from all of them, the cub, the mama bear and wolf. For half an hour, Barnaby and Joey took a beeline away from the bears. For once, the wolf didnt follow. Eventually, Barnaby got to a marsh with a stream running through it. She filled her beer can again and again. That water was amazingly delicious, she said. It didnt look great, but it sure tasted better [than the lake water]. It was so pure and so delicious and so cold. It took her an hour to cross the marshland. At the other side, there was a wall of willows so thick I literally had to untangle them. When I broke through those willows, I knew I was close. After the willows, the forest opened up again. She could tell from the recent burn that she was nearing the highway again. At 8 a.m., 14 hours after encountering the wolf and four hours after escaping the bears, Barnaby felt pavement beneath her weary feet. Less than a mile up the road, she could see Royal Canadian Mounted Police cars. She waved at them but they were busy searching in the other direction. I came up behind them, she said with a laugh. I surprised them. She turned down a ride back to her house, opting to drive herself instead. Barnaby posted her remarkable survival story to Facebook on Tuesday, along with a photo showing her covered in dirt, blood and poplar powder. In the hopes that by posting this, I can reduce how many times I will have to tell this story, her post began. More than 150 friends and family members commented on it, praising the survival skills and smart thinking that kept her alive. Some even offered jokes. Morel mushrooms $5/lb, one friend wrote. Your incredible brave dog Joey priceless. Some readers questioned her story, however, finding its confluence of wild animals too much to believe. The boy who cried wolf is an old parable, but the only morel to this story, is that it comes from the same stuff the mushrooms were growing out of, one reader wrote. This story is more fiction than real, wrote another. You have a greater chance of turning into a werewolf under a full moon than you do of being attacked by a wolf. But both Barnaby and Caudron insist it really happened. We should have planned it out a little better. A lot of things went wrong. But at the end of the day, she did a lot of things right. And thats why she is here, Caudron said. An RCMP spokesperson confirmed to the Post that Barnaby was, indeed, missing in Wood Buffalo National Park. Barnaby didnt seem bothered by doubts about her incredible account. She said she went looking for morels, not celebrity. Although she did admit that the whole situation with the wolf is pretty bizarre. Ive never heard anything like that. Read more about: SHARE: BAGHDADIraqi special forces swept into Fallujah on Friday, recapturing most of the city as Daeshs grip crumbled after weeks of fighting. Thousands of trapped residents took advantage of the militants retreat to flee, some swimming across the Euphrates River to safety. Residents described harrowing escapes even after Daesh, also known as the Islamic State, fighters abandoned some checkpoints that had them bottled up in the city. On the river, some boats packed with people overturned in the water. Others picked their way down roads laced with hidden bombs that killed several. In some cases, Daesh allowed people to leave only if they took the jihadis families with them. After weeks of heavy battles since the offensive began in late May, it appeared that Daesh defences in much of the city collapsed abruptly. In the early morning Friday, Iraqi forces punched into the city centre, meeting intense fighting. But by evening, the special forces commander Brig. Haider al-Obedi told The Associated Press that his troops controlled 80 per cent of the city, with Daesh fighters now concentrated in four districts on its northern edge. It was a major step toward regaining Daeshs last major foothold in Iraqs western Anbar province, the heartland of the countrys Sunni minority. The militants overran the city in early 2014, the first urban area to fall into its hands before it overran most of Anbar and much of northern Iraq. Over the past year, Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes have city-by-city regained large parts of that territory though the biggest prize, Iraqs second largest city, Mosul, and surrounding territory in the north, remains in Daesh control, liked to its holdings in neighbouring Syria. Friday evening, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi spoke on national TV from the joint command centre, congratulating the troops on their victories. We promised to liberate Fallujah, and it has returned to the embrace of the nation, he said. Iraqi forces have tightened their control over the inside of the city, and there are some pockets that need to be cleaned out within hours, he said. In the early hours, special forces pushed into Fallujahs central al-Nazzal district, which had served as a base for the militants with weapons warehouses and command centres, al-Obeidi said. Backed with air support from the U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi air force, the troops were able to move into the centre at around 6 a.m. They seized the main government complex, which includes municipality offices that Daesh had torched, the police station and other government buildings. Iraqi forces are now in the centre of the city. They had not been there since the beginning of 2014, al-Obeidi said. Daesh fighters were still holding out in the nearby central hospital, al-Obeidi said. Throughout the day and into the night, Iraqi forces surrounded the hospital, clashing with snipers on adjacent buildings. But they were holding back from storming the building, fearing there were patients inside that the militants would use as human shields, he said. Meanwhile, troops were clearing roadside bombs from recaptured areas, including the government complex and the highway west of the city, linking it to Baghdad, al-Obeidi said. Aid groups had estimated that 50,000 civilians had been trapped inside Fallujah when the assault began several weeks ago, and they say that 30,000 to 42,000 of those had fled since then. They have largely been staying in camps in areas around the city. The Norwegian Refugee Council said the thousands more people fleeing the city were overwhelming services at the camps, with many sleeping in the open and drinking water in short supply. The group cited a 69-year-old Fallujah resident saying Daesh fighters suddenly disappeared from many streets Thursday evening, as neighbours saw them evacuating checkpoints and driving away in vehicles loaded with food and fuel. The news prompted many residents to prepare to escape. One resident, Ali al-Mohammadi, told The Associated Press he fled Friday with more than a dozen other relatives, including several children, but ran into Daesh fighters deployed at the banks of the Euphrates, which runs along the western edge of Fallujah. The militants beat them and fired shots in the air to drive them back, but finally as a crowd grew, the fighters relented and began allowing them to cross in small boats. The 29-year-old al-Mohammadi said that meanwhile he went to another part of the river and swam across to safety along with others. As he swam, he saw two boats capsize, spilling passengers into the water. They seemed to all make it to land, some using inner tubes they had brought with them, he said. Others tried to flee down a road leading out of the city to the south, only to find it mined with explosives. Mohammed Ismail, a 32-year-old trying to escape with his family, said militants on the road fired in the air to stop them. They forced us to stay until they could bring out the families and children of Daesh to come with us, he said. The price of our leaving was to bring their families with us. In the pre-dawn darkness, a Daesh fighter led them down a road past the explosives. Still, Ismail said, he saw one mine blow up, killing at least two people, before the crowd made it to Iraq military-controlled territory. There, Iraqi troops separated women and children from the young men, who were then questioned to find any escaping militants. The conflict in Iraq has forced more than 3.3 million people to flee their homes. Iraq is also hosting up to 300,000 refugees who have fled the civil war in neighbouring Syria. Most are living in camps or informal settlements. Nasr Muflahi, the Norwegian Refugee Councils Country Director in Iraq, called for more international aid to help those fleeing Fallujah. Services in camps are already overstretched, and more will be needed, he said. International donors need to act now, Muflahi said, so that we can help Iraqi families who have been through long hellish months of widespread hunger, terror and despair. Read more about: SHARE: ISTANBULThe governor of the Turkish city of Istanbul has banned gay, lesbian and transgender individuals from holding pride parades at their usual venue, citing security concerns. The governors office said Friday that marches departing from Istanbuls iconic Taksim Square would not be allowed for the safety of our citizens and the participants. The LGBT community has called for demonstrations on June 19 and June 26, bookending pride week. Turkish Islamist and nationalist groups have threatened countermarches to stop the parade from taking place. The governors office has said other locations for demonstrations have been previously designated. Istanbuls pride parade has been celebrated every year since 2003 with participants converging in Taksim. Last year, the march was banned and police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds. SHARE: The opposition Labour Party retained the House of Commons seat of Tooting in south London in a special election triggered by Sadiq Khans victory in the London mayoral contest. Rosena Allin-Khan, an emergency doctor and local councillor who was born in Tooting, won 55.9 per cent of the vote on Thursday. Businessman Dan Watkins, of Prime Minister David Camerons Conservative Party, came second with 36.1 per cent. The decisive win, while widely predicted, is a boost for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has been criticized for his low-key campaign to secure a Remain vote in next weeks referendum on European Union membership and for losing seats in council elections last month. Allin-Khan chose to forgo a victory speech due to the murder of Labour lawmaker Jo Cox, an advocate of the U.K. staying in the EU. She issued a statement thanking her family, supporters and opponents, as well as the police who provided security for the vote. But my thoughts and prayers are with Jos husband and her children, Allin-Khan said. She was a proud and passionate campaigner who will be desperately missed. Jos death reminds us that our democracy is precious but fragile we must never forget to cherish it. Labour has held Tooting since the constituency was created in 1974. Its 19.8 percentage-point majority over the Tories is up from 5.3 points at the general election last year. Sadiq Khan stepped down as a member of Parliament when he was elected London mayor last month. SHARE: WASHINGTONMore than 50 U.S. State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administrations policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar Assad to stop its persistent violations of a ceasefire in the countrys five-year-old civil war. The memo, a draft of which was provided to the New York Times by a State Department official, says U.S. policy has been overwhelmed by the unrelenting violence in Syria. The memo calls for a judicious use of standoff and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process. Such a step would represent a radical shift in the administrations approach to the civil war in Syria, and there is little evidence that President Barack Obama has plans to change course. Obama has emphasized the military campaign against Daesh over efforts to dislodge Assad. Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, have all but collapsed. But the memo, filed in the State Departments dissent channel, underscores the deep rifts and lingering frustration within the administration over how to deal with a war that has killed more than 400,000 people. The State Department set up the channel during the Vietnam War as a way for employees who had disagreements with policies to register their protest with the secretary of state and other top officials without fear of reprisal. While dissent cables are not that unusual, the number of signatures on this document, 51, is extremely large, if not unprecedented. The names on the memo are almost all mid-level officials many of them career diplomats who have been involved in the administrations Syria policy over the past five years, at home or abroad. They range from a Syria desk officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to a former deputy, to the U.S. ambassador in Damascus. While there are no widely recognized names, higher-level State Department officials are known to share their concerns. Kerry himself has pushed for stronger U.S. action against Syria, in part to force a diplomatic solution on Assad. Obama has resisted such pressure and has been backed up by his military commanders, who have raised questions about what would happen in the event that Assad was forced from power a scenario that the draft memo does not address. The State Department spokesman, John Kirby, declined to comment on the memo, which top officials had just received. But he said Kerry respected the process as a way for employees to express policy views candidly and privately to senior leadership. Robert S. Ford, a former ambassador to Syria, said, Many people working on Syria for the State Department have long urged a tougher policy with the Assad government as a means of facilitating arrival at a negotiated political deal to set up a new Syrian government. Ford, who is now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, resigned from the Foreign Service in 2014 out of frustration with the administrations hands-off policy toward the conflict. In the memo, the State Department officials wrote that the Assad governments continuing violations of the partial ceasefire, known as a cessation of hostilities, will doom efforts to broker a political settlement because Assad will feel no pressure to negotiate with the moderate opposition or other factions fighting him. The governments barrel bombing of civilians, it said, is the root cause of the instability that continues to grip Syria and the broader region. The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable, the memo said. The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges. The memo acknowledged that military action would have risks, not the least further tensions with Russia, which has intervened in the war on Assads behalf and helped negotiate a ceasefire. Those tensions increased Thursday when, according to a senior Pentagon official, Russia conducted airstrikes in southern Syria against U.S.-backed forces fighting Daesh. The State Department officials insisted in their memo that they were not advocating for a slippery slope that ends in a military confrontation with Russia, but rather a credible threat of military action to keep Assad in line. Once that threat was in place, the memo said, Kerry could undertake a diplomatic mission similar to the one he led with Iran on its nuclear program. The expression of dissent came a week after Assad showed renewed defiance of the United States and other countries, vowing to retake every inch of his country from his enemies. The ceasefire, which Kerry helped negotiate in Munich last winter, has never really taken hold. Assad has continued to block humanitarian convoys, despite a warning that the United Nations would begin airdrops of food to starving towns. Still, Obama has shown little sign of shifting his focus from the campaign against Daesh a strategy that probably acquired even more urgency after the mass shooting Sunday in Orlando, Fla. In the memo, the State Department officials argued that military action against Assad would help the fight against Daesh because it would bolster moderate Sunnis, who are necessary allies against the group. During a debate in June 2013, after the Assad government had used chemical weapons against its own people, Kerry brandished a State Department report that argued that the United States needed to respond militarily, or Assad would view it as green light for continued CW use. Three years later, the sense of urgency at the State Department has not diminished. The memo concludes, It is time that the United States, guided by our strategic interests and moral convictions, lead a global effort to put an end to this conflict once and for all. Read more about: SHARE: A landmark series published Friday estimates there are now 25 million transgender people worldwide a population that remains grossly underserved by public health even though they face a heightened risk of everything from depression and homicide to HIV. The papers, published in the Lancet, mark the first time the highly influential medical journal has devoted a series to transgender health. Wide-ranging in scope, the collection of studies and editorials highlights the massive health inequities that exist for transgender people, many of whom face a steep slide from stigma to sickness. For example, transgender women, who often face job discrimination and turn to sex work, have a 49 times greater risk of HIV. Transgender people are also frequent victims of violence, with researchers documenting 2,115 killings between 2008 and April 2016 a statistic that is certainly underestimated. One paper in the series notes that many regions still have laws or policies that threaten transgender health, such as the 17 European countries that impose sterilization on people seeking gender recognition. But as a whole, the Lancet series is a strident call to action for the global health community. From medical education to medical research, the health needs of the worlds transgender population has been largely ignored and its time for that to change, says Sam Winter, a lead author on the series. The message were trying to give to health-care providers is that transgender people, wherever they live, have the same rights as their compatriots to the highest-attainable standards of health, said Winter, an associate professor with Australias Curtin University, who spent five years putting the series together with Dr. Kevan Wylie of the University of Sheffield. In the series, Winter and his co-authors urge specific action, including for the World Health Organization to follow through on a proposal to declassify gender incongruence as a mental-health disorder a move that Winter said would be truly historic in destigmatizing transgender people. The series also calls for widespread anti-discrimination laws, more gender-inclusive schools, an end to unethical conversion therapies, and funding for feminizing or masculinizing hormones. It further identifies an urgent need for research in regions such as Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, where discrimination is high but transgender studies are scarce. The Lancet series comes at a watershed moment for transgender visibility. Just consider the widespread outrage over American bathroom bills that restrict transgender people from using public restrooms, or the mainstream celebrity of people such as Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox. But as significant as these are, they are just small steps toward a truly inclusive world where transgender people can live their healthiest-possible lives, said Sari Reisner, another series co-author. Ive been doing this work for about 10 years and I truly never thought that I would see this kind of level of visibility, said Reisner, an assistant professor and researcher with Harvard Medical School. But visibility doesnt necessarily equal social change or the bettering of human rights. And for transgender people, the denial of their rights especially their right to having their gender identity recognized can be unhealthy or even deadly. Just last month, for example, a 23-year-old transgender activist named Alisha died in Pakistan after being shot several times. According to reports, she was shunted between male and female wards with three hours passing before she went into surgery and hospital doctors actually taunted her. But every day, lower-profile examples of discrimination are also playing out. At the Sherbourne Health Centre, family doctor Laura Pripstein has a young transgender patient who suffers from repeated urinary tract infections. Why? Because the patients school lacks a safe gender neutral bathroom, forcing them to constantly hold in their pee. Even within the medical establishment, discriminatory behaviour blocks transgender people from safely accessing basic health services. Dr. Allison Lou, a family doctor with the Sherbourne Health Centres LGBTQ team, often hears from patients who encounter health practitioners who refuse to refer to them by their chosen gender identity. This is really distressing to people, Lou said. I think for trans people, its really just about being respected as a person, which sometimes doesnt happen even in big health-care organizations. Access to gender-affirming treatments and surgery is a vital component of providing health care to transgender people, but barriers persist, even in Ontario, which recently passed legislation expanding access. For one, the criteria for trans women to get breast augmentation now requires them to go on estrogen hormones for a year and be categorized as Tanner Stage 1 a measure of physical development that is irrelevant to most adults because it describes the chest flatness of a pre-pubescent child. And while the law is designed to increase access, Canada still only has a single clinic that performs external genital surgery, Lou said. But transgender health extends far beyond hormones and surgeries, and transgender people have all sorts of basic health questions that remain unanswered. Combing the scientific literature, the Lancet researchers found only 116 papers between 2008 and 2014 that investigated issues relating to transgender health. Virtually none of them studied transgender people and chronic diseases. This means that for people like Tate Sameshima, a 33-year-old transgender man with diabetes, his doctors have no idea whether its safe for him to undergo hormonal treatment while also taking insulin. Theres no proof or research for me to look at and make any educated decision, Sameshima said. It was a life-saving choice for me to be on hormone replacement therapy. But also in the back of my mind, Im always wondering what will happen. Stats from the Lancet series: 0.30.5% Conservative estimates for how many people worldwide identify as transgender 56% Transgender people in an Australian study who have been diagnosed with depression, four times the rate of the general population 35% Participants in a U.S. study who expressed their gender diversity as a youth and fell victim to physical violence 41% People from the same U.S. study who attempted suicide, compared to 1.6 per cent in the general population. 8 Out of 49 European countries fail to provide legal or administrative measures enabling gender recognition. 1 Study on transgender health published between 2008 and 2014 in sub-Saharan Africa 1 Country, the United States, that published more than six studies on transgender health between 2008 and 2014 Source: Lancet Medical Journal SHARE: Ottawa is under pressure from Washington to take command of one of four new NATO battle groups being set up in Poland and the Baltic states to face off against Russia. Each is to consist of between 800 and 1,000 troops. Thats not enough to stop Russia should it choose to invade its neighbours. But the theory is that the presence of even a small number of North American and Western European troops in these countries would, by acting as a kind of tripwire, deter Moscow. Germany, the United States and Britain have already announced publicly that they will command three of the four battle groups. The British-led force will include about 500 British troops, plus some from Denmark and France. The U.S. says most of the battle group it commands will be American. Technically, Canada has not yet made up its mind. A government spokesperson told Canadian Press that Ottawa is actively considering options. But the news coming out of the NATO defence ministers meeting Tuesday in Brussels suggests Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government will find it hard to say no. Eastern European members of NATO particularly Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are spooked by Russias annexation of Ukrainian Crimea. They want to be sure that NATO will come to their aid if they are attacked. Putting North American and Western European soldiers on the front line is meant to accomplish that. We dont want a new Cold War, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels. But thats exactly what is happening. Meanwhile, back in Canada, the Trudeau government is simultaneously trying to forge a friendlier relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putins regime. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion is the key figure here. In March, he noted that former prime minister Stephen Harpers strategy of trying to isolate Russia by severing ties hasnt worked. Last month, Dion rejected the idea of passing a Canadian version of Americas so-called Magnitsky Act, designed to freeze the assets and limit travel of Russian human rights violators. He said then that such a law, named after a Russian critic of the Putin regime who died in prison after being beaten, was unnecessary and would only antagonize the current Russian government. Dion has run into a buzz-saw of criticism for this, even from within his own party. Former justice minister Irwin Cotler has called for a Magnitsky Act as has former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae. At least two sitting Liberal MPs also support a law that would crack down more severely on Russian human-rights violators. Added to this are the domestic politics within Canada. Many Canadians whose families came from Eastern Europe are deeply suspicious of Russia. As former prime minister Stephen Harper found, the idea of standing tough against Putin is not unpopular in this country. Up to now, the Liberal government has managed to juggle its conflicting approaches to Russia without irritating too many. On the one hand, it continues to oppose Russias annexation of Crimea. On the other, it doesnt let that annexation interfere with its attempts to deal practically with the Putin regime in other areas ranging from Arctic co-operation to the war in Syria. At the same time, it has continued to participate in NATO exercises designed to deter Russia including the deployment of 200 Canadian military advisers to Ukraine. On Wednesday, Trudeau and the prime minister of Romania discussed a plan to base a multinational NATO brigade in that former Soviet satellite But will commanding a battle group along the Russian border be viewed by Ottawa as a step too far? Clearly, there is some resistance within government to the idea. Thats why Canada, unlike Germany, Britain and the U.S., didnt sign on publicly this week. Will that resistance hold? Can the Liberal government resist the pressure from Washington and some of its own voters to take a harder line against Moscow in this new Cold War? Im not sure it can. Thomas Walkoms column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Read more about: SHARE: As an epidemiologist and a parent, I am perplexed with the recent momentum toward legalizing marijuana. Of all the arguments I have heard, I have yet to hear any which are compelling enough to remove the drug from prescription status. One argument I have heard is that marijuana is harmless. This argument ignores the fact that numerous studies have reported harms in peer-reviewed academic journals. A summary of the evidence, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2014, concluded, Marijuana use has been associated with substantial adverse effects, some of which have been determined with a high level of confidence. Some of those effects were addiction to marijuana and other substances, motor vehicle accidents, and chronic bronchitis. Other effects were reported with either high or medium confidence. Some of the medium-confidence effects were schizophrenia and abnormal brain development in young people. In order to believe the harmless argument, you have to believe that all of the studies reporting harms were wrong. Even from people who dont think marijuana is harmless, you still hear the argument that it should be legal because it is not as bad as alcohol. The not-as-bad type of argument is also known as the fallacy of relative privation. The fallacy is that pointing to something worse does not justify anything. The not-as-bad argument asks people to dismiss one bad thing by asking them to focus on another bad thing. It is a show of falling dominoes with all of two tiles. Society is replete with awful things which it tolerates, like poverty, while at the same time it puts its foot down on much more minor things, like deer in urban Victoria. The only time the not-as-bad argument holds water is when only one bad thing has to be chosen from multiple bad options. But the government is not suggesting prohibition in exchange for allowing people to light up or eat up. The plan is to pile vice on top of vice. Another argument is that marijuana is a medicinal herb and therefore should be freely available. If you think so, can I interest you in a warfarin brownie? Warfarin is a blood thinner that doctors have prescribed for decades to prevent life-threatening clots. Its discovery came after cattle were observed bleeding to death after eating feed derived from sweet clover. Warfarin has been shown to be a life-saving drug in some people at the right dose. Too much and it can kill. A good therapy can also cause harm, which is why many drugs are available by prescription. If marijuana is removed from prescription status, then what other drugs should be exempted? Antibiotics? Anticoagulants? Analgesics (like opioids)? Antipsychotics? I could keep going with the As but what is really needed is a framework for these decisions. Then we have the Im not hurting anyone argument. This is no different than arguing we can get rid of seat belt and helmet laws. While marijuana wont split your skull open like a fall from a motorcycle, driving a motorcycle before work wont degrade your cognitive performance for the day. Governments sometimes have to protect people from their own judgment, and from imposing a financial burden on society. Harm reduction is the argument the federal government appears to be backing, perhaps because it has a veneer of edification which cannot be mustered from the other arguments. The Achilles heel of this argument is an assumption that legalization will not increase demand and swamp any trumpeted benefits with additional adverse events. Data coming in from Washington State, which voted to legalize marijuana in 2012, suggests this concern should be taken seriously here. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health in the U.S., which has collected data on the use of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs since 1971, showed that marijuana use in Washington increased almost 30 per cent since legalization. By comparison, the proportion of the total U.S. population using marijuana increased by about 10 per cent (the total is inflated with states where marijuana was legalized). During the same period, the Washington Poison Center reported that marijuana-related poisonings, such as accidental ingestion by children, increased by more than 50 per cent. The Washington Traffic Safety Commission reported the percentage of DUI cases testing positive for THC, the main psychoactive component of cannabis, increased by a similar amount. Finally, to anyone who thinks we should legalize marijuana because it is happening in the United States, can I interest you in amending the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to allow us all to keep and bear arms? Colin Dormuth is an associate professor in the department of anesthesiology, pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of British Columbia in Victoria. SHARE: One great thing about Muhammad Alis funeral a week ago is that it responded to the hateful Trumpian garbage that got spewed after the Orlando slaughter and did so pre-emptively, mere days before. It answered in advance, as if Ali hadnt just planned his own memorial but foreseen the need for it. I was enthralled, I watched for three hours. It was profoundly, effortlessly ecumenical, yet wholeheartedly Muslim. It had none of the self-conscious straining you often see when people try too hard to be inclusive. It was also totally American in tone, with no hint of Islam as an imported force more at home elsewhere. Women were probably the most impressive component: Alis daughters, Malcolm Xs daughter and Alis awesome wife, Lonnie. I even took delight in the normally self-promoting Jewish progressive, Michael Lerner, in full rabbinic gear. In the (Bill) Clinton years, Lerner urged supporters to send money to help him occupy a space in Clintons psyche, alongside less enlightened voices whod be clamouring there. I imagine hes still angling for entry to the Clinton cranium (Hillarys) but he too was splendid. It also illuminated the appeal Islam has long held for African Americans. It responded to their spiritual needs (whatever that means, i.e., anything) without the baggage of American Christianitys ambiguous relation to slavery and racism. Its similar with Islams appeal worldwide: it hasnt been allied to an imperial force (at least not till Daesh) since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Much of Islams appeal lies in its relative doctrinal simplicity and the ease of its simple, uncluttered conversion process. That leaves lots of room for personal development afterwards. Alis own trajectory began with the Nation of Islam, under Malcolm Xs tutelage. When Malcolm left, protesting against racial exclusivism and corruption, Ali broke with him; he later called that his greatest mistake. He eventually followed Malcolm into mainstream Sunni Islam and then leaned toward the subtleties of Sufism. As a Muslim, he denounced the 9/11 attacks. The testimonies to his faith and its long evolution, based on peace and common humanity, by his kids and others were poignant. How did this respond pre-emptively to the reactions of Trump and others following Orlandos carnage? Trump blamed it on radical Islam and said Obama lacked the guts to call it that. Obama said speaking those words would do no good; Hillary said she wasnt afraid to say them. My problem with the term is that it has no meaning, it refers to nothing actual. Theres no group called Radical Islam and no address or letterhead. There are Muslims you could call radical, if you define what you mean, who have no relation to terror; along with some, if a definitions provided, who do. It simply lobs an open-ended category out there with which to spread panic and gather support among the fearful. In general I dont see the point of applying religion as an issue in these cases. The killer in Orlando was in some way Muslim but that was probably the least of his problems. He had a jumble of contradictory attitudes and poses that he shot his mouth off about, before shooting literally. He was, in other words, like many other loud-mouthed Americans such as Trump, who dont know what theyre talking about but yap anyway. Then he went and got a gun. It was no more about religion than the California pastor who said, I think its great that 50 pedophiles were killed today. Sure hes in a religious setting but where does it get you to note that? There are endless counter examples and so what? Glenn Greenwald cites a poll showing U.S. Muslims are more gay supportive than evangelicals, Mormons or Jehovahs Witnesses. Theyre basically tied with U.S. Christians. Then you have that ecumenical Ali funeral. Its not that religion isnt involved in these cases; it is but that facts unilluminating, because it can mean too many things. When I was young and indulged in the study of religions, there were attempts, like Huston Smiths The Religions of Man (how things change, eh?) to define each great religions essence. It was fun but it was also delusional. Defining it didnt mean it truly existed, it just meant you had a definition. Religion itself, in its innumerable actual forms, is, and always was, pretty much another word for human. Rick Salutins column appears every Friday. Read more about: SHARE: Editor's pick: Originally published June 17. More corporations are saying, "Thanks, but no thanks," on sponsoring the Republican National Convention. Wells Fargo (WFC) , United Parcel Service (UPS) , Motorola Solutions (MSI) , JPMorgan Chase (JPM) , Ford (F) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) are among a growing number of U.S. companies to drop, scale back or change their involvement in next month's GOP extravaganza in Cleveland, according to a report from Bloomberg. All of the companies sponsored the 2012 convention in Tampa, Fla. It is worth noting that many of the companies won't be sponsoring the Democratic National Convention, either. However, the news propels forward the growing narrative of businesses and politicians steering clear of the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Wells Fargo, which gave $500,000 to each party's convention in 2012, will give to the Democrats only this time around. A Wells Fargo spokesperson said that the company has a history of contributing to cities in which it has a banking presence to support civic engagement and noted that the event will actually take place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. She added that the decision was reached before either nominee was decided and emphasized that the donation was given to the host committee and not to either party committee. JPMorgan, Walgreens, UPS and Motorola Solutions have reportedly decided not to donate to the host committee of either convention, though Walgreens does plan to host events for officials during both events. A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment but pointed to two public announcements around the company's philanthropic activities in Cleveland and Philadelphia. A UPS spokeswoman called the Bloomberg article "misleading," noting that it does not mention until later in the piece that the decision was made almost 12 months ago and that the company is not sponsoring either convention. A spokeswoman for Motorola said the company's focus is on supporting its public safety customers in the cities where the conventions are taking place. Ford's decision not to sponsor the convention is perhaps especially eyebrow-raising, given that the company has been on the receiving end of Trump's ire on the campaign trail over its Mexican operations. A Ford spokeswoman said in an email that the company decided more than a year ago not to sponsor either party's convention, but as Bloomberg points out, as recently as March the automaker was declining to say what it would do. She also noted that Ford will have a presence at both conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia, mostly engaging via state delegation events. "The portrayal in stories has been about the companies that are backing away, whereas there's really a positive story in what we have accomplished," said Emily Lauer, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland host committee, in a phone conversation Friday morning with TheStreet. More than 100 companies have already signed on to sponsor or donate to this year's convention. The committee has raised $57.5 million of its $64 million target and expects the rest of the funding to kick in as the convention date approaches. Lauer noted that fundraising this year has outpaced efforts in 2008 and 2012. Those years, host committees had raised 45%-to-50% of their totals 60 days ahead of the convention; this year, they were at 85%. "The sky is not falling," she said, repeating what she told Bloomberg. Trump's place atop the GOP presidential ticket has put numerous companies in a bind this election cycle when it comes to convention sponsorship and involvement. Coca-Cola (KO) decided to scale back its sponsorship of both parties' conventions earlier this year. Microsoft (MSFT) announced in a blog post in April that it would provide technology products but not a cash donation to the Republican convention. It said it is providing access to similar technology to the Democrats as well as "some sponsorship" of host committee activities. Numerous other entities have faced pressure to dump a Trump-led convention, including AT&T (T) , Xerox (XRX) and Adobe (ADBE) . Facebook (FB) and Alphabet (GOOGL) have dugin their heels and will sponsor the event despite calls for them to back away. Wells Fargo, Walgreens Boots Alliance Facebook and Alphabet are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. See how Cramer rates the stock here. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells WFC, WBA, FB or GOOGL? Learn more now. Rashad Robinson, executive director of ColorOfChange, one of the groups leading the charge for companies to dump Trump, in an interview with TheStreet last month called Alphabet's decision "deeply disappointing" for a company that focuses so much on diversity. "Black Lives Matter protestors are assaulted, and you have a presidential candidate offering to pay for the legal defense of these violent attackers. And you have Google and Facebook throwing him a party," he said. Some companies are still holding off on committing to the 2016 Republican National Convention, Lauer said, noting that there are some components that usually tend to kick in closer to the convention date. "We're focused on closing the conversations that are taking place and raising the last $6.5 million to make it a great convention here in Cleveland," she said. Full disclosure of who does and does not sponsor the Republican and Democratic events won't come until the events are over. Federal Election Commission filings outlining donations aren't required until 60 days post-convention. Nervousness about the upcoming U.K "Brexit" referendum has gripped the market. Investors pulled $1.1 billion from U.K. equity funds in the week to yesterday, according to data from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. This was the fastest rate of withdrawals in 13 months. The FTSE 100 was recently 1.19% up at 6,021.09. Investors have been flowing money into perceived safe assets such as bonds, this has sent yields on U.K., German and Japanese sovereign debt to their lowest levels. Head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde today gave another warning to the U.K. about a possible "Brexit." During a speech in Vienna, Austria she said being a member of the EU has brought more jobs and higher income to the U.K. Being a member of the union has also lifted trade and investment. "We have already been on record that the economic risks of leaving are firmly to the downside," Lagarde said. "There is, in my view, a clear case as to how the U.K. has benefited -- and will continue to benefit -- from its membership in the European Union." Both sides of the "Brexit" referendum have suspended their campaigns for a second day after a member of parliament was attacked and killed yesterday. The vote on whether the U.K. should stay in the European Union is due to take place next week. The campaign had reached fever pitch prior to the attack. A poll by Ipsos Mori for the Evening Standard newspaper had put "leave" six percentage points ahead of remain. There was also strong central bank intervention with the Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan, Bank of England and Swiss National Bank warning on the impact of a possible exit. Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Birstall in northern England, was shot and stabbed several times in her constituency town of Birstall around 1 p.m. on Thursday. She later died. Cox had been campaigning to stay in the E.U. Her husband and two children took part in a pro-E.U. flotilla on the River Thames on Wednesday. A 52-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the murder. Police are investigating the motive for the murder. Local media has reported that the suspect shouted "Britain first" or "put Britain first" during the attack. Britain First is a far-right political party in the U.K. that is campaigning for a "Brexit." The party, however, has suggested the reports were "hearsay" and condemned the attack on Cox. Britain is in shock over the murder as shootings are very uncommon in the U.K. Flags are flying at half-mast over parliament and Buckingham Palace. Prime Minister David Cameron has cancelled his appearances and said, "It's right that we are suspending campaigning activity in this referendum and everyone's thoughts will be with Jo's family and her constituents at this terrible time." The pound, which had fallen sharply in recent weeks, rebounded. It was recently trading at $1.4240, up 1.5% from last week's low. Betting odds swung more in favor of a "remain" vote after the attack, Mizuho Bank noted. Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, pets his dog, Lily, in his office in Gaithersburg. (Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post) Carfax is trying something new at its 700-person office in Centreville: Employees are encouraged to bring their pets to work, any day of the week. It started with chief executive Dick Raines doing it on his own. When Carfax signed a new lease as part of an office expansion, Raines pushed the companys landlord at Cushman & Wakefield (also a Top Workplace) to write pets into the companys lease. I would bring my dog Bailey into to the office under a previous lease even though it probably wasnt kosher, and people would just smile a lot more, said Raines, who heads a company that provides data on vehicle histories. It adds another element of casualness to our office. Having pets at the office is rare for a company as big as Carfax, but some smaller outfits have been doing it for years. At Reston-based government contractor Ambit Group, a pair of labradoodles named Bailey and Sadie frequently roam the halls. NFM Lending has a rescue cat that lives at the corporate office. At D.C.-based Mark G. Anderson Consultants, an Irish terrier named Miss Bea, a golden retriever named Frisco, a little corgi named Gizmo and a pair of German shorthairs named Cosmo and Gordon prowl the halls each Friday. Some firms that dont allow pets on a regular basis find other ways to be pet-friendly. As part of a weekly program at online event services firm Cvent, management brought in several volunteer dogs to help employees take a break and relax. At District software company TCG, furry pets are not allowed because employees such as founder and chief executive Daniel Turner have allergies. However, the company does keep a pet snake. Fairfax-based accounting firm Thompson Greenspon forbids pets to avoid triggering employees allergies, but management says pet-related emergencies or otherwise are fair game for time off. Though we do not allow pets in the office, we still think of ourselves as a very pet-friendly company, says marketing manager Julianna Prince. The firm understands that pets are a part of your family and may need attention during the week. Most workplaces include family members in the health insurance they provide for employees, but some take it a step further and include pets. Decisive Analytics, Cvent, WeddingWire, Carfax and many others include pet insurance as part of their benefits offering. At Carfax, Raines doesnt use the pet insurance. But a recent visit to the vet had him wishing he did. I got Bailey an MRI recently, and that cost a ton of money, and I wished I had that pet insurance, he said. Click here to see the full list. Read more: [The job perks you wish you had] [Q&A: These three leaders show there are many paths to success] [Fatheads, Rolexes, even a dress code can shape a workplaces culture] [These employees are willing to do just a little bit more] [Its easy to say you want to innovate. These companies are doing it] [Why one Big Law firm says it is really in the talent business] Job seekers fill out applications at a career fair in May of this year. Recent figures suggest that new job hunters in Maryland and the District are having an easier time finding work. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News) Unemployment rates in Virginia, Maryland and the District fell in May even as a weak national jobs report rattled financial markets. The D.C. metropolitan area as a whole added a healthy 61,900 jobs in the past year, a 1.9 percent employment growth rate that narrowly outstripped the rest of the country, according to government data released Friday. Its clear were getting into a more mature stage of the business cycle, said Stephen Fuller, an economist at George Mason University. Unemployment rates in Virginia and Maryland dropped to 3.8 percent and 4.5 percent respectively. The rate fell faster in the District than in its suburban periphery, dropping by 0.9 percent in the past year to bottom out at 6.1 percent. The numbers are a far cry from the early days of the recession, when jobless rates hovered closer to 10 percent. The region is clearly approaching full employment. We cant go much lower than this, said Anirban Basu, chief executive at Sage Policy Group, an economic consulting firm. But at least in Virginia, the remarkably low unemployment rate might have less to do with job creation than with baby boomers retiring and younger job seekers giving up. Virginia had close to 11,000 fewer job seekers in May than it did a year ago, mirroring a national decline that has confounded economists and politicians throughout the recovery. Its still kind of a puzzle whats going on with labor force participation. Its definitely on a historic low side, said Ann Macheras, an economist at the Richmond Federal Reserve. The picture is different in the District and Maryland. D.C. added about 10,000 jobs seekers in the past year even as the unemployment rate fell by 0.9 percent, suggesting newcomers are having an easier time finding jobs. Marylands labor force also grew compared with last year. Employment grew in almost every local industry except the information category, a catch-all classification that includes jobs in broadcasting and telecommunications. That category has been on the decline for years, but Mays jobs report showed a particularly stark drop locally in which the sector lost 6,200 jobs in the one-year period ending in May. Economists said this can probably be attributed to the ongoing strike at Verizon that kept some 40,000 people nationally away from work in April and May. The Verizon strike probably explains a very meaningful chunk, Basu said. Thats not a broader economic phenomenon. Thats Verizon. WilmerHale likes to describe itself as a full-service international law firm working at the intersection of government, technology and business. But at its core, the global firm, with offices in the District, is only as good as its people, says managing partner Bob Novick. Were a talent business, and thats all we are, he says. Its critical that we invest in that talent every day because thats what we sell to the marketplace. Indeed, what they sell are litigators with Supreme Court experience. Lawyers in a regulatory practice that once held high-level government positions. Legal specialists who hold scientific and technical degrees. And yet the economics of the business are changing, as clients embrace in-house practices and lower-cost alternatives to traditional Big Law. That makes it harder and harder for top firms to give younger lawyers real-world professional experience. A lot of high-dollar clients these days simply refuse to pay for the services of a lawyer with less than two years of experience. The client perspective is you train them on your nickel, not on our nickel, Novick said. WilmerHales answer: A slew of creative ad-hoc workshops and a companywide commitment to pro-bono work. The firm holds at least one workshop a week covering such basics as oral advocacy, accounting and ethics as well as more esoteric topics such as the regulatory environment in the broker dealer world. For those seeking a management role or thinking of starting their own firm, Novick even presented a seminar breaking down the business side of the legal industry. Still, Novick echoes many in other industries in emphasizing the value of on-the-ground experience over staged workshops. For on-the-ground work, the firm relies on pro-bono cases to help young lawyers learn the ropes. With these cases the stakes are still high, but clients are less likely to be finicky about the specifics of an lawyers resume because they are getting the work free. Its probably the case that for a first-year lawyer, a pro-bono case lets them do things more on their own, Novick said. That creates some hands-on experience that is real. Younger lawyers certainly arent the only ones taking on pro-bono cases; the firm requires all of its lawyers to commit at least 5 percent of their total billable hours to pro-bono cases. Its not like the younger lawyers do pro-bono work and the older ones dont, said Novick, but youre certainly right that a younger lawyer might be more inclined to take on a pro-bono matter. Youll get a lot more exposure. WilmerHales efforts seem to be appreciated by employees. They gave the firm the highest marks among D.C. area Top Workplaces for career training. WilmerHale is hardly the only firm that received high marks for training. Down the road at ChasenBoscolo, a personal injury law firm with offices in Falls Church, Va., and Greenbelt and Waldorf, Md., management prefers to hire and train young lawyers, mostly because more-expensive talent often had trouble meshing with the firms entrepreneurial culture. We can teach people how to practice law the way we practice it, but we cant teach our culture, says managing partner Barry Chasen. We reached a point where we were never going to hire another lawyer with experience, so instead we hire people straight out of law school and we train them. They do it primarily though mentoring, in which new hires are paired with more experienced lawyers. In addition to working with newly minted lawyers, many law firms also look to help professionals with critical skills make the transition to law. When a patent agent or technical specialist at District-based Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox wants to attend law school, the firm often picks up the entire tuition tab. This sort of education reimbursement is one of the most common and expensive ways that companies support employees careers. Some surveys show that close to 9 out of 10 companies offer tuition reimbursement in some form. In some cases, employees can get entire degrees on the companys dime. At Mark G. Anderson Consultants, a D.C.-based company that represents owners in real estate disputes, employees can expense up to $5,250 a year for classes, and human resources manager Heather Davis says she has approved courses that cost up to $10,000. And it is not just law firms. At Mitre, a sprawling nonprofit organization that operates federally funded research centers, employees can sometimes charge up to $25,000 per year for tuition. Technology companies are quick to shell out for professional certifications, stamps of approval that are becoming increasingly important in advanced fields such as cybersecurity. TCG, a small District-based technology contractor, sets aside a $2,500 annual training budget for each employee that can be rolled over to the next year. Fairfax-based technology contractor InTec allocates $3,000 a year for education reimbursements. Rockville-based Insurance Associates actually requires employees to do some sort of continuing education, paid for by the company. Employers see it as an investment in their workers future and as a way to keep them from looking for greener pastures as the local job market heats up and the demand for talent increases. Some even use employer contributions to make it harder for employees to leave. If you have tuition reimbursement theres usually a caveat that says if were going to spend money on you, you have to stay with us for a long time, or you pay us back, said Rose Stanley, an employee benefits expert at the human resources association WorldatWork. Federal contracting giant CACI, for instance, will sometimes spend up to $12,000 a year on tuition but requires employees to stick around for a year after they finish. Mitre has a two-year tenure requirement for those who earn graduate and undergraduate degrees, and a three-year tenure requirement for a more robust program that includes financial support for outside research. With smaller reimbursement programs, companies feel less pressure to recoup their investment. At the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, employees are eligible for tuition reimbursement whether they work full or part time , and they can walk out the door the day they graduate if they choose. But the Hyatts tuition program caps subsidies at $1,000 per year per employee. It may not pay for your whole college, but it will pay for part of your college, said Nathalie Rytting, Hyatts director of human resources. Rytting said Hyatt attaches no stipulations regarding employees tenure. We dont believe in that, Rytting said. We just want people to get educated. Click here to see the full list. Read more: [The job perks you wish you had] [Q&A: These three leaders show there are many paths to success] [Fatheads, Rolexes, even a dress code can shape a workplaces culture] [At these companies, pets are part of the team] [These employees are willing to do just a little bit more] [Its easy to say you want to innovate. These companies are doing it] For three years running Kelley Drye & Warren legal secretary Alicia Hunter has organized a holiday choir among the members of the office. (Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post) Few organizations can acheive success without employees who are willing to go above and beyond their daily roles. Heres three stories. Choir leader As an assistant to managing partner Lew Rose at Kelley Drye & Warren, Alicia Hunter helps with the day-to-day administration of a big law firm. But shes also a talented singer who graduated from local music academy Duke Ellington School of the Arts. So in 2013, her boss gave her a challenge: Why not form a choir to sing at the firms holiday party? She recruited the best voices from around the office, and the rest is history. The choir has become a celebrated fixture of the firms annual festivities, and its always gaining new members. Though the group only comes together once a year, Hunter says she relishes the opportunity. Paul Smith went from security guard to owning a cybersecurity company. (Nick Otto/For The Washington Post) Im a shy person, so Im usually in the background of things, she said. To have people come up to me and say, You are wonderful; the chorale was wonderful, makes me feel really good. Rising star Paul Smith joined the Manassas security firm Falken Industries in 2009 as a confused 19-year-old looking for something new, and chief executive Rob Ord saw something in him. Ord put the National Guardsman to work as a building security guard at a big defense contractor in Northern Virginia. One day, Ord pulled the young man aside: Two years from now, youre not going to be working for me. Youre going to be doing something big. Ord held Smiths job for him when he was deployed to Iraq, and Smith returned eight months later with a dream of working in cybersecurity. Smith started pursuing an online degree in information security, and his military security clearance meant he could shadow the clients cyber-professionals while they were engaged in classified work. He learned the ropes through a constant stream of questions.The training paid off. In 2015, he landed a job as a cybersecurity analyst for another company and is now starting his own firm. There s been no looking back since, Smith said. Now hes almost done with his degree, and hes starting his own cybersecurity company, C3 Security. The company has already attracted $300,000 from investors, and Smith says hes close to sealing a deal with his first paying client. Walter Layton, vice president at Mark G. Anderson Consultants, has been bringing in bagels and donuts to the firms corporate office early each morning for more than a decade. (Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post) Smiths experience is not abnormal at Falken. Ord sees his company as a pivot point for veterans making the big transition back to the 9-to-5 life. Do you want a security guard where thats all they want to do in life, like Paul Bart in [the movie] Mall Cop? Ord asked. Bagel man Walter Layton does not see much of the corporate office at Mark G. Anderson Consultants. His company counsels construction firms with a mix of financial advice and on-the-ground expertise, and Layton prefers the field to the office. I like seeing stuff being built, and I like seeing it on a daily basis, he said. But he has made a mark on the companys office culture nonetheless: Each Friday, he shows up in the wee hours of the morning with a load of bagels and doughnuts, and in 11 years, hes missed only one week. He says it is just a nice thing to give something people appreciate and look forward to: Part of its my upbringing, and part of its the people I work with. He said he knows there are other people at work who go out of the way to help him, as well. Theres a lot of benefits in our office that go unwritten and unrecognized, he said. Click here to see the full list. Read more: [The job perks you wish you had] [Q&A: These three leaders show there are many paths to success] [Fatheads, Rolexes, even a dress code can shape a workplaces culture] [At these companies, pets are part of the team] [Why one Big Law firm says it is really in the talent business] [Its easy to say you want to innovate. These companies are doing it] Much of what I know about my father as a man, I got from observing him at work. In our house, Fathers Day was special, not because it was a day for our father but because it was a day for all fathers: a red-letter-day for his menswear store when business picked up (second only to Christmas,) when mother was called to work the cash register and I, even as a young boy, was called to man the broom, the stockroom and the tailor shop. The store, located in Canton, Ohio, was called Mr. Teds and was tucked into a strip mall that was in walking distance of cornfields and catered to those who made their living with their hands. The store was named not for me but for my father. That we shared names was itself a breach of faith my grandfather, a rabbi, could not have approved. Much of what I learned not only about him but also the world at large, I learned in Mr. Teds watching my father interact with those he had hired and those he waited upon. I would see him on bended knee, a yellow measuring tape draped around his neck, a square of chalk for marking cuffs clinched in his teeth, measuring the inseam of a plant worker from Timken Roller Bearing or Hoover Vacuum Sweeper he, a Harvard man, who, but for the call to duty of World War II, had set his sights on medicine. Instead, he settled for two years of college and the life of a merchant in a town of steel and grit. From childhood on, the store was my other classroom. Under Fathers tutelage, I was introduced to more than Ban-Lon shirts, Harris Tweed and BVDs. Even the drive to and from work with my father was a rolling course in economics, class mobility, free speech, justice and the responsibilities of citizenship, not that any of these were ever mentioned by name. Rather, they were embedded in the stories a father tells his son on the way to and from work. I was no more than 11 when this began the age Father insisted I have a Social Security Card as a fledgling worker. I had much to learn. Once I forgot to lower the beam into the steel brace securing the back door, leaving it vulnerable to thieves. Father was not pleased. He explained to me that our livelihood depended upon the store and that it was my duty to safeguard it. I had let him down. But I also remember the Sunday when, on our way to the Stark County Fair, we stopped by the store and discovered that it had been broken into. The drawer to the cash register was emptied and smashed in pieces on the floor, and a rack of suits was gone. Instead of fuming, Father calmly phoned the alarm company and off we went to the fair. We cheered the tractor pulls, sized up the prize bulls and marveled at gargantuan pumpkins but not another word was spoken of the break-in. A few days later my father took out an ad in the local paper, The Repository, offering the robbers free alterations for anything that didnt fit and a standing invitation to return as paying customers. From that I learned that what really counted lay beyond the reach of thieves. And, yes, that humor could be found in unexpected places. The label on Ted Gup's Harris Tweed Mr. Ted sport coat. (Peggy Watts Gup) I liked working in the back of the store. My father made sure the bathroom detail fell to me. It was a message intended not only for me but also for everyone in the store who watched to see how the bosss son would be treated. With brush and Comet, I proudly scrubbed away the stains until the bowl and sink gleamed. I broke up boxes and piled them high in the back alley for removal. I wielded a wide broom around and under the tailors shop and steam press, sweeping up fallen razor blades, bits of chalk, bobbins, severed cuffs, orphaned threads and discarded plastic coffee cups. It was also my chance to talk with the tailor, Remo, an Italian who always drove a new Riviera, and to steal a glimpse of his wall calendar that featured pin-ups. My father respected him and the hours he put in. Remo, my father explained, was an immigrant, a word he uttered as if it were a title of nobility and a synonym for sacrifice. Indeed, the store itself was consecrated to work, not as a burden but as a privilege. This was, after all, a trade that ran in our blood. A century before, my fathers grandfather, Marcus, a Russian immigrant, had been a tailor to the Mardi Gras in Mobile, Ala. For decades, a sign reading Gup the Tailor hung in Mobiles Dauphin Street. Never did I hear my father complain that he did not get to return to Harvard after the war, (his roommate, Harish Mahindra, would go on to become a billionaire Indian industrialist) nor that his future unfolded in unexpected ways. For him, work was precious, and there was no form of it that was beneath him. He taught me this not in words but action. I was in charge of making gift boxes, the flattened crimson boards that my thumbs deftly unfolded, fitted with tissue paper and stacked as mountains readied for outgoing customers. Thousands of boxes. Tens of thousands of boxes. My hands and my brain learned to work light-years apart. At the end of my arms the boxes rhythmically sprang to life, while in my head ran films of pretty girls, hard balls sailing over distant fences and bullies pummeled into submission. But at night I dreamt of making boxes. From that I learned that I did not want my life to be contained in those boxes which, I am sure, is what Father had in mind assigning me the task. Those who worked for my father respected him. Some even came to love him. It was an odd cadre of young men he had recruited, none of whom had gone beyond high school. Many had been forced to drop out early. They had gotten a girl in trouble which was to say, pregnant. They were now teenage fathers. My father went out of his way to hire them and recognized in them their willingness to work and their need for a second chance. In him, they found a surrogate and forgiving father. He was slow to judge others and recognized that compassion was good for both the soul and business. He gave his heart to these boys though not all were deserving. One of his second sons was found to have been stealing from the till over the course of many months, maybe years. He had been one of my fathers favorites, and someone whom he had trusted. But he could not bring himself to go to the police or ruin the mans future. So he sat him down, told him how disappointed he was, that he could never again work for him, and then offered him a repayment plan that would stretch across the years. In time, the debt was paid and instead of bad blood between them, there was a different sort of bond. My father told me of this, but without a whiff of sanctimony or condemnation. He believed in redemption, not vengeance. My fathers store opened at 10 and closed at 9 six days a week, though his own hours were longer at both ends of the day. (In all those years I never saw him take a seat in the store.) He ate lunches at the counter of a five-and-dime where the waitresses kidded him. The mall had a fancier restaurant fancy is relative in a Canton strip mall but he preferred the counters company. For his birthday, mother gave him a set of Harvard buttons for his blazer, but Father never wore them he had no appetite for impressing others and no stomach for others arrogance. Each night, when the store finally closed, Father would let me go through the cash draw and pick out any silver dollars, Indian Head pennies or buffalo nickels. I replaced them, coin for coin, and showed my discoveries to my father. Tired and hungry as he was, he always made time to see what I had found and share in my enthusiasm. After college, I stumbled a bit. My father had gotten out of the business and was about to get back in. He asked me if I would give him a year of my life to help him open a new store, a Mr. Teds. I was reluctant. I feared that, as a young man with my own dreams of becoming a journalist and writer I might get forever sidetracked, much as he did after the war. And I feared that would create friction between us. But I resigned myself to giving him that year I figured I owed him that and more. On Thursday, May 9, 1974 a morning so cold I had to scrape the frost from the windshield I drove him to the Akron-Canton Airport, handed him his overnight bag and wished him a successful trip. (I even said a prayer for his safe return.) He was on his way to New York City, to the garment district, to buy the last bit of inventory he would need. That Monday, he was to come into possession of the store. Instead, he died the next day. A heart attack. He was 50. That was to be his final lesson that it is fruitless to worry about things that may never come to pass, and foolish to put off plans on the promise of a tomorrow that may not come. On this Fathers Day, I will be thinking of him, my Mr. Ted, and be grateful that he shared with me his name, and so much more. Gup is a Boston-based author whose work has appeared in the New York Times, GQ, The Washington Post, Politico and elsewhere. He can be reached at tedgup@att.net. Ms. Duncan at the premiere of the film "Hotel for Dogs" in Los Angeles in 2009. (Chris Pizzello/AP) Lois Duncan, who held generations of young readers spellbound with I Know What You Did Last Summer, Killing Mr. Griffin and a raft of other popular suspense novels, a genre she could no longer bear to write after the unsolved murder of her teenage daughter, died June 15 at her home in Bradenton, Fla. She was 82. Her husband, Donald Arquette Sr., confirmed her death and said he did not know the cause. She had earlier suffered a series of strokes. First published as a novelist in the 1950s, Ms. Duncan wrote dozens of books for children and teens. She was most widely acclaimed for her psychological thrillers, sometimes touching on the occult, which she penned with prolific output in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. I Know What You Did Last Summer, unfaithfully adapted more than two decades after its publication into the 1997 slasher movie and sequel starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, was the most famous of the numerous films and TV movies made from Ms. Duncans books. Along with S.E. Hinton, Judy Blume and Robert Cormier, Ms. Duncan was credited with helping establish the genre of young-adult fiction literature carefully tailored for readers who are neither children nor grown-ups, who know more than it may seem but not enough to make their way in the world. Unlike Blume, who took her mainly female protagonists through ordinary, if wrenching, experiences such as puberty, young love and parental divorce, Ms. Duncan plucked her characters from normalcy and placed them in extraordinary, often dark circumstances. I Know What You Did Last Summer, published in 1973, centers on four teenagers who accidentally kill a young bicyclist and leave the scene, vowing to keep the incident a secret even as their sense of guilt and a mysterious menace professing to know what they had done become increasingly frightening. In Down a Dark Hall (1974), Ms. Duncan ventured into the supernatural, setting the story at a haunted boarding school for girls. Summer of Fear (1976), about a teenage girl and her strange cousin, dipped its toe in witchcraft. Stranger With My Face (1981) involved an evil twin seeking to possess her sisters body through astral projection. Many critics found Ms. Duncans most compelling writing in her exploration of moral darkness. In Killing Mr. Griffin (1978), a crew of high school students kidnaps an exacting English teacher to punish him for what they see as his excessive demands. Without his heart medication, the teacher dies during the ordeal, pushing the students into a corrosive coverup. The students a jock, a homecoming queen, a class president, a misfit and a charismatic but troubled ringleader captured a universe of teenage experiences. Lois Duncan breaks some new ground in a novel without sex, drugs or black leather jackets, young adult author Richard Peck wrote in the New York Times in 1978. But the taboo she tampers with is far more potent and pervasive: the unleashed fury of the permissively reared against any assault on their egos and authority. . . . The value of the book lies in the twisted logic of the teenagers and how easily they can justify anything. In 1989, Ms. Duncan published Dont Look Behind You, a novel about a family thrust into the witness-protection program after the father testifies against a drug dealer. Shortly after its publication, Ms. Duncans 18-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn Arquette, was fatally shot twice in the head while driving. Kaitlyn had been the inspiration for the novels fictional heroine, April, who was chased in a car by a hit man. It was as if these things Id written about as fiction became hideous reality, Ms. Duncan told an interviewer, according to the reference guide Contemporary Authors. The police considered the death a random shooting, according to news accounts, and no one was convicted of the killing. Ms. Duncan and her husband embarked on a private investigation that included psychics, ultimately concluding that their daughter had perhaps been targeted because she had knowledge of a rental car insurance fraud scheme involving the criminal underworld. Ms. Duncan documented their search in the 1992 book Who Killed My Daughter? After her daughters murder, Ms. Duncan wrote mainly picture books, as well as two sequels to Hotel for Dogs, a book published in 1971 about children who take in stray animals. Hotel for Dogs became a 2009 film starring Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin. I went weak after Kaits murder, Ms. Duncan told BuzzFeed interviewer Tim Stelloh. How could I even think about creating a novel with a young woman in a life-threatening situation? Lois Duncan Steinmetz was born in Philadelphia on April 28, 1934, and grew up in Sarasota, Fla. Her parents, Joseph and Lois Steinmetz, were magazine photographers. To avoid confusion with her mother, the younger Lois adopted Duncan for her nom de plume. She sold her first piece of writing to a girls magazine at 13. As a teen, she won short-story contests sponsored by Seventeen magazine. She enrolled in Duke University but left to marry a classmate, Joseph Cardozo. She wrote her first books, mainly romances, while juggling the demands of early motherhood and using the pen name Lois Kerry. In 1962, Ms. Duncan divorced and moved her young family to Albuquerque. She wrote for magazines including Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping and Readers Digest and taught journalism at the University of New Mexico before receiving a bachelors degree in English there in 1977. After marrying Donald Arquette in 1965, Ms. Duncan returned to young-adult writing, pivoting from romance to suspense, writing her first noted thriller, Ransom (1966), about five teenagers from a well-to-do neighborhood who are taken hostage by their school bus driver. A later book, Daughters of Eve (1979), about a group of high school girls led by a teacher to vigilante acts of revenge in the name of feminism, was described as a female version of William Goldings Lord of the Flies. Besides her husband, of Bradenton, Ms. Duncans survivors include three children from her first marriage, whom Arquette adopted, Robin Burkin of Santa Rosa, Calif., Kerry Arquette of Denver and Brett Arquette of Orlando; a son from her second marriage, Donald Arquette Jr. of Macon, Ga.; a brother; and six grandchildren. A number of Ms. Duncans books have been updated and reissued in recent years. The existence of cellphones, she said, created unexpected complications. My plots, she told the Los Angeles Times, are based on the heroine not being able to call for help. Other things, she remarked, had not changed. They included, she told the New York Times, girls wanting to be loved, wanting to be needed, wanting to feel worth, wanting to find a place for themselves in life, wanting to figure out what was right and what was wrong. In the Easter Rising of April 1916, Irish nationalists rebelled against British rule, establishing their headquarters at Dublins main post office. That building figures into a painting in Repression/Resurgence/Reemergence, an exhibition at Hillyer Art Space organized by the D.C. Irish arts group Solas Nua. Politics and history are only indirectly the subjects of the show, curated by Dublin-bred local painter Jackie Hoysted. Identity is the main concern of the 13 participants, who include Irish Americans and residents of Ireland who hail from other lands. Thats not to say that the paintings, drawings, sculptures and videos are apolitical. Erin Devines multimedia Communion recalls a 1971 Belfast-to-Dublin train trip by 49 women who took condoms to the republic, where they were illegal. The Project Twins (Michael and James Fitzgerald) fill the longest wall with banners whose stark images challenge authority and the Church: One shows a hand with its middle finger raised and the other digits apparently chopped off. More gently, Ursula Burkes Belfast Riot is depicted in embroidery, as if to give feminine grace to male mayhem. The majority of the artists are women, and they sometimes look beyond Irelands borders. Maryanne Pollock, who lived in Cairo, combines Celtic and Islamic decorative motifs. Dragana Jurisics 100 Muses & Her Mother & Her Daughters is a series of nine photographic portraits of nude women asked to pose as one of the nine Greek muses. The figures are superimposed to manifest strength in numbers, and perhaps so they dont resemble upscale pin-ups. Carla Fuentes painting a mural depicting Addison Scurlock at the former building of the Washington Afro-American Newspaper. (Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain) Video maker and painter Bart OReilly comes closest to traditional symbolism. His abstract canvases showcase drips, not harps or shamrocks, but theyre dominated by green. One of his pictures could flap over that storied post office as a flag of the new Ireland, but like much of this work it exemplifies the international art scene as surely as any one country. Repression/Resurgence/Reemergence: One Hundred Years of Re-possessing and Re-appropriating Irish Identity Through June 26 at Hillyer Art Space, 9 Hillyer Ct. NW. 202-338-0325. hillyerartspace.org. Kitty Klaidman Inspired by sojourns in Europe and Canada, Kitty Klaidman paints exuberant landscapes, from impressionistic to abstract. But their brightness is shadowed by some of the earliest work in A 30 Year Survey, the local artists retrospective at Marsha Mateyka Gallery. Made between 1989 and 1991, the pictures recall Klaidmans childhood in what is now Slovakia, where she and her family hid from the Nazis. Included are views into the forest and down from a crawl-space hideout in her family home. Theyre paired with photo-derived pieces that show the actual places or incorporate portraits of departed family members. The woodland scenes arent especially ominous, but a black-and-white one effectively conveys a young girls fear. In summertime Normandy, Klaidman found beguiling light and abandoned World War II material, left in the water as a sort of monument. Acrylic-wash closeups of colorfully mottled Roman walls also evoke the past, while pointing the artist toward a freer style that flowered in the intricately patterned Salt Spring Islands paintings and drawings of the past six years. The most recent works are handsome abstractions, segmented into three or four squares. Untitled, their gemlike facets suggest layers of history. Kitty Klaidman: A 30 Year Survey Through June 25 at Marsha Mateyka Gallery, 2012 R St. NW. 202-328-0088. marshamateykagallery.com. Leslie Holt. "UNSPEAKABLE (Guernica Sketch 3)," 2016, acrylic and embroidery on canvas. (Leslie Holt/39th Street Gallery) Spanish Illustrators The current attraction at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain is a show of commercial art, but its focus is on art, not commercialism. Spanish Illustrators: The Color of Optimism surveys 28 younger artists whose endeavors include childrens books, album covers and fashion spreads. Even the last category accentuates the conceptual, with erotically charged renderings that celebrate the human body rather than any particular brand. The range of styles is broad, and the influences include European surrealism, British alt-rock and American comics innovators such as Will Eisner and Frank Miller. Adding spontaneity to the show, two of the artists visited and made murals on the premises. Ricardo Cavolos red, white and blue Love Story anthropomorphizes Spain and the United States, who coo at each other across the Atlantic. Carla Fuentes did a group portrait of some of her favorite Spanish artists. Fuentes also hit the streets, in collaboration with D.C. Murals, to depict Addison Scurlock, leading photographer of the local African American community for much of the 20th century. Fuentes has left town, but her tribute should remain on the wall of 1802 11th St. NW for years to come. Spanish Illustrators: The Color of Optimism Through June 26 at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain, 2801 16th St. NW. spainculture.us. Kristen Hayes and Tatiane Hofstadler Both Kristen Hayes and Tatiane Hofstadler make vivid multi-level paintings, but Hayess are diaphanous and biomorphic, whereas Hofstadlers are opaque and developed by excavation. The two artists, showing together at P Street Gallerie, are local, although Hofstadler will soon return to her native Brazil. Hayes employs acrylic, pastel, pencil and spray paint, but she relies on watercolor and water-based ink. Her vibrant Spirit Tree series loosely depicts trunks and branches, and also evokes fruit, neural networks and distant galaxies. Hofstadler applies multiple coats of acrylic and then sands to reveal submerged strata. Each uses strong hues. Hayess style is most cogent at its most colorful, but Hofstadlers strongest canvas is mostly white, with glimmers of green, red and black to hint at unknowable depths. Kristen Hayes & Tatiane Hofstadler Through June 25 at P Street Gallerie, 3235 P St. NW. 202-333-4868. pstreetgallerie.com. Leslie Holt The large, densely populated tableaux of Picassos Guernica yields a few of its anguished figures to the pictures in Unspeakable, Leslie Holts show at 39th Street Gallery. The details, which also borrow from Van Gogh and Kathe Kollwitz, arent painted, however. Theyre stitched into canvases that are mostly dominated by yellow, red and neon-orange acrylic pigment, thinned and stained in the manner of Morris Louis. Holts colors can be seen as purely abstract, or as signifying chaos and violence, much as the figures can represent either wartime horrors or more personal ones. Unspeakable: Paintings by Leslie Holt Through June 25 at 39th Street Gallery, 3901 Rhode Island Ave., second floor. 202-487-8458. 39thstreetgallery.org. Donald Trump, left, Mayor Ed Koch, center, and Roy Cohn in 1983 at the Trump Tower opening in New York. (Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images) Donald Trump was a brash scion of a real estate empire, a young developer anxious to leave his mark on New York. Roy Cohn was a legendary New York fixer, a ruthless lawyer in the hunt for new clients. They came together by chance one night at Le Club, a hangout for Manhattans rich and famous. Trump introduced himself to Cohn, who was sitting at a nearby table, and sought advice: How should he and his father respond to Justice Department allegations that their company had systematically discriminated against black people seeking housing? My view is tell them to go to hell, Cohn said, and fight the thing in court. It was October 1973 and the start of one of the most influential relationships of Trumps career. Cohn soon represented Trump in legal battles, counseled him about his marriage and introduced Trump to New York power brokers, money men and socialites. Cohn also showed Trump how to exploit power and instill fear through a simple formula: attack, counterattack and never apologize. Since he announced his run for the White House a year ago, Trump has used such tactics more aggressively than any other candidate in recent memory, demeaning opponents, insulting minorities and women, and whipping up anger among his supporters. Cohn gained notoriety in the 1950s as Sen. Joseph McCarthys chief counsel and the brains behind his hunt for communist infiltrators. By the 1970s, Cohn maintained a powerful network in New York City, using his connections in the courts and City Hall to reward friends and punish those who crossed him. He routinely pulled strings in government for clients, funneled cash to politicians and cultivated relationships with influential figures, including FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, mafia boss Anthony Fat Tony Salerno and a succession of city leaders. In the 1990s, a tragic character based on Cohn had a central place in Tony Kushners Pulitzer prize-winning play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Trump prized Cohns reputation for aggression. According to a New York Times profile a quarter-century ago, when frustrated by an adversary, Trump would pull out a photograph of Cohn and ask, Would you rather deal with him? Trump remained friends with him even after the lawyer was disbarred in New York for ethical lapses. Cohn died in 1986. About Trump Revealed This story is based on reporting for Trump Revealed, a broad, comprehensive examination of the life of the presumptive Republican nominee for president. The biography, written by Post reporters Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher in a collaboration with more than two dozen Post reporters, researchers and editors, is scheduled to be published by Scribner on Aug. 23. Roy had a whole crazy deal going, but Roy was a really smart guy who liked me and did a great job for me on different things, Trump recently told The Washington Post. And he was a tough lawyer, and thats what I wanted. Roy was a very tough guy. [Inside the governments racial-bias case against Donald Trumps company] To examine the relationship between Trump and Cohn, The Post reviewed court records, books about the men and newspaper and magazine stories from the era, along with documents about Cohn obtained from the FBI through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Post interviewed Trump and others who knew both men. When they met, Trump, 27, tall and handsome, was at the start of his career and living off money he was earning in the family business. Cohn, 46, short and off-putting, was near the peak of his power and considered by some to be among the most reviled Americans in the 20th century. Cohn could be charismatic and witty, and he hosted lavish parties that included politicians, celebrities and journalists. A wall at the Upper East Side townhouse where he lived and worked was filled with signed photographs of luminaries such as Hoover and Richard Nixon. Alan Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School and a renowned constitutional scholar, said he was surprised when he finally got to know Cohn. I expected to hate him, but I did not, Dershowitz told The Post. I found him charming. There were legions of Cohn detractors. He was a source of great evil in this society, Victor A. Kovner, a Democratic activist in New York City and First Amendment lawyer, told The Post. He was a vicious, Red-baiting source of sweeping wrongdoing. In interviews with The Post, Trump maintained that Cohn was merely his attorney, stressing that he was only one of many of Cohns clients in New York. Trump also played down the influence of Cohn on his aggressive tactics and rhetoric, saying: I dont think I got that from Roy at all. I think Ive had a natural instinct for that. Trump said he goes on the offensive only to defend himself. I dont feel I insult people. I dont feel I insult people. I try and get to the facts and I dont feel I insult people, he said. Now, if Im insulted I will counterattack, or if something is unfair I will counterattack, but I dont feel like I insult people. I dont want to do that. But if Im attacked, I will counterattack. Journalists and contemporaries of both men, including a close political ally of Trump, said there was more to the relationship than Trump now acknowledges. Cohn himself once said he was not only Donalds lawyer but also one of his close friends. Roger Stone, a political operative who met Trump through Cohn, said their association was grounded in business, but he also described the lawyer as like a cultural guide to Manhattan for Trump into the worlds of celebrity and power. Roy was more than his personal lawyer, Stone told The Post. And, of course, Trump was a trophy client for Roy. Investigative reporter Wayne Barrett, who spent dozens of hours interviewing Cohn and Trump beginning in the 1970s, once wrote in Trump: The Deals and the Downfall that Cohn began to assume a role in Donalds life far transcending that of a lawyer. He became Donalds mentor, his constant adviser. Barrett now says Cohns stamp on Trump is obvious. I just look at him and see Roy, Barrett said in an interview. Both of them are attack dogs. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.), left, is confronted by Sen. Ralph Flanders (R-Vt.), right, during hearings in 1954. Roy Cohn, chief counsel to McCarthy's investigative subcommittee, is at center. (AP) Cohn and McCarthy Roy Cohn was born in New York City in 1927, into an affluent Jewish family. His father, Albert C. Cohn, was a longtime member of New Yorks Democratic machine and a State Supreme Court and appellate division judge. Roy Cohn attended elite prep schools and graduated from Columbia Law School at age 20. Through his fathers connections, Cohn landed a job with the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan. In the spring of 1949, Cohn was asked to write a memo about a man named Alger Hiss, a State Department official suspected of spying for the Soviet Union. Cohn soon came to believe that the Soviets had many spies inside the U.S. government. In 1950, Cohn at age 23 was the lead prosecutor in what became known as the Atom Spy Case. A Jewish couple named Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union. After the two were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets, the judge left the courtroom and called Cohn from a phone booth on Park Avenue. As Cohn later wrote, the judge wanted to ask my advice on whether he ought to give the death penalty to Ethel Rosenberg. The way I see it is that shes worse than Julius, Cohn told the judge, according to his autobiography. Both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in an electric chair. In 1953, Cohn joined Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) as chief counsel to the Senates Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. McCarthy had exploded into public view three years earlier when he claimed that he had a list of 205 State Department employees who were members of the Communist Party. McCarthy launched a series of sensational hearings about the communist threat in the United States, calling on scores of professors, Hollywood writers, government employees and others to answer questions about their alleged ties to the party. Blacklists were created and careers ruined. Cohn and McCarthy soon faced a backlash. In early 1954, the permanent subcommittee held the Army-McCarthy hearings, in part to determine whether Cohn sought special treatment for an enlisted friend. McCarthy objected to tough questioning of Cohn and attacked the reputation of a young associate in the firm of the Armys lawyer. That spurred the lawyer to ask the now-famous question that underscored growing doubts about McCarthys ethics: Have you no sense of decency, sir? Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) discusses his campaign with William Bradford Huie and Henry Hazlitt on Sept. 29, 1952. (National Archives and Records Administration) Cohn left Washington in 1954 as McCarthys efforts lost momentum. He professed admiration for McCarthy to the end of his life. I never worked for a better man or a greater cause, he wrote in his autobiography. Settling back in New York, Cohn tapped his connections as he began building a private legal practice, documents show. Cohn often operated in the gray areas of the law. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he fought off four federal or state indictments for alleged extortion, bribery, conspiracy, perjury and banking violations. At the same time, he avoided paying state and federal income taxes and engaged in a variety of schemes to take advantage of wealthy clients, court records show. Cohns brazenness seemed limitless. In 1969, while facing his third federal indictment, he wrote a confidential letter to Hoover, the FBI director. Cohn included affidavits, legal motions, news articles and other material outlining his defense. When I started fighting Communism as a young voice in the wilderness of the Justice Department, I suppose I realized that those who did not like what I was doing would be after me for a long time, Cohn wrote on Sept. 8, 1969, according to documents obtained by The Post. You are such a great institution up and down this nation, that I hate to see you diverted or annoyed for even a minute thus my sense of deep regret. Hoover wrote back eight days later: Your generous comments regarding me are indeed gratifying. In October 1973, when Trump and Cohn first met at Le Club, the lawyer was instantly recognizable, with piercing blue eyes, heavy eyelids and a perpetual tan. James D. Zirin, a New York lawyer who later wrote about Cohn, recalled him as the strangest-looking man I ever met, with a face contorted in a perpetual ugly sneer that seemed to project an air of unbridled malevolence. Trump, not yet a household name, knew about Cohns reputation as a legal knife fighter. At the time, Trump and his father, Fred, were facing Justice Department allegations that they had systematically discriminated against black people at their family-owned or -managed apartment complexes across New York City. Cohn agreed to represent the Trumps his way. That meant hitting back hard while shaping public opinion. On Dec. 12, 1973, Donald Trump, his father and Cohn called a news conference at the New York Hilton hotel. They said they were suing the government for $100 million in damages relating to the Justice Departments irresponsible and baseless allegations. Cohn went further in an affidavit, saying the government was really trying to force subservience to the Welfare Department, according to court records. A federal judge dismissed the countersuit. And two years later, after a string of theatrics and unfounded allegations by Cohn including the claim that a Jewish prosecutor had used Nazi Gestapo tactics Donald and Fred Trump settled the case without admitting guilt. They signed a consent decree prohibiting them from discriminating against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling. Following Cohns lead, Donald Trump declared victory. Trumps counsel Cohn began advising Trump on major real estate deals and other matters. Trump once said that Cohn represented him in two libel cases against journalists. Although Trump said the legal work cost $100,000, he said it was worth the money because Ive broken one writer, according to a statement he once gave to Barrett, who was a veteran investigative reporter for the Village Voice. Trump did not name the writer. Trump told The Post he did not recall making the statement. Though he said he has not read it, he described Barretts book as total fiction. Cohn often provided counsel for free, collecting money when he needed it. That included help on Trumps personal matters, such as his marriage to Ivana Zelnickova in 1977. She was a model in Canada who claimed to be a former member of the Czech national ski team. After they had dated for months, Trump rented a two-bedroom apartment on Fifth Avenue and began making arrangements for their wedding. Cohn urged Trump to create a prenuptial agreement. Ivana balked when she learned what Cohn included in the document. His proposal called on her to return any gifts from Trump in the event of a divorce. In response to her fury, Cohn added language that allowed her to keep her own clothing and any gifts. With Trumps consent, he also included a rainy day certificate of deposit worth $100,000. She would be allowed to begin tapping that fund one month after the wedding, according to Barretts book. During one of the negotiating sessions, held at Cohns townhouse office, the lawyer wore a bathrobe. The townhouse, in a tony neighborhood on East 68th Street, was central to Cohns operations. It was his in every way except on paper. It was held in the name of his law firm, Saxe Bacon & Bolan. He maintained an office and personal quarters and routinely hosted caviar-and-champagne parties there. Even though he lived a lavish life, Cohn claimed he had little taxable income or assets. Over the years, he routinely vacationed with clients on the Greek island of Mykonos or in the south of France on the yacht of a British investor. He said his extravagant expenses were work-related. That included A-list parties he threw at his home. Cohn was open about his loathing of the Internal Revenue Service. The firm pays the expenses I incur in developing and seeing through law business. My arrangement leaves enough income for me to take care of personal living expenses and current taxes, he wrote in 1981 in How to Stand Up for Your Rights and Win!, adding that he bought a house in Connecticut because I got tired of supporting our welfare and food stamp programs in New York. As Cohn helped arrange Trumps marital circumstances, he also helped the 30-year-old would-be tycoon gain access to Manhattans drug-fueled disco scene. Trump maintained a reputation as a strait-laced teetotaler, but he loved to be in the mix late at night, especially among beautiful women, according to his own accounts. In April 1977, Trump and Ivana went to the opening night of a club called Studio 54. The owners were impresarios named Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, and their lawyer was Roy Cohn. The city had never seen anything quite like Studio 54, a freewheeling club that offered up celebrity, glitter and debauchery. It attracted city leaders, Hollywood stars and a technicolor cross section of other straight, gay and bisexual partyers. Trump was a regular at the club. Id go there a lot with dates and with friends, and with lots of people, Trump said in an interview. Roy would always make it very comfortable. Cohn was not only the clubs lawyer but also the gatekeeper for rich and famous out-of-towners who wanted in. Sometimes he simply partied, surrounded by groups of young men. Cohn maintained a public veneer that he was heterosexual. His friends knew better. Sidney Zion, a journalist who helped Cohn write his autobiography, described him as the Babe Ruth of the Gay World. But when gay rights activists once asked him to represent a teacher fired for being homosexual, Cohn refused. He told the activists: I believe homosexual teachers are a grave threat to our children, they have no business polluting the schools of America, Cohn and Zion wrote in The Autobiography of Roy Cohn. Cohn also lobbied against gay rights legislation in New York City. He once called a laws sponsor on the City Council and offered a profane warning: Youve got to get off this fag stuff, its very harmful to the city and its going to hurt you, Cohn said in a phone call that Zion overheard. These f----ing fags are no good, forget about them. Studio 54 changed hands in 1980 after Rubell and Schrager pleaded guilty to tax evasion. They each spent 13 months in prison. Rubell died in 1989, and Schrager became a well-known entrepreneur and hotelier in New York, Miami Beach, London and elsewhere. What went on in Studio 54 will never, ever happen again, Trump told writer Timothy OBrien. First of all, you didnt have AIDS. You didnt have the problems you do have now. I saw things happening there that to this day I have never seen again. I would watch supermodels getting screwed, well-known supermodels getting screwed on a bench in the middle of the room. There were seven of them and each one was getting screwed by a different guy. This was in the middle of the room. Stuff that couldnt happen today because of problems of death. Studio 54 owners Ian Schrager, left, and Steve Rubell, right, with their attorney, Roy Cohn, at a "going away" party at the disco in 1980. The next day Schrager and Rubell would begin serving prison sentences for tax evasion. (Bettmann Archive) Connections Cohn kept company with a remarkable array of people. Stone, the political adviser for Trump and others, tells vivid stories, sometimes with varying details, about the first time he met Cohn. It was 1979, and Stone was calling on Cohn for political support and contributions on behalf of Ronald Reagan, then ramping up a presidential campaign. Stone stood for some time in the townhouses waiting room. When Stone was finally admitted, Cohn was sitting at a dining-room table, in a silk bathrobe, Stone told The Post. On the table were three strips of bacon and a square of cream cheese. Cohn ate the food with his fingers. Sitting at the table was a heavyset man. Mr. Stone, I want you to meet Tony Salerno, Cohn said. There Stone was, standing before the future boss of the Genovese crime family. So Roy says were going with Reagan this time, Salerno said. Cohn and Salerno listened to Stones pitch. Then Cohn recommended that Stone reach out to Trump. You need to meet Donald and his father, Cohn said, as Stone recalls it now. Theyd be perfect for this. Let me set you up a meeting. After his election, Reagan wrote Cohn, a registered Democrat, a warm note of thanks for his support. The two men became close, Trump said. Cohn tapped into the Reagan administration network on Trumps behalf a short time later, according to a New York Times account. At Trumps request, Cohn lobbied Edwin Meese III, a senior White House aide, to secure an appointment for Trumps sister Maryanne Barry, an experienced federal prosecutor in New Jersey, to the U.S. District Court. Trump declined to discuss the matter. Im proud of my sister. Shes done a great job, Trump said in an interview. I just dont comment on that. Trump marveled at Cohns connections and the parties he hosted, including a birthday party for himself each year. Now Roy would have parties and, Ill tell you what, some of the most important people in New York would go to those parties, Trump told The Post. Over the years, the list of his friends and guests included Norman Mailer, Bianca Jagger, Barbara Walters, William F. Buckley Jr., George Steinbrenner, former New York mayor Abraham D. Beame and many others, some of them Cohn clients. Every famous client made him famous and none more so than Donald Trump, wrote Nicholas von Hoffman in Citizen Cohn: The Life and Times of Roy Cohn. The Trump-Roy relationship was that mixture of business and social which Roy sought. Cohn and some of his party guests always seemed to be under indictment at the time of the parties, according to Edward Kosner, former editor and publisher of New York magazine. Kosner told The Post that Borscht Belt comedian Joey Adams once elicited laughter with the quip, If youre indicted, youre invited. Dershowitz, of Harvard Law School, said Cohn was an unavoidable force. When Roy Cohn was at the height of his power, Dershowitz said, nobody did anything in New York politics, in New York real estate, without going through Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn, left, publisher Ed Kosner, center, and Donald Trump in an undated photo. (Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images) Money, business, politics One of Trumps early ambitious real estate ventures was Trump Tower, a concrete-and-glass skyscraper on Fifth Avenue. Starting in 1978, Trump began moving to acquire the site between East 56th and East 57th streets and, with Cohns help, strengthening his ties to the city leaders and others who would decide the projects fate. Their efforts included a stream of campaign contributions by both men to public officials. Cohn had no scruples about such giving. He felt campaign finance restrictions were unnecessary and claimed that, in a New York hotel room, he once gave Nixon an envelope containing $5,000 cash to support a run for the White House. Im hardly one of those Boy Scouts who run around promoting phony ethics laws and rules regarding money and politics, Cohn wrote in his autobiography. Trump became a generous campaign contributor himself. He eventually gave $150,000 in just one year to local candidates in New York. State officials later said Trump had circumvented state limits on individual and corporate contributions by spreading out payments through Trump subsidiaries, but they did not formally accuse Trump of wrongdoing. Testifying under oath about his giving, Trump said, Well, my attorneys basically said that this was a proper way of doing it. A state organization formed to investigate New York Citys construction industry concluded that developers and contractors cultivate and seek favors from public officials at all levels. The report cited Trump and his large campaign contributions. To thrive in this milieu, Trump also had to work with unions and companies known to be controlled by New Yorks ruling mafia families, which had infiltrated the construction industry, according to court records, federal task force reports and newspaper accounts. Cohn represented some of the mafia figures who had sway over Trump projects. S&A Concrete, which supplied building material for the Trump Plaza on Manhattans East Side, was owned in part by Salerno, the Genovese family mobster and Cohn client, court records show. Mob-friendly labor leaders dominated local construction unions. At the head of Teamsters Local 282 was John Cody. A House of Representatives investigation found he was universally acknowledged to be the most significant labor racketeer preying on the construction industry in New York. Without Codys support, projects were liable to stall. Cody claimed Cohn as a friend. Cody also said he worked with Trump with Cohn serving as intermediary. I knew Trump quite well, Cody told Barrett. Donald liked to deal with me through Roy Cohn. In 1980, the federal Organized Crime Strike Force subpoenaed Trump to discuss whether Cody had offered Trump labor peace in exchange for an apartment in Trump Tower, according to Barretts Trump: The Deals and the Downfall. Trump denied the allegation, telling The Post it was ridiculous. Cody was a bad guy, and I didnt deal with him almost at all because I knew the kind of guy he was, Trump said. He was a very bad cookie. In the early 1980s, the FBI and New York authorities carried out a sweeping investigation of the five New York crime families. Investigators relied on informants, court-authorized wiretaps and eavesdropping gear. They gathered hundreds of hours of conversations proving the mobs reach into the construction industry. Cohns office fell under surveillance. Trump was not implicated. In early 1985, Cohn wrote to FBI Director William H. Webster, irate at a newspaper report suggesting that investigators in the case had been surveilling his office. Since 1950 the year I prosecuted the Rosenberg atom-spy trial at age 23 with the magnificent investigative help of the Bureau, up to the present, 34 years later, I have had a first-rate relationship with and respect for the Bureau, Cohn wrote on March 11, 1985, according to documents obtained by The Post. A confidential internal FBI memo the next month offered more detail: Field agents had conducted surveillance of Cohns office, with the aim of installing a monitoring device to intercept the conversations of Genovese Boss Anthony Salerno, who apparently was using Cohns office for his own business. The next year, Salerno and 14 others were indicted on an array of criminal charges, including conspiracy, extortion and infiltration of ostensibly legitimate businesses involved in selling ready-mix concrete in New York City, the federal indictment said. One of Trumps projects was mentioned in the indictment. Salerno and others eventually went to prison on federal charges including racketeering and bid-rigging. He could be a nasty guy Cohn was fond of saying that winning was not sufficient. People had to know about it. That included when he barely avoided disaster, which he managed to do for most of his adult life. Starting as far back as 1963, Cohn was indicted and acquitted three times of federal charges of bribery, perjury and conspiracy. He was also charged with violating banking laws in Illinois, but the charges were later dropped. Cohn also fended off repeated allegations of ethical lapses as a lawyer and was a constant target of the IRS, which eventually determined he owed the government some $7 million. Cohn turned his troubles into news. He loved the attention the tabloids and magazines gave him, and he socialized with some of their owners, including Rupert Murdoch. Cohn catered to certain reporters and gossip columnists, sharing scoops and rumors. Roy understood the value of the tabloids, Stone said in an interview. He did business at this dining-room table in the dining room at his brownstone. He would call reporters and dictate their copy with you sitting there. He would just dictate it. Esquire magazine once dubbed Cohn the legal executioner. Though the story presented a catalogue of nasty allegations against him, Cohn bought a bundle of the magazines to hand out to friends and clients. All this has done me a lot of good, Cohn said, according to writer Ken Auletta. Id be a liar if I denied it. It has given me a reputation for being tough, a reputation for being a winner. Cohn had his setbacks. Zion wrote that Cohn had personally chartered a 747 for a group of male friends to travel to Europe. The group trashed the plane, and Cohn never paid the charter bill. The airline sued Cohn successfully but could not get any money from him. An executive aware of the close ties between Trump and Cohn called Trump to see whether he would pay. Trump declined. I felt for the poor bastard because Roy just wiped out that plane, Trump told Zion about the episode. But what was I supposed to do? Hey, it was Roy whats anybody supposed to do? Trump knew Cohn had a shady side, saying he could be a nasty guy. I dont kid myself about Roy. He was no Boy Scout, Trump wrote in Trump: The Art of the Deal. He once told me that hed spent more than two thirds of his adult life under indictment for one charge or another. That amazed me. I said to him, Roy, just tell me one thing. Did you really do all that stuff? He looked at me and smiled. What the hell do you think? he said. I never really knew. In the fall of 1984, Cohn became ill. A year later, he started treatment at the Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. He maintained that he had liver cancer. But he was suffering from the effects of the HIV virus. As he struggled to stay alive, Trump pulled back from his friend for a spell. Cohn was thrown off balance by this apparent betrayal. I cant believe hes doing this to me, Cohn said, according to Barretts account. Donald pisses ice water. Cohns behavior as a lawyer caught up to him now. The appellate division of New Yorks Supreme Court moved on long-standing charges of misconduct. Simply stated the four charges involved alleged dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation, the court said. Those allegations involved a series of incidents that began years before Cohn met Trump and continued throughout the time of their relationship. In one case, a client of Cohns was in the hospital after suffering a debilitating stroke. Cohn visited the man, who was barely conscious. Cohn later claimed his client, during that visit, made him a trustee to his will. The man could not move. A nurse witnessed Cohn guiding his hand to complete the mans signature on a legal document. A judge later refused to honor the document. Before the appellate division made its ruling in 1986, a host of prominent people testified to Cohns good character. Among them was Trump, who had resumed his visits to Cohn and that spring had invited him to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Cohn questioned the fairness and competence of those who accused him of misconduct, telling reporters the bars disciplinary panel was a bunch of yo-yos . . . just out to smear me up. On June 23, 1986, Cohn was disbarred. For an attorney practicing for nearly 40 years in this State, such misconduct is inexcusable, notwithstanding an impressive array of character witnesses who testified in mitigation, the court said. Trump told The Post that if Cohn had not been so weakened, he would have been able to fight that off. Cohn died six weeks later, on Aug. 2, 1986. He was 59. His friends held a memorial service for him. Trump stood silently in the back. Zion, the journalist, wrote that Cohn was misunderstood by his critics: What curdled their blood with Cohn was his headline-hunting, his gunslinger style, his contempt for the niceties, his contempt for them. One year after his death, Trump professed admiration for Cohn. Tough as he was, Roy had a lot of friends, Trump wrote in The Art of the Deal, and Im not embarrassed to say I was one. Trump remains fond of Cohn today. I actually got a kick out of him, Trump recalled in his recent interview with The Post. Some people didnt like him, and some people were offended by him. I mean, they would literally leave a dinner. I had one evening where three or four people got up from a table and left the table because they couldnt stand the mention of his name. But with all of that being said, he did a very good job for me as a lawyer, Trump said. I get a kick out of winning, and Roy would win. Guests gather for the opening ceremony at Shanghai Disneyland on June 16. The park and its hotels, known together as Shanghai Disney Resort, are Disneys first venture into mainland China. Guests gather for the opening ceremony at Shanghai Disneyland on June 16. The park and its hotels, known together as Shanghai Disney Resort, are Disneys first venture into mainland China. Visual China/Getty Images After years of planning and construction, Mickey Mouse arrives in China After years of planning and construction, Mickey Mouse arrives in China Mickey Mouse welcomed visitors to his new home in China on Thursday as Disney opened its first theme park in that country. The park, located in the city of Shanghai, opened with fireworks and dignitaries. I hope that Shanghai Disney can provide visitors with safe and premium experiences and become a world class theme park. I hope it promotes exchanges across cultures of the world, according to a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping, read at the parks opening ceremony. Tens of thousands streamed into Shanghai Disneyland for its debut, an event that was nearly two decades in the making. The $5.5 billion resort covers 963 acres, but Disney has already begun expansion. Company officials said they tried to reflect Chinese preferences in the new park. We didnt build Disneyland in China, we built Chinas Disneyland, said Bob Iger, Disneys chairman. Theres a traditional Chinese tea house featuring local food. The Lion King, performed in Mandarin for the first time, features the Monkey King and characters dressed in Chinese opera garb to appeal to an Asian audience. In the castle, guests not only walk through, as they do in other Disney parks, they can also eat and shop. When is was discovered that Chinese people didnt have a favorite Disney princess, the company decided that the castle would feature all the princesses. Parks in California, Hong Kong and France are based on the Sleeping Beauty story. The Chinese can learn the princesses over time, and this gives them an opportunity to have an introduction to all of the princess stories, said executive producer Ali Rubinstein. A handful of rides are unique to Shanghai Disneyland but dont have a Chinese flavor. Su Xuanjun gushed about an attraction based on the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Its very impressive how they use technology in this ride, said Su, who was accompanied by his wife, daughter and 4-year-old grandson. Still, he thinks Disney could have gone a bit further to make the park more China-like. Doesnt look like China to me at all. They could have incorporated more Chinese elements, said the 60-year-old retiree. In the Pirates ride, they could have had the setting be the Yangtze River. Disneys only animated film based on a Chinese story, Mulan, which tells the tale of a Chinese warrior woman, got neither its own ride or stage show. The character appears only as a statue and a float in the parade. Wow Air SnapTraveler winner Naila Abbasova traveled to Reykjavik and Washington, her first two stops. She is documenting her travels on Snapchat. (Wow Air) By the time Naila Abbasova reached the Renwick Gallery, her second cultural institution of the day, she had already posted 33 Snapchats. The number would more than double before the close of her last night in Washington. The 26-year-old London resident isnt a millennial with an oversharing addiction; she is one of four travelers who beat out tens of thousands of applicants vying for the title of Wow SnapTraveler. Her prize: exploring four destinations served by the low-fare Icelandic carrier and sharing her experiences with the world snap by snap by snap by snap. Snapchat forces you to be creative in the moment, said Naila, who works as a department manager at Selfridges, a U.K. department store. It has so much cinematic potential, but my goal is to show you where I am so that it feels like you could actually be here with me. The app-umentarians will visit one city a month over the summer, with each trip lasting three to eight days. The airline, which flies to nearly 30 destinations, covers all of their travel expenses. The quartet started in Reykjavik, Iceland, in May for the first leg of the adventure. The next month, they spun off in different directions: Dave Keystone, a TV host and content provider from Toronto, to Barcelona; Naila to Washington; Adam Rose, a Los Angeles actor, to Paris; and Philip Calvert, a Milwaukee basketball coach living in Copenhagen, to Montreal. Wow Air is keeping the remaining destinations a secret to us and the snapsters. Its kind of freaky, Naila said about the mystery, and also kind of exciting. From left, Philip Calvert, Naila Abbasova, Dave Keystone and Adam Rose will spend the summer traveling to destinations served by the Icelandic low-fare carrier. Here, they soak in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. (Wow Air) During her five full days in Washington, however, she was only thinking about the now. Snapchat doesnt live for the future; its stories disappear after 24 hours. Snapchat is minimal in terms of editing, she said. You are capturing really raw emotions. Before submitting her application, Naila had a vlog on her YouTube channel called Chief Adventurer, but had never used the social-media app. She learned the basics from an instructional YouTube video taught by a kid who probably still needs a babysitter. She picked up other techniques on the fly, such as her stylistic flourishes: opening shots of a quote, music videos starring herself (and sometimes a surprised hotel employee) and her absolutely fabulous wardrobe, including Le Spec sunglasses and glossy lipstick the color of ripe berries. I want to be as real as possible, she said. You have to have that certain level of confidence that you just dont care what people say about you. In Washington, she chose experiences that matched her nom de travel. She went zip-lining in Rockville, Md., sailing in Annapolis, Md., noshing on a food tour of D.C.s Shaw neighborhood and paddleboarding on the Potomac with twin sisters who aced her own Snapchat callout for the most creative story. Im a big believer in getting to know the locals, she said. No joke. On her first night in town, she shared a cab with a woman and ended up dining with the Washingtonian and her husband at their Georgetown home. On her last day, she found herself sprawled on the floor of the Renwick Gallery, head-to-head with a resident. (Disclaimer: me.) We stared at the Wonder above, then Snapchatted the moment. Naila and I spent more than two hours together, discussing the art, science and silliness of Snapchat. She said the sequence should unspool like a story, with an introduction, main plot and finish so they know your day is actually over. Her sign-off is often, Sleep tight, world. See you tomorrow. For her medley of images, she blends selfies with scenic shots, and often reminds herself to show more of not-me. She also includes nuggets of information, such as President Obamas connection to Pi Pizzeria. On the technical side, she warns against saving too many snaps offline; if they are not uploaded in a timely manner, the bits could go poof. So, if possible, find an Internet connection and release them as soon as you can. Also be aware of the smartphones battery life; if your gadget dies, so does your hard work. Naila carries two phones and a backup charger, and will still sometimes make emergency runs to Starbucks to caffeinate her devices. After completing the wowza journey, she will continue vlogging once a week and traveling once she replenishes her empty vault of vacation days. She will also use Snapchat to document her adventures, but will significantly scale back her average output of 55 snaps a day. Nailas D.C. itinerary If you didnt see Naila Abbasovas Snapchats about her trip to Washington before they disappeared, then you missed out on her adventures and explorations. Here is a more lasting record of her visit as a Wow SnapTraveler, plus her comments. Go Ape treetop adventure course in Rockville. Sailing on the Woodwind schooner in Annapolis, the boat from Wedding Crashers. Segway tour of D.C. It saved my life because it was so friggin hot. It created a wind. Food tour of Shaw neighborhood. It exposed me to the bigger picture of D.C. . . . My favorite place was an Ethiopian restaurant called Etete. I never realized that apparently D.C. has the highest concentration of Ethiopians outside of Ethiopia. Paddleboarding on the Potomac. It reminded me of Toronto Island. I was a little nostalgic. (Naila lived in Toronto before moving to London.) Museum visits to Newseum, Renwick Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Natural History and National Archives. Tex-Mex cuisine at Cantina Marina on the waterfront. Seeing the boats and the very casual lifestyle you forget that you are in D.C. Other dining spots: Pi Pizzeria, Baked and Wired (a Snapchat suggestion) and Mari Vanna, which looks like a Soviet-designed Russian house on the interior. Sunset at the Lincoln Memorial steps. It was such a moving experience. I felt more connected to D.C. More from Travel: How to travel the world for free? The Points Guy shows you the way. This isnt Darwins Galapagos: The wildlife-rich islands are more tourist-friendly than you think Around the world in 20 days Given the need for extraordinary coverage of the massive tragedy that unfolded Sunday in Orlando, its little wonder if you missed the details out of the United State of Women summit that First Lady Michelle Obama put on in Washington last week. So let me help you catch up on this first-of-its-kind White House-sponsored event. More than 5,000 people were on hand to talk about gender equity. While not everyone went away happy abortion was conspicuously missing from the discussion the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Participants and media alike seem to agree that, yes, this was a massively hyped affair, but the TED talks-type agenda lived up to its promise. Not to mention that, as part of the event, the White House announced $50 million in commitments to improving the lives of girls and women around the world. The commitments come from the White House and a collective of organizations, private-sector companies and foundations. Below youll find some of the key takeaways, which I compiled from reading coverage from the event. But first a word about what Im personally carrying forward. Its not specifically gender equity-related, but it made the biggest impression on me and I expect it will lift your day. The event was capped by an armchair conversation between Mrs. O and Ms. O, that is, the first lady and Oprah Winfrey. Asked how she deals with all the haters on social media, Obama said this: I have found, particularly in this job, that its people wont remember what other people say about you, but they will remember what you do. ... So when it came to this role, I just said: You know, let me just be first lady. Let me wake up every day and work hard to do something of value, and to do it well, and to do something consequential, and to do something that I care about. And then let that speak for itself. And that would shut up the haters, because I would have a whole portfolio of stuff that defined me because its what I did, not what you called me. So the best revenge is success and good work. What a refreshing answer. And one I needed to hear. Whether its in regard to the presidential campaign or the latest local hot-button issue, much of the bandwidth of discussion takes place these days in the form of tweets or Facebook posts that delight in sarcasm, name-calling or downright lies. It can beat regular folks like me down; I cant imagine the level of abuse someone of Michelle Obamas stature endures. I suspect we can all learn from her answer: 1. People will remember what you do, not what other people say about you. 2. The best revenge is success and good work. So what else made up the United State of Women summit? Obama brought together an inspiring group of powerful and interesting women to discuss real issues: equal pay, womens health, education, preventing violence against women, entrepreneurship and female leadership. As part of the summit, more than two dozen companies including Airbnb, Amazon, American Airlines, Dow Chemical and Pepsico agreed to undertake a yearly company-wide gender pay analysis. Introduced by 11-year-old Mikaila Ulmer, the founder/CEO of Me & the Bees Lemonade, who won a deal with Whole Foods, President Barack Obama addressed the summit. Vice President Joe Biden also gave a powerful speech calling on greater efforts to end sexual violence against women, particularly on college campuses. While no doubt the O and O armchair discussion stole the show, participants said the hands-on learning sharing of expertise and experiences also will have long-lasting impact. Thats why I hope that, while news such as that out of Orlando justifiably gets most of the headlines, in coming days well learn more about what comes out of the United State of Women. THE DISTRICT Man cited after drone flight near monument A Virginia man who police said was flying a drone near the Washington Monument early Wednesday has been given a criminal citation, according to the U.S. Park Police. John Newcomer Jr., 51, of Reston was charged with operating an unmanned aircraft, which is illegal in and around Washington, including from private property. Police said in a statement that officers were alerted to the drone about 4 a.m. Wednesday and found the man near the north side of the monument near 16th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. Police said officers ordered Newcomer to land the drone a blue UDI RC and that it and a black radio controller were confiscated. Sgt. Anna Rose, a spokeswoman for the Park Police, said there was no indication of nefarious activities with the drone, which sells for about $60 on the Internet. The citation is $85. Peter Hermann Police investigate gay pride flag burning For the past three years, James Woods has displayed a colorful gay pride flag outside his Adams Morgan restaurant in Washington ahead of the annual June festivities celebrating gay rights. This year was no different. On June 10, he hung the large flag outside his restaurant, Bourbon, in the 2300 block of 18th Street NW. But when one of the restaurants managers arrived for work early Sunday morning, the flag was almost entirely burned. D.C. police say someone burned the flag between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday. Police said the department is investigating the incident, first reported by the Washington Blade. Perry Stein MARYLAND Charges in alleged heroin ring Authorities in Frederick County said they busted a large heroin distribution ring in the Maryland suburb and arrested nine people. The Frederick County Sheriffs Office said it confiscated 18 firearms and 510 grams of heroin in the bust. The people charged included men and women from Maryland and West Virginia, authorities said. They faced a variety of drug-related and weapons charges. Dana Hegdpeth Motorcyclist injured in May crash dies Prince Georges County police said Friday that they were investigating a fatal collision in Hyattsville last month after a motorcyclist involved in the crash died earlier this week. On May 15 at about 4 p.m., officers were called to Rhode Island Avenue at Charles Armentrout Way for a crash involving a car and a motorcycle, police said in a statement. A preliminary investigation revealed that 55-year-old Daniel Jerome Crum of Riverdale was northbound on Rhode Island Avenue approaching Charles Armentrout Way when he was struck by a car, the statement said. Crum suffered critical injuries and died June 12, while the driver of the car was not hurt, the statement said. It appeared the cars driver failed to yield the right of way and turned into Crums path, according to the police statement. Justin Wm. Moyer Union leaders lauded the efforts to reduce both the achievement gap and class size, but they say district employees felt let down. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post) Montgomery Countys school board adopted a budget that is expected to lower classroom sizes next school year and accelerate efforts to narrow the achievement gap, part of a $2.46 billion plan that also cuts back on raises pledged to more than 22,000 school district employees. The recently approved budget will boost spending by $139 million 6 percent in what school officials say is the largest funding increase since at least 2008. The countys biggest property tax hike in seven years a rise of nearly 9 percent that will add $326 to the average residential bill will help fund the school systems budget increase, which comes after years of surging enrollment in the 156,000-student district. In a system with a growing number of English-language learners and children from low-income families, the new funding will steer more resources to high-needs schools, beef up math and literacy efforts, and add more than 300 teachers to help reduce class sizes. There also will be additional support for minority achievement programs, as well as an uptick in counselors and psychologists. This was a very special budget season, and I think it comes at a good time as we transition into a new superintendent and get back on track with some special areas that need addressing, said Michael A. Durso, the school boards president. Jack R. Smith, formerly Marylands interim state superintendent of schools, is slated to take over the top job in Montgomery on July 1, following a long, sometimes fitful search for a schools chief following the 2015 resignation of Joshua P. Starr. Starr lost the confidence of some board members, and he resigned amid reports that he did not have enough votes to win a new four-year contract. [Interim state superintendent Jack R. Smith to lead Montgomery schools] The new budget his successor takes on was both praised for going nearly $90 million over the state minimum funding level and lamented for doing away with some pay increases that teachers, principals, cafeteria workers and bus drivers thought they were getting. The Montgomery County Council had pressed for employee concessions, saying it could not justify a tax increase if there was not a greater show of sacrifice from the county and its school system. The board agreed to trim back raises in exchange for the added funding. Raises were pared for both county and school district employees. Under the new plan, school personnel will get a 1 percent cost-of-living raise on July 1, and those eligible will get step increases that average 3.5 percent. Employees had previously been promised the step increase and a 2 percent cost-of-living bump that would have gone into effect Sept. 3, as well as an additional step increase due in March 2017 that would have made up for a raise postponed amid the recession. In all, they will get roughly half of what was negotiated in their contracts a result that drew a mixed reaction. [Montgomery schools, teachers near deal to divert pay increases to classroom] Union leaders lauded the new funding and district efforts to lower class sizes and narrow the achievement gap that separates white and Asian students from their black and Hispanic peers. But they said many employees also felt let down. Its disappointing, said Chris Lloyd, president of the county teachers union, noting that employees have twice relinquished recent negotiated raises. I think there is some anger, but mostly frustration. This is not a one-time event. This has repeated itself over the last several years. He said some employees are questioning the nature of the contract negotiation process and whether county officials should be included earlier. He also noted that Montgomerys starting teacher salaries lag behind several Washington-area jurisdictions, which he said could be an issue as the school district prepares to hire a large number of teachers. As we try to diversify our teaching workforce to better reflect our student population, we have to ensure that MCPS is a desirable place to work, and salary and benefits is a significant factor in that, he said. Other union leaders also voiced disappointment with the process. The board reopened negotiations, but no agreement was readily reached, so it relied on a provision of state law that allows it to trim negotiated raises without unions signing on. The opportunity for give and take, the opportunity for discussion and options, was not as open and not as authentic as it had been in the past, said James Koutsos, president of the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals. Durso, the school board president, said he understands employee concerns but said when you look at the big picture, I think what we did was right and necessary. He called the salary increases that employees will get pretty significant. Frances Frost, a past president of the countywide council of PTAs, said two of the organizations priorities were reflected in the budget agreement: more focus on the achievement gap and class size reduction. Not every class will be smaller, but the districts guidelines will change, meaning schools could see smaller classes in some grades. I think parents are pleased, she said. There is grumbling about the taxes, but most are pleased about the money going toward education and areas they feel are important. The government of Maryland says it has been shortchanging thousands of workers who earn extra pay for overtime and night shifts, a mistake discovered when the state installed a new payroll and timekeeping system this year. Budget and Management Secretary David R. Brinkley said the mistakes could affect up to 13,000 current employees roughly one-quarter of the states public workforce and an unknown number of former workers. The state could owe each of those individuals from $2 to $30 extra for each relevant pay period. Many of the workers are police, hospital workers and corrections employees, whose jobs often require them to work nontraditional hours between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. Their extra pay was miscalculated by payroll workers at agencies across the government, officials said. On Friday, state officials notified four public-employee unions AFSCME, AFT Healthcare-Maryland, the State Law Enforcement Officers Labor Alliance and the Maryland Professional Employees Council about the issue and said they plan to work with the unions to develop a process for determining the scope of the problem and how to resolve it. We expect every person who worked to be paid for every single hour they worked, whether it was yesterday or 20 years ago, said Patrick Moran, president of AFSCME Maryland Council 3, the largest union representing state workers. Union officials say they have raised concerns about payroll mistakes across state agencies for many years, only to hear that the problems were isolated. It turns out the issues were systemic, Moran said. Our members were right, and the bureaucrats were wrong. As of Wednesday, the new computerized system was operating at all agencies except the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which is expected to have it running by August. Brinkley said the errors should not occur with the new program. But Al Wise, a 44-year-old father of five who has worked at Maryland state hospitals for 18 years and often works the night shift, said his last paycheck was about $30 short. He isnt sure how many times he was underpaid. I need to take care of my household, Wise said. I have two girls in college. Universities dont want to hear about why you cant pay tuition. The unions had called for a faster implementation of the new system, which was begun during the administration of Gov. Martin OMalley (D). The past administration said theyd change it, and it finally came to fruition this month, Moran said. Brinkley credited Gov. Larry Hogan (R) with speeding up the transition and insisting that the state take responsibility for the mistakes. The governor is in Annapolis to fix things, Brinkley said. The first remedy is to ensure that our employees are paid correctly, and starting with the last paycheck, thats happening. Moran said the Hogan administration was just doing what it had to do. You cant have something of this magnitude and hide it, he said. Theyre very good at marketing and trying to get out in front of things. At best, Gov. Larry Hogans refusal to vote for Donald Trump has only lost him some campaign bumper stickers. At worst, its eroded faith among the party faithful in the Republican governors leadership and cost him votes in his reelection. And the Trump-supporting Maryland delegates to the Republican National Convention have heard a lot about it. Jim Crawford, a delegate from Bryantown, said he has answered dozens of calls from extremely disappointed Trump supporters since Hogan made it known Wednesday that he would not cast a ballot for the New York billionaire. Some of the callers knocked on doors and made calls for Hogan during his 2014 gubernatorial campaign, Crawford said. The governors decision will force those people to choose between Trump and Hogan, or find a way to reconcile the two, he said. [Hogan is one of two sitting GOP governors to say he wont vote for Trump] Republican Maryland governor Larry Hogan has publicly admitted he isn't voting for Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. Here are the many times Logan has said he won't back Trump's run for the White House. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) One man told Crawford that he ripped all of the Hogan bumper stickers off of his car as soon as he heard the governors decision. Id like to know what his thinking is, Crawford said of the popular first-term governor. Because most of us understand that not supporting Trump is supporting Hillary. Joeylynn Hough, a delegate to the national convention from Brunswick, said although its ultimately the governors personal choice, many think Hogan should respect the support that Maryland GOP voters have shown for the presumptive Republican nominee. Trump won 54 percent of the vote in the states Republican primary in April. They feel betrayed by him, Hough said. They feel he should put his differences aside and needs to respect their decision. Others said the governor should endorse Trump as a show of leadership and party unity. Delegate Joe Sliwka said Hogan should look to former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who showed true statesmanship when he endorsed Trump after his preferred candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, withdrew from the race. I wish he would just endorse the nominee as the Republican leader of Maryland, said Sliwka, a former aide to Ehrlich who lives in Fallston. I think everybody should just come together as Republicans. Regardless of Hogans effect on the presidential race, multiple delegates said it could cost him votes in a 2018 reelection bid. Some people have said they will not support him in his next election, Hough said. One thing about Trump supporters is that we are very loyal. We mean what we say. But at least one Trump delegate said he would still back Hogan. John Stricklett, of Bethesda, said he supports the governor and ultimately doesnt put a lot of stock in how Hogan fills out his ballot, even though having Trump in the White House would be better for Hogan than a President Clinton. Its more of a personal decision of Hogans, it doesnt really affect us, the delegate said. Hes governor of Maryland, and thats a tough job. I try not to read much into it. Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has publicly admitted he isn't voting for Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. Here are the many times Hogan has said he won't back Trump's run for the White House. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has publicly admitted he isn't voting for Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. Here are the many times Hogan has said he won't back Trump's run for the White House. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) Almost as soon as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared he would not vote for Donald Trump, state Sen. J.B. Jenningss phone started ringing. Messages piled up on social media sites, either lauding Hogan as an independent thinker or denouncing him for opposing the candidate who handily won his states GOP primary. Some support what hes done. Others are upset, said Jennings (R-Baltimore County), who is the Senate minority leader and a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Its his vote to give, and nobody else should have an issue. After months of trying not to talk about Trump, Hogan on Wednesday became the second sitting GOP governor to say he would not cast a ballot for the presumptive presidential nominee joining Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), another widely popular Republican in a blue state. No, I dont plan to, Hogan said when asked whether he would vote for Trump or presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. I guess when I get behind the curtain, Ill have to figure it out, maybe write someone in. Im not sure. Its a tough choice. I dont like either one of them. [Dozens of GOP delegates launch new effort to stop Trump] 1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad What presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail. View Photos Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the partys convention in Cleveland. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the partys convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue. The admission, which comes as other elected Republicans across the country continue to sidestep questions about Trump and his controversial candidacy, is likely to shore up Hogans support among Democratic and independent voters in Maryland, analysts said. And while rejecting the GOP nominee could cost the first-term governor a bit of his base, it is unlikely to harm his planned reelection bid in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 2-to-1 margin. The very hardcore, of course, are going to be angry and say they arent going to support him ever again, said Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Marys College of Maryland. But if it is him versus a Democrat in 2018, are they really going to stay home and let the Democrat win? Hogan gave an early presidential endorsement last year to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a friend whom Hogan credits with helping him win the election in Maryland. When Christie withdrew his candidacy and decided to back Trump, however, Hogan said he was not inclined to do the same. As the business mogul moved closer to clinching the nomination, Hogan was peppered with questions at public appearances throughout the state. [Hogan dodges question on whether Donald Trump is fit to be president] After Trump won the Maryland primary, Hogan said he did not plan to support him and had no plans to attend the Republican National Convention. Earlier this month, he dodged a question about whether Trump is fit to serve as president and told a reporter who asked whether he planned to vote for Trump that he was not interested in talking about Donald Trump any further. He suggested that reporters use a thing called Google to look at the stories youve written. . . . My answers are not going to change. Wednesdays statement that he would not vote for Trump came during a visit to Prince Georges County. Hogans office declined a request for a more extensive interview on the topic, but Hogan elaborated slightly during an appearance in Annapolis on Thursday. Ive always been a blunt, straightforward guy, and whether you agree with me or not, you always know where I stand, he said. Im not trying to convince anybody how to vote, anyway. Through a spokesman, the governor said his decision was a difficult one. [Trump delegates in Maryland dont like their governors position] Richard Vatz, a political rhetoric professor at Towson University, said Hogans stance is likely to serve him well among much of the state electorate. Hogans unwillingness to support a man, Trump, who is favored by a man to whom he is indebted, Gov. Chris Christie, gives unmistakable testimony to his integrity in many Marylanders eyes, Vatz said. He has a 70 percent approval rating, and I think part of it is the perception that he is not motivated wholly politically. On Facebook, the comments ranged from angry to admiring. I personally dont care if he votes or not but he should stand behind his party or just shut his mouth, said one woman from Mount Airy, Md. We the people have voted for the GOP nomination Just like we the people voted our Governor in office. Other posters praised Hogan for following his conscience and noted that Maryland will almost certainly back Clinton in the general election anyway, so the governors choice will have little impact on the race. [The man who showed Trump how to exploit power and instill fear] Tim Craig, a small-business owner in Carroll County and the countys coordinator for the Trump campaign, said in an interview that he is a huge Larry Hogan guy but was disappointed that the governor decided to say anything at all about how he plans to vote. He said Republicans living in Carroll County and other rural parts of the state are pretty far to the right of center. Many of those voters, he said, are not going to have the zeal for Hogan after his declaration. Republican lawmakers in Maryland were swift to defend Hogan. I support Donald J. Trump. The Governor made his decision, state Sen. Johnny Ray Salling (R-Baltimore County) wrote on his Facebook page. The nasty comments that have been directed towards him are unhelpful and wont change any minds. When all is said and done, the Governor is doing great things for the State of Maryland and is 100% better than the alternative. Joe Cluster, executive director of the state Republican Party, said he did not know what impact Hogans decision about Trump will have on the party. We will see, he said. But Eberly, the St. Marys professor, said Hogans decision stripped the state Democratic Party of its strongest line of attack against the governor. U.S. Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) and the Democratic Governors Association have repeatedly called on Hogan to denounce Trump. When you dont vote, there is no greater repudiation, Eberly said. Jennings said Hogans decision and the lack of support for Trump from other GOP officials across the country illustrates the challenges facing the presumptive nominee and the Republican Party. We have five months until the election, Jennings said. Over the next 150 days, the Trump campaign needs to do their best to shore up support amongst the base, and that includes Gov. Hogan. A 19-year-old Alexandria man was arrested Thursday and charged with animal cruelty after the death of a pit bull mix, police said. On May 27 at about 5:30 p.m., Eryk Misrain Cruz dropped off a mixed-breed female dog at the Fairfax County Animal Shelter, Fairfax County police said in a statement. The dog, named Zili, was about 11 months old and extremely emaciated, and was taken to an emergency veterinarian for medical treatment, the statement said. A man was charged with animal cruelty after Zili, an 11-month-old pit bull, died. (Fairfax County Police) On June 1, Zili died because of her condition, according to the statement. A necropsy completed by the state animal health laboratory determined she died from emaciation, dehydration and bacterial necrotizing enterocolitis, the statement said. After an investigation, a warrant was issued charging Cruz with misdemeanor cruelty to animals, police said, and he was arrested. Claiming not to remember the past decade was not a good way try to escape hard time at least not for Frank Pearson, a former Loudoun County sheriffs deputy sentenced Friday to three years in prison for embezzlement. Pearson, who from 2010 to 2013 stole $229,000 in forfeited assets he was charged with overseeing, maintained throughout his trial that he had amnesia covering 10 years. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III, who presided over Pearsons bench trial and found him guilty, said Friday that he does not believe the claim. You may have convinced yourself that you dont remember these events, Ellis said, but your claim of amnesia doesnt resonate with me. Defense attorneys said before the trial that in October 2013, after Pearsons wife found him unresponsive on the bathroom floor of the familys home, he woke up thinking the year was 2001 and he was unable to recognize friends he had met after that year. Ellis noted Friday that a physician was unable to confirm Pearsons memory loss and had deemed the ex-deputy fit to stand trial. I grew up in a society where corruption was rife, said Ellis, who was born in Colombia. Corruption by government can kill a society. Prosecutors noted that not all of the lost funds have been accounted for. The night before he was due to meet with supervisors who had grown suspicious, Pearson was seen leaving the office with two boxes that another deputy said contained rolls of coins. Loudoun Sheriff Mike Chapman, who was criticized by a challenger during his reelection campaign last year for failing to stop the embezzlement earlier, said in court Friday that Pearson really betrayed the trust of his unit, the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office and law enforcement across the board. Investigating the crime in concert with the FBI took thousands of hours and dollars, he said. Pearson will have to pay restitution in full for his theft. His attorney, Daniel Lopez, said Friday that his client used the money not for luxury items but to take care of his wife, who suffers from diabetes and makes close to minimum wage. Before he engaged in this criminal behavior, Mr. Pearson was an upstanding member of his church, an upstanding member of his community, an upstanding member of law enforcement, Lopez said. Several members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wrote letters detailing Pearsons good acts and came to court Friday in support. Lopez added that Pearson had served in the Marine Corps with honors. Mr. Pearson has fallen mightily and far, Lopez said. Pearson declined to speak. At his lawyers request, he was allowed to delay his surrender until his son returns from a church mission in Peru. Actress Laura Vandervoort's image from the television show "V" was used to create a fake passport as part of an international credit card fraud scheme. (U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia) Federal agents said they have uncovered a massive international identity-theft scheme that victimized at least hundreds and maybe thousands of people, including an actress who appeared in the television shows Smallville and Supergirl. Federal authorities arrested two people in Virginia and two people in Georgia on Thursday as part of a sophisticated operation they say involved stealing identities and producing fake shell companies that could apply for high-balance credit cards. The sprawling conspiracy involved many millions of dollars, authorities say, though after two years of investigation they believe they have only scratched the surface. Court documents say that the group would bill credit card companies for payments to its own shell companies, then route the money through various entities and sometimes out of the country. Organized under the umbrella the Deutche Group, the conspiracy extended to India, Thailand and Britain as well as the United States. Prosecutors are asking any potential victims to come forward and help illuminate the scope of the scheme. The conspirators would advertise jobs for Deutche Group on Craigslist, according to authorities, and then steal the personal information applicants gave them. They also set up online companies offering airfare and hotel deals, according to court filings, then pocketed the funds and used stolen credit cards to book the travel. Some travelers were stranded partway through vacations when their itineraries were canceled due to fraud alerts. When such fraud alerts led credit card companies to challenge charges, the group used digitally created images of credit cards and passports to back up their spending, authorities say. One such passport used an image of actress Laura Vandervoort taken from a scene from the television show V involving visas, authorities said. An FBI agent who was a fan of Smallville immediately recognized Vandervoorts photo, authorities said, and the image helped authorities lock down a time frame for the creation of the fake passport and illuminated some of the groups digital maneuvering. Vandervoort played Supergirl on Smallville and also plays a villain on the show Supergirl. According to the charging documents, the group even set up its own bank in India and attempted to join the Visa network, so that they could approve their own fraudulent transactions. Amit Chaudhry of Ashburn was arrested Thursday. He is accused of masterminding the U.S. operations. According to prosecutors, his siblings and other relatives and associates in India helped steal identities and create shell corporations. To date, prosecutors have identified 353 fake companies associated with the scheme. Prosecutors say it was a New York woman who questioned charges to her credit card that first alerted them to the group, which they believe has been operating since at least 2012. In court Thursday, Chaudhry appeared bewildered. He said he did not understand the charges against him. I never transferred money, he said. I dont have any significant ties to India. An affidavit filed in the Eastern District of Virginia federal court lists five aliases for Chaudhry, including John King, and Sachin Sinha." Jacqueline Green of Woodbridge was also arrested Thursday and charged with wire fraud. Green appears to have met Chaudhry through her job at the government information technology contractor ActioNet. Chaudhry was running his own Ashburn-based company called Knowledge Center, which authorities say did both legitimate IT training and supported his illegal activity. According to prosecutors, Green would overbill or fradulently bill her company for training provided by Chaudhrys firm. If convicted, both Chaudhry and Green face up to two decades in prison, as well as significant fines. The defendants arrested in Georgia, Sudhakar Jha and Tanav Jha, have a detention hearing set for next week and authorities said they will then be brought to Virginia to face trial. Other perpetrators, authorities said, have fled to India. It was a now-former employee at American Express in India, according to prosecutors, who helped procure some of the stolen identities, as did other overseas sources. People who believe they may have been affected by this alleged fraud should submit their complaint online at www.ic3.gov, and include the keyword CCTRAVELVICTIM in the Description of the Incident field. The general election campaign has barely started and it's already turned into a clash of civilizations. Not a clash between Islamic and Judeo-Christian civilization, although Donald Trump sometimes makes it sound that way. Instead, it's a battle between two different views of American civilization. Are we teetering anxiously on the edge of destruction? Or are we still optimistic despite recurring terrorism and mass violence? One candidate, Trump, speaks to the gut and unabashedly stokes voters' fears. "If we don't get tough ... we're not going to have our country anymore," the presumptive Republican nominee said in the aftermath of the shooting in Orlando. "There will be nothing -- absolutely nothing -- left." Nothing? He also accused American Muslims of willfully harboring terrorists. "The Muslims have to work with us," he said. "They knew that (the Orlando gunman) was bad. They knew that the people in San Bernardino were bad. But you know what? They didn't turn them in. And you know what? We had death and destruction." Actually, law enforcement officials say many of their best tips about potential terrorists come from Muslim communities. And Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, was "turned in" to police at least twice. The other candidate, Hillary Clinton, pleads for unity and proposes wonky policy plans -- including such bloodless stuff as "an intelligence surge to bolster our capabilities across the board, with appropriate safeguards here at home." This week, she suggested that incremental improvements in law enforcement, plus a new commitment to civility, could overcome the terrorist threat. "I have no doubt we can meet this challenge if we meet it together," she said. And she recalled that on Sept. 12, 2001, "We did not attack each other; we worked with each other to protect our country. ... I am so confident and optimistic that is exactly what we will do." There's not much evidence for that in the campaign, though. It's not just violence that exposes the rift in how the candidates view the country's position. Trump says he wants to "make America great again" -- an America that, in his view, is losing its identity and its security because of uncontrolled immigration from Mexico and the Middle East. Clinton says she wants to make America great, too, but the "again" is missing from her version. Clinton's America is in fundamentally good shape except for a sputtering, unequal economy. The dichotomy is mirrored among their voters. A Pew Research Center poll in March found that 75 percent of Trump supporters believed life in America had gotten worse ("for people like you") in the last 50 years. Among Clinton supporters, only 22 percent thought life had gotten worse, and 53 percent thought life had improved. (Among voters overall, 46 percent thought life had gotten worse, 34 percent that it was better.) This time, Trump may have gone too far. A chorus of Republican leaders said Tuesday that they were distressed at their nominee's slash-and-burn rhetoric and at his renewed insistence that immigration from Muslim countries be stopped. "I do not think a Muslim ban is in our country's interest," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, said. "I do not think it is reflective of our principles. "The vast, vast majority of Muslims in this country and around the world are moderate. They're peaceful. They're tolerant. And so they're among our best allies." The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, said he was "disappointed" by Trump's speech. "After 49 people have perished, it was not the type of speech that one would expect from someone who wants to lead our country through difficult times," he told me. In recent weeks, Corker and other GOP leaders have urged Trump to sound more presidential. "I must admit that I am personally discouraged," said Corker, who has been mentioned as a potential vice presidential candidate. But Trump may be acting more strategically than it looks, as is often the case. The GOP historically gets the benefit of the doubt from voters on national security issues, and so far that has benefited Trump as much as any Republican. A Gallup poll last month (before Orlando) found that 50 percent of voters think he's better equipped than Clinton to deal with terrorism and national security. (Clinton's number was 46 percent.) If Trump can turn the election into a referendum on whether Americans feel safe against terrorists, he might win. On the other hand, if the election becomes a referendum on whether voters will feel safe with Trump as president, he's more likely to lose. It's far too early to make predictions. All we know for sure from these initial skirmishes is that Trump doesn't plan on "pivoting" to a more presidential persona -- and that this is already the ugliest presidential campaign in modern memory. A Virginia man has been charged with trying to abduct two women nearly 10 years ago, Arlington County police said. Justin Wingate Poe, 34, of Woodbridge was taken into custody Thursday in the cases from 2007 and charged with two counts of attempted abduction. Police said an assailant tried to put plastic bags over the heads of women he approached. The earlier of the cases occurred about 2:30 a.m. May 28, 2007, when a woman, walking on North Vernon Street in the Ballston area, was approached from behind by a man who attempted to cover her face with a plastic bag, police said. She screamed and the man fled, according to police, who added that he left a fingerprint. A little over a week after that attempted abduction, a similar attack occurred in the Courthouse neighborhood. At 1:20 a.m., a woman was awakened by a knock on her door. She told police that when she opened the door, a man standing against the wall just outside tried to put a plastic bag over her head. She screamed and the man fled on foot, according to police. This victim was able to give police a detailed description, which resulted in a composite sketch of a suspect. The arrest in the cold cases grew out of a still-continuing investigation into a report of a sexual assault of a woman who said she woke up to an attack by a stranger in her Lyon Park residence about 5 a.m. May 15. In that case, the woman called 911 and told police that the attacker fled. DNA evidence collected at that residence in May linked the assault to the unsolved 2007 attempted abduction on North Vernon Street, Arlington police said Friday. Poe has no prior criminal history that would allow police to identify him based on his DNA, Arlington police spokeswoman Ashley Savage said Friday. She declined to discuss how Poe was identified as a suspect in the two 2007 cases, saying only that links were found through a review of cold-case files, crime scene evidence and laboratory results. Army Sgt. Gracie Vaughn and Army Sgt. 1st Class David Cooper were among the people who stopped to aid victims in the tour bus crash Tuesday on the George Washington Parkway. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post) Army Sgt. 1st Class David Cooper said he was certain about one thing: To free three tourists trapped beneath a shuttle bus tipped on its side, he and three other men would have to lift it. Minutes earlier on Tuesday, he had been commuting along the George Washington Parkway, the same evening slog he had made between the Pentagon and Fort Belvoir for five years. Now, he and a band of other commuters were an impromptu rescue team on the scene of a brutal head-on collision involving a shuttle packed with Chinese tourists and a car near Stratford Lane, about a mile northeast of Mount Vernon. The vehicles collided with such force around 5 p.m. that both skittered off the busy thoroughfare, leaving one person dead and 15 others injured. The tourist shuttle landed on its side. During a news conference on June 14, U.S. Park Police Sergeant Anna Rose said more than a dozen good samaritans helped upright a tour bus that collided with a car on George Washington Memorial Parkway near Mount Vernon, killing a bus passenger. (Storyful) Amid screams of the injured, Cooper pulled over in his car to find a terrible scene: bus passengers trapped inside the shuttle and one tourist pinned and visible beneath it. In recalling the event Thursday at Fort Belvoir, Cooper said a Coast Guard officer who also stopped pried off an escape hatch on the roof of the shuttle and began helping passengers out. Cooper said he ran to the back of the bus to throw open the rear door, but to his horror found it bolted. Cooper returned to the bus hatch, helping the Coast Guard officer who by then had crawled insideto reach passengers and get them off. But it would take more to free those remaining, Cooper said he eventually realized. We have to lift the bus up! Cooper recalled shouting. Cooper said he, the Coast Guard officer and two other men counted down and then heaved. The bus slid a couple of feet. They positioned themselves again. This time it seemed like the bus didnt weigh anything, Cooper said. Army Sgt. Gracie Vaughan said she arrived on the scene at that moment as the bus was righted, hearing it land back on its wheels with a thud. To me, it was amazing, Vaughan said of the feat. When asked how four men were able to lift the bus, the brawny Cooper was at a loss. Adrenaline, he said. Grace of God. I dont know. Vaughan, also of Fort Belvoir and a human resources specialist, said Thursday that the sight she found on the parkway was reminiscent of those during a tour she served at a combat hospital during the Iraq War. The rescuers found one woman crushed beneath the bus, another with severe leg damage and a third with extensive injuries. At the time that Vaughan arrived, the citizen rescue crew had swelled to about 15. Vaughan said some directed traffic around the scene, while others used belts as tourniquets to stanch bleeding. Communication was a barrier because the tourists spoke only Chinese. Vaughan said the woman who had been pinned under the bus died from her injuries. Her husband was inconsolable nearby. Vaughan said she pulled a blanket over the woman out of respect. When the woman who died woke up this morning, she didnt realize her last moments would be spent on the side of the road, Vaughan said. It makes you realize how fleeting life is. Soon, emergency crews arrived on the scene and the band of drivers who had pulled over to help left, resuming their commutes. In all, Cooper estimated, about 10 minutes had elapsed. A U.S. Park Police spokesman wrote in a message Thursday authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash as the bus carrying 18 passengers and the driver was headed north and the car south. Authorities have not decided whether to press charges and declined to release the name of the tour company or the victim. Two of the 13 injured bus passengers remain in critical condition. The driver and passenger in the car also were among those injured, said Sgt. Anna Rose, the Park Police spokeswoman. Park Police called the bystanders efforts heroic and the Chinese Embassy thanked them on Wednesday. Cooper and Vaughan declined to call themselves heroes on Thursday. I just see it as doing what should be done, Vaughan said. You meet a lot of people called nurse in a hospital, Bonnie Friedman points out: registered nurse. advanced practice registered nurse, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, certified registered nurse anesthetist, and so on. If someone you love is a patient, its useful to know which kind of nurse does what. It also helps to understand the chain of command: director of nursing, nurse manager or supervisor, charge nurse, staff nurse, licensed nurse. And of course there are the doctors: fellow, resident, intern, hospitalist, interventionist. . . . Such lists, along with brief explanations, are part of the information Friedman provides in her new book, Hospital Warrior: How to Get the Best Care for Your Loved One. Friedman, who lives in Silver Spring, draws on a quarter-century of experience shepherding her husband through 14 hospitalizations, beginning with his first heart attack in 1990 and ending with the latest of several surgeries a couple of years ago. (He emerged well enough that they took a carefully managed but hugely enjoyable trip to Alaska.) Chapters cover such topics as patients legal rights and how to pick a hospital, and the book is peppered with interviews with health-care experts, checklists of things to do or know, and printed or online sources of further information. Throughout, Friedman makes it clear that while she thinks of herself as fighting on her husbands behalf, she does not see the medical establishment as an adversary. Rather, she encourages patient advocates to stay as good-humored as possible, even when it seems that the big, impersonal health-care apparatus is ignoring the patients needs: You never want to be rude or lose your temper, she warns. For example, you might say to a busy doctor or nurse: I can see you dont have time to talk now. But I have a few important questions. When is a good time to discuss them? Then make sure to get that discussion. This is in response to a letter dated June 10 entitled "Jesus was not a Republican." Some of the points mentioned in the letter are not accurate. I would like to address a few of them. First, Jesus' central message was not "to care for the poor, downtrodden and the unfortunate," as important as they are. His central message was repentance of sins and bringing salvation to the world through his birth, life, death and resurrection. Jesus came to die for our sins that we may have eternal life with him (Romans 6:23). Second, Jesus did not say, "There are many paths to my father." This contradicts what Jesus actually said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father but by me." (John 14:6) This is also spoken of in Acts 4:12. Remember, all of scripture is the inspired, inerrant word of God (2 Timothy 3:16), not just the words of Christ. Third, Jesus did have a loyalty to a specific nation -- Israel. Jesus was born and raised Jewish. He was called the Son of David (Matthew 1:1) and sent his disciples to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel first (Matthew 10:6), then later to the rest of the world (Matthew 28:18-20). The Bible itself was recorded mostly by Jewish writers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21). Fourth, Jesus does not support same-sex marriage. He defined marriage as between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-8). Finally, all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Sinners will not inherit the kingdom of God (Ephesians 5:5; Galatians 5:16-21). But God has done something for you and me if we place our trust in him (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:23). Ronald H. Boysen, Lake Mills Albany, NY, June 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The patient monitoring platform is modular, integrating various components. Modular systems are developed in the context of consideration of probable specifications for the interaction of system components. Patient Monitoring systems are making a market resurgence because smaller, lighter, wireless units are less costly and more valuable in the context of treatment evaluations and recommendations. People who have cardiac or respiratory difficulty have more treatment options, making more extensive patient monitoring useful. Designs take into consideration users with mild, moderate, and severe chronic disease condition restrictions. Users come from chronic disease groups and older age groups. The core of a patient monitoring platform is an integration of separate vital signs detection sensors that form a system that supports adapting to numerous clinical requirements. Modules implement ways to determine patient condition. Market driving forces for multi-parameter and specialized vital signs patient monitors relate to more societal willingness to pay for vigilance, an increase in vigilance of sick people at risk. Cardiac and respiratory symptoms are measured as vital sign shifts by patient monitors. For more info, get a Sample PDF: http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=735447 Symptoms are represented by shifts in vital sign monitoring that measures disease conditions impacted deterioration of patient well-being. The monitoring is frequently done in conjunction with blood work. There is a lot of complexity in determining the meaning of the patient monitor vital signs measurements. Shortness of breath is a common symptom of cardiac disease. It is frequently misdiagnosed as a respiratory symptom or ignored by patients and is not even considered a symptom. Vital signs monitoring is a way to get a window into patient condition that can provide alerts when a small change signals a possible shift in patient condition. Hospital cardiac patient monitoring technology is a vital aid in providing treatment for severely ill patients. Alerts can be used to take action before a patient gets even more seriously ill. Hospital and outpatient cardiac patient monitoring can detect arrhythmias and get people to treatment faster before it is too late to correct heart failure. Early detection of a problem in the home is a way to avoid a hospital stay. Appropriate treatment of chronic conditions is difficult and is essential to helping people protect quality of life after recovery from a serious illness. Revitalization of patient monitor markets is occurring because units are smaller, less costly, and more useful across a variety of venues. Patient monitoring is moving toward the ability to help with wellness and to participate in the wearables markets. As people shift resource toward medical treatment, patient monitoring equipment becomes a priority. View TOC (table of content), Figures and Tables of the Report: http://www.researchmoz.us/patient-monitoring-equipment-market-shares-strategies-and-forecasts-worldwide-2016-to-2022-report.html Patient monitor markets at $11 billion in 2015 are anticipated to reach $26.2 billion by 2022. Strong growth is predicated on the increasing reliance on multi-parameter patient monitors in every bed of the hospital, in multiple areas of specialized clinics, and in many rehab centers. Market Leaders Philips General Electric (GE) Drager Nihon Kohden Fukuda Denshi Hill-Rom / Welch Allyn Mindray Medical OSI / Spacelabs Viterion Maquet Penlon Criticare Systems Medtronic Biotronic Care Innovations Oster Mortara Instrument About Us ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators. NATO Russian envoy decries alliances troop buildup Russias ambassador to NATO warned Thursday that the alliances decision to station additional forces near the Russian border will undermine European security. Alexander Grushkos comments followed a meeting of NATO defense ministers, who agreed to deploy four rotating multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The allies also discussed establishing a Romanian-led multinational framework brigade of ground troops to help defend the Black Sea area. Those measures significantly erode the quality of regional security, in fact turning central and eastern Europe into an arena of military confrontation, Grushko said. NATOs decision directly infringes on our legitimate security interests and wont be left unanswered. The alliance has halted cooperation with Russia amid the Ukrainian crisis and held exercises in the Baltics to reassure members worried about Russias intentions. Associated Press EGYPT Flight 804 cockpit recorder is found Search teams have retrieved the cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir Flight 804 in a breakthrough for investigators seeking to explain what caused the plane to crash into the sea, killing all 66 people on board. The Airbus A320 plunged into the Mediterranean on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo. Search teams have worked to recover the two black-box recorders crucial to learning what happened before they stop emitting signals in about a week. Egypts public prosecutor ordered that the recovered device be handed over to Egyptian air accident investigators for analysis. The search is continuing for the second black box, which contains the flight data recorder. Reuters FRANCE Man held on suspicion of plotting attacks A man with links to radical Islam has been detained in southern France on suspicion of plotting possible attacks on U.S. and Russian tourists and police, authorities said Thursday. The man has been under surveillance for radicalism after bragging online about wanting to kill people and has an unstable psychological profile, a security official said. He was detained by intelligence agents this week at the train station in the medieval city of Carcassonne with a knife and a hammer, the official said. A judicial official said the man told investigators he wanted to attack tourists and later police. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Associated Press Croatian parliament votes to remove prime minister: Croatias parliament voted overwhelmingly to oust Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic, triggering the fall of the government and raising the prospect of an early election in the European Unions newest member state. Parliament acted on a motion filed by the conservative Croatian Democratic Union, the senior party in the ruling Patriotic Coalition. The conservatives have said Oreskovic proved incapable of leading the country amid economic and social woes. Netanyahu spent $1,600 for hairdresser: A newly released expense report shows that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent more than $600,000 of public funds on a six-day trip to New York, including $1,600 on a personal hairdresser. The trip to the U.N. General Assembly last fall also included $210 in laundry services, $1,862 in meals and nearly $20,000 to store furniture. Attorney Shachar Ben Meir obtained the report after suing Netanyahus office and the Foreign Ministry. The report doesnt include Netanyahus wife, Sara, who is being investigated for misuse of state funds. Venezuelan pleads guilty in oil contract scheme: A Venezuelan businessman has pleaded guilty to charges arising out of his participation in a scheme to corruptly obtain contracts from Venezuelas state oil company, the U.S. Justice Department said. Roberto Rincon, 55, pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston to two counts including conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a scheme involving Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. From 2009 to 2014, more than $1 billion was traced to the scheme, with $750 million to Rincon, court documents show. From news services In his June 13 Education column, Gaps in student achievement dont tell us much just ask Detroit, Jay Mathews discussed our research and lamented what he described as a useless fascination with racial inequalities in academic achievement, suggesting that the concerns of educators, parents and policymakers about equal educational opportunity are based on a resentment of high-performing students. Mr. Mathews argued that we should ignore achievement gaps and focus on ensuring that all students are improving. Disregarding academic differences ignores the fact that some students enjoy more opportunities than others. Thats like giving one runner a head start and saying the other runners complaint is unjustified. Mr. Mathews would have us believe a race is fair as long as both runners are moving forward. Achievement levels and achievement gaps merit attention. Gaps are indicators of the extent to which society provides children from different racial or ethnic groups the same opportunities to thrive. Educational success has value partly because of where one ranks relative to others. If both runners in our race above ran faster, we would rightly celebrate their improvements, but the gold medal would still go to the one who got a head start. The race still wouldnt be fair. Like Mr. Mathews, we dont see any point in resenting the success and accomplishments of others. But we do resent the implication that Americans should be content to applaud a rigged race. Sean F. Reardon, Demetra Kalogrides and Kenneth Shores, Stanford, Calif. The writers are authors of The Geography of Racial/Ethnic Test Score Gaps. As D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) gets ready to release a final version of a D.C. state constitution, based on recommendations made by her, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) and others, District residents are offered an opportunity to weigh in on shaping their own political future for the first time since the advent of home rule in 1973 . Its an opportunity they should invest in. The draft state constitution is significant for its intention to maintain the current political framework. That is, morphing the current 13-member D.C. Council representative structure into the new states representatives. Perhaps the reluctance on the part of the mayor to alter the current representational dynamic is calculated to blunt any possible criticisms from Capitol Hill about any too-far-reaching reforms in District governance. And as strategies go, this is not altogether unreasonable; yet it ignores what the D.C. statehood movement has been about: achieving the right to be responsive to the will of the people of the District. To tailor a proposed state constitution narrowly to placate opposition would be a disservice to the cause everyone in the District has cared so much about for so long: equality, democracy and freedom. If the District is to become a state, its citizens should be entitled to craft the architecture of their own governance in a manner befitting their aspirations. The choices the District makes today matter greatly. Its important that its citizens take this opportunity to consider what they want and what theyre getting in any proposed constitution. The mayor has chosen to leave in place the 13-member legislature in the draft document, but is it the most responsive structure available to serve the Districts evolving political needs? Isnt what the mayor is proposing really the same old Columbia not a New Columbia? And should 672,000 D.C. residents be content to elect only 13 representatives to represent their vital interests? To put the mayors proposal in perspective, lets look at the levels of local representation other states provide their citizens. Vermont, with a population of about 626,000 less than the Districts has enjoyed a bicameral legislature of 180 members since 1836. This figure means each legislator represents about 3,477 citizens. Wyoming, often cited by District officials as having a comparable population when advocating for statehood, has a population thats considerably smaller than the Districts. Yet its citizens, 586,000 of them, get the right to elect 90 state representatives; 30 to the Senate and 60 to the House of Representatives. Thats a citizen-to-representative ratio of 6,511-to-1. North Dakotas population is about 757,000, but its citizens elect 141 representatives to their House and Senate. They enjoy representation at a 5,368-to-l ratio, which means that elected state representatives know the majority of their constituents and are therefore more responsive and more solicitous. South Dakotas 853,000 residents get 105 legislators in the state House and Senate, for a ratio of 8,100-to-1. And theres Alaska. Alaskas 756,000 residents get 40 members in the state House and 20 in the state Senate, for a total of 60. Thats a 12,600-to-1 ratio. Delawares population is 946,000. With its 62 legislators in the House and Senate, it gets a representative-to-citizen ratio of 15,258-to-1. Then theres the District of Columbia. Its constituent-to-representative ratio is, in comparison, through the roof: 51,692-to-1. Compared with the legislatures of similarly sized states, the Districts proposed 13-member legislature is staggeringly small. Do District residents really want to enshrine that anemic level of representation into their glossy, new state constitution? In the six states with the smallest populations, state citizens elect 638 legislators, for an average of 106 legislators for every state legislature. That seems reasonable, considering democracy is about reasonable and adequate levels of representation. So why should the District settle for anything less than other states? Rather than elect 13 representatives, why not vote in 100, or more, thereby invigorating D.C. politics as has benefited others? Isnt a more responsive politics, in the form of greater representation, exactly what the citizens of the nations capital deserve after centuries of living with less? Hasnt the Districts quest for statehood been about heightened levels of representation? Perhaps the levels of reasonable representation should be a major point of thoughtful discussion as the Districts state-to-be someday attempts to draft its future architecture. If greater representation has sustained Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska and Delaware well for centuries, why not New Columbia in the 21st century? For 22 years, Fathers Day was an aching reminder that I was missing the life of my daughter, Rajean. She was 8 when I was sent to prison. I missed her birthdays, her first boyfriend, helping her through school. I was destined not to see her as a free man until she was a grown woman. In 1992, I was convicted for possessing and selling 29 grams of crack cocaine and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Mine was a nonviolent offense, but sentencing standards of the time called for three decades in prison. Under todays laws, I would have gotten less time. Back then, there was a 100-to-1 disparity between crack- and powder-cocaine sentences. This disparity had come under fire from the public and the U.S. Sentencing Commission as racially discriminatory. It had imprisoned a generation for decades. Congress reduced the sentencing difference to 18-to-1 in 2010, but, because it was not retroactive, there was no relief for me. Organizations such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums are trying to change excessive mandatory-minimum sentences like mine. For almost two decades, FAMM was a lone voice. But recently, there has been a sea change in attitudes toward prison and punishment. Many people, conservatives and liberals, agree that holding low-level drug offenders in prison for decades is counterproductive. Our nation spends $80 billion annually incarcerating people, many of whom are nonviolent offenders who pose no threat to public safety. The District still has some mandatory minimums, but Maryland has become an example for the nation. Last month, the state repealed most of Marylands worst mandatory-minimum drug sentences. The change will reduce Marylands prison population and save millions in tax dollars. If Marylands experience is like that of states that have ended or reduced mandatory minimums, crime rates will fall. Society doesnt owe me anything for the decades I spent locked up. I owe society for selling drugs. As a teen, I was in and out of jail for nonviolent offenses. I had odd jobs, but, because I made very little money, I still sold crack. I deserved to pay for that crime. But who was helped by incarcerating me for 30 years? I remember the despair. I worried that my daughter would suffer from the common ailments seen in many children with an incarcerated parent: stress, trauma, stigmatization and separation problems. Sadly, Rajean was not alone: An estimated 2.7 million children have a parent who is behind bars. I tried to make the best of that time for my daughter. I took a 4,000-hour course as an electronics inspector, made furniture and packaged recyclables and had only three minor disciplinary violations in 22 years. I spent hours in the library learning federal drug law, trying to find a way to be released. Finally, I learned of the Obama administrations clemency program. I fit the requirements: model behavior while serving at least 10 years for a low-level, nonviolent drug crime. With just one signature, my nightmare was over. Dear Rudolph, the letter from President Obama read, I have granted your application for commutation. When I left prison on July 28, I wore a jacket I made of hand-stitched, varicolored leather scraps over six months. It was a metaphor for piecing my life back together. And I am. I am working two jobs and am engaged. Most important, I can hug my daughter and be there for my grandchildren. No one can imagine how fulfilling it was to help my granddaughter fix her Barbie house. This Fathers Day, pause to remember the fathers in prison trying against all odds to maintain ties with their children. We are all better off when our sentences fit our crimes and our kids can have us at home when it might make a difference. Republican Maryland governor Larry Hogan has publicly admitted he isn't voting for Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. Here are the many times Logan has said he won't back Trump's run for the White House. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) Republican Maryland governor Larry Hogan has publicly admitted he isn't voting for Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump. Here are the many times Logan has said he won't back Trump's run for the White House. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) AS DONALD Trumps nomination for president loomed as ever more inevitable, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) squirmed over what to say about his partys presumptive standard-bearer. No, he wouldnt endorse him or campaign for him or attend the partys convention in Cleveland, he said. The governor, though, pointedly and repeatedly refused to say how he would vote or whether he thought Mr. Trump fit for office. Just last week he told reporters to Google his previous comments and stop asking questions about the matter. Then this week, to Mr. Hogans credit, the coyness ended: No, he does not plan to vote for Mr. Trump. Amen. Other Republican officeholders starting with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) could learn something from Mr. Hogan about principle and common sense. Mr. Hogan, during a visit to Prince Georges County on Wednesday, surprised reporters by directly saying he doesnt plan to vote for Mr. Trump. I guess when I get behind the curtain Ill have to figure it out, he added. Maybe write someone in. Im not sure. Mr. Hogan didnt elaborate on his reasons, but his comments came days after Mr. Trumps loathsome comments about Sundays mass killing at a Florida nightclub. Anyone naive enough to think that Mr. Trump would mature into an acceptable leader was disabused of those foolish hopes when the reality-television star implied that President Obama was an enemy of the state, doubled down on bigotry about Muslims and banished reporters who had the temerity to do their job. No doubt cynics will minimize the significance of Mr. Hogans stand. He is a popular Republican in a Democratic-leaning state, and he doesnt have to stand for reelection this year. Still, you can be sure he will take heat from Republican voters, functionaries and donors. In putting principle and country over party, he offers a contrast with another Atlantic state governor, New Jerseys Chris Christie, who helped Mr. Hogan in his election campaign. Mr. Christie ran fiercely against Mr. Trump for president and then abjectly and rather pathetically endorsed his former opponent. Mr. Hogan is in the minority of Republican officeholders willing to publicly acknowledge how unacceptable Mr. Trump is to occupy the Oval Office, but history will look more favorably on his judgment than on the gutlessness of national Republican leaders. Jean Dasilva, left, is comforted by Felipe Soto, as they mourn Javier Jorge-Reyes at a makeshift memorial for the victims of the June 12 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. (David Goldman/Associated Press) Eugene Robinsons assertion that the only response to the Orlando massacre is banning assault weapons regardless of the Constitution is wrong [Assault weapons must be banned, op-ed, June 14]. Instead of new laws, we can amend the Constitution. And promulgating unconstitutional laws because one doesnt agree with the Constitution is an egregious breach of faith. Because the founders saw that we needed a federal government that would allow the free practice of multiple religions without imposing a state religion, the people agreed to a secular constitution. This means that rather than basing laws on divine law, on the Ten Commandments or on sharia, we agreed to base them on the Constitution. We do not need the people saying its too bad if laws insult the Constitution. The Constitution can be amended, and as U.S. culture changes, the Constitution needs to change to reflect that. If we want different laws, dont insult the Constitution; amend it. Michael Cardinale, Springfield Eugene Robinson correctly noted that the framers could not have visualized the mass effect of modern weapons when they wrote the Second Amendment and its guarantee of a right to keep and bear arms. They did, however, understand the concept of freedom, which is what compelled them to pen these words. The irony of Mr. Robinsons opinion is that it was narrowly confined to just a single section of the Bill of Rights. Mr. Robinson didnt mention the equally historically accurate fact that when the framers wrote of a freedom of the press, they could not possibly have imagined anything like the modern, high-speed printing presses that regularly generate the pages upon which Mr. Robinsons words are printed let alone the lightning speed and global reach of the Internet. Philip Eveland, Chantilly Eugene Robinson had it absolutely right regarding banning assault rifles and banning gun sales to anyone on the terrorist watch list. This is the time to move on this imperative, while the nations wounds are fresh, after the Orlando tragedy. President Obama can bring this issue front and center by challenging the Republican congressional leadership to answer why possession of assault rifles and semiautomatic weapons by potential terrorists is in the best interest of the country. Rob Rudick, Takoma Park I applaud the editorial boards call for banning assault-style weapons in order to reduce mass shooting deaths [Killing machines, June 14]. But it should be noted that such a ban would have a much broader effect: It would reduce the culture of fear that spurs more firearm purchases, ultimately leading to more gun deaths. Mass killings, many involving semiautomatic weapons, garner extensive media coverage in a way that domestic killings, suicides and urban homicides do not. While these horrific massacres actually account for a relatively low percentage of our overall gun deaths, this saturated coverage perpetuates the fear and anxiety that lead to more gun purchases. And studies show unequivocally that more guns equal more gun deaths, whether they be from homicide, accident or suicide. Australia implemented a serious ban and buy-back on these high-powered weapons in 1996, not a deficient law like the one in place in the United States for a decade. Not only has Australia not had a massacre since, but also the suicide and overall homicide rates fell sharply. Australians now live in a country that feels (and is) safe. We can, too. Tracy Zorpette, Washington Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, in her remarks about the Pulse shooting, should have been accurate and not inflammatory [Trump expands call for ban on Muslims, front page, June 14]. Weapons of war were not used in the attack. The shooters gun looked like an AR-15, but it did not operate like it. The FBI concluded that the Orlando shooter could be removed from a terrorist watch list, so he was able to purchase a gun and go through a background check. He didnt get a weapon with no questions asked, as Ms. Clinton suggested. Just ask the American Civil Liberties Union about his rights. John Tani, Nellysford, Va. Zalmay Khalilzad, a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations under President George W. Bush. James Dobbins, a senior fellow and distinguished chair in diplomacy and security at the Rand Corp., was the Bush and the Obama administrations special envoy for Afghanistan. Americas relationship with Iran poses a classic geopolitical dilemma. Iran is an important regional power that pursues adversarial policies with its neighbors and represses its people at home. Yet the United States can only address key issues affecting U.S. interests if it engages Tehran wherever possible. As it did vis-a-vis the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the United States needs to pursue policies designed to preclude regional hegemony and to create a balance of power in the region, while also expressing support for human rights and engaging Iran diplomatically. If the chaos in the Middle East is to be calmed, the United States will have to work not just with traditional partners but also with competitors. Iran has contributed to the sectarian polarization of the Middle East and the conflicts that region has fostered, but it isnt the sole cause of these. Washington and Tehran are at loggerheads over Syria, but they support the same governments and leaders in both Afghanistan and Iraq. To enable productive engagement, the United States will have to work with its partners in the region to establish a favorable balance of power. This means continuing its military deployments and arms sales to ensure the security of the Persian Gulf, while asserting its rights under the new nuclear agreement to prevent Iran from making covert progress toward a weapon. At the same time, the United States should start planning a policy framework to deter Iran from restarting nuclear programs once certain restrictions in the agreement lapse. Finally, the United States and its partners must jointly compete against Iran in Iraq and Syria. Such efforts will better position the United States to engage Iran to settle regional conflicts and defeat the Islamic State. Each of us led discussions with Iran during the administration of George W. Bush, and we were able to achieve limited understandings in some areas and even active cooperation in others. The Bonn Agreement, which established the post-Taliban interim government in Afghanistan, was the apogee of this cooperation, and it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to achieve without Irans support. Notably, this success occurred in the context of the active assertion of U.S. power against the Taliban. The United States can likewise craft policies to shape the political and military contexts in Iraq and Syria. During the Obama administration, contacts with Iran have focused most heavily on nuclear issues. But these contacts occur irregularly, involve a small circle of individuals and tend to address only the most urgent issues. Secretary of State John F. Kerry may have Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on speed dial, but there is only so much that two very busy men can accomplish. In any case, Kerry will likely be leaving office in a few months, and the U.S.-educated Zarif will eventually do the same. There is no guarantee their successors will establish the same kind of rapport. U.S. policy should not be dependent on their doing so. Thats why before he leaves office, President Obama should take steps to enhance communications between the two countries. The most obvious move would be to reestablish normal diplomatic relations. It is not clear that the Iranian regime would be ready to go this far, however, and such a step would be quite controversial in the United States as well. Short of that, however, the Obama administration and the Iranian government could assign middle-ranking U.S. and Iranian diplomats to the interests sections of the embassies that already represent each to the other. It is worth noting that the United States had a substantial diplomatic presence in Cuba before the resumption of full diplomatic relations last year. An even more modest measure would be for the United States to simply allow Iranian diplomats accredited to the United Nations in New York to travel to Washington on occasion. Such a gesture might be reciprocated by Iran, allowing visits by U.S. officials based in Dubai, where the United States maintains an office that monitors Iranian affairs. U.S.-Iranian engagement should certainly focus on the battle against the Islamic State, but it should also focus on the pathways to stabilizing the region. The United States should seek to help Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran come to an understanding regarding Iraq and Syria and to explore a Westphalia-like agreement to curb sectarian and geopolitical conflict. Such an agreement will not occur without active mediation from the outside. Currently, only the United States can play that role. In addition, Obama should not ignore the aspirations of the Iranian people, many of whom hope for greater freedom and contact with the world. Human rights issues should be part of the agenda for any enhanced engagement. Also, the United States should facilitate private travel between the two countries for students, scholars and ordinary citizens. The best way to do this would be to resume direct commercial flights between the two countries. This step would be of particular benefit to the hundreds of thousands of Iranian Americans and their many relatives in Iran. None of these steps would resolve the many differences between the United States and Iran on their own. Better communication does not always yield accommodation. But better communication always yields better information, and better information always permits, even if it cannot guarantee, better policy. It is difficult to see how the Middle East can be stabilized without engaging and coming to some understandings with Iran. NEW YORK, June 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Guggenheim Investments, the investment management division of Guggenheim Partners, today announced that the following Guggenheim equity exchange traded funds (ETFs) have declared quarterly distributions. The table below summarizes the distribution for each Fund. Distributions Schedule Ticker Exchange Traded Fund Name Ex-Date Record Date Payable Date Total Rate Per Share XLG Guggenheim Russell Top 50 Mega Cap ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.775 RSP Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.187 RPV Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Value ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.238 RPG Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.021 RFV Guggenheim S&P MidCap 400 Pure Value ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.148 RFG Guggenheim S&P MidCap 400 Pure Growth ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.036 RZV Guggenheim S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.095 RZG Guggenheim S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Growth ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.015 RTM Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Materials ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.282 RGI Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Industrials ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.230 RYT Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Technology ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.251 Distributions Schedule Ticker Exchange Traded Fund Name Ex-Date Record Date Payable Date Total Rate Per Share RYH Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Health Care ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.092 RHS Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Staples ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.505 RCD Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.214 RYE Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.159 RYF Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Financials ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.105 RYU Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Utilities ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.541 EWRE Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight Real Estate ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.053 EWMC Guggenheim S&P MidCap 400 Equal Weight ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.084 EWSC Guggenheim S&P SmallCap 600 Equal Weight ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.057 EWEM Guggenheim MSCI Emerging Markets Equal Country Weight ETF 6/17/16 6/21/16 6/30/16 $ 0.275 Past performance is not indicative of future performance. To the extent any portion of the distribution is estimated to be sourced from something other than income, such as return of capital, the source would be disclosed on a Section 19(a)-1 letter located on the Funds website under the Literature tab. Distributions may be comprised of sources other than income, which may not reflect actual Fund performance. For more information, please visit http://www.guggenheiminvestments.com/etf . About Guggenheim Investments Guggenheim Investments is the global asset management and investment advisory division of Guggenheim Partners, with $199 billion1 in total assets across fixed income, equity, and alternative strategies. We focus on the return and risk needs of insurance companies, corporate and public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, consultants, wealth managers, and high-net-worth investors. Our 275+ investment professionals perform rigorous research to understand market trends and identify undervalued opportunities in areas that are often complex and underfollowed. This approach to investment management has enabled us to deliver innovative strategies providing diversification and attractive long-term results. Media Contacts Ivy McLemore Director of Intermediary Communications Guggenheim Investments Ivy.mclemore@guggenheimpartners.com (212) 518-9859 Read a funds prospectus and summary prospectus (if available) carefully before investing. It contains the funds investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other information, which should be considered carefully before investing. Obtain a prospectus and summary prospectus (if available) at http://guggenheiminvestments.com or call 800.820.0888. The referenced funds are distributed by Guggenheim Funds Distributors, LLC. Guggenheim Investments represents the investment management business of Guggenheim Partners, LLC (Guggenheim), which includes Guggenheim Funds Investment Advisors (GFIA), the investment advisors to the referenced fund. Guggenheim Funds Distributors, LLC is affiliated with Guggenheim, SI, and GFIA. 1 Guggenheim Investments total asset figure is as of 03.31.2016. The assets include leverage of $11.4bn for assets under management and $0.5bn for assets for which we provide administrative services. Guggenheim Investments represents the following affiliated investment management businesses: Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, LLC, Security Investors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Investment Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Distributors, LLC, Guggenheim Real Estate, LLC, Transparent Value Advisors, LLC, GS GAMMA Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Partners Europe Limited, and Guggenheim Partners India Management. President Richard Nixon tells journalists at a White House news conference in March 1973 that he will not allow his legal counsel, John Dean, to testify on Capitol Hill in the Watergate investigation. (CHARLES TASNADI/Associated Press) Mark Feldstein, Eaton chair of broadcast journalism at the University of Maryland, is the author of Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washingtons Scandal Culture. Donald Trumps recent declaration of war against The Post is reminiscent of another angry thin-skinned Republican who launched a nasty crusade against the media: Richard Nixon. Trumps Nixonian echo is hard to miss. Both men relished vendettas against the media and political establishments: Nixon viewed the press as the enemy; Trump calls it scum. And both professed to champion Americas silent majority, invoking an angry faux-populism to blame racial minorities for legitimate economic grievances. Like Trump, Nixons battles with the press began long before his march to the White House. He, too, obsessively sought to manipulate the news coverage he desperately craved and wasnt afraid to use intimidation if he thought it would help. Nixons conduct in office presents a chilling example of what a President Trump could do. Nixons sense of grievance was genuine, going back to his narrow defeat in 1960 by John F. Kennedy and his self-pitying vow two years later that you wont have Nixon to kick around anymore. To his surprise, Nixons attack on the press tapped into growing right-wing fury at media elites. It proved to be not his valedictory but the opening salvo of his successful comeback in 1968. Other conservative politicians of the era George Wallace, Barry Goldwater similarly discovered that they could win votes by attacking the press. The tactic would become known as working the refs, and it would become an effective political staple ever after including Sarah Palins denunciation of the lame-stream media and Trumps ban of dishonest reporters from campaign rallies. Nixon understood this better than anyone. If we treat the press with a little more contempt, he told his staff, well probably get better treatment. Indeed, Nixon did more to try to undermine the news media as an institution than any president in history. Just a few months after his election, he dispatched Vice President Spiro Agnew to launch a public assault on the small and unelected elite of journalists who held a concentration of power over American public opinion unknown in history. Nixon publicly said that he hadnt heard Agnews speech. In fact, he had privately approved it word-for-word ahead of time, chortling that it really flicks the scab off. In addition, Nixon invited top broadcast executives to the White House and told them that your reporters just cant stand the fact that I am in this office. Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler declared that all of the TV networks were anti-Nixon and would pay for that, sooner or later, one way or another. Another top adviser, Charles Colson, told the head of CBS News that Nixons administration would bring you to your knees and break your network. The president acted on his threats. Six weeks after Agnews public attacks, a business partner of Nixons best friend filed paperwork with the government to challenge The Posts ownership of its lucrative Florida TV station. The Post should be given damnable, damnable problems getting its FCC licenses renewed, Nixon told his staff. There aint going to be no forgetting and therell be goddamn little forgiving. The president also instructed aides to screw The Post by inciting shareholders to go after publisher Katharine Graham by targeting The Posts real estate investments. Furthermore, Nixons otherwise pro-business Justice Department filed anti-trust charges against the three television networks, accusing them of monopolistic practices. Federal prosecutors drafted legislation to make it a felony for journalists to receive unauthorized leaks. More ominously, Nixon approved illegal wiretaps on reporters who criticized the administration. Would a President Trump behave likewise? He has already suggested that he would like to change libel laws so that when news organizations publish a hit piece that is purposely negative and horrible and false . . . were going to . . . sue you like youve never been sued before. Still, Trumps animosity toward the press like so much of his act may be more contrived than real. After all, he is in many respects a media creation, built up by nearly $2 billion in free publicity that helped him shock the political establishment by vanquishing 16 GOP opponents in less than a year. In part, Trump can thank Fox News and Nixon. Despite its skirmishes with Trump, Fox News spent years helping the casino magnate transition to politics by giving him a national platform to opine on public affairs. And it was Nixon who, decades earlier, suggested creating a TV network like Fox News to provide conservative news programming. It would take another quarter-century before Nixons former campaign aide, Roger Ailes, could make good on his bosss dream. The parallels between Nixon and Trump shouldnt be overstated. Nixon almost always presented a respectable facade, while billionaire Trump, unburdened by bourgeois niceties, is accustomed to getting his way without annoying distractions like political compromise. Whether Trump would be more dangerous than Nixon, or less, is as impossible to know as whether Trump is genuinely committed to his outrageous political stands; perhaps his views are simply cynical and expedient manipulations, the extreme opening bids of a professional negotiator whose only real goal is producing a workable deal. But if history has taught us anything, it is that we ignore would-be authoritarians at our peril. When it comes to the media, Trump is Nixons echo and, perhaps, Nixons revenge. I applaud the insightful common sense analysis of U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, as reported in the June 16 Metro article Judge: It makes sense to study effect of Metros problems on Purple Line. The Purple Line project is a $5.6 billion boondoggle subsidized by federal, Maryland, Montgomery County and Prince Georges County taxpayers. Metro ridership is down and declining because of safety issues and changing commuting patterns. Even without Metros problems , the Purple Line will be an amusement ride for tourists and weekend sightseers, not a serious commuting trolley. Few people will ride from New Carrollton to Bethesda on a business day. That defies common sense. Even worse from a public policy perspective is that Purple Line revenue shortfalls, according to the Maryland Transit Administration, would be made up by fund transfers from MARC to the Purple Lines private operators. How would MARCs coffers be replenished? By taxpayers. Montgomery County just approved a property-tax increase, and the Montgomery County School Board requested increased funding for teachers and school buildings. Why not spend $5.6 billion on teachers, modern school buildings, first responders and veterans, rather than on a flawed and ill-advised theme park trolley line? Elected officials put themselves in peril if they stand in the way of their electorates expectations. Frederick H. Graefe, Bethesda Justin Driver is a law professor at the University of Chicago, and is writing a book exploring how the Supreme Courts opinions have shaped the nations public schools. After President Richard Nixon tapped Judge Warren Burger to replace outgoing Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1969 and then appointed three more justices during his first presidential term, many legal liberals feared that this cohort would systematically overturn the Warren courts most esteemed precedents, including Brown v. Board of Education and Miranda v. Arizona. But a curious thing happened next: The dreaded day of reckoning never materialized. This surprising outcome was captured in an influential 1983 volume of essays on the Burger court subtitled The Counter-Revolution That Wasnt. Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., who served with Burger for 15 years, amplified this perception in a speech to the American Bar Association in 1986, the final year of Burgers tenure: There has been no conservative counter-revolution by the Burger court. None of the landmark decisions of the Warren court was overruled, and some were extended. Michael J. Graetz and Linda Greenhouses ambitious and engaging new book seeks to dislodge this conventional account of the Burger court. Even if that institution did not explicitly overrule key Warren court contributions, Graetz and Greenhouse contend that the dominant assessment of the Burger years severely understates the legal transformation that occurred during this period. The Burger Court dramatically diminished the scope and impact of the Warren Court precedents: they survived, but only their facade was left standing, the authors conclude. While Browns prohibition on racial segregation technically remained good law, they note, the Burger court curtailed its import by placing geographic limitations on busing and by refusing to invalidate expenditure plans that left inner-city schools underfunded. Similarly, the authors observe that, while police officers were formally required to inform arrested suspects of their Miranda rights, the Burger court hollowed out the decision by introducing major exceptions. Instead of comparing the Burger court only with its institutional predecessor, the authors also examine the institution in light of its two successors: the Rehnquist court, beginning in 1986, and the Roberts court, beginning in 2005. Graetz and Greenhouse argue that on a wide array of issues from presidential power to corporate power, from the establishment clause to the equal protection clause it is impossible to understand the conservative shifts enacted by the Rehnquist and Roberts courts without first comprehending the body that initiated the rightward trajectory. As the authors contend, Warren Burgers Court played a crucial role in establishing the conservative legal foundation for the even more conservative Courts that followed. In recent decades, law professors have treated the Burger court as the nation generally has treated disco, lava lamps, acid-washed jeans and other cultural detritus from that bygone era: The less said, the better. Graetz and Greenhouses work serves as an important corrective, demonstrating that the Burger court demands far more sustained scrutiny and analysis than legal scholarship has generally afforded it. Readers interested in the Supreme Courts role in American society during the second half of the 20th century will gather significant insight from this books elegant, illuminating arguments. "The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right" by Michael J. Graetz and Linda Greenhouse (Simon & Schuster ) The authors eschew a purely court-centric narrative by deftly situating the institution within the countrys larger political milieu. For instance, to the extent that Burger as an individual is remembered at all nowadays, it is generally as the Chief Justice from central casting, on account of his shock of white hair, rich baritone and grandfatherly mien. But Graetz and Greenhouse helpfully remind us that Burger did not sit idly by, simply waiting to be discovered; instead, he actively auditioned for the role. As a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Burger delivered a series of speeches and articles linking the nations rise in violent crime to meddlesome judicial decisions that rendered it difficult to convict even obviously guilty criminal defendants. Justice is far too important to be left exclusively to the technicians of the law, Burger lamented in 1967, noting that the Warren courts criminal-procedure opinions had become common talk in the best clubs and the worst ghettos. These remarks including the none-too-subtle racial tint perfectly anticipated the anti-Warren-court rhetoric that Nixon wielded to help propel himself into the White House. For all its considerable virtues, the book sometimes strains to construe the Burger court as a relentlessly conservatizing force instead of the more heterodox institution that it actually was. Consider how it frames perhaps the Burger courts two most enduring arenas of controversy: abortion and affirmative action. With the former, the book emphasizes the Burger courts refusal to expand upon Roe v. Wade, which invalidated broad laws restricting abortion in 1973, by requiring governmental entities to provide indigent women with the financial resources necessary to secure abortions. With the latter, the book acknowledges its historic decision upholding race-conscious admissions practices in 1978, but bemoans that the opinions diversity rationale allowed disappointed white applicants to claim that their rejection was illegal because it was based on race and thus bestowed on future courts a basis for eliminating affirmative action altogether. Clearly, the authors wish that the Burger court went further in addressing these momentous questions. Yet it seems mistaken to portray the courts interventions primarily as either moving the nation in a rightward direction or somehow promoting an inchoate version of Federalist Society dogma. Indeed, legal liberals who read this volume today in the age of Citizens United and the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act could find themselves in the improbable position of feeling nostalgic for the Burger courts old-time religion. Still, even when the books arguments may not fully persuade, they invariably provoke serious thought on how legal decisions made in our nations relatively recent past could have assumed a radically different form. As the Supreme Courts ninth seat has now sat unoccupied for roughly four months since Justice Antonin Scalias death, contemplating the possibilities that appear on the judicial horizon has seldom presented a more urgent task. WHEN DONALD Trump launches attack after attack on American Muslims, were confident he doesnt speak for most of his countrymen. But theres reason to worry that, whether Mr. Trump wins or loses, his poison will spread. A couple of recent surveys suggest that innocent Americans, including children, may be paying a price for his bigotry. Mr. Trumps outrageous claim Monday that American Muslims are complicit in lone-wolf terrorist attacks can only heighten fears among Muslim students in the D.C. area who, The Posts Donna St. George reported this week, experience high rates of harassment because of their religion. Studies from the Muslim Community Center (MCC) in Silver Spring and the International Cultural Center (ICC) in Montgomery Village show nearly one-third of Muslim students have suffered verbal or physical abuse based on their faith. In the wake of Sundays attack in Orlando, concerns about backlash are greater than ever. The surveys sample sizes are small; each included fewer than 200 participants. Still, the numbers and the stories behind them are disheartening. Muslim students said their non-Muslim peers have called them terrorists and accused them of disloyalty to the United States. The problem extends beyond the Beltway: The MCC survey was modeled on a similar study conducted in California last year, which yielded even more worrying results. There, more than half of respondents said they had been bullied over their religion. One girls high school yearbook replaced her name with Isis. In Florida last year, a French teacher referred to a 14-year-old Muslim student as a raghead Taliban and repeated the insult until the boys father complained to the school administration. Certainly, as the MCC and the ICC recommend, schools should train teachers to make Muslim students comfortable in the classroom. Teachers should share the importance of sensitivity with their students, making clear that racist remarks are not acceptable and checking in with Muslim students who have been targeted. But the disturbing standard Mr. Trump has set will undermine constructive lessons learned in school. It doesnt help that Republican leaders endorse the candidate, even as some condemn the worst of his statements. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump claimed that American Muslims of all generations have failed to assimilate to U.S. life and culture. As Post reporter Jose A. DelReal has pointed out, data prove him wrong: Muslim Americans identify with this country as strongly as they do with their faith. But even as Muslim immigrants and their children embrace the United States, Mr. Trump labels them the enemy. Such racist rhetoric is an assault on our values, and as this years surveys suggest on our children. In the June 14 news article Ex-leader of Afghanistan advises U.S. to limit military action, push for talks, former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai said, I dont think military means will bring us [peace]. . . . We did that for the last 14 years and it didnt bring us that. In her book Hard Choices, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton expressed regret, wishing she could change my Iraq vote. Yet she has consistently supported disastrously misguided military interventions, including as secretary of state. She reportedly pushed for sending 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, what she called the longest [war] in American history. She wrote proudly that she was the one to seal the deal for military intervention in Libya. That country subsequently descended into the chaos of a failed state that not only took the life of a U.S. ambassador and tens of thousands of Libyans but also forced hundreds of thousands into exile as refugees. Libya is now a haven for terrorist militias. Ms. Clintons recent foreign policy speech was deeply disappointing. If she is to gain the support of voters from the Democratic base and prevent the disaster of a Donald Trump victory in November, she must also acknowledge the error of her advocacy as secretary of state for tragically misguided interventions in Libya and elsewhere. She needs to assure voters that she has abandoned these reckless policies. Steve Rabson, Fredericksburg What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail Donald Trump must be the biggest liar in the history of American politics, and thats saying something. Trump lies the way other people breathe. Were used to politicians who stretch the truth, who waffle or dissemble, who emphasize some facts while omitting others. But I cant think of any other political figure who so brazenly tells lie after lie, spraying audiences with such a fusillade of untruths that it is almost impossible to keep track. Perhaps he hopes the media and the nation will become numb to his constant lying. We must not. Trump lies when citing specifics. He claimed that a tremendous flow of Syrian refugees has been entering the country; the total between 2012 and 2015 was around 2,000, barely a trickle. He claimed that we have no idea who those refugees are; they undergo up to two years of careful vetting before being admitted. Trump lies when speaking in generalities. He claimed that President Obama has damaged our security by restraining our intelligence-gathering and failing to support law enforcement. Obama actually expanded domestic intelligence operations and dialed them back only because of bipartisan pressure after the Edward Snowden revelations. Trump lies by sweeping calumny. For some reason, the Muslim community does not report people like this, he said of Omar Mateen, the shooter in the Orlando massacre. But according to law enforcement officials, including FBI Director James B. Comey, numerous potential plots have been foiled precisely because concerned Muslims reported seeing signs of self-radicalization. Presidential candidate Donald Trump has made quite a few false statements during his rise to the top of the Republican field. The Post's Fact Checker took a look at Trump's five biggest whoppers. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) Trump lies by smarmy insinuation. Were led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or hes got something else in mind, he said of Obama. Theres something going on. Its inconceivable. Theres something going on. He also said of Obama: He doesnt get it or he gets it better than anybody understands its one or the other and either one is unacceptable. You read that right. The presumptive Republican nominee implies that the president of the United States is somehow disloyal. There is no other way to read he gets it better than anybody understands. Trump claims that Hillary Clinton, the all-but-certain Democratic nominee, wants to take away Americans guns and then admit the very people who want to slaughter us. Clinton has made clear that she doesnt want to take anyones guns away, nor does she want to eliminate the Second Amendment, as Trump also claims. And the idea that Clinton actually wants to admit would-be slaughterers is grotesque. I write not to defend Obama or Clinton, who can speak for themselves and have done so. My aim is to defend the truth. Political discourse can be civil or rowdy, gracious or mean. But to have any meaning, it has to be grounded in fact. Trump presents a novel challenge for both the media and the voting public. There is no playbook for evaluating a candidate who so constantly says things that objectively are not true. All of the above examples come from just five days worth of Trumps lies, from Sunday to Thursday of this week. By the time you read this, surely there will have been more. How are we in the media supposed to cover such a man? The traditional approach, which seeks fairness through nonjudgmental balance, seems inadequate. It does not seem fair to write Trump claimed the sky is maroon while Clinton claimed it is blue without noting that the sky is, in fact, blue. It does not seem fair to even present this as a question worthy of debate, as if honest people could disagree. One assertion is objectively false and one objectively true. 1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And theyll tell you why. Caption And theyll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton, a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton because I think shes qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. It goes against all journalistic instinct to write in a news article, as The Post did Monday, that Trumps national security address was a speech laden with falsehoods and exaggeration. But I dont think were doing our job if we simply report assertions of fact without evaluating whether they are factual. Trumps lies also present a challenge for voters. The normal assumption is that politicians will bend the truth to fit their ideology not that they will invent fake truth out of whole cloth. Trump is not just an unorthodox candidate. He is an inveterate liar maybe pathological, maybe purposeful. He doesnt distort facts, he makes them up. Trump has a right to his anger, his xenophobia and his bigotry. He also has a right to lie but we all have a duty to call him on it. Read more from Eugene Robinsons archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A. Regarding Ed Rogerss June 16 PostPartisan blog excerpt, This is why saying radical Islam matters [op-ed]: Mr. Rogers should examine the implications of using the noun Islam in the term radical Islam. The adjective radical suggests that the entire religion of Islam is responsible for horrendous acts of violence, which is certainly not the case. Many years ago the Christians comprising the Irish Republican Army perpetrated violent acts. Would Mr. Rogers have characterized their actions as being radical Christianity? I think not. In both cases, only a few radicalized members of each religion engage in terrorist activities, not the religion itself. I would assume that is the very logical reason President Obama refuses to use the term radical Islam. This is evidently beyond the comprehension of Mr. Rogers and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Kenneth W. Hopper, Washington Julian E. Zelizer is a political historian at Princeton University and a Fellow at New America. His most recent book is The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society. The House of Representatives has been a bulwark for conservatism in the age of Obama. Even though Democrats hoped that the 2008 election marked a new era in progressive politics, the predictions were wrong. Just as Southern Democrats and Midwestern Republicans in Congress teamed up against Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, since the 2010 midterm elections rightward House Republicans, secure in their seats, have blocked President Obama on almost all of his legislative agenda. The GOP has turned congressional obstructionism into an art form. During Obamas presidency, Republicans retook control of the House in 2010 and increased the size of their majority from 242 to 247. Even if Republicans suffer a landslide defeat in 2016 with Donald Trump at the top of their ticket, most experts predict that they will retain control of the House. Whatever national polls say about Obama or the GOP, Republican lawmakers are relatively safe in their seats. And as long as Republicans have a lock on the House, party polarization will continue in the years to come, since House Republicans will have no reason to compromise with a Democratic president or even more moderate voices within their own party. How do conservative Republicans maintain so much power in the House, even though Americans reelected a liberal president and polls show that the GOP suffers from high disapproval ratings? Salon editor David Daleys punchy, though overstated, new book lays the blame for Republican power in the House on partisan gerrymandering, the byzantine process through which state legislatures draw district lines to favor incumbents from one party. Challenging the claim that increased partisan polarization is a result of voters naturally sorting themselves into red and blue states, Daley argues that a group of operatives in the Republican Party did the sorting for them. The GOP poured money into an unprecedented effort to control governorships and state legislative bodies in 2010 and to then redraw congressional districts so that the party could turn the House into a firewall against the Democrats. "Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy" by David Daley (Liveright) While the term gerrymander has been around since the early years of the republic, computer technology and big money have allowed governors and legislatures to perfect the process in ways that have never before been imagined, according to Daley. The same technology that allows Amazon to figure out who buys what in any home on a given block now allows party officials to do the same with elections. Although his argument might not be as sexy as talking about how money corrupts politics or how the 24-hour news media leaves us all screaming, the success of Republican legislatures and governors at redrawing congressional districts is the reason, he says, House Republican incumbents have increased their power and dont have to worry about any wave election that would shift control to the other party. The result is that House Republicans have become more dug into their opposition to every presidential initiative, playing to their very red districts, and there is nothing but gridlock on Capitol Hill. Bipartisan deals are impossible, and the chances for good governance have disappeared. Indeed, Republicans have been so successful that they have created an unanticipated problem: GOP incumbents now have to worry about primary challenges from tea party Republicans who want to move even further to the right. Daley takes us through the story of how this all happened. Once Obama was in the White House, a group of wily Republicans doubled down on state and local politics. Chris Jankowski, a tactician for the Republican State Leadership Committee, and his allies came up with an audacious plan to target campaign money toward gaining control of state governments, where reapportionment would take place. The operation, called REDMAP (Redistricting Majority Project), was never a secret. Karl Rove outlined what they planned to do in the Wall Street Journal. In a local race in Pennsylvania in 2010, Democrat David Levdansky, a 13-term state representative, found himself under assault. He faced a barrage of advertising, financed by national Republican organizations, claiming in misleading television spots and mailers that he had voted to spend $600 million on a library in honor of Arlen Specter, the controversial U.S. senator who had left the Republicans to join the Democrats. This didnt sit well with constituents in a recession. He paid the price: Republican Rick Saccone narrowly defeated him. The f---ing Arlen Specter library, Levdansky recalled after he lost. Once national Republicans flipped his seat, they gained control of the states lower chamber. The first stage of the plan worked beautifully. Republicans won majorities in 10 out of the 15 states that would be redrawing their districts. With control of many state governments in place, Republicans launched the second phase. Using sophisticated software such as Maptitude, GOP operatives crafted favorable districts filled with conservative white voters, based on the kind of data available to corporations. The book is brimming with fascinating portraits of wunderkinds who integrated micro-targeting, computer mapmaking and gerrymandering. Democrats were clustered into a handful of districts while the rest were packed with conservative voters. Daley shows how, even when reforms promised to make the redistricting process more public, behind the scenes, crafty operatives did what they wanted. Titled Ratf**ked, a term that came out of the Richard Nixon administration to refer to a dirty deed done dirt cheap, Daleys book provides a blow-by-blow account of how this happened. He draws on investigative reports, interviews and court documents to give readers an eye-opening tour of a process that many Americans never see. Not unlike the legislative process, which is often compared to the ugliness of making sausage, redistricting is an element of democracy that many readers wont find comforting. Much of Daleys book will not come as a surprise. Journalists and scholars have written about this state-based mobilization by the Republican Party since it started. Nor is Daley the first liberal commentator to point to the political process as the reason conservatism succeeded in a given period. During the 1950s and 1960s, a generation of liberals argued that the seniority-based congressional committee system propped up a coalition of Southern Democrats and Republicans that prevented liberal Democratic presidents from moving their legislation through Congress. Back then, the problem was gerrymandered districts that privileged rural voters over urban voters, a situation that ended with the Supreme Courts one-man-one-vote decisions between 1962 and 1964. Liberal Sen. Joseph Clark of Pennsylvania blasted his colleagues as the Sapless Branch of government. But was the partisan gerrymandering as powerful as Daley claims? Sometimes reformers have overestimated the impact that changes in the political process can have. This is a particularly important reminder in the current campaign season, when the demand for reform looms large in the electorate. For example, there is substantial evidence showing that, contrary to conventional wisdom, gerrymandering is not a main source of partisan polarization. This is evident from the fact that the Senate where districting is irrelevant has also become more partisan, while in one-district states such as Wyoming and Vermont, we have seen a similar shift to the extremes. Nor does a focus on how Republicans dominated through gerrymandering explain why Democrats were not able to fight back. This seems to be the pivotal question, especially in recent years when Democrats experienced dramatic victories in the presidential elections. It is not as if Democrats dont know how to slice and dice the electorate. The most legendary practitioner of the gerrymander in modern times was California Democrat Phillip Burton, who worked with legislators to redraw the districts in his state to solidify the control of his party. My contribution to modern art, Burton half-joked. Daley presents this failure of Democrats to stop the Republican campaign to take control of state legislatures and draw districts that would protect their incumbents as a product of strategic blunders and miscalculations by Democratic leaders. But the problems created by gerrymandering are symptomatic of larger challenges facing the parties. Daley should have looked more deeply into whats going on with the Democrats as a national organization that caused them to allow Republicans to gain so much power in state politics. Why did Republican ideas gain a stronger hold in the electorates of the states that flipped to the GOP? What did the reconfiguration of campaign finance in the 1970s and 1980s, with business increasingly mobilizing behind the GOP, have to do with the partys ability to influence races? Why do more voters seem to prefer Republicans in House races, an advantage the GOP has enjoyed since the early 1990s? History shows that grass-roots partisan mobilization can overcome gerrymandering. In 2006, when gerrymandering was pretty strong, Democrats enjoyed a watershed in the midterm elections. And in 2010, the districts were pretty locked in when Republicans retook control of Congress, as they did in 1994. Predicting the political impact of reform is also a tricky business. During the 1970s, liberal Democrats blew open the congressional committee system that had been in place for much of the 20th century, only to later see conservative Republicans such as Newt Gingrich thrive. What Daley makes clear is that ruthless partisan gerrymandering is not good for democracy and makes it that much more difficult to wrestle control of the House away from the GOP. Democrats should read this book. Political parties still have to build their national power from the bottom up. Without the Democrats investing resources in the nitty-gritty of state politics, if Hillary Clinton is able to win the presidency in November, she will probably face a Republican House that is hell-bent on stopping her and unlikely to give her any significant domestic victories. A man holds a child in a train heading to Serbia from the Macedonian-Greek border on Oct. 6, 2015. Thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants passed through Macedonia. (Robert Atanasovski/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images) CHILD REFUGEES fleeing violence at home are seeking asylum in Sweden at record rates but, a recent Human Rights Watch report found, the grass is not so green on the other side of their exodus. The 35,000 children who reached the Scandinavian nation in 2015 often arrived traumatized by violence or sexual abuse at the hands of the Islamic State or during their journeys from Syria, Iraq and Africa. Now, the report says, they lack access to mental- and physical-health care, wait months for word on their asylum applications and live in insufficient or improper accommodations. Lone girls often find themselves in group houses filled with boys just weeks after they have been sexually abused in transit. Sweden, a country of fewer than 10 million people that received more than 160,000 asylum seekers last year, is perhaps understandably overwhelmed. But the troubles of the refugee children it has taken in are symptomatic of Europes continuing failure to respond adequately to the humanitarian crisis at and beyond its borders. Though the European Union has managed to curtail the refugee flow from Turkey to Greece in recent months, more than 50,000 asylum seekers are still stranded in Greece waiting for European Union members to accept them. Though obligated to accept some resettled families under a binding E.U. plan adopted in September, Austria and Hungary have refused to do so. Denmark and Britain , for their part, will not fully open their doors. Meanwhile, throngs of refugees are still attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy, often with tragic results. Hundreds upon hundreds of refugees are drowning while being transported in smugglers boats. Increased European assets devoted to search and rescue, or the creation of safe and legal channels for entry, could save some of those lives. But European governments, led by Germany, continue to prioritize preventing the departure of refugees from their home countries over protecting them once theyve left. At a minimum, those who have already arrived must receive better care. Sweden should make changes to its system for receiving refugees: The report recommends the government prioritize unaccompanied childrens applications, strengthen the law governing the appointment of their guardians and improve oversight of local services to collect data that would guide policymaking. These reforms are as pragmatic as they are pressing. But it is little surprise Sweden has buckled under the weight of so many refugees when many other European countries have done their best to keep their borders closed. The United States has its own shabby record. Though it is more than 20 times the geographical size of Sweden, it has pledged to take only 85,000 refugees this year and has struggled to meet its goal of 10,000 from Syria. The European Union and the United States are not primarily responsible for causing this humanitarian crisis. But they and not just Sweden are responsible for helping to solve it. The constitution-making process in the District is a sham. At best, it is a deeply flawed exercise driven by political considerations rather than aimed at producing the best possible constitution for a new state. A constitution is a states most important document. Its preparation demands careful consideration and meaningful public participation. On June 1, as a supporter of statehood and an interested D.C. citizen, I went to the announced Ward 6 public meeting on the draft constitution only to find that it had been canceled without notice. When I called the New Columbia Statehood Commission to ask what had happened, I was told that there would be no Ward 6 meeting. In fact, I was informed, the promised meetings in half of the citys wards were canceled because there was no time for eight meetings. The timeline, I was told, was established by the mayor. The meeting cancellation is symptomatic of the entire approach toward the New Columbia constitution. The process and timeline were established without public consultation and do not provide adequate time or channels for meaningful public input. The constitutional timeline is designed for speed rather than quality. It is built on artificial deadlines rather than on an assessment of the time needed for citizens to consider and deliberate over a document as important as a constitution. The release of a draft on May 6, with the proposed Statehood Commission adoption on June 24, spans just seven weeks, a ludicrously short time to consider and adopt a constitution. The D.C. Council will be given just eight days to review and adopt the final draft. Good practice in constitution-making requires time and opportunity for study, reflection, public consultation and consensus-building. It is most important to get the constitution right. The circumstances surrounding public participation are even worse than the timeline. The draft was prepared under the auspices of the Statehood Commission, a group of just five individuals whose legal mandate does not include drafting a constitution. Although the five are elected officials, none was elected to draft a constitution. They decided which changes proposed by the public would be included. They constituted themselves as a constitutional convention held from June 13 to 18 to hear further proposals and again decide which ones to accept. The next step is to gain approval by the mayor, who happens to be one of the five members of the commission. For five people to wield complete control over the content of a constitution is not a democratic process. It is not even a serious process. The official document through which the Statehood Commission released the constitution on May 6 states that citizens can have input into the draft through membership on committees, but the only committees established are to promote the draft, not to consider its content. The same release states that citizens can have input through a solicitation by the Board of Elections, but there has been no such solicitation and, a commission staffer told me, there may or may not be one. The document also assures us that there will be town hall meetings in all 8 Wards . . . to ensure participation by District residents, a promise quickly broken. The Statehood Commissions answer to these criticisms was that it is vital to have the approved constitution ready in time for the upcoming national political conventions and the inauguration of a new president and Congress. Such political considerations are important, but not important enough to circumvent the democratic process or shortchange the quality of a states most important document. The last barrier against this runaway train would be action by the D.C. Council. The prospects for this may be bleak, however, because the council chairman is one of the five members of the Statehood Commission and no member of the council would want to appear to be holding up statehood. Still, the council and the citizens of New Columbia can and should demand a better constitutional process. The writer has worked for the State Department, the United Nations and other organizations on democracy issues. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Panoro Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:PML) (Lima:PML) (Frankfurt:PZM) (Panoro or the Company) is pleased to announce the filing of the Technical Report for the Antilla Copper-Molybdenum Project, Peru Project Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report (PEA) on SEDAR. The results of the PEA were announced in a May 2, 2016, news release. The technical report was authored by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., Moose Mountain Technical Services Ltd., Tetra Tech Inc. and Panoro Minerals Ltd. The report is available on the Company's website at www.panoro.com or SEDAR at www.sedar.com. About Panoro Panoro Minerals is a uniquely positioned Peru and Copper focused exploration company. The Company is advancing a significant project portfolio in the key Andahuaylas-Yauri belt in south central Peru, including its advanced stage Cotabambas Copper-Gold-Silver-Molybdenum and Antilla Copper-Molybdenum Projects. Since 2007, the Company has completed over 70,000 m of exploration drilling at these two key projects leading to substantial increases in the mineral resource base for each, as summarized in the table below. Summary of Cotabambas and Antilla Project Resources Project Resource Classification Million tonnes Cu (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Mo (%) Cotabambas Cu/Au/Ag Indicated 117.1 0.42 0.23 2.74 0.001 Inferred 605.3 0.31 0.17 2.33 0.002 @ 0.20% CuEq cutoff, effective October 2013, Tetra Tech Inc. Antilla Cu/Mo Indicated 291.8 0.34 - - 0.01 Inferred 90.5 0.26 - - 0.007 @ 0.175% CuEq cutoff, effective October 2015, Tetra Tech Inc. Preliminary Economic Assessments (PEA) have been completed for both the Cotabambas and Antilla Projects, the key results are summarized below. Summary of Cotabambas and Antilla Project PEA Results Key Project Parameters Cotabambas Cu/Au/Ag Project Antilla Cu/Mo Project Mill Feed, life of mine million tonnes 483.1 350.4 Mill Feed, daily tonnes 80,000 40,000 Strip Ratio, life of mine 1.25 : 1 0.85 : 1 Before Tax1 NPV 7.5% million USD 1,053 491 IRR % 20.4 22.2 Payback years 3.2 3.3 After Tax1 NPV 7.5% million USD 684 225 IRR % 16.7 15.1 Payback years 3.6 4.1 Annual Average Payable Metals Cu thousand tonnes 70.5 36.8 Au thousand ounces 95.1 - Ag thousand ounces 1,018.4 - Mo thousand tonnes - 0.9 Initial Capital Cost million USD 1,530 603 1Project economics estimated at commodity prices of; Cu = $US3.00/lb, Au = $US1,250/oz, Ag = $US18.50/oz, Mo = $US12/lb The PEAs are considered preliminary in nature and include Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative to have the economic considerations applied that would enable classification as Mineral Reserves. There is no certainty that the conclusions within the PEAs will be realized. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. Luis Vela, a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release. The Company also announces that it has issued 790,130 common shares to Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd. (the Macquarie Shares) pursuant to a Financial Advisory Services Agreement between the Company and Macquarie dated January 27, 2016. Macquarie acted as financial advisor to the Company in connection with its previously announced precious metals streaming agreement with Silver Wheaton (Caymans) Ltd. The Macquarie Shares comprise a portion of the fees due to Macquarie and were issued at an average deemed price of $0.1326 per Macquarie Share, based on the average discounted market price of the Companys shares on April 15 and May 30, 2016, being the dates on which the Company announced receipt of the two early deposit payments under its agreement with Silver Wheaton. The Macquarie Shares are subject to a hold period expiring October 18, 2016. On behalf of the Board of Panoro Minerals Ltd. Luquman A. Shaheen, M.B.A., P.Eng., P.E. President & CEO FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Panoro Minerals Ltd. Luquman A. Shaheen, President & CEO Phone: 604.684.4246 Fax: 604.684.4200 Email: info@panoro.com Web: www.panoro.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and US securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the Companys next shareholder meeting are forward-looking statements. 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, performance, or actions and that actual results and actions may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Companys Management Discussion and Analysis and Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015 filed with certain securities commissions in Canada and other information released by the Company and filed with the appropriate regulatory agencies. All of the Company's Canadian 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. 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. Gerard DeGroot is a professor of history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. His latest book is Selling Ronald Reagan: The Emergence of a President. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. So said Augustine of Hippo, back when travel was much more difficult than it is today. The statement is indisputable. Ignorance of the world is dangerous, as the nightly news often demonstrates. Like it or not, people in other countries do not behave like us thats why theyre called foreigners. Travel, writes Andrew Solomon, is a set of corrective lenses that helps focus the planets blurred reality. At an early age, Solomon decided to read that book of the world from cover to cover. To date, hes visited 83 of the 196 recognized countries on this planet. Far & Away is a collection of his travel pieces published over the years in a wide variety of journals. That variety leads to an inconsistency of tone: Some are lighthearted, others somber. The short ones should be longer, the longer ones shorter. But does this matter? Probably not. This is an untidy book, but a great one. In truth, this is not really travel writing in the recognized form of the genre. The reader who expects a collection of quirky anecdotes about fascinating places will be disappointed. Far & Away is not just a voyage around the world; its also a voyage around Andrew Solomon. One chapter title encapsulates the man: Gay, Jewish, Mentally Ill, and a Sponsor of Gypsies in Romania. Lets deconstruct that. First, the Jew. Thats the least prominent characteristic, which is surprising given where Solomon has traveled. Yet his Jewishness explains in part why he travels. When he was 7, he found out about the Holocaust. Why didnt those Jews just leave when things got bad? he asked. They had nowhere to go, his father explained. Young Andrew decided that I would always have somewhere to go. He chose to become a citizen of the world rather than a prisoner of one nation. "Far and Away: Reporting from the Brink of Change" by Andrew Solomon (Scribner) Now, the gay bit. Solomon is very upfront about his sexuality. He openly celebrates the tolerance toward gays that has grown in his lifetime. Yet his wanderlust and his homosexuality often result in peculiar predicaments. Some are delightful, such as when a shepherd passes his hotel in Ulaanbaatar. You are gayboy? I am gayboy too. . . . Maybe I leave sheep in hotel parking lot and come inside with you? Others are tragic. Solomon regularly travels to countries where homosexuality is a crime, even a capital one. He has become, as a result of his encounters, a mouthpiece for stories of terrible persecution. These pepper the book. Now the mental illness. Im not depressed now but I was depressed for a long time, Solomon writes. Chronic depression fueled a need to understand his illness, which in turn inspired further voyages. He traveled to Rwanda and Cambodia to discover how human beings manage to cope in the wake of genocide. I expected to be humbled by the pain of others, and I was humbled down to the ground. He went to Greenland to understand why the people there are so miserable. Suicide is the leading cause of mortality. Solomon assumed that the oppressive darkness was at fault but then decided that cold was the culprit. People huddle together to keep warm; they sleep on top of one another. Forced intimacy makes them seek privacy within themselves. This is the legacy of the igloo When you got angry or upset, you would just turn your head and watch the walls melt. A society evolved with a taboo against talking about oneself. (This is not a problem Solomon shares.) Finally: sponsor of gypsies in Romania. The operative word is not Romania nor gypsies, but sponsor Solomons big-hearted desire to help. Long ago, he set out to witness the change he wanted to see in the world. He sought singlehandedly to undermine insularity. The central proposition of this book is that circling the wagons is not only impossible in a globalized world, but finally perilous. This insistence that he could nurture a better world through travel has often landed him in danger. During the coup in 1991, he built barricades in Moscow. I am petrified; facing down tanks has not previously been a part of my job description. But I am also exhilarated by the intense purposefulness of our stance. That intense purposefulness is what makes this book extraordinary. Travel is usually self-serving. Solomons is seldom that. Hope fuels his voyages. He went to Afghanistan in 2002 to witness an awakening after the defeat of the Taliban. I [was] . . . ready for hardship, and I did see horrible things. But I also felt a warmth . . . that lay not only in the reform of government but also in the return to small satisfactions . . . generously shared. That chapter, however, ends with a tragic postscript. Solomon explains how the friends he met are mostly dead, the optimism he felt cruelly crushed. You were there in those beautiful days in the time of hope, a friend reflected. All of that is gone now. That is the pattern of this book: Hope blooms like crocuses in spring and is then trampled underfoot. Yet still he searches for reasons to believe. A crushed hope is suffused with nobility that mere hopelessness can never know. This is a very noble book. Its also a very depressing one. Corbin Reiff is a freelance music writer. I am not a political reporter, Im a music writer. Most of my time is spent parsing Kanye West lyrics and listening to old Led Zeppelin concert bootlegs. But back before I wrote about music exclusively, I was a soldier for five years in the U.S. Army. I dont talk about it much, if only because my time in uniform feels like it was a lifetime ago, but its a part of who I am. Mostly, Ive kept my thoughts about politics and social issues to myself. But then the presumptive Republican nominee for president said something rather inflammatory at a rally Tuesday, and I felt compelled to speak out. For reasons known only to him, Donald Trump decided to pick the Armys 241st birthday to share his thoughts about a select group of service members. Iraq, crooked as hell. How about bringing baskets of money millions and millions of dollars and handing it out? he said. I want to know who were the soldiers that had that job, because I think theyre living very well right now, whoever they may be. (Trumps campaign spokeswoman said later that Trump was referring to Iraqi soldiers, but that makes no sense; listen online and judge for yourself.) The first thought that ran through my mind after reading that statement was: Is he talking about me? You see, during my tour in Iraq from 2009 to 2010, I was one of those whose job it was to hand out baskets of money. I deployed with the 4-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, for which I was made the noncommissioned officer in charge of foreign claims for almost all of western Baghdad an area that covers about 5 million people. Im doing all right these days, maybe carrying a little more student loan debt than Id like, but Im by no means a wealthy individual. Nearly every week, my team and I would convoy out to a council building in a Baghdad neighborhood to take claims against U.S. forces. These could be anything from an armored vehicle running into a generator to an extended lease for a home we had commandeered. We also disbursed funds for those who had been wounded and killed by U.S. forces by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was draining work. Every week I would sit for hours, listening as my interpreters relayed the heartbreaking stories of mothers, fathers and widows. They showed me their scars and pictures of the piles of bricks that used to be their homes. It felt good to help those I could, and gut-wrenching to turn down those I couldnt. I spent much of a year of my life inside an aluminum trailer, far away from my friends and family, missing holidays and birthdays, trying to block out the speaker that would blare Incoming! Incoming! as mortars flew into the base while I tried to sleep. In the course of my mission, we carried with us U.S. cash. A lot of U.S. cash. When the year was up, we had distributed about $2 million to the people of Iraq for justified damage. I personally never took a dime. No one else from my team took anything, either. The accounting measures put in place by the finance department made that all but impossible, and, frankly, the thought of stealing never even entered our minds. The core values of the Army are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage; those words are something that my team and I took very seriously. Its true that during the course of the war a small number of service members did attempt to pocket money, but they were found out and prosecuted. The system, in that regard, worked. Trumps statement attacking not just my character but also that of all the men and women I had the honor of serving with was repugnant. These people had raised their right hands and sacrificed a year or more of their lives in one of the worst situations imaginable, all for their country. These are the people who actually lived up to Trumps supposed credo: Make America great again. Its infuriating to hear a billionaire real estate mogul, turned reality television star, turned presidential candidate, speak so callously against a group of Americans whom he knows next to nothing about. Maybe I should know better. Maybe I should turn the other cheek. Maybe this is all just Trump being Trump. But I cant. This man wants to be commander in chief of the United States armed forces. Thus far, he has shown that he has neither the temperament nor the character to fulfill that role. What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail When in his 1964 GOP acceptance speech Barry Goldwater declared that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, a reporter sitting near journalist/historian Theodore White famously exclaimed: My God, hes going to run as Barry Goldwater! Six weeks into Donald Trumps general election campaign, Republicans are discovering that he indeed intends to run as Donald Trump. He has boasted that he could turn presidential respectful, respectable, reticent, reserved bordering on boring at will. Apparently, he cant. GOP leaders who fell in line behind Trump after he clinched the nomination expected, or at least hoped, that he would prove malleable, willing to adjust his more extreme positions and tactics to suit a broader electorate. Two problems. First, impulse control: Trump says what he actually feels, whatever comes into his head at any moment. Second, a certain logic: Trump won the primaries Sinatra-style, his way against the odds, the experts and the conventional rules. So why change now? You win the pennant, Trump explained, and now youre in the World Series you gonna change? Hence his response to the Orlando terror attack. Events like these generally benefit the challenger politically because any misfortune that befalls the nation gets attributed, fairly or not, directly or indirectly, to the incumbent party (e.g., the 2008 financial collapse). And Hillary Clinton is running as the quasi-incumbent. After the deadly shooting in an Orlando nightclub on June 12, some in politics pushed for stricter gun control while others asked for prayers. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump ignited controversy with his tweets. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) The textbook response for the challenger, therefore, is to offer sympathy, give a general statement or two about the failure of the incumbents national security policy, then step back to let the resulting national fear and loathing, amplified by the media, take effect. Instead, Trump made himself the (political) story. First, he offered himself unseemly congratulations for his prescience about terrorism. (Hed predicted more would be coming. What a visionary.) Then he went beyond blaming the president for lack of will or wisdom in fighting terrorism, and darkly implied presidential sympathy for the enemy. Theres something going on, he charged. He then reiterated his ban on Muslim immigration. Why? Because thats what Trump does. And because it worked before. It was after last Decembers San Bernardino massacre that Trump first called for a Muslim ban. It earned him lots of opprobrium from GOP leaders and lots of support from GOP voters. He shot up in the polls, never to descend until he clinched. So why not do it again? Because the general election is a different game. Trump assumes that the Republican electorate is representative of the national electorate. Its not. Take the Muslim ban. Sixty-eight percent of GOP voters support it. Only 38 percent of Democrats do. And there are approximately 7 million more Democrats in the country. (Independents are split 51-40 in favor.) The other major example of doing whats always worked is the ad hominem attack on big-dog opponents. It worked in the primaries. Trump went after one leading challenger after another, knocking them out sequentially. Hillary Clinton is a lousy campaigner but her machine is infinitely larger and more skilled than any of Trumps 16 GOP competitors. More riskily, Trump is now going toe-to-toe with a sitting president. Barack Obama is no Jeb Bush. Hes not low energy. Hes a skilled campaigner who clearly despises Trump and relishes the fight. And he carries the inestimable advantage of the gravitas automatically conferred by seven and a half years of incumbency. Moreover, he now enjoys an unusually high approval rating of around 53 percent. Trumps latest favorability is 29 percent (Post-ABC News). 1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And theyll tell you why. Caption And theyll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton, a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton because I think shes qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. Its no accident that Trumps poll numbers are sliding. A month ago, when crowned as presumptive nominee, he jumped into a virtual tie with Clinton. The polls now have him losing by an average of six points, with some showing a nine- and 12-point deficit (Reuters/Ipsos and Bloomberg). And his unfavorability ratings are up 10 points in just the past month. This may turn out to be temporary, but it is a clear reflection of Trumps disastrous general election kickoff. His two-week expedition into racism in attacking the Indiana-born Mexican judge. His dabbling in conspiracy, from Ted Cruzs fathers supposed involvement in the Kennedy assassination to Vince Fosters (very fishy) suicide. All of which suggests, and cements, the image of a man who shoots from the hip and is prone to both wild theories and extreme policies. Reagan biographer Lou Cannon thinks that the Goldwater anecdote is apocryphal. How could anyone (even a journalist) have thought that Goldwater, who later admitted he always knew he would lose, was going to run as anything but his vintage, hard-core self? Same for Trump. Give him points for authenticity. Take away for electability. Read more from Charles Krauthammers archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. THE EUROPEAN Union is not popular just now. The E.U.s median favorability rating in 10 major nations, encompassing 80 percent of its 508 million inhabitants, is a tepid 51 percent, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. This is not surprising given the crises economic, migratory and security-related confronting Europe. In the United Kingdom, the E.U.s approval rating is an even lower 44 percent, even though Britain has opted out of Europe-wide institutions that euroskeptics most dislike such as the common currency and has negotiated other special exemptions from E.U. strictures. In this skeptical mood, British voters will go to the polls June 23 and choose whether to stay in the E.U. or begin a negotiated departure. Brexit would be the first such secession in E.U. history but, if successful, possibly not the last. The latest polls taken before Thursdays shocking assassination of Jo Cox, a pro-E.U. Labour Party member of Parliament, prompted a suspension of the referendum campaign suggest British voters may well vote leave. This would be contrary to the pleas of Prime Minister David Cameron, President Obama and practically every elected leader across Europe. It would be contrary to the internationalist example set by Ms. Cox, a committed and thoughtful campaigner for the rights of refugees and supporter of a vigorous British response to the Syrian war that has forced so many to flee. It also would be dangerous for the world, for Europe and, not least, for Britain. We understand the populist impulse behind the Brexit surge. Brussels and its multiple officious agencies are remote; their ponderous processes offer no prompt resolution to the issues that worry Britons most, including a surge of immigrants via the borderless E.U. That this impulse is understandable, however, does not make it any less, well, impulsive; theres nothing particularly new, or particularly admirable, about the politics of anti-immigrant backlash. Any control Brexit would take back, to paraphrase the Leave campaign slogan, would be offset by increased economic uncertainty and political tension, to include conflict, potentially, with Scotland, which might rethink its recent vote to remain in the U.K. rather than join a flight from Europe. Brexiteers promise a boom born of deregulation; practical people grasp that Britains global financial center and export economy require regulation and standard-setting, including some that will inevitably be carried out multilaterally. Leaving the E.U. wont change that reality, just render Britain less influential in shaping it. For all its defects, the European Union is still a force for comity and commerce among the peoples of the continent, and a multiplier of their power and influence on the world stage. The E.U. is a strong partner with the United States, especially so when it includes Britains economy, the worlds fifth largest, and its military, the fifth most powerful . Whats more, it is a force for stability, possibly the most important of all the public goods that governing institutions provide but, alas, the one most often taken for granted. Sensible citizenries prize stability as well as grievance and dont lightly vent the latter at the risk of the former. Come June 23, we hope the British people will vote accordingly. Kerry Eleveld is a writer for Daily Kos and the author of Dont Tell Me to Wait: How the Fight for Gay Rights Changed America and Transformed Obamas Presidency. Just three days after President Obama reminisced that one of the most special moments of his presidency came when the White House was awash in rainbow colors following last years marriage-equality ruling, he stood in the White House briefing room and sought to console a nation reeling from the slaughter of at least 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando. If the validation of same-sex marriage was a high point, this was no doubt one of the lowest. In contrast to the advancement of gay and transgender rights, which has been among the standout successes of the progressive agenda during the Obama years, the failure to pass gun-safety measures that could prevent more mass shootings has been among the greatest disappointments. But it wasnt all that long ago that same-sex marriage seemed just as hopeless a cause as meaningful gun laws seem now. And the reason many Americans including Obama changed their minds about gay marriage may be the same reason people eventually change their minds about guns. If you had asked nearly anyone in the United States a decade ago whether same-sex couples in all 50 states would be able to legally wed by 2015, they might have laughed you out of the room. Yes, gay marriage was legal in Massachusetts. But the movement was in the midst of losing a string of anti-gay-marriage ballot measures, and Gallup polls showed national support for the freedom to marry softening, dropping to 37 percent. As we all know, public opinion would shift again dramatically. By the time the Supreme Court released its opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges , 60 percent of Americans supported marriage equality. Political scientists still marvel at this rapid turnaround, but the prevailing explanation is that contact with someone who is openly gay leads to more positive attitudes toward gay rights. In 1992, a majority of Americans 56 percent said they didnt know anyone who was lesbian or gay; but by 2010, the same CBS News poll found that number had fallen to just 22 percent. As gay people came out to their communities in increasing numbers and with greater visibility, they destroyed stereotypes and provided a personal attachment to the issue for millions of Americans, creating an urgency that wasnt there before. When Obama finally embraced marriage equality in 2012, he told ABC Newss Robin Roberts , When I meet gay and lesbian couples, when I meet same-sex couples, and I see how caring they are, how much love they have in their hearts, how theyre taking care of their kids when I hear from them the pain they feel that somehow they are still considered less than full citizens . . . it just has tipped the scales. We heard a similar account this past week from conservative Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, who apologized for being unkind to gay individuals at earlier points in his life. My heart has changed, Cox said, . . . because I have gotten to know many of you. In his remarks, Cox went on to identify with the victims killed in Orlando. They each had dreams, goals, talents, friends, family, he said. They are you, and they are me. And one night they went out to relax, to laugh, to connect, to forget, to remember. And in a few minutes of chaos and terror, they were gone. Because so many Americans now have personal connections to people who are gay, bisexual or transgender, the Pulse nightclub massacre has hit the nation hard in a way that, for instance, the 1973 arson that killed 32 people at a gay bar in New Orleans couldnt. And just as knowing gay people helped shift attitudes about same-sex marriage, knowing or identifying with victims of gun violence can help generate urgency for laws designed to prevent more tragedies. On a national level, attitudes about firearms have tended to be stubborn. Even shortly after mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, in Tucson, Ariz., in 2011 and at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in 2012 the Pew Research Center found no significant change in support for gun control vs. gun rights. The nation remained more or less evenly divided on the matter, with survey respondents typically viewing the shootings as isolated acts that werent related to broader social problems. There was a slight increase in support for gun control immediately after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, but support for gun rights began to rise again soon after. People are more receptive when asked about gun safety rather than gun control, and some specific policies, including universal background checks, routinely enjoy the approval of anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of Americans. But its been tough to translate that approval to national policies in recent decades. The 1999 Columbine shooting energized efforts to close the gun show loophole and mandate background checks for firearms purchased at gun shows. But none of the bills introduced in Congress passed. Likewise, in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, Obama proposed an ambitious slate of gun reform initiatives, including universal background checks, a reinstatement of the federal assault-weapons ban, a ban on armor-piercing bullets and restrictions on the number of rounds allowed in ammunition magazines. He wasnt able to get any of it through Congress. And his executive actions have been so modest that even a National Rifle Association lobbyist dismissed them, saying, Theyre not really doing anything. This past week, it took Democratic senators nearly 15 hours of filibustering to get agreement from Republican leaders on just scheduling a vote on gun measures. And those measures which include expanding background checks and preventing suspected terrorists from buying guns are almost certain to fail. But if you look at the state and local responses near where mass shootings have happened, youll often find greater urgency in public opinion and greater success in passing gun safety laws. After Sandy Hook, for instance, 54 percent of Connecticut voters said they were more likely to support gun control than they had been before. And support for universal background checks among the states voters hit 93 percent, the highest any issue had polled in the state in 20 years of Quinnipiac surveys. As a result, while the national effort faltered, Connecticut passed one of the nations toughest gun safety laws. The legislation banned high-capacity magazines, armor-piercing bullets and more than 100 additional assault weapons. It imposed background checks on all purchases and created the first statewide registry of people convicted of weapons offenses. After signing the law in 2013, Gov. Dan Malloy (D) not only won reelection but did nine points better in Newtown, the site of the shooting, against his Republican competitor, Tom Foley, than he had against Foley four years earlier. Malloy was also one of the few Democratic governors to survive the GOP wave of 2014; his counterparts in the progressive states of Massachusetts, Maryland and Illinois all lost their seats to Republicans. Colorado, although a Western state with a strong tradition of gun ownership and historically lax firearm laws, also pushed to address gun safety after Columbine and again after Aurora. In 2000, the states voters overcame obstruction in the Republican-controlled legislature and overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to close the gun show loophole. In 2013, a Democratic-led legislature passed laws mandating background checks for online and private gun sales and instituting a ban on ammunition magazines holding more than 15 rounds. Some Colorado lawmakers subsequently lost their seats over their support for the gun measures, and there have been efforts to repeal the laws. But once on the books, such laws rarely come off. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) wrote last month in Time that he had been somewhat reluctant to sign the gun bills. But the night before, he got a call that the states head of corrections had been shot and killed. That personal connection to a victim of gun violence, someone who worked in a cold, hard world with a remarkably warm and tender heart, fortified his opinion that Coloroado needed new gun laws. Of course, not every state succeeds in reforming its gun laws after high-profile shootings in one of its cities or towns. Even after the carnage in Orlando, gun safety advocates arent optimistic about lawmakers passing any new legislation in Florida, sometimes known as the Gunshine State despite the fact that its voters have twice approved ballot measures strengthening gun safety laws. And NRA lobbying always presents a formidable counterweight to public opinion. But the unfortunate reality is that we are fast becoming a nation of communities that are synonymous with carnage. Columbine, Aurora, Newtown, San Bernardino, Orlando they are Anytown, USA. Active shooter situations have been happening more and more frequently, according to the FBI. Yet mass shootings represent only a sliver of the gun violence in this country. The nonprofit website Gun Violence Archive tracked more than 53,000 incidents last year, documenting 13,430 deaths and 27,008 injuries. An estimated 20 percent of Americans say theyve been threatened or shot at with a gun. The effects of gun violence ripple much further. One in three Americans say they know a friend or relative who has been a victim of gun violence. A recent Huffington Post/YouGov poll found that 22 percent of Americans say they know someone who was fatally shot by someone else, with an additional 29 percent saying they know someone who committed suicide using a gun. Those are shocking numbers, considering the stakes. And sadly, an ever-growing cross-section of communities can imagine their schools, their workplaces, their places of worship, their movie theaters and now their nightclubs being attacked. This is the reality that could create a critical mass of voters who not only prioritize gun safety but become single-issue voters on the matter. And at some point, the United States could reach a political tipping point on gun safety, just like it did on same-sex marriage. Twitter: @kerryeleveld Read more from Outlook and follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. An American flag is seen at half-staff at Lake Eola Park in Orlando. (John Taggart/European Pressphoto Agency) A county commissioner in Alabama this week resisted a federal and state directive that flags be lowered to honor the victims of the shooting in Orlando. The move violated an instruction by Gov. Robert Bentley (R) that the U.S. flag be flown at half-staff on public grounds through Thursday, per President Obamas order. Tucker Dorsey, chairman of the Baldwin County Commission, said he was justified in leaving flags at full height. In a Facebook post on Monday, he said he was following the United States Flag Code, which does not designate shootings or terror attacks as legitimate reasons to fly the flag at half-staff, he said. Lowering the flags to half-staff after mass shooting or terrorist event is not a valid circumstance or memorial as specified in the U.S. flag code, Dorsey wrote. Among the occasions the code specifies are Memorial Day and the death of a high official, though its guidelines are only advisory. Dorsey also said he was acting in line with the portion of the code that specifies that no other flag should be placed above the flag of the United States, a matter of principle that he said was particularly important in the wake of the shooting by a man who pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants. When the flag is at half-staff, our countrys head is figuratively held low, and quite frankly, I am not willing to hang my head down because of a terrorist attack against our people and our allies, he wrote. I am not willing to hang my head down because evil shoots up a church, school, or movie theater. Dorsey said he was sympathetic to the families of the victims but expressed outrage that the perpetrator of the shooting was not being properly identified as a follower of Islam. He said it was evil, not guns that should be blamed for the attack. Dorsey wrote in his post that the county took the same position after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. Reached by phone Friday, another commissioner, Charles Gruber, said the decision belonged exclusively to the chairman. When he was chairman, Gruber said, he chose to lower flags, but he would not criticize Dorsey. What hes defending is the code that I guess you go by, Gruber said. Theres also code that says that the president or governor can make this sort of order. Cole County in Missouri initially took a similarly defiant stance on the flag but yielded after backlash from the LGBT community, the Kansas City Star reported. Dozens of Republican convention delegates are hatching a new plan to block Donald Trump at this summers party meetings, in what has become the most organized effort so far to stop the businessman from becoming the GOP presidential nominee. The moves come amid declining poll numbers for Trump and growing concern among Republicans that he is squandering his chance to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Several controversies including his racial attacks on a federal judge, his renewed call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States and his support for changing the nations gun laws have raised fears among Republicans that Trump is not really a conservative and is too reckless to run a successful race. Given the strife, a growing group of anti-Trump delegates is convinced that enough like-minded Republicans will band together in the next month to change party rules and allow delegates to vote for whomever they want at the convention, regardless of who won state caucuses or primaries. The new push is being run by people who can actually make changes to party rules, rather than by pundits and media figures who have been pining for a Trump alternative. Many of the delegates involved supported Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) in the primary race but say they are not taking cues from any of Trumps vanquished opponents. This literally is an Anybody but Trump movement, said Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the campaign. Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but were not worried about that. Were just doing that job to make sure that hes not the face of our party. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan endorsed presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on June 2, but the two haven't always seen eye to eye. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) The new wave of anti-Trump organizing comes as an increasing number of prominent Republicans have signaled that they will not support Trump for president. In addition, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), who is slated to chair the Republican National Convention next month in Cleveland, said in remarks released Friday that House Republicans should follow their consciences on whether to support Trump. The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something thats contrary to their conscience, Ryan said in an interview with NBCs Meet the Press that will air Sunday. Ryan has endorsed Trump. But his use of the word conscience could prove helpful to delegates organizing the anti-Trump campaign because they are seeking to pass a conscience clause that would unbind delegates and allow them to vote for anyone. [Despite Trumps calls for action, Senate gun debate headed down familiar path] In a statement Friday, Trump dismissed the plots against him. I won almost 14 million votes, which is by far more votes than any candidate in the history of the Republican primaries, he said. I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying. People listen to the national anthem before Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Richmond on June 10. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) He added, People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot but there is no mechanism for it to happen. Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer responded in a statement, saying: Donald Trump bested 16 highly qualified candidates and received more primary votes than any candidate in Republican Party history. All of the discussion about the RNC Rules Committee acting to undermine the presumptive nominee is silly. There is no organized effort, strategy or leader of this so-called movement. It is nothing more than a media creation and a series of tweets. Delegates involved in the effort disagree, but their plans face steep difficulties and would require rapid coordination among the thousands headed to Cleveland next month. Previous attempts to field a Trump opponent or to use convention rules to stop him have quickly fizzled, but the new fight revives the possibility of a contested convention. The campaign kicked off in earnest Thursday night on a conference call with at least 30 delegates from 15 states, according to multiple participants. Unruh and Regina Thomson, another Colorado delegate, have recruited regional coordinators in Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Washington and other states. [Some conservatives are still moving to stop Trump at the GOP convention] Eric Minor, a GOP delegate from Washington state, said that he felt compelled to join Unruhs group because I hear a lot of people saying, Why doesnt somebody do something about this? Well you know what, Im one of the people who can. Theres only 2,400 of us. Im going to reach out to us and see if there seems to be momentum for this. And if there is, well see where it goes. Steve Lonegan, a veteran GOP operative from New Jersey, is not a delegate but is advising the group and building financial support through a super PAC, Courageous Conservatives, that backed Cruz in the primary. The group has said it is willing to spend money on advertising and to help delegates across the country find one another. Ever since Trump reached the threshold for claiming the GOP nomination last month, Ive woken up every day struggling to accept that hes going to be our candidate, Lonegan said. Hes spent more time talking about getting Bernie Sanders voters to vote for him than conservatives. What do you think he has that Bernie Sanderss supporters would like? A secret socialist agenda? Unruh, Minor, Lonegan and a number of others involved in the effort are former Cruz supporters, but they insist they are not working on his behalf. Cruz has said he would not accept the presidential nomination as a result of an attempt to strip Trump of the prize. Other top Republicans, including Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.), said this week that they will not back Trump. Ohio Gov. John Kasich said hes not ready to support Trump. And Richard Armitage, a deputy secretary of state in George W. Bushs administration who is close with other members of the partys national security establishment, announced that he plans to vote for Clinton if Trump is nominated. Some of Trumps top surrogates, including Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), have struggled to explain Trumps policy positions and defend his statements and proposals in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando. [Even one of Donald Trumps most ardent Capitol Hill backers is exasperated] This isnt going to go away, warned Cecil Stinemetz, a delegate from Iowa participating in the new campaign. Trump or others might say that these are just little groups who wont do anything and itll fizz out thats not going to happen. Trump just continues to embarrass himself and his party, and this is not going to let up. Several factors will complicate any attempt to stop Trump. First, Unruhs plan to unbind the delegates will need support from a majority of the conventions rules committee, which is scheduled to meet July 14 and 15 just a few days before the convention formally convenes. If the proposal passes the committee, it would need to be ratified by a majority of convention delegates the following week. Second, several delegates are deeply concerned about what they say are intimidation tactics by Trump, his campaign and some state party leaders. One delegate, who commented on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, wrote in an email that during his state partys first convention organizing meeting, party leaders told the delegates that if they didnt vote for Trump, we would be removed from the floor and replaced with an alternate. Recruiting like-minded delegates may also be difficult, because the RNC has yet to release a list of the thousands of people elected to travel to Cleveland as delegates or alternates. A final list of names from each state and territory was due to the RNC on Monday, and party officials are reviewing the names to ensure that no elected delegate or alternate has a criminal record, according to party officials. Privately, some RNC officials say they doubt that a full list will be released ahead of time. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and other top leaders have said delegates are required to reflect the results of state contests. In response, a group of veteran Republican operatives is planning to raise up to $2.5 million to run an advertising campaign arguing that delegates can do whatever they want. The Citizens in Charge Foundation plans to bankroll the outreach campaign. It has paid for the publication of a book by Curly Haugland, a GOP delegate from North Dakota, who argues that delegates are already free to vote for anyone. Its not an effort for a candidate or against a candidate, but its an effort to educate people on what their real authority is and have them get the comfort that theyre not alone, said Eric OKeefe, a party operative based in Detroit who is a member of the group. Theres a whole network of like-minded people. This is not a play for Cruz or Kasich or Ryan, OKeefe said. I trust the delegates that if they understand their authority, theyll nominate a good ticket. From left, Donald Trump, Aras Agalarov and Emin Agalarov walk the red carpet at the Miss Universe pageant competition in Moscow in November 2013. (Victor Boyko/Getty Images) Donald Trump was in his element, mingling with beauty pageant contestants and business tycoons as he brought his Miss Universe pageant to Russia for a much-anticipated Moscow debut. Nonetheless, Trump was especially eager for the presence of another honored guest: Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump tweeted Putin a personal invitation to attend the pageant, and a one-on-one meeting between the New York businessman and the Russian leader was scheduled for the day before the show. Putin canceled at the last minute, but he sent a decorative lacquered box, a traditional Russian gift, and a warm note, according to Aras Agalarov, a Moscow billionaire who served as a liaison between Trump and the Russian leader. Still, the weekend was fruitful for Trump. He received a portion of the $14 million paid by Agalarov and other investors to bring the pageant to Moscow. Agalarov said he and Trump signed an agreement to build a Trump Tower in the heart of Moscow at least Trumps fifth attempt at such a venture. And Trump seemed energized by his interactions with Russias financial elite at the pageant and a glitzy after-party in a Moscow nightclub. Almost all of the oligarchs were in the room, Trump bragged to Real Estate Weekly upon returning home. Miss Universe 2013 Gabriela Isler of Venezuela and pageant owner Donald Trump point at each other while posing for a photograph after the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow on Nov. 9, 2013. (Ivan Sekretarev/AP) Trumps relationship with Putin and his warm views toward Russia, which began in the 1980s when the country was still part of the Soviet Union, have emerged as one of the more curious aspects of his presidential campaign. [Read biographical stories about presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump] The overwhelming consensus among American political and national security leaders has held that Putin is a pariah who disregards human rights and has violated international norms in seeking to regain influence and territory in the former Soviet bloc. In 2012, one year before Trump brought his beauty pageant to Moscow, then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called Russia the United States top geopolitical threat an assessment that has only gained currency since then. Trump has conveyed a different view, informed in part through his business ambitions. Since the 1980s, Trump and his family members have made numerous trips to Moscow in search of business opportunities, and they have relied on Russian investors to buy their properties around the world. Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets, Trumps son, Donald Jr., told a real estate conference in 2008, according to an account posted on the website of eTurboNews, a trade publication. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia. The dynamic illustrates the extent to which Trumps worldview has been formed through the lens of commerce rather than the think tanks, government deliberations and international diplomatic conferences that typically shape the foreign policy positions of presidential candidates. It also reflects Trumps willingness to see world leaders through his own personal connections. In a Republican Party in which an ability to stand up to Putin has been seen as a test of toughness, Trumps relationship with the Russian leader is instead one of mutual flattery. Putin said in December that Trump was a colorful and talented person, a compliment that Trump said at the time was an honor. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said a lot of nice things about Russian president Vladimir Putin. Putin finally responded. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) The back-and-forth has continued. In a mid-June rally, Trump cited those comments as the reason he will not reject the Russian leader. A guy calls me a genius, and Im going to renounce? Trump said. Im not going to renounce him. The next day in St. Petersburg, Putin again called Trump a colorful person and said he welcomed Trumps proposal for a full-scale resumption of U.S.-Russia ties. On the campaign trail, Trump has called for a new partnership with Moscow, overhauling NATO, the allied military force seen as the chief protector of pro-Western nations near Russia. And Trump has surrounded himself with a team of advisers who have had financial ties to Russia. [Trump questions need for NATO, outlines noninterventionist foreign policy] This account of Trumps 30-year history of business with Russia and that of his advisers is based on interviews as well as a review of deposition transcripts and other court records in which Trump and his associates have discussed their overseas work. Trump declined to be interviewed for this article, as did top campaign aides and most members of his foreign policy team. The Kremlin also declined to comment about Trumps visit to Moscow. The coming together of Trumps business and political agendas was evident during his 2013 Moscow trip, in which he was seeking deals at the same time he was starting to ponder a presidential run. Agalarov and his son, Russian pop musician Emin Agalarov, told The Washington Post that they befriended Trump after the pageant and listened as he described his views of U.S.-Russia relations. He kept saying, Every time there is friction between United States and Russia, its bad for both countries. For the people to benefit, this should be fixed. We should be friends, Emin Agalarov recalled. Russia has signaled a deep interest in the U.S. election and in Trump, in particular. The Russian ambassador to the United States, breaking from a tradition in which diplomats steer clear of domestic politics, attended Trumps April foreign policy speech in which he called for ending this horrible cycle of hostility between the two nations. And in the past week, The Post reported that hackers tied to the Russian government had gained access to the Democratic National Committees opposition research file on Trump. A spokesman for the Russian Embassy said that Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyaks attendance at the Trump speech should not be considered an indication that Russia is partial to Trump. There is no preference, the spokesman said. Still, the relationship is setting off alarms in pro-Western capitals and in the U.S. foreign policy community. Trumps campaign rhetoric is the biggest dream of everyone in the Kremlin, Tina Khidasheli, defense minister of Georgia, a U.S. ally, told The Post. Its scary, its dangerous, and its irresponsible. Her view is shared in the United States by leading Russia experts from both political parties. Michael McFaul, who stepped down in 2014 as the U.S. ambassador to Russia, said Trumps stance toward Russia makes everyone I talk to around the world nervous and it makes me nervous. David J. Kramer, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state dealing with Russia during the George W. Bush administration, said he was appalled by Trumps approach. Trumps spokeswoman did not respond to detailed written questions. One of his foreign policy advisers, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration, said Trump would be exceedingly stronger than Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who he said was an utter failure in her goal as secretary of state to reset U.S.-Russia relations. Trump has long aspired to build a Trump Tower in Russia a market that first gained his attention in the 1980s as the Cold War was ending and the Soviet Union began to open more to outsiders. Russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment, Trump said in a 2007 deposition. We will be in Moscow at some point, he promised. Part of the allure was what Trump and his associates saw as a huge opportunity the chance to market American-style luxury apartments to the wealthy elite in a place that still mostly offered utilitarian Soviet-style construction. The Russian market had natural strength, especially in the high-end sector, said Donald Trump Jr. in his 2008 real estate conference speech. Moscow held special appeal because wealthy people throughout the region wanted to own real estate in the capital city, he said. Trumps 1987 trip represented his first public exploration of business prospects in Moscow. He went with his then-wife, Ivana, to scope out sites for luxury hotels he hoped to build in a joint venture with the Kremlins hotel and tourism agency, according to Trumps memoir, The Art of the Deal, which was published the same year. The project never got off the ground an outcome that would repeat itself multiple times between then and his 2013 trip. In 1996, Trump tried to partner with U.S. tobacco executives to build a luxury condominium complex in Moscow. Ted Liebman, an architect who worked with Trump, recalled drawing sketches of the proposed Trump International for the businessman to use in meetings with Moscow officials. In 2005, Trump signed a one-year deal with a New York development company to explore a Trump Tower in Moscow. Bayrock Group found a site an old pencil factory but the effort fizzled again. [Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump] Trump claimed in a later court proceeding that Russian investors were spooked when a 2005 book questioned his net worth. But the Russia quest continued. In his 2008 speech, Donald Jr. announced that he had traveled to Russia six times in the previous 18 months. But, he said, Russia presented enormous challenges. As much as we want to take our business over there, Russia is just a different world, the younger Trump said. It is a question of who knows who, whose brother is paying off who. . . . It really is a scary place. The elder Trumps business ambitions have extended throughout the former Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc. He has explored deals in Kiev, Yalta and Warsaw and licensed his name for the construction of a five-star hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan, which has been mostly built but is not yet open. As Trump looked for deals in Russia, Russian consumers became a key market for his real estate projects in the United States and elsewhere. Trumps partners on a Panama project traveled to Moscow in 2006 to sell condos to Russian investors, according to litigation filed in Florida. Trump also sold a mansion in Palm Beach in 2008 for $95 million to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev, according to property records. Trump had purchased the mansion at a bankruptcy auction less than four years earlier for $41.4 million, records show. In 2013, Trump found a new Russian partner for a Moscow real estate project, Aras Agalarov, an Azeri-born real estate developer who is sometimes called the Trump of Russia for his tendency to emblazon his name on his development projects. The Agalarovs are wealthy developers who have received several contracts for state-funded construction projects, a sign of their closeness to the Putin government. Shortly after the pageant, Putin awarded the elder Agalarov the Order of Honor of the Russian Federation, a prestigious designation. Agalarov and his son Emin spoke with The Post earlier this year at the chic Nobu restaurant inside Crocus City Mall, their gleaming luxury development. They said they first met Trump after hiring Miss Universe contestants for one of Emins music videos. Trump ultimately appeared in the video along with the beauty queens. After the video and the 2013 pageant, the Agalarovs said they developed a deeper relationship with Trump. I convinced my father it would be cool to have next to each other the Trump Tower and Agalarov Tower, and he was kind of into it at some point, Emin Agalarov said. The Trump Tower deal never moved past preliminary discussions. But Agalarov said the family is interested in a possible future venture. Trumps top aides, too, have had ties to Russia. Campaign chairman Paul Manafort has done multimillion-dollar business deals with pro-Russian oligarchs and was a longtime adviser to the Russia-aligned Ukrainian president whose 2014 ouster triggered Russias intervention in Ukraine, a major source of tension between Russia and the United States as well as its NATO allies. Manafort did not respond to requests for comment. [Inside Trump adviser Manaforts world of politics and global financial dealmaking] An adviser who helped run Trumps efforts in the New York primary, Michael Caputo, lived in Russia in the 1990s. Caputo also had a contract for several months in 2000 with the Russian conglomerate Gazprom Media to improve Putins image in the United States. Caputo declined to comment but told the Buffalo News, his hometown paper, that he was not proud of the work today. But at the time, Putin wasnt such a bad guy. Flynn, the former Defense Intelligence Agency chief who is advising Trump and has been mentioned as a possible vice-presidential running mate, stunned the diplomatic community by sitting near Putin at a 2015 Moscow dinner honoring RT, the English-language network aligned with the Kremlin that broadcasts into the United States. Flynn said he spoke in Russia about how he thought Washington and Moscow should work more closely together, particularly in reining in Iran. Carter Page, also a Trump foreign policy adviser, once ran the Moscow office of Merrill Lynch, including advising the Russian energy giant Gazprom, according to his biography posted on his employers website. Page did not respond to questions from The Post. In an interview this year with Bloomberg News, he hinted that Trumps election could be a boost for some of his Russian associates who have been hurt by U.S. sanctions imposed after Russias intervention in Ukraine. Theres a lot of excitement in terms of the possibilities for creating a better situation, Page told the news service. The Agalarovs, too, expressed enthusiasm for what Trump has told them. He keeps underlining that he thinks President Putin is a strong leader, Emin Agalarov said. This could be an amazing breakthrough. If [Trump] becomes president and actually becomes friends with Putin, we would avoid 10 wars every year at least. Editors note: A previous version of this story said the Agalarovs fortune was built in part through state-funded construction projects; it has been updated to reflect the Agalarovs statement that they have yet to make money from contracts for state-funded projects. Birnbaum reported from Moscow. Alice Crites, Sean Sullivan and Steven Mufson contributed to this report. Dublin, June 17, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Tequila Market in US 2016-2020" report to their offering. The tequila market in the US to grow at a CAGR of 3.67% by revenue during the period 2016-2020. Tequila Market in the US 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market. A trend that is expected to propel market growth is new product launches. The US tequila market has displayed immense potential for product innovations and new product launches. In 2012-2013, more than 40 new tequila varieties were launched here. Reserva Del Maestro Dobel Diamond from Casa Cuervo is a blend of three tequilas, an 11-plus-month-old reposado, a two-year-old anejo, and a three-year-old extra anejo. Filtration prior to bottling removes all trace of color in this blend. Limited-edition tequilas have also become hugely popular in the US and are often considered a symbol of status and success. Some of the new collections include Arette Unique, Don Celso Plascencia, and El Caudillo. According to the report, a key growth driver is the growing cocktail culture. Demand for tequila in cocktails is not restricted to bars and restaurants: it has also gained interest in homes. There is also a marked shift, especially in the younger population, from binge drinking to drinking sophisticated cocktails using premium tequila and vodka. As this demographic ages, so will its income and spending power, resulting in a substantial consumer base for white spirits like tequila. Margaritas were the most popular cocktail consumed in the US in 2014. Further, the report states that one challenge that could restrict market growth is the availability of counterfeit products. There is also a lack of awareness about labeling instructions that help distinguish original tequila from others. Although fake products may not affect the market directly, they may tarnish brand image. Key vendors - Beam Suntory - Brown-Forman - Diageo - Tequila Cuervo la Rojena - The Patron Spirits Company Other prominent vendors - Arta Tequila - Cia Tequilera Los Valores - Hacienda La Capilla - Juarez Tequila - Pernod Ricard - Proximo Spirits - Borco International - Tequila Cazadores - Tequila Quiote Key Topics Covered: Part 01: Executive summary Part 02: Scope of the report Part 03: Market research methodology Part 04: Introduction Part 05: US: Overview Part 06: Market landscape Part 07: Market segmentation by product price Part 08: Market segmentation by distribution channel Part 09: Market drivers Part 10: Impact of drivers Part 11: Market challenges Part 12: Impact of drivers and challenges Part 13: Market trends Part 14: Vendor landscape Part 15: Appendix For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/jhc672/tequila_market_in Aircraft assigned to various countries fly in formation during an exercise off the coast of Guam on Feb. 17. (Petty Officer 1st Class Ace Rheaume/Fleet Combat Camera Pacific) This tiny Pacific island has several nicknames. There is the tip of the spear because it is the closest U.S. territory to potential hot spots in Asia, such as North Korea and the South China Sea. There is Americas unsinkable aircraft carrier, because the island is home to a huge air force base. And then there is Fortress Pacific, because of the huge military buildup that is planned to take place over the next decade. But Guams population calls it by another name: Ours. And a sizable portion wants a real say in how it is run. This American territory is not enjoying democracy, where citizens can determine who their leader will be and what laws will be put upon them, said Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo, who has called a vote for November on Guams political status. Its up to our people to decide which way to go: whether to be fully in union with the United States or to chart a separate course. A decolonization commission is set to report to Calvo (R) next month on whether to proceed with the plebiscite, which would give Guamanians three alternatives to their current status as a U.S. territory. That status shared by Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands confers U.S. citizenship on people born here but does not give them the right to vote in presidential elections or a voting representative in Congress. Maj. Tim Patrick of the Marine Corps unit on Guam shows plans for the expansion of Andersen Air Force Base, part of a military buildup taking place in the territory over the next decade. (Anna Fifield/The Washington Post) Guamanian soldiers have gone to fight in countries so they can have democracy and vote, yet we have never voted for the person who sends us to war, the governor said. [ Why Ted Cruz wanted the endorsement of the governor of Guam ] The three alternatives under consideration are: Statehood, which would give Guam all the rights (and burdens) of being a state, albeit a very small one, with a population less than one-third that of Wyoming. Free association with administrative power, like Palau and the Marshall Islands. Independence, which would make Guam a (minuscule) sovereign state. The vote would not be binding only Congress can change Guams political status but would be symbolic of the territorys sentiment. The issue has been simmering for years but returned to the political front burner with the Pentagons preparations to relocate thousands of troops stationed on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to here. The U.S. military presence on Okinawa has long been a source of contention in a prefecture that complains of being treated as a second-class citizen by Tokyo. But there are similar complaints on Guam, a 30-mile-long tropical island of only 160,000 people, which is already home to large air force and naval bases. Pockets of fierce opposition to the initial plan formulated a decade ago to move 10,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam led the Defense Department to halve the number coming here. The prospect of the military buildup caused a crack in the facade of American-ness on this island, said Michael Lujan Bevacqua, who teaches the indigenous Chamorro language at the University of Guam. Bevacqua is a strong advocate of breaking free from the United States. Being independent and having the ability to determine our own policies is much better for us, he said. LisaLinda Natividad, another proponent of change, says the decision to move the Marines onto this island is the latest sign of Washingtons highhanded ways. The whole Guam buildup was set in motion because were a U.S. colony, and they think they can do whatever they want with our land, said Natividad, who sits on the decolonization commission. Just drive around for 10 minutes and its obvious." The issue of Guams political status is complicated. Some resent the U.S. military presence but do not want to give up their American passports. Some want greater independence but want their taxes to stay here on the island, as they do now, rather than going into the federal coffers. Some fear the lack of opportunity if they could no longer travel freely to the mainland. [ For some candidates, the path to the White House runs through paradise ] It is also controversial. People who have lived here for half a century take issue with the way the vote is being structured, saying it unfairly favors the Chamorro people. Only people who can trace their roots on the island back to 1950, when the island became an unincorporated territory, will be allowed to vote. Efforts to populate a voter registry have been slow-going only 10,500 have registered so far, Calvo said and the education campaign is barely existent. I believe that before we have a vote, we need to have a strong education effort where people can really see what each status would mean, said Shannon Murphy, a local journalist who runs the Guampedia website. I havent seen it laid out in a way where people can compare each option. Even advocates of political change, including Bevacqua, say the governor is rushing the plebiscite because he has his mind on his legacy. A vote can only be held in an election year, and term limits mean Calvo will be on his way out of office at the 2018 poll. Calvo, who prefers the statehood option, said he called the vote because the time was right. For the vote to go ahead, the governor, the decolonization commission and the Election Commission all have to agree. The decolonization commission is due to decide whether to press ahead at its meeting next month. Local business representatives think that moving to lessen or get rid of the military presence on Guam would be economic suicide. As a business person, I wonder if they have thought through the economic aspects of the decisions they want to make, said Joe Arnett, an accountant who has lived on Guam for 32 years and runs the armed forces committee for the local chamber of commerce. The U.S. federal government puts $600 million a year into Guam through Social Security and taxes paid by military personnel stationed here. Thats not including food stamps and school lunches and things like that, he said. Almost $9 billion has been earmarked for the base expansion and support facilities, one-third of which will be moved from Japan. In the north of Guam, preparations are underway. The Pentagon has unlocked $309 million for the first phase of construction of the new Marine base, which will be built on existing military land lined with palm trees. Next door at the Andersen Air Force Base, where B-52 bombers were lined up on the runway this week, construction workers were building a new hangar that will be part of the expanded footprint. [ Guam: A high concentration of veterans, but rock-bottom VA funding ] But the buildup will be long and slow. The first wave of 2,500 Marines is expected here by 2022, with the remainder due by 2027. The Marines are making sure to stay out of the local debate. Guam needs to figure out whats best for Guam, said Col. Philip Zimmerman, the officer in charge of the 20-strong Marine contingent on Guam. But, he said, from a military perspective, Guam is a crucial forward base, noting tensions with North Korea and with China around the Spratly Islands and the South China Sea in recent months. It is 2,500 miles to Beijing from here, but more than double that to Los Angeles. The base itself would be good for the islands economy, Zimmerman said. We will be creating jobs during the buildup, then well be creating civilian jobs to run the ranges and to run the base itself, he said. A military socioeconomic impact assessment study found that the new base would create more than 3,000 full-time civilian jobs in 2021, and tax revenues to the Guam government would increase by about $40 million a year from 2028. For his part, the governor said he would gladly pay federal taxes so that Guam could be a full-fledged state. But anything is better than being an unincorporated territory, Calvo said. Thats just another word for colony. Read more In Okinawa, protesters dig in as work proceeds to relocate U.S. Marine base Protest voices: Okinawans have been treated like we are disposable for too long Chinese ballistic missiles dubbed Guam Killer pose increasing threat to U.S. island, report says Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world A trade show in Hangzhou, China, in April displayed new Chinese-developed phones and apps. (Agence France-Press/Getty Images) Apple said Friday it has appealed the decision of a Beijing oversight panel alleging the tech giant violated design patents of a small Chinese competitor, but sales of Apple smartphones have not been disrupted by the dispute. The ruling last month initially raised the possibility that sales of the latest iPhone models could be blocked in the Chinese capital, Beijing. But a statement from Apple said the issue was put on hold pending a court review. All models of the iPhone 6 are available for sale in China, said the company statement. A ban on iPhone sales would appear highly unlikely. Apples smartphones are enormously popular with Chinas fast-growing middle class, and the Chinese government would be unlikely to risk the backlash that such a move could provoke. But the dispute marked the latest complication for the company in its largest market outside the United States. China halted Apples book and movie services in April for allegedly violating foreign publishing regulations. The issue also underscores the growing concerns that many foreign companies have about doing business in China, with many feeling the playing field in increasingly tipped against them. [Treasury secretary chides China over business openness] In a decision last month but only made public recently Beijings Intellectual Property Office found that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus infringed on Shenzhen Bailis patent rights because of similarities to its 100C phone, the Bloomberg news agency reported. Baili is among many smartphone makers trying to compete against established brands such as Apple and Samsung. Apple is expected to release its next-generation iPhone later this year. In 2013, state media accused Apple of shoddy customer service and inadequate warranties, forcing an apology from its top executive, Tim Cook. Last month, Apple lost its fight to keep the iPhone exclusive to its products after a Beijing court ruled that a little-known accessories maker can use the label for a range of wallets and purses. And in 2012, Apple paid $60 million to Proview International Holdings Ltd. to settle a dispute over the right to the iPad name in China, Bloomberg news reported. [Why U.S. companies feel uneasy in China, explained] Apples sales have slowed in line with Chinas overall economic slowdown and in the face of stiff competition. In the first quarter of this year, revenue in Greater China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, fell 26 percent to $12.5 billion. In May, Apple announced that it had invested $1 billion in Chinas most dominant ride-hailing company, Didi Chuxing, in a move widely seen as aimed at giving it a stronger economic and political foothold in China. Read more: Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday declared victory over the Islamic State in Fallujah after a day of rapid advances as security forces pushed deep into the city center, dislodging the militants who have controlled it for nearly 2 years. In a televised address, Abadi said that some pockets of resistance remained in the city, about 45 miles west of Baghdad, but that it was largely under the control of security forces. Earlier in the day, Iraqi forces raised the countrys flag over the local council building, while commanders reported that they had retaken a string of neighborhoods as the militants abandoned their positions. The Islamic State has been broken in the city, said Col. Abdelrahman al-Khazali, a police spokesman. But the gains also compounded a growing humanitarian crisis in the surrounding province of Anbar, as thousands of civilians who had been trapped inside the city took advantage of the Islamic States collapsing grip to flee. Aid agencies working with the displaced said they were struggling to provide even basic assistance. Tents had run out, and food and water supplies were dangerously low. Defeating the Islamic State in Fallujah deprives the group of one of its last strongholds in Iraq and gives a boost to the embattled Abadi. Backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqs special forces have won a series of victories against the Islamic State elsewhere in the western province. Fallujah, though, holds particular importance. Dubbed the City of Mosques, it is of symbolic significance to Sunni Muslims and was the first Iraqi city to fall to the militants. It was in Fallujah that U.S. forces endured their bloodiest fighting of the Iraq War, battling the Islamic States predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq, on the citys streets 12 years ago. We promised to liberate Fallujah, and today Fallujah was returned to the bosom of the country, Abadi said in his speech. He went on to address the militants directly. Your leaders have made promises to you and let you down. They promised you that they would withstand, and they didnt, he said. You have no place in this Iraq. [After more than $1.6 billion in U.S. aid, Iraqs army still struggles] After beginning their initial assault last month, Iraqs elite special forces encountered a complex network of booby traps on the citys outskirts. They said they expected the barricades to be easier to overcome once they broke through the citys initial defense lines, and they hoped that a months-long siege of the city had weakened the militants inside. That appeared to be ringing true Friday as Iraqi forces made faster-than-expected gains. The militants realized its a lost cause, and they are running away, said Maj. Gen. Saad Harbiya, an Iraqi army commander. Lt. Gen. Abdelwahab al-Saedi, commander of the Fallujah operation, said Iraqs elite counterterrorism forces had surrounded the citys hospital, which he said the militants were using as a base. The hospital was an early target for U.S. forces and Iraqi troops as they began an assault on the city in 2004. Saedi said his forces were within 50 yards of the building and were preparing to storm it. However, the presence of some civilians inside was delaying the operation, the Iraqi military later said. Commanders reported that the neighborhoods of Nazzal, Saray, Sinai and Andalus, and the main cemetery, had all been retaken. The central Jolan and Mualimin neighborhoods had not yet been secured, commanders said. Sabah al-Noori, a spokesman for Iraqs counterterrorism forces, predicted that the entire city would be under the control of Iraqi government forces soon. Abadi said he expected the final militants to be expelled within hours. [Troops face booby traps, tunnels packed with explosives in advance on Fallujah] Abadi announced the operation to regain control of the city last month, going against the advice of the United States to instead focus on the larger Islamic State-held city of Mosul farther north. Abadi, however, has been under domestic pressure to score a quick win against the militants after mass street protests in Baghdad against his government. Mosul is a more politically complicated operation, involving coordination between Baghdad and the semiautonomous government in Iraqs northern Kurdistan region. There have been concerns about the plight of civilians stuck inside Fallujah. When the operation began in late May, as many as 90,000 people were believed trapped in the city, with the Islamic State holding them to use as human shields. Adding to those worries is the supporting role being played by Shiite militias, which commonly perceive civilians in the Sunni-majority city to be sympathetic to the Sunni extremists. The militia forces have agreed not to enter the city center but have been accused of rights abuses on its outskirts as civilians flee. The Norwegian Refugee Council said the sudden surge of fleeing civilians was overwhelming. A sudden retreat by Islamic State fighters from key checkpoints in Fallujah allowed residents to leave in droves, spokesman Karl Schembri said. The aid group does not have exact figures on how many have left, he said. Its total chaos, he said. Thousands had slept in the open overnight and were now in the scorching sun with no shelter as temperatures climbed over 100 degrees, he said. Tents had run out. Drinking water remains in dangerously short supply, he added. Falah al-Issawi, deputy head of the Anbar provincial council, said 63,000 civilians had fled the operation in Fallujah. The International Organization for Migration put the number at 68,000. They join hundreds of thousands displaced from other areas of Anbar, including the provincial capital, Ramadi, which was recaptured at the end of last year. Most have not been allowed to return home, because large areas of the city have been reduced to rubble and are not yet cleared of explosives. Deemed a security threat, the displaced are also not allowed to cross into neighboring Baghdad province without special permission. Abadi tried to assure the displaced that security forces had sacrificed their lives so they could return to live in security and peace. Men who have fled have been detained for security screening. Out of 7,000 detained, about 1,500 have been referred to the judiciary for suspected ties to the Islamic State, said Issawi, who heads the screening committee. Another 1,500 are being investigated, while the rest have been released, he said. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraqs top Shiite cleric, urged security forces to take care as they advance and treat civilians as brothers and sisters. We warn that the aim of the fighters should not be revenge, he said in his sermon, urging discipline. Read more: These Iraqis dodged bombs and bullets to escape ISIS, but their misery hasnt ended A desperate womans email from Iraq reveals the high toll of Obamas low-cost wars U.S. Marine killed in Islamic State rocket attack in northern Iraq, military says Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world Smoke and flames rise after what fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) said were U.S.-led airstrikes on the mills of Manbij where Islamic State militants are positioned, in Aleppo, Syria, on Thursday. (Rodi Said/Reuters) Dozens of State Department employees signed and submitted a memo early this week urging the Obama administration to adopt a more aggressive stance against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, including the use of military force. The 51 signatories to the document, which was sent through the departments internal dissent channel, were largely mid-level diplomats based in Washington and overseas. They included a Syria desk officer and the consul general in Istanbul, and some were described by one official as having only peripheral involvement with Syria policy. The memo calls on the administration to respond to the worsening humanitarian situation in Syria with air attacks and other stand-off weapons, fired from a distance without troops on the ground, to force Assad into U.S.-led negotiations to end the conflict. As many as 400,000 people have been killed in five years of civil war in Syria, according to the United Nations, and nearly half the population has been internally displaced or has fled the country. Much of the thrust of the document has been advocated inside the administration by Secretary of State John F. Kerry for much of his time in office. President Obama has consistently resisted direct U.S. military involvement in the war, saying that it would simply add to the bloodshed and not improve the situation in Syria. Kerry said Friday during a visit to Copenhagen that the memo was an important statement that he would discuss further in Washington. [Assad vows more bloodshed in Syria] Its an important statement, and I respect the process, very, very much. I will . . . have a chance to meet with people when I get back, said Kerry, who is due to return to Washington late Friday. The memo was delivered Tuesday to the State Departments Office of Policy Planning. The White House was informed Thursday, after it became apparent that the document had been leaked to the media. It first appeared in the New York Times online several hours later. But several senior officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the subject, expressed frustration that the memo was made public and concern that it could undercut the secretarys own arguments. Others said the authors may not have known of Kerrys position in internal administration debates, or hoped to buttress it. The judicious use of the attacks it described would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process, the memo said. Even as it launched an aggressive bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the White House has gingerly approached the separate Syrian conflict between rebel groups and the Assad government. Over the past several years, it has expressed dismay at the lack of political and military organization of moderate opposition forces. The White House also has voiced continued concern that any weapons it gives to opposition fighters could end up in the hands of the Islamic State or Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaedas affiliate in Syria. [U.S.-Russia cooperation on Syria frays] Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who left the administration at the end of Obamas first term, has said she had argued for a more robust U.S. posture while in office, including the establishment of U.S.-protected safe zones for civilians and opposition fighters. She has repeated that call during her campaign for the presidency. Numerous Republican lawmakers have urged U.S. airstrikes against Assad, and some have called for American troops on the ground. Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has said he would concentrate on the Islamic State and would leave Assad alone. Early this year, as the humanitarian situation worsened with at least 19 communities besieged by Syrian government forces, aided by Russian air attacks Kerry negotiated an international agreement with Russia and others for a cease-fire and for the delivery of food and medical supplies to communities that in some cases had been cut off from aid for years. While the cease-fire sporadically continues in some places the United States and Russia said this week that a new 48-hour truce was being implemented in the city of Aleppo it has largely collapsed in key parts of the country. Russia, which said when the cease-fire began that it would suspend its own bombing on Assads behalf, cut back but never fully stopped, according to U.S. officials who have repeatedly charged the bombs are largely directed at the U.S.-backed moderate opposition. [56 hours with the Russian army in Syria] Although the situation has reportedly improved somewhat this week, the United Nations, has charged the Assad government with continuing to block aid delivery in some places. The persistent bombing and humanitarian disaster prompted refugees who have flooded into Turkey and other neighboring countries over the years to seek further refuge in Europe, causing a political crisis there. Meanwhile, the bombing and the ongoing humanitarian disaster led the opposition to suspend U.N.-sponsored negotiations over a political solution to the conflict. The dissent memo said the signers were not advocating for a slippery slope that ends in a military confrontation with Russia, although it was not clear how such a clash could be avoided, given the already crowded skies over Syria and Russias support for Assad. The State Departments dissent channel was established during the Vietnam War. According to the official Foreign Affairs Manual, it is department policy that all U.S. citizen employees, foreign and domestic, be able to express dissenting or alternative views on substantive issues of policy, in a manner which ensures serious, high-level review and response. It was created, the manual says, for use when such views cannot be communicated in a full and timely manner through regular operating channels or procedures, to the attention of the Secretary of State and other senior State Department officials in a manner which protects the author from any penalty, reprisal or recrimination. Read more: Aid delivered in Syria may be too little, too late Assad pledges more bloodshed in Syria, says the peace process has failed As deadline approaches, no progress on humanitarian aid to Syrians Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world ARLINGTON, Va., June 17, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Planned Systems International, Inc. (PSI), a leading provider of information technology (IT) solutions and services for the federal government, is pleased to announce that it was awarded a task order to continue support of Expeditionary Medical Modernization Planning, Programming & Support (EMMPPS) for the Air Force Medical Service (AFMS). The AFMS mission is to provide increasingly better support to the warfighter during deployments. Under the terms of the task order, PSI will continue to provide analytical, advisory, assistance and consultation support to Air Combat Command (ACC) for all aspects of modernization and sustainment required to support air combat operations. This includes Expeditionary Medical Support (EMEDS), home station medical response, medical Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN), and casualty prevention. PSI experts will employ leading-edge technology and innovation to address todays ground-based expeditionary and aerospace medicine capability gaps and shortfalls. This technology will provide a robust enterprise-wide service for senior AFMS leaders to acquire timely and accurate data that will enable them to provide critical decision support. "This win represents the confidence our Air Force customer has in PSI and our ability to support the full range of expeditionary medical activities, said Matt Hartmann, Vice President of Consulting Services. "This is a tribute to our long-standing partnership and the thorough understanding of the value of this important mission. The task order has a one-year base period of performance with two option years and was issued under the Air Forces Contracted Advisory & Assistance Services IV (CAAS IV) contract. PSI has served as prime contractor for the Air Force Medical Service (AFMS) on this contract since 2013. About Planned Systems International, Inc. Founded in 1988, PSI is a CMMI-DEV Level 3, CMMI-SVC Level 3, ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005, ISO 27001:2005, and ISO 14001:2004-certified enterprise IT solutions and management consulting services provider specializing in Health IT and Data Integration & Analyses. PSI has a stellar record of past performance and award-winning experience, and core capabilities in the following areas: Requirements Gathering & Design; Enterprise Architecture & Design; Software Development & Maintenance; Systems Integration; Testing Services; Web & SharePoint Development; Cloud Computing; E-Learning - Instructional Design & Delivery; Service Delivery & Customer Care; Medical Modeling & Simulation; Big Data Analytics & Business Intelligence; Mobility Systems; Theatre Systems Support, and Advisory & Assistance Services. The company has earned a solid reputation for applying state-of-the-art technologies and the industry's most successful methodologies to support business solutions for the Defense Health Agency, Veterans Affairs, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Health and Human Services, Corporation for National and Community Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other Government clients. Visit PSI on the web at www.plan-sys.com. Saudi Arabia, after its powerful deputy crown prince met with President Obama at the White House on Friday, publicly rebutted campaign allegations by both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that it supports Islamist extremism and said it expects strong U.S. relations to continue no matter who wins the election. Irrespective of who is in the White House, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said, close U.S.-Saudi ties are not based on personal relationships. Instead, he said at a news conference, they are based on shared interests, including Middle East security, counterterrorism, trade, investment and international finance. This relationship is very solid, Jubeir said. Earlier this week, as Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who also serves as defense minister, arrived in Washington, Clinton repeated a charge that she first made last year. It is long past time for the Saudis, the Qataris and the Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organizations, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said at an Ohio rally. And they should stop supporting radical schools and mosques around the world that have set too many young people on a path towards extremism. [Can Saudi Arabia pivot away from oil? A powerful prince brings his pitch to America.] Trump, the expected Republican nominee, has suggested that the Saudis may have been complicit in the 9/11 attacks, threatened to end oil purchases from the kingdom if it does not send ground troops to Syria, and said that it should pay the United States for protecting it. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is bipartisan, Jubeir said, and relations have grown stronger, broader, deeper under both Democratic and Republican administrations. While he declined to speak specifically about Trump, Jubeir said that Secretary Clinton has tremendous experience, has been to Saudi Arabia many times and knows the region. Responding to her specific charges, he said that all of us can do more to stop terrorist funding, including the United States. Saudi Arabia, he said, has one of the strictest laws in the world criminalizing the sending of money to extremist groups overseas and mandating that any charitable giving be funneled exclusively through the government. Nobody can question the kingdoms commitment to fighting terror, Jubeir said. At the end of the day, we are the main targets, he said, citing the large number of civilians and security officials killed in terrorist attacks. Jubeir repeated Saudi insistence that the 28 pages, as they are known, redacted from a 2002 Senate report on the al-Qaeda attacks be published in full. The pages, which the Obama administration has indicated it will release this month, are thought to contain FBI work plans for interviewing Saudi citizens and officials who might have had some involvement. The subsequent 9/11 Commission report, published in 2004 after a lengthy investigation, indicated that all of those leads were followed and determined to lack substance. [How allegations of Saudi Arabias ties to the 9/11 plotters began a problem for Obama, again] Jubeir said deciding when and how much of the document to release was a U.S. issue, not a Saudi issue. He also warned that passage of a proposed U.S. law to allow 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia and other countries for compensation would set a dangerous precedent and harm the United States above all. The White House has agreed, threatening to veto a bill removing sovereign immunity in such cases that has passed the Senate and is awaiting House action. Jubeir denied reports that his government has threatened to withdraw investment from the United States if it becomes law. But he acknowledged that he, the former Saudi ambassador to Washington, had pointed out that it would cause the international financial system to revert to the law of the jungle and said the country with the most to lose is the United States . . . the largest player in the world. Referring to Clinton, Jubeir said allegations that Saudi-built mosques were promoting extremism in other countries were not correct, exaggerated and not fair. Any such donations require permission from the local government, he said, and if someone uses them to preach intolerance, that government can take them to task. Policing what is taught in mosques and schools, he said, is the responsibility of local government, not the donor. He also rejected claims, made by Trump and others here, that Saudi Arabia has not taken a fair share of Syrian refugees. Since Syrias civil conflict began five years ago, he said, the kingdom has admitted 2.4 million Syrians, 600,000 to 700,000 of whom remain in Saudi Arabia. None of them is in a refugee camp. . . . We do not have a person in a tent, he said, adding that they are guests and given work permits, health care and education. They are free to stay in Saudi Arabia until the crisis is over. Since the mass shooting in a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, Democrats have endorsed various measures to get weapons out of the hands of people on secretive terror watch lists. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP) The push by congressional Democrats to bar suspected terrorists from acquiring guns and explosives has focused renewed attention on the governments secretive terrorist watch lists, which have grown exponentially since the 9/11 attacks and triggered widespread concern among civil liberties groups. Since the mass shooting in a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, Democrats have endorsed various measures to get weapons out of the hands of people on the lists. The Senate is expected to vote Monday on a series of competing gun-control measures that will highlight the continuing partisan divide over the issue. The Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, had been on the FBIs terrorist watch list but was removed in 2014. His was one of approximately 800,000 names in that database, the most prominent of at least seven overlapping watch lists maintained by at least four federal agencies. The system has grown so large and complex that Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said this week that the Senate will vote with almost no one understanding how these lists are put together, how theyre adjudicated, how you get off of them. He added: The terror watch list is not what people think it is . . . and theres 11 different lists. [Senate close to vote on gun-control measures but no bipartisan agreement in sight] Although the government does not release the exact number of watch lists or the specific criteria for getting on them, it is clear that they have exploded in numbers. The no-fly list once called the no transport list contained 16 people on Sept. 11, 2001, according to government documents obtained by the ACLU of Northern California. By 2014, it had grown to about 64,000 people, FBI officials said. Federal terrorism investigators say the lists are an essential part of their post-9/11 emphasis on preventing another mass attack. Some experts agree. We want to give sufficient tools to authorities to keep us safe while at the same time building in safeguards, said Bruce Hoffman, director of national security studies at Georgetown University. Its one of the strengths of our society that if you havent committed a crime, you cant be arrested. But that doesnt mean someone is, quote unquote, innocent. Civil liberties advocates strongly dispute that, saying the watch lists are riddled with inaccurate and outdated information, nearly impossible to get off and stigmatize the people on them, who are stopped at airports and border crossings and rarely told why. The governments bloated watch system is based on vague and overbroad standards, said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Unions national security project. As a result, innocent people are wrongly blacklisted without a fair process to correct the error. The largest watch list is The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center. It is a central repository of not only names of what the government calls known or suspected terrorists but also classified intelligence files on them. As of August 2014, it contained about 1.1 million names, including about 25,000 U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, according to the center. The center sends data from TIDE to the FBIs Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains what is known as the governments consolidated Terrorist Watchlist. It contains about 800,000 names, according to 2014 congressional testimony from Christopher M. Piehota, the screening centers director. He told a House subcommittee that the watch list contains both known or suspected international and domestic terrorist identity information. The process for getting on the watch list, he said, is known as nominations, which originate from federal law enforcement, homeland security and intelligence agencies. Information from the FBIs master list flows to other lists, including the no-fly list, which is also maintained by the FBI; the Consular Lookout and Support System, a State Department list that identifies people who may be ineligible for a visa or passport; and the Known or Appropriately Suspected Terrorists File. That list, also maintained by the FBI, is a subset of the bureaus master watch list and is disseminated nationwide to law enforcement agencies, according to a 2014 ACLU report. In the years since 9/11, government monitors and courts have documented problems with the expanding system. A 2009 Justice Department inspector general report said that the FBI was often failing to modify information about individuals on its master watch list when new information emerged during an investigation. [The gun the Orlando shooter used was a Sig Sauer MCX] In 2014, a Malaysian architecture professor prevailed in a lawsuit in which she sought to get her name removed from the no-fly list, with a federal judge saying she had been put on it by mistake. And last year, another federal judge ruled that the governments lack of effective procedures for people to challenge their inclusion on the no-fly list was unconstitutional. The government then said that U.S. citizens and residents, unlike before, can find out whether they are on the list and sometimes receive a summary of the reasons. The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit, contends that the revisions are insufficient. Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report. Amid mounting popular opposition, the Greek government of the pseudo-left Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) and its right-wing populist allies, the Independent Greeks (Anel), is rapidly moving ahead with the privatisations demanded by the European Union (EU). Last year, the government agreed to a strict austerity programme with the EU, which, among other things, contains wide-ranging privatisations. After two austerity programmes were rushed through parliament at the end of May, the government has now turned its attention to selling off state property. In exchange for this, the state is to receive loans of 10.3 billion. The first tranche of 7.5 billion is expected to be paid out on 20 June. Last week, the Syriza government sold the site of the former Elliniko airport in southern Athens for the bargain price of 915 million to property developers Lamda Development, the Chinese firm Fosun and the Abu Dhabi-based Al-Maabat. A private luxury district is to be built on the 620-hectare piece of land, which also includes a large stretch of beach. Along with parks and casinos, Lamda intends to construct luxury hotels and apartments for the super-rich. The firm is largely owned by the old Latsis ship-owning family and is notorious for its corrupt dealings. In 2004-05, the building of a shopping mall in Athens by Lamda Development triggered a scandal because the deal upon which it was based with the government violated the constitution. The family of the billionaire and second-richest Greek, Spyros Latsis, is also the main shareholder of Greeces third largest financial institution, Eurobank Ergasias, which profited from the EUs bank bailout programme in 2012. According to Greek media reports, another condition for the payout of the loans is the sale of additional parts of the Greek telecommunications firm OTE to Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom became a part owner of OTE in 2008 and currently owns 40 percent of the company, while the Greek state has just 10 percent. Half of this stake is now to be sold. Deutsche Telekom oversees OTE and has cut 3,300 jobs in recent years. A similar destruction of jobs threatens the other institutions that are set to be privatised. At the same time, foreign investors and the super-rich in Greece are benefiting. The privatisation authority TAIPED counted 25 concluded projects on its web site, including the Elliniko airport site, several hotel resorts, stretches of land, beaches and state property, as well as 14 regional airports, which are to be sold to the German Fraport. On Monday, TAIPED published a tender for the evaluation of the 23 airports remaining in state hands. In addition, 13 ongoing privatisation projects were listed, among them the Astir Vouliagmenis beach and luxury hotel complex in Athens, Greeces largest yachting marina at Alimos in Athens, both ports in Piraeus and Thessaloniki, ROSCO vehicle maintenance, the rail operator TrainOSE and the water provider in Thessaloniki. A further 22 projects are being planned, including the Athens international airport, Athens water provider, the oil company Hellenic Petroleum, postal company ELTA, gas provider DEPA and the strategically-important Egnatia Odos motorway. TAIPED was founded in 2011 at the insistence of Greeces international creditors. According to the latest decisions, TAIPED is to be subordinated, along with three other institutions, to the new superfund Hellenic Company of Assets and Participations. This fund will also then own the newly-established corporation for public shareholders (EDIS) which will be responsible for privatisation in the transportation branch. A glance at the organisational structure of the superfund reveals the extent to which European institutions intend to expand their influence on the Greek economy. The general assembly of shareholders, i.e., the Greek state, represented by economics minister Euklid Tsakalotos (Syriza), makes all of the decisions about privatisations. But the management has been taken over by an executive team appointed and monitored by a five-person board. The European Commission and the European Stability Mechanism select two members of this supervisory board. The other three members are appointed by the Greek government but must be approved by the EU Commission and ESM. The supervisory board and management will thus be largely controlled by the EU institutions, within which Germany has considerable influence. But it is the Syriza government of Alexis Tsipras which is currently eagerly appealing for international investment. Deputy economy minister Giorgos Chouliarakis, who was involved in the negotiations of the third memorandum in 2015, told Greek newspaper Kathimerini on Sunday that Greece required large public and private investment and a business friendly climate. As the talks with the euro group were still under way, Russian President Vladimir Putin completed an extended visit to Greece with seven ministers and the heads of the energy concerns Gazprom and Rosneft. He expressed interest in the Greek railway company, the port of Thessaloniki and Hellenic Petroleum. A few days later, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls travelled to Athens and signed several agreements to strengthen Greek-French economic relations. While workers and youth protested against the labour market reforms of the Hollande government, Tsipras praised in the highest tones Greeces close cooperation with France, and demonstratively backed the Hollande government. The supposedly left Prime Minister proclaimed his solidarity not with French workers, but with the French elite. Both governments share a common hatred of their own working class. Anger towards Syriza is also growing in Greece. After the party was voted into office in 2015 due to its anti-austerity rhetoric, it has emerged as a reliable partner of international finance capital and the European institutions. Current voter polls show Syriza losing significant support. The latest poll from Kapa Research put the right-wing conservative New Democracy (ND) in the lead with 30.8 percent, ahead of Syriza, with 25 percent, a drop from its 35.46 percent in last Septembers election. Third place was occupied by the fascist party Golden Dawn, with 8.7 percent. These figures must be treated with caution, because 30 percent of respondents selected none of the available parties. The opposition to Syriza is in fact much greater, but it finds no expression within the political establishment. 76.9 percent of respondents evaluated the work of the government thus far as negative or quite negative. But all the opposition parties met with strong opposition; negative or quite negative was the evaluation given by 68.6 percent for the ND, 74.8 percent for the social democrats, 74.9 percent for the Stalinist KKE and fully 89.9 percent for Golden Dawn. The mounting opposition to the privatisations and austerity policies of the Syriza government is finding expression in strikes and protests. Workers at the ports in Athens and Thessaloniki have been on strike for two weeks, warning strikes have taken place for several days on Athens public transportation system, and on Tuesday, workers at the national rail and Athens city trains joined the strike. Last week, employees in the education and health care sectors demonstrated against terrible conditions in public schools and hospitals. The deputy health minister Pavlos Polakis (Syriza) was detained on a visit to Ierapetras hospital on the island of Crete by several hundred angry residents and workers demonstrating over the lack of staff and catastrophic working conditions. Syriza is responding to rising opposition with repression. At the beginning of this week, the government cleared all unauthorised refugee camps in northern Greece. The police mobilised 300 officers, sealed off the area and prevented media from entering. At least 38 foreign volunteers were temporarily held in police detention. The refugees are now being confined in state detention camps in which inhumane living conditions are rampant. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military intervention in Afghanistan, which officially began as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in August 2003, and ended in December 2014, will continue at least through 2020, NATO officials confirmed Wednesday. The continued NATO occupation of Afghanistan will be divided into three subsections, commanded by US-, German- and Italian-led contingents. Together with the 10,000 American troops remaining in country, NATO will maintain six bases as part of a hub and spoke military network, centered on the militarized government compound in Kabul and the massive US base at Bagram airfield, which was established following the 2001 US-led invasion. The NATO mission in Afghanistan is only part of a package of enhancements announced this week. In the lead-up to the July 8 Warsaw summit, NATO is preparing to ratify a laundry list of military preparations directed toward encircling Russia. On Wednesday, the US-European imperialist alliance announced new deployments and military aid to Romania, Ukraine, the Black Sea and the Aegean. NATO will also intensify its involvement in the European Unions militarized refugee-policing operations in the Mediterranean, Operation Sophia, including a new platform for a NATO role in the central Mediterranean, NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday. In a sweeping commitment, NATO has agreed in general terms to join the US war on ISIS, Washingtons latest catchall neocolonial project, which, though originally centered on the Iraq-Syria war launched in 2014, has expanded to encompass growing areas of Africa and Central and South Asia. NATO advisers are already preparing to join the American intervention in Iraq, and NATO intelligence cadres have been sent to the US Central Command and US Special Operations Command in Tampa, Florida. In Eastern Europe, NATO is preparing openly for total war against Russia. The Warsaw summit is expected to approve a permanent rotational presence of thousands of Western combat troops in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, along with the progressive buildup of massive stores of warehoused military hardware, and the maintenance of a 40,000-strong rapid response spearhead force against Russia. The NATO enhancements are being announced in an aggressively provocative fashion. Every day brings more heated war rhetoric against Moscow. NATO leaders speak of war with Russia as an imminent reality. General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg warned Thursday that Russia is massing forces all along NATOs lines. We are observing massive militarisation at NATO borders: in the Arctic, in the Baltic, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, Stoltenberg said in an interview with Germanys Bild. Russia is trying to build up a zone of influence through military means, he said. We are registering aggressive, unannounced, large-scale maneuvers on the Russian side. Therefore we must act, Stoltenberg added, calling for a clear signal of strength. NATO must be ready in the future to deploy forces in Libya, as it did in Afghanistan and the Balkans, Stoltenberg said. NATOs commitment to five more years of war in Afghanistan is the latest in a flurry of signals that American imperialism is preparing a new outburst of militarist violence against Afghanistan, Pakistan, and throughout Central Asia. Spurred on by pressure from the Pentagon and the worsening crisis of the US-backed puppet government in Kabul, President Barack Obama is preparing to cancel further reductions of the US troop level in Afghanistan and authorize various expansions of the war. Last week, Obama green-lighted new offensive operations against the Taliban insurgency. The US Air Force announced Thursday that it is intensifying bombing raids over Afghanistan, acting under expanded rules of engagement aimed at shaping the battlespace, the US Air Force chief of staff told media Wednesday. The new US Afghanistan Commander, General John Nicholson, is expected to receive still broader authority to launch preemptive strikes against the Islamist militias. Decades of imperialist war, invasion and occupation by Washington and its European accomplices have already transformed Afghanistan into a killing field. From 1978 onward, US-backed militias and American and European troops have ravaged the strategic Central Asian nation, producing a body count that continues to grow by the year. The years 2014 and 2015 each set new records for civilian deaths in Afghanistan, with at least 3,500 civilians killed and 7,500 injured last year. Bolstered by NATO, Washington will plow ahead all the more boldly, unleashing new waves of chaos and violence in a Central Asian political tinderbox already menaced by the close prospect of a regional war involving nuclear-armed states. The American and European soldiers sent to Afghanistan are being deployed into a cauldron of national tensions. The political order of Asia is being violently restructured under the impact of the Obama administrations anti-China Pivot to Asia, which has massed American forces along Chinas coasts, and inflamed conflicts between Beijing and a handful of its neighbors, including Japan, India, Vietnam and the Philippines. The longstanding and interlocking conflicts between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Pakistan and India, have been thrown into overdrive by the US-India alliance, and were further damaged by the May 21 assassination of Pakistani-backed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour. Washingtons war drive against China, and the recruitment of India on its behalf, have trashed the US-Pakistani alliance, forcing Islamabad to align more closely with Beijing. On Thursday, Pakistan announced that it would join the Chinese-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). A full SCO membership will help Pakistan strengthen its role in regional and global politics, economies and infrastructure by promoting regional connectivity through the One Belt One Road and Eurasian Economic Union projects, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said. The souring of relations between Washington and Islamabad has encouraged Kabuls ambitions to pursue historic conflicts with Pakistan. In an apparent effort to contest the imperialist-drawn 1893 Afghanistan-Pakistan border, known as the Durand line, Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani forces and construction crews in the Torkham border area on Sunday. After an attempted truce, Pakistani units began firing artillery over the crossing on Wednesday. The situation remains tense and both sides are reportedly massing forces in the area. The upending of the regional order by the US pivot is setting the stage for ferocious struggles over control of Central Asias vast natural resources and key commercial throughways. In Eurasian Integration: Caught Between Russia and China, the European Council on Foreign Affairs, a strategy network that includes a swathe of Europes political and business elite, outlines a plan to shape the Eurasian economy in the interests of sections of the European bourgeoisie, primarily through interventions targeted against Russia and China. Europe should carve out its own role in Central Asia, deepening its relationship with key nations such as Kazakhstan. These countries need the EUs market, and look to Europe to protect them from Russian and to a lesser extent Chinese control. Europe should ensure that no single country controls all energy routes through Eurasia, and back Chinas projects in order to reduce Russias control over the region, the Council wrote. The EU should play the role of an external balancer to China and Russias competition for power in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, they wrote. This will require strengthening cooperation in the field of energy trade and energy security between Central Asia and Europe. The European Council emphasizes the centrality of the Caucasus for Eurasian strategy, highlighting the centrality of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a crucial partner, since it provides the only means to bypass Iran and Russia, via the Caspian Sea, the Council notes. Azerbaijan is at the centre of three major integration initiatives the European Union, the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and the recently established One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative championed by China. The Councils analysis underscores the strategic significance of moves to integrate Azerbaijans neighbor, Georgia, into NATO, a major item on the agenda for Warsaw. NATO will strengthen our package of support for Georgia at the Warsaw conference, Stoltenberg said, building on the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Center and Noble Partner war exercises held in May, which included 650 American and 200 British soldiers. While Georgia is not formally a member of NATO, Tbilisi already maintains a full infantry company within NATOs Response Force and has deployed nearly 900 Georgian troops in support of the NATO Afghan mission. Pointing to the titanic contradictions brewing within the Eurasian mega-continent, the European Council notes that Eurasian integration is increasingly creating a pro-Chinese constituency with the less privileged sections of European capital in Central and Eastern Europe. The Council warns: Chinas engagement in Central and Eastern Europe threatens to turn the region into a strong advocate for China within the EU. For the European elites, this can only offer another compelling reason for the maintenance of NATO military garrisons, on Chinas doorstep, in Afghanistan. For all its internal divisions, the imperialist bourgeoisie is united by its determination to prevent the formation of Chinese- and Russian-led economic blocs. This is necessary to insure that the vast resources and labor armies of the post-Stalinist countries, closed off from Western capital for the better part of the 20th century by the Russian and Chinese revolutions, are thrown open for exploitation by the ruling cliques in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, responded to Sundays mass killing in Orlando, Florida by cynically and ominously invoking the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Just one day after 29-year-old Omar Mateen carried out the worst mass killing by a single gunman in American history, opening fire in a gay nightclub and killing 49 people and wounding 53 others, Clinton delivered a speech in which she appealed for a return to the spirit of 9/12. I remember how it felt on the day after 9/11. Ill bet you do as well, Clinton remarked. Americans from every walk of life rallied together with a sense of common purpose on September the 12th. And in the days and weeks and months that followed we had each others backs. Clinton wasted no time in invoking the fight against terrorism, even as details emerged of the complex ideological and political factorsembedded in the crisis of American societythat drove the homicidal actions of Mateen. What does Clinton really mean by the spirit of 9/12? The spirit of 9/12 means the invasion of Afghanistan, launched less than a month after the September 11 attacks, with the backing of both Democrats and Republicans. That war, now well into its fifteenth year and with no end in sight, has claimed the lives of more than 26,000 Afghan civilians and 2,300 American soldiers. This was soon followed in 2003 by the launching of an illegal war for regime change in Iraq, based on lies about WMDs and Saddam Husseins connection to 9/11, resulting in the deaths of approximately one million Iraqis, more than 4,400 US soldiers and the destruction of an entire society. Hillary Clinton, then a Senator from New York, voted with conviction to authorize the war. The spirit of 9/12 means the wholesale assault on democratic rights, including the passage of the draconian Patriot Act, military tribunals, detention without charge and the establishment of the notorious prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. Under the framework of the war on terror, the powers of the police-state apparatus have been vastly expanded, including the illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying by the NSA revealed by Edward Snowden. As New York Senator and then Secretary of State under Obama, Clinton supported all these antidemocratic measures and fully participated in the persecution of Snowden for courageously revealing the criminal actions of the government. Or perhaps Clinton is referring to the adoption of torture as an instrument of policy? Just yesterday, documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU documented the methods utilized by the CIA against prisoners, including forced nudity, the clothing of one detainee in a handcrafted diaper secured by duct tape, holding prisoners in cold conditions with minimal food or sleep, the horrific practice of waterboarding, and the infliction of torture on one prisoner that was so severe it killed him. The Obama administration has shielded the torturers, opposed their prosecution, and sought, to the best of its ability, to prevent the American people from learning the full truth of what the government has done. Following in the same spirit, President Barack Obama has dramatically expanded the scope of American military operations since taking the reins from Bush in 2008, expanding drone warfare and a policy of targeted assassination, including of American citizens. All told, Obama has overseen military operations and airstrikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. It was Clinton, then secretary of state, who pushed for the war in Libya that resulted in the lynch mob murder of Muammar Gadhafi and the shattering of that country into multiple warring factions. Clinton now invokes the spirit of 9/12 not only to justify and sanctify the crimes that have been carried out with her support, but to set the stage for the future wars and military operations being planned should she win the election in November. Perhaps most importantly, the spirit of 9/12 is aimed at covering up the basic reality of life in the United States and internationally: the division of society into two classesthe corporate and financial elite, which has increased its wealth enormously over the past 15 yearsand the working class, burdened by declining wages, high unemployment and the continual attack on social programs. During the Democratic primaries, tens of millions of workers and young people supported Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist who campaigned against the billionaire class. Even with Sanders winding down his campaign and preparing to throw his support behind Clinton, the preferred candidate of Wall Street, the question of social inequality remains on the minds of millions. Clinton, and the political establishment for which she speaks, wants to change the subject. Clintons reference to a common purpose is a fraud. There is no common purpose. There are the aims and purposes of the ruling class, backed by the full repressive power of the state. And there are the aims and purposes of the masses of workers and youth, seeking to defend their rights and striving for a society based on social equality. Whoever is elected in Novemberwhether it is Clinton, the Republican Donald Trump or some other candidatethe stage is set for a massive intensification of war abroad and the war on the working class at home. The presidential election campaign of the Socialist Equality Party is aimed at educating workers and youth throughout the country and internationally and building a political leadership to oppose the capitalist system and all its political representatives. Baidu, Chinas leading search engine group, is to invest a stated $305 million (RMB2 billion) in a slate of movies. The investment will be made through its Baidu Nuomi Pictures arm. The announcement was made Thursday on the sidelines of the Shanghai International Film Festival. Xu Yongming, president of Baidu Nuomi Pictures said that the company would use scientific and professional methods, as well as data from its massive web platforms, to assess projects. He said that the company is targeting 30 film and TV productions. Preferred genres include thrillers, youth-oriented projects and animation. In related moves Nuomi, which started out as group buying service but has been widely expanded, said that it would set up another fund for corporate investments in content companies. It will also set up a new fan service platform Fensiquan.com. Earlier this week, Baidu lowered its guidance to the investment community, warning that its medical advertising would weaken following recent regulatory issues. That news hit the companys NASDAL-listed shares, but financial analysts are divided as to the long term impact. The company has long been considered as one of Chinas top three Internet groups along with Alibaba and Tencent, to form the acronym BAT but has a long way to keep pace with the speed of development of either of its two rivals. Baidu is the majority owner of streaming video service iQIYI. The unit, which is heavily loss-making, this week announced that it had amassed 20 million paying subscribers. Related stories China's Huanxi Cancels $50 Million Venture With MUBI Apple Ordered to Stop Selling iPhones in China WWE Signs Streaming Deal With China's PPTV By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - The probe into the death of a 2-year-old boy killed by an alligator at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, is not criminal in nature, the local sheriff's office said on Thursday. Police divers recovered the body of Lane Graves on Wednesday from the man-made lake where he had been snatched by the alligator as he played at the water's edge the night before. The investigation is continuing, said Orange County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Rose Silva, adding, "It's not criminal in nature at this time." She did not provide further details. A Disney spokeswoman said the company would review the posted signs that ban swimming in Seven Seas Lagoon but do not specifically warn about alligators. The boy was grabbed by the reptile at about 9:15 p.m. local time on Tuesday while his family, on vacation from Omaha, Nebraska, relaxed on the shore nearby, authorities have said. His parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, tried to save the child but were unable to free him from the alligator's grip. A complete autopsy was conducted on Thursday afternoon on the body of the boy, which was found intact underwater. "The cause of death was ruled as a result of drowning and traumatic injuries," the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office said in a brief statement. It did not elaborate. The aquatic predators often roll their larger prey beneath the surface until their victim stops breathing, experts say, and then stash the body away to eat later. Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger spoke with the family by phone on Wednesday and expressed his sympathies, the company said. Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said on Thursday that resort beaches that were closed after the attack would be off-limits to guests until further notice. "All of our beaches are currently closed, and we are conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols," Wahler said in a statement. "This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings." SIXTH GATOR CAUGHT The alligator was believed to be between 4 and 7 feet (1.2 and 2 meters) long. Trappers remained at the lagoon on Thursday after removing a sixth alligator from the water late on Wednesday in an effort to find the one that snatched the child, said Greg Workman, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission's executive director, Nick Wiley, has said there is a good chance they have already captured the alligator in question. But officials said the search would go on until that was proved by forensic tests such as DNA studies, teeth measurements and comparison of bite marks. Workman said the commission also has wildlife officers on the scene around the clock, including three last night. He said they are searching all day, but especially at night when alligators are more active because of cooler temperatures and less human activity. Disney shares gained 11 cents to close at $98.38 on Thursday. Its Orlando resort is the most-visited theme park in the world, drawing more than 20 million visitors last year. The incident came ahead of Thursday's opening of the company's first theme park in China, a $5.5 billion project in Shanghai that boasts Disney's tallest castle. The attack happened on a beach by Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, an upmarket property just one stop from the Magic Kingdom on Walt Disney World's monorail. The hotel's website - rooms start at $569 a night before taxes - says guests can enjoy diversions such as "bask on the white-sand beach." (Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Letitia Stein in Tampa, Fla.; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Matthew Lewis) orange due to their being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limits due to their being a close relative that limits due to its being a close relative that limit because it is a close relative that limits because they are close relatives that limit because of being a close relative that limits 1. due to their being / due to its being / because it is / because they are / because of being 2. a close relative / close relatives 3. that limit / that limits We'll start with #3 on our list (limit/limits) because it's an issue of subject-verb agreement, which should be pretty easy to handle quickly. struggles limits struggles limit struggles limits struggles limit struggles limits We can eliminate options A, C, and E because they use the singular "limits" with a plural subject "struggles." all of brothers each of a friend all its fellows a close relative INCORRECT all their fellows close relatives CORRECT There you have it - option D is the correct choice! Hello Everyone!Let's take a closer look at this question to figure out the best course of action! First, here is the original question with the major differences between the options highlighted inIn California, a lack of genetic variation in the Argentine ant has allowed the species to spread widely;the spread of this species in its native Argentina.(A)so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to beand thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles(B)so genetically similar the ant considers all its fellows to beand thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles(C)so genetically similar, the ant considers all its fellows to beand thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles(D)so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to beand thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles(E)so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to beand thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony strugglesAfter a quick glance over the options, a few key differences jump out:Since all of the options for #1 are different, it will be hard to eliminate more than one at a time. With options 2 & 3, we can eliminate several at once, so let's start with one of these.To determine which verb we need, we must first figure out what this verb is referring to. What is causing the spread of the species to be limited? The intercolony struggles. Since "struggles" is a plural word, we now know that we need a plural verb to go with it. Let's see how each option breaks down:(A) due to their being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolonythat(B) due to its being so genetically similar the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolonythat(C) because it is so genetically similar, the ant considers all its fellows to be a close relative and thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolonythat(D) because they are so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be close relatives and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolonythat(E) because of being so genetically similar to one another, the ants consider all their fellows to be a close relative and thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolonythatSee - that was quick! Now we're only left with 2 options, so let's move on to #2 on our list: a close relative / close relatives. The key here is to look for the words "all of" or "each of" to figure out which one we need here:considerX to be Y = plural noun for Y (I consider all of my friends to be.)considerX to be Y = singular noun for Y (I consider each of my sisters to be.)(B) due to its being so genetically similar the ant considersto beand thus does not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limitThis isbecause the idiom structure doesn't agree in number. Whenever we refer to "all of" something, we need to use a plural to match. In this case, it uses the singular "a close relative," which is singular.(D) because they are so genetically similar to one another, the ants considerto beand thus do not engage in the kind of fierce intercolony struggles that limitThis is! It uses the proper subject-verb agreement with "limit," and the use of the plural "relatives" agrees with the plural "all their fellows."If you were to tackle #1 on our list first, it would have taken much longer to narrow down your options. Finding the "either this or that" problems will help you eliminate 2-3 options at once, which is much faster!Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it._________________ The former Republican presidential candidate later clarified his statement and said he "misspoke." Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) had some harsh words for President Obama Thursday (June 16) when he said Obama was directly responsible for the Orlando Shooting massacre due to his administrations inability to neutralize, or at least combat the rise of Islamic terrorist groups. Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaida went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obamas failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq, McCain said. So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies. McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Obama, made the comments while the president and Vice President Biden went to Orlando to visit surviving family members of those who were killed during the massacre. The elder Republican statesmen realizing his criticisms were rooted in poor taste, later retracted his statement and said he misspoke. I did not mean to imply that president was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obamas national security decisions, not the president himself, 79-year-old McCain said. The Arizona senators comments didnt sit well with Twitter, which caused the former P.O.W to trend for reasons no one should really be trending on Twitter. Somewhere there is a frazzled caregiver who entered John McCains room to find a blanket rope trailing out the window & half eaten jello cup Lauren DeStefano (@LaurenDeStefano) June 17, 2016 Breaking news: John McCain says Obama is directly responsible for the unsatisfying Lost finale. Benjamin Siemon (@BenjaminJS) June 17, 2016 John McCain is still mad he lost to Obama and WE are still mad he unleashed this half-wit on America. pic.twitter.com/6l1v9sG4g8 Sheila (@SheilaInCT) June 16, 2016 On Sunday June 12, 29-year-old Omar Mateen entered Pulse nightclub with an AR-15 assault rifle and killed 50 people. Although initial reports indicated Mateen choose the gay night club because he became irate after seeing two gay men kiss one another, one survivor, Patience Carter said while inside the club he spoke with attendees and pledged his loyalty to ISIS, and said the shooting was because he wanted America to stop bombing his country. Cut down to save for the environment and your wallet. Taking steps to improve the energy efficiency of your home doesn't only help to reduce your impact on the environment, it can also significantly lower your monthly utility bills. When it comes to deciding what appliances to replace or what new systems to install, consider what will provide the best improvement compared to the cost. "The most important step is to understand where investment makes the most sense," says Alex Wilson, co-author of "The Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings" and founder of BuildingGreen, an information and consulting company serving green design. Here are 10 things you can do to save energy and money in your home. Consult a professional. Every home is different, from the way it's built to how it wears down over the years. To figure out where your home is wasting the most energy, you can get a professional energy audit, which typically costs between $218 and $550, according to HomeAdvisor. Depending on the company performing the audit, how thorough you want the report and where you live, it can take one to five hours -- or more. "It would be an in-depth assessment to look how tight the home is -- where there's air leakage in the home," Wilson says. An audit can tell you where insulation may be less effective, or where windows need weather treatment to better keep harsh outdoor temperatures from disrupting your indoor heating and cooling. Or run a report yourself. If you can't undertake the cost of a professional audit, there are options like HomeSelfe, a free app and web service powered by utility information company Energy Datametrics. HomeSelfe shows you how to input information about your home, including the type of lightbulbs used and the age of your refrigerator, to tell you where you can make improvements, from simple fixes to replacing old appliances. Find rebates and tax credits for an upgrade. Any new product or appliance can offer better efficiency, but a homeowner's first concern is often the initial cost of the improvement. The federal government and many state and local governments offer tax credits for energy upgrades to homes, and many companies offer rebates on heating and cooling systems, new water heaters and more. "Most consumers don't know they're out there," says Ameeta Jain, co-founder of HomeSelfe. You can find local tax breaks and rebates through a simple web search, or pull together a HomeSelfe report, which provides local rebate options to help you save. Story continues Replace your shower head. It might seem almost too simple, but swapping out an old shower head will reduce the rate of water flow, dropping your water usage without forcing you to take shorter showers. "By reducing the flow rate by two-thirds or three-quarters, as would happen if you replace a 20-year-old shower head with a new one, it can pay for itself within a matter of months," Wilson says. Older shower heads can create a mist as well that will cool quickly and force you to use more hot water, he adds. Popular shower heads from Toto, Delta and DreamSpa all have significantly lower water flow rates than those manufactured 20 years ago, while continuing to offer highly desired "rain" showers. Unplug what's not in use. Another easy fix is one we all consider but don't necessarily do: When you're out for the day, unplug fixtures or switch off power strips not in use. Jain says getting in the habit of unplugging things as you leave your home can help to reduce "vampire energy," or the power used up by appliances that aren't on but are constantly plugged in. "Then in the morning when we unplug our phone, laptop, iPad, just turn the power strip off and you're saving energy," she says. You can even turn off the power source at the wall by replacing your existing outlet with a remote control outlet. Insteon offers a remote control dual on/off outlet, allowing you to cut the power on each plug independent of the others, for about $65. Insulate or vent the attic. Because they're largely unfinished, attics often don't get the same insulation the walls of the rest of the home do, and as a result they are either cold in winter or extremely hot in summer. "Air conditioning is always trying to cool the floor below the attic," says Sabine H. Schoenberg, a Connecticut-based real estate agent. By insulating the floor of the attic or installing solar-powered vents to help warm air escape during the summer and keep cold air from coming in during winter, your heating, ventilating and air conditioning system won't have to work as hard to regulate temperatures inside. Replace old systems. The older your air conditioniner or water heater is, the less likely it is to employ technology that helps to increase its efficiency. And with age any appliance will require more energy to function properly. The federal government's Energy Star website can calculate the savings an Energy Star refrigerator can have over an old model: A 20-cubic-foot fridge made in 2000 would cost approximately $170 per year to run in California, compared to $63 annually to power an Energy Star-certified model of the same size. But appliances may not be your first priority. "I would have to say the biggest energy suck is the HVAC," Jain says. Replacing an underperforming system will cost you upfront, but it will help reduce your regular utility bills moving forward. Put solar panels on the roof. It's becoming increasingly common for multiple homes in a neighborhood to have rooftop solar panels, and Wilson says it's for good reason: "The cost of solar panels has come down so much that it now becomes a very real solution." Solar energy marketplace EnergySage reports the price of solar panels has decreased by about 12 percent in the last year, and combined with tax credits, the average 5-kilowatt solar energy system would cost a homeowner about $13,000. Solar panels on your property can cut up to 30 percent off your electricity bill, according to EnergySage. Landscape strategically. What's outside your home can reduce the stress on your HVAC and make it easier -- and cheaper -- to maintain your ideal temperature inside. When you're planning landscaping, take into account the parts of the home the sun shines on. "Plant shade trees, or if there's a shed that's being built, have it shade the west side of the house that heats up most in the afternoon," Wilson says. For homes in colder climates, Wilson recommends planting trees or bushes close to the home to block out wind, which tends to make the home work harder to heat the interior. Don't buy a product you can't trust. There are always new products claiming energy efficiency, but you should always do your own research to feel confident you're taking the right steps. Schoenberg says one product she warns against are compact fluorescent lightbulbs, which are energy efficient but give off a fluorescent, blueish tint and contain trace amounts of mercury. "There's not one good thing I can say about them," Schoenberg says. Instead, she recommends light-emitting diode lightbulbs, which are still more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs. Individuals or companies soliciting door-to-door or on the phone may also insist on energy-saving products, such as a particular attic insulation or solar panels. Always do thorough research before agreeing to anything to avoid poor installation or even outright theft of your money. A court in India sentenced 11 people to life in prison Friday, for their involvement in a massacre during communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002. The special court set up in the city of Ahmedabad called the Gulbarg Society massacre in which nearly 70 people were burned alive the darkest day of civil society, the Hindu newspaper reported. Of the 24 individuals convicted earlier this month, one received a 10-year jail term while 12 others were imprisoned for a period of seven years. More than 1,000 people, a majority of them Muslim, were killed during three days of rioting in what became one of the most infamous incidents in Indias history. Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat at the time, was accused by his detractors of allowing the killing to continue unabated, but he has been cleared of any wrongdoing by multiple Indian courts. [The Hindu] Boeing 787 BBJ Kestrel In July, China's HNA Aviation Group will welcome a shiny new Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to its fleet. This plane is special because it is the first 787 Dreamliner to be built purely as a private jet. HNA's new Dreamliner is symbolic of a hot new trend in private and corporate aviation long-range, mid-size, wide-body airliners. "It's an emerging market that didn't really exist in the past," Kestrel Aviation Management CEO Stephen Vella told Business Insider. Kestrel oversaw the design, engineering, and fabrication of HNA's new Dreamliner which has an estimated total cost topping $300 million. Airbus and Boeing have long offered versions of its airliners to private customers under their Airbus Corporate Jet and Boeing Business Jet programs. However, buyers of these airliner-based private jets have long gravitated to either four-engine, jumbo jets like the Boeing 747 or smaller, narrow-body jets such as the Airbus A320. "The market is traditionally separated into two buckets," Vella said. "The big Boeing 747s and Airbus A340s primarily catered to heads of state while the smaller Airbus A320 and Boeing 737s are popular corporate runabouts as well as secondary planes in government fleets." Boeing 787 BBJ Kestrel Although twin-engine, mid-size, wide-body jets such as the Boeing 767 and the Airbus A330 have long been available, they never quite caught on with the private jet crowd. However, in recently years, ultra high-end private jet customers have become increasingly interested in the new generation mid-size, wide-body planes such as the Dreamliner and Airbus A350. What's changed? According to Vella, several factors led to the shift. First, leading business men and heads of state are generally pressed for time. As a result, they prefer be to able to fly anywhere they need to go non-stop. Until recently, this simply wasn't possible in a twin-engined jet. The traditional thinking in the aviation dictates that there's safety in the number of engines a plane has. Story continues Regulating bodies such as the US Federal Aviation Administration have even placed limits on which ultra-long-range intercontinental routes twin-engine jets can fly. As a result, government and corporate clients looking for a plane with the range and capability to go anywhere in the world had to turn to four-engined jumbos. However, with the incredible reliability of modern turbofan engines, the regulatory limitations on twin-engined jets have essentially been wiped out. Now, planes such as the A350 and the 787 can fly anywhere the owner requires, but in a slightly smaller and more affordable package. For instance, HNA's new state-of-the-art composite Boeing has a range of 9,800 miles even when packed with passengers, luggage, and fuel. A similarly outfitted A350 ACJ will be able to delivery that type of performance as well. "You can fly between virtually any two points on the globe," Vella said of the Dreamliner. Boeing 747 Secondly, the price of crude oil has fallen dramatically over the past two years. Even though cheaper fuel makes buying and operating a thirsty, four-engined, jumbo jet much more attractive, low crude prices have also cut dramatically into the income of Middle Eastern governments. Unfortunately for the 747 BBJ, they are also some of the plane's biggest customers. According to Vella, all major Middle Eastern governments such as Saudi Arabia, operate large royal fleets, many of which are jumbo jets, for elite members of the ruling family and officials to use. Over the next decade or so, these fleets with need to be updated. Vella, whose company has bought and sold more than $50 billion worth of commercial and private jets, believes the Middle Eastern clientele are ready to do some belt-tightening and downsize to smaller planes. Finally, another factor that has benefited the Dreamliner-sized jet is the increasing public sensitivity towards political largess. Unlike the US, where the plane that operates as Air Force One is held in high esteem and seen as a symbol of national power, the public in many countries view a large presidential aircraft as a sign of political over indulgence. According to Vella, this is a particularly sensitive issue in Europe. However, a smaller aircraft with the performance capabilities of a jumbo, but in a less attention-getting package is a reasonable alternative. "The mid-size jets have less ramp presence," Vella said. "They offer the owner much more discretion." Boeing 787 BBJ Kestrel After all, it's hard to arrive discretely in a jumbo jet no matter where you go. Even at the world's busiest international airports, an aircraft the size of a 747 or Airbus A380 is conspicuous. But all of this requires some perspective. Even the "smaller" 787 BBJ is still an absolutely massive aircraft. At 186 ft. long, even Donald Trump's converted Boeing 757 is dwarfed by the new Dreamliner. And with 2,400 sq. ft. of living space, it offers the same amount of room as an average American suburban home. What's coming According to the long-time aviation executive, over the next 15-20 years, demand from just the Middle East for Boeing 787-sized private jets will top 30 aircraft. That may not sound like many planes, but at more than $300 million a pop, that's about $10 billion in business from just a handful of customers. In fact, Vella believes demand from East Asia will be just as intense over that period of time. "Because of the high number of long distance and (trans-oceanic) flights the customers make, these are the perfect planes for Asia," Vella added. Whether the market for these mid-size, twin-engine wide-body private jets actually skyrockets remain to be seen. But with the unprecedented level of advanced technology, luxury, and performance it can offer, they are an undeniably attractive option for the right buyer. NOW WATCH: The best and worst months to rent an apartment in major US cities More From Business Insider kachnar007 wrote: Thanks for your evaluation. I appreciate your good work. I have few follow-up questions, which are as follows: I understand that my low GPA & gap year will be a negative for my profile. But I would like to highlight that even if my GPA was low, I aced my non-major courses like economics, advanced maths, statistics, etc. Will that be taken into consideration? My undergraduate university is ranked #5 for ChemE in the US according to US News. MatE comes under the same department, will that be taken into consideration if mentioned in my application (in the future)? Will clearing CFA & other exams in one go within 2 years help offset my academic disaster? I have a job offer from a top domestic PE for an internship, shall I take it by leaving my current permanent IB job which I just started? I know I need to take the decision, but by leaving a job so soon look bad on my resume. Or shall I think in this way - I got into PE right away without prior IB experience? Also, I would like to highlight that I learned French during my gap years in order to meet the INSEAD language policy. kachnar007 wrote: Also, I observed there are not many IB/PE applicants from India, will that work in my favor when applying? As I mostly see IT, Engineers in other industry & consulting MBA applicants. I would also like to ask, how do I show leadership within my industry (IB/PE) other than working on deals which everyone does. Can you share any professional leadership experience in my industry that your client has shown which helped him/her differentiate from others? kachnar007 wrote: I would also like to clarify that I will be applying after 5 yrs of WE in IB/PE or combined. I won't' be considering my portfolio management as WE. I think you assumed I will be applying after just 2 years WE. It would be true that I will possibly enter B-school at age 29, which might go against me given other students enter at a younger age. kachnar007 wrote: It would be great if you could share some insight into how b-schools accept students. In other words, is there a quota by country, type of industry WE , gender, undergraduate degree or a combination of them, by which b-schools accept students. Hey dude,No problem,Let me jump in below.So regarding the coursework, it doesn't matter. Clearing the CFA is fine. But the thing that would help most at this point is an awesome GMAT.As for the PE internship versus your current job, honestly that's a call you need to take by yourself. Forget about the MBA, you can't predict what will happen, but make your decision based on salary/opportunities/desire/gut like you would any job decision.That's true. And for that alone you will stand out. And yes, IB/PE is a much better industry than IT, in general. But it doesnt mean that if someone has two years managing at Google and a 8.5 at an IIT with an awesome GMAT, that the schools will choose any PE/IB people over him. So yes, your industry is good, but that alone won't coast you in. It also depends on your performance, your employer, etc. But of course, you are in a far more advantageous position than your average IT applicant.Okay got it. 29 is a fine age. There will be more applicants who will be 26, but you are within a standard deviation, so don't worry about it.There's no simple answer here. There aren't direct quotas per se, but they will desire to create a diverse class, in terms of countries like industries, etc. Most schools will FIRST and foremost simply try and get the best people they can get (with the strongest profiles) and diversity would be a secondary goal for them. Every school has a different philosophy, and every year sees a different pool of candidates and different readers on the Adcom, so the best way to position yourself is still with the strength of your profile taking into consideration your pool.I hope this helps,Best,JF From Town & Country After reading Emma Cline's debut novel The Girls, a fictional retelling of the Manson Murders from the perspective of a fourteen-year-old protagonist, one can't help but wonder how a Millennial recreates a time period and its atmosphere with such verisimilitude. What lines her bookshelves? Who are her favorite authors? If you, too, can't get enough of Charles Manson, his followers, and their notorious crimes, here are six more books T&C recommends you add to your summer reading list. 1. Helter Skelter: The True Stories of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial, recounts the details of this chilling and complex case from his front row seat. This is the unofficial bible of the tragedy that ended the free love ideology of the sixties. Bugliosi covers vast territory here, getting into the psyche of the mastermind, the psychology that convinced his followers to do his dirty work, and his extraordinary detective work. 2. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote If literary true crime is your thing, look no further than Capote's masterpiece. His deft retelling and psychological investigation into the senseless murders of a humble Kentucky family living on a remote farm digs as much into the killer's psyche as the victims'. 3. Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn Published just two years ago, Guinn's biography of the sociopath is a must-read. The superbly written prose uses hindsight to place this event in its historical context. Guinn succeeds in digging even deeper into Manson's past to provide more clues and context for the cultist. 4. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe If the Manson murders was the event that came to represent the dark side of the sixties, Wolfe's first-hand account of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and their LSD-infused travels reflects the apex of the counterculture movement. Before Manson's name came to light, Kesey was also deemed a "Christ-like" leader with loyal followers who often took the path of least resistance. Story continues 5. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie In his 2013 biography on Manson, Jeff Guinn revealed that this 1937 self-help cult classic fell into Manson's hands while he spent time in prison in the late 1950s for auto-theft. One of the book's tenets: how to manipulate people into believing that thoughts you have planted in their minds are their own. Probably not what Carnegie had in mind. Nevertheless 6. The White Album: Essays by Joan Didion Didion explores the aftermath of the 1960s, particularly through the lens of a native Californian, by recreating the atmosphere, and describing the nuances of that time and place. Along with recounting time she spent with the lead witness and former Manson follower, Linda Kasabian, Didion also reflects about the moment she heard about the murders on the radio: "I remember that no one was surprised." Three babies have been born with Zika virus-linked birth defects in the United States and three more died before birth because of the defects, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced. Officials said that although the birth defects occurred in pregnant women who tested positive for the Zika virus, it is unknown whether the disease or "other factors" caused the outcomes, the CDC said in a statement this week. "These numbers reflect poor outcomes among pregnancies with laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus infection reported to the U.S. Zika Pregnancy Registry," officials said in the statement. "To protect the privacy of the women and children affected by Zika, CDC is not reporting individual state, tribal, territorial or jurisdictional level data." Zika Virus: What You Need to Know Meanwhile, the CDC announced that 234 pregnant women in the U.S., both visitors and residents have been diagnosed with the virus, NBC News reports. Another 189 cases of the virus have been reported in U.S. territories including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. "Unfortunately, I think it is not surprising. I think it is consistent with what we have seen in Brazil and Colombia," said Dr. Denise Jamieson, who spearheads the agency's watch on pregnancies affected by the virus. Officials cautioned pregnant women, or women who may become pregnant, to avoid Zika-affected areas, NBC reports. Jamieson said that as the number of babies born with Zika-linked birth defects rises, the agency will be able to release more information, according to the New York Times. "We're sort of in a hard place a We don't want to inadvertently disclose information about difficult decisions these women are making about their pregnancies," she said. She added: "The pattern we are seeing in other places is the same as in U.S. travelers that Zika is causing birth defects is real." "It's not confined to one location or time period." This June has been one of the most challenging in pride history. It's brought months of pain and struggle to an infuriating head. In April, discriminatory legislation in Mississippi and N has thrust homophobia and transphobia into the national spotlight. In May, birth certificates were b and concerts boycotted in protest. And then Sunday, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history ended dozens of young LGBTQ individuals' lives. Every event has only reminded the nation just how much hatred and misunderstanding surrounds the gay experience. But these aren't reasons to show less pride. If anything, pride month should be louder and bolder than ever. These are the songs that will make up its soundtrack, by artists the culture can't afford to overlook during Pride. 1. Tegan and Sara Twin sisters Tegan and Sara's latest album, Love You to Death, continues the bright, buoyant synth-pop direction the duo has been exploring since 2013's Heartthrob. While that's an extremely trendy sound, the pair see themselves as being part of a creative vanguard, proving queer women that they too can succeed in pop. "I wish there were more queer women making music in the mainstream," Tegan told Glamour. "I still feel a responsibility to really push ahead. Not that I want to give in or give up or retire, but there are definitely moments where I wish there was more happening." 2. Troye Sivan Troye Sivan emerged on the scene last December with a striking debut and a simple mission: "I just wanted to write normal pop songs and when the time comes to use a pronoun, I'll use the word 'he,'" the now 21-year-old Sivan told Complex. "A 14-year-old Troye would've definitely appreciated this." It's a more radical idea than it may seem at first. In a world full of people like Sam Smith, a man who has previously to let his identity manifest in his art, and Nick Jonas, a straight white man who is of gay-baiting fans, Sivan's comfort with his identity is a small revolution. These telling details he includes on songs, like his June-released single "Talk Me Down," make them that much more personal and poignant. Story continues 3. G.L.O.S.S. Anger was one of the most profound feelings seen across the web following the Pulse shooting. No music this month offers a better tool to channel it than the latest release from G.L.O.S.S., Trans Day of Revenge. Short for "Girls Living Outside Society's Shit," G.L.O.S.S. explores the queer and trans experience and the myriad forms of violence, hatred and ignorance that attempt to diminish it. Their confrontational singles, such as the cathartic "Give Violence a Chance" 4. Ladyhawke At the beginning of June, New Zealand synth-pop artist Ladyhawke released her third album, Wildthings. Its songs are simple yet high-energy, dealing with subjects like love, insecurity and freedom sometimes all in one song, like in the album's sunny opener "A Love Song." Drawing up these stories, she rarely draws inspirations from her own life, as she explained to New Zealand's Stuff. "I prefer to speak in metaphors," she said. "I like implying things, and I like people being able to read between the lines." They lend Wildthings a universal, dream-like appeal, which makes for different stories every listen. 5. Shura On the very first day of the month, Shura released her "What's It Gonna Be?" video. It's a quirky ode to queer love, showing two friends pursuing their high school love interests. They draw out cheeky plans with magic marker and find private corners of the school to sneak kisses. Love stories are some of Shura's favorite to tell. "They're things that we all go through, and when we're going through it, we think that we're the only person in the world going through that," told Complex. "Having that music there sort of reminds you that you're not alone." 6. Kaytranada Young beat-making prodigy Kaytranada has been on a tear since releasing his show-stopping debut LP 99.9%, back in May. He's since applied his characteristic elastic bounce to tracks from jazz band BadBadNotGood and Rihanna, turning her "Kiss It Better" into a chipper electro pop jam for her dance remix EP. Later this year, a fitting compliment to his LP's title, bringing him even closer to that full 100%, which he nodded to briefly during a Fader profile in which he came out as gay. "I've been sad my whole life, but fuck that," Kaytranada said. "I know I have good things ahead. I don't know honestly if I'm fully, 100 percent happy, but I'm starting to get there." 7. Big Dipper The personality that bursts at the seams of Big Dipper's early hits "Vibin'" and "Drip Drop," earned him a dedicated internet cult following that's been steadily growing since. "I think the internet has offered a huge accessibility to LGBTQ fans looking for LGBTQ artists, looking to connect with someone who they can see themselves in, who can share and reflect their story back to them," Big Dipper told Punk Out, discussing his newfound fame in June 2015 "I think that's amazing!" His latest, "Good At Sex," relies on campy, raunchy rhymes that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination. You can always find something to smile about if you look in the right places. To celebrate PEOPLE and ABC's new series People's List, we've rounded up seven stories that gave us an instant mood boost this week. Prince William gets a scolding from grandma Even royals get told off by their grandparents every now and then. A new contender for World's Best Gif shows Queen Elizabeth nudging her grandson to "Stand up, William" as the famous family gathers on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the Trooping the Color shows. Come for the queen scolding William, stay for the George facepalm. pic.twitter.com/etvmofiU5m a Brandon McGinley (@brandonmcg) June 15, 2016 The clip even features an adorable facepalm bonus courtesy of Prince George. Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher are expecting their second child There's another baby on the way for the former That 70's Show costars, Kunis' rep confirmed to PEOPLE on Wednesday. The new addition will join the couple's 20-month-old daughter Wyatt Isabelle. 7 Stories That Made Us Happy This Week "She's the greatest mom," Kutcher has said of his wife. "I go to work every day, and I come home and she's perfect. And it just seems like everything went amazing. And I know that something probably didn't go amazing, but she never tells a it's unbelievable. She's incredible." Posh cat dazzles the Internet This week we were introduced to Pitzush, a Romania-based Nebelung cat who is taking Instagram by storm. The fanciful feline struts her stuff in glitzy eyelashes, elaborate outfits and piles of jewels. A photo posted by Pitzush Puss In Glam (@pussinglam) on Oct 27, 2015 at 8:01am PDT A photo posted by Pitzush Puss In Glam (@pussinglam) on Nov 23, 2015 at 1:06pm PST A photo posted by Pitzush Puss In Glam (@pussinglam) on Feb 24, 2016 at 6:21am PST "I started dressing Pitzush because I thought that so many women in fashion aren't good role models for young women and they end up getting body conscious. I wanted to do something that would poke fun at that lifestyle even glamour puss is a poke at women who are overdressed with no substance," Roxaba Dulama, the 8-year-old cat's owner, told Daily Mail. Britney Spears gets star-struck by Ed O'Neill, who doesn't recognize her Even pop princesses go unnoticed sometimes. Modern Family star Ed O'Neill stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres show where he recounted an oblivious run-in he had with Brit Brit. "I was flying alone to Hawaii. I was waiting for my flight to board," O'Neill said. "They told me the flight was boarding, and I picked up ... a little Modern Family hat. I saw a woman approaching me, so I just flopped it on, you know, I was leaving. She came up and said, 'Oh, Mr. O'Neill, I love Modern Family, and you're my favorite on the show.' And I was like, 'Well, I'm here, and I'm the only one here.'" Spears requested a photo, which she later posted to Twitter. "So I said, 'Sure, fine, you know, okay,' O'Neill continued. "So she sat there, and we took it, and I said, 'Have a nice trip. I'm going,'" and I left. So the next day, my manager texts me and goes, 'What is this? 53,000 likes. It's Britney Spears.'" Story continues Fancy running into this guy! Such a sweetheart!! pic.twitter.com/jqyVIVmu30 a Britney Spears (@britneyspears) March 21, 2015 Video captures groom's emotional reaction to his bride Videographer John De Rienzo captured an extra special moment at the London wedding of Gabriel and Annabelle Deku. The now-viral video shows groom Gabriel bursting into tears as Annabelle makes her way down the aisle. "I was thinking, 'My goodness.' I was in total disbelief that this day had finally come," the new husband told BuzzFeed. "At the time we met, I had given up hope on this whole love thing. Thought this idea of having a life partner who would love and respect me unconditionally was only a story only told in movies. But, I was wrong! True love does exist." National Aquarium plans to free captive dolphins Eight of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphins at Baltimore's National Aquarium are homeward bound. The facility announced on Tuesday that they've decided to move the mammals to an ocean sanctuary after scientists showed that the highly-intelligent animals need space and opportunity to form social groups and truly thrive. "We're thrilled, and we think that this is really a breakthrough decision," Lori Marino, the president of the Whale Sanctuary Project told The New York Times. "This is going to improve the animals' welfare enormously. It's going to restore to them a little bit of what was denied them all these years, living as performers in an aquarium." 90-year-old WWII vet finally receives high school diploma Seventy-three years after dropping out of his Pennsylvania high school to serve his country, Ronald Gilroy finally celebrated his Carbondale Area High School Diploma. The veteran took the commencement stage alongside the graduating class of 2016. "He always worked to make sure that we had everything that we had and he put us through school and through college so we just thought it would be good to do something for him," Gilroy's daughter Kim Johnson told area ABC affiliate WNEP16. People's List airs Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Its not a complete shocker to hear about people partaking in behaviors that they know are unhealthy. (Fried food, caffeine, or beer bongs, anyone?) Still, the idea of tanning actively lying out in the sun seems a particularly retro and risky choice in 2016, since melanoma is such a deadly form of cancer. But according to a new American Academy of Dermatology survey, people are still going after that healthy glow, even though they know theres no such thing. A whopping 98 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 34 who tan understand that skin cancer can be deadly, the survey found and 71 percent of the women know that the idea of a healthy tan is a fallacy. Further, 66 percent of women surveyed know that getting a base tan is not an effective way to protect themselves from the suns harmful ultraviolet rays. Related: Just Dont Use It, Says Doctor of Black Salve for Skin Cancer Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is the second most common cancer in young women, and we believe this may be due in part to their tanning habits. It is alarming that young women are continuing to tan even though theyre aware of the danger, notes dermatologist Elizabeth S. Martin, chair of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Council on Communications, in a press release about the findings. Exposure to UV radiation, whether its from the sun or an indoor tanning device, is the most preventable risk factor for skin cancer. Women need to take their knowledge and turn it into action by protecting themselves from the sun and staying out of tanning beds. A new PSA from the AAD called Arms (below), which shows two friends comparing tans over the years until one winds up in the hospital with a stage-3 melanoma diagnosis, attempts to communicate the risk factors to folks who just cant stop tanning. So wheres the disconnect? As Kasey Lynn Morris, a Ph.D. in social psychology about to start her post as a researcher with the National Cancer Institute, tells Yahoo Beauty, Identity and self-esteem concerns are a very important motivation in health behaviors even more important than health itself. In other words: Being healthy is one thing, but if looking tan (or, more positively, eating healthily or exercising) makes you feel better about yourself, then it will likely win out. Story continues Related: All Sunscreens Are Not Created Equal: Check This Guide Before You Step Outside Morris, who spent time researching sun tanning in the face of skin-cancer threats while she was a student at the University of South Florida, explains that tanning, in particular, may be an even harder nut to crack than, say, smoking. Smoking has become something where people say, Eww, smoking is gross, and so you dont want to be the type of person who smokes, she explains. But for women especially, appearance is a prime source of self-esteem, so theres that competing motivation of being healthy but also having that healthy glow. For perpetuating the myth that a tan is healthy, we can thank, for starters, Coco Chanel, who apparently turned the pre-Industrial Revolution idea of a leisure-class pallor on its head in the 1920s by accidentally getting too much sun on a Mediterranean cruise. Photographs of her made the sun-kissed look chic, and tanning became aspirational, a symbol of wealth and leisure. Even though that idea has been ever-so-slowly tamped down since the 1980s, when sunscreens with higher SPFs were introduced, its been a tough one to fight. A quick and unscientific Facebook poll for this article, asking those who like to get tan why they do it when they know its unsafe, brought in the following responses: Its another addiction thats hard to break, Makes me feel better to be nice and tan and makes my teeth look whiter, and I just think I look healthier. Barbara Greenberg, a Connecticut-based psychologist, tells Yahoo Beauty, My sense is that people feel like its a very quick way to look refreshed and like theyve just been on vacation. Like Botox and other quick fixes, she says, it certainly takes on an addictive quality. Men and women seem to become equally addicted. They also feel like it makes them look younger, and associate tans with youth. The youth factor is a big influence, Martin tells Yahoo Beauty. Unfortunately, I think some women (and men) continue to tan because they see the immediate results of the tan but do not consciously recognize the risk of skin cancer they will face in the future. Young people often see skin cancer as a disease of older people, she says, whereas melanoma is the second most common cancer in women ages 15 to 29. Many young women still use indoor tanning beds, unfortunately, and using indoor tanning devices before age 35 can increase your risk of melanoma by 59 percent, with the risk increasing with each use. Martin says she often hears patients say they only tan for special occasions, or before a vacation, but she aims to warn them all the same. I remind them that tanning in any way is damaging the DNA in their cells, she says. I quote the statistics. I tell them about one of my first patients who had an invasive melanoma at age 19 and how frightening that was for that patient and that family. I often also tell them that while they may feel like this tan makes them look great for this prom, or this vacation, if they choose not to tan and choose to protect their skin, they will look better than everyone else at their class reunions! Many times each day, I say, You will thank me when you are 40. I promise. Heres Why You Should Get Excited About the Return of the Perm Lets keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. George Takei may have become famous for his role on Star Trek, but it's his activism in the gay community that's really put him on the map. And, true to form, the actor now has the best clapback to anti-trans laws with a new T-shirt that says, plainly: "You can pee next to me." Source: Omaze "If you show your support with one of these shirts, well, urine my good graces," the actor said on the shirt's website. The shirts are on sale for $25, and the proceeds will go to Equality North Carolina, an LGBTQ organization that's been fighting back against an anti-trans bill that was recently passed in the state. The bill, HB2, requires people in the state to use public bathrooms that correspond to the assigned gender listed on their birth certificates, a move that critics argue effectively criminalizes transgender North Carolinians. Source: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images Takei has become a leading activist in recent years. His nt to hilariously calling out Tennessee lawmakers for erasing LGBTQ history. He always manages to prove his point while making people laugh. As Takei's T-shirt website states: "If you're going to take a stand against discrimination, you might as well look good while you do it, right?" By Tom Miles and Lisa Barrington GENEVA (Reuters) - An aid convoy carrying food, medicines and other emergency supplies for 37,500 people has reached al Waer, a besieged suburb of the Syrian city of Homs, a U.N. aid agency said on Friday. "The convoy to al Waer was completed late last night and the team has returned safely to their base," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said. A second convoy, to supply the rest of the estimated 75,000 people in al Waer, is planned in the next few days. A separate convoy, to Afrin in northern Aleppo, had also gone ahead but a delivery to the Damascus suburb of Kafr Batna had not, due to "last minute logistical complications". The U.N. hoped it would proceed in the next few days, Laerke said. The delivery to al Waer means only two besieged areas are still out of reach since the countries backing the U.N. peace process launched a weekly "humanitarian taskforce" meeting to push for better aid access in March. The U.N. hopes to send convoys to the last two areas - Arbin and Zamalka in outlying suburbs of Damascus - within days, U.N. humanitarian advisor Jan Egeland said on Thursday, although the U.N. and Syrian government disagree how many people are there. Egeland said aid agencies need sustained access to civilians, rather than the familiar "stop-go" situation whereby Syria's government switches approvals for convoys on and off and some aid convoys get only conditional or partial clearance. He noted that not a single siege had been lifted, despite apparent progress in aid access this month. Riad Hijab, coordinator of the opposition High Negotiations Committee, said al Waer, the only part of Homs city not under government control, was on the brink of humanitarian disaster, and blamed the U.N. for capitulating to the government's "siege and starvation tactics". "Al Waer's residents have come under enormous pressure because of dire humanitarian conditions, bombardment and starvation imposed by the Assad regime to agree to a local truce. "The United Nations Damascus office has helped the regime enforce the terms of this truce", he said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. A campaign group this week accused the United Nations of letting the Syrian government dictate how aid is distributed, effectively allowing it to use starvation as a weapon of war. (Reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva and Lisa Barrington in Beirut; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) - Air Madagascar has been removed from the European Union's safety blacklist, senior government officials and said. The lift means the state-run airline is allowed to fly within the 28-nation EU for the first time since 2011. "All the planes of Air Madagascar can fly over European skies as from Thursday noon," James Andrianalisoa, director general of Civil Aviation of Madagascar, told a news conference late on Thursday. Air Madagascar said in a statement that its removal from the blacklist would allow it to proceed with seeking a strategic partner. The decision to take Air Madagascar off the list was announced in Brussels on Thursday. The government directly owns 90 percent of Air Madagascar, while Air France (AIRF.PA) owns 0.20 percent, staff and other individuals hold 0.12 percent and the rest is held by state-owned companies. It has a fleet of 11 aircraft and employs about 2,000 people. Flying to 14 cities on the island and 13 foreign destinations, the airline is a driver of the island's tourism sector. Madagascar's economy has been struggling since a 2009 coup which scared off foreign investors and prompted donors to cut aid. A peaceful election in late 2013 saw aid flows resume but the new government has had difficulties introducing economic reforms. (Reporting by Lovasoa Rabary; writing by George Obulutsa; editing by Jason Neely) Just two weeks after her birth, Harper Howard started experiencing as many as 40 seizures a day. Her parents were baffled, as no one in their family had a history of seizures, and they spent the next nine months traveling the country in search of a doctor who could diagnose their daughter. Finally, it was determined that Harper had CDKL5, a rare genetic disorder that affects just about a thousand people across the world and has no known cure. "We tried a combination of 10 different drugs," her mother, Penny Howard recalled. "Her lifeshe was just existing. We had conversations with her, but we had to play both sides and just assume she was in there mentally. She was really trapped. It was horrible." In 2013, Howard and her husband Dustin saw CNN's "WEED" special, which featured a young girl in Colorado whose similarly frequent and debilitating seizures stopped almost completely after she started taking a tincture that was low in THC, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana's psychoactive effects, but high in CBD, a compound found in cannabis that does not produce a high and is believed by many doctors to provide a number of medical benefits. But the Howards lived in Texas, where medical marijuana reform has been crawling through the legislature, but isn't yet legal. After some research, however, they discovered that they could purchase CBD oil online. CBD is legal in all 50 states, provided that it's derived from industrial hemp, a strain of cannabis that's legal to import to the United States as long as it doesn't contain any traces of THC. (A handful of U.S. states have legalized hemp cultivation, but farmers have been tentative to actually grow it, fearing resistance from federal drug enforcement.) The Howards ordered a vial of hemp oil from a company called HempMeds, and within two weeks, Harper's seizures had been cut in half, to about 20 a day. After six months, she was seizure free. Harper died this January from a metabolic complication related to her disorder. But her mother is still touting the benefits of hemp oil: when we spoke with her, she was on the floor of the second annual Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo, which is taking place at the Javits Center through Friday. "I'm not opposed to doctors or pharmaceuticalsI'm rare here," Howard said, gesturing around the convention floor. "I believe that they saved her life and prolonged it. But when we combined science with nature, we prolonged it another two and a half years, and we gave her a better quality of life. We gave her a quality of life." Howard's blog about how hemp oil helped her daughter drew the attention of other families coping with CDKL5 across the world, and since 2013, six other countries have legalized CBD oil as a prescription product. Meanwhile, the Howards paid $300 out of pocket for every small vial of oil, as no cannabis-derived products are covered by insurance in the U.S. Slowly but steadily, however, states have been legalizing marijuana, more often for medical than recreational use. New York State legalized medical marijuana in 2014, with the first dispensaries in the city opening earlier this year, but the state's law notably doesn't allow for the use of the plant itselfjust oils and extracts to be vaporized or eaten. As such, there wasn't any actual pot at the expo, and the few exhibitors displaying products with THC had to keep those products sealed behind glass. The majority of booths hawked legal CBD products, ranging from aromatherapy sprays to lotions and hemp dog treats. Though many, like Howard, spoke of CBD products as something of a miracle cure for everything from seizures to autism and back aches, it's worth noting that when the FDA investigated hemp oil companies last year, it found that many supposed CBD products didn't contain any detectable traces of the cannabinoid. Among Thursday's exhibitors was CannaKorp, which has created what it calls the "Keurig of cannabis": a pod-based, single-serving vaporizer. The company's partnering with marijuana cultivators, who will fill the pods with their product, to be sold at dispensaries. For about $150, customers can buy the accompanying vaporizer. The product will be rolling out in 2017, first in Colorado and Washington State, both of which have legalized marijuana for both medical and recreational use, but it won't make it to New York until the state legalizes the use of the actual marijuana plant for medical purposes. Then there were the creators of PotBot, an app that they describe as "the world's first cannabinoid recommendation engine." Users fill out a profile with their age, gender, and weight, and select any conditions they're looking to treat with marijuana. The app will then recommend the ideal dosage of THC to treat that condition, and will display strains of marijuana that can best provide that dosage. It'll also recommend the best way of consuming marijuana for your given conditionfor example, vice president Yoray Halevy explained, "if you suffer from inflammation, the best way for you to consume it is most likely vaporization, because that would give you the best relief the quickest. But if you have PTSD you might need tinctures, or you might need edibles." The app will then display the nearest dispensaries, including those that might be out of state, and will also offer a list of doctors registered to prescribe medical marijuana. By prohibiting the use of the marijuana plant, PotBotics CEO David Goldstein said, New York is keeping some patients from finding the strain that could best treat their conditions: he argued that "with a plant, not only are you getting a lot of whole plant medicine, but just because you have a larger pool of plants you could choose from, there's more opportunity to get the right medicine. It's a much more limited scope when you're working with extracts. You might not find the perfect medicine for you, versus if you're working with plant strains, you can find the right types of strains that work for you." Like Penny Howard, Shira Adler was inspired to get into the cannabis business by her children: her son has some behavioral problems and trouble sleeping, and it was with him in mind that she created a line of aromatherapy sprays called "Beyond the Spectrum," all of which contain a number of essential oils, including CBD. "I anticipated parents going, 'Oh, I don't know about putting CBD in something my kids are going to use,'" Adler said. "But ironically, they're like, 'Does it have pot? Can I have some?'" The sprays won't produce any sort of psychoactive effectAdler describes the CBD as "putting the essential oils on steroids"but one of the five, a calming spray titled "Smile," will be sold in select states with THC, targeted specifically at children with autism. Though, like the use of CBD to treat epilepsy, there haven't been any peer-reviewed studies of the oil's efficacy in treating autism, there's anecdotal evidence of children with autism speaking for the first time after taking hemp oil, and some children have reportedly responded even better to a product that also includes THC. But Adler's THC-infused spray won't be sold in New York: autism is not among the few conditions that make patients eligible to obtain medical marijuana. New York's strict regulations are what's got Ron Silver, owner of Bubby's restaurant in Tribeca, turning his attentions to developing a line of edible marijuana products that he'll soon be rolling out in Oregon, which has legalized recreational marijuana usage. He's taking soda syrups developed at the NYC restaurant and infusing them with THC: one ounce of the syrup carries two milligrams of THC, and users can dilute the syrup with soda water to their preference. Silver's also created a 420-friendly version of 5-hour energy, mixing THC, coconut water, coconut fat, and caffeine; he'll also be rolling out five-pound baker's bars of marijuana-infused chocolate, plus CBD-infused sugars, which can be stirred into tea for a calming sleepytime nightcap. "I think New York City's laws are insanely stupid and corrupt," Silver said. "But I'm 100% sure the recreational laws will expand here. Otherwise it makes NYC this puritan state, and every other state is reaping the benefits. I don't think New York is going to sit around for that." There are the Grammys, the VMAs, the Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame, but it's hard to think of a room more loaded with music-business heavyweights than the annual UJA-Federation of New York luncheon. In fact, it's hard to think of a room more packed in general, with more than 650 executives crammed into the ballroom of The Pierre in Midtown Manhattan, across from Central Park. Any attempt to list all of the luminaries present would take all afternoon, but suffice it to say that a huge percentage of Billboard's Power 100 -- including Clive Davis, Doug Morris, Marty Bandier, Craig Kallman, Julie Greenwald, Lyor Cohen, Jason Flom, Joel Katz, Neil Portnow, L.A. Reid, Daniel Glass and Rob Stringer -- were all in the house on Thursday, and Alicia Keys and Elle King both performed. The event is a fundraiser for the organization (United Jewish Appeal), which supports a network of nearly 100 nonprofits that serve 4.5 million people in New York and in 70 countries around the world through programs that provide food, medicine, job training and more to people in need. Neil Portnow Honored as a 'Music Visionary' at UJA-Federation Event (Photos) And every year an honoree (or honorees) are chosen as Music Visionaries: this year, RCA chiefs Peter Edge and Tom Corson got the nod -- even though neither of them are Jewish. Although religion is not a requirement for this honor, that fact was joked about multiple times during the event. RCA Chiefs Peter Edge and Tom Corson on Signing Zayn Malik and Enrique Iglesias -- and Being Blissfully Unaware of Miley Cyrus' VMA Plans The day's MC was director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge and the forthcoming Netflix series The Get Down, which is based in New York in the mid-1970s), who introduced the pair as "two great music guys" and noted that UJA generated a whopping $200 million last year. 17 Top Music Execs On Giving Back, The Charities They Support and Their Love For UJA Story continues He was followed by Glassnote founder Daniel Glass, who contextualized the day's events by referencing the recent shootings in Orlando and Tel Aviv and said, "One person can make a difference: one person can vote for one person, and the weight of the Supreme Court is in that person's hands." He then shifted into talking about the honorees, whom he's known for decades, and said, "What I love about your company, as a competitor, is that it's an A&R-based company -- A&R always wins." [[{"fid":"617365","view_mode":"media_original","type":"media","attributes":{"height":827,"width":1240,"alt":" ","class":"media-element file-media-original"}}]] Alicia Keys performs at the UJA-Federation of New York's Music Visionaries of the Year at The Pierre Fifth Avenue in New York City on June 16, 2016. He also spoke about the benevolent work the UJA has done, and noted that the luncheon had already raised $1.2 million. Next up was Bleachers leader and fun. co-founder Jack Antonoff, who could look at standup comedy as an option if he ever gets tired of music. Rob Stringer Named UJA Visionary Of The Year As Adele, John Mayer, Doug Morris, Others Pay Tribute "Peter and Tom are not Jews," he began his speech by saying, "but they run the company the way my parents raised me, and you guys of course know that I'm Jewish because I look like an anti-Semitic caricature," eliciting uproarious laughter from the crowd. "I always pictured record-company villains as big scary guys with a cigar -- and I'm not talking about Marty Bandier, he's one of the greatest -- guys telling people that you have to do things that would break your heart in order to break records. "But with Tom and Peter, we talk about music, records -- it's not just about smashing the world with a [hit]. We're talking about people who really want to do great work, music that matters. Anything I've done that really mattered to me started with these conversations about making a great record." He then played a comic video that showed him turning up at RCA's offices looking for Edge and Corson (who weren't in), trying to gather quotes for his tribute. A receptionist and label president Joe Riccitelli gave half-hearted descriptions, both of whom described the pair as "like yin and yang." He then calls Miley Cyrus, who pitches him on a fantasy TV series where she's a high school student by day and superstar at night -- but a klezmer superstar. He calls Justin Timberlake next, who says, "Tom and Peter? Who is that?" before adding slightly more seriously, "I love Tom and Peter, and it's been a real struggle watching them try to survive as the record industry continues to plummet." Dave Grohl appears briefly, saying, "I'm not f---ing Jewish!" The video ends with Antonoff, asleep in the lobby, finally approached by Edge and Corson. "Where were you guys?!" "We were at temple with Rabbi Shlimovitz." The pair received musical tributes from Elle King -- who performed an acoustic version of "Xs and Os" and said "Tom and Peter have changed my life in a very big way" -- and Alicia Keys, who performed "In Common" (accompanied by a percussionist) and a solo version of "If I Ain't Got You." Keys, her hair piled up on her head, clad in a gold, flowery jacket with pastel-colored numbers on it, said, "These are really two very long-term friends of mine and I'm so happy to be here celebrating them." She told the story of how she originally wrote "If I Ain't Got You" for an unnamed other artist and played it for Edge, who said, "I love the song, but there's no way in hell I'm letting you give it away." A spoken tribute from Doug Morris followed. "When Tom and Peter took the reins at RCA, it would be a compliment to say it was a company in distress," he began. "Over the past five years they've made it one of the most successful companies in the country. They've done it with integrity, loyalty and class, and these guys must have been very well-parented because they are so special." [[{"fid":"617367","view_mode":"media_original","type":"media","attributes":{"height":827,"width":1240,"alt":" ","class":"media-element file-media-original"}}]] Elle King performs at the UJA-Federation of New York's Music Visionaries of the Year at The Pierre Fifth Avenue in New York City on June 16, 2016. Finally, Edge and Corson gave acceptance speeches, focusing largely on thanking the UJA and the people at RCA and Sony and throughout their careers, as well as the artists who participated in the event. They also spoke about their visit last week to the Educational Alliance, a nonprofit in the UJA Federations network on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that provides early childhood education, arts programming, drug-abuse prevention and addiction services. The pair also met with teens from the Edgies Teen Center, which provides more than 350 young people with educational and career-oriented programs. Thanks to the program, "Kids have the chance to get out of survival mode -- and dream," Corson said. VH1's Rick Krim, MTV's Amy Doyle Honored at UJA Luncheon by Pink, Rob Thomas, Judy McGrath, Van Toffler, Many More Edge thanked Clive Davis ("who took a chance on me in 1996, I learned at Clive school"), Doug Morris ("who I'm proud to call a colleague"), and Keys ("who I've worked with for 20 years -- yes, it's really been that long"). [[{"fid":"617366","view_mode":"media_original","type":"media","attributes":{"height":1860,"width":1240,"alt":" ","class":"media-element file-media-original"}}]] Clive Davis with Peter Edge and Tom Corson at the UJA-Federation of New York's Music Visionaries of the Year at The Pierre Fifth Avenue in New York City on June 16, 2016. Yet it was Corson, who started by donning a bleach-blonde wig -- "I couldn't find any yarmulkes so I put on a Sia wig" -- who provided possibly the afternoon's most moving moment, choking up briefly when he recalled his early days at A&M Records, where his boss, the late Gil Friesen, introduced him to his secretary, Susan. "We've been married for 28 years." He concluded by saying about his staff: "It's not just the people you work with, it's the people you work with, they're your family and your community." All photos by Michael Priest Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f119761%2fetnalenticular Breaking news: Aliens are invading Earth after landing on top of a volcano in Sicily. Or at least that's what the pictures of an unusually pronounced version of a particularly rare cloud make it seem like. Posted to the World Meteorological Organization's Facebook page as well as other social media sources, the photos show a massive lenticular cloud perched atop Mount Etna on June 14. SEE ALSO: These cloud maps track life on Earth in beautiful detail In these pictures, the cloud appears to be enshrouding the peak, and looks like a stack of pancakes above the volcano. Such clouds are known for creating dramatic scenes, but this altocumulus standing lenticular (from the Latin word "Lenticularis," meaning "like a lentil") is especially striking. Here's how the American Meteorological Society (AMS) defines lenticular clouds in it's Glossary of Meteorology: "A cloud species the elements of which have the form of more or less isolated, generally smooth lenses or almonds; the outlines are sharp and sometimes show irisation." The AMS states that the clouds typically form from the airflow over terrain features, such as mountains. Lenticular clouds such as these usually form when there are strong winds blowing at high altitudes, and as moist air is forced to go up and over mountains. As the air rises in this way, which is known as orographic lifting, it is forced to cool and condense into clouds. Such clouds are then shaped by the strong winds and contorted by the mountain-induced wave in the airflow. These clouds form in much the same way as rocks cause standing ripples in streams. The lenticular cloud marks an area of rising and then sinking air, and glider pilots will often use these clouds as clues to where to catch the best lift. The area downwind of a lenticular cloud features sinking air, and sometimes, a line of lenticulars can form as the waves in the air progress downstream. This often happens in the lee of the Rocky Mountains near Denver, and can be associated with turbulence approaching that airport. Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN is rolling out a new food series featuring celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse who along with some of his chef friends will be seen travelling to six countries to explore the roots of regional cuisines. Amazon and Sequential Brands Group, Inc. SQBG, which promotes and licenses Emeril Lagasse media and merchandising properties, confirmed this news through separate announcements on Thursday. The six-episode Amazon original series called "Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse" premiering on Sep 2 will be shown exclusively on Prime Video via the Amazon Video app on TVs and connected devices like mobile, Fire TV, and online. Each 30-minute episode will show the celebrity chef meeting one of his chef friends and exploring new foods and cultures. The show will offer insights about the history, traditions and cooking techniques followed across different cultures. Lagasse said in an interview, If you can understand what theyre doing in the culture, then you can understand the food. Lagasse will visit China with Mario Batali, Italy with Nancy Silverton, Cuba with Aaron Sanchez, Sweden with Marcus Samuelsson, Spain with Jose Andres and South Korea with Danny Bowien. AMAZON.COM INC Price AMAZON.COM INC Price | AMAZON.COM INC Quote Lagasses Popularity Set to Increase It appears that the immensely popular and experienced chef is well aware that currently viewers like cinematic, character-driven food documentaries that are much more appealing. This is supposedly the reason why he attempted to add a human element to the show and emphasized on the language of food. Collaborating with Amazon will certainly take his popularity a few notches higher. Whats on Amazons Platter? Lagasse initially came up with the idea and approached Amazon with a list of his chef friends he wanted to have on his show. In each of the episodes, Lagasse and one of his fellow chefs will take viewers to a particular part of the world, thereby exploring the connections between food, cultures and places. Story continues Amazon seems to have found the idea interesting and lapped it up. This could help the company strengthen its foothold in the unscripted programming space. Other Popular Food Series Netflix, Inc.s NFLX Chefs Table, PowerShares Dynamic Media ETFs Mind of a Chef and CNNs Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain have made both upcoming and renowned chefs more popular. It appears that Amazon is not willing to fall back in the race. Currently, Amazon is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. A better-ranked stock is PetMed Express, Inc. PETS sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report PETMED EXPRESS (PETS): Free Stock Analysis Report AMAZON.COM INC (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report NETFLIX INC (NFLX): Free Stock Analysis Report SEQUENTIAL BRND (SQBG): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research This summer, Congress has been tying itself up in knots, trying to decide how to adequately fund U.S. national defense priorities, given the limits imposed by sequestration. But the difficult reality is that, however we choose to address immediate challenges, any rational attempt to plan for Americas future security must begin with a clear-eyed reassessment of the costs, trade-offs, and dangers of the trillion-dollar plan Washington is undertaking to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. That reassessment should include an effort to eliminate the new nuclear cruise missile. This week, I co-sponsored an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would cut funding for the development of this missile, the Long-Range Standoff Weapon, by $75.8 million. If adopted, that preliminary cut would have slowed its development by three years. The United States needs a strong and credible nuclear arsenal. But our current nuclear forces are excessive. With over 5,000 deployed and stockpiled nuclear weapons and thousands more awaiting dismantlement we have a nuclear force stacked with redundancy. The nuclear triad that we would use to deliver these weapons consists of over 400 land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles on high alert and undetectable nuclear ballistic submarines, each armed with two types of warheads. We also deploy nuclear gravity bombs that could be delivered from bombers or fighter aircraft, and air-launched nuclear cruise missiles. In addition, the United States maintains non-deployed nuclear weapons that act as an additional hedge to our deployed nuclear weapons, along with thousands of nuclear components and, of course, the ability to build even more nuclear weapons. The truth is that the United States can retain a credible nuclear deterrent with significantly fewer nuclear weapons and fewer delivery systems, at a fraction of the cost. Instead, and with little debate, Congress has embarked on a plan to modernize all of these systems and increase these capabilities at an estimated total cost of $1 trillion over 30 years. This effort largely results from decisions made before the advent of the Budget Control Act and an ideological commitment to nuclear weapons by the Republican majority, which recently described them as our national security priority and the foundation of all our defense efforts in its security strategy. That plan means purchasing new nuclear weapons production facilities and labs, refurbishing warheads, land-based ballistic missiles, ballistic missile submarines, building new strategic bombers and nuclear-capable fighter aircraft, and, to top it all off, a new nuclear cruise missile. Story continues These expenses will soon constitute a huge proportion of the U.S. defense budget: Yearly nuclear modernization costs will soon balloon and then more than double in the ensuing years, requiring at least $40 billion annually between 2024 and 2036, or nearly 10 percent of defense costs. This modernization bow wave a term meant to describe the bulging costs resulting from new defense programs, like the waves that spread from the bow of a ship will crowd out other defense priorities, consuming money for conventional weapons, cyber security, taking care of military families, and everything else. For comparison, consider that $40 billion would fund an additional 330,000 troops, and is almost twice the yearly cost of the Marine Corps. That is an enormous problem that we are unprepared to handle. The comptroller of the Department of Defense has called the cost of nuclear modernization the biggest acquisition problem we dont know how to solve yet. Brian McKeon, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, stated that the Pentagon is wondering how the heck were going to pay for it, and that current leadership is thanking our stars we wont be here to have to answer the question. Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee repeatedly voted down and blocked amendments that would require more comprehensive cost assessments for these plans. Whats more, this nuclear investment would actually undermine U.S. security by driving an emerging global nuclear arms race, undercutting American credibility in the pursuit of nuclear nonproliferation. Indeed, over the past few years, Russia and China have been modernizing their nuclear deterrents. Much of their spending is meant to assure the relevance of their deterrents and offset conventional military deficiencies. That doesnt mean that the Pentagon must counter these new Russian and Chinese investments; America already has a reliable, credible nuclear deterrent. We must be careful to avoid creating incentives for a self-fulfilling cycle that heightens the risk of using atomic weapons. To avoid going down this road and to ensure that we maintain the capabilities we need, we should cancel redundant systems such as the planned development of the Long-Range Standoff Weapon, which I proposed reducing funding for this week in a defense appropriations amendment; adopt substantial cuts to our nuclear arsenal, which could save tens of billions of dollars; and increase accountability and transparency by requiring the Defense Department to submit a 25-year plan for nuclear deterrent modernization to explain how it plans to manage these costs. Now is the time for serious oversight and a realistic approach to these issues in order to stop an emerging arms race and avoid wasting billions of dollars we cannot afford. Photo Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / Staff (Reuters) - American rock singer Meat Loaf collapsed on stage while performing in Canada on Thursday, videos posted online showed, days after he postponed a show due to illness. The 68-year-old dropped his microphone and fell to the floor in the middle of his 1993 hit "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)". Stage hands and band members rushed to his aid as he lay on the stage. I didnt know if it was real. All of the band stopped playing instantly, fan Lotta Shandalla told the Edmonton Journal newspaper after concertgoers were ushered out of the Jubilee Auditorium in the city in Alberta province. Emergency personnel responded at the scene, the newspaper said. His condition was not known and authorities in Edmonton were not available for comment. Meat Loaf postponed a show in Calgary on Monday due to illness. With a huge voice and a body to match, the "Bat Out of Hell" singer, born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas, Texas, had slimmed down in recent years but suffered from frequent health problems and told Reuters in 2013 he would stop touring. "I outweigh (Mick) Jagger by about 100 pounds (45 kgs) and that counts for something. He hasn't seen the wear and tear," he said at the time. Meat Loaf pulled out of a concert in Britain in 2013 hours before he was due on stage. He canceled a European Tour in 2007 after being diagnosed with a cyst on his vocal chords and has collapsed on stage at least once before. He later blamed blackouts on past concussion injuries and other health problems on asthma. In 2012, he underwent a knee replacement operation. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Robert Birsel and Robin Pomeroy) Political action committee Americans Against Insecure Billionaires with Tiny Hands ran its first ad tonight, targeting MSNBC viewers in Washington D.C. and asked them to sign a petition demanding Donald Trump release his hand measurements. The group, founded in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year, will reach out to other markets. The PAC was started in March by Portlander Henry Kraemer, who said his goal was to expose the truth about Donald Trumps tiny baby hands, reports The Oregonian newspaper. The PAC has bought TV ad time in Washington D.C., where they plan to air this ad, titled Release the Measurements. They will expand their efforts to other parts of the country as needed, Tiny Hands PACs Communications Director Katie Nguyen told the newspaper. Nguyen said their goal is to hold a live on-air measurement TV special, but would accept the measurements, if provided by Trumps physician and notarized. Back in March, in a GOP debate hosted by Fox News Channel, Trump brought up his hands at the start of the exchange of ideas, suggesting, as some have said, hes sensitive about them. Marco Rubio, in a pre-Super Tuesday rally speech, said of Trump, You know what they say about men with small hands they cant be trusted. Rubio got asked about those personal attacks, because apparently presidential candidates who have not starred in reality TV series are held to some higher standard than those who have. He hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. Ive never heard of this! Look at those hands! Are they small hands? Trump asked FNC moderators Megyn Kelly, Bret Baier and Chris Wallace. He referred to my hands if theyre small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem. I guarantee. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LhNjWoBZck&w=620&h=340] Related stories Seth Meyers Offers Donald Trump Starring Role In New NBC Series 'Chicago President' Story continues Tara Miele's 'Meet A Muslim' Short Offers Viral Answer To Donald Trump's Harsh Talk Jimmy Kimmel Asks Oprah Whether Trump Wants Her To Be His Veep Amy Schumer is no stranger to anti-gun activism, and in light of recent tragedies, a sensitive scene from her forthcoming film just had to go. According to a report from E! News, the jack-of-all-trades decided to delete a segment of her so-far-untitled comedy that featured someone firing a gun at others. Aside from that, not much else is known. We do know the "mother/daugher" Fox project also stars Goldie Hawn and Tom Bateman and is slated for a May 17, 2017, release, according to Variety. Schumer is currently in Hawaii working on it. Amy Schumer Learned About Prince's Death During 'Vogue' Interview Forty-nine lives were lost during the June 12 attack at the Orlando gay nightclub Pulse, making it the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Previously, Schumer publicly spoke out against gun violence with her cousin, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, and included a segment in the 2016 season of Inside Amy Schumer in which she criticizes the ease with which Americans can purchase firearms. Check out "Welcome to the Gun Show" below: No surprise here Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitts six children are already growing up to be impressively worldly. The 41-year-old actress opened up about her six kids 14-year-old Maddox, 12-year-old Pax, 11-year-old Zahara, 10-year-old Shiloh, and 7-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox while appearing on BBC Radio 4s Womens Hour on Friday. Despite their young ages, Jolie says her children are all learning different languages, and also lovingly refers to them by their nicknames Shi, Mad and Z. I asked them what languages they wanted to learn and Shi is learning Khmai, which is a Cambodian language, Pax is focusing on Vietnamese, Mad has taken to German and Russian, Z is speaking French, Vivienne really wanted to learn Arabic, and Knox is learning sign language, Jolie shared. I suppose that just means you dont know who your children are until they show you who they are, and they are just becoming whoever they want to be. NEWS: Angelina Jolie Says She Didnt Envision Herself as a Mother I Never Wanted to Have a Baby' But it definitely looks like there will be a musician in the familys future! None of my kids want to be actors. They are actually very interested in being musicians, Jolie said. I think they like the process of film from the outside. Mad is interested in editing. Pax loves music and deejaying. Jolie also talk about her experiences as a Special Envoy for the United Nations, and her experience giving birth to Shiloh in Africa in 2006. It was there that Jolie came face to face with problems that millions of less privileged woman go through around the world. I went to a hospital in Namibia, where I was having my daughter, and I was in breech. I needed a C-section, and I knew I was in breech because I had had the money to have an ultrasound, Jolie recalled. But I found even the local hospital with many, many women and this was a good hospital did not have an ultrasound machine. So the amount of women that didnt know they were in breech, the amount of babies and complications when they got into labor, [could have been prevented] with one simple machine. Story continues I probably wouldnt have made it this far if I were a refugee, she added, recounting her experiences visiting refugee camps across the Middle East and Africa. WATCH: Angelina Jolie Saves Children From Unruly Mob in Greece ET talked to Jolie in January while she was promoting Kung Fu Panda 3, when she once again shared her childrens disinterest in acting even after Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, and Knox provided animal noises for some of the pandas in the animated film. They were kind of shy, Jolie said about her childrens experience. They dont really want to be actors, but I didnt want them to miss the opportunity. They came in, and they had a lot of fun with it. Watch below: Related Articles In the midst of a bitter political campaign that has featured increasingly apocalyptic warnings about the impact that immigrants -- particularly Muslim immigrants -- are having on society, a supporter of one of the most virulently nationalistic movements took matters into his own hands yesterday. He identified a politician on the opposite side of the argument -- an advocate for allowing Syrian refugees into the country -- and murdered her. Reportedly shouting a name associated with the most anti-immigrant voice in the country, he brutally shot, stabbed and kicked the 41-year-old lawmaker in broad daylight, outside a library where she had been meeting with constituents, leaving her to bleed to death on the pavement. Related: TrumpThe Gift That Keeps on Giving to Democrats The murder of Jo Cox, the 41-year-old mother of two and member of the British Parliament, stunned a nation that is far less used to random acts of gun violence than we are in the United States. Her assailant, a 52-year-old man identified by the British Press as Tommy Mair, reportedly shouted Britain first! during the attack -- the name of a political movement in the country that is bitterly opposed to Muslims and to immigration in general. The Southern Poverty Law Center in the U.S. reported that Mair had known connections to U.S.- and South Africa-based white supremacist movements. There have also been reports in the British media, including comments from Mairs family, suggesting that he has suffered mental problems. Britain, which will vote next week in a referendum that will determine whether or not the country remains a part of the European Union, has been torn by a campaign featuring unprecedented demonization of immigrants. Before the attack, the nationalist UK Independence Party and its leader, Nigel Farage, unveiled a widely criticized advertisement warning of hordes of immigrants invading the country, accompanied by a photo of a long line of Middle-Eastern looking refugees. Story continues Writing about the attack for the Spectator yesterday, Alex Massie calls Thursday a day of infamy for Britain. But the central point of his article is one that ought to resonate here in the United States. Related: Trump to GOP Leadership -- Sit Down and Shut Up When you shout BREAKING POINT over and over again, you dont get to be surprised when someone breaks, Massie writes. When you present politics as a matter of life and death, as a question of national survival, dont be surprised if someone takes you at your word. You didnt make them do it, no, but you didnt do much to stop it either. Sometimes rhetoric has consequences, he continues. If you spend days, weeks, months, years telling people they are under threat; that their country has been stolen from them; that they have been betrayed and sold down the river; that their birthright has been pilfered; that their problem is theyre too slow to realize any of this is happening; that their problem is theyre not sufficiently mad as hell -- then at some point, in some place, something or someone is going to snap. And then something terrible is going to happen. If Massiess assessment of his own countrys tortured politics doesnt sound painfully familiar to an American, well, then youre not paying attention. The biggest figure on the US political stage right now is fresh off the delivery of a bitter speech, given in the wake of a mass shooting in Orlando by a killer claiming support for the terror group ISIS. He once again called for a ban on Muslim immigrants coming into the country, warning that unless we follow his lead, we wont have a country left. He warned in a nationally televised interview about a supposed fifth column of Muslims in the US already made up of thousands of shooters who, he said, are being actively sheltered by U.S. Muslims. Related: How a Brexit Could Sink Clinton and Hand the Election to Trump But Donald Trumps incendiary rhetoric is different only in degree, not in kind, from what other politicians regularly dish out. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who finished second to Trump in the Republican presidential primary, has made a career out of warning Americans that their country has been stolen from them and that they need to take back control of the United States. Figures in the media -- Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck -- spend their days filling the airwaves with dire warnings about the various existential threats facing the United States. These are frequently tied explicitly to a scary set of other people, be they immigrants or members of racial, religious, or other minorities. The murder of Jo Cox by a disturbed man living in an environment in which he was subjected to ceaseless warnings that his country and way of life were under siege was shocking, but it would be disingenuous to claim that it was surprising given the level of rhetoric in the UK right now. Whats actually surprising? The fact that it didnt happen here, first. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: The only no-kill animal shelter in the Bronx is in danger of closing because of high medical expenses, rising utility costs and a lack of funding. New Beginning Animal Rescue has until the end of October to save itself from closure. The shelter was started by Pedro Rosario in 2011, a year after he established the boarding kennel NYC Top Dog. He became more interested in rescuing animals after seeing many of them killed while working at Animal Care Center of NYCwhen he could no longer bear seeing animals with treatable illnesses being euthanized, he left that job after 16 years. Everything started in my last year with animal control, Rosario said. It got to me that animals were being euthanized. So many animals were put to sleep just for sickness that could be treated. Rosario estimates that New Beginning Animal Rescue has placed around 300 dogs into permanent homes over the past six years. There are currently 40 dogs and 25 cats up for adoption. The non-profit organization receives no city funding and relies on private donations, two full-time workers and a team of dedicated volunteers. In the beginning, the shelter relied on steady income from rescue groups that boarded their cats and dogs with them. But five of those groups have since moved their animals to their own facilities or new locations. Their current 5,000 square foot facility costs around $4,700 per month to rent, and their utility bills for water, light and gas have steadily increased. Rosario is searching for a new location with cheaper rent, but other spaces are too small or not within their budget. Rosario said their total expenses are roughly $10,000 per month. Medical costs for the animals at New Beginning Animal Rescue over the past few months have also been higher than usual. Two months ago, a Chihuahua named Sophia had a heart murmur. The cost of a cardiogram, blood tests and medication reached almost $1,000. Two others dogs needed tumors removed. Their surgeries cost nearly $2,500 and $3,000, respectively. Rosario said these unexpected medical expenses add up to three times more than last years costs of $7,000. All of their dogs and cats receive vaccinations, microchipping and spayed or neuter services prior to being adopted. A boarding service at the shelter costs $15-18 per daycompared to other kennels that charge upwards of $45 per daybut some pet owners still struggle to pay the fee. We do a lot in terms of helping people and animals, Rosario said. People that go through a special situation like losing their home, we are the ones that are there for them. Since starting a Go Fund Me account in May, the shelter has raised more than $20,000 of their $50,000 goal. New Beginning is also applying for grants and reaching out to local officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, for financial support, and their petition to the mayor has nearly 6,500 signatures. The mayor announced in April that $10 million in capital funding of the 2017 budget will be used to create full-service shelters in the Bronx and Queens. Both boroughs rely on city-funded admission centers where animals can be dropped off; they are then relocated to a full-service animal center in another borough for boarding and medical attention, if necessary. But it's unclear when these new animal shelters will open, and in the meantime, there are animals in need in the Bronx. A rally is scheduled for June 21st at Gracie Mansion, where New Beginning supporters will call on Mayor de Blasio and other elected officials to save the animals and the shelter. Note: Frankie and Rudy, Simon, Forest, Jagger and Bear, who appear in the video, have been adopted. Though its title sounds vaguely sci-fi-ish, Sean Ellis Anthropoid is anything but fantasy, as this new trailer makes clear. With a tagline Resistance has a code name spelling things out pretty clearly, Anthropoid is based on the true story of a Czechoslovakian anti-facist operation during World War II. Led by the dwindling Czech resistance, the operation was a mission to assassinate Third Reich General Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of the Final Solution. Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan costar as two soldiers from the Czechoslovakian army-in-exile who parachute into their occupied homeland at the wars peak in December 1941. In a city under lockdown, the duo struggle to carry out the assassination. The stakes, needless to say, are high: If we fail, I fear freedom will be wiped from the map, one of the soldiers says in the trailers voiceover. Anthropoid also stars Charlotte Le Bon and Toby Jones, with Ellis directing from the script he cowrote with Anthony Frewin. Bleecker Street plans an August 12 theatrical release. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgR1jhEt37Y&w=970&h=546] Related stories 'Denial' Trailer: Rachel Weisz & Timothy Spall Spar In Fact-Based Holocaust Denier Drama 'Peaky Blinders' Cast Talks Season 3 In Steve Knight's Purple Patch & Muses On A Movie - Awardsline Rachel Weisz-Timothy Spall Holocaust Denier Drama 'Denial' Plots September Release (Reuters) - Apple Inc said its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were still available for sale in China after Beijing's intellectual property regulators barred their sales saying the designs had infringed a patent held by a Chinese company. "We appealed an administrative order from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month and as a result the order has been stayed pending review by the Beijing IP Court," Apple said in a statement on Friday. The notice, dated May 19, banning sales of certain iPhone models in Beijing was posted on a Chinese government website. (http://bit.ly/1S9rc6T) The Chinese market is vital to Apple, driving more of its sales than any other region outside the United States. But the tech giant has faced greater scrutiny there in recent months, with its online book and film services blocked by Chinese regulators earlier this year. Apple historically had enjoyed favorable treatment in China, but Beijings crackdown on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is a reminder that the tech giant is not immune to the scrutiny that other U.S. tech firms have long faced in the country, said analyst Colin Gillis of BGC Partners. Theres a variety of risks of having dependence on sales in China to Apple, and government intervention in whatever form is one of them, he said. Last month, Apple announced that it would invest $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing, a move that was widely viewed as an attempt to shore up relations in China. (Reporting by Julia Love in San Francisco and Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru; editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Diane Craft) (Updates with comment from ArcelorMittal) PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) - World number-one steelmaker ArcelorMittal is looking for a partner for one French subsidiary and is in discussions to sell another unit that operates largely in France, the company said on Friday. ArcelorMittal said it was in talks with potential joint venture partners for SoluStil, which makes sheet steel for the aerospace, rail, agriculture and construction sectors and has 660 employees ArcelorMittal was also in discussions about the possible sales of its Wire Solutions businesses, which makes fencing wire and nails and has 720 employees in France, along with some activities in Britain and Poland. ArcelorMittal, listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange but with headquarters in Luxembourg, has 17,200 staff in France and 210,000 worldwide. Earlier, French newspaper Le Figaro said parts of loss-making SoluStil may be acquired by affiliated Italian groups Cellino and CLN, while a buyer for Wire Solutions may be announced on July 7, with U.S. fund Oaktree a leading contender. (Reporting by Andrew Callus and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Mathieu Rosemain and Adrian Croft) PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) - World number-one steelmaker ArcelorMittal is preparing to shed about 10 percent of its 17,200 strong workforce in France through the sale of two subsidiaries, according to a report in Le Figaro newspaper. The report said the two units for sale are Solustil, which makes steel for car bodies, and WireSolutions, which makes fencing wire and nails. It said parts of loss-making Solustil may be acquired by affiliated Italian groups Cellino and CLN, while a buyer for WireSolutions may be announced on July 7, with U.S. fund Oaktree a leading contender. The Amsterdam-listed company, which employs 210,000 people worldwide, could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Andrew Callus and Phil Blenkinsop; Editing by Mathieu Rosemain) Archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of a network of medieval cities hidden in the Cambodian rainforest in one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in years. The network, so vast in size that it rivals the countrys capital city Phnom Penh, was found near the complex of temples that make up Angkor Wat, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of Cambodias most-visited ancient ruins. To unearth the cities, a team of scientists used light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology, which involves shooting lasers at the ground from above in a helicopter. The technology makes it possible to see remains of civilization even through the forest canopy, and helped the archaeologists discover city centers and an extensive system of roads and water channels that connected them. The findings were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Monday. Study author Dr. Damian Evans, an Australian archaeologist, explained the significance of the most extensive airborne archaeological study ever done covering 734 square miles to The Guardian. We have entire cities discovered beneath the forest that no one knew were there, Evans said. This time we got the whole deal and its big, the size of Phnom Penh big. The discovery is making archaeologists reconsider what they thought they knew about the once-flourishing empire. The inter-connected cities may have been the largest empire on Earth in the 12th century, even larger than the Holy Roman Empire and the Song dynasty in China. Not only does the revelation shed light into the rich history of the region, but it may also give researchers more clues as to what caused the Khmer civilization to collapse some time around the 15th century. While the cities remain buried in the rain forest, it only adds to the allure of Siem Reap. Its one more reason to add Cambodia to your travel itinerary. Related Articles Leopoldo Lopez, one of the leaders of Venezuelas opposition, is Latin Americas most famous political prisoner. During his two and a half years in jail, his jailers have locked him away in isolation, taken away his books, and sprayed him with human feces. His wife and mother have been subjected to humiliating cavity searches during visits. No international humanitarian organizations have been allowed to see him. So one can only imagine Lopezs surprise when, earlier this month, his warden announced an unexpected visitor: former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Zapatero came to Lopez with a startling offer: if he ended his campaign against the government, he could have his freedom. (Lopez politely declined.) A few weeks earlier, thousands of miles to the south, Argentine president Mauricio Macri had announced the candidacy of his foreign minister, Susana Malcorra, for the position of Secretary General of the United Nations. Strange as it may seem, the two events Zapateros offer to Lopez and Malcorras U.N. bid are intimately connected. The story underscores how Argentinas new president once seen as a vocal supporter of Venezuelas opposition is changing his tune, abandoning his principles in exchange for diplomatic victories. In his campaign for the presidency, Macri had emphasized that, unlike his predecessor and rival, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, he was no friend to the ruling chavista regime in Caracas. Instead, he promised to challenge Venezuelas president, Nicolas Maduro, on his violations of human rights and his suppression of the opposition. He even invited Lopezs wife to Buenos Aires to celebrate his electoral victory. The hopes of Venezuelas opposition were heightened still further when Macri tapped the experienced Malcorra who had served for four years as Secretary General Ban Ki-Moons chief of staff for the post of foreign minister. As a fixture in international diplomatic circles, she was considered a heavyweight who had access to heads of state the world over. Venezuelas opposition believed her experience would lend gravitas to their cause. Story continues But since then it has become clear that Malcorra has other goals in her sights, and none involve Venezuelas dissidents. Taking advantage of a consensus that the next Secretary General should be a woman, and sensing an opening, she has thrown her hat into the ring. But to make her campaign viable, she has decided to cut a deal with Venezuelas hapless chavista president. Malcorra has two main rivals for the Secretary General role. One is Irina Bokova, the Bulgarian head of UNESCO, the U.N. agency in charge of education and culture. Bokova is a strong candidate because many feel the job should go to an Eastern European, a region that has never held the post. Another strong contender is Helen Clark, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, a part of the world that also has never held the top U.N. post. Clark is the current head of the U.N. Development Program, where she is seen as a successful reformer. Both Bokova and Clark have support in the Security Council, which must recommend a candidate to the General Assembly for a vote. The former is supported by Russia, and the latter by New Zealand (currently a Security Council member). But the lack of consensus has provided the well-liked Malcorra with her opening. That is where Venezuela comes in. The country is in its second year as a member of the Security Council, and it has close relations with both Russia and China. Since April, Malcorra has conducted a series of meetings with the Venezuelan foreign minister and with Maduro himself. According to veteran Miami Herald reporter Casto Ocando and other sources, she has made a deal with the regime: Venezuela will do everything in its power to promote her candidacy. In exchange, Argentina will block efforts by the Organization of American States (OAS) to punish Venezuela for its human rights record. Malcorra quickly went to work. Even as the Secretary General of the OAS waged a war of words with Maduro over Venezuelas sad state of affairs chief among them, the governments efforts to stifle the opposition Argentina started blocking the OASs efforts to approve a hefty report criticizing Venezuela for violating the regions Interamerican Democratic Charter. Instead, Argentina argued, the Venezuelan regime should engage in dialogue with the opposition to find a way out of the countrys severe economic and political crisis. The opposition believes the proposed talks are just a way of giving Maduro breathing room while accomplishing nothing of substance. But Malcorra appears to have little sympathy for the dissidents longstanding attempts to challenge his disastrous and oppressive rule not when theres a Secretary General position for the taking. And, as it turns out, it was Malcorra who got former Spanish President Zapatero to visit Caracas to broker the talks, with the Maduro administrations enthusiastic approval. That is how Zapatero ended up visiting Lopez in his cell. Sources have confirmed the content of Zapateros message: Maduros government was willing to free its political prisoners from jail (keeping them under house arrest) and to make a few other minor concessions. In exchange, the opposition would withdraw its outstanding petition to hold a recall referendum against the deeply unpopular Maduro. Lopez promptly declined Zapateros offer, describing the recall referendum on Twitter as non-negotiable. His stance was echoed by Henrique Capriles, the oppositions other main leader and the main force behind the recall effort. Most shocking of all was the realization that the initiative came from an Argentine government many Venezuelan dissidents had believed to be their ally. The spat even prompted Capriles to travel to Buenos Aires to meet with Macri, with little discernible result. Neither Malcorra nor Macri seem swayed. This controversy shows that the Venezuelan opposition continues to find itself alone in its battles with a regime that controls nearly all the levers of power. The lengths to which Latin Americas power brokers will go to advance their agendas is one of the reasons Nicolas Maduro remains in power. Once again, an important regional player has chosen to look away from the plight of the Venezuelan people. The disastrous policies of Maduro (and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez) have plunged Venezuela into a humanitarian crisis. Reports of people going hungry or dying from lack of medicine are growing; incidents of looting are multiplying. The country is on the brink of chaos, and theres no sign that the government plans to change course. Just recently, Maduro announced that food will no longer be distributed to supermarkets, but rather directly by his political operatives. Only his supporters will get handouts, promising to make a volatile situation all the more unstable. But this does not seem to matter to Malcorra. Venezuelas agony is just another unsolvable problem, and its opposition just another pawn in her quest for worldwide diplomatic recognition. If she becomes Secretary General, one can only hope she will take a moment to pull the Venezuelan people from underneath the bus she threw them under. Perhaps, once she is in power, she will spare a thought for the imprisoned Lopez, languishing in his cell thousands of miles from the U.N. headquarters. On June 9, riot police prepared to confront students of the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas who were demanding a referendum on removing President Nicolas Maduro. Photo Credit: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images Stephen Daldry Golden Camera Prize The immersive worlds created by British helmer and producer Stephen Daldry are feted at Kosice this year, where he will receive the Golden Camera prize for work of outstanding quality and professionalism behind the camera. Since the trophy was launched in 2001, the roster of honorees has included such unconventional filmmakers as Ulrich Seidl, Andrzej Wajda, and Slovak auteur Juraj Jakubisko. Daldrys international reputation and work with top stars make him a major score for Art Film Fest, says artistic director Peter Nagel. Daldrys three Oscar nominations [Billy Elliot, The Hours, and The Reader] are clear evidence of his exceptional talent, Nagel adds. In a recent stage production, Daldry cast refugees from the French Jungle camp in Calais to play themselves. Nagel notes that exposing Slovak auds to the filmmakers work fits in with the educational mission of Art Film Fest. I think it will be very good showcase, Nagel says. He adds that Daldrys work is unknown to some residents of the small nation. But a growing number of Slovaks are now well-versed in Daldrys dramatic productions, spanning five features plus TV work over a 16-year career. Daldry inspires emerging filmmakers with his gift for drawing out moving performances, says Art Films Fests Peter Nagel, adding that his frequent focus on strong female characters is also of interest to Slovak audiences. Above: Stephen Daldry Karl Roden Actors Mission Theres no shortage of star wattage at fests in Central and Eastern Europe these days, with Hollywood A-listers flown in regularly to increasingly rustic locations. But Art Film Fest prefers to focus on actors actors, as it has since launching the Actors Mission honor in 1995. This years honoree, Czech film and stage veteran Karel Roden, is a Czech Lion-winning performer at Pragues National Theater who has also branched out in to international thrillers including Robert De Niro starrer 15 Minutes in 2001. His recent role as the raging Czechoslovak avant-garde photographer Jan Saudek in The Photograph is particularly apt for the Kosice fests focus on films concerning art and artists. Story continues Rodens portrayal of the hard-living Bohemian lensman was a sensation among critics and audiences in the region, but only the most recent character role for an actor whose range spans Russian mafia figures to Grigori Rasputin in Hellboy. Hes played Viktor in midnight movie Frankensteins Army and the studied intellectual hero of the Czech adaptation of HBO series In Therapy. Famously press-shy Roden usually refuses such fest honors, but after three years of wooing by Art Film, aided by Rudolf Biermann, producer of Rodens upcoming historic thriller Masaryk, the deal was sealed. Related stories Art Film Festival: Tips For Visitors to Kosice Roland Emmerich: Hollywood's Soulful Master of Disaster Art Film Festival: Programmers Court Larger Audience With New Setting The NYC Parks Department has reversed its decision to censor a sixteen-foot sculpture in Riverside Park that a local artist hopes will compel parkgoers to challenge hate in all of its manifestations. Artist Aaron Bell's Stand Tall, Stand Loud, which was unveiled this week in its censored form, will be altered in the coming weeks to reflect the artist's original designa human form topped with a noose twisted into a symbol that indicates a banned activity. The decision was reached after a meeting between Bell, his attorney, and the Parks Department on Tuesday, as first reported by A Walk In The Park. Bell conceived Stand Tall, Stand Loud for Model to Monument, a joint NYC Parks-Art Students League of New York competition that selects eight works each year for display in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and Riverside Park South on the Upper West Side. The theme for this year's competition was "The Public Square"; artists were encouraged to consider the role of public spaces in sparking dialogue, according to the Art Students League website. "[My piece] will serve as a reminder to the diverse flow of visitors that we each should encourage and strive to make tolerance and understanding a daily minimum requirement," Bell wrote in an artist statement obtained by West Side Rag. Bell (L) at the dedication of his sculpture on Thursday. At right is a poster of what the installation will look like in a couple of weeks (via Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates). Bell, who is black, added that the noose was conceived as "the embodiment of all forms of hate found in society"towards "LGBT communities, religious communities, racial and ethnic communities," as well as "corrupt members of police departments and corrupt governments... bullies and egocentric politicians." The sculpture is inscribed at its base with this Martin Luther King., Jr. quote: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." A model of the second iteration of Bell's sculpture, featuring a line through the noose. Parks rejected this version (via). In a move that seemed to blatantly defy Bell's message, city officials rejected his proposal outright last November. That version of the statue was topped with a noose, according to images supplied by the Parks Department. Bell then pitched a revision with a line through the noose, which was also rejected. The NY Times reports that Jennifer Lantzas, who coordinates public art projects for city parks, e-mailed Parks staff expressing her concern that "the image of the noose could be problematic for the borough." Echoing the sentiment, Parks spokesman Sam Biederman told the paper via e-mail that Bell's project was rejected because its proposed site, near West 68th Street in Riverside Park, "is adjacent to an area regularly programmed with passive recreational activities such as yoga, Pilates and senior movement." As first reported by West Side Rag, Bell alleged in May that the Model to Monument committee hadn't granted his requests to explain or defend his concept. The Parks Department said at the time that all proposals had been reviewed by a departmental panel that included Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver, and that works were subject to peer critique and revision. Factors that influenced the panel's decisions, they said, included safety and durability, as well asquite broadlygeneral suitability. In a partial reversal, Parks accepted a third version of the sculpture with no noose elementthe one erected this week. Bell chose to depict a large mouth, instead, despite his reservations. "The mouth is simply a resolution to satisfy members of the Parks Department," he told the NY Times. Parks spokesman Sam Biederman now says the department has approved a fourth version of the sculpture, with a bolder line through the noose. "Earlier this week Mr. Bell approached us with a fourth version which included the noose with a diagonal line more clearly placed," Biederman wrote via e-mail. "Our art staff believed this final version (with the noose) depicted its message clearly and powerfully. It will be placed in the park in the coming weeks." Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates, who says he spoke with Bell last night, strongly denied that the agencys issue was related to the size or placement of the line. "The Parks Department has had the noose with the slash design since February," he said. "The press department's repeated attempts to claim otherwise is shameful." Bell could not immediately be reached for comment. The National Coalition Against Censorship wrote a letter [PDF] to Commissioner Silver earlier this month, stating that his department's decision raised "serious first amendment concerns": Art that expresses thoughts and ideas that are not to the taste of every single member of a community are nonetheless fully protected by the First Amendment. Aaron Bells work, which addresses the important issue of racially-motivated violence, does so through imagery that enjoys full constitutional protectiona protection that is not lessened by the possibility that the work and its message may make some viewers feel uncomfortable. "NYC Parks is pleased to have come to an agreement with Mr. Bell, who shared with us a vision of his piece that suits the site and conveys its message clearly and powerfully," Beiderman stated. ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports Sam Ehlinger officially becomes the starting quarterback of the Colts. If he fails or gets injured, Nick Foles will take over. And if Foles gets injured, the quarterback will be anyone but Matt Ryan. Ryan is done. Hes out. He wont play again, for reasons rooted in his contract. Put simply, once the team decided [more] - Daniel Ricciardo on Friday made clear that he welcomed Red Bull's decision to end speculation over his future by revealing that he is contracted to remain with the team until the end of 2018. The Australian driver has been linked with other teams, including Ferrari, for several months while he and Red Bull remained tight-lipped on his future. But after rising tensions in the relationship between Ricciardo, 26, and the team, Red Bull chiefs Helmut Marko and Christian Horner have told reporters that he is remaining with the team for two more years. Ricciardo said: "It has always been pretty discrete, I guess... But Helmut has made a few comments - and it is good, it means he likes me. AFP Buffalo in Yellowstone No longer are "bear" and "bull" good enough to talk about the markets. "Buffalo" best describes what markets are doing right now, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "A buffalo market tends to roam over a long period of time, is herd-like and rather heavy, and can run the other way when worrisome obstacles get in the way," Karin Kimbrough, head of macro and economic policy at Merril Lynch, said in a newsletter. Which means that even as markets seem calm for now and have mostly gone more or less sideways, there are any number of things that could set them on a rampage. The Brexit vote and the crazy US elections are two in just the political realm, according to Kimbrough. The newsletter goes on to suggest a diverse portfolio to protect yourself when the market decides whether it is a bear or a bull, though it might take a while to get to one or the other. "This range-bound buffalo market may be with us for some time," Kimbrough said. "It will likely bring low returns and higher volatility." So when the market does turn, which way will it go? Because of high valuations in the market today, it's harder to see the upside potential, according to the newsletter. "Any further upside would probably be borrowing from returns in 2017 or require an earnings boost for the S&P 500 ... The markets are more vulnerable to negative news, or even anticipation of it," noted Kimbrough. Only time will tell. NOW WATCH: Virtual reality could help the stock market reach all-time highs in 2016 and 2017 More From Business Insider LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Dutch bank ING and France's Societe Generale have sent letters to clients warning them of difficult trading conditions in financial markets and large gaps in pricing of assets around Britain's referendum next week on EU membership, Such formal warnings have become commonplace since the shocking moves in the Swiss franc in January of last year, which led to conflicts between banks and their clients due to the absence of market prices for several minutes. A spokesman for ING confirmed the bank had sent a communication to clients warning them of the likelihood of difficult trading circumstances around the vote on June 23. A source who had seen the letter, declining to be named, said it urged clients to be patient as pricing circumstances would be difficult and warned that there could be gaps in pricing, especially if Britain votes to leave the bloc. ING declined to comment on the content of the letter. SG's sales and trading arm has also sent a letter to clients warning them about volatility and gaps in liquidity, said a source with knowledge of the issue, declining to be named. Reuters has not seen a copy of either letter. A spokesman for the bank declined to comment. (Reporting by Patrick Graham, John Geddie and Anirban Nag, editing by Nigel Stephenson) We rely on your support to make local news available to all Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2022. Donate today By Kirstin Ridley LONDON (Reuters) - Barclays has described as "fundamentally misconceived" a $1.0 billion-plus lawsuit brought by British financier Amanda Staveley over the bank's emergency fundraising from Gulf investors at the height of the credit crisis in 2008. Staveley's private equity group PCP Capital Partners is claiming damages for alleged fraudulent misrepresentation in a civil case lodged at London's High Court in January that sheds light on how Abu Dhabi and Qatari sheikhs helped bail Barclays out nearly eight years ago. The case hinges on the terms Qatari and Abu Dhabi investors received for participating in a cash call to help Barclays raise around 7.0 billion pounds ($10 billion) and avoid state aid. Laying out a 44-page defense in a court document seen by Reuters on Thursday, Barclays denied dishonesty and recklessness and called PCP's assertion it had been a potential investor in the Abu Dhabi syndicate at the time "utterly speculative and flawed". The case is unfolding months before the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is due to decide whether to charge Barclays and former executives in a separate criminal inquiry into financial arrangements with Qatar that included a loan to the Gulf state, as the bank battled to raise cash during the financial crisis. Barclays, which has not commented on the criminal investigation, made a High Court application in an attempt to delay filing a defense against the civil lawsuit until the SFO concludes its near four-year inquiry this year. But during a London High Court hearing on May 19, the bank agreed to lay out its response by June 16. SEPARATE SERVICES PCP, which put together a syndicate of Abu Dhabi investors for Barclays in October 2008, alleges in the lawsuit that it received an "express and implied agreement", made orally and in writing by Barclays staff, that it would get the same terms as Qatari investors. The lawsuit alleges Qatari investors received extra fees of 346 million pounds ($490 million), which includes an alleged 280 million pound "sham advisory services agreement" with Qatar. Had PCP received the same deal terms as Qatar, it would not have had to give up a 10 percent interest in the funding deal to keep Abu Dhabi investors on board when Barclays shares fell in November 2008, the lawsuit alleged. Barclays denied that PCP had been told it would get the same deal as Qatari investors and alleged the 280 million pound fee paid to Qatar was for "separate services which required separate payment". Another 66 million pound fee paid by Barclays to Qatari investors at the time was for its role in arranging that Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan would invest in Barclays, it alleged. Reuters was not able to reach Sheikh Mansour for comment. "Barclays intended and expected that in return for the ASA (advisory services agreement) fee it would receive valuable services," it stated in the court document. "In so far as Barclays made any representations, Barclays denies that it made those representations dishonestly or recklessly." Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, has declined to comment on the case. Staveley's PCP, which has four weeks to file a rebuttal, declined to comment. (Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Additional reporting by Tom Finn; Editing by Rachel Armstrong, Toni Reinhold) It seems Donald Trump can't count on the support of even long-deceased Republicans. The billionaire businessman recently announced plans to fundraise at the former home of Barry Goldwater, the conservative icon who shook up the GOP when he ran for president in 1964. Trump's contentious presidential campaign has drawn comparisons to that of the late Arizona senator. But Goldwater's widow, Susan Goldwater Levine, told The Washington Post on Thursday that the comparisons and Trump's fundraiser are anything but welcome. "Ugh or yuck is my response," Levine said. "I think Barry would be appalled that his home was being used for that purpose. Barry would be appalled by Mr. Trump's behavior the unintelligent and unfiltered and crude communications style. And he's shallow so, so shallow." She added that her husband was a "humanist" who had respect for all people and said of Trump's candidacy, "I can't believe we are doing this as a country. Barry was so true to his convictions and would never be issuing these shallow, crude, accusatory criticisms of the other party or the other person." GOP Delegates Launch New Push to Halt Trump Levine's comments come as dozens of GOP convention delegates are launching a new effort to stop Trump from officially becoming the Republican nominee. The Washington Post calls the plan "the most organized" one yet and reports that the delegates are "angered by Trump's recent comments on gun control, his racial attacks on a federal judge and his sinking poll numbers." Does Donald Trump Rattle You? The new campaign is being run by the only people who are actually able to change party rules, and they believe they will gain enough support from other Republicans that delegates will be allowed to vote for whomever they want at the convention. Many in the movement supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the primary, but they say they have no specific candidate in mind now. "This literally is an 'Anybody but Trump' movement," Kendal Unruh, a Republican delegate from Colorado who is leading the campaign told The Post. "Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we're not worried about that. We're just doing that job to make sure that he's not the face of our party." 'At This Point, I Just Can't Do It': John Kasich and Other Republicans Refuse to Support Trump More and more GOP figures and even big businesses that are now refusing to sponsor this summer's Republican National Convention are distancing themselves from Trump, or outright denouncing him. Former presidential hopeful John Kasich said the idea of endorsing Trump is "painful" to him. "At this point, I just can't do it," he said Thursday on Morning Joe. "But we'll see where it ends up a I'm not making any final decisions yet." The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, Fred Upton, said that Trump has "gone off the track" and that he has no plans to endorse the mogul "or anyone in this race." "I'm going to stay in my lane," the Michigan congressman said during a radio interview, according to The Detroit News. RichardA Armitage, George W. Bush's former Deputy Secretary of State,A said he plans to vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.A "[Trump] does not appear to be a Republican, he doesn't appear to want to learn about issues," Armitage toldA Politico. "So, I'm going to vote for Mrs. Clinton." And according to The Washington Post, several more companies announced this week that they will not participate in the Republican convention in Cleveland. Wells Fargo, UPS, Motorola, JPMorgan Chase, Ford, and Walgreens Boots Alliance have joined Coca-Cola, Microsoft and other companies in declining to contribute to the convention. Frankfurt (AFP) - German chemicals giant BASF said Friday it has agreed to purchase Chemetall, the surface treatment subsidiary of US group Albemarle, for $3.2 billion (2.8 billion euros). BASF added in its statement that "the transaction is subject to approval by the relevant authorities and is expected to close by the end of 2016." Chemetall is headquartered in Frankfurt and has a global workforce of around 2,500 at 21 production sites in more than 20 countries, BASF said. In 2015, it generated sales of $845 million. "Chemetall offers a strong strategic fit for our coatings business," said the board member for BASF's coating business, Wayne T. Smith. "Chemetall complements our current portfolio by adding the highly attractive surface treatment business to our coatings offerings," said division chief Markus Kamieth. Chemetall's products are used in a wide range of industries such as automobiles, aerospace and metal forming industries, BASF said. BASF's coatings division generated annual revenues of 3.2 billion euros last year. BASF shares were little changed on the Frankfurt stock exchange in mid-afternoon trading, rising just 0.07 percent to 67.89 euros, while the overall DAX index was up one percent. Khartoum (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has declared a four-month ceasefire in two states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, where recent fighting between troops and rebels has left scores of casualties, the army said Friday. Bashir's forces have been battling the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in the two states since 2011, and neither side has decisively gained an upper hand in the fighting. "President Bashir announced four months of ceasefire in Blue Nile and South Kordofan starting from Saturday," army spokesman Brigadier Ahmed Khalifa al-Shami told AFP. "This gesture of goodwill from the government is to give the armed groups a chance to join the peace process and to surrender their arms." The ceasefire was anticipated ahead of the start of the rainy season that leaves roads in the these regions impassable. Khartoum limits press access to the war-hit border regions, making it nearly impossible to verify the often-contradictory reports from the army and the SPLM-N about fighting there. Bashir had announced a similar ceasefire in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and the western Darfur region -- the scene of a separate insurgency -- in late 2015 and extended it by a month at the beginning of this year. But new fighting in Blue Nile and South Kordofan erupted after the end of that ceasefire earlier this year. Shami said the latest ceasefire starting from Saturday does not extend to the war-torn area of Darfur as "there was no real rebellion now in Darfur". "There are only small groups that are trying to disturb the security in Darfur. Sudanese forces have ended the rebellion in Darfur." Sudan held a referendum in Darfur in April, with officials saying almost 98 percent of voters opted for retaining the region as five separate states. Darfur has been gripped by conflict since 2003, when ethnic minority rebels rose up against the government in Khartoum. Bashir launched a brutal counterinsurgency and at least 300,000 people have been killed, the United Nations says. Another 2.5 million have fled their homes. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges related to Darfur, which he denies. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY has acquired One Kings Lane Inc., an online home furnishings retailer, to take forward its mission of being a one-stop shop for home goods. Though the real value of the deal is not known, market bugs circulated that Bed Bath & Beyond cracked this all-cash deal much lower than One Kings previously disclosed valuation of $900 million. One Kings, popular as a flash-sales website, sells home decor and designs including exclusive range of selected home goods, designer and vintage items. The company is directly associated with home furnishing brands, vintage dealers, designers and tastemakers to bring forward a unique collection of merchandise. Further, the company also delivers design inspiration and expert style solutions, along with complimentary interior designing services at its two design studios in San Francisco and New York. The deal is likely to benefit both Bed Bath & Beyond and One Kings to counter competition from e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, which dominates the e-commerce business world with its pricing power advantage. As for Bed Bath & Beyond, it is facing the threat of losing market as Amazon expands its home goods offerings and proclaims its dominance in the segment. On the other hand, One Kings like its fellow flash-sales sites is struggling to establish footing in the e-commerce space dominated by Amazon. One Kings expects to gain from Bed Bath & Beyonds support and resources to further expand its product lines as well as refine its business ideas to benefit its present and future customers. While Bed Bath & Beyond believes the acquisition will prove to be a key milestone to bolster its furniture and home decor offerings. Collectively, both companies expect this union to help them better serve their customers. Further, Bed Bath & Beyond expects the transaction to bear no impact on its first-quarter fiscal 2016 results, which will be released on Jun 22, as the transaction has occurred in the second quarter. However, the transaction and related integration costs are expected to be slightly dilutive to the companys fiscal 2016 earnings per share. Bed Bath & Beyond currently has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), as the company is affected with issues that have been impacting its top and bottom line results. Though the company delivered an encouraging earnings picture in fourth-quarter fiscal 2015, we cannot ignore the fact that its exposure to the international markets has been weighing on its quarterly performance mainly due to the strengthening U.S. dollar. Moreover, the companys margins remain pressurized mainly due to soft merchandise margins and a rise in net direct-to-customer shipping costs. Story continues BED BATH & BEYOND Price BED BATH&BEYOND Price | BED BATH&BEYOND Quote Going forward, persistence of these unfavorable currency fluctuations is likely to weigh on the companys results, thus posing concerns. Stocks That Warrant a Look Some better-ranked stocks in the same industry include Cabelas Inc. CAB and ULTA Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. ULTA, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report AMAZON.COM INC (AMZN): Free Stock Analysis Report CABELAS INC (CAB): Free Stock Analysis Report ULTA SALON COSM (ULTA): Free Stock Analysis Report BED BATH&BEYOND (BBBY): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Belgrade (AFP) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to sign some 20 bilateral deals with Serbia during a visit that began Friday, as Belgrade aims to make China one of its main economic partners. The three-day visit is the first by a Chinese president since the breakup of the former communist Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Beijing and Belgrade in 2009 signed a "strategic partnership" aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation on economic, cultural, educational and other matters. In 2015 bilateral trade was worth $1.56 billion (1.38 billion euros), more than 90 percent of which was in favour of China. Serbia hopes to become a gateway for Chinese moves into the Balkans and beyond. China wants to facilitate transport of its products into Europe by participating in infrastructure projects in southeastern Europe. Xi Jinping arrived in Belgrade two months after HBIS, the world's third-biggest steel producer, bought Serbia's sole steel mill and largest exporter Zelezara Smederevo for 46 million euros ($52 million). He is to visit the plant on Sunday. Some 20 bilateral agreements are expected to be signed during the visit, including one reinforcing the 2009 strategic partnership, according to Serbian media. China does not recognise Kosovo, the former Serbian province that unilaterally declared independence in 2008 despite Belgrade's opposition. Upon his arrival Xi Jinping attended a ceremony marking the start of construction of a Chinese cultural centre at the site of the former Chinese embassy hit by US-led NATO aircraft during the 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia over its war with ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Three people were killed in the incident that seriously strained relations between Washington and Bejing at the time. The Chinese president will also attend the inauguration of a monument to Chinese philosopher Confucius. The visit to Serbia is part of a three-nation tour that will also take him Poland and Uzbekistan. Bernie Sanders didnt drop out of the presidential race on Thursday night. But the Vermont Senator made it clear that his goal going forward was not to make himself the candidate, but to try to push Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Democratic Party towards the progressive policy positions he has pushed during the primary season. Election days come and go, but political and social revolutions that attempt to change our society never end, Sanders said in a speech live streamed on his website. When it was announced that Sanders would speak on Thursday night to his supporters, it was widely assumed that he would be suspending his campaign for the presidency and endorsing Hillary Clinton. Instead, he vowed to continue his fight to change the way the Democratic Party operates. That includes pushing for changes in the Democratic platform -- adopting a more progressive stance on issues like financial regulation, healthcare reform, and the minimum wage -- and for changing the way Democrats choose their presidential nominees in future years. Sanders wants to adopt open primaries, increase same day voter registration, and end the use of superdelegates. Real change never takes place from the top on down or in the living room of wealthy campaign contributors, he said. Thats what the political revolution we helped start is all about, thats why the political revolution must continue. Sanders did offer a few hints that he will fall in line with Hillary Clinton. He maintained that the major political task we face in the next five months was to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president. He also said that he would begin his own role in that campaign in a very short time. For now, though, Sanders made it clear that he is focused on the Democratic National Convention, noting that he had won thousands of delegates whom he believes should have a role in setting the agenda at the event, which is scheduled to take place in Philadelphia starting on July 25. Story continues See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders promised in a video address on Thursday night to continue his political revolution, declining to concede the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton despite losing a majority of votes to his rival. Still, he vowed in his video address to do whatever he could do to help Clinton defeat Donald Trump in a general election, promising to work with her to transform the Democratic Party. Election days come and go. But political and social revolutions that attempt to transform our society never end. They continue every day, every week and every month in the fight to create a nation of social and economic justice, Sanders said, speaking in his video address from Burlington, Vermont. Thats what the political revolution is about and thats why the political revolution must continue into the future. Continuing the clarion call of his campaign, Sanders said the Democratic Party must commit to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, pay equity, opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, expanding Social Security and breaking up the large Wall Street banks, policy positions that he and Clinton disagreed over during the course of the primary. Sanders charts a risky path by deciding not to concede. He may anger party leaders as well as the base of the Democratic Party, who will begin to see him as an obstruction to Clinton despite his significant loss, and denying the first woman major-party nominee in the country the full claim to that title. But his vow to help defeat Donald Trump comes as comfort to some Democrats and Clinton aides, who see his aid as crucial in the fall to holding onto the White House. The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly, Sanders said. We cannot have a president who insults Mexicans and Latinos, Muslims, women and African-Americans. Story continues And in a hint to his willingness to cooperate, he said in the coming days he would join in the effort. And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time, Sanders continued. Clinton won the primary with more than 15 million votes, around 3.5 million more than Sanders, and beat Sanders in pledged delegates with 2,219 compared with Sanders 1,832, a margin of nearly 400, according to the most recent count by the Associated Press. She won in a majority of states with high voter turnout and where independents could vote. Sanders has promised for months to continue waging his campaign until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in late July where he will challenge Clinton to adopt a series of policy proposals. He has called for the end of the superdelegate system, in which party elites untied to a democratic vote chose their favored candidate, and open primaries. Sanders video address comes two days after Clinton and Sanders met on Tuesday night at a hotel in Washington DC to discuss eventually reconciling and uniting the party against Trump. I look forward, in the coming weeks, to continued discussions between the two campaigns to make certain that your voices are heard and that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda, Sanders said in his address. In 2008, Clinton conceded the primary to then-Sen. Barack Obama three days after the final primaries in Montana and South Dakota. Sanders, however, has less fealty to the Democratic Party and is committed to implementing a progressive platform and opening up elections to his followers. Talk among his aides in recent days around contesting the convention has all but ended, and it appears unlikely he will aim to convince errant superdelegates to support his candidacy as he had once promised. Some of his demands are outside of Clintons control. Whether primaries are open or closed, for example, is often decided by the state parties and is something the Democratic National Committee and has little input on. And the superdelegate system would have to be undone through widespread consensus in the Party. Sanders inspired a generation of younger voters with his call for a more equitable society and projected a message of hope. Sanders, always cantankerous and combative, nonetheless inspired voters who saw him as high-minded and ethically untarnished after three-and-a-half decades in politics, first as mayor of Burlington, Vermont then as congressman and then to U.S. Senator. It is clear that Sanders continues to long to control the tenor and the issues of the race. So far, he has pushed Clinton to adopt positions she may not have otherwise taken, including opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, opposing the Keystone Pipeline and formulating a robust Wall Street regulation plan, among others. He punctuated his address with a call to action to his supporters. The political revolution means much more than fighting for our ideals at the Democratic National Convention and defeating Donald Trump, Sanders said. It means that, at every level, we continue the fight to make our society a nation of economic, social, racial and environmental justice. Bernie Sanders will return to the Senate Monday to vote on gun control legislation. The Vermont senators vote will be his first since January, USA Today reports. Sanders, who is still running for President, missed Wednesdays Democratic filibuster for gun control led by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. Republicans agreed to hold votes on gun control measures early Thursday morning, concluding the nearly 15-hour filibuster. During the Democratic primary, presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton has tried to corner Sanders on his past positions on guns, namely a 2005 vote for legislation that protected gun makers from certain lawsuits. But in a Thursday address to supporters, Sanders said he would come out strong for gun control. As the recent tragedy in Orlando has made crystal clear, we must ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons, end the gun show loophole and expand instant background checks, he said. Bernie Sanders is still not conceding, but he is vowing to work with Hillary Clinton to defeat their mutual opponent Donald Trump. On Thursday the Vermont senator tweeted a statement regarding his plans moving forward in the race to the White House. His decision to join forces with Clinton was fueled by his commitment to stopping a "major party candidate who makes bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign." This campaign has never been about any single candidate. It is about transforming America. #OurRevolution a Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 17, 2016 This campaign is about defeating @realDonaldTrump, the Republican candidate for president. #OurRevolution pic.twitter.com/exfWylcYbd a Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 17, 2016 Speaking to his supporters in a live online address later posted to his Twitter, Sanders emphasized his feelings regarding Trump's campaign, adding that the next big step is too make sure the billionaire businessman is not elected. "The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly," he said. "And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time." Although Sanders did not specify in what capacity he would be working to bring down Trump, his remarks came after a Tuesday meeting with Clinton during which the pair reportedly discussed the future of the Democratic Party and Clinton's commitment to a progressive agenda. I look forward to working with @HillaryClinton in the coming weeks. pic.twitter.com/f5zcVRgfnv a Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 17, 2016 Sanders also tweeted that he "look[s] forward to working with Hillary Clinton in the coming weeks to make certain that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda." Neither Trump nor Clinton immediately responded to Sander most recent pronouncement. While he's pledged a joint force against Trump, Sanders did not endorse Clinton or declare his exit from the race and even told his supporters in his Thursday live stream that he will have nearly 2,000 delegates come July when the Democratic National Convention rolls around. "We must continue our grassroots efforts to create the America that we know we can become," he said. "And we must take that energy into the Democratic National Convention on July 25 in Philadelphia where we will have more then 1,900 delegates." In some parts of the city, when a person witnesses a crime, their first call isn't necessarily to the police: it's to the Shomrim, a network of civilian security patrols in Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. Members of the volunteer group respond to radio alerts of crimes underway, make civilian arrests, and even drive cars that resemble police carsbut they're not police officers, and the groups' close ties with the NYPD have gotten them wrapped up in the FBI's investigation into NYPD corruption, after a member of the Boro Park Shomrim was accused of trying to bribe an officer into expediting gun licenses. The New York Times takes a broad look at the civilian patrol groups in an in-depth piece today, and scored a few rare quotes from one of the patrols' presidents, who insists that negative stories about the Shomrim are due to just a few "bad apples." "It's a very sad reality in our community that you have many people dedicated to helping and a small minority of critics on the sidelines questioning our motives," Jacob Daskal, president of the Brooklyn South Safety Patrol, told the Times. "It's always the good ones who get criticized." And, Daskal says, the Shomrim haven't gotten any special favors from the police, other than "a mitzvah...or a feeling that our community is safe." Indeed, over the years the Shomrim have rescued children from attempted abductions and helped the NYPD investigate swastika-bearing flyers distributed around Williamsburg, among other things. But as for Daskal's claim that Shomrim members don't get favors from the NYPD, the FBI's investigation tells another story. In April, Alex "Shaya" Lichtenstein, a member of the Boro Park Shomrim, was charged with bribing NYPD officers to expedite gun licenses, offering up to $6,000 per license, prosecutors said. He'd been allegedly running that scheme for three years, and, following his arrest, three NYPD officers who'd allegedly accepted Lichtenstein's bribes were demoted. Speaking with the Times, Daskal denied the Shomrim's involvement in that scheme, and other officials have said that Lichtenstein was no longer a member of the patrol, despite photos taken a week before his arrest that appeared to show him at meeting between the Shomrim and the NYPD's 66th Precinct. Immediately after that corruption scandal came to light, the city froze funding to that Shomrim branch, withholding $35,000 in taxpayer dollars that had been set aside for the group last summer by Brooklyn councilmen David Greenfield and Chaim Deutsch. Until the city could determine that the group was a "responsible vendor," a City Hall spokesperson said at the time, the mayor would not sign off on the paymentsbut in the mayor's $82.1 billion budget approved by the City Council on Monday, another $35,000 was set aside for the Boro Park patrol. Dov Hikind, a state assemblyman who's helped the Shomrim get tens of thousands of dollars over the years, told the Times that "we're not talking about a lot of money and it's money well spent...There are real things that the Shomrim needs money forinsurance, phones, vehicles." Other politicians have helped the Shomrim secure funding for things such as a $300,000 mobile command center on par with what the NYPD uses, the Times reports. Then there are the reports that the Shomrim try to avoid police involvement when their own members are involved. In 2011, a member of a Crown Heights shomrim group was extradited from Israel, where he'd fled after being named as a suspect in the beating of a young black man whose father was an NYPD officer. And five members of a shomrim patrol were arrested in 2014 in conjunction with the beating of Taj Patterson, a gay black man who they accused of vandalizing cars in the neighborhood. Two of those arrested pleaded guilty to lesser charges several weeks ago. At the time of their plea deals, Michael Lesher, an attorney and Orthodox Jew himself, wrote an op-ed in The Forward begging members of Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox enclaves to speak out against the Shomrim and urging them to "spare [him] the line about Shomrim protecting vulnerable communities from the wrath of anti-Semites or the indifference of secular police. That story doesn't hold water." "For too long we've allowed a system of Jewish-run patrols to dominate the heavily Orthodox Jewish enclaves of Brooklyn, usurping the role of the official police force (with key support from vote-hungry politicians), despite their record of violence toward non-Jews," Lesher wrote. "And for years we've held our tongues as the patrols' unchecked behavior carried on...we knew what was happeningbut, collectively, we Orthodox Jews kept it to ourselves." BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Thursday in an address to his supporters that he will work with Hillary Clinton to transform the Democratic Party, adding that his "political revolution" must continue and ensure the defeat of Republican Donald Trump. Sanders said in a capstone address to his political followers online that the major task they face is to "make certain" Trump is defeated. The Vermont senator said he plans to begin his role in that process "in a very short period of time." "After centuries of racism, sexism and discrimination of all forms in our country, we do not need a major party candidate who makes bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign," Sanders said. "We cannot have a president who insults Mexicans and Latinos, Muslims, women and African-Americans. ... The major political task that together we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated - and defeated badly." He continued, "But defeating Donald Trump cannot be our only goal. We must continue our grassroots efforts to create the America that we know we can become. And we must take that energy into the Democratic National Convention on July 25 in Philadelphia, where we will have more than 1,900 delegates." Sanders spoke from his Vermont hometown a week after Hillary Clinton secured enough pledged delegates and superdelegates to become the presumptive nominee. He has not yet conceded the race or referred to Clinton as the likely nominee. But the two rivals met Tuesday night in a Washington, D.C. hotel along with advisers to discuss policy goals and future plans. In the speech, Sanders thanked his supporters for providing more than $200 million in donations, most in increments of $27, and rattled off the work of his loyalists: 1.5 million people who attended his rallies and town meetings and more than 75 million phone calls from volunteers "urging their fellow citizens into action." Story continues @BernieSanders: "I also look forward to working with Secretary Clinton to transform the Democratic Party..."https://t.co/7mgfJhJKqr - CSPAN (@cspan) June 17, 2016 This campaign is about defeating @realDonaldTrump, the Republican candidate for president. #OurRevolution pic.twitter.com/exfWylcYbd - Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 17, 2016 I look forward to working with @HillaryClinton in the coming weeks. pic.twitter.com/f5zcVRgfnv - Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 17, 2016 As hope for the Democratic nomination is all but gone for Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator has set his sights on the next frontier for his political revolution: reforming the Democratic platform. In a livestreamed speech to supporters Thursday night, Sanders all but admitted his campaign is no longer about defeating Hillary Clinton. Instead, he vowed to take his campaign to the Democratic National Convention in July to fight to add progressive policies to the party platform before then embarking on the Democrats' badly needed unity tour. "The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly," Sanders told his supporters from his home in Burlington, Vermont. "And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time. "I look forward, in the coming weeks, to continued discussions between the two campaigns to make certain that your voices are heard and that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda." Many of the ideas Sanders is pushing for are already in the Democratic platform. But Sanders could very well push the party even further to the left when Democrats meet at the Democratic National Convention this summer, and in the process deliver his supporters a feel-good win on the issues he's built his campaign on. But then what? Once drafted and adopted, there is nothing binding party members to follow the policies laid out in the platform. In fact, the platform merely serves as a rhetorical device for Democratic elected officials and candidates to point to for what the party stands for. "Everyone soon forgets it," Jim Manley, a former longtime Senate aide to Sens. Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy, said in an interview. "The reality is, in the end [platforms are] meaningless." Sanders says he's meeting with Clinton on Tuesday and reveals his demands: she keeps to the left, and the party platform includes his ideas. Sure, Sanders could issue threats to Clinton, saying if she deviates from the platform he'd renege on any possible forthcoming endorsement. Story continues He could also run primary challengers against party members who either don't campaign on the policies laid out in the platform, or who actively include proposals counter to the platform while stumping for re-election. Sanders drives off after meeting with Clinton to find common ground after the primaries wrapped up. He's built a powerful online donor apparatus that could help him raise money for that effort an avenue Republicans have taken since the birth of the tea party movement following President Barack Obama's election in 2008. That year, now-former Sen. Jim DeMint created a group called the Senate Conservatives Fund, which punishes lawmakers who compromise on conservative litmus texts by funding primary candidates to run against them. The fund has been a thorn in Republicans' side ever since, forcing the GOP to spend millions to defeat candidates who'd likely be too conservative to win their respective elections. A Sanders' spokesman did not return a request for comment on whether that's a consideration in his post-primary plans. But that strategy is also fraught with peril. Bernie Sanders addressed supporters via livestream Thursday. Creating the liberal version of the fund would likely require the Vermonter to create a super PAC to spend money it raises on television advertising the same fundraising apparatus Sanders has railed against since Citizens United. And running primary challengers against fellow colleagues and Democratic candidates would lose him clout in the Senate where as an independent he's reliant upon Democrats' good will for his plum committee positions. "Make of the Senate whatever you will, but if he wants to play a larger role than he has in the past he can do so, but he's going to have to change his ways a little bit and stop being such a lone wolf," Manley said. Bethlehem (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Pilgrims to Bethlehem often return home with candles or rosaries, but for those who see religion as more than skin-deep, tattoo artist Walid Ayash is there to help. The 39-year-old Palestinian specialises in Christian themes. His repertoire includes around 100 models, from simple or elaborate crosses to images of Jesus Christ or a veiled Virgin Mary. His studio sits near the Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born -- and which happens to also be tattooed on the chest of Ayash, himself a devout Catholic. He took up tattooing about 12 years ago, having previously helped out at his father's barber shop, located downstairs from his current studio. He started by teaching himself with the help of the Internet, before perfecting his art in Israel since "there is no tattoo school in Palestine". "Everybody laughed and told me: 'What do you think you're doing?'" said the Bethlehem native and father of four who is always quick with a smile. He wears aviator glasses and his beard and moustache are carefully trimmed. On a leather chair, Florentino Sayeh, 13, was readying his mobile phone to record the inside of his right wrist being tattooed with a cross and, in Arabic, the words "Thy will be done" -- from The Lord's Prayer. As Ayash worked, the teenager's mother watched, half-anxious, half-amused and grimacing as the needle moved over reddened skin. "Until 1 in the morning, me and his father tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted, so there you go," she said. "This tattoo will pull me back whenever I do something wrong," was what the Palestinian teenager had to say. - Proof of pilgrimage - For Ayash, the high season is over now. Easter has passed and the pilgrims who come to the Holy Land -- Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and everything in between -- have gone home. Visitors take the small, stone staircase that leads to his studio, where crucifixes, bottles of alcohol and religious drawings sit on a sound system playing house music. Story continues He shows videos of pilgrims being tattooed, sometimes while singing hymns or reciting prayers in Arabic -- or even in Aramaic, the ancient language spoken in the time of Jesus. "Most are Egyptian Coptic Christians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, sometimes Armenians," he said. "They want a cross and the date of their visit. It's part of the pilgrimage, proof that they came here and received the blessing." While Judaism and Islam forbid permanent body markings, tattoos have for centuries been traditional for Holy Land pilgrims of Eastern rites. The pilgrimage has been off-limits for some Christians. The late Egyptian Coptic pope banned visits over Israel's occupation of the West Bank, where Bethlehem is located, but a new Coptic pope, Tawadros II, has relaxed the rule. Although Syria and Lebanon bar their nationals from visiting Israel, which controls the borders leading to the West Bank, they can visit if they have a second passport. - Hidden faith - Ayash has noticed other changes afoot. With Christians in the Middle East facing growing threats from jihadists, emphasizing one's religion can be life-threatening. "I recently tattooed a cross on the head of a Syrian," said Ayash. "When she lets her hair fall, the cross can't be seen. She was adamant about the tattoo, but she couldn't do it in a visible area of her skin because she wants to return to Syria." Ayash is a faithful man, but he also feels that, when it comes to business, religion alone will only take him so far. Teaming up with a colleague from Jerusalem, he is to open a new studio, not in a religious city like Bethlehem, but in secular Ramallah, the Palestinian political capital, to meet demand from its hip young people. * Billionaire contributed $1.6 mln to $2 mln pro-tax effort * Bloomberg to support tax drives in San Francisco, Oakland * Soda industry says Philadelphia success won't have ripple effect By Luc Cohen NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) - After successfully funding a campaign to pass a soda tax in Philadelphia, billionaire Michael Bloomberg is preparing to fund similar efforts in several other cities, giving new momentum to measures seeking to limit soft drink consumption. The former New York City mayor contributed the bulk of the money for the pro-soda tax side in Philadelphia, providing around $1.6 million. Now the prominent public health crusader will support measures in San Francisco and Oakland, California this year, Michael Wolfson, a senior adviser to Bloomberg, said in a conference call on Friday. Bloomberg may also support soda tax drives in Seattle and Multnomah County in Oregon, which includes Portland, in 2017, Wolfson said. The billionaire's planned backing raises the stakes for the powerful beverage industry, which has lobbied hard to defeat many of the 43 municipal and state-level attempts to implement a soda tax that have failed since 2008. Before this week, Berkeley, California was the only U.S. city with a soda tax. But the success in Philadelphia, the country's fifth-largest city with a diverse population of 1.6 million, could mark a turning point as Americans become more aware of health campaigners' message that sugary soft drinks contribute to obesity and diabetes. "If Berkeley was a tremor, Philadelphia is an earthquake, and we expect there will be more earthquakes going forward," Wolfson said. As New York's mayor, Bloomberg led efforts to pass a state-level soda tax, prevent residents from buying sodas with food stamps, and limit the size of sugary beverages. His efforts prompted public outcry against what were dubbed "nanny state" initiatives, and all three measures were ultimately defeated. Philadelphia's Mayor Jim Kenney took a different approach, emphasizing the revenue benefits of the tax over the health angle. The city council approved the measure in a 13-4 vote on Thursday after activists raised a total of around $2 million, according to Kevin Feeley, who led the pro-tax campaign. Story continues Feeley and Wolfson both said the soda industry outspent the pro-tax campaign. A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association (ABA), which represents Coca-Cola Co and PepsiCo and funded a local group opposing the tax, said the group did not yet have a final tally for how much it spent. The spokeswoman added that the group would "oppose all discriminatory tax proposals." The group has said the tax's passage in Philadelphia was the result of unique local political conditions and unlikely to have a ripple effect in other cities. The ABA said on Thursday it would sue Philadelphia to stop the tax, and Wolfson did not rule out the possibility that Bloomberg would contribute to aid the city's defense. Wolfson declined to specify an amount that Bloomberg was willing to spend on the San Francisco and Oakland efforts, but noted that he was "not in a position to match soda dollar for dollar." Bloomberg's contributions are meant to help "level the playing field," he said. (Additional reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Tom Brown) * Billionaire contributed $1.6 mln-$2 mln pro-tax effort * Bloomberg to support tax drives in San Francisco, Oakland * Soda industry says Philadelphia success won't have ripple effect (Adds details on Multnomah County initiative in paragraphs 7, 8) By Luc Cohen NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) - After funding a successful campaign to pass a soda tax in Philadelphia, billionaire Michael Bloomberg is preparing to back similar efforts in several other U.S. cities, giving new momentum to measures seeking to limit soft drink consumption. The former New York City mayor contributed the bulk of the money for soda tax advocates in Philadelphia, providing around $1.6 million. Now he will support measures in San Francisco and Oakland, California this year, Howard Wolfson, a senior adviser to Bloomberg, said in a conference call on Friday. Bloomberg may also support soda tax drives in Seattle and Multnomah County in Oregon, which includes Portland, in 2017, Wolfson said. The powerful beverage industry has lobbied hard to defeat many of the 43 municipal and state-level attempts to implement a soda tax that have failed since 2008. Before this week, Berkeley, California was the only U.S. city with a soda tax. But the success in Philadelphia, the country's fifth-largest city with a diverse population of 1.6 million, could mark a turning point as Americans become more aware of health campaigners' message that sugary soft drinks contribute to obesity and diabetes. "If Berkeley was a tremor, Philadelphia is an earthquake, and we expect there will be more earthquakes going forward," Wolfson said. Activists in Multnomah County filed this month to create a ballot initiative that could reach voters next year, said Mel Rader, executive director of Upstream Public Health, which is involved with the effort. Three prior efforts in Oregon in recent years failed to gather steam, he said. "The timing appeared right to bring this issue back for public debate," Rader said. "It's a big deal that Philadelphia proved it. There's momentum happening all over the country." Story continues As New York's mayor, Bloomberg led efforts to pass a state-level soda tax, prevent residents from buying sodas with food stamps, and limit the size of sugary beverages. His public health crusade prompted opposition by critics who labeled it a "nanny state" initiative. All three measures were ultimately defeated. Philadelphia's Mayor Jim Kenney took a different approach, emphasizing the revenue benefits of the tax over the health angle. The city council approved the measure in a 13-4 vote on Thursday after activists raised a total of around $2 million, according to Kevin Feeley, who led the pro-tax campaign. Feeley and Wolfson both said the soda industry outspent the pro-tax campaign. A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association (ABA), which represents Coca-Cola Co and PepsiCo and funded a local group opposing the tax, said the group did not yet have a final tally for how much it spent. The spokeswoman said the group would "oppose all discriminatory tax proposals." The group has said Philadelphia's passage of the tax resulted from local political conditions and was unlikely to have a ripple effect in other cities. The ABA said on Thursday it would sue Philadelphia to stop the tax. Wolfson did not rule out the possibility that Bloomberg would contribute to aid the city's defense. Wolfson declined to specify an amount that Bloomberg was willing to spend on the San Francisco and Oakland efforts, but noted that he was "not in a position to match soda dollar for dollar." Bloomberg's contributions are meant to help "level the playing field," he said. (Additional reporting by Chris Prentice; editing by Tom Brown) Bolivias government said it is offended by Bill Gates initiative to donate 100,000 chickens to help impoverished nations, including Bolivia, worldwide. He does not know Bolivias reality to think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce, said Cesar Cocarico, Bolivias minister of land and rural development, according to The Verge. Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia, and once he knows more, apologize to us. In his blog post announcing the initiative, dubbed Coop Dreams, the billionaire wrote, Its pretty clear to me that just about anyone whos living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens. In fact, if I were in their shoes, thats what I would doI would raise chickens. When I was growing up, chickens werent something you studied, they were something you made silly jokes about. It has been eye-opening for me to learn what a difference they can make in the fight against poverty. It sounds funny, but I mean it when I say that I am excited about chickens. After dropping much too much money on a cab last Saturday because I failed to heed my own writeup of the weekend's subway changes, I'm determined this weekend to finally conquer my fear of biking in the city, in an attempt to lessen my reliance on an ever-infuriating subway system. Perhaps you'd like to join me: 14 subway lines have changes this weekend, but the weather promises to be ideal for taking matters into your own hands (or feet, if you will). If you will be relying on the train this weekend, here's what to look forward to: 1 trains are not running in either direction between 137 St and 242 St from 11:30 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Free shuttle buses will run instead. 2 train service will operate in two sections from 3:45 a.m. on Saturday to 10 p.m. on Sunday: between Flatbush Av and E 180 St, and between E 180 St and 241 St. Downtown trains will run express in the second section. 3 trains are not running in either direction between Utica Av and New Lots Av from 11:30 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Trains will run all weekend between 148 St and Utica Av, with free shuttle buses making stops where service is suspended. 4 trains will run local in both directions between 125 St and Brooklyn Bridge, from 12:01 a.m. on Saturday to 5 a.m. on Monday. From 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday, service will be suspended between New Lots Av/Utica Av and Brooklyn Bridge. Free shuttle buses will run instead. 5 trains are not running in either direction between Bowling Green and Grand Central-42 St from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday. Also, from 3:45 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and from 9:45 p.m. on Saturday to 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, 2 trains will replace 5 trains between Dyre Av and E 180 St. Manhattan-bound 7 trains will run express from Willets Point to Queensboro Plaza, stopping at 74 St, from 6:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. A trains are not running in either direction between Lefferts Blvd and Rockaway Blvd from 12:01 a.m. on Saturday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Shuttle buses will run instead. Also, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday, downtown trains will run express from 145 St to 59 St-Columbus Circle. Downtown C trains will run express from 145 St to 59 St-Columbus Circle, from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Coney Island-bound D trains will be rerouted via the N from 36 St to Stillwell Av, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 10 p.m. on Sunday. They'll also stop at 45 St and 53 St overnight. E trains are rerouted via the F in both directions between 21 St-Queensbridge and W 4 St, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Free shuttle buses will run between Court Sq-23 St and 21 St-Queensbridge, stopping at Queens Plaza. Also, from 11:45 p.m. to 6 a.m., Friday to Sunday, and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Jamaica Center-bound trains will run express from 21 St-Queensbridge to 71 Av. From 12:01 a.m. on Saturday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Manhattan-bound E trains will run local form 71 Av to 21 St-Queensbridge, and from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Jamaica Center-bound trains will skip 75 Av and Briarwood. Brooklyn-bound F trains will run local from 71 Av to 21 St-Queensbridge from 12:01 a.m. on Saturday to 5 a.m. on Monday. From 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Jamaica-bound F trains will skip 75 Av, Briarwood, and Sutphin Blvd. And from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Coney Island-bound trains will run express from Jay St-Metrotech to Church Av. G trains are not running in either direction between Church Av and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Forest Hills-bound R trains will run express from Queens Plaza to 71 Av from 6:30 a.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday. The Rockaway Park S shuttle will be replaced by the A from 6:30 a.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday. By Elisabeth O'Leary and Paul Sandle BIRSTALL, England (Reuters) - British police said on Friday that right-wing extremism was an important line of inquiry in the murder of MP Jo Cox, after a man with suspected neo-Nazi links and a history of mental illness was arrested over the killing. Cox, 41, a supporter of Britain staying in the EU, was shot and stabbed on Thursday by a man who witnesses said shouted "Britain first", in her own electoral district near Leeds in the county of West Yorkshire in northern England. Her murder has left Britain in shock and campaigning for next week's referendum on European Union membership has been suspended as a mark of respect. Officers arrested a 52-year-old man, named by British media as Thomas Mair, near the murder scene and he remains in custody where he is being questioned by detectives. He has not been charged. Police said counter-terrorism officers are also involved in the investigation into the attack, which occurred as Cox arrived for a meeting with constituents. "We are aware of the speculation within the media in respect of the suspect's link to mental health services and this is a clear line of enquiry which we are pursuing," West Yorkshire Police Temporary Chief Constable Dee Collins said in a statement. "We are also aware of the inference within the media of the suspect being linked to right-wing extremism, which is again a priority line of enquiry which will help us establish the motive for the attack on Jo." Britain First, a far-right nationalist group, denied any links with Mair but a U.S. civil rights group said he had been associated in the past with a neo-Nazi organisation. In Birstall, a quiet town of a few thousand people, weeping mourners laid flowers at a monument near the scene of the attack. One message read: "Fascists feed on fear." "It is a vile act that has killed her," Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party which Cox represented, said as he laid flowers in Birstall with Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday. "We will not allow those people that spread hatred and poison to divide our society." The killing prompted a suspension of campaigning for the June 23 EU referendum, the tone of which has become ugly and included bitter personal recriminations as well as furious debate of issues such as immigration and the economy. The murder sparked debate in Britain, which has strict gun controls, about the safety of lawmakers, the heightened tempo of political confrontation and whether the slaying would affect the outcome of the referendum. Cameron has agreed to recall parliament on Monday in tribute to Cox, a well-liked mother of two young children and considered an outstanding member of the new intake of Labour parliamentarians. She had been a prominent aid worker. Both sides have put on hold their national EU campaigns until at least Sunday. Shares, oil and bond yields rose after campaigning was suspended, reversing earlier losses this week which followed a swing in opinion polls towards the Leave camp. The implied probability of a vote to remain rose to 67 percent, up from 65 percent on Thursday, according to Betfair odds. Some investors suggested sympathy for Cox could boost the Remain campaign, which opinion polls indicate had fallen behind Leave. NEO-NAZI LINK The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights group based in Alabama, said on its website that it had obtained records showing a Thomas Mair had links with the neo-Nazi organisation National Alliance (NA) dating back to 1999. The SPLC posted images showing what it said were purchase orders for books bought by Mair, whose address is given as Batley in northern England, from the NA's publishing arm National Vanguard Books in May of that year. The orders included a manual on how to build a pistol, it said. The NA said it was not familiar with him. "The National Alliance had and has no connection with Thomas Mair any more than with any other book customer; we did not work with him, were not familiar with him, and did not remember his name even after the release of the illegally-obtained book receipts," the group said in its press release. The SPLC said it checked his name on its database. "When they announced that he was a suspect, we ran his name in our file and found these documents. We don't know anything more about him," Heidi Beirich, Intelligence Project Director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Reuters. Mair's brother said Mair had not expressed strong political views, the Guardian newspaper reported. "He has a history of mental illness but he has had help," the Guardian quoted his brother, Scott Mair, as saying. "My brother is not violent and is not all that political. I don't even know who he votes for." Neighbours described a man who had lived in the same house for at least 40 years and helped locals weed their flowerbeds and inquired after their pets. "I'm totally devastated - I didn't want to believe it. He's been very helpful to me. Anything I asked him to do he did very willingly and sometimes without my needing to ask," said next-door neighbour Diana Peters, 65. "I saw him the day before. I was taking my cats to the vet and he came and asked me how they were," she told Reuters. Gun ownership is highly restricted in Britain, and attacks of any nature on public figures are rare. The last British lawmaker to have been killed in an attack was Ian Gow, who died after a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded under his car at his home in southern England in 1990. Britain's Union flag was flying at half-mast over the Houses of Parliament, Queen Elizabeth's London residence Buckingham Palace and Cameron's Downing Street residence. "UNITE AGAINST HATRED" The queen wrote a private letter of condolence to Cox's husband. Members of the public and lawmakers, many weeping, laid flowers outside the Houses of Parliament. Beside a picture of Cox smiling, there were dozens of white candles, bunches of flowers and messages of condolence. "You can't kill democracy," read one message on Parliament Square. Another said: "We will unite against hatred." Others put flowers on the houseboat on the River Thames where Cox had lived with her husband and two children, aged three and five. Leaders across Europe and the world have expressed shock at the killing of Cox, a Cambridge University graduate and former charity worker whose job took her to countries such as Afghanistan and Darfur. A fund set up in her honour had raised more than 140,000 pounds for charities she supported in six hours. Cameron said the killing of Cox, who had worked on U.S. President Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign, was a tragedy. Hillary Clinton said she was horrified. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for a more respectful dialogue in political disputes after the tragedy. Cox had arrived in Birstall for a "surgery" in a library with members of the public, a one-to-one meeting much like when a patient consults a doctor. In Westminster, where lawmakers do much of their work in parliament, armed police patrol the entrances, corridors and halls but there is often no security in their home electoral districts, or constituencies. Tempers can flare during surgeries and parliamentarians are often subjected to abuse on social media. Cox had complained to police after receiving "malicious communications" and a man was arrested and later released with a caution in connection with the investigation in March. A spokeswoman for the House of Commons said it was reissuing security advice to lawmakers and police chiefs said they had asked local forces to reiterate safety advice. (Additional reporting by Kylie MacLellan, Paul Sandle, Michael Holden, Sarah Young, Andy Bruce, Kate Holton and Elizabeth Piper, Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Michael Holden, Editing by Timothy Heritage, Peter Millership and Anna Willard) * Britain holds EU membership referendum on June 23 * Momentum swings in polls towards "Leave" campaign * Brexit would be expected to roil currency markets * Brexit could affect trade, economy and migration By Martinne Geller and Kate Holton LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - British companies are preparing for the possibility that the country will vote to leave the European Union with extra funds, pre-written statements and plans for late-night vigils by teams of consultants. In the final week before Britain's June 23 referendum on EU membership, the prospect of a "Leave" vote has come into sharp focus, prompting a last-minute flurry of preparations in the corridors of "UK PLC". Much of the focus is on communication -- how to assure customers, employees and investors that there will be near-term business continuity in the event of an "Out" vote. Britain would have two years to negotiate its exit, or "Brexit", from the 28-country bloc. Treasury departments will also be working overtime because a vote for a Brexit would be expected to roil currency markets and have major consequences for trade, the economy and migration in Britain and elsewhere. Many companies have yet to work out detailed plans, as any post-Brexit picture is unclear and opinion polls had until recently suggested the "Remain" camp was comfortably ahead. But some have sprung into action since the momentum in the polls swung towards the "Leave" camp in the latter stages of campaigning, which was suspended on Thursday after a British lawmaker was killed. "The nearness of the vote and sudden increased likelihood of Brexit has definitely sharpened client appetite for draft statements," said a senior executive at a public relations firm, one of three who said this week there had been an increase in client requests for communications advice. As of February, more than three-quarters of Britain's FTSE 250 companies had not made any contingency plans for a possible exit, according to a survey published in April by the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors. Story continues More than 60 percent said they planned to do so, but the uncertainty at that time made it impossible. STERLING SWINGS For many export-orientated multinationals in the FTSE 100 index, violent currency swings on the morning of June 24 are the top concern. "The biggest short-term impact and the biggest headache for us is going to be sterling," said the head of strategy at one top-10 FTSE company. While chief executives generally back "Remain" on the grounds that unfettered access to Europe's market of about 500 million consumers is good for business, a short-term fall in sterling on a "Leave" vote would make exports cheaper and could boost sales, while a "Remain" vote could see the currency jump. Either way, it spells volatility for sterling-denominated earnings at businesses including engineering firms Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems, pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline, drinks group Diageo, and British American Tobacco. Richard De Meo, managing director of Foenix Partners, a foreign exchange specialist for British companies, said many corporate treasury departments were now escalating currency decisions up the chain of command. "There can be serious business risks to them sticking to long-term policies in a situation like this. They are in communication with the chairman, the MDs (managing directors), the board," he said. Some companies have also been keeping open lines of credit in case Brexit-related volatility increases their need for cash. Vodafone, which boosted its short-term borrowing capabilities this year during merger talks with U.S. cable company Liberty Global, has said it is grateful it has that funding in place for now. "Once we're through uncertainty, you would expect the (commercial paper) to drop down," Vodafone CFO Nick Read told analysts in May. "There's no other uses of cash. It's just more, I would argue, timing and tactical." NOT "A HOSTILE ACT" Several executives said they were concerned about managing relations with international employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders immediately after the results are announced on June 24. While there were no plans to issue public statements to the stock market, several executives said they would be likely to communicate with stakeholders in the event of a Leave vote. "I would want to reassure our European partners that this is not something they should regard as a hostile act," said Miles Young, chairman of advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, part of British group WPP. Another senior FTSE 100 executive told Reuters the company would bring in external lawyers and consultants on June 24 for backup, if this was necessary. "One thing we need to do immediately is to engage in a very serious dialogue after the 24th with customers to identify both opportunities and challenges in the ongoing relationship," said the executive. "They may say 'come back in two years to talk to us' or they may want to talk then." One senior executive at a public relations firm said he planned to stay in a central London hotel the night of June 23 to be close to the office. He also expected most of the firm's public affairs team to work late on June 23 and come to work early on June 24 to watch and analyse the results on behalf of multinational clients. "As their public affairs eyes and ears, they're expecting us to do ... most of the watching and analysis for them," he said. "I'm not telling people they have to stay on the floor or anything, but if they can get in earlier than usual, that would be helpful." After issuing weekly bulletins to clients in the last few months, he said he would update them shortly after the polls close at 2100 GMT on June 23 and then again around 0600 GMT the next day. In the financial services sector, where a Brexit vote will echo the loudest, large banks including Citi and Goldman Sachs will have senior traders working through the night, which is set to be among the most volatile 24 hours for markets in a quarter of a century. A FTSE 100 finance director said there would also be concern about what a Brexit would mean for the rest of the EU. "We will have to reassure clients," the director said. "The EU is worried. We are an important part of it and you risk a domino effect. We're in the hands of the gods." (Additional reporting by Patrick Graham, Ben Hirschler and Sarah Young, Editing by Timothy Heritage) Birstall (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Campaigning for Britain's EU referendum next week was suspended for a second day Friday as the nation reeled from the murder of a popular pro-Europe MP at the height of a bitterly-divisive debate. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old former aid worker also known for her advocacy for Syrian refugees, was killed on Thursday outside a library where she was supposed to meet constituents in a village in northern England, just a few miles (kilometres) from where she was born. Eye witness Hichem Ben Abdallah, 56, who works at a cafe next to the library in Birstall, told AFP he heard two shots and saw the petite mother of two on the ground. "Her face was full of blood," said Ben Abdallah, who campaigned alongside the Labour politician before she was elected to parliament for the first time last year. A 52-year-old man, named by media as local Thomas Mair, was arrested. Described as a friendly loner by neighbours, Mair also battled mental illness and allegedly had ties to white supremacists. "He used to scrub his hands with Brillo pads and nail brushes until they were red raw," said Stephen Lees, who used to be friends with Mair's brother. With just six days left until the historic vote, rival groups campaigning for Britain to leave or remain in the European Union ceased campaigning and politicians joined as one to condemn the killing. Many commentators questioned whether the murder could be linked to a campaign ahead of the June 23 referendum that has stoked high tension by touching on issues of national identity and immigration. "We don't yet know the circumstances of this case but there has been an increase in vitriol, I think, in public debate," fellow Labour MP Yvette Cooper told BBC radio. German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged British political parties to moderate their speech in the final week. "The exaggerations and radicalisation of... language do not help to foster an atmosphere of respect," she said. Story continues Prime Minister David Cameron, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and parliament speaker John Bercow were due to hold a joint event in the area later on Friday. Cox, the first British MP to be murdered since Ian Gow was killed by Irish Republican Army paramilitaries in a car bomb in 1990, had complained to police earlier this year about "malicious communications". In March, police arrested a man who was given a formal warning but later released. He was not the same man in custody for Thursday's attack, the police said. The Times newspaper said police had been considering putting in place additional security for her, with commentators wondering whether all MPs should be given extra protection. Before Cox's murder, opinion polls suggested Britons would likely vote to leave the EU, in a prospect that weighed on financial markets and sent the pound tumbling. The pound rose with Asian stocks Friday after the previous day's selloff, as investors judged the tragedy increased the likelihood of the "Remain" side prevailing. - 'White nationalism' - US advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center said that Mair, who had lived in Birstall for decades, was a "dedicated supporter" of National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organisation in the United States. It said he had spent over $620 (550 euros) on reading material from the group, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people. "Neighbours called him a 'loner' but he also has a long history with white nationalism," the centre said. It said Mair had purchased a handbook with instructions on how to make a gun, noting that witnesses told British media the assailant used a gun which appeared "old-fashioned" or "homemade". Another witness, cafe owner Clarke Rothwell, told British media that the gunman had shouted "put Britain first" repeatedly during the attack. - 'Fight the hatred' - Cox, whose first speech in parliament defended immigration and diversity, lived with her husband Brendan and their two children aged three and five, on a houseboat on the Thames near Tower Bridge. Flowers were laid on the roof of the boat where they lived on Friday and residents paid tribute to her. As the news of her death broke, Brendan issued an impassioned appeal for unity against hatred. "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now," he wrote. "One, that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her." LONDON (Reuters) - Britons left floral tributes and heartfelt messages in London and Yorkshire on Friday as they reflected on the shocking death of lawmaker Jo Cox, shot dead in her constituency a day earlier. Outside parliament, mourners and tourists surveyed the dozens of bouquets laid in a show of respect for the 41-year-old mother of two, a former aid worker who became a legislator only last year. At her London home, a houseboat on the River Thames, friends had fashioned the barge into a work of art, arranging candles, peonies, lilies, roses and sunflowers into a spread of colour on the deck. Cox, who had been an active supporter of the campaign for Britain to stay in the EU ahead of next week's referendum, was attacked after a meeting with residents 200 miles (320 km) away in Birstall, West Yorkshire. A man was subsequently arrested. Mourners gathered in the market place there to leave flowers on the steps of a statue of the town's most famous son, Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen. One message read simply: "Why? Rest in peace Jo". The death of Cox left Britain's increasingly bitter and angry EU referendum debate in limbo after both sides suspended their campaigns. That was a relief for Penny Windsor, 38, and her four-year-old daughter who laid a bright pink gerbera in Parliament Square, home to statues of political icons like Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela. Windsor said she felt compelled to visit because of the "dirty" tenor of the referendum debate. "I think everything's gone a bit crazy lately. It's important for us to show that the country's got more compassion than people realise and ... to show support for what (she) stood for." Some of the handwritten messages also hinted at regret over the divisive nature of referendum debate. "We are not Remain/Leave, Tory, Labour or Lib Dem tonight. We are Britons with a belief in parliament and democracy," one read. Members of the public visiting Westminster to pay their respects were also given marker pens to leave messages on a large canvas, alongside the tributes from Cox's parliamentary colleagues. Justine Greening, Britain's minister for international development and a political opponent of Cox's Labour Party, wrote: "From one proud Yorkshire lass to another. I hope that your legacy in parliament will be as long as your time here was short." A book of condolence was opened by Cox's neighbours at the moorings on the riverbank, where the family home is one of more than a dozen boats forming a floating village just downstream from Tower Bridge. "Your inspirational energy will live on and on. You will be sorely and deeply missed by the community, many communities," read one message simply signed "Julie." (Reporting by Sarah Young, Andy Bruce and Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison) New York state regulators on Thursday approved, with conditions, the planned $17.7 billion acquisition of Cablevision Systems by European cable and telecom company Altice. The deal is expected to close by midyear. Altice said it was pleased with the approval, according to Reuters. The takeover, first announced in September, follows Altice's acquisition of a 70 percent stake in Suddenlink, the seventh-largest U.S. cable operator. Outside the U.S., Altice concentrates on Western Europe, including France and Portugal, Israel and the Caribbean. New York's Public Service Commission unanimously approved the transaction with conditions that had been recommended by a panel. Those conditions included a commitment to pass 25 percent of cost savings from the deal on to customers over five years and not to lay off customer-facing jobs in New York for four years. The commission's vote was the last hurdle for the deal. Previously, the FCC and New York City gave it the green light. Cablevision has been led by CEO James Dolan. The Dolan family last year agreed to sell the cable company, which operates in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Altice, founded by John Malone protege Patrick Drahi, has said that it could look for further U.S. acquisitions over time, but likely not this year. Read More: A Rare Q&A With James Dolan: Viacom's Weakness, MSG's Strength and Why He's Not Worried About the Knicks By Robin Respaut SAN FRANCISCO, June 17 (Reuters) - California is now the sixth largest economy in the world, surpassing France thanks to a robust state economy and the strength of the U.S. dollar. California was the world's eighth-largest economy as of last year, according to Irena Asmundson, chief economist of the California Department of Finance. "California did exceptionally well in 2015," said Asmundson. "Lots of sectors did well." California is home to diverse strong economies, including Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Manufacturing has performed well, as has the agriculture sector, despite a severe drought, said Asmundson. The nation's most populous state has outpaced the rest of the U.S. on job growth. Its gross state product was $2.46 trillion, with 4.1 percent of state growth this year in real terms, according to the state's finance department. Nationally, gross domestic product grew by 2.4 percent in 2015. Growth slowed to 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2016. (Reporting by Robin Respaut; Editing by David Gregorio) If it wasn't for this Good Samaritan's heroic deeds, a man inside a burning vehicle may not have lived to see another day. Read: Woman Plows OverLover With Her Car After Learning He Is HIV Positive Surveillance footage shows a car pulling up to a California bank at about 4:00 p.m. last Saturday, Sergeant James Jensen from the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office told InsideEdition.com. "You can see [the driver] exit the vehicle, and come back with more alcohol there is a liquor store nearby," Jensen said. Next, Jensen said the man could be seen throwing what appears to be alcohol containers from the window of the car, that was parked but running. That's when Good Samaritans Aram Harutyunyan and Leo Pekker, who were on their way to lunch, noticed smoke coming out of the car. Harutyunyan, 30, told InsideEdition.com that he and his friend were frequent diners at the barbeque restaurant, but what they saw next was a first for both of them. "Aram saw the guy's leg sticking out of the car and immediately started walking toward it," Pekker told InsideEdition.com. "There were a lot of spectators, but nobody would help the unconscious man." Pekker said that he could feel a lot of heat and hear hissing coming from the car, even though he filmed his friend from afar: "It sounded like it would blow up any second." "That's the thing in your mind that takes all your concentration," Harutyunyan told InsideEdition.com. "Man, I hope it doesn't blow up." Moments later, Pekker put down his camera and helped his friend carry the man out of the smoking car, moments before it eurupted into flames. "It was very dangerous," Jensen said. "The car was on fire." Pekker said, "I asked the man "What Happened"? He was incomprehensive, looking around and was not sure what happened to him." "I pulled him all the way to the curb, he looks fine, and we knew the police and firefighters are going to come," Harutyunyan said. "I said, 'Take care,' and I just went to lunch." Story continues Read: Police K-9 Dead After Being Left in Hot Car for Nearly 3 Hours by His Handler One of the bystanders had called 911, and the man was then arrested and charged for driving under the influence and arson. "We plan on giving our heroic citizen an accomodation plaque at the very minimum," Jensen said. "He's a good citizen, brave. He saved a life, while potentially putting his life in danger." "We were sitting and eating already when everybody arrived," said Harutyunyan, who avoids the term 'hero.' "I'm shy, I don't like the attention." Watch: Cop Chases Chicken on the Run Near Restaurant, Insists It Didn't Cross the Road Related Articles: Birstall (United Kingdom) (AFP) - A sombre British prime minister on Friday urged greater tolerance in public debate and recalled parliament to pay tribute to Jo Cox, the MP whose brutal killing has caused shock in Britain and further afield. David Cameron and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn added bouquets to a massive floral tribute to the 41-year-old parliamentarian in the northern village of Birstall, where she was gunned down on Thursday. And with less than a week until a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU, which has split the country in two and sparked fiery debate on both sides, Cameron said it was time to "stand back". "Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance, we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities," Cameron said. Many commentators have questioned whether the killing could be linked to the referendum that has stoked tensions by touching on issues of national identity and immigration. Britain is reeling from the murder of Cox, a well-liked mother-of-two, who was shot and repeatedly stabbed in broad daylight at the height of the referendum campaign. As a mark of respect, both sides halted campaigning ahead of the knife-edge vote on June 23, with the suspension being extended to Saturday, officials said. The move leaves the two camps with only four days to woo voters before voting on Thursday, when broadcasters are banned from carrying any political messages. - Lying in wait? - Cox, a former aid worker also known for campaigns for Syrian refugees, was killed outside a library where she was supposed to meet constituents, just a few miles (kilometres) from where she was born. Eyewitness Hichem Ben Abdallah, 56, told AFP he heard two shots and saw the petite woman on the ground. "Her face was full of blood," said Ben Abdallah, who campaigned alongside the Labour politician before she was elected to parliament for the first time last year. Story continues Police arrested a 52-year-old man, named by media as local Thomas Mair. Described as a friendly loner by neighbours, Mair also battled mental illness and allegedly had ties to white supremacists. He also suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), according to Stephen Lees, a friend of Mair's brother. "He used to scrub his hands with Brillo pads and nail brushes until they were red raw," he told AFP. One of Cox's aides, who was at the scene, said that the attacker seemed to have been waiting for the MP to drive up, the aides' father told ITV news. Another witness, cafe owner Clarke Rothwell, told British media the gunman had shouted "put Britain first" repeatedly during the attack. "We don't yet know the circumstances of this case but there has been an increase in vitriol, I think, in public debate," fellow opposition Labour Party MP Yvette Cooper told BBC radio. In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the politicians to tone down the debate, saying: "The exaggerations and radicalisation of... language do not help to foster an atmosphere of respect." - 'Malicious communications' - Cox, the first British MP to be murdered since Ian Gow was killed by Irish Republican Army paramilitaries in a car bomb in 1990, had complained to police earlier this year about "malicious communications". In March, police arrested a man who was given a formal warning but later released, with The Times saying police had been considering putting in place additional security for her. According to The Guardian, police were believed to have found Nazi regalia and far-right literature in their search of his long-time house in Birstall. US advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center said Mair was a "dedicated supporter" of National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organisation in the United States. It said he had spent over $620 (550 euros) on reading material from the National Alliance, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people. He had also purchased a handbook on how to make a gun. Witnesses told British media the assailant used a gun which appeared "old-fashioned" or "homemade". Cox, whose first speech in parliament defended immigration and diversity, lived with her husband Brendan and their two children aged three and five, on a houseboat on the Thames near Tower Bridge. As the news of her death broke, Brendan issued an impassioned appeal for unity against hatred. "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now," he wrote. "One, that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her." Before Cox's murder, opinion polls suggested Britons would likely vote to leave the EU, in a prospect that weighed on financial markets and sent the pound tumbling. Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's Senate voted Friday to pass legislation allowing the terminally ill to end their life with a doctor's assistance, clearing the final hurdle for the bill to become law after a clash between the upper and lower houses. Senators approved Bill C-14 in a vote of 44 to 28, giving in to pressure by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, which controls the House of Commons. It now only requires royal ascent by the governor general, which is largely a formality. The bill sets out new rules for consenting adults with serious health problems to end their suffering, coming one year after the Supreme Court struck down a prohibition against doctor-assisted suicide. The government had been given until June 6 to draft the legislation. The protocols it put forward -- including the main sticking point of restricting assisted dying rights to terminally ill patients -- were much less comprehensive than proposals by a parliamentary special committee formed to study the hugely controversial issue and supported by the Senate. Tensions rose in parliament, which at one point saw Trudeau elbow a female opposition MP in the chest and grab the opposition whip by the arm to drag him toward his seat for a key vote. Then while the Senate sought to amend the bill to make doctor-assisted suicide more widely available, the deadline passed. In a statement, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Health Minister Jane Philpott said "the government recognizes the extraordinary efforts that were made in the House of Commons and in the Senate to ensure passage of this bill." "Medical assistance in dying is a difficult, complex and deeply personal issue," they said. "The legislation strikes the right balance between personal autonomy for those seeking access to medically assisted dying and protecting the vulnerable." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau became the latest luminary to try the Microsoft HoloLens holographic goggles, at the opening of the Microsoft Canada Excellence Centre in Vancouver. And he looks like he's super-into them: justin trudeau hololens HoloLens is a wearable Windows 10 computer that sits on your head and projects three-dimensional "holograms" into your field of vision. It's pretty neat. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wasn't on-hand to do a personal demo with Trudeau, as he was with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. But Microsoft President Brad Smith was around to welcome Trudeau and promote Vancouver as a rising star in the tech market. The Microsoft Canada Excellence Centre, or MCEC, will house developers working on the whole range of Microsoft products, per a blog post. Microsoft is showing that it recognizes the countrys tremendous potential to be a world leader in the innovation sector, Trudeau said in that blog post. It will provide new opportunities for Canadas young people, and our highly educated workforce as a whole, to shape the future. This might have been a particular thrill for Trudeau: In addition to being a an athlete, Trudeau is known to be a bit of a nerd, schooling a reporter with a quick lesson on quantum computing back in April 2016. We've reached out to the Liberal Party of Canada to see if Trudeau enjoyed the HoloLens. We'll update when we hear back. NOW WATCH: Here's Microsoft's amazing vision for what the HoloLens can do More From Business Insider It was pomp and no consequence for a Pennsylvania high school student who took her her diploma and just kept on walking. Each of the graduates of Parkland High School in Allentown came on stage when their names were called and returned to their assigned seats... except for Tayler Michelle Gray. Read: Cops Stand by Fallen Officer's Son at Kindergarten Graduation: 'We Were All Glad to Be There' In a video that has gone viral this week, Gray proudly accepts her diploma and walks off the stage just like all the other students, poses for the official photo and then walked past her seat and out the door. I wanted to go spend the time with my family, than just sit there. I was way too excited, so I had to do what I had to do and keep going, she told Inside Edition. Reaction has been mixed after the 19-year-old posted the video of her exit on social media. Disrespectful and tacky, wrote one mom. One teen wrote: Amazing. I don't feel that I did anything disrespectful. When I was walking out I just minded my business, I didn't interrupt the ceremony, Gray told Inside Edition. It was more important for me to spend the time with my family than to sit and wait for everybody else. I don't feel I was being disrespectful. Read: 14-Year-Old Boy Impersonates Trump, Clinton and Sanders in Middle School Graduation Speech Following the abrupt exit, he and her family later had lunch at Applebees. By the time the ceremony was over and we were sitting at Applebees and everybody started barging in, we were done with our food, she said. Watch: Celebrities Dish Out Advice for 2016 Graduates Related Articles: The seabed holds some fascinating historical secrets, but unlike monuments on land, theyre largely hidden from view. Now, archaeologists in the United Kingdom are using 3D printing to bring two historical shipwrecks to life for history enthusiasts and experts alike. Using data from photogrammetry (measuring the distance between objects from photographs) and sonar imaging, the researchers have produced scale models of a 17th-century shipwreck near Drumbeg, in Scotland, and the remains of the HMHS Anglia, a steamship that was used as a floating hospital during World War I. The steamship was sunk by a mine off the south coast of England. "It was a proof of concept for us, trying to establish what could be done using sound and light, but there are so many different applications you could use this for," said maritime archaeologist John McCarthy, a project manager at Wessex Archaeology who carried out dives at the Scottish site and was in charge of producing the 3D models. [Photos: Shipwrecks of the Deep Sea] "People can engage much more easily with a physical object in front of them. You can bring it to schools and conferences, and we are hoping to donate both models to local museums, once we've finished with them," McCarthy told Live Science. It was not particularly difficult to create 3D-printed representations of the shipwrecks, McCarthy said. The magic, he said, was in creating the virtual models that were fed into the 3D printer. McCarthy carried out initial experimental surveys of the Drumbeg wreck in 2012 with his colleague Jonathan Benjamin, who is now a lecturer at Flinders University in Australia. McCarthy recently joined him there to begin Ph.D. studies under Benjamin's supervision. At the Drumbeg wreck site, the pair found three heavily encrusted cannons with evidence of a preserved wooden hull underneath. The ship's identity is still unknown, but one theory holds that it is a Dutch trading vessel called the Crowned Raven, which is known to have been lost in the bay in the late 1600s. Story continues After realizing the techniques they were using could provide enough data for a 3D model, the archaeologists went back to do a more detailed survey in 2014 and used the lessons they had learned from their first attempt. The archaeologists used a technique called photogrammetry, which involves taking hundreds of overlapping photographs of a site and then feeding them into a computer program that can stitch them together. The application is able to establish the spatial relationships between photos, which allows it to create a so-called 3D point cloud that maps each image in 3D space. "Once you have a point cloud, you can turn it into a solid surface," McCarthy said. "Then you have a 3D model of the site that's not subjective or an artist's impression, but entirely objective." The benefits of photogrammetry are that it produces very high-resolution images and it can capture the true color of the site, McCarthy said. The method is easily thwarted, however, by excess marine growth or poor visibility, and it is not well-suited to covering large areas. Sonar, on the other hand, can see through the murk and can cover much larger areas, McCarthy said. For the 329-foot-long (100 meters) HMHS Anglia, another team from Wessex Archaeology used multibeam sonar which operates in a similar way to a laser scanner to do a much larger survey of the shipwreck site. While multibeam sonar can't match the subcentimeter resolution of photogrammetry, using higher-end equipment and doing many passes can boost accuracy, McCarthy said. The Anglia survey was a particularly high-resolution one, he added, which was part of the reason it was selected for the 3D printing project. McCarthy pointed out that the Wessex Archaeology team is not the first to create 3D-printed models from underwater imaging data. He said that the field has been booming in recent years, with big advances in both sonar and photographic techniques, and even some novel laser-scanning approaches are beginning to come through. "All maritime archaeologists are engaging heavily with these techniques now," McCarthy said. "Advances in hardware and software in the last five years has allowed us to do very rapid and cheap surveys, and it has added to the tools we use underwater." Original article on Live Science. Editor's Recommendations Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. From Popular Mechanics In the dark world of pro-ISIS social media, nothing is constant. Online groups are always splitting, morphing, and recombining as they're moderated and taken down by international law enforcement and the companies that run the networks they use. But a team of scientists now thinks that even just tracking the rapid churn of pro-ISIS online groups could actually help governments predict violent assaults in the real world. A Florida-based team of computer scientists, led by Stefan Wuchty at the University of Miami, have developed a mathematical model that follows the online movement and proliferation of members on social media, specifically a Russian Facebook knockoff, called Vkontakte. His team found that as pro-ISIS pages and groups start to split, combine, and regroup at an exponential rate, they can forebode a major real-world crisis. For example, Wuchty explains, a huge spike in Vkontakte activity happened just before the 2014 "unexpected assault by ISIS on Kobane," a city in northern Syria, he says. The computer model is unveiled today in the journal Science. "In contrast to Facebook and Twitter, where basically all pro-ISIS activity is suppressed immediately, on Vkontakte this kind of activity can proliferate because the online moderators just slowly shut down these groups, and only from time to time. When that happens, you have these drifting, aggregate collections of former followers which can either merge into other groups, fragment into smaller groups, or morph all together. It's truly a complex online ecology," Wuchty says. "The speed with which new groups emerge actually harbors a signal." "One of the interesting aspects of this is that we found that the speed with which new groups emerge actually harbors a signal. And that signal allows us to predict the onset of activity in the real world," he says. This signal-the increasingly rapid, staccato pace in the formation and regrouping of online social media followers-basically acts like "taking the pulse" of the group's social momentum, says Wuchty. Story continues Wuchty's team followed 196 pro-ISIS aggregates-shifting informal groups of ISIS sympathizers- on Vkontakte between August of 2014 and January of 2015. A rapid uptick in the shuffling of these Vkontakte groups often came before a violent group event in the regions where ISIS claimed control. To be clear, while Wuchty does not believe that tracking these online groups might foretell lone wolf ISIS-inspired attacks, like the one seen last weekend in Orlando. "That's the disclaimer," he says. "We're talking about big movements of groups," like those fighting in and supporting the city-wide assault in Kobane, "which goes beyond individuals. We're basically talking about sociology, which is inherently difficult to quantify on the scale of individual people," he says. Moving forward, Wuchty says he would like to see if this new computer model could be incorporated into real-time forecasting software. Although he admits that like last decade's American color-coded terror alters, a general globe-wide warning system would likely have limited effectiveness. Knowing that something violent, somewhere on the globe might happen tomorrow isn't exactly the most actionable information. But it's something. I early hours of Sunday morning, a gunman identified as Omar Mateen entered Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and opened fire on nearly 300 people. Armed with a Glock 9mm pistol and an AR-15-style assault rifle, Mateen killed at least 49 people and wounded 53 more in mere minutes, making the incident the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. And yet the gruesome attack in Orlando was typical for the United States, a nation where horrific gun violence has become a regular occurrence. It's also a nation where people like Mateen or, rather, men like Mateen are routinely the perpetrators of that violence, which they execute in fits of homophobic or misogynist or racist In the wake of massacres like the attack on Pulse, people are quick to look for explanations for the bloodshed, from "radical Islam" and terrorist connections, to lax gun laws or mental illness. But we're not often inclined to implicate another common thread that connects Mateen to other mass shootings: toxic masculinity, a From Charleston to Orlando, There's Another Culprit Behind Mass Shootings A shared history of sexist rage Since Mateen's name was released in the hours after the shooting, the public has learned a fair amount about his violent past: In 2013, Mateen was placed on an FBI terrorist watch list for threats he made against a co-worker, . His ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, told the New York Times Mateen would routinely beat her during their two-year marriage, while his former co-worker has claimed he "talked about killing people all the time" and had a penchant for using racial and sexual slurs. To add to his complex history, Mateen was reportedly a regular at Pulse, and had used gay dating apps in the past. The profile that's been established of Mateen isn't too dissimilar from those of other mass shooters, for whom large-scale gun violence wasn't a first act of aggression. Robert Dear, who attacked a Colorado Springs, Colorado, Planned Parenthood clinic in November, was accused of abusing his wives and posting vicious rants online before the attack, much like Mateen. Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter who killed 32 people in 2007, allegedly stalked two women and left behind a virulently sexist manifesto ahead of his rampage, much like E Story continues "I have to do it," Roof reportedly said during his attack on Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." He, Mateen and the other men who committed these atrocities seem, in each case, to have acted out of a sense of fear others women, queer people, people of color had taken or withheld something to which they were entitled. In multiple cases, including Roof's, we know this for sure, thanks to the hateful manifestos left behind. This is not a coincidence. From Charleston to Orlando, There's Another Culprit Behind Mass Shootings Is violence an expression of manhood? "Boys and men are more likely to externalize their pain and take it out on others," Jackson Katz, a leading gender violence prevention expert and author of Man Enough? Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and the Politics of Presidential Masculinity, said in a phone interview. "There's an attitude of, 'Someone took something from me, I'm going to take it from others.'" "Violence is the single quickest way for a man to establish his manhood. It is so clearly identified in the public mind, in our culture and around the world, as a masculine endeavor. When women commit violence, especially gun violence ... they're violating a norm, and when men do, they're over-conforming to a norm." The anger and uncontrollable rage underpinning massacres like the attack in Orlando massacres that have become commonplace do not develop or come to a head overnight. They are cultivated and reinforced by a culture that lionizes male dominance and control. "Our culture is filled with media narratives, in particular, for boys and men to reclaim their dignity and manhood that's been taken from them through redemptive violence, in response to humiliation or pain," Katz said. "When women commit violence ... they're violating a norm, and when men do, they're over-conforming to a norm." That's why policy alone isn't always enough to end mass violence particularly violence perpetrated by men like Mateen, whose actions are rooted in deeper insecurities about their own manhood. As President Barack Obama said Tuesday in a speech at the , t "As commander in chief, I've seen how the ideology that leads Boko Haram to kidnap schoolgirls, and leads ISIL to enslave and rape women is the same ideology that leads to instability, and violence, and terrorism," Obama said. "There's a connection there." From calling boys by derogatory terms for gay men when they display effeminate characteristics, or (most recently, at least), our culture affirms the angry men who brutalize women who reject them; who murder their partners and children; who decimate trans women of color, bomb abortion clinics and massacre black people in their houses of But that repeated affirmation that brutal, sometimes sadistic "manliness" is acceptable is also what makes attacks like Mateen's both predictable and preventable. It could be possible to prevent mass murder simply by looking for the right signs. "We have to be talking about the links between domestic violence and gang violence, violence in the home and violence in the streets," Katz said. "The crucible of so much violent behavior of boys and men is violence done against them in their families. ... If you have large numbers of men who grow up traumatized by violence and abuse, a large number will act out in the traditional way: through redemptive violence as a fulfillment of masculine honor." From Charleston to Orlando, There's Another Culprit Behind Mass Shootings Killing a culture of toxic masculinity There's more to it than that, though. Ending the devastating consequences of masculinity-gone-murderous requires a broader cultural shift one that doesn't equate anything that isn't "manly" with weakness, or treat people who defy traditional masculine ideals, like the scores of men and women murdered at Pulse, with disdain. It also requires that we stop accepting destruction as a normal, or even valorous part of life, and instead start interrogating our own cultural values; that we recognize the stereotypical markers of manhood might seem benign, but are potentially dangerous. Gender stereotyping "has consequences for all of us, whether we're men or women, black, white, gay, straight, transgender or otherwise," Obama said. "We need to keep changing the attitude that raises our girls to be demure, and our boys to be assertive; that criticizes our daughters for speaking out, and our sons for shedding a tear." Honestly facing how destructive these stereotypes can be won't bring a solution overnight. But it could be a step in the right direction. On Friday night, Felicia Sanders plans to walk up the steps of the Second Presbyterian Church for an event to mark the year anniversary of the murder of her 26-year old beloved son Tywanza Sanders and her 87-year-old aunt Susie Jackson. The two were killed at Emanuel AME Church, the shadow of whose spire will nearly touch Second Presbyterians steps in the waning evening Charleston sun. It is no accident that Sanders has chosen to mark the grim anniversary of the slaying before her eyes of her son and auntand seven other African American congregantsby an avowed white supremacist here, at a white church. I wanted to do this for Tywanza. I want to prove that boy wrong. I wanted to show forgiveness and love between the races, Sanders said last September at her first Bible study at Second Presbyterian. That night, her hands gripped the chair when a young white man entered the room. But she forced herself to embrace this church and these people and unite with them in worshipping the same Jesus. It was a year ago Friday that another young white boy entered Emanuel to attend its regular Wednesday Bible study. He prayed with his victims for nearly an hour before he opened fire in the church basement, killing nine and leaving Sanders, her now 12-year-old granddaughter and Polly Sheppard alive. Though much has been written about the nine souls who lost their lives that nightindeed, some charities in the wake of the tragedy only gave to the victims families, all but ignoring the survivorsit is these three who must live with those experiences most keenly every day. They are the ones who must testify in the upcoming state and federal cases against now 22-year-old Dylann Storm Roof, the alleged killer who attacked Mother Emanuel, he told the survivors, because he wanted to start a race war. Read More: How Do You Forgive a Murder? In the year since the world was shocked and humbled by the Emanuel victims forgiveness of Roof in the face of such an atrocity, killing the pious at prayer, Sanders and Sheppard have struggled and found strength in that forgiveness. Sheppard, whom Roof left alive as a witness, is convinced that God saved her so that she could save Roof. She says shed be willing to go pray with him in prison, if hed allow her. I think that He left us here, thats part of the grace. And He left us here to do something, be a light to someone else, Sheppard said. Story continues Sanders would not want to pray with Roof, whom she can hardly still name the pain is too raw. Instead, she has chosen to mend by forging lasting bonds with the very people Roof wanted her to hate. For the last nine months, every Wednesday Sanders has gone to Bible study at Second Presbyterian. Sanders has not stepped foot back in the basement of Emanuel church, where she has spent her entire life worshippingnor will she ever. Before Sunday services she wont drink fluids, so as to avoid having to go to the bathroom at Emanuelthe only restroom is downstairs. So, in the wake of the shooting, she had to find another Bible study group. Sanders had never needed guidance more: she often couldnt sleep, reliving that terrible night. Sanders and her granddaughter only survived because they were so covered in the blood of their loved ones that the shooter thought they were already dead. Enter Reverend Cress. Though the Second Presbyterian has stood behind Emanuel all of Sanders lifeindeed the church was founded in 1809, five years before EmanuelSanders had never set foot in it until the massacre. Rev. Cress Darwin, Second Presbyterians pastor, offered his sanctuary as an overflow venue for Tywanza and Susies joint funeral. Reverend Cress, as hes called by his congregants, offered his guidance to Sanders, still reeling not only from the loss of her relatives, but virtually the entire preaching staff at Emanuel, her spiritual guides. So, Sanders turned to Reverend Cress for guidance: she had brought her son to church to keep him safe, why had God taken him? And Susie? Why had 21-year-old avowed white supremacist come into Emanuel, the oldest African-American AME church in South Carolina, and taken away nine of her family and friends? And why had God let her and her granddaughter survive? She wantedno neededto return to Bible study to find answers but she could not bear to return to Emanuel. Come here, Reverend Cress offered. And that was how Sanders and her granddaughter became the only two regular African-American worshippers at Wednesday Bible study. The news is not easy for Sanders and Sheppard these days. Orlando, San Bernardinoso much death, so much hatred. They pray that the world will not forget them and their example, that the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. will not fade to that of Malcolm X. For the only way to end the cycles of violence, they say, is to forgive it. Vengeance is the Lords, only he can carry out retribution, Sanders says. Who am I to question the Lord? I trust his justice. A year after nine people were fatally shot at the Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the city will honor the victims with several programs of remembrance. More than two dozen commemoration programs and events are planned throughout the city to honor the "Emanuel Nine," allegedly shot by suspect Dylann Roof on the evening of June 17, 2015. Roof, an alleged white supremacist, has been charged with 33 federal counts, including several hate crimes, and awaits his November trial. Roof has pleaded not guilty. For church congregants, the emotional wounds from that evening are still fresh. Tara Wright, 44, says the attention over the past year has made it difficult for them to move on. "It's so much attention all the time. If it wasn't like that, we'd have more time for healing but we never really get to rest," she tells PEOPLE She adds, "There's nothing wrong with people wanting to come around and console us and lend a helping hand but sometimes you just need time to yourself. I'm hoping after all the anniversary activities finish, things will settle down and the families will be able to find some peace." To honor the memory of the so-called "Emanuel Nine," Charleston is planning a day of events, most of which center on racial unity. he local Kindred Kids program will present a mandala woven by students of diverse backgrounds. The Principle Gallery in downtown Charleston will present portraits of the victims. The church will host an service open to the public: "After Charleston: Commemoration, Healing, and Hope." On Saturday, a walk of unity is planned, and the Charleston Gospel Choir will honor the Emanuel Nine with an evening concert. On Monday, area leaders and law enforcement officials will discuss measures to curb violence and promote positive relationships between youth and law enforcement. 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. Along with heartbreak, there have been moments of uplift as church members have been touched by the generosity of the human spirit. Wright, whose husband, Cronyn Wright, is the drummer in the church band, said people have continually sent gifts to the church. Her favorite was a painting by an incarcerated man with no prior affiliation to the church. It depicts the Emanuel Nine in a worshiping position, with praying hands. "So many people were crying just from that picture. I cried too, and it's hard to make me cry," she says. The church has also welcomed its first female pastor, the Rev. Dr. Betty Deas Clark. Says Wright, "It's almost like women can give the woman's touch, you know? She's doing that. She's very warm and kindhearted." Wright says two white couples have become church members. "It has really been a good thing. It show unity and also shows that we can all be together.... It shows that we are not separated by race that's important because we have to start somewhere. We can come together and be there and laugh together no matter what race we are." She adds that the shooter allegedly "did it because of race and hate. But that backfired on him. It brought us together." Charlie Sheen is not a fan of Donald Trump. The former Two and a Half Men star appeared on UK's The Graham Norton Show this week, where he had less than glowing things to say about the presidential hopeful, stemming from a wedding gift the actor said he received from Trump five years ago. Sheen says the gifting took place at a dinner with his ex-wife Brooke Mueller, along with Trump and his wife Milania. The 50-year-old actor claims that Trump apologized to him for not being able to attend his wedding (which Sheen says he had never been invited to), before offering him his cuff links as a gesture of good will. WATCH: Jon Cryer Compares Donald Trump to Charlie Sheen: 'I Don't Want People to Pick the President Based on Entertainment Value' "He says, 'These are platinum diamond, Harry Winsten,'" Sheen said. "And he pulls off his cuff links, and gives them to me." However, Sheen said that when he got the jewelry looked at a few months later, the appraiser told a much different story. WATCH: John Legend Deems Donald Trump 'Racist' in Twitter Battle With the Presidential Hopeful's Son "She spent about four seconds examining the cuff links, before she kinda recoiled from it, much like people do from Trump," he claims, adding that she said, "'In their finest moment, this is cheap pewter and bad zirconia.' And they're stamped Trump." "What does this say about the man? That he said, 'Here's a great wedding gift,'" Sheen added. "And it's just a bag of dog s**t." MORE: Donald Trump Ate a Taco Bowl to Show He 'Loves Hispanics' on Top of a Bikini Pic of His Ex-Wife "I have faith that good and decent people will make the right choice," he continued. "And that the circus will leave town before it contaminates the Oval Office." Well, it seems that either a lot has changed in a year, or Sheen was just being facetious last August when he tweeted, ""If Trump will hv me I'd be his VP in a heartbeat! #TrumpSheen16." Story continues MORE: Seth Meyers Bans Donald Trump from 'Late Night In any case, Sheen is not the only person going after Trump. Watch the video below to see what this 13-year-old comic had to say about the presidential hopeful. Related Articles By Justin Madden CHICAGO (Reuters) - A Chicago man was shot and killed while live streaming a video on Facebook, police said on Friday, just days after a double-homicide in France in which the killer later took to Facebook Live to encourage more violence. Antonio Perkins, 28, was found face down on Wednesday night in a vacant lot with gunshot wounds to the neck and head on the city's west side, Chicago police officer Laura Amezaga said. Perkins was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Police on Friday identified the man in the video as Perkins, who they said was a documented gang member. No arrests have been made. In France, a 25-year-old man killed a French police commander and the commander's partner on Tuesday, then he took to Facebook Live with a 12-minute video encouraging followers to kill prison staff, police officials, journalists and lawmakers. The incidents underscore the immense challenges companies such as Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Google's YouTube face as they push live video streaming to hundreds of millions of people. Facebook in recent months has made its Live feature - which allows anyone to broadcast a video in real time - a central component of its strategy. It allows people to stream from their smartphone. Chicago, the third-largest U.S. city, has drawn attention due to its gun violence, which police have blamed largely on gang violence and a proliferation of stolen guns. There were nearly 500 homicides last year, and gun violence is up in 2016, police say. The Facebook Live video appears to show Perkins recording himself and a group of people in front of a row of homes before someone opened fire. The phone appears to tumble through bloody grass before going black. The audio continues with bystanders screaming and crying. The video remains on Facebook with a user warning message about its graphic nature. A spokeswoman from Facebook acknowledged the video posting, saying it does not violate company policy. The social media site will remove a video if it celebrates or glorifies violence, she said. (Reporting by Justin Madden; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Alan Crosby) BEIJING (Reuters) - China's clean energy pledges are prompting a supply of new financing tools to fund the estimated 43 trillion yuan ($6.53 trillion) needed to switch from heavy, polluting industries to clean projects. The Beijing Environment Exchange endorsed a call option backed by 20,000 local carbon permits on Thursday, the first of its kind in China, which was bought by trading firm CMB Sinolink. Rival bourse, the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, also plans to launch four forward contracts to trade over the counter (OTC), backed by Shanghai permits which expire in each quarter of 2017, according to the Shanghai Clearing House. China, the world biggest energy consumer, wants to increase clean energy use in power generation to 35 percent by 2020 from the current 27 percent. To try and meet the capital requirement for this economic restructuring, China plans a national carbon market by 2017 which will cover all provinces and nearly 10,000 of the most carbon-intensive companies mainly in power, steel and oil industries. China currently has seven regional pilot carbon markets. Market information provider ICIS forecasts China's national market will open at 40 yuan for trading of the China Carbon Allowances in 2017, and increase to 65 yuan in 2021. ICIS launched a weekly price assessment on Thursday, hoping to set a reference benchmark price for carbon credits to be delivered in March 2018 in the national market. The German bourse EEX is in talks with its members interested in positioning in China, according to a development plan seen by Reuters. The plan would offer cash settled futures contracts on Chinese carbon credits this year, denominated in renminbi or euros, and backed by the ICIS price index. "European carbon traders hedge their power contracts as much as five years ahead, whereas China depends on progress in liberalizing its energy market in order to drive hedge trading by local utilities," said a trader in an international company. But China's regional pilot carbon markets have seen prices come under pressure, due to over-allocation caused by worse than expected economic performance, and patchy liquidity. Total turnover has been stagnant at 7.8 billion yuan in the three years pilot phase, Hubei Emission Exchange data shows. "There must be strong demand for underlying spot products to launch futures," Zhang Yubin, vice general manager of the China Futures market Monitoring Center, said on Thursday. "The capital turnover for offering commodity futures are at tens of billion yuan." (Reporting by Kathy Chen; Editing by Michael Perry and Ed Davies) HANOI (Reuters) - China sent ships on Friday in response to a request from Vietnam to help find a coastguard plane that crashed with nine personnel aboard while looking for a missing fighter jet and pilot, Vietnam's defense ministry said. The CASA turboprop plane went down on Thursday in the Gulf of Tonkin, between Vietnam's northern coastline and China's Hainan Island, where the rescue team had found some debris and personal items, the ministry said in a statement. The Airbus-made plane was searching for a Sukhoi SU-30 MK2 fighter jet and a missing pilot that went off radar on Tuesday. One of the two fighter pilots was rescued from the sea the following day. Thousands of Vietnamese coastguard, border guard, navy, air force and fishermen have been searching for the aircraft and the second pilot. China sent one rescue and two coastguard boats to help search for the CASA plane in response to Vietnam's request for assistance and to allow its vessels to enter the Chinese side of a maritime boundary agreed between the two countries. The coastguard plane went down in bad weather and low visibility. Vietnam has suffered a series of accidents in the past two years with its aging helicopters, but plane crashes have been rare. It is currently overseeing its biggest military buildup in four decades and wants to upgrade its air and sea defenses, including plans to purchase fighter jets, a strategy experts say is aimed at building a deterrent against China's military rise. The Communist parties that rule China and Vietnam are historically close, but tensions are high over territorial disputes between them in the South China Sea. Vietnam has stepped up efforts to strengthen its coastguard, with help from Japan, which has its own maritime squabbles with China, and the United States, which has repeatedly locked horns with Beijing and insists it has stake in ensuring freedom of navigation and flight in the South China Sea. (Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Martin Petty and Simon Cameron-Moore) By Meng Meng and Chen Aizhu BEIJING (Reuters) - China ordered at least 255 Shanghai-based industrial facilities, including part of a major oil refinery operated by Sinopec Corp, to shut for 14 days to reduce pollution ahead of the G20 summit, according to an official document reviewed by Reuters. The document, issued by the Shanghai Environment Protection Bureau, has ordered a wide range of companies from power and petrochemical plants to logistics firms to shut down between Aug. 24 and Sept. 6 for the upcoming G20 meet in Hangzhou. Authorities in neighboring Zhejiang and Jiangsu province are set to issue similar orders to limit air pollution and safety hazards within a 300 km radius from Hangzhou, according to industry and government officials. China has previously shut down factories and limited the operation of heavy equipment ahead of high-profile diplomatic and sporting events - such as meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Beijing Summer Olympics of 2008 - to cut the choking smog that afflicts many of its cities. "Longer-term China needs to work out a market-based approach to tackle pollution rather than an ad-hoc order. Apart from social responsibilities, business has its profit and loss to take care," said Jing Chunmei, a researcher with China Center for International Economic Exchanges. The G20 summit, hosted in the first week of September, has become China's biggest diplomatic event of the year and is expected to gather together world leaders like Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama. Shanghai Petrochemical Corp, a subsidiary refinery of state refiner Sinopec Corp, will reduce its capacity by 50 percent, or about 120,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the G20 event during those two weeks, the document from the environment bureau said. Coal-fired power plants in the area that do not meet emissions standards will be fully closed over the two weeks, it also said, and the usage of heavy machinery will be reduced by 30 percent across Shanghai. An official with Sinopec's Jinling Petrochemical Corp, another major refinery based in the city of Nanjing in neighboring Jiangsu province, said his firm was also asked by local authorities to "appropriately reduce throughput", but was not given any specific reduction size. The ruling came from local governments, rather than from Sinopec Corp, the official said. Shanghai Petrochemical, according to the environment bureau's document, will be closing a 120,000 bpd crude unit, a 3.9 million tonne-per-year (tpy) residue hydrocracking unit, a 3.5 million tpy catalytic cracking unit, and another dozen or so secondary refining facilities. OTHER REFINERIES, INDUSTRIES Sinopec also operates in the vicinity the 440,000 bpd Zhenhai refinery, 270,000 bpd Shanghai Gaoqiao refinery and 250,000 bpd Yangzi Petrochemical Corp. A spokesman for Sinopec said the company was not immediately able to comment. The 255 factories based in Shanghai, about 200 km from Hangzhou, cover sectors like chemicals, building materials, pharmaceuticals and printing, according to the document. Operation of heavy machinery in the Jinshan district will be cut in half during the summit period, and sailings of dry bulk ships below 200 tonnes, oil tankers above 600 tonnes and all chemical tankers will be suspended. The government is offering no subsidies for the shutdowns, according to four plants contacted by Reuters. "We will try to reschedule plant maintenance to that two weeks to minimize the production loss," said Shi Yan, a manager at Budenheim Fine Chemicals (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. Other areas, including the port city Ningbo, have also issued lists of factory shutdowns ahead of the G20 summit in addition to the closures set for Shanghai, according to an official at the Ningbo Environmental Bureau. (Reporting by Meng Meng and Aizhu Chen; Addtional reporting by Brenda Goh in SHANGHAI and Adam Jourdan in BEIJING; Editing by Tom Hogue) By Joseph Campbell BEIJING (Reuters) - A well-known Chinese civil rights lawyer went on trial for fraud on Friday, an attorney with knowledge of the case said, the latest trial in a far-reaching crackdown on political dissent. Xia Lin was detained by Beijing police in November 2014 and later charged with fraud, said Mo Shaoping, a colleague of Xia's lawyer who is familiar with the case. Xia's lawyer could not be reached for comment. Xia had worked with Pu Zhiqiang, one of China's best-known human rights lawyers, who was handed a three-year suspended sentence last year for writing Internet posts the government said incited ethnic hatred. Xia had represented artist and dissident Ai Weiwei's company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development. Security was tight outside of Beijing Number 2 People's Intermediate Court and journalists were barred entry. Several supporters and family members could be seen waiting outside. Calls to the court went unanswered. William Nee, a researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong, said Xia was defending human rights activist Guo Yushan before he was detained in 2014. "You know, he was trying to defend these people, and then he gets this accusation of fraud, illegal business activities," Nee said. "Most people think that's merely a pretence to silence him." The trial could be a bellwether for how judicial authorities treat other prominent figures ensnared in the leadership's broad crackdown on rights lawyers, Nee added. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Xia's case was outside of the Foreign Ministry's remit and she was unaware of the specific details. "China is a country ruled by law," Hua said. "We guarantee everyone's legal rights according to law and handle their legal violations according to law." The last three years under President Xi Jinping's administration have been marked by a sweeping crackdown on dissidents and activists. (Additional reporting by Michael Martina; Writing By Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Nick Macfie) A leading Chinese dissident lawyer and his relatives have been "threatened" since his daughter spoke about his controversial new book in Hong Kong this week, the daughter and activists said Friday. Gao Zhisheng's current whereabouts are unknown after Chinese security agents are said to have rushed to his brother's house, where he is staying, in an isolated village in China's Shaanxi province on Tuesday. Gao has been under house arrest since 2014 after serving a three-year prison term on subversion-related charges -- a sentence which sparked an international outcry. "I am worried they will face many threats... I already know that right after (his daughter) Grace's press conference in Hong Kong, Chinese security personnel rushed to his brother's house and threatened (them)," said Bob Fu, president of US-based human rights group China Aid Association which co-published the book. "We don't know if he has been removed from his cave home in Shaanxi. We don't know where he is now," Fu said, adding that a local contact who passed on the information of the security agents' visit had also gone "missing". Speaking in Taipei to launch her father's new book "Stand Up China 2017" -- which predicts the demise of the Communist Party and details his torture at the hands of the authorities -- Grace Gao said her uncle and aunt's mobile phones were disconnected or turned off when she called them on Friday. She felt her father would be subject to punishment over the book but added: "He is prepared for anything and our family is prepared." Gao fell foul of Chinese authorities by championing the rights of vulnerable people including underground Christians, aggrieved miners and members of the banned Falungong spiritual movement. He was convicted in 2006 of "subversion of state power" and given a three-year suspended prison sentence. State media said in 2011 that he had been ordered to serve the sentence after a Beijing court ruled he had violated the terms of his probation. Story continues In the 446-page book, Gao predicted the demise of the Chinese Communist Party in 2017, saying that "peaceful power for change" will flourish in China despite brutal suppression and it is "enviable for China's evil forces to demise". Gao detailed what he called abductions and tortures imposed on him by Chinese authorities since 2004, including electric shocks. The book was published by two human rights groups as no publisher in Taiwan or Hong Kong wanted to get involved, according to co-publisher Taiwan Association for China Human Rights. "Please help my family and all Chinese people," Grace Gao wrote in a copy of the book to be given to Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen through a lawmaker of Tsai's party. "I hope she will do her best or within her power to help with human rights in China," she said. * Serbia seeks Chinese investment to spur growth * Visit seen as part of China's One Belt, One Road plan * Chinese investment so far mostly soft loans By Ivana Sekularac BELGRADE, June 17 (Reuters) - Serbia and China are set to sign at least 20 trade and investment deals this weekend during a visit by President Xi Jinping, as the cash-strapped Balkan country seeks funds for infrastructure projects to spur growth. Serbia has enjoyed good relations with China since the 1990s, when Belgrade was economically isolated for its role in the wars that accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia. China sees the visit as part of its One Belt, One Road initiative, which is intended to open new trade links for Chinese firms as the domestic economy slows. "Within the One Belt, One Road initiative, which includes cooperation between Central and Eastern Europe, cooperation between the two countries is constantly improving," Xi wrote in the Serbian daily Politika before his arrival on Friday. Xi's ambitious initiative is for a new "Silk Road" from Western China to Central Asia and on to Europe via the Balkans. Central and east European countries are competing for Chinese investment, looking to lure firms in need of new markets whilst securing access for their own products in China. Serbian and Chinese officials are expected to sign at least 20 trade and investment deals, including agreements on building highways and waste-to-power plants. The two countries will also reaffirm their commitment to build a high-speed railway between Serbia and the Hungarian capital Budapest. CONFUCIUS MONUMENT On his latest trip, Xi will also visit Poland and Uzbekistan, the latter for a regional summit of the Chinese and Russia-led security bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. . To cement good relations with Serbia, the foundation stone for a Chinese cultural centre will be laid and a monument to Confucius will be erected where Chinese embassy stood until it was destroyed by NATO bombs in 1999. Story continues Since 2009, when China and Serbia signed a strategic partnership agreement, China has invested more than $1 billion in Serbia, mostly in soft loans including finance for a bridge in Belgrade, the renovation of coal-fired power plant and construction of a new plant due to come online in 2018. A 46-million-euro ($52-million) deal to buy Serbia's sole steel plant by Hebei Iron & Steel announced in April is seen by Serbian officials and analysts as a major breakthrough that could pave the way for other Chinese companies. But the purchase of a steel-works in an EU candidate country by a state-owned Chinese enterprise raises serious concerns about unfair competition from state-backed enterprises, the European Steel Association said in a statement ahead of Xi's arrival. Serbian President Tomsilav Nikolic gave a more optimistic assessment of the visit. "After so many years the Chinese president is visiting Serbia. That is like spring after a long winter," he told Chinese media. (Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Additional reporting by Barbara Lewis in Brussels; editing by Giles Elgood and Keith Weir) Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f119019%2fresume-bar1 There's no hiding the fact that job hunting really sucks. The worst part of it is sending endless resumes and cover letters, only to receive an equally depressing number of knockbacks in your inbox. SEE ALSO: How to be a picture perfect public speaker Amid the worry and the trepidation of potentially living on instant noodles for a while, there is a solution: Chocolate, but wrapped with one's resume. That's what Renata Chunderbalsingh from Sydney, Australia, is doing in an attempt to land herself a job in market research. It's a big change of career from her previous life in the education industry, which is why the resume bar was a way she could stand out, despite an admitted lack of direct experience in the field. "I am new to the industry, and was thinking well, 'how can I get out there and tell them that I'm good?'" she told Mashable Australia. "I thought, I have to differentiate myself from the crowd." renata Image: Renata Chunderbalsingh Chunderbalsingh got some help with the design, but printed and wrapped the bar herself. For the chocolate aficionados out there, the bar is from Lindt. A few of the bars were made and sent to different recruitment agencies and companies in the past week, but she said the most positive response was from Gemma Lewis from Resources Group, who posted it to much fanfare on LinkedIn. "Not sure if we were bribed or charmed, but either way it prompted a lovely chat with Renata this morning," Lewis wrote in her post. Lewis told Mashable Australia via email it's the most creative CV she's ever received, with the response to it "all a bit surreal" especially as she was just hoping for a few leads for jobs. "I rarely get anything in the post so that was unique in itself. Otherwise some candidates stand out in terms of design, infographics and formatting of CVs, catchy headlines in emails, content in the opening statement or hobbies even, but nothing like this," she said. Story continues Chunderbalsingh said Lewis has been helping out "a lot" with the job search, which has prompted offers albeit all the way in Europe. "Hopefully I'll finally find a job, and keep this as a nice memory of how I started my career," she laughs. It's of course not the first time chocolate has been used to get attention. A post on reddit from back in 2013 featured a resume bar, with the post claiming that it had landed a friend a job. Still proof that anything but paper and emails gets plenty of attention all these years on. Christina Aguilera is back with the powerful new ballad, "Change" (RCA). The pop icon and The Voice judge unleashed the lyric video for "Change" overnight, which she has dedicated to victims of the Orlando massacre. "The horrific tragedy that occurred in Orlando continues to weigh heavily on my mind. I am sending so much love and so many prayers to the victims and their families," she writes in a message posted on her Website. "Like so many, I want to help be part of the change this world needs to make it a beautiful inclusive place where humanity can love each other freely and passionately." Christina Aguilera is Now a Redhead: See Her Pic Aguilera co-wrote the song with Fancy Hagood and Flo Reutter. On it, she sings, "Waiting for a change to set us free/ Waiting for the day when you can be you and I can be me/ Waiting for hope to come around/ Waiting for the day when hate is lost and love is found." Aguilera's reps released a statement confirming that 100 percent of proceeds from U.S. download sales of the song will donated to the National Compassion Fund (until Sept. 14) to directly benefit the Orlando shooting victims and their families. Watch the clip below or download the song from iTunes. Earnings from on U.S. iTunes downloads for the next three months will be donated to the National Compassion Fund to directly benefit the Orlando shooting victims and their families. The label and publisher will also be donating proceeds. By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Only a tiny fraction of climate change funding is going into small-scale solar, biogas and other off-grid systems that may be the best way to get power to the world's poorest, researchers say. That problem, evident in new figures from the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), points to a challenge for the main international organization promoting access to clean energy for everyone on the planet, which this week adopted a strategy to achieve that goal earlier than a 2030 deadline. Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) head Rachel Kyte said its new five-year plan aimed to help "leaders to go further, faster" by supporting them to make good energy policy, setting up partnerships and unlocking finance. "This will help us secure an energy transition that is clean, affordable and just, because no one must be left behind," she said in a statement. There are still around 1 billion people in the world without access to electricity, and nearly 3 billion who cook using smoky fuels such as wood, kerosene and dung. The new Sustainable Development Goals, which took effect this year, include a target to ensure universal access to "affordable, reliable and modern energy" by 2030. Estimates of how much is needed to provide everyone in the world with electric power and clean cooking facilities range from $40 billion to $100 billion per year. In 2011, the International Energy Agency said $23 billion was required annually for decentralized energy as part of that push, on top of existing funding, the new IIED report noted. It calculated that, of the $14.1 billion approved by governments in international climate finance between 2003 and 2015, around 40 percent, or $5.6 billion, was earmarked for energy programs, but only 3.5 percent was specifically allocated for decentralized energy projects. While it did not determine specific figures for wider development aid used to tackle climate change, the IIED said total public climate finance for small-scale, off-grid energy likely amounted to little more than 5 percent of what is needed. Rita Poppe, an advocacy officer with Hivos, a Netherlands-based development organization that commissioned the report, said more government money should flow into small-scale renewable energy - such as solar home systems, mini-grids and clean cookstoves - because that was the best way to get energy to the poorest quickly. "They see the (power) lines above their heads, but they are not connected, so you really need a decentralized solution," she said. The IIED paper said most public climate finance is going to large-scale energy projects in high and middle-income countries. IIED researcher Neha Rai said bigger energy projects offered more easily measurable benefits to funders in terms of reducing planet-warming emissions, while the costs of putting smaller schemes in place were higher, a deterrent to investment. But the paper noted how some countries like Bangladesh and Nepal have set up national agencies that bundle small projects together so they are more attractive and cheaper to fund. The agencies then channel money to the local level. SOCIAL BENEFITS Poppe of Hivos said public funding, including grants, would be required to jump-start decentralized clean energy systems in the next decade until the technologies become more established and less of a risky business proposition. That would smooth the way for greater private-sector involvement, she added. Larger donors should focus more on supporting off-grid energy besides expanding power grids, and measure the benefits of decentralized energy projects in terms of their social impact, not just the amount of emissions avoided, she said. Social benefits can include improved health, due to things like refrigeration of medicines, as well as enabling children to study more easily, and access to market and weather data for farmers who can charge mobile phones to get that information. The new SE4All strategy, to be released in full later this month, aims to catalyze action on energy access through both decentralized solutions and grid connections. It will encourage governments to improve energy efficiency as a top policy priority. And it will work to develop robust pipelines of bankable energy projects and financing approaches that can provide the right type of capital at the right time, SE4All said. To achieve universal access to clean, affordable energy we need to unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in finance, said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, who co-chaired an SE4All advisory board meeting this week that welcomed the new strategy. This can only happen if we take a truly innovative approach to building public-private partnerships and mobilizing investment," he added in a statement. SE4All was created in 2011 by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and has three goals to be met by 2030: providing universal access to modern energy services, doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and doubling the share of renewables in the global energy mix. Some progress has been made towards those targets, a report said last year, but rates of improvement would have to speed up to meet them. (Reporting by Megan Rowling; editing by Laurie Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org) "Virginia is for lovers" has long been the state's tourism tagline. With its lush, rolling hills in the Shenandoah Valley and shimmering waters along its coastal regions, Virginia is definitely the place for romance. However, what you might not know is that Virginia is a great state for food and wine lovers. While some destinations in the state are receiving national recognition for their thriving culinary scenes, there are a number of other regions that might be a surprise when it comes to wining and dining in the Commonwealth of Virginia. [See: 8 Under-the-Radar Foodie Cities.] The Top Food Towns In Arlington, a neighboring commuter city of Washington, District of Columbia, you'll find a burgeoning food scene. With its proximity to the nation's capital, it's no wonder that the city has a diverse selection of international casual and upscale dining spots. Further south and closer to the coast, Richmond, Virginia, has also recently garnered national attention for its notable chefs, new restaurants and craft breweries. Its location is ideal for access to fresh seafood from the coast as well as regional farmers supplying seasonal produce, meats and poultry to the chefs. Virginia Wine country It may come as a surprise that Virginia features the fifth-largest growing wine region in the country. The first European grapes planted for production were introduced in Virginia about 40 years ago. Today there are approximately 4,000 acres of vineyards and 300 wineries in nine wine regions extending from northern Virginia, through central Virginia and the Charlottesville area, and as far west as the Kentucky line in Appalachia, and even along the sandy shores on the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia's Eastern Shore. Some of the best-known and award-winning wines are produced in the Charlottesville region, where Thomas Jefferson first tried his hand at winemaking in the early 1800s. While his attempts were unsuccessful ( Monticello never produced even one bottle of wine in 30 years of grape-growing), he'd be proud to know that on the nearby plantation of his friend James Barbour (and the governor of Virginia at that time), talented winemakers successfully brought Italian viticulture to the former Barbour estate, Barboursville Vineyards. In fact, another Italian, Gabriele Rausse, is often called "The Father of Virginia Wines." Story continues After acquiring the estate in 1976, Barboursville became one of a number of ever-growing exceptional and award-winning winemakers in Virginia producing varietals such as Pertit Verdot, Viognier, Cabernet Franc, Petit Manseng and Bordeaux blends. The list continues to grow as the winemakers mimic growing conditions in Bordeaux and Burgundy by planting vines in rocky soils on steep, windy hillsides, which allow for drainage and air circulation around the grapes, and by learning methods to deal with the unpredictable climate in the region. Barboursville (along with a number of other wineries in Virginia) also offer excellent dining, cooking classes and accommodations on their property. [See: Tasty Cooking Vacations.] The Virginia Oyster Trail Another culinary gem in the state is the Virginia oyster. Not new to seafood production in Virginia, but new to the state's culinary tourism focus in the coastal region, is the Virginia Oyster Trail. Oyster farming has long been critical in maintaining the fragile ecosystem along Virginia's coastline and in the Chesapeake Bay. Many of these oystermen have been in business for several generations, with young family members returning home to continue the legacy. Virginia is the largest producer of oysters on the East Coast and features eight distinct regions, the most recent region being named as Tangier Island, situated off of the town of Onancock on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. In the wine world, the flavors transferred to the grapes from the soil where they're grown are described as terrior. In the oyster world, the flavors of the waters and beds are transferred to the oyster as it grows. Each region imparts a decidedly unique taste from the others and is expressed as merroir. With the recent focus on all things culinary, Virginia has partnered with local oystermen and watermen and other agri-artisans (businesses that feature the Virginia Oyster) to offer unique tasting experiences combined with oyster facility tours. On the tours, visitors can learn about and taste the very distinct flavors of the eight regions and waters where the oysters are grown and some tastings are paired with regional wines. This is America's first "Oyster Trail" and oyster tastings are every bit as flavorful and educational as wine tastings. In the small fishing village of Wachapreague along the Eastern Shore, Captain Rick Kellam of Broadwater Ecotours, features on-the-water tours and oyster tastings where his guests can harvest fresh wild oysters and taste the saltiness and brininess of the ocean waters while still on the boat. Meanwhile, on the Rappahannock River in Virginia's Middle Peninsula, you can tour the oyster facility at Rappahannock Oyster Co. with oystermen and cousins Travis and Ryan Croxton, followed by lunch or dinner at Merroir, their restaurant next door. With views of the water where the oysters are harvested, oysters on the half shell don't get much fresher than this. And while on the Eastern Shore, visit one of the wineries on the Oyster Trail with the world's only known Kayak Winery Tour. Departing from the tiny town of Bayford on the Chesapeake Bay, the tour takes you to historic Chatham Vineyards in Machipongo, Virginia. After paddling a mile along the beautiful Chesapeake Bay, your efforts are rewarded with a wine tasting and selection of Chatham Vineyard wines. Don't pass up the opportunity to try their very popular Church Creek chardonnay, the perfect dry and crisp wine to accompany the region's briny, creamy, buttery and, depending on where they're grown and sourced, sometimes sweet oysters. Merroir and Terroir There's nothing more romantic than the marriage of wine and oysters and Virginia's Eastern Shore Wine & Brine combines the two culinary gems with celebratory oyster roasts, barbecues and festivities throughout November. Featuring wines from local Chatham Vineyards and oysters harvested from neighboring waters, it's the perfect time to travel to Virginia and experience the quaint seaside towns of Onancock and Cape Charles, and soak in this up-and-coming culinary coastal destination. [See: 15 Best Foodies Destinations in the USA.] Virginia is for Food and Wine Lovers With its beautiful scenery, breathtaking sunsets, 17 wine trails and the only Oyster Trail in the country, a trip to the Old Dominion State should be high on your travel plans. Gwen Pratesi is a James Beard Finalist in Journalism, award-winning food and travel writer, and coauthor of PratesiLiving.com, where she shares the stories of her international food and travel experiences. She also freelances for other regional, U.S., and international publications. You can follow her at Twitter @bunkycooks, Linkedin, Google+, and Instagram @bunkycooks. Condoleezza Rice, Donald Trump. (Photo Illustration: Yahoo News, photos: AP, Jonathan Drake/Reuters Condoleezza Rice, who served George W. Bush as national security adviser and then secretary of state, has zero interest in being Donald Trumps running mate, her chief of staff said Friday. Dr. Rice has repeatedly said in past cycles as well as this one, shes not interested in being vice president, Georgia Godfrey told Yahoo News in a statement. Shes happy at Stanford and plans to stay. Rice will also stay away from Cleveland, where Republicans are expected to anoint the volatile entrepreneur as their candidate. She does not plan to go to the convention, Godfrey said. Since President Bush left office in January 2009, Draft Condi for (TBD elected office) speculation has never fully gone away. Shes the highest-profile African-American woman in the party and a former secretary of state who consistently rates well with voters. Various news outlets have recently fed that fire. In the past week, right-leaning Newsmax and Breitbart News each ran a story touting the possibility that Rice, now a professor of political science at Stanford University and fellow at its Hoover Institution, might run with Trump. The statement also amounts to the former top diplomats rejection of any efforts to draft her for an independent run for the White House. But she wont be entirely on the sidelines in 2016, either, according to a source familiar with her plans. She plans on doing a few events to help her friends in the Senate, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Shes concerned about down-the-ballot races and wants to be helpful where she can. The source confirmed that Rices efforts, which are expected to get under way in late summer or early fall, will overlap with Bushs own attempts to help embattled Republican incumbents worried that anti-Trump sentiment will sink their reelection bids. The New York Times reported earlier Thursday that Bush had headlined fundraisers for Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. The Times report also said that Bush would help Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday upheld former Connecticut Governor John Rowland's conviction on charges that he tried to use sham contracts to hide his political work in two U.S. congressional campaigns. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said Rowland, a Republican, was properly convicted over his role in creating documents that falsified his relationship with the candidates in order to impede a potential future investigation. The three-judge panel also upheld Rowland's 2-1/2 year prison sentence, and rejected his challenges to evidentiary rulings and jury instructions. A lawyer for Rowland, who has been free on bail during the appeal, did not respond to requests for comment. Rowland, 59, served as Connecticut's governor from 1995 to 2004, when he resigned amid a corruption scandal. He spent 10 months in prison following his 2004 guilty plea linked to his accepting illegal gifts. In the current case, a federal jury in New Haven in 2014 found Rowland guilty on seven counts of violating campaign-finance laws and falsifying records. The case stemmed from what prosecutors said were Rowland's efforts to secure consulting jobs with the congressional campaigns of Mark Greenberg in 2010 and Lisa Wilson-Foley in 2012. Prosecutors said Rowland gave Greenberg a draft contract to have him paid through his business or charitable interests rather than the campaign, a deal Greenberg rejected. Rowland later contacted Wilson-Foley and her husband, Brian Foley, who were concerned about connecting Wilson-Foley's campaign to the felon ex-governor. As a result, prosecutors said, they negotiated a deal in which Rowland would be hired by a nursing home company Foley owned. On appeal, Rowland argued prosecutors went too far in trying to criminalize his conduct under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, a law passed after Enron Corp's collapse that prohibits falsifying documents to hide financial wrongdoing. Story continues He argued the contracts at issue could not be considered "falsified" under the meaning of the statute because to "falsify" means tampering with pre-existing documents, not creating new ones. But U.S. Circuit Judge Susan Carney pointed to dictionary definitions to conclude that "in common usage, it is acceptable to say that someone 'falsifies' a document when he creates a document that misrepresents the truth." Wilson-Foley and Foley pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions. Wilson-Foley received a five-month prison term, while Foley was sentenced to three months in a halfway house. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) (Reuters) - A Connecticut man who pleaded guilty to shooting at an empty mosque near his home in an alcohol-fueled rage following the November attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead was sentenced on Friday to six months in federal prison. Ted Hakey, 48, pleaded guilty in February to firing at least four shots at the Baitul Aman Mosque in Meriden in the early morning hours of Nov. 14, hours after learning of the Nov. 13 attacks by gunman and bombers affiliated with the Islamic State. No one was injured in his attack. U.S. District Judge Michael Shea sentenced him to six months in prison, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut, who prosecuted the case. The sentence was less than the eight to 14 months that federal prosecutors had sought but more than Hakey's attorneys had recommended, which was the three weeks he had served before being released on bond. After the hearing, Hakey thanked the mosque leadership, who urged clemency. "I'm sincere about working with my neighbors," he told reporters outside the courthouse. "They were sincere in accepting my apology and I'm sincere that I'm going to work with them." Hakey said he believed that this week's attack in Orlando, in which an Islamic State-inspired gunman killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in the worst mass murder in modern U.S. history, influenced the sentencing decision. "This had a lot to do with the Orlando thing," he said. A review of Hakey's social media postings in the hours leading up to the shooting showed a stream of anti-Muslim comments, including "the only solution is to wipe Islam off the face of the Earth," according to court documents. (Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by James Dalgleish) Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Centers constitutional literacy adviser, looks at recent cases involving Puerto Rico and American Samoa that tested the ability of Congress to decide which constitutional provisions or guarantees apply in the territories. americansamoa535 THE STATEMENTS AT ISSUE: The Insular Cases should be modified or overruled. Those decisions rest in significant part on outdated, indefensible racial biases that have no place in this courts constitutional jurisprudence todayThe Constitution does not grant Congress the power to decide when and where the Constitutions terms apply. Insofar as the Insular Cases establish a contrary principle, they are incompatible with the Constitution and should be rejected. Excerpt from a legal filing in the Supreme Court in the case of Tuaua v. United States, seeking U.S. citizenship for those born in the South Pacific territory of American Samoa. The Supreme Court refused on June 13 to hear that appeal; there were no recorded dissents. [The Samoans in this case] suggest that the Insular Cases should be modified or overruled, but this court has reaffirmed their core principle, which is that the political branches determine whether newly acquired territory is incorporated into the United States. Excerpt from a legal filing in the Supreme Court by the Justice Department, successfully persuading the Justices not to hear the Tuaua case. WE CHECKED THE CONSTITUTION, AND Article IV of the Constitution was added by the Founders primarily to assure protection for the state governments in dealing with each other in the new constitutional order being created. That same article also added an important grant of power to Congress in dealing with the lesser governmental entities that would come into being the territory that the new government from time to time would acquire, by purchase or otherwise. Congress was given authority to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States. Story continues That legislative authority can be, and has been, given differing interpretations in the nations history since the founding. One argument more widespread in recent years has been that Article IV did not give Congress the authority to decide which parts of the Constitution applied in those entities not having the rank of states, meaning primarily the offshore territories, or to the people who lived in those enclaves. The Constitution, this argument goes, follows the flag. A competing argument is that Article IV meant that it was up to Congress to decide which constitutional provisions or guarantees applied in the territories. That was the argument that prevailed in the early 1900s, when the Supreme Court issued a series of decisions on constitutional issues surrounding the territories. Collectively, those cases are known as the Insular Cases, and they reflected the Justices considerable doubt about the capability of native peoples for self-government. The result was that only a few rights guaranteed by the Constitution would follow the flag to the territories, and the fate of the rest was up to Congress. Despite the racial and imperial attitudes reflected in those decisions, the Supreme Court has never had occasion to thoroughly reexamine the premise of those cases even in the modern era when human rights have become a more active issue in constitutional interpretation. Part of modern civil rights advocacy has been to advance the constitutional protection for people in the territories. And one aspiration of those advocates has been full citizenship as a constitutional birthright, and another has been full rights of self-determination for those who live in the territories. Both of those aspirations, though, have run up against the continuing legacy of the Insular Cases and, therefore, will be likely to succeed only if the modern questioning of those precedents were to find sympathy in the Supreme Court. In three recent developments, however, these aspirations have been set back by the Supreme Court. These developments involved two entities that remain territories of the United States, and thus lack the stature and self-governing status of American states: Puerto Rico and American Samoa. Self-determination for Puerto Rico lost ground when the Justices issued two rulings: one on the power of Puerto Rico to enforce its own criminal laws, the other on its power to decide how to would manage its local government agencies mounting debts. In the criminal law decision, the court ruled that Puerto Rico did not have separate self-governing status sufficient to enforce its own criminal laws against individuals who have already been charged under federal law for the same crime. In the debt case, the court ruled that Puerto Rico cannot enact its own internal law to work its way out of heavy public debt. Puerto Rico, the court summed up, gets whatever power Congress is willing to give it, and not more. There is no getting away from the past, the court remarked in its opinion in the criminal law case. When one traces the authority of the islands people to pass criminal laws all the way back, the court said, we arrive at the doorstep of the U.S. Capitol the commonwealth and the United States are not separate sovereigns. In reaching its result in that case and in making that summary statement, the court majority was relying on one of the decisions among those in the Insular Cases group: a 1907 decision, Grafton v. United States, limiting the criminal law powers of the Philippines when they were a U.S. territory. The court did not rely upon the Insular Cases precedents in ruling in the Puerto Rican debt case, but the result was the same: the islands power to pass debt-restructuring laws is clearly subordinate to Congresss authority over bankruptcy law. Our constitutional structure does not permit this court to rewrite the statute that Congress has enacted.That statute precludes Puerto Rico from authorizing its municipalities to seek relief in a way not authorized by federal bankruptcy law, the court said. A more direct test of the continuing effect of the Insular Cases came in a case taken to the Justices by a group of individuals born in American Samoa, and seeking birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment. Legal and political science professors had joined them in urging the court to overturn the Insular Cases as out of date, given modern human rights understandings. Their claim had been rejected by a federal appeals court, relying upon the Insular Cases for the notion that the Constitution only applies selectively to the territories, and it is up to Congress to decide who among territory residents get citizenship. And the Justice Department had also relied on those precedents in urging the court not to hear the citizenship claim. Without offering any reason, the court turned down the Samoans. Thus, without saying so explicitly, the court has given new life to the old precedents despite the severity of the modern criticism. Recent Stories on Constitution Daily Podcast: Gawker, Hulk Hogan, and the First Amendment The Statue of Liberty arrives in America, 131 years ago today The 2016 elections effect on the Supreme Court When Orlando gunman Omar Mateen applied to be a state prison guard 10 years ago, his highest recommendation came from a police officer in his hometown. (Photo illustration, Yahoo News; Photos: State of Florida, Reuters/Joe Skipper) PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. Orlando gunman Omar Mateen failed as a prison guard because he was booted from the states training academy after talking about bringing a gun to class, according to documents discovered late Friday by the Florida Department of Corrections. Earlier this week, prison officials said Mateen was administratively dismissed in 2007, but did not give specifics on why he never received his certification to continue working as a correctional officer. A hand search of department archives, prison officials said Friday, produced another dozen pages of records. Among them was a memo from a warden recommending that Mateen be dismissed from the program for sleeping in class, being absent without permission and, most disturbing, asking a fellow student whether he would report him if he were to bring a gun to class. In light of recent tragic events at Virginia Tech officer Mateens inquiry about bringing a weapon to class is at best extremely disturbing, wrote P.H. Skipper, then warden at the Martin Correctional Institute where Mateen, a cadet, was assigned. A memo reveals a Florida prison wardens concern about Omar Mateen, almost 10 years before the Orlando nightclub rampage. (Florida Department of Corrections) His dismissal came days after the April 16, 2007, tragedy at Virginia Tech, where 32 people were killed. It was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in recorded U.S. history until last Sunday, when Mateen attacked Pulse nightclub, a popular gay bar in Orlando. Police say Mateen fatally shot 49 people and injured 53 others before he was killed in a shootout with officers. Mateen, a longtime private security guard, aspired to work in law enforcement. When he applied to be a state prison guard 10 years ago, his highest recommendation came from a police officer in his hometown. Omars character is beyond reproach, Port St. Lucie Officer Steven Brown wrote in a letter to the Florida Department of Corrections. Omars judgment, work ethic, sensibility, and problem solving ability are impeccable. The officer ended his endorsement of Mateen by saying, I would sleep soundly at night knowing that a person like Omar is protecting us [from] the element which resides behind your concrete and [steel] walls. Story continues The letter among dozens of documents released from Mateens short stint as a prison guard is chilling in light of Sundays massacre, and adds yet another layer to the complicated portrait of the killer that is still emerging. Some former teachers and classmates have recalled the Orlando shooter as a hothead who celebrated the 9/11 terror attacks as a high school student. But a handful of neighbors and acquaintances, like Brown, thought enough of Mateen at one time to declare that he would do well in law enforcement. Absolutely, former neighbor John Updegrave wrote on a recommendation form. Omar is very good candidate for an officer. Another former Port St. Lucie neighbor said Omar was always willing to give a hand if needed. Brown told prison officials that he had known Mateen for three years, having met the teenager at Golds Gym and a nutrition store where Mateen worked. Omar does possess a character which would compliment [sic] the requirements of a Correctional Officer, Brown wrote in 2006. Mateen was a provisional guard at Martin Correctional Institution in central Florida for six months before being terminated for not finishing the academy and acquiring his state certification. RELATED Victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting >>> Brown, who is still a Port St. Lucie officer, declined to comment for this story. He informed me that he did not wish to speak to or give any interviews on the matter, said Master Sgt. Frank Sabol, a spokesman for the Port St. Lucie Police Department. Authorities say Mateen, who was born in New York to Afghan parents, pledged his allegiance to radical Islamic terrorists during the Orlando rampage. Sources briefed on the FBIs investigation have said Mateen watched Islamic State terrorist videos including some showing brutal beheadings and talked to co-workers about them. A sad paradox for a young man who, records show, signed a commitment to public safety and took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution when he started his prison job. (This story has been updated since it was originally published.) Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles). ______ Related slideshows: Slideshow: Funerals and memorials for slain Orlando victims >>> Slideshow: Obama visits families of the Orlando massacre victims >>> Slideshow: Victims of the Florida nightclub shooting >>> Slideshow: Front page coverage of the Orlando mass shooting >>> Slideshow: World reacts to Orlando mass shooting >>> Slideshow: Shooting rampage at Florida nightclub >>> Matt Olsen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center under President Obama, stated that Donald Trumps proposed lockdown of the border would not help in the fight against terrorism. The ban would be wrong in terms of American values and strategy, Olsen said Friday in an interview with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric. I personally wouldnt think its appropriate from just a strategic standpoint to support a policy that alienates the people we rely on to help us, and that is the Muslim American community. Olsen, who has been informally advising presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, expressed his concern over the presumptive Republican nominees proposed ban on all Muslim immigration to the U.S. He added that it was important to build trust with Muslims in the country, seconding President Obamas attitude that the rhetoric surrounding Islamic extremism and radical Islam is inherently dangerous. We cant paint an entire religion with a broad brush All religions have some history of violence, he said. Focusing on a whole religion will not help stop [the terrorism]. Olsen reiterated that a need for an all-encompassing ban of this nature is unnecessary because there is a rigorous vetting process to enter the country people cannot enter America without being checked against a federal database. Watch the complete interview: In The Know by Yahoo "For almost 3 years, I was married to someone who hurt me often..." The post Heartbroken husband who just wants to be a dad finally gets the courage to ask for a divorce, then finds his happy ending appeared first on In The Know. Call it a miracle or call it magic, Criss Angel is celebrating some joyous news for his 2-year-old son. The famed magician revealed on Thursday that his little boy, Johnny Sarantakos, is in remission, eight months after being diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. "Johnny is technically in remission, thank God," the 48-year-old Las Vegas illusionist, who was born Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos, said in an interview with Us Weekly. "I believe he will be healed." WATCH: Criss Angel Posts Emotional Photos of Cancer-Stricken Son While Angel's young son has fought back against the illness, he's reportedly still undergoing chemotherapy, blood transfusions and spinal taps. Johnny is receiving medical care in Australia where he lives with his mom, Shaunyl Benson. "What doctors found is you have to continue treatment to kill all the cells, as there is no guarantee," Angel explained. When the Mindfreak star found out about his son's diagnosis in October 2015, he cancelled a number of his Las Vegas shows to fly to Australia to be with his little boy. Angel has frequently shared a number of emotional and heart-wrenching photos of himself and his son over the last few months. Since his son's diagnosis, Angel has begun championing cancer research organizations, and is currently promoting a benefit show, Heal Every Life Possible, at the Luxor casino on Sept. 12. The event aims to raise money for pediatric cancer research and treatment. WATCH: Criss Angel Cancels Las Vegas Shows to Visit Cancer-Stricken Son in Australia Related Articles Saint-Etienne (France) (AFP) - A 94th-minute penalty rescued a point for the Czech Republic in their dramatic 2-2 draw with Croatia as flares thrown onto the pitch marred Friday's Euro 2016 match. With Croatia 2-1 up and with one foot in the last 16, referee Mark Clattenberg briefly halted play late in the game when flares thrown by Croatian fans landed on the pitch in Saint-Etienne. When the match resumed, Croatia defender Domagoj Vida was penalised for handball and Tomas Necid drilled home the resulting penalty, deep in added time, to claim their first point in Group D. European football's governing body UEFA are poised to impose further sanctions on the Croatian Football Federation for the crowd trouble. "These people are terrorists, they are not fans," fumed Croatia coach Ante Cacic. "95 percent of our supporters are ashamed in front of Europe, the players are very sad that after playing a beautiful match this happens." Croatia were stripped of one point in qualifying, forced to play two home matches behind closed doors and fined 100,000 euros ($112,000) by UEFA after a swastika was painted on the field before a match against Italy in June 2015 in Split. A member of the ground staff at the Stade Geoffrey Guichard appeared to have been hit by a flare. Punches were also seen being thrown on the terraces amongst Croatian fans in the chaos of the closing stages. "I must say the pause due to their fans helped us," said Czech Republic goalkeeper Petr Cech. "They were in control at that time and they suddenly lost rhythm and we could capitalise on that. We regained composure and although they had some counter-attacks (before the pause), from that moment on they didn't have anything." Croatia were cruising towards the last 16 after their two Ivans -- Rakitic and Perisic -- netted either side of the break. Having beaten Turkey 1-0 in their opener at the European championship finals, Croatia appeared to have their second win in the bag. Story continues But Czech replacement Milan Skoda pulled one back before fellow replacement Necid's dramatic spot-kick. Captain Darijo Srna took his place at right-back after returning from father's funeral back in Croatia and shed a few tears during his country's anthem in an emotional start to a tense encounter. Striker Mario Mandzukic had a field day playing in front of Real Madrid's Luka Modric, whose stunning volley earned all three points against Turkey, while Barcelona's Rakitic capped a good display with his goal. Having threatened earlier in the half, Croatia took the lead on 37 minutes after a mistake in the Czech midfield. Jaroslav Plasil lost the ball and Croatia's Milan Badelj snapped up possession on the halfway line to quickly feed Perisic. The 27-year-old Inter Milan winger attacked the Czech area, wrong-footed defender Thomas Sivok and curled his shot past Cech on 37 minutes. It was 1-0 at the break and Croatia doubled their lead when Brozovic fed Rakitic inside the area. The attacking midfielder's classy chip gave Cech no chance as it hit the net on 59 minutes. Only a fine Cech save prevented a third before Mandzukic fired over shortly after and Modric went off on 62 minutes struggling with an injury with his side in control. But Skoda proved there was still some life in the Czech engine when he managed to put some power into his header from Tomas Rosicky's cross on 76 minutes. The flares then began to fall, briefly halting the game and leading to nine minutes of extra time, which gave the Czechs the chance to equalise against a distracted Croatian defence. Croatia now face defending European champions Spain in Bordeaux on Tuesday. The fightback gives the Czech Republic a realistic chance of making the knock-out stages with victory in their final game against Turkey in Lens, also next Tuesday. Let the kvetching commence! After a five-year break, Larry David is dusting off his fictional self for a ninth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBOs hilarious celebration of celebrities behaving badly. Well, okay one specific celebrity anyway. The unending appeal of Curb is that it allows Larry David to show over and over again why Larry David is the worst human being alive. Blissfully unaware of societal niceties and actively eager to piss people off, Davids alter ego routinely cuts a swath of destruction through polite civilization. And were sure that hes only going to return from his hiatus more ornery than ever. While we wait to see what trouble Larry gets up to in Season 9, here are 10 examples from the shows previous eight seasons, which are streaming on HBO Go and Amazon Prime, where Larry David was literally the worst. The Group (Season 1, Episode 10) Escorting an ex-girlfriend to a meeting of her incest survivors group is already questionable behavior. But arguing with her about whether or not abuse committed by a stepfather really qualifies as incest? That hits a whole other level of wrongness. Pro tip: its also not a good idea to invent an alias and blame your uncle for molesting you. Unless youre hoping to never be invited over for Shabbat dinner again. Trick or Treat (Season 2, Episode 3) Speaking of Shabbat, Larry has a special ability to repeatedly annoy and offend his Jewish brethren. Case in point: whistling noted anti-Semite Wagner moments before going in to a movie premiere. Accused of being a self-loathing Jew, Larry responds without a trace of that famous Jewish guilt complex: I do hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish! The Special Section (Season 3, Episode 6) Larry misses his mothers funeral because hes off shooting a big movie in New York with Martin Scorsese. But thats not the reason hes the worst; after all, his father didnt exactly clue him into Moms passing at her own request. Larry being Larry, of course, he turns this tragic event to his own advantage, using his mothers corpse to dodge social commitments. At least he does one nice thing for the woman who birthed him moving her remains out of the cemeterys special section. Story continues The Survivor (Season 4, Episode 9) Few people can boast to sparking an argument between a Holocaust survivor and Survivor survivor Colby Donaldson about which of them had the more challenging time um, surviving. Thats the cringe-inducing game of one-upmanship that Larry initiates when he misunderstands the guest list for his rabbis dinner party. Cmon, Larry! Both of those survivors deserve better! The End (Season 5, Episode 10) Lets be real: a heavenly existence was probably never in the cards for Larry. Still, the fact that he got booted out of Paradise for picking a fight with his literal better angels is a clear indicator that hes the worst person youll meet in this life, as well as the next. The Ida Funkhouser Roadside Memorial (Season 6, Episode 3) What is it with Larry David and dead mothers? When Marty Funkhousers mom passes away, Larry shows his sympathy by swiping flowers from her memorial and awarding them to his two favorite girls, Cheryl and Loretta. I cant believe a human being would do that, Marty says to Larry, not realizing (yet) that hes talking to the one human being that would. The N Word (Season 6, Episode 8) Larry makes the boneheaded mistake of dropping the N-bomb while telling a story about another guy who deliberately dropped the N-bomb. We have to invoke another N word for that: Nincompoop. The Bare Midriff (Season 7, Episode 6) Incorrectly assuming its acceptable for him to dole out fashion advice to female co-workers, Larry suggests that his assistant cover up her bared stomach area. Dude, youre not Tim Gunn; keep your clothing suggestions limited to your own wardrobe. Palestinian Chicken (Season 8, Episode 3) Larry brings the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to American shores by forcibly doffing Martys yarmulke while lunching in the titular chicken joint. Hes just doing it for a laugh, but the Palestinian proprietors take it seriously, and Larry doesnt do a lot to dissuade them from treating him as a hero since he has his eye on one comely female employee. Sex before religion thats Larrys motto. Larry vs. Michael J. Fox (Season 8, Episode 10) Larry David may have created one of the all-time great New York sitcoms, but hes persona non grata in the city after his repeated run-ins with Michael J. Fox. Naturally Larry, who always thinks the worst of people, believes Fox is using his Parkinsons as an excuse to harass him. Then-mayor Michael Bloomberg himself exiles Larry from the five boroughs after David mimes a disrespectful gesture during Foxs speech at a fundraiser. Weve got enough bad apples in the Big Apple we dont need a rotten one. All eight seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm are streaming on HBO Go and Amazon Prime. Hasan Minhaj known as The Daily Show's senior Muslim correspondent is usually seen cracking jokes with people like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or DJ Khaled about Islamophobia, anti-refugee hysteria and rampant bigotry. But while delivering a speech at the Radio and Television's Correspondents Dinner on Wednesday, the comedian took a more serious approach when he slammed them for their lackluster efforts to combat gun violence. Days after the Orlando, Florida, shooting at gay nightclub Pulse, Minhaj stood behind the podium, donning a rainbow and American flag ribbon over his heart, and joked about the current political climate. The "fake journalist" made a few great jokes at first. He joked about Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign struggles: Source: Sarah Harvard/CSPAN He then called out leading Republicans supporting Donald Trump despite his racist and sexist bigotry: Source: Sarah Harvard/CSPAN He mocked CNN as a fake news organization: Source: Sarah Harvard/CSPAN He pointed out Vice's hipster-y, danger-seeking gonzo journalism: Source: Sarah Harvard/CSPAN Then praised BuzzFeed, while criticizing the New York Times, for refusing to accept money for advertising from the GOP and Donald Trump: Source: Sarah Harvard/CSPAN But then his smile fades as he condemns the roomful of Congress members for sending their "thoughts and prayers" while refusing to work on establishing gun control legislation after the Orlando shooting and continuously taking money from lobbying groups like the NRA. "You get paid almost $200,000 a year to write rules, to make our society better," Minhaj said to the silent and stern audience. "Not tweet, not tell us about your thoughts and prayers to write rules to make our society better." He added: "Right now, since 1998, the NRA has given $3.7 million to Congress... So I don't know if this is like a Kickstarter thing, but if $3.7 million can buy political influence to take lives, if we raise $4 million would you guys take that to save lives?" He didn't just stop at gun control. He went on to criticize Congress for not making changes to address the blatant discrimination toward marginalized communities and the police brutality disproportionately killing African Americans without real consequences. Story continues "Every day in our workplaces, our homes and our religious institutions there is cover or overt discrimination or phobia towards people of different religious, racial or sexual walks of life. And we just sit there and we let it happen, because it doesn't affect our bottom line." "My brothers and sisters in the African American community, their spines are going to continue to get shattered in the backs of paddy wagons until we stand up and say something." Minhaj's 22-minute long speech is a good example of how comedy can not only help those in mourning, it can actually be used as a powerful tool of political activism. Watch his entire speech below: TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2016 / GMS Live Expert announced today that CEO Wayne Goldstein and Director, Business Development Danny Obaseki will be representing GMS as a proud sponsor of the DattoCon 2016 conference (June 20 - 22) in Nashville, TN. The GMS Live Expert team will be providing strategic advice as to how Datto's IT Solution Provider Network can cost-effectively grow their IT businesses. The GMS team will be discussing it's brand new Step Up Program, designed to enable Managed Service Providers to cost-effectively outsource their front line support to GMS Live Expert. And, in doing so enable scalable growth within their target markets. MSPs can leverage GMS' 17+ years of success and economies of scale to their benefit. GMS has partnered with hundreds of MSPs enabling growth at each phase of its Partners business' development. The GMS Live Expert Snapshot: 100% North American Based, Available 24x7. Flexible Packages For Each Phase Of Growth. HIPAA Compliant & ITIL Process Driven. Integrated With Workflows & Reporting Systems. Deliver A Consistent User Experience While Growing With Access To An Expanded Team As Needed! The GMS Live Expert 2015 Report Card: Serviced 232,428 Interactions. Delivered a 93.2% Resolution Rate. Responded to 85%+ of Issues In SUB 60 Seconds. Responsible for 100,000 + MSP Users! About Global Mentoring Solutions (GMS) GMS boasts 17+ years of operational experience and a strong global partner base. Through its MSP brand GMS Live Expert, GMS provides outsourced Help Desk services on behalf of it's partners via 24/7 end user phone, chat and integrated ticket system/CRM driven support capabilities. GMS's 100% North American based resources truly augment their partners' support offerings as each Partner engagement includes a unique direct phone number, MSP branded chat support and bi-directional ticket system synchronization. Visit www.gmsliveexpert.com to learn more. GMS Live Expert Contact Daniel Goldstein, Director Channel Strategy dgoldstein@globalmentoring.com Story continues Contact Global Mentoring Solutions: Daniel Goldstein 9052863829 dgoldstein@globalmentoring.com 178 Main Street Unionville, ON L3R2G9 SOURCE: Global Mentoring Solutions Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman hopes that National Amusements move yesterday to replace five Viacom directors will light a fire under the Massachusetts judge weighing a case about Sumner Redstones competence. Dauman says that Redstone, 93, is not capable of running his media empire and is being manipulated by his daughter Shari, whos President of National Amusements and Vice Chair of Viacom and CBS. If Shari Redstone succeeds in her efforts to secure control of the Viacom Board she may well have prevailed in her goals before the facts concerning Sumner Redstones capacity can emerge and before this Court can address the issues in this case, Daumans lawyers said today in a filing at the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court. Dauman specifically wants the judge to approve expedited discovery in the case before June 30, when hell have a hearing on the Redstone camps motion to dismiss. The Massachusetts dispute involves the May 20 notice by Redstones lawyers that Dauman and Viacom director George Abrams had been fired from the family trust, and the board of National Amusements which controls 80% of the votes at Viacom and CBS. Given the rapid pace of these developments, it is critical that the Court allow discovery to proceed in parallel with the motion to dismiss briefing so that the matter may be resolved as quickly as possible, todays filing says. A delay would give Shari further opportunity to attempt to shift the controversy in this case to another forum or, worse, to take over Viacom with impunity before this Court has even determined whether Mr. Redstone was and is competent to make the decisions ascribed to him. Dauman adds that the Viacom board members to be replaced, including him, have servedfor years with great distinction. Theyll be replaced by persons hand-selected by Shari Redstone that is in continuing contravention of the longstanding succession plans established by Mr. Redstone. Story continues Redstones side has asked a court in California, where he lives, to ratify his ability to call the shots. It also says that the Massachusetts case is unnecessary because a majority of the trust and the National Amusements board have voted to replace Dauman and Abrams. Related stories Redstone Judge Seeks Opinions About "Undue Influence" And Jurisdiction Redstone Team Says There's "No Justification" For Viacom To Pay Dauman's Legal And PR Bills Sumner Redstone & The Battle For Viacom: What You Need To Know, Pt. 2 By Ian Simpson (Reuters) - Defense lawyers rested their case on Friday in the trial of a Baltimore police officer charged with murder in the death of black detainee Freddie Gray last year, a court spokeswoman said. Closing arguments in the high-profile trial of Officer Caesar Goodson Jr are set for Monday in Baltimore City Circuit Court, she said. Judge Barry Williams, who is hearing the case in a bench trial, then will decide Goodson's fate. Goodson, 46, was the driver of a police transport van in which Gray broke his neck in April 2015. His trial is considered the marquee case for Maryland prosecutors who failed to secure a conviction in two earlier trials of officers. Gray's death triggered rioting and protests and stoked a debate on police treatment of minorities. Goodson, who is black, is the third among six officers charged in Gray's death to go on trial. Goodson's trial saw tensions flare between a police investigator and prosecutor Michael Schatzow on Thursday when Detective Dawnyell Taylor testified that a medical examiner had called Gray's death an accident before ruling it a homicide. Schatzow accused Taylor of failing to keep the prosecution informed about the medical examiner's comments, and Taylor said she had problems with the integrity of prosecutor Janice Bledsoe. Schatzow retorted that Bledsoe had made her own allegations about Taylor's integrity. Prosecutors argue that Goodson caused Gray's death by giving him a "rough ride," failing to secure him with a seat belt and failing to call for medical aid. Goodson's lawyers say Gray caused his own injuries. Goodson's lawyers rested after seven days of testimony. He faces charges of second-degree depraved heart murder, three counts of manslaughter, reckless endangerment, second-degree assault and misconduct in office. He could be sentenced to more than 68 years in prison if convicted on all charges. Gray, 25, was arrested for fleeing officers unprovoked. He was bundled into Goodson's van shackled and was not seat-belted, a violation of department protocol. The manslaughter trial of Officer William Porter ended in a hung jury in December, and he faces retrial in September. Williams acquitted Officer Edward Nero of misdemeanor charges last month. (Writing by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Curtis Skinner, Peter Cooney and David Gregorio) donald trump ad Democrats are taking Father's Day to remind Florida voters of some of Donald Trump's more controversial statements. Four separate 30-second video ads released by the Florida Democratic party on Friday mocked Trump's eyebrow-raising comments about women by offering "helpful" Father's Day advice from Trump to women and children. "In celebration of Father's Day this year, here's some wholesome father-daughter advice from our presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States, Donald Trump," a narrator on one ad said. "Tip number 2: Only date attractive people. As Donald says 'It doesn't matter what they write, as long as you've got a beautiful piece of a--,'" the narrator said, quoting Trump's 1991 interview with Esquire. Another ad also hammered down on Trump's past statements about dating. "Tip number three: be resilient. As Donald says, 'You have to treat women like s---,'" the narrator said, quoting a Trump profile in New York. The 30-second videos attempt to contrast Trump's more inflammatory statements with his campaign slogan, "Make America great again." "Donald Trump demonstrates a bizarre commitment to a retro mindset, including his ideas on women. We placed Donald Trumps own words squarely within the context of the 1950s, an era in which he seems to romanticize a time when America wasn't so great, for just about every imaginable minority group in this country," said Gerard Bush, whose creative agency made the ads for the Florida Democratic party. The four ads were set to debut online on Friday afternoon, and will air on television in Florida over the weekend. The Florida state Democratic party's ads won't be the only left-leaning presidential campaign ads that television audiences in the Sunshine State see this weekend. On Thursday, Clinton began airing three ads in eight key battleground states including Florida. While the Florida Democratic party's ads are Trump-focused, Clinton's ads only feature a smattering of Trump-bashing, and instead highlight her record on children's healthcare and education issues. Story continues Despite his ability to dominate media coverage, Trump is currently making fundraising pit stops across the country to raise enough cash to compete on the airwaves with Clinton. The former secretary of state is expected to raise over a billion dollars, of which a significant portion will be dedicated to television advertising. Watch the ads below: More From Business Insider The toddler who was snatched by an alligator at a Disney resort in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday, died as a result of drowning and traumatic injuries, the Orange County Medical Examiner has confirmed. The autopsy confirming the boy's identity as 2-year-old Lane Graves of Elkhorn, Nebraska was completed on Thursday afternoon. The results were released by Orange County via Twitter. The Graves family said that they were "devastated" and asked for privacy in a statement to ABC News. "Words cannot describe the shock and grief our family is experiencing over the loss of our son. We are devastated and ask for privacy during this extremely difficult time," the statement says. "To all of the local authorities and staff who worked tirelessly these past 24 hours, we express our deepest gratitude." Lane Graves was playing in about six inches to one foot of water in the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disney's the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa when an alligator grabbed the boy and pulled him under the water. 'We Are Devastated,' Says Family of Toddler Killed by Alligator at Disney World| Untimely Deaths, People Scoop, Walt Disney World, Real People Stories The boy's father tried desperately to fight off the gator, suffering lacerations on his hand, but neither he nor a lifeguard from a nearby pool could save the boy. A 16-hour search ensued and while rescue teams were initially hopeful, authorities announced Wednesday that the boy was presumed dead. "We are working on recovering the body of the child at this point," Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said at a press conference Wednesday. He added that the boy's family would "no question lose a 2-year-old child." 'We Are Devastated,' Says Family of Toddler Killed by Alligator at Disney World| Untimely Deaths, People Scoop, Walt Disney World, Real People Stories On Wednesday afternoon, the boy's body was recovered fully intact by a dive team just yards away from where the attack occurred. The boy's parents have been identified as Matt and Melissa Graves of Elkhorn, Nebraska a suburb of Omaha. "The Graves family appreciate the support they have received and have asked for privacy as they grieve the loss of their son," the sheriff's office said in a statement shortly after releasing the first photo of their son. Matt Graves sits on the board of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, which released a statement Wednesday afternoon. "The loss of a child is a special kind of tragedy, particularly hard to comprehend. Our thoughts and our prayers are with the Graves family during this time of unthinkable sadness," Chamber president and CEO David Brown said. "We stand ready to assist [Matt], his wife and family as they grieve the loss of Lane." Disney released a statement shortly after the body was recovered. "There are no words to convey the profound sorrow we feel for the family and their unimaginable loss," George A. Kalogridis, president of Walt Disney World Resort said in the statement. "We are devastated and heartbroken by this tragic accident and are doing what we can to help them during this difficult time." OK, before we get into any details, can we first take a moment to appreciate the perfection that is Priyanka Chopra? [Photo: Nick Saglimbeni/Maxim India] I mean, look at her! The Hottest Woman In The World is a bold statement for Maxim to make, but Im finding it very difficult to disagree. Not only does she look smoking on her third Maxim cover, shes also a multi-award winning actress and the star of thriller series Quantico. But back to that cover. Chopra tops Maxim Indias Hot 100 list this year and is featured in a spread in the magazines June/July 2016 issue. While she looks stunning, fans are calling out the magazine for photoshopping Chopra and lightening her skin tone. In particular, fans are questioning her suspiciously svelte figure in this image [Photo: Nick Saglimbeni/Maxim India] As well as criticizing Maxim for whitewashing Chopra on the cover. [Photo left to right: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty , Nick Saglimbeni/Maxim India] But most bizarrely, Chopra also seems to have a missing armpit. [Photo: Nick Saglimbeni / Maxim India] And while every pore on Chopra is seemingly perfect, she must have regular armpits, just like the rest of us. [Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty] This isnt the first time Maxims been called out for unnecessary photoshopping. The U.S. version of the magazine was accused for slimming down plus-sized model Ashley Graham in March. With an abundance of unrealistic abs, arms and bums in magazine pages, we really dont need to add unrealistic armpits to the list. Take your photoshopping down a notch, Maxim. Do you think Priyanka Chopra was photoshopped? Let us know by tweeting us at @YahooStyleCA. That's what the invitation for the "Dinner in White" event read, and immediately my fiancee and I started putting together our outfits for the outing. In association with the Prospect Park Alliance and the Chloe Wine Collection, this is PopUp Dinner Brooklyn's third annual event, with all proceeds going to the Alliance. Handmade Events, the folks behind PopUp, also operate events in San Diego, Miami, California Wine Country, the Twin Cities, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Charleston, and Dallas. The concept is simple: Guests purchase a $40 ticket, prepare their own meals at home or purchase them from a store, and bring everything to the event along with any wine they wish to drink. The only catch? The exact location is divulged via email only two hours before the unofficial start time of 5 p.m. As soon the announcement came, some 6,000 people set out for The Nethermead this year's "secret" location in the middle of Prospect Park and began setting up their area with tables and chairs provided by the event. Those who didn't care to transport their own food and drink could opt for a VIP package for $170 (per couple) which included a choice of two meals (chicken cacciatore or vegetarian lasagna), a few starters (including charcuterie and bruschetta), a dessert (strawberry-rhubarb crostata or a peach berry-cream tart), and a bottle of Chloe Wine and could pick up their supplies upon arriving at the event. Decked out in white from head to toe (save for the black tie I insisted on wearing) and ready to go, my lady and I got our email notification and immediately starting making our way to Prospect Park. As soon we boarded the subway, the obviousness of our outfits was clear. People stared at every stop along the way, and we quickly brainstormed answers to the questions random strangers might ask regarding our unique destination: We're going to an old-timey milkman convention. We're headed to a Clorox company retreat. We're partying on P-Diddy's yacht. Or, as they should probably assume, were on our way to an awesome party. The closer we got to our destination, the more similarly dressed people we spotted. A few on the train, a large group at the park's entrance, and finally a scattered herd all converging on the open field at The Nethermead. After smoothly passing through the gate, we landed a table and the experience began. First there was some nice background music, then a couple speeches (including a few words from Senator Chuck Schumer), and then the live music started, which consisted mostly of hip-hop and R&B. However, we were more interested in trying some of the offerings from Chloe Wines, who were nice enough to hook us up with as many glasses as we cared to sample. We tried the crisp and balanced prosecco, the chardonnay with refreshing hints of fruit, and the delightfully crisp pinot grigio however, the rose was the obvious winner amongst everyone we spoke to. In fact, it was such a big hit in the press area that they ended up sending around a server armed with a bottle in order to keep the glasses full and save us some trips to the bar. (For the record, were told the rose has yet to make it to East Coast shelves, but should arrive soon.) Of course the special treatment made the event extra special for us, but it was really a great festival for all involved even those who opted to BYO everything. The weather was beautiful (minus a few stray raindrops), the music was poppin', and the crowd was clearly in a jovial mood as they packed the dance floor so much that it overflowed into the surrounding areas as well. As the sun set, bright flood lights came on to keep the party going until its 10 p.m. curfew a cut-off that almost every guest milked down to the very last minute. As the festive crowd made their way out of The Nethermead and away from Prospect Park, it was clear to see, even with the sun long gone, that smiles were fixed to the faces of everyone who attended. And not only was it a good time, but it was all for a great cause. NBCUniversal is settling its lawsuit with Dish Network over its AutoHop and PrimeTime Anytime features, which allow subscribers to automatically record nights worth of programming and skip commercials. NBCUniversal and Dish Network L.L.C. have reached an agreement resulting in the dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over the AutoHop and PrimeTime Anytime features, Dish Network said in a statement. Terms were not disclosed. The litigation dates back to 2012, when all of the broadcast networks filed legal challenges to a series of newly introduced Dish features, including one, AutoHop, that automatically skips over ads for subscribers. All of the other networks settled with Dish, including Fox, which reached an agreement earlier this year. NBCUniversal argued that Dish violated copyright by offering the service, and that it undermined the economic foundation of the broadcast business. Dish contended that it was merely offering a service akin to a DVR where consumers were in control of the options for how they wanted to watch programming. The NBCU-Dish litigation had largely been on hold as Fox pursued a similar case. Related stories TV's Upfront Booms as Madison Ave. Agrees to Big Rate Hikes (EXCLUSIVE) Comcast NBCUniversal Donating $1 Million to Orlando Shooting Victims NBC Will Showcase Olympics In Different Way For Late-Night, Daytime Fallout from the alligator attack that killed a toddler Tuesday night at the Grand Floridian Resort in Orlando has gotten a lot more complicated with the revelation that Disney may have been repeatedly warned about the risk of such an incident occurring. Crisis PR expert Andrew Ricci, vice president of Levick, a communications and public affairs firm, believes that beyond the tragedy of two-year-old Lane Graves death, this could blow up into a much bigger issue. In these situations, if this is true [that the company was aware of a problem], whoever is found responsible or who was seen to be negligent becomes the face of the issue, in addition to the brand damage, he told TheWrap. Theres no question that theyre going to have to implement preventative measures, whether its closing the beaches for good, erecting some sort of barrier to keep wildlife from getting within a certain perimeter of the water, or some other protective action. But now this becomes another major part of any potential litigation they might face, he added. Also Read: Disney Gator Attack: Sheriff Says Criminal Charges Against Parents Unlikely As TheWrap exclusively reported, numerous employees at the theme park expressed anxiety to management about guests feeding the animals within the past 14 months. Disney has known about the problem of guests feeding the alligators well-prior to the opening of the bungalows, one insider said, referring to an expensive collection of rooms called the Bora Bora Bungalows at Disneys Polynesian Village Resort, adjacent to the Grand Floridian. With the opening of the bungalows, it brought the guests that much closer to wildlife. Or, the wildlife that much closer to the guests. Others have also come forward revealing Disneys prior knowledge of the dangers of its resort beaches, like the Seven Seas lagoon where the toddler from Nebraska was grabbed by the alligator while playing with his family. There are signs that say, No swimming, but no signs that say gators and everything else in this lake, hotel employee Mike Hamilton told the Orlando Sentinel following the incident. Story continues Also Read: Gator Attack: Disney Knew of Problems, Staffer Asked for Fence at Lagoon (Exclusive) Graves body was discovered Wednesday 10 to 15 yards from the site of his attack the night before. Disney closed all the beaches on its resort property in the aftermath of the incident. My expectation is that [this development] will hurry the process of implementing safety measures around publicly accessible waterways at Disney properties, Bernstein Crisis Management Vice President Erik Bernstein said. If there arent signs clearly stating dangerous animals may be present alongside some type of fencing all over the Disney World resort area within six months, I would be shocked. Also Read: How Much of a PR Nightmare Is Gator Attack for Disney? Bernstein also thinks this may prompt Disney to fall back on its traditional clam up and clean up technique in dealing with PR disasters. They wont acknowledge past gator issues due to legal liability so the only logical course of action is to put solutions in place as quickly as possible, he predicted. A legal expert told TheWrap that Disney could face a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the wake of this attack. Attorney Joseph Balice says that the family could sue for wrongful death and possibly negligent infliction of emotional distress. Related stories from TheWrap: Disney Gator Attack Victim Lane Graves' Cause of Death Released Disney Gator Attack: Sheriff Says Criminal Charges Against Parents Unlikely Gator Attack: Disney Knew of Problems, Staffer Asked for Fence at Lagoon (Exclusive) Disney has released an image of the signs they will install at their resorts to warn guests of alligators in the waters. We are installing signage and temporary barriers at our resort beach locations and are working on permanent, long-term solutions at our beaches, the company said in a statement. We continue to evaluate processes and procedures for our entire property, and, as part of this, we are reinforcing training with our Cast for reporting sightings and interactions with wildlife and are expanding our communication to Guests on this topic. A gator attacked and killed two year-old Lane Graves while he was wading in shallow water at the edge of the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disneys Grand Floridian resort on Tuesday night. Disney has been criticized since the attack for not having signage warning of alligators despite a well-known presence of the deadly animals. Also Read: Gator Attack: Disney Knew of Problems, Staffer Asked for Fence at Lagoon (Exclusive) Graves body was recovered intact by a dive team Wednesday near the location where the attack occurred. Nick Wiley, executive director of Florida Fish and Wildlife, said they would make certain that we have the alligator that was involved and remove it from the lake. A legal expert told TheWrap that Disney could face a multimillion dollar lawsuit in the wake of this attack. Attorney Joseph Balice says that the family could sue for wrongful death and possibly negligent infliction of emotional distress. Check out the sign below. Also Read: How Common Are Alligator Attacks in Florida? Related stories from TheWrap: Disney Faces 'Difficult Issue' With Knowledge of Gator Danger, Experts Say Disney Gator Tragedy: Photo of Victim Lane Graves Released Disney Gator Attack: Sheriff Says Criminal Charges Against Parents Unlikely Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Friday condemned a US diplomatic cable calling for military strikes against the Syrian government, as Washington again accused Moscow of bombing US-backed rebels in the war-torn country. Russian officials criticised the so-called "dissent channel" cable signed by a group of US diplomats urging strikes against Bashar al-Assad's regime, which it accuses of persistently violating a shaky ceasefire. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that attempts to overthrow Assad would not "contribute to a successful fight against terrorism". "This could plunge the region into complete chaos," Peskov said. Deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that attacks against the Syrian regime would be "at odds with (UN) resolutions". "We need to negotiate and reach a political resolution on the basis of international law, which was agreed upon at the UN Security Council," Interfax news agency quoted Bogdanov as saying. The cable calls for "a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons", according to the New York Times, laying bare stark divisions in Washington policy circles on the Syrian conflict. Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement that the US diplomatic cable could "not but cause concern to any sane person". Moscow in September launched a bombing campaign in Syria to support long-time ally Assad, and the West has accused Russian forces of targeting the opposition with air strikes in an effort to prop up the regime. A US official in Washington, requesting anonymity, on Thursday accused Russia of bombing US-backed fighters in southern Syria. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement late Thursday that it carried out no air strikes on groups that had cooperated with Russia or the United States in the previous 24 hours. Washington and Moscow have publicly vowed to work together to persuade Assad to negotiate a settlement with his opponents, but the US has frequently expressed exasperation about what it sees as Russia's less than full commitment. By Randi Belisomo (Reuters) - Doctors who were asked about causes of inappropriate care at the end of life didnt have to look far to place blame. They blamed themselves. Australian researchers interviewed 96 physicians from 10 medical specialties and asked them to describe situations when patients received end of life care that the doctors felt was inappropriate. Futile medical treatment at the end of life has been shown to harm patients, cause moral distress to clinicians and waste scarce resources, as the researchers note in the Journal of Medical Ethics. But 96 percent of physicians pointed to themselves - or doctor-related factors - as the main drivers of futile treatment. Poor communication, emotional attachment to patients and aversion to death were also among the causes they cited. Patient-related factors were important, too. Ninety-one percent of the doctors cited reasons such as family or patient requests for treatment, prognostic uncertainty and not knowing the patients wishes as contributors to inappropriate care. The take-home message for patients and families is to have the conversation about what they want and dont want at the end of life, said study leader Lindy Willmott, of the Australian Center for Health Law Research. Doctors natural tendency is to treat in this way, and to take another path requires one or more conversations with the patient and family, Willmott told Reuters Health. Such conversations are difficult, and doctors are time-poor. Close to 70 percent of the surveyed doctors also cited hospital-related causes, such as specializations, medical hierarchy and time pressure, as factors in futile care. It isnt a matter of one doctor stepping back and considering the overall health of the patient, explained co-author Benjamin White, a law professor at the Queensland University of Technology. There are many specialists involved, each focused on a particular organ, he told Reuters Health. The narrow focus of the individual specialists can make it difficult to coordinate a patients care, he and his colleagues noted in their report. Roughly one quarter of physicians said aggressive treatments are hard to stop once started. The difficulty of withdrawing treatment is a challenge thats all too common, agreed Dr. Eytan Szmuilowicz, a palliative care physician at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Szmuilowicz, who was not associated with the study, added that doctors natural aversion to conflict complicates the issue further. We dont know how to manage or negotiate it, he told Reuters Health. It is easier behind the scenes to complain that a treatment may be inappropriate, but we havent taken a step back to think if we are providing care that furthers a patients goals. Szmuilowicz said he and many other physicians prefer to assess treatment in terms of benefit rather than futility. It comes down to what the patient values, and its very hard to discuss what we think the patient values if we havent talked about it, he said. Kayhan Parsi of Loyola University-Chicagos Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics sees young physicians struggle with such discussions. Parsi, who was not involved in the study, was not surprised that 44 percent of doctors cited inexperience with death and dying. As a member of his hospitals ethics committee, Parsi meets monthly with medical trainees. They feel pressure on them to comply with inappropriate treatment, and they dont know how to address it in an appropriate way, he said. Thirty percent of the Australian doctors said they or their colleagues had provided futile treatment due to worries about legal consequences. That factor looms even larger in the U.S., according to Thaddeus Pope, director of the health law institute at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. Researchers dont frame the issue in terms of patient safety, but that is a big implication of this study, said Pope, who tracks the issue on his Medical Futility Blog. Pope urges doctors to present medical options in even-handed ways. If physicians are too aggressive, families are going to fall in line, he told Reuters Health. Its emotionally hard for (families) to pass up what doctors say is a reasonable option. If they knew the real risks, benefits and alternatives, they may not pick the treatment they are receiving. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/21pBQN5 Journal of Medical Ethics, online May 17, 2016. Kaber Saghir (Syria) (AFP) - Slumped against a tree trunk in northern Syria, the bullet-riddled body of an Islamic State group fighter still wears a suicide belt he did not have time to detonate. The smell of his decomposing body fills the air near the frontline, as a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance inches closer to retaking the nearby jihadist bastion of Manbij. Air planes from a US-led coalition dart overhead, as an AFP reporter hurriedly follows an alliance fighter down dirt tracks hidden among olive trees. The anti-IS fighter directs the reporter to avoid land mines planted by the jihadists in the fields of the village of Kaber Saghir, around five kilometres (three miles) south of Manbij. The Syrian Democratic Forces are fighting IS on the outskirts of the jihadist-held city, after they encircled it last week with support from coalition air strikes. "Watch out! The planes are about to hit a Daesh vehicle," an SDF fighter nearby cries into his walkie-talkie, using an Arabic acronym for IS. A few minutes later, three loud explosions resound west of Manbij -- held by IS since 2014 -- and a column of black smoke rises up into the sky. Sand bags are piled at the entrance of Kaber Saghir to protect SDF fighters from IS artillery fire, and the village's one-storey houses are peppered with holes. - 'Human shields' - Outside one house, a resident has posted a sign on a chair that reads: "This home does not belong to Daesh. Keep out!" Dressed in a sand-coloured uniform, field commander Adnan Abu Amjad steps out of a four-wheel drive smeared with mud. "We have broken Daesh's first lines of defence... but we are advancing slowly because there are civilians," says Abu Amjad, who leads an SDF component of fighters from the besieged town. Tens of thousands of residents were trapped inside Manbij after alliance forces surrounded the jihadist-held city last week -- although more than 1,000 managed to flee with SDF help. Story continues "Daesh are using civilians as human shields and it's impeding our advance," the commander says. The alliance has swept through agricultural land since it launched its advance towards Manbij on May 31, seizing more than 100 villages along the way, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said. France last week said it had deployed special forces in Syria to advise the SDF in their fight against the jihadists. "The French forces are providing logistical and technical support... We thank them as well as the international coalition," Abu Amjad says. The coalition launched air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq in 2014, after the jihadist group declared a cross-border "caliphate" there earlier that year. Outside the village, the SDF fighter tells the AFP reporter to run to avoid IS sniper and rocket fire. - 'Lack of food' - Nearby, SDF fighters monitor the movement of IS fighters through holes in a building wall. Sultan Hassan, an Arab fighter, says he thinks the alliance will retake Manbij in the "coming days". "The coalition strikes on IS positions are very precise," he says, adding that fighting has been ongoing to the east of the village near its wheat silos. Another Kurdish fighter, who chose to remain anonymous, says he fears for the lives of his relatives inside Manbij. "They're suffering from lack of food because IS takes it to give it to its fighters, he says. But "from what we overhear on the walkie-talkies, Daesh fighters are about to collapse and have lost hope of staying in the town." The alliance dealt a major blow to the jihadist group when it encircled Manbij last week. The advance severed a key supply route used by IS from the Turkish border to its de facto Syrian capital, Raqa city. In the village of Abu Qulqul, around 15 kilometres southeast of Manbij, an SDF fighter leads a man with his hands tied onto the back of a pick-up truck. "He's a member of Daesh," an alliance fighter says, as the man is blindfolded and driven off to be interrogated. "We were tipped off that he was sending information to Daesh via the Internet." Bring me a cup of sack, boy, Shakespearean actor Ludwig Devrient called to his waiter in a Berlin bar in 1825, channeling his Henry IV role as Falstaff. The Bards words referred to a Portuguese wine popular in the late 1500s, but Devrients waiter figured the actor wanted his usual glass of champagne. So thats what he brought and the German word for sparkling wine, sekt, was born. Descending into the cellars of the 13th-century Speyrer Pfleghof, in medieval Esslingen, where Kessler Sekt has been made for nearly 200 years, is a treat you can enjoy in group bookings for 25 euros per person. On Saturdays, townspeople shop early at the fruit and vegetable market and then meet at Kessler for Sekt and the city, says Kesslers press officer Beatrice Popescu not a tribute to Sarah Jessica Parker, but rather a courtyard gathering for a glass of bubbly. The stone ceiling hosts an abundance of mold, lovingly referred to as the Black Cat. Flickering candles line the walls and steep, uneven stairs leading to the cellars, home to thousands of bottles of what was once Chancellor Konrad Adenauers favorite drink. Here, the wines are hand-turned on wooden riddling racks, and the stone ceiling hosts an abundance of mold, lovingly referred to as the Black Cat, which regulates the temperature naturally, providing the perfect climate for the second fermentation and aging process. Kessler sells just 1.5 million bottles a year a tiny amount compared with mass manufacturers like Rotkappchen-Mumm and staffers pride themselves on keeping things small and using traditional methods like in-bottle fermentation. Entrepreneur Georg Kessler launched Germanys first, and oldest, sparkling wine in 1826 in this town, so beautifully tucked in the shadows of hillside vineyards southeast of Stuttgart. Kessler had worked for years at Veuve Clicquot in Champagne, France, learning the trade and according to local tour guides sharing more than just a love of wine with Clicquots widow. But he set his sights on returning home and creating a sparkling wine with distinctly Teutonic grapes and taste. Within a couple of decades, Kessler Sekts award-winning bubbly was so successful that it was the wine of Queen Olga of Wurttembergs court and was shipped as far afield as the United States East Coast. Story continues 7057102013 8a3f8000a1 o Source: Ken Hawkins/Flickr CC The wine is so popular with locals that roughly 60 percent of sales occur in this southern German region. For those visiting the area, its worth taking the time to enjoy a few sips. Compared with mass-produced bubblies, which Germans can pick up at their local Rewe for a few euros, Kessler is pricier a testament to the old-fashioned methods employed ranging from $10 to $21. The most popular is the Hochgewachs Chardonnay brut, named after the highest points of vineyards. Some 25,000 visitors come each year. While the ancient cellars are a highlight, the dosage room where wines are topped up with sugar and base wine after the yeast is extracted offers a memorable glimpse of Esslingens wine pipeline. Instead of running heavy lorries over the towns cobblestones to transport its wines locally, Kessler keeps its base wines at another pfleghof up the hill, a quarter mile away. From there, a pipe runs into town and under the marketplace, delivering the wine to Kesslers main facility. Set up in the 1970s, the pipeline has long had locals wishing they knew its exact route a closely guarded secret. But no tour is complete without the popping of corks, when Kesslers tiny bubbles a sign of a fine bubbly race to the top of the glass, promising to deliver a traditional sparkling wine thats bursting with flavor. Related Articles Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy Donald Trump Donald Trump's poll numbers are plummeting and even the presumptive Republican nominee has acknowledged it. In the latest RealClearPolitics average of several polls, Trump trails Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, by 5.8 points. It's a 6-point reversal from a month ago. The fall in fortune comes after he trailed Clinton by 12 points in a Bloomberg poll released earlier this week. Polls from Reuters and CBS News showed Trump behind by 9 points and 6 points. Trump has fallen behind Clinton in 12 consecutive polls posted to RealClearPolitics. Less than a month ago, Trump's future was looking brighter against Clinton in their general-election matchup. As recently as May 25, Trump led Clinton in the RCP polling average by one-fifth of a point the first instance of the Manhattan businessman leaping ahead of Clinton in the coveted polling average. But as Trump has taken hits for his attacks on a federal judge over his Mexican heritage and a controversial response to last weekend's terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, his poll numbers have taken a nosedive. At 38.3%, Trump's average support in a one-on-one matchup against Clinton is the lowest it has been since August 15 just two months after he launched his campaign. The chart below shows just how dramatic the plummet of Trump's poll numbers has been: Screen_Shot_2016 06 16_at_3_13_56_PM Trump has dropped his poll numbers as a talking point during recent rallies. He conceded in a phone interview with New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman that his poll standing wasn't so hot. Trump, in phone interview before rally, made first concession that I've heard him make that he is not leading the polls Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 17, 2016 NOW WATCH: FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: If Trump gave this order, the military wouldn't listen More From Business Insider Some people dont truly understand the concept of quiet in the theater. For his Take a Break segment, James Corden and The Late Late Show tackled movie theater employment at ArchLight Cinemas in Hollywood. He started with a crash course in concessions, although that devolved pretty quickly after he gave away a large popcorn for the price of a medium. And he also offered to cut a hole in the bottom for the patron. Next, Corden ushered in the film with the pre-screening speech. He introduced himself, welcomed the crowd, and asked everyone to silence their cell phones. Simple enough, but after that Corden launched into a monologue in which he told everyone his entire life story. What about cleaning? Thats hard to mess up, right? Except if youre James Corden, in which case you throw popcorn everywhere imaginable. Do not, under any circumstances, hire James Corden to work at your movie theater. Unless you want to make a movie, which he helped an ArchLight employee accomplish at the concession stand. WATCH: Red Hot Chili Peppers go shirtless and rock out on Carpool Karaoke Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter. By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) - Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, said on Friday he thinks Britain will "Bremain" in the European Union and if investors agree they should buy beaten-down European equities. "I've never believed in an exit, or 'Brexit,'" said Gundlach, known on Wall Street as the "Bond King" who manages $60.3 billion through the DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund. Voters in Britain will vote on whether to on June 23 on a referendum on Britain's membership in the EU. Gundlach, whose Los Angeles-based DoubleLine oversees $100 billion, reiterated that polls reflect people's complaints and frustrations rather than the actions they will actually take. "When it comes up for a vote, I think it will fail," he said. The scale of withdrawals from U.K. equity funds was the second highest on record because of uncertainty over the vote, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday. UK equity funds lost a net $1.1 billion, the biggest outflow in 13 months, in the week to June 15, according to BAML. Sterling and bond yields rose on Friday as traders tried to assess how the killing of a pro-EU British lawmaker will change the balance of opinions in Britain's impending referendum. Gundlach said in an interview about Jo Cox, a British member of parliament who was shot dead Thursday: "I think the markets are absorbing the increased probability of a 'Remain' vote - Bremain. It just is not good when political things start to go in this violent direction." If Britain leaves the 28-country bloc there are concerns it would cause turmoil in the global economy and European politics. The potential exit rattled markets and caused the pound to tumbled earlier this week. (Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, said on Friday he thinks Britain will "Bremain" in the European Union and if investors agree they should buy beaten-down European equities. "Ive never believed in an exit, or 'Brexit,'" said Gundlach, known on Wall Street as the "Bond King" who manages $100 billion (69.66 billion) at Los Angeles-based DoubleLine Capital. Britain will hold a referendum on June 23 on whether the country will leave the European Union, a process often referred to as Brexit. Gundlach, who manages the $60.3 billion DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund, reiterated that polls reflect people's complaints and frustrations rather than the actions they will actually take. "When it comes up for a vote, I think it will fail," he said. U.K. equity funds posted net withdrawals of $1.1 billion in the week to June 15, the second-highest outflow on record, as a result of the uncertainty over the vote, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday. Sterling and bond yields rose on Friday as traders tried to assess how the killing of a pro-EU British lawmaker will change the balance of opinions in Britain's impending referendum. Gundlach said in an interview about Jo Cox, a British member of parliament who was shot dead Thursday: "I think the markets are absorbing the increased probability of a Remain vote - Bremain. It just is not good when political things start to go in this violent direction." If Britain leaves the 28-country bloc there are concerns it would cause turmoil in the global economy and European politics. The potential exit rattled markets and caused the pound to tumbled earlier this week. Gundlach has been known for a number of very prescient investment calls. He was one of the first heavyweight investors to publicly raise red flags about the credibility of major central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, as countries struggle to manage economic growth. Story continues Just a day before the Fed held short-term interest rates steady and lowered projections of how much theyll raise them in the coming years, Gundlach told Reuters that "central banks are losing control and they don't know what to do." Gundlach added on Friday that a Donald Trump presidential win would be good for the stock market. "Ive said all along, stocks will fall this summer on a Trump 'global growth scare' and then rally into his presidency on a deficit-based GDP bump." (Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Alan Crosby) Lubumbashi (DR Congo) (AFP) - DR Congo's disbanded M23 rebel movement Friday called on the government to agree a new demobilisation scheme following deadly clashes near a camp housing former rebels dissatisfied with their conditions. M23 leader Bertrand Bisimwa said in a statement that the deaths of several people in clashes this week between the army and ex-rebels showed the need for a new disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme. "Repetitive serious fatal incidents, the inability of the government to achieve its own programme, poor conditions of life maintained in the demobilisation centres have transformed these places in real jails or in open-air prison where the dead are up to hundreds," Bisimwa said. M23 wanted to work with the government to set out a "more realistic" and attractive demobilisation programme for the Democratic Republic of Congo, he said. But asked by AFP to respond, government spokesman Lambert Mende said "M23 doesn't exist. We don't need to respond to non-existent entities." Tension had been mounting for days at the military base in Kamina, in the southeast, where more than 2,300 former rebels from various groups are stationed as part of a government disarmament programme. - Toll not clear - After the defeat of M23 in 2013, the government launched a programme known as DDR3 to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate more than 12,000 former rebels. But the programme, the third of its kind since the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, has been hit by delays and funding problems. Kamina has previously faced a mutiny from the disgruntled former rebels, who have complained about the living standards on the base. It was unclear however how many died in this week's clashes. A source at the local military hospital who asked not to be identified said Wednesday there had been "some dead" but declined to give a figure. On Friday, the head of the Bill Clinton Foundation, Emmanuel Cole, told AFP 12 people were killed, nine of them former rebels and three soldiers. Story continues He said the rebels were angry because their food rations had been cut and the integration process was too slow, meaning they faced an uncertain future. The government however says the only fatality was a soldier. Mende said the tension rose when rebels demanded to be allowed to leave the camp and return home. A Western military source said the latest clashes expose the limitations of the DDR3 programme and may deter other rebels from laying down arms and hamper the repatriation of former M23 refugees to Rwanda and Uganda. Pro-choice activists in Belfast, January 2016 [Photo: Getty] Terminating a pregnancy if you live in Northern Ireland is a tricky feat indeed. Unless you fit specific, strict criteria, it cant legally be done at home - so your only option is to travel to England, Scotland or Wales to do it instead and pay through the nose for it. This is why abortion rights campaigners are taking matters into their own hands and are planning to fly a drone carrying abortion pills from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland. [Photo: Pexels] On Tuesday at 10am, the drone will launch from Omeath, County Louth, and end up landing near Narrow Water, County Down, in Northern Ireland. The idea behind the project - led by abortion rights groups Rosa, Alliance for Choice, Labour Alternative and Women on Waves - is that it will draw attention to the restrictive abortion laws in the two areas; in both places its illegal except under strict circumstances, and women could face a prison sentence if they obtain the medication to do it themselves. Belfast City Hall [Photo: Flickr/Iker Merodio] It is an all-island act of solidarity between women in the north and the south to highlight the violation of human rights caused by the existing laws that criminalise abortion in both the north and south of Ireland except in very limited circumstances, a spokesperson for Rosa said in a statement. [Photo: Pexels] Once the drone arrives, the (non-pregnant) women on the other side will take mifepristone, a pill administered by doctors during legal abortions, to demonstrate how safe it is. What do you think? Will this get the activists message across? Tweet us @YahooStyleUK. Abortion Rates For Women Over 30 Are On The Rise Its 2016 And A Woman Was Sent Home From Work For Not Wearing Heels Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f11936%2fdefault Several parts of India have been facing a severe heat wave and a long spell of drought this year, with several villages resorting to desperate measures to find water. In a drought-hit village in southern India, a young boy was was asked to parade naked as part of a ritual to appease the rain god. SEE ALSO: Indian man single-handedly digs well in 40 days, after his wife is denied access to water The ritual took place in the Pardarhalli village in Chitradurga district in the southern state of Karnataka, which has been facing a drought for the last five years, with acute shortage of drinking water. The residents bathed the boy by pouring pots of water over his head, followed by prayers to an idol. The boy then carried the idol across the village, accompanied by the beating of drums. Finally, he was offered new clothes as part of the ceremony. This isn't the only unusual resort to please the rain gods in India though. For instance, some parts invoke rain by organising frog weddings and then sending off the amphibians into the river after the ceremony. Although continued touring to promote Duran Duran's 2015 album Paper Gods is taking up much of their focus, bassist John Taylor and keyboardist Nick Rhodes are forging forward on their new stage musical. "It's been very interesting and fun, and we hope to get that to a sort of workshop stage early next year," Taylor tells Billboard. The title and story are currently being kept under wraps, but Duran fans should not expect a jukebox musical or a song-and-dance story of the group. "It's nothing to do with the band," Taylor reports. "It's all original music, and it's an original book that, so far, we alone have written. It's a project that's close to our heart and it's been a lot of fun and we've learned a lot already from it. But taking it to the stage, again, that's going to take a lot of energy. I can't think that far ahead. All I know is when we work on it we have a good time and that's what's gotten us here." Duran Duran Breaks Down Mr. Hudson, Nile Rodgers & Lindsay Lohan Collabos in Behind-The-Scenes Look at 'Paper Gods' Taylor and Rhodes know other pop musicians who have taken that journey, and that for every Hamilton there's a The Last Ship -- not to mention scores of other proposed projects that never progress past the idea stage. But there haven't been any notes from, say, Sting, warning the duo about the potential folly of their pursuit. "I'm sure that [Sting] maybe had higher commercial hopes, but I'm sure he doesn't regret doing it," Taylor says. "I'm sure it was a fantastic experience to get the opportunity of working with all these performers. I mean, it's got to be brilliant." Taylor and Rhodes, meanwhile, are intrigued by the opportunity for long-form storytelling and graduating beyond the pop songwriting that's been their stock in trade in Duran and their other bands. Story continues "I like sequences of songs that tell stories," Taylor explains. "I've always been drawn to albums, to sitting down and having this long, semi-narrative experience. And I'm not even talking about a concept album; I'm just talking about all those great albums like Sgt. Pepper's or Ziggy Stardust where there's this glue, things thing that binds them and it feels like it's an immersive experience. We tried to do that with Paper Gods, but we all know people aren't sitting and listening to albums they way they used to. So this [musical] gives us a chance to do something like that in a format where people expect it and have to surrender to it like the way they used to listen to albums." Billboard Cover: Duran Duran on Pushing the Pop Envelope, Staying Power and Why Harry Styles Is a 'Good Chap' Rhodes previously told Billboard that in addition to the musical with Taylor, Duran Duran is also working on a ballet created from a track that was left over from Paper Gods. It's likely both of those projects may be next on the group agenda and surface, or at least get into motion, before the quartet begins considering a follow-up to the album. "We're really in live show mode right now," Taylor reports. "It takes a lot of energy, a tour like this, and we're not really thinking past it. We've got interesting things happening, interesting projects that are in the works, so it's not like the tour's going to end and nobody's going to work again. There's definitely things going on." Duran Duran finishes a short European festival run on June 19 before coming back to North America in early July for another run with Chic that includes stops at the Festival D'ete de Quebec and the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco. "I think having Chic on this show is just phenomenal and has brought so much energy and so much fun to the tour," says Taylor. And 35 years after D2's debut album, the bassist and his bandmates are happy to discover an even greater appetite for the band than ever. "I think that Duran have been engaged in this kind of dogged war of convincing the world that we were real since we were in our early 20s and were, like, heartthrobs for that period," Taylor says. "Yes, there were fans who were really passionate for the band and they've stuck with us, but there were people that were defiantly anti. I feel like that kind of resistance to the band has softened; We're feeling that people are opening their hearts to us in a way that's never really happened before, so that's amazing." The hijacking of an EgyptAir plane by a man claiming to be wearing a suicide vest stoked fears of terrorism on Tuesday, coming one week after the deadly attacks in Brussels. But according to initial reports, the hijacker apparently told hostage negotiators he was trying to get in touch with his ex-wife. The alleged hijacker, identified as 59-year-old Seif Eldin Mustafa, told the crew of the Cairo-bound plane he was wearing a suicide belt shortly after takeoff in Alexandria, forcing it to land in Larnaca, Cyprus. According to the state broadcaster in Cyprus, Mustafa, an Egyptian national and former army officer, had a four-page letter in which he demanded the release of female prisoners in Egypt and asked for a meeting with his ex-wife. According to the New York Times, the woman, who lives in Cyprus, visited the airport and helped persuade him to surrender. Before he did, Mustafa released most of the 55 passengers and seven crew members from the plane as it sat on the tarmac. At one point, he appeared to hand the letter to a female airport official who had come to meet the plane as she held her head in her hands. From @LeilaFadel: According to Cypriot media, the hijacker reportedly wants authorities to deliver a letter to his ex-wife. #EgyptAir NPR (@NPR) March 29, 2016 The alleged explosives on Mustafas belt were fake, Cyprus minister of foreign affairs said. No one was reported injured. But in a bizarre press conference held during the five-hour standoff, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades laughed as he told reporters Mustafas motivation was not terror but love. "Not to do with terrorism" - President of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades on #EgyptAir hijack https://t.co/zeDNjIQTRL https://t.co/cgbHbFm1ef BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 29, 2016 We are doing our utmost for everyone to be released [safely] and to give an end to this unprecedented In any case, its not something that has to do with terrorism, if you know what I mean, Anastasiades said. When asked if the hijacking involved a woman, Anastasiades quipped, Always, there is a woman. For Egyptian air travelers, though, the threat of terrorism is no laughing matter. Tuesdays hijacking comes less than six months after a Russian airplane that took off from Egypts Sharm el-Sheikh airport crashed in the Sinai, killing all 224 people onboard. ISIS claimed responsibility, saying it used a bomb to down the plane. BUTTE -- A Butte policeman was justified in fatally shooting a man who had pulled and pointed a pistol Thursday, Sheriff Ed Lester says, but it is a tragedy that will take all officers a while to get over. In something like this it takes some time to sink in, Lester said Thursday, hours after 36-year-old Peter Grandpre was shot multiple times inside a house in Butte while exchanging gunfire with an officer. When you start facing your own mortality and realizing that an individual has lost his life, it takes a while for that to sink in, he said. Lester said the officer was wearing a body camera and video of the incident shows the shooting early Thursday morning was justified. The officer and man fired multiple shots but only Grandpre was hit several times and he was pronounced dead after being taken to St. James Healthcare. There is no doubt in my mind the individual was trying to kill the officer, Lester said at a news conference. He declined to name the officer involved but said he was on administrative leave pending an investigation. Lester said at this time its not known who exactly fired first. The Montana Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting. Grandpres wife called police at 1:51 a.m. Thursday saying her husband had been drinking and they had been arguing in the house at 604 S. Clark Street when he took out two pistols and a rifle, Lester said. Police learned later that two children, ages 4 and 6, also were in the house. Lester said the first officer to arrive scoped out the house quickly and saw a man inside holding a rifle. The man put down the rifle and opened the front door of the house, but stepped back in when the officer began giving him verbal commands. The officer was standing just outside when Grandpre reached behind his back, pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the policeman about 5 to 10 feet away. Gun shots were fired, although Lester said he is not 100 percent sure who initiated the first shot. Four other officers were pulling up when the shots were going off, but none of them took part in the shooting. Lester said investigators were trying to determine how many shots were fired between the officer and Grandpre, who was standing in the living room by the front door when he was struck. Grandpre was wearing a military-type vest and police found another gun inside the front of it. Both handguns were .45-caliber semi-automatic pistols and a rifle nearby was a .308-caliber bolt-action. Lester said a chaplain had talked with Grandpres wife after the shooting. She said she and her husband had thrown things at one another before she called police. Lester said he did not believe the children witnessed the shooting. Who is Grandpre? The sheriff had few details on Grandpre, including his background or how long he and his wife had been in Butte. But according to Grandpres LinkedIn profile, he studied aerospace welding at Montana Tech. He served in the Marines, the U.S. Army and Montana Army National Guard. LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service on the internet. He described himself on the profile as serving as a Combat Engineer 12B in the Army from December 2008 to September 2013; in the infantry/medic with the National Guard, specializing in explosives handling; and was deployed to Iraq in 2006-07. As infantry in Iraq I operated armored vehicles during convoy escort operations from southern Iraq (Tallil) up the MSR (Main Supply Route) into northern Iraq. Conducted mounted and dismounted security operations during convoy ops in and around Baghdad, Fallujah, BIAP, Taji, and Anaconda, his profiles said. He served in the Marines from June 1999 to October 2002. The profile also describes him as a construction equipment operator and handyman. The profile also listed Grandpre as a semi-retired volunteer. This statement by Grandpre, posted in the 2013 LinkedIn profile, reads: My Brother Jake and I are working on starting a non-profit organization to act as quick response to natural disasters and war zones; we are specialists in high-danger areas where other relief organizations are unwilling to go. i.e. Frontline First Responders. We also want to work with other Veterans and Wounded Warriors in our off time as morale builders by providing opportunities to fly in private aircraft. In addition we plan to offer low to no-cost aviation training in maintenance, A&P Certification, Pilot training, and intro to kit aircraft building. Neighbors react Brad Taggart lives next door to 604 S. Clark St., located a block south of St. James Healthcare on the Butte Hill. The steep street features neatly kept, mostly small homes. Taggart said his bedroom window faces the house, and he was awakened about 2 a.m. to the sound of a man yelling. Taggart's dogs, who were in his bedroom, also started barking. "I heard a guy scream, can't remember what he said, but it was some guy yelling and then five gunshots. Then, within a minute, we had police here and fire trucks,'' Taggart told The Montana Standard. Taggart, who has lived 14 years in the neighborhood, said he didn't know the occupants of 604 S. Clark Street, and believes they moved in last fall. The house has seen several different occupants since its owner died some years ago, he said. Taggart said he knows all his other neighbors. He didn't go outside during the commotion, but later in the morning ventured out to see the neighborhood and street cordoned off with police tape. Arthur Lillyblad, who lives three houses down from the Grandpre home, said neither he nor his wife heard any of the commotion early Thursday. While he didn't know the family, Lillyblad said they had "never been a problem'' in the neighborhood. He said he never talked with Peter Grandpre, but "we waved to each other'' as Grandpre passed in his vehicle. "He seemed like a very congenial man,'' Lillyblad said. Lillyblad also observed the kids playing in the yard on several occasions. "They seemed like happy children,'' he said. Elizabeth Arden Inc. RDEN has inked a takeover agreement with Revlon Inc. REV for $870 million, or $14 per share, including repayment of Elizabeth Arden debt and preferred stock. The deal is likely to result in a combined entity with greater scale and a richer brand portfolio. Elizabeth Ardens shares grew almost 48.0% in pre market trading while Revlon recorded a share price gain of 0.19% on Jun 16, 2016. The takeover deal represents a 50% premium over Elizabeth Ardens closing share price of $9.31 as on Jun 16, 2016. The takeover, which is scheduled to close by the end of 2016, has yet to get approval by Elizabeth Ardens shareholders and regulatory clearances, though it has been unanimously approved by both Revlons and Elizabeth Ardens boards of directors. The combined company will also enjoy an expanded global footprint along with a significant presence across all beauty categories. Elizabeth Ardens strong presence in Asia Pacific will be complemented by Revlon which currently sells its products in approximately 130 countries. With Elizabeth Ardens presence in important international growth regions, including Asia Pacific, the combined company will be better positioned to compete globally. Further, the combined entity will benefit from Revlons expertise in color cosmetics, hair care, mens grooming, antiperspirants, deodorants and beauty tools along with Elizabeth Ardens wide range of licensed prestige fragrances and the internationally recognized line of Elizabeth Arden-branded prestige skin care, color cosmetics and fragrance products. Moelis & Company MC, BofA Merrill Lynch of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citi of Citigroup Inc served as financial advisors to Revlon. Meanwhile, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP provided legal counsel to Elizabeth Arden for the transaction. ELIZABETH ARDEN Price ELIZABETH ARDEN Price | ELIZABETH ARDEN Quote REVLON INC-A Price REVLON INC-A Price | REVLON INC-A Quote Story continues Synergies Revlon expects to achieve cost synergies of approximately $140 million through the elimination of duplicative activities, leveraging purchasing scale, and optimizing the manufacturing and distribution networks of the combined company. Leadership E. Scott Beattie, Chairman, President and CEO at Elizabeth Arden will join Revlons board as non-executive Vice Chairman, post the takeover. He will also serve as a senior advisor to Fabian Garcia, Revlons President and CEO, and assist a successful integration of the takeover. Elizabeth Arden was reporting loss for several quarters due to higher cists. Moreover, capital constraint left portfolio elements underfunded. Hence, a partner with a stronger financial position more capable of properly supporting its brands will help it to realize growth in the future. Elizabeth Arden currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Stocks to Consider A better-ranked stock in the broader consumer discretionary sector include Carter's, Inc. CRI carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ELIZABETH ARDEN (RDEN): Free Stock Analysis Report CARTERS INC (CRI): Free Stock Analysis Report MOELIS & CO (MC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research obama At least 51 "mid-to-high-level State Department officials" have signed a dissent channel cable breaking with President Barack Obama's policy on Syria and calling for US airstrikes on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The cable was provided to several news outlets on Thursday, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. "Failure to stem Assad's flagrant abuses will only bolster the ideological appeal of groups such as Daesh, even as they endure tactical setbacks on the battlefield," the cable reads, according to The Journal. Daesh is an alternate name for ISIS, aka the Islamic State or ISIL. "We are aware of a dissent channel cable written by a group of State Department employees regarding the situation in Syria," State Department spokesman John Kirby told The Wall Street Journal. "We are reviewing the cable now, which came up very recently, and I am not going to comment on the contents," he said. The officials who signed the document "range from a Syria desk officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to a former deputy to the American ambassador in Damascus," and have all been involved in formulating or carrying out the administration's Syria policy. That policy has largely emphasized defeating the Islamic State over bolstering Syria's anti-Assad rebel groups. According to the American Foreign Service Association, the dissent channel is "a serious policy channel reserved only for consideration of responsible dissenting and alternative views on substantive foreign policy issues that cannot be communicated in a full and timely manner through regular operating channels and procedures." It is available to all "regular or re-employed annuitant employees" of the State Department and the US Agency for International Development. The number of officials at least 50 who have signed the internal document calling for military action against Assad is unusual, a former State Department official who worked on Middle East policy told The Journal. Story continues "It's embarrassing for the administration to have so many rank-and-file members break on Syria," they said. Fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) sit in a look out position in the western rural area of Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria, June 13, 2016. REUTERS/Rodi Said The cable calls for the Obama administration to place more emphasis on defeating Assad whose brutality is seen by many experts as the driver of Syria's jihadist problem by arming and regaining the trust of Syria's moderate opposition. That, in turn, will "turn the tide of the conflict against the regime [to] increase the chances for peace by sending a clear signal to the regime and its backers that there will be no military solution to the conflict," the cable reportedly says. The CIA-backed factions of the Free Syrian Army the majority of which are Arab and battling forces loyal to Assad have at times clashed with Pentagon-trained fighters associated with the Syrian Democratic Forces, who are predominantly Kurdish and focused on defeating the Islamic State. Their divergent military objectives and ethnicities have bred mistrust and fighting that is ultimately counterproductive to the cause of the revolution. Several high-ranking government officials, moreover including Robert S. Ford, a former ambassador to Syria, and Obama's former defense secretary, Chuck Hagel have left their positions over Obama's failure to act decisively against Assad, whose brutality continues to fuel a bloody revolution that has left over 400,000 people dead and millions displaced. "Many people working on Syria for the State Department have long urged a tougher policy with the Assad government as a means of facilitating arrival at a negotiated political deal to set up a new Syrian government," Ford told The New York Times on Thursday. Free Syrian Army Idlib "The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable," the cable said. "The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges." Assad crossed Obama's now infamous "red line" for airstrikes in 2013, when he used chemical weapons to kill more than 1,000 people in the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta. Obama backed away from that red line when Assad agreed to a Russia-brokered deal to destroy his chemical-weapons stockpile. Some experts say, however, that the entire stockpile has not been destroyed as promised. The administration insists that it has maintained throughout the nearly five-year civil war that Assad "must go." But that stance has been muddled as the administration continues to soften its position on Assad's future. "The US' Syria policy has always been in the head of one man, and one man only: Barack Obama. No one else has ever really had a say in what happens in Syria," Tony Badran, a Middle East expert and researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Business Insider in a previous interview. "Obama has owned it since day one and from day one, he never intended to remove Assad," he said. The cable addresses Russia's bombing campaign in Syria as well, asserting that Moscow and Assad have not taken past ceasefires and "consequential negotiations" seriously. Russia entered the war in late September 2015 on behalf of Assad under the guise of fighting ISIS. Russian warplanes have primarily targeted non-jihadist, anti-Assad rebel groups, however, many of which are backed by the US, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Government warplanes bombarded the besieged Syrian town of Darayya with barrel bombs last weekend, shortly after food aid was delivered to the town for the first time in nearly four years. NOW WATCH: A Canadian model went to Syria to fight ISIS More From Business Insider By Bruno Federowski and Priscila Jordao SAO PAULO, June 17 (Reuters) - Most Latin American stocks and currencies advanced on Friday as traders bet the killing of a pro-EU British lawmaker could tip the scale in favor of a "Remain" vote in an impeding referendum over Britain's future in the European Union. Lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed on Thursday by a man who witnesses said shouted "Britain first." Both campaigns suspended operations following the incident and rumors circulated that the June 23 vote could be delayed. Although economic links between Britain and Latin American countries are limited, concerns over financial turmoil stemming from a possible "Leave" victory have weighed on investor appetite for assets from the region. "Potential adverse impacts from a possible 'Brexit' would stem from lower prices of commodity and weaker rates for the euro and the pound against the U.S. dollar," INVX Global Asset Management chief economist Eduardo Velho said. Crude prices rose for the first time in seven days, lifting currencies from oil-producing countries such as the Mexican peso . Shares of Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA rose 4.4 percent, adding the most points to the country's benchmark Bovespa stock index . Petrobras, as the company is known, received offers for its fuel distribution unit BR Distribuidora, the company's chief executive officer told a local TV station. Shares of education companies Kroton Educacional SA and Estacio Participacoes SA also advanced after Reuters reported Kroton could improve terms of a takeover bid for Estacio. Estacio shares have jumped about 40 percent so far this month. Shares of Oi SA, not a part of the benchmark index, rose 1.5 percent after Brazil's most indebted wireless carrier laid out terms of a restructuring proposal aiming to reduce the company's obligations by more than half. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1600 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % change change Latest MSCI Emerging Markets 806.11 0.79 0.71 MSCI LatAm 2105.38 1.59 13.26 Brazil Bovespa 49654.55 0.49 14.54 Mexico IPC 45180.50 -0.1 5.13 Chile IPSA 3987.08 0.6 8.34 Chile IGPA 19701.89 0.5 8.54 Argentina MerVal 13073.38 -0.32 11.98 Colombia IGBC 9831.36 0.9 15.02 Venezuela IBC 14118.99 -0.24 -3.22 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.4302 1.10 15.07 Mexico peso 18.8705 0.35 -8.69 Chile peso 684.6 0.64 3.67 Colombia peso 3016.5 -0.05 5.06 Peru sol 3.3109 0.67 3.11 Argentina peso (interbank) 13.9000 -1.10 -6.60 Argentina peso (parallel) 14.37 0.63 -0.70 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski and Priscila Jordao; Writing by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) Rhea Seehorn isnt shy about praising her AMC drama, Better Call Saul, which she says is one of the best shows on television. The actress singled out the series writing in particular, which earned the Bob Odenkirk-led show from Vince Gilligan one of its four Emmy nominations last year. Theres a lot of great storytelling on TV right now, which is awesome, but I think [Better Call Saul] is some of the best. Seehorn, who plays Kim Wexler on the Breaking Bad prequel series, told TheWrap. Also Read: 'Better Call Saul' Character Deaths So Far (Photos) I mean that in the richest, best definition of that, she said. Its character-driven, but its also plot-driven. Everything is rich and textured. They expect the audience to be smart, and they expect them to think. You kind of really feel like youre going on a journey. Like Breaking Bad, which was an Emmy powerhouse and critical favorite during its five-season run, Better Call Saul shoots in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The two series have become so important to the people of the city that Seehorn said theres even a tour bus to take fans of the show to familiar landmarks. The people in Albuquerque are amazing. The locals are so receptive, she said. Sometimes if youre shooting in L.A., people are just mad that youre blocking traffic. But in Albuquerque, theyre just so happy and excited to have you. Also Read: 'Better Call Saul' Season 2 Finale: Which McGill Family Member Died? They have a soft place in their heart for Breaking Bad,' she continued. Jonathan Banks character Mike Ehrmantraut, as well as Bob Odenkirks Saul character, are just beloved. So theyre kind of like the Mayors of the town when they go anywhere. Related stories from TheWrap: Emmy Quickie: 'Veep' Star Tony Hale Picks His Favorite Insults From the Series (Exclusive Video) Emmy Quickie: Neil deGrasse Tyson on How a Chat With David Crosby Blew His Mind (Exclusive Video) Emmy Quickie: 'Underground' Star Jurnee Smollett-Bell on Pool Parties With Her 'Home Skillets' (Exclusive Video) When the 2015 Emmy nominations were announced, only two shows from the Big Four broadcast networks were among the 14 nominated in the drama and comedy series categories: ABC's Modern Family and NBC's Parks and Recreation. No broadcast drama even was nominated. That showing was poorer than any other year in the history of the Emmys except 2014, when only Modern Family and CBS' The Big Bang Theory made the comedy series cut. This year, with Parks gone, Big Bang coming off a snub and Modern Family generally thought to be fading, some wonder if we have seen the last of a broadcast presence in the most prestigious Emmy categories. How did broadcast reach this point? There are several explanations: Unscripted programming increasingly provided a less expensive way to fill the hours. Live programming - especially sporting events, which are big ratings drivers - began to occupy a greater share of airtime. And, perhaps most obviously, cable and streaming programming exploded, providing far edgier content than the constraints of broadcast allow. Read More: Oscar Coaches Up the Ante in the TV Fight Shades of Blue Where does that leave things heading into this year's nominations? In the comedy series category, it's difficult to imagine HBO's Veep (the 2015 winner) and Silicon Valley, Amazon's Transparent and Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt not being nominated again. Netflix's acclaimed rookie Master of None seems likely to join them. FX's Louie is unable to reclaim its slot (no new episodes), so that leaves two berths for everything else. I suspect Modern Family will show up again, as it has every year of its run, because it still has a substantial number of loyal viewers - so that's one broadcast show. Will the final slot go to another? Big Bang, which crossed the 200-episode mark and continues to deliver extraordinary ratings, could return to the running for a fourth time in five years. Alternatively, CBS' Mom, a more critically acclaimed offering from Big Bang's Chuck Lorre, or Life in Pieces, TV's highest-rated freshman series thanks to Big Bang's lead-in, could get a first nom. But it feels as though ABC's Black-ish and NBC's The Carmichael Show - diverse comedies that tackle social issues in edgy ways - capture the zeitgeist far better and have a stronger shot. That is, if they can hold off the best of cable and streaming, including Amazon's Golden Globe winner Mozart in the Jungle, Netflix's Grace and Frankie and, from the little-broadcast-network-that-could, The CW's breakout Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Story continues Empire On the drama side, broadcast's prospects are far bleaker. The most recent show from the Big Four to land a series nom was CBS' The Good Wife, for its second season in 2011. Now in the running for its final season, it seems like broadcast's one shot at cracking the category. Read More: Emmys: New Blood Heats Up the Guest Star Race The only other past nominee still on the air is ABC's Grey's Anatomy, which was nominated for its second and third seasons in 2006 and 2007. Actually, that's not entirely true: The original incarnation of Fox's The X-Files was nominated from 1995 to 1998. But I wouldn't bet on Grey's, or the X-Files reboot that debuted last year. The same goes for Fox's Empire, NBC's The Blacklist and ABC's How to Get Away With Murder and Scandal - primarily because they failed to land nominations for earlier and stronger seasons. It's hard to see a path to a nom for any rookie shows, even those with a megastar like Jennifer Lopez (NBC's Shades of Blue). There are too many better-liked dramas on cable and streaming, including Game of Thrones (HBO), House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), Homeland (Showtime) and Better Call Saul (AMC) - all nominated in 2015, along with PBS' Downton Abbey. And let's not dismiss these hot newbies: USA's Mr. Robot, Showtime's Billions, LouisCK.net's Horace and Pete, Netflix's Narcos and WGN America's Underground. This story first appeared in a special Emmy issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Josh Jackson in Season 2 of The Affair (Showtime) As we enter Emmy season nomination voting runs through 27 Yahoo TV will be spotlighting performances, writing, and other contributions that we feel deserve recognition. Warning: This interview contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Affair and Season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Can you believe it: Pacey Witter just turned 38! Or rather, his portrayer, Dawsons Creek star Joshua Jackson, did. It was a celebration that was accompanied, he sweetly points out, by his 10-year anniversary with love Diane Kruger. Jackson could deservedly also be celebrating his first Emmy nomination this summer after his Season 2 performance in The Affair, in which the added point of view of his Cole the husband Ruth Wilsons Alison left behind when she began the titular relationship with also-married Noah (Dominic West) helped flesh out the character into one of the most layered and sympathetic in the story. Jackson, who also recently made a memorable guest appearance in the second season of Netflixs Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, talked to Yahoo TV about getting to expand on his character, who we got to know from the outside first; his hopes for the upcoming third season of The Affair; and how much fun he had on Kimmy, while giving a nod to Dawsons Creek. He also recalls how, the last time he spoofed the Creek, he almost ended up in Comic-Con jail, and has an interesting idea for a future Dawsons Creek project. Yahoo TV: The Affair hooked me in Season 1, but the extra perspectives, from Cole and Helen, added so much to Season 2. Josh Jackson: First, thank you, and I do think that you couldnt have had the second season without the first season; I think it would have been probably too busy to have those four storylines happening at the same time if you had no prior knowledge of what the show was. I think the second season definitely allowed us to spin the story and, certainly as an actor, it was just fantastic to go from being an object to a subject of the show. Story continues Did you know that was the plan for the show when you signed on, that Cole and Helens points of view would be added in Season 2? No, I dont think that actually was the plan when we signed on. I think initially [series creator] Sarah [Treem] wanted to just occasionally go over some important piece of information that weve seen before from [Helen or Coles] perspectives, but then I guess in the off-season she expanded that idea to make them two dedicated, alternate perspectives. Did it feel like you were playing a completely different character in Season 2? At certain times, yes. Particularly [different from] when we meet Cole. When we come back in Season 2, hes completely broken, just emptied out inside. Hes not at all the sort of swaggering, masculine man he was in the first season. It felt like we were starting from a completely different place, and I also thought it was a fun place for me to get to play, because to see a character from the outside first particularly one who was portrayed as being stoic to a fault, proud to a fault, and strong in both a really positive and sometimes negative way to see how that person is actually feeling on the inside, was a really interesting place to build out from. Because weve all known those people in our lives, or weve been those people for other people, where they think, Well, you are the strong one. You can handle it, and it was interesting to go inside one of those characters and show that, actually, no, hes not doing very well. Hes not handling this at all. Ruth Wilson and Jackson (Showtime) Especially in the second episode of Season 2, which I think is one of your best performances, it was heartbreaking. In Coles version of the story, whats most hurtful to him is that its as if, for Alison, their relationship, their life together, kind of didnt exist. In her version, when he visits her at the lake house, shes annoyed to see him and shes almost afraid of him. In his version, shes happy to see him, and she brings up that great day they had together during their marriage. Its almost like he just really, more than anything, wants some acknowledgment that their life together mattered. I think thats exactly right. I think everything in his life was built around outside observation. He was a good family man, he was a good son, he was a good rancher, he was an upstanding member of the community to a certain extent, and all of those things were erased and most severely, erased in his relationship with his wife. His child is dead, his wife is gone, and suddenly he doesnt exist because he never bothered to ask himself, "Who am I for me? Thats what I think the second season is for him: him coming to terms with who the hell he wants to be outside of everybody elses expectations of him. And even though he isnt handling the breakup well, he does force everyone in his life to give him time to figure his life out, and they certainly dont want to. Everyone but Alison still wants things from him. His family is making demands of him, very selfish demands, but he is self-aware enough to make them give him that opportunity to figure it out. To take that space. Two things: one, I cant tell you how lucky I feel to work on this show. They give the character an opportunity to work almost entirely in silence. That second episode that youre talking about, Coles side of it is not wordless, but its pretty close to it for a half hour of television. Ive worked on a lot of wordy shows, and Ive worked on a lot of wordy movies, and generally speaking, people are afraid of silence. Theres a lot of moodiness in that episode that they give an opportunity to really play out, and then, yes, I do also think that if you were to look at the dynamics of the Lockhart family, in a healthy version, theyre an interdependent family. But really what they are is totally codependent upon each other. None of them really work as an individual; they all just have these pretty destructive roles they play inside of that family, and so long as everybodys playing their role, the machine keeps on working. But as soon as somebody says, No, I dont want to do this anymore, the whole thing comes apart, and you see that whole family just dissolve. Why do you think Cole is the only Lockhart who can take himself out of the chaos and figure things out? Because everything fell apart for him. Everybody else was able to go on with some version of their own fiction, but Coles faith in his mother is destroyed. Coles belief in what the family means or existed for is taken away. The family place in Montauk is lost when they lose the ranch. His child is already gone, and his wife leaves him. All of the pillars of his self identity are erased, so I dont know that he made the choice proactively, but I do think that from that terrible space he eventually started making proactive decisions to finally become a man, to become an independent human being. (Showtime) Does the cast have a lot of input shaping the characters on the show? Yes. I mean, we dont generally deviate too much from the text once we get to the floor, but theres a pretty open dialogue. Not in the writing process, because thats the writers time, but once it gets to us and we do the read-throughs, theres an open dialogue, both individually, actors to writers, and then collectively, actors and scene mates, to wrap your head around it. Because quite often, [the story] is dense, and youre alluding to something that you might not know of yet, so trying to make sure that youre fitting scenes inside of the broader arc of the story, but then also because the show does allow for spaces of silence and it lives in those small, often awkward sometimes wrenching places between people, its up to us actors and the director on set to make the most suspense out of that as possible. And we do have quite a bit of leeway once we put out a scene, to play around with it until it finds the shape that you see on camera, because thats not always the case. Ill cop to it: quite often your take on reading [a script] alone is one thing, but you put it on tape against somebody whos pretty great I have the benefit of working with some pretty fantastic actors on this show and you go, Oh, I did not see that at all, but we should go there for a little while. And we actually have the time and space on set to do that, which is really unusual. Thats one of the benefits of the cable-length TV season versus 22 or 24 episodes? Yes, for a variety of reasons. First off, creative burn out nine months a year at 70 hours a week, its not a human scale of labor. Nobodys really all that sharp when you get deep into those seasons, so for pure exhaustion reasons, a lot of that doesnt happen [on broadcast shows]. But then also, the network mandate and the commercial-driven mandate is keep it moving, keep it interesting, do not give them an opportunity to stop or think or be uncomfortable, because theyll change the channel. Our mandate is exactly the opposite: Push in to those uncomfortable places. Youre allowed to be in silence. Youre allowed to be awful. Some of these characters are sometimes just terrible people, and they do cruel, terrible, mean things to each other, often in an offhanded way, which I think is the cruelest thing you can do to somebody. And thats not just about that 10-episode format, its about the difference in sort of the creative drive between doing something thats for commercial broadcast television and something that is on Showtime, on a subscriber basis. (Showtime) A lot of major things were revealed in Season 2: the murder, who was directly responsible, who else was involved, the question about the paternity of Alisons baby. What will the overall theme of Season 3 be? I know that everybody else [already] has a little bit of an understanding of what Season 3 is, but I know zippo, because when everybody else was doing their meetings with Sarah before she had a baby, I was in New York doing a play, so I didnt have the opportunity to go in. Should they so desire, they could do really anything they want with the format now, because the question of who done it? is all resolved, so were kind of in uncharted territory. In my opinion, the show works at its best when its reduced in scale, unlike a lot of shows. If youre talking about something like Game of Thrones, that works at its utmost epic scale, and is at its best when its telling huge, huge stories, but ours is exactly the opposite. Ours is at its best when its about the tiny little moments between people and how we manage those or dont, and the fallout that even sometimes seemingly small decisions have on the people around you. What do you most still want to know about your character? I want to know, now that he has stepped into himself he had a spurt of growth, and fell in love again, and that was amazing, but then ultimately chose to go back to the net, back to Montauk, back to the place where he feels most comfortable is he a man who is just fundamentally incapable of being independent? Can he not feel full unless he is in this place? And if thats the case, is that his fatal flaw? Is he condemning himself to repeating the cycle of tragedy and distrust and heartbreak, because he just doesnt have the bravery to fully step out of that place? I dont have an answer for that yet. Jackson guesting in Season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) On a lighter note, lets talk about your guest appearance on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which is one of the most delightful surprises of Season 2. How did Purvis, the Dawsons Creek-obsessed convenience store clerk, happen? How did that come about? Purvis happened because one day I got an email from Tina Fey, which was pretty awesome. I definitely had to check and make sure it wasnt a joke. She sent this really nice email, not knowing that I had devoured the first season of the show and was already a fan, and she was like, I can send you the pages. I was like, Yeah, sure, of course you should, but the answer is yes! Then, after just going and playing there for a day I dont know why, but I havent done much comedy, and that show is just excellent, and they are all excellent, and the dialogue is crackling, and its a totally different environment working on a comedy than it is on a drama, and it was funny. It was funny and fun to just get to drop in there for a day and wink at my youth, my misspent youth. Pacey-Con with Joshua Jackson from Joshua Jackson It made me think about your Funny or Die Pacey-Con video. How did this Dawsons throwback experience compare to Pacey-Con? Pacey-Con nearly got me locked up in the San Diego Convention Center jail. They dont have a sense of humor about anything. This is slightly less dramatic. Is that true? You really got into trouble with Comic-Con security? Yeah. I just tried to enter into Comic-Con with full bluster, thinking that they would maybe go along with the joke for a second, but that was not the case. This was not a joke for them. And at the time I was there [to attend Comic-Con] for Fringe, and they had to call Warner Bros. It just became really unfunny for everybody. What was the funniest part of playing Purvis? Honestly, because Ive spent so little time on comedy, thats a pretty well-oiled machine, and they were already deep into their second season, and because Ellie [Kemper] is so, so good, the whole thing took three hours. What was most fun for me was giving her something to be able to bounce off of. Shes fantastic, and thats a great character for her, and to just sit back and watch her work and mime material as she sort of discovers a word or a phrase or something that she likes that makes her laugh, and all of a sudden we just go off into that for a second, its a lot like what we do on The Affair, except for we always end up with somebody crying. Did you have a hand in any of Purviss story or dialogue? Was he already named Purvis? The name was already there. I cant remember exactly, maybe Im giving myself undue credit, but I think there was one thing that I called out that actually wasnt true to [Dawsons Creek], but in general, theyd done all the work for me. I just had to show up and say the lines. And you have to love the fact that Purvis got to point out that Pacey, not Dawson, ended up with Joey. Still settling scores after all these years. Thats right. For we Pacey-devoted, that must always be pointed out. You have commented in the past that you dont really see a Dawsons reunion ever happening, but there have been so many recently with Full House and The X-Files and Twin Peaks and Gilmore Girls. Is there any situation in which you could envision a Dawsons revival, even a one-time thing like a Netflix movie? I dont think so. One of the characters is dead, so it kind of takes away from the fun of doing it if you dont have the whole gang back. Who knows, never say never, but I cant really envision a scenario where that would be fun. Also, I think theres a part of me that just thinks its better to leave those things alone, or maybe let somebody else do it. Give it to another generation of kids, like they did with 90210, so maybe eventually that will happen. No, the short answer is no. I cant imagine a scenario in which that would happen. Are Pacey and Joey still together in your mind? Of course. It was a romantic show. Maybe its been tempestuous. Maybe there have been a couple of breakups along the way, but since theyd also be closing in on 40, maybe they realize that theyre better off together. Maybe its Pacey and Joeys kids who do the spinoff. Exactly. Crazier things have been pitched to me, trust me. I hope we see Purvis again. It was a little bit ugly, Ill be honest with you, when I left that day at Kimmy Schmidt. I was like, I dont generally do this, but if you ever need me to come back for this character or any other character, just putting it out there that I will do that in a heartbeat. [Laughs] Tina just rolled her eyes and then left. The Affair Season 2 is streaming on Amazon Video and iTunes. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 2 is streaming on Netflix. Read more Emmy Talks: Emmy Talk: Bates Motel Showrunners Emmy Talk: OITNB Star Selenis Leyva Emmy Talk: AHS: Hotel Star Denis OHare Emmy Talk: Better Call Saul Star Rhea Seehorn Emmy Talk: Master of None Co-creators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang Emmy Talk: People v. O.J. Simpson Star Sterling K. Brown Emmy Talk: The Americans Star Alison Wright Emmy Talk: Jessica Jones Star David Tennant Emmy Talk: The Grinder Fred Savage Emmy Talk: Silicon Valley Star Thomas Middleditch Emmy Talk: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Songwriting Duo Rachel Bloom and Adam Schlesinger Emmy Talk: House of Cards Star Joel Kinnaman Emmy Talk: Jessica Jones Star Krysten Ritter Emmy Talk: Outlander Star Caitriona Balfe (Reuters) - The city of Flint faces multiple long-term threats to its water supply, even though short-term progress has been made in reducing lead contamination in the drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has warned the city and the state of Michigan. The poor water quality became a crisis last year when, after months of citizen complaints in the largely poor and African-American city, officials acknowledged a problem and began corrective measures. EPA administrator Gina McCarthy outlined at least five areas that would require additional funding and attention to ensure a safe and sustainable drinking water supply in a letter sent to Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. The letter, dated Thursday, noted that short-term efforts have produced "hopeful and encouraging signs" but that significant long-term challenges remain, such as the need for more money, a reliable city administration, and a decision on what Flint's long-term water source should be. In addition, the city's water treatment plant is inadequately staffed and the distribution system is oversized, which lessens the effectiveness of chlorine used to treat pathogens, the letter said. "The time has come for the city and the state to address those challenges. Safe drinking water cannot be reliably achieved without tackling those challenges," McCarthy said. Flint's mayor on Friday agreed with many of the EPA's conclusions and said additional funding from the state was needed to comply. "We not only need new pipes, we need new infrastructure," Weaver said in a statement. "That's money that must come from the state." The state has provided more than $234 million for Flint's water crisis in the past nine months, a spokeswoman for the governor said. "We continue to work closely with the city and the federal government to find solutions to challenges residents face, including a long-term water source," Press Secretary Anna Heaton said. Flint was under control of a state-appointed emergency manager in April 2014 when it switched its source of water from Detroit's municipal system to the Flint River to save money. The river water was more corrosive than Detroit system's and caused more lead to leach from its aging pipes. Lead can be toxic and children are especially vulnerable. The city switched back in October after blood tests found lead in some children. (Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by David Gregorio) Are you looking for something to do outdoors this summer? Visit a state park. Have you been to the Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park between Three Forks and Whitehall? President Theodore Roosevelt originally dedicated the caverns as a National Monument. But it was turned over to the State of Montana and became our first State Park in 1941. These spectacular caverns lined with stalactites, stalagmites, columns and helictites that took thousands -- perhaps millions -- of years to form make it one of the largest known limestone caverns in the Northwest. Ask about the candle light tour, or the crawl tour which takes you to places rarely seen by any human being. Have you seen Bannack State Park where gold was discovered at Grasshopper Creek in 1862? Just 20 miles West of Dillon, it became the first capital of Montana. Now it is the best ghost town in America. Walk on the boardwalks and visit each of the buildings on Main Street, some of the nearly 100 structures that still exist after 150 years. See how the material from the first Capitol building was used to make a barn out back. But the old Masonic Hall and the old hotel are amazingly well preserved. If you go during the Bannack Days on the third weekend in July, you will see the whole town turn into a living history museum with re-enactments and horse-drawn buggy rides. Have you seen Makoshika State Park in Glendive? Outdoor magazine called it one of Americas 10 least-known and under-appreciated State Parks. It is our largest state park with spectacular badlands all around. At least 10 species of dinosaurs have been found there, and Jack Horner says we have barely scratched the surface in terms of what is really there. Be sure to see some of the bones and displays in the museum at the Visitors Center. And while you are in the neighborhood, slip down to Ekalaka and visit Medicine Rocks State Park. Teddy Roosevelt called it as fantastically beautiful a place as I have ever seen. Be sure to go on the path around to the south side of the rocks, so you can see the ancient Indian pictographs and the many carvings into the sandstone of early cowboys and farmers. At the turn of the century, one early homesteader carved a picture of his sweetheart in the sandstone. Have you been to First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park (formerly known as Ulm Pushkin) just a few miles South of Great Falls? This is where bison were stampeded over the mile long cliff for hundreds of years starting 1,000 years ago. It was a major gathering point for Indians from all tribes, particularly before horses were introduced, which resulted in the Indian tribes warring against each other. The cliff is in all directions from the top -- almost 360 degrees and amazingly undetectable from the top. The new Visitors Center has great panoramas of Indian life, a great deal of information on all Montanas tribes, and one of the best book stores on Montana history in the entire state. Of course, when you are in Great Falls you must see Giant Springs State Park. Eighteen giant springs bubble up to form the Roe River, which Guinness Book of World Records once called the shortest big river in the world. It certainly impressed Lewis and Clark when they visited it in 1805. Have you seen the Rosebud Battlefield State Park between Busby and Decker? Did you know this battle was the largest commitment of American troops in any Indian battle anywhere? They fought for half a day and both sides claimed victory. Actually, that is true. Also, it is probably one of the best preserved battlefields in the country because so little has changed since the battle took place just eight days before General Custer lost his life at the Little Big Horn. Or do as Tom and many others. Set as a goal the visitation of each of Montanas 55 state parks. Remember, because you have paid $6 when you licensed your automobile, all state parks are free to Montana residents to visit. For each park, click on Visit a Park at stateparks@mt.gov. Download a free app, Montana State Parks by Pocket Ranger. Or get the Complete Guide and Travel Companion, Montana State Parks, by Erin Madison and Kristen Inbody. You will be surprised what Montana has to offer. Have a great summer outdoors. Tom Towe of Billings is chairman of the Montana State Parks Board. Brussels (AFP) - The European Union on Friday rolled over for another year sanctions imposed to protest Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which the bloc deems illegal. The announcement comes amid growing speculation the bloc will in coming days also renew much wider economic sanctions against Russia for aiding and abetting pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine. "The European Council (of member states) has extended until June 23, 2017, the restrictive measures adopted in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia," a statement said. The Crimea sanctions prohibit certain exports and imports, and ban investment and tourism services by EU-based companies there. The sanctions were imposed after the annexation of Crimea in March 2014. The broader sanctions targeting economic sectors in Russia were imposed after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014, blamed by the EU on pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. EU diplomatic sources say the economic sanctions will likely be extended for another six months from end-July on the grounds that Russia has failed to live up to its commitments to the Minsk ceasefire accord in eastern Ukraine. The extension is set to be approved despite growing calls in some EU countries for them to be relaxed. - Putin says 'no grudge' - The EU has also imposed a separate set of visa ban and asset freeze sanctions against individual Russian and Ukrainian figures for backing the separatist cause in early 2014. These measures run until September. The conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed 9,400 lives and plunged relations with Moscow into the deep freeze. At the same time, some EU member states led by Italy make the case that Russia is a neighbour and its help and cooperation is needed in tackling key shared problems, such as the Islamic State terror threat. For its part, Russia says the sanctions regime is pointless if damaging, and President Vladimir Putin regularly insists Crimea will never be given back. Story continues On Friday, Putin told a top economic forum in Saint Petersburg he was ready for a fresh start -- if the EU also played its part. "We hold no grudge and are willing to reach out to our European partners but obviously this can't be a one-sided game," Putin said, stressing that it was the EU's introduction of sanctions which had led to the "collapse" in relations. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker made his first visit to Russia this week since the sanctions were imposed, telling Putin that there could be no lifting of sanctions until the Minsk deal was honoured. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko meanwhile said he welcomed the EU's decision to roll over the Crimea sanctions. "We will continue fighting until Russia frees Ukraine's Crimea and Ukraine's Donbass," Poroshenko said on Facebook, referring to the rebel-controlled areas of his country. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union extended for a year on Friday a ban on business dealings with the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move that has not been internationally recognized. The sanctions, now prolonged until June 23, 2017, prohibit imports of products from Crimea, any investment there, cooperation in tourism services as well as exports of some goods and services to the peninsula. The EU is due next week to extend until the end of 2016 its broader economic sanctions on Russia over its role in the crisis in Ukraine. Following the annexation of Crimea, Russia-backed rebels took up arms against Kiev in eastern Ukraine, where more than 9,000 people have been killed in fighting since the spring of 2014. The crisis in Ukraine has pushed relations between Moscow and the West to new lows, though the EU is looking to review its broader policy toward Moscow in the second half of the year. Signs of a tentative thaw include a high-profile visit made by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to Russia on Thursday. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Philip Blenkinsop/Mark Heinrich) By Francesco Guarascio LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - European Union states reached preliminary agreement on Friday on new rules to counter corporations' tax avoidance, but it watered down some proposals after lobbying by smaller countries, such as Belgium and Austria. Ministers were under pressure to approve new rules proposed by the European Commission in January, after revelations in the so-called Panama Papers and Luxleaks cases. After months of wrangling, EU finance ministers in a regular meeting in Luxembourg backed an amended version of the Commission proposals, excluding some controversial measures and delaying others. The deal is suspended until Monday. If no country raises objections by then, the agreement will take effect. The Belgian and Czech finance ministers asked for the extra time to sort out pending technical issues. "I am confident that what we have is still a good step forward in the fight against tax avoidance," Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chair of the talks and Dutch Finance Minister, told a news conference after the meeting. Corporate tax practices cost EU states an estimated 70 billion euros ($76.10 billion) a year in lost revenues, according to an EU Parliament report. But the plan to curtail them is less ambitious than what was originally planned. A proposal known as switch-over clause was dropped because some finance ministers said it could cause double taxation of European corporations, making them less competitive. The clause would have taxed dividends and capital gains that European companies pay to companies they control in low-tax or tax-free countries, which are then returned to the parent company. In theory, the money was liable to tax by the tax haven country - even though little or no tax was imposed - so on its return it is not subject to tax, to avoid duplicate taxation. The European Parliament, which in tax matters has only a consulting role, had urged states to tighten the original switch-over clause. Story continues Measures to reduce multinationals' artificial shift of profits to subsidiaries in tax havens were also changed, granting states leeway on how to apply the new rules. The original proposal said that states should automatically tax profits shifted to countries with tax rates 40 percent below theirs. The ministers eliminated the rate threshold, although officials said the substance of the proposal remained unchanged. Ministers were also stuck on when to apply proposed rules to reduce tax deductions of interest payments. Some companies use those deductions to cut their taxes by arranging artificial loans from subsidiaries in low-tax countries. Belgium, Austria, Malta, Slovenia and Lithuania asked for the new rules on limitation of interest deductions to be delayed. They want them to become effective only after an agreement is reached at international level by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. After pressure from the EU commissioner for tax affairs Pierre Moscovici, countries eventually agreed to put the interest limitation rules in place from 2024, instead of the original 2019 deadline. Belgium is assessing whether it can accept this compromise by Monday. The Czech Republic is seeking the EU Commission's authorisation on a pilot project to counter fraud on value added tax, and it has linked its approval of the tax avoidance package to that. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, editing by Larry King) Every single person aboard a flight to Orlando stopped to offer comfort to a fellow passenger and complete stranger who was on her way to her grandsons funeral. Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, 20, was one of the youngest victims of Orlando shooter Omar Mateens rampage through Pulse, a popular gay nightclub where he killed 49 people and injured 53 others. Read: Orlando Gunman Called Local News Station During Attack: 'I'm The Shooter. It's Me' The grandmother made her hard journey alone Tuesday and was pushed onto a JetBlue plane by flight attendants who gave her tissues and water and tried to make her as comfortable as possible under such tragic circumstances. Airline employee Kelly Davis Karas wanted to do more, and in a compassionate, loving Facebook post, she described the womans flight and the unexpected outpouring of sentiment she received. "She was understandably distraught, but met us with kindness and gentleness. And gratitude, Karas wrote. Then she had an idea. What if she and her co-worker passed around a piece of paper for passengers to sign good wishes to the grieving grandmother? The two flight attendants decided they would do it and as we took beverage orders, we whispered a heads-up about the plan as we went, Karas said. But then they hit a snag. Halfway through, her colleague called Kel, I think you should start another paper from the front. Folks are writing PARAGRAPHS. So Karas did. And then a third paper was started in the middle of the plane. And finally, as time began to run out on the 75-minute flight, We handed out pieces of paper to everyone still waiting, she wrote. We didnt have just a sheet of paper covered in names, which is what I had envisioned. Instead we had page after page after page of long messages offering condolences, peace, love and support. There were even a couple of cash donations, and more than a few tears, Karas said. Story continues After the plane touched down, Karas read a landing announcement just approved by the airline. JetBlue stands with Orlando, she said over the P.A. Having secured the grandmothers permission, she asked for a moment of silence in memory of Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo. And then every passenger stopped to offer their sympathy to the grandmother. Read: Orlando Gunman Jumped And Cheered During 9/11 Attacks, Former Classmates Say EVERY SINGLE PERSON STOPPED TO OFFER HER THEIR CONDOLENCES. Some just said they were sorry, some touched her hand, some hugged her, some cried with her. But every single person stopped to speak to her, and not a single person was impatient at the slower deplaning process, Karas said. I am moved to tears yet again as I struggle to put our experience into words. In spite of a few hateful, broken human beings in this world who can all too easily legally get their hands on mass assault weapons people ARE kind. People DO care, she wrote. I will never forget today. Watch: Orlando Gunman Posted Message Before Massacre: Now Taste Islamic Vengeance Related Articles: By Elke Ahlswede DETMOLD, Germany (Reuters) - A 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard was sentenced to jail in Germany on Friday by a judge who branded him a "willing and efficient henchman" in the Holocaust. In what is likely to be one of Germany's last trials for World War Two-era atrocities, Reinhold Hanning was convicted of being an accessory to the murder of at least 170,000 people at the concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Rejecting the defence argument that the former SS officer had never killed, beaten or abused anyone himself, Judge Anke Grudda said Hanning had chosen to serve in the notorious death camp and had helped it run. "It is not true that you had no choice; you could have asked to be transferred to the war front," Grudda told Hanning as she read out the verdict. She said it was impossible that he had been unaware of the murders since he spent two and a half years at the camp and had been promoted twice during that time. "That shows that you had proven your value as a willing and efficient henchman in the killings," Grudda said. The white-haired Hanning, dressed in a grey suit and tie and seated in a wheel chair, listed to the verdict impassively. His lawyer, Johannes Salmen, said they would appeal. "I assume he will not be fit for a custodial sentence. That means he will not have to go to jail," Salmen said. During the 20-day trial, which dragged on over four months in total, the court heard testimony from around a dozen Holocaust survivors, many extremely elderly, who detailed horrific experiences, recalling piles of bodies and the smell of burnt flesh in Auschwitz. One of them, Hedy Bohm, 88, whose parents perished in Auschwitz, said: "I am grateful and pleased to be here at this moment, when justice was finally done after 70 years." With tears in her eyes, she told reporters after the hearing: "My murdered mother and father can perhaps rest in peace. It's a dream I never dreamed to come true." KILLING MACHINE Story continues Jewish groups welcomed the news. "Today's verdict is very clear: (Hanning) was complicit in mass murder. He was part of a merciless killing machine," said Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress. "Without the active participation of people like him Auschwitz would not have been possible." Hanning was silent and emotionless for much of the trial but spoke at the end of April, apologising to the victims and saying that he regretted being part of a "criminal organisation" that had killed so many and caused so much suffering. "I'm ashamed that I knowingly let injustice happen and did nothing to oppose it," he read from a prepared speech. Hanning was not charged with direct involvement in any killings. But prosecutors and dozens of joint plaintiffs from Germany, Hungary, Israel, Canada, Britain and the United States said he had helped Auschwitz function. A precedent was set in a similar case in 2011, when camp guard Ivan Demjanjuk was convicted. Last year, Oskar Groening, known as the "bookkeeper of Auschwitz", was sentenced to four years for being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people. None of the convictions are definitive. Demjanjuk had appealed but died before the German Federal Court of Justice could rule on the case, and the court is still considering an appeal filed by Groening. Germany is holding what are likely to be its last trials linked to the Holocaust, when the Nazis killed more than six million people, mostly Jews, in a deliberate plan of extermination. Besides Hanning, one other man and one woman in their 90s are accused of being accessories to the mass murder at Auschwitz. A third man who was a member of the Nazi SS guard team at Auschwitz died at the age of 93 in April, days before his trial was due to start. (Reporting by Elke Ahlswede and Petra Wischgoll in Detmold; Writing by Andrea Shalal and Michael Nienaber; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Countrywide Financial Corp CEO Angelo Mozilo will not face a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit for defrauding investors in mortgage-backed securities issued before the 2008 financial crisis, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. Mozilo received a letter from the Justice Department this week informing the Countrywide co-founder of its decision to not move ahead with a civil fraud case against him related to his role at the mortgage lender, the source said. The source requested anonymity to discuss the status of the non-public probe. Countrywide, at one time the nation's top mortgage company, collapsed under the weight of soured loans and was acquired by Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) in July 2008. The decision by the Justice Department came two years after news of the potential case against Mozilo broke. That probe became public amid criticism of the Justice Department for having failed to pursue charges against high-ranking executives linked to the mortgage meltdown. Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for the Justice Department, declined comment. The news was first reported by Bloomberg News. Bank of America agreed in 2014 to pay a record $16.65 billion to resolve government claims that it and companies including Countrywide that it had acquired misled investors into buying troubled mortgage-backed securities. Mozilo agreed in 2010 to a $67.5 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which had accused him of misleading investors about Countrywide's health and risk-taking. Bank of America agreed to cover some of the payout. The Justice Department later in 2011 shelved a criminal investigation of Mozilo. The more recent civil probe by the Justice Department was being handled out of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York, editing by G Crosse and Bernard Orr) The theme for the new Big Brother house is all about summer vacation, featuring decorations from the best warm-weather locales, and that's sure to spice things up as the new cast gears up for a record 99-day stay. ET got an exclusive tour of the house from longtime Big Brother host Julie Chen. "Each room is a destination, after you have departed from this gate," Julie tells ET's Kevin Frazier as they start their impromptu tour in the living room, which features a large "Departures" sign. RELATED: 'Big Brother 18' Houseguests Revealed -- Includes Siblings of Two Fan Faves! The travel theme continues throughout the house, with each room representing a different part of the world -- including Tokyo, London, the African savanna, the Caribbean and Honolulu, Hawaii. "This is Tokyo!" Julie says as she shows Kevin around one of the more visually-arresting bedrooms. "What's Tokyo without lots of neon lights and Godzilla?" Later, the two make it up to the Head of Household's private bedroom, which is all about the Hawaiian islands. "We are in Hawaii now, because that has to be America's favorite vacation spot," Julie says, as Kevin lays down on the massive, king-size bed, and marvels: "Oh, this is so nice!" If the new houseguests are hoping for privacy in the bathroom, they'll have to look elsewhere! RELATED: Showmance Alert! New 'Big Brother' Cast Have Their Eye on Love "Look at this: even a microphone right here in the shower," Kevin observes, to which Julie responds, "Hey, we can't have any spot where any two houseguests can have a private conversation. Nope, nope, nope." Eighty-seven cameras and more than 110 microphones strategically placed throughout the house will pick up on each conversation and houseguests' every move as they compete for the $500,000 grand prize. "There is no safe zone. You can be heard in every single place in the yard," executive producer Rich Meehan tells ET. Story continues "You will see mics dropped in the back of the yard, just right down the center. We've got them everywhere," executive producer Allison Grodner adds. RELATED: Julie Chen Models on 'Price Is Right' for 'Big Brother' Crossover Special The outdoor backyard, which is U.S. national parks-themed, was redesigned with a new pool and hot tub. There will even be new state-of-the-art gym equipment. "We're going to put in a CrossFit gym," Julie reveals. Even Julie can't believe Big Brother, considered one of summer's reality staples, has lasted nearly two decades with no signs of slowing down. "I've been there since the beginning. Who would've thunk it? At this rate, I'll be like [former long-running Price Is Right host] Bob Barker!" Julie says with a laugh. Big Brother premieres Wednesday, June 22 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. RELATED: 'Big Brother' Alum Caleb Reynolds Breaks Through the Pack on 'Survivor' Related Articles By Tatiana Bautzer and Guillermo Parra-Bernal SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Mosaic Co (MOS.N), the world's top producer of concentrated phosphate, has entered talks to buy Vale SA's (VALE5.SA) fertiliser unit, in a renewed push to grow in South America and Africa, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. Although both companies are discussing what structure would best suit their interests, the first source said a cash-and-stock deal remains the favourite option at this point. The same source, who requested anonymity because talks are under way, said the value of Vale's fertiliser assets could reach $3 billion. Mosaic and Vale are also discussing other alternatives for the deal, the other two sources said, without elaborating. Under terms of the first option, Rio de Janeiro-based Vale would become Mosaic's biggest shareholder, with a stake between 12 and 15 percent depending on the size of the deal's stock portion, the first source said. The companies declined to comment. Plymouth, Minnesota-based Mosaic is on the lookout for phosphate or potash assets that could be bargain-priced in a weak commodity sector, Chief Executive Officer Joc O'Rourke said in February. Falling prices of phosphate and potash, however, have dragged down profit this year. Vale has fertiliser assets in Canada, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Mozambique. Mosaic bought distribution assets from Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM.N) in Brazil and Paraguay last year. In Brazil, the world's fifth-largest fertiliser consumer, demand is expected to grow twice as fast as global demand until 2025. Fertiliser sales in Brazil in the first 10 weeks of this year doubled from the same period a year earlier. DEBT Vale is selling assets to help meet a $10 billion debt-reduction target by next year. The strategy was devised by Chief Executive Officer Murilo Ferreira to help insulate the mining company against declining iron ore and nickel prices. Vale posted a record annual loss last year of $12.1 billion. Story continues Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization at Vale's fertiliser unit more than doubled last year to $567 million, partly helped by a weaker currency and lower costs. The talks with Mosaic come two months after Vale failed to create a large player with Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N). On April 28, Reuters reported that Vale and Apollo planned a venture should they succeed in the purchase of rival Anglo American Plc's fertiliser operations in Brazil. According to the second source, Mosaic had previously made a bid for 100 percent of Vale's fertiliser unit, which the Brazilian company rejected because it wanted to team up with Apollo. Clinching the Anglo American deal was a precondition to form the venture with Apollo, the $170 billion buyout firm run by financier Leon Black, sources said at the time. (Additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Canada; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Matthew Lewis) After a season of accusations and allegations about how they first got together, Real Housewives of Dallas stars Mark and Cary Deuber are setting the record straight with ET. "Some people tried to imply that Cary was a homewrecker, and she stole her husband, and that's not how things went down at all," Mark says. Co-star LeeAnne Locken seemed to imply multiple times throughout the Bravo series' first season that Cary and Mark first got romantic while Mark was still married. The couple has worked together for years -- Mark is a plastic surgeon, while Cary is his first assistant and nurse. WATCH: Housewives Happy Hour With The Real Housewives of Dallas "We've actually known each other for 15 or 16 years," Mark explains. "I was a resident, and she was a young nurse at the hospital Then, I had been in practice about three or four years, and she came to work for me. The reason she did that is because I was doing a lot of complex types of reconstructive surgery that required an operative assistant." "Which is why I wanted to work for him," Cary explains. "Not because I wanted to sleep with him!" The couple says over the years, they became close friends, as colleagues do. Mark and his family even attended Cary's second wedding, a marriage Cary confesses lasted "a skinny minute." "I don't want to trash my first marriage or my ex-wife," Mark shares, "but suffice it to say, I was not in a good place for a long time in my marriage. I think I gained a lot of weight, I drank a lot. I think I was just not taking care of myself at all ... I started taking care of myself, and I started losing weight, and I was kind of checked out on my marriage." LeeAnne involved her friend, Heidi Dillon, in the Cary-Mark rumor mill. In one episode, Heidi scoffed, "Most of the women in Dallas got their rich husbands because, at one point, they were on their knees under his desk, right? That's what I know of Cary." Story continues WATCH: Why The Real Housewives of Dallas Is the Best Franchise Addition Ever! "It's certainly been implied that we were sneaking around," Mark responds. "I mean, a lot of what was said was true: we did work together, and we did wind up getting together, and we're married now. And you know what? Things like that happen. We did not sneak around and have an affair." "We definitely got together quickly after he got separated," Cary admits. "But there was a line drawn." "If it really went down that way [as they say], my kids would hate her," Mark adds. "That's not the case at all." "They're like my best friends," Cary says of her stepkids. "This is the part that is so disappointing. We have children. That's who's affected by this ... I actually got a text from my stepson saying that he heard through the grapevine that his friend's mom was on this show with me, just some random stuff, and I was like, oh gosh. You know?" On the show, LeeAnne suggested Heidi might be quick to judge Cary based on her connection to Mark. "Heidi is friends with Mark's ex-wife," LeeAnne said. "I think enough people are still friends with her, who will never accept Cary because of how she and Mark got together." WATCH: RHOD Star Stephanie Hollman Face Swaps With Her Co-Stars Mark and Cary say that's a straight-up lie. "My ex-wife doesn't know her," Mark says. "And she said she doesn't know my ex-wife, even though it was said on the show." "It was LeeAnne setting her up," Cary claims. "I guess people can say what they want. They can make up their own false truths, which I guess you kind of have to deal with when you're dealing with 'reality.'" Still, Cary and Mark say the rumors, speculation and reality TV cameras have not hurt their relationship at all. If anything, it's brought them closer together. The couple says they still feel like newlyweds seven years into marriage. And should the series be picked up for a second season, Cary and Mark tell ET they would be down to return. In the meantime, Cary, Mark and LeeAnne will hash it out on The Real Housewives of Dallas reunion, set to air Sunday night on Bravo at 9 p.m. ET. Catch up on some of the show's other drama before then in the video below. Related Articles Per media reports, U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil Corp. XOM and Anglo-Australian multinational BHP Billiton Ltd. BHP are contemplating disposing a number of depleting oil and natural gas fields in Australia. The list includes Kingfish oil field in Bass Strait. Found in the mid-1960s, is the largest oil field ever discovered in Australia. The duo has been working together in an equally owned joint venture in the Gippsland basin in Australia since 1960. Exxon and BHP Billiton are planning to dispose 13 fields, licences, and associated systems in the region. In addition to Kingfish, the fields to be sold include Blackback, Cobia, Dolphin, Flounder, Fortescue, Halibut, Mackerel, Perch, Seahorse and Tarwhine. Bass Strait fields have produced more than 4 billion bbl of oil and 8 tcf of gas since production started in 1965. The region was Australias mainstay in oil production till the nineties. But currently, the region is mainly a gas producer. The two companies will retain ownership of the remaining offshore fields and the onshore facilities at Longford. These include the new $4.5-billion Kipper-Tuna-Turrum development, which has an estimated 1.6 bcf of gas and 140 million bbl of liquids. EXXON MOBIL CRP Price EXXON MOBIL CRP Price | EXXON MOBIL CRP Quote ExxonMobil is one of the worlds best-run integrated oil companies given its track record of superior returns on capital employed. The energy giant has long been a core holding for investors seeking a defensive name with continued dividend growth. The company is also fairly active in its investment programs. Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider ExxonMobil currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the same space are Braskem S.A. BAK and North Atlantic Drilling Limited NADL. Both these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BHP BILLITN LTD (BHP): Free Stock Analysis Report EXXON MOBIL CRP (XOM): Free Stock Analysis Report BRASKEM SA (BAK): Free Stock Analysis Report NORTH ATL DRILG (NADL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Denise Juneau, candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, invited Congressman Ryan Zinke to participate in six debates across the state. He didnt respond to her request but instead told the media he would do five debates and he would choose the moderators. Not a single woman was among the suggested moderators. There are qualified women in Montana to handle a debate; perhaps he just doesnt know any. We all should care about balancing the federal budget, defending access to public lands, providing quality public education for future generations, and safeguarding Social Security and Medicare. Denise Juneau has proven that she can work hard for all of us. During her long history of public service for this state, the drop-out rate has been cut by a third. Denise has successfully pushed back on federal policies that didnt fit our state. She is a strong advocate for protecting our access to public lands and is not afraid to stand up for whats right. Denise is in this race because she believes in Montana. Shell work hard to create good paying jobs, increase access to education and protect our treasured public lands. Debates and a thoughtful review of the candidates prior actions provide a solid rationale for our votes. Look carefully at what Denise has done for Montana -- it is good stuff. Global health officials are racing to better understand the Zika virus behind a major outbreak that began in Brazil last year and has spread to many countries in the Americas. The following are some questions and answers about the virus and current outbreak: How do people become infected? Zika is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female mosquitoes, primarily the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same type that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Aedes mosquitoes are found in all countries in the Americas except Canada and continental Chile, and the virus will likely reach all countries and territories of the region where Aedes mosquitoes are found. How do you treat Zika? There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika infection. Companies and scientists are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for Zika, but the World Health Organization (WHO) had said it would take at least 18 months to start large-scale clinical trials of potential preventative shots. How dangerous is it? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. According to the World Health Organization, there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly in babies, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. In addition, the agency said it could cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis. Conclusive proof of the damage caused by Zika may take months or years. Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at 1,434 through May 21 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation declined to 3,257. Colombia confirmed two cases of microcephaly linked to Zika. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2. Current research in Brazil indicates the greatest microcephaly risk is associated with infection during the first trimester of pregnancy, but health officials have warned an impact could be seen in later weeks. Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue. What are the symptoms of Zika infection? People infected with Zika may have a mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and fatigue that can last for two to seven days. But as many as 80 percent of people infected never develop symptoms. The symptoms are similar to those of dengue or chikungunya, which are transmitted by the same type of mosquito. How can Zika be contained? Efforts to control the spread of the virus focus on eliminating mosquito breeding sites and taking precautions against mosquito bites such as using insect repellent and mosquito nets. U.S. and international health officials have advised pregnant women to avoid travel to Latin American and Caribbean countries where they may be exposed to Zika. Cases of sexual transmission have also been reported, prompting health officials to advise use of condoms, or abstaining from sex, to prevent infection between partners. How widespread is the outbreak? Active Zika outbreaks have been reported in at least 48 countries or territories, most of them in the Americas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Brazil has been the country most affected. (http://1.usa.gov/1ovAJyh) Africa (1): Cape Verde Americas (39): Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelmy, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela Oceania/Pacific Islands (8): American Samoa, Fiji, Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga. What is the history of the Zika virus? The Zika virus is found in tropical locales with large mosquito populations. Outbreaks of Zika have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Southern Asia and the Western Pacific. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys and was first identified in people in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, according to the WHO. Can Zika be transmitted through sexual contact? The World Health Organization (WHO) said sexual transmission is "relatively common" and has advised pregnant women not to travel to areas with ongoing outbreaks of Zika virus. It also advised women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant. The U.S. CDC is investigating about a dozen cases of possible sexual transmission. All cases involve possible transmission of the virus from men to their sex partners. The WHO has also identified Zika cases in Argentina, Chile, France, Italy and New Zealand as likely caused by sexual transmission. British health officials reported Zika was found in a man's semen two months after he was infected, suggesting the virus may linger in semen long after infection symptoms fade. The PAHO said Zika can be transmitted through blood, but this is an infrequent transmission mechanism. There is no evidence Zika can be transmitted to babies through breast milk. What other complications are associated with Zika? Zika has also been associated with other neurological disorders, including serious brain and spinal cord infections. The long-term health consequences of Zika infection are unclear. Other uncertainties surround the incubation period of the virus and how Zika interacts with other viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes, such as dengue. (Compiled by the Americas Desk) Three things to know about the Japanese Donald Trump campaign ad thats making the rounds on the Internet: 1) its actually American, 2) its satire and 3) its brilliant. The video, if you havent seen it, is an impeccably Japanese love letter to the presumptive Republican nominee (Donarudo Torampu). Theres a blue-haired schoolgirl heroine, who idles on her bed gazing at Trumps framed portrait, surrounded by her anime sketches of him. Her bedroom walls are lined with various snapshots from the campaign trail (including TIMEs August 2015 cover story). The television then blares out the news that Donald Trump has been elected world President, leading her to fall into a kawaii Trumpian reverie. She floats through a digital world where Trumps name is atop every skyscraper, where the trees are ripe not with cherry blossoms but with Trumps face, and where, finally, the two embrace as nuclear missiles launch behind them. Then Trump turns into a robot. The YouTube video has more than 1 million views so far. Many of the comments are from people who are confused by Japans apparent adoration for the candidate, failing to note, as the Intercept does, that the video is actually the work of Mike Diva, a California-based visual artist. After 15 painstaking years, the remains of an FDNY chief killed on September 11, 2001, have finally been buried. Read: Father Set to Compete In Ironman World Championship, Carrying His Son With Cerebral Palsy Two vials of blood that Battalion Chief Lawrence T. Stack donated to the New York Blood Center just over a year prior to his passing were placed in a casket Friday in Long Island and buried. In December 2001, the devout Catholics family held a memorial for the fallen hero who perished in the attacks on 9/11. Since his body was never recovered, his family was unable to have a proper religious burial. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro attended the service, along with hundreds of friends and family at Saints Philip and James Roman Catholic Church in the town of St. James. One of the late chiefs sons, Lt. Michael Stack, also an FDNY firefighter, told The New York Times: Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years. Two years turned into five, turned into 10. Now its 15. The chiefs casket arrived draped in the American flag as two fire trucks lifted their ladders and cherry pickers in the air to hang Old Glory over the street. After holding out hope for more than a decade that his body would be recovered at Ground Zero, they decided to contact the New York Blood Center in West Islip, New York, where the chiefs blood had been stored. Read: Officers Salute Last Known 9/11 Search Dog as She Heads to Hospital to Be Put Down Stack and his wife, Theresa, donated the blood to help a child in nearby East Islip, New York, who had cancer, according to the Times. Lawrence Stacks blood was never used and has sat in a freezer for 16 years. The family told the Blood Center their story and the vials were turned over to the Stacks for burial. The New York Blood Center wrote on their Facebook page: To the family of FDNY Lieutenant Michael Stack, Ladder 176: It is our honor to help bring peace to your dignified, FDNY family. Our thoughts are with you today. Your father, FDNY Battalion Chief Larry Stack, can rest in peace now because you can, too. Story continues The 58-year-old firefighter served nearly 33 years for New Yorks Bravest. Both of his sons are currently firemen in the FDNY. Watch: Pope Francis Tours New York City, Tells World Leaders to 'Respect One Another' Related Articles: (Reuters) - Roger Federer hurried into the quarter-finals of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle on Thursday, wrapping up a 6-3 7-5 victory over Tunisia's Malek Jaziri in 69 minutes. The top seed, who has won eight titles at the German grasscourt tournament that has proved ideal preparation for Wimbledon during his long career, quickly overcame a second-set hiccup when he dropped his serve to go 3-0 down. He rediscovered his rhythm, recovered the deficit and then broke the Tunisian in the 11th game before serving out the match. Federer next meets Belgian David Goffin, who was leading Sergiy Stakhovsky 4-6 7-5 2-0 when the Ukranian retired hurt after an awkward fall. "That's life...some days are just not meant to be. I'll try to be back for Wimbledon," Stakhovsky tweeted. Federer, 34, will be keen to enjoy as much match practice as possible before Wimbledon after pulling out of the French Open last month with a back injury. He leads 25-year-old fifth seed Goffin 4-0 in their head-to-head tally. The Swiss, ranked three in the world, is also joined in the quarter-finals by home favourite and eighth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who downed lofty Croatian Ivo Karlovic 6-7(7) 6-4 7-5 despite being on the receiving end of 26 aces. (Reporting by Clare Lovell; Editing by Ian Chadband) By Rodi Said AM ADASA, Syria (Reuters) - When U.S.-backed forces seized Souad Hamidi's village in northern Syria from Islamic State last week, the 19-year-old swiftly tore off the niqab she had been forced to wear since 2014 and smiled. "I felt liberated," Hamidi told Reuters after swapping her black face-covering veil for a red head scarf. "They made us wear it against our will so I removed it that way to spite them." For the last two weeks, the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by U.S.-led air strikes, have waged an offensive against the Islamic State-held city of Manbij, near the Syria-Turkey border. The SDF have been cutting off routes into Manbij, encircling the city by seizing outlying villages like Hamidi's, Am Adasa. Hamidi said she woke up one morning to hear that the SDF, which includes the Kurdish YPG militia and Arab fighters, had arrived in her village. "We saw (SDF) fighters behind our house, digging to station their snipers, we thought they were Daesh (Islamic State) fighters, who were still inside the village," she said. "We left, fearing we would be used as human shields during air strikes," she said. The family later returned once SDF fighters had pushed out remaining Islamic State forces. For pictures of Saoud Hamidi click http://reut.rs/1rryn4r Am Adasa had been under the militants' control since 2014, when Islamic State proclaimed its caliphate straddling Syria and Iraq. The governments of Syria and Iraq have launched offensives on other fronts against the group. Under Islamic State, life was strictly regulated, Hamidi said, including dress codes. "They would punish people who did not follow their rules, sometimes forcing them to stay in dug-out graves for days," she said. "Since they (SDF) took control, we are living a new life." Sitting in her family home, Hamidi said she still fears Islamic State may return one day. "I want to erase Daesh from my memory," she said. "I hope every area controlled by Daesh is liberated, that people are free of them and can live like we do now." (Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., is taking heat from public land and access groups following a vote to potentially transfer management of millions of federal acres to local advisory committees. The same day he touted his vote with Democrats against an Alaska representatives land transfer bill, groups including The Wilderness Society, Montana Wilderness Association and Public Land and Water Access Association painted Montanas lone congressman as waffling on his opposition to federal land transfer and privatization. Zinke voted in favor of the Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act, legislation allowing demonstration areas made up of national forests with governor-appointed advisory committees steering management under state and private forestry regulations. Demonstration areas up to 4 million acres total could be designated at the behest of the committees. The act, which passed committee 25-13 Wednesday, aims to generate local economic activity in communities dependent on national forests. The vote flies counter to Zinkes self-description in an April op-ed as a Teddy Roosevelt conservationist, providing a path to privatizing forests by stripping federal authority, wrote MWA conservation director John Todd for his organizations blog. This would undermine bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water and Clean Air acts, and give extractive industry exclusive control of our national forests, he wrote. This unprecedented approach to transferring and industrializing public lands would lead to the loss of clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreational use of public lands that are owned by all Americans. Zinke through a spokeswoman rebuffed the notion that he flip-flopped, saying he has always supported more say from local communities in forest management while not supporting transfer of ownership. She pointed to his vote Wednesday against Alaska Rep. Don Youngs State National Forest Management Act of 2015, a bill authorizing states to acquire certain federal forest lands for timber production. Youngs bill passed committee 23-15. The fact is, (the Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act) focuses on engaging communities and specifically restricts any policy that would limit or diminish access for hunters, anglers, and other recreationists, which is one of Zinkes top priorities, communications director Heather Swift said in an email. The environmental groups are pushing an extreme agenda to simply shut down any process that includes anybodys opinion but their own. A perfect example of this is the frivolous lawsuits waged against forestry collaboratives. Both TWS and MWA faulted the legislation as overly favoring extractive industries. But while specifically pointing to mandates for forestry, grazing and county officials on the advisory committees, the organizations did not mention the requirement for recreation members in their initial criticism. Omitting mention of the recreation members was not intentional, both groups said, and did not take away from their opposition of a woefully bad bill. Having one of the four governor-appointed committee members be a recreation person doesn't change the key point which is that these committees would have tremendous authority, with no real public involvement and exclusion from most federal environmental laws, in managing the selected forest demonstration areas, said Peter Aengst, TWS senior regional director. Given the make-up of the committee, the stated purpose of the legislation, and comments from the Natural Resources committee, it is clear that this legislation is intended as an end run around federal environmental review, broad public participation in land management, and the multiple-use mandate that protects recreation and conservation values on our American public lands, MWA spokesman Ted Brewer said in an email. Swift countered that the bill gives states flexibility in deciding management, and that management could include deciding against logging or mining. (TWS and MWA) selectively omitted that the advisory panels set up by state governors would include recreational members, which are often synonymous with conservation advocates, she said. And, using their logic, these advisory panels could decide to make the 200,000 acres area wilderness. Would the conservation groups oppose this? Balance between forest users would be maintained through collaboration, Swift said. The management controlling collaboration directed under the legislation is much different than that supported by conservation groups, Brewer said. Our brand of collaboration is about influencing federal management of American public land by balancing and elevating diverse points of view. This bill is about state-appointed committees taking over management of American public lands to prioritize extractive use, he said. Ellen DeGeneress charming memory-impaired fish swims into theaters this weekend accompanied by most of the characters of 2003s Finding Nemo in the latest sure-thing blockbuster from Disney-Pixar. Aside from Dory, Marlin (Albert Brooks), and Nemo (Hayden Rolence), Finding Dory features appearances from old friends like the sea turtles Crush (voiced by the films director, Andrew Stanton) and Squirt (Bennett Dammann), Mr. Ray (Bob Peterson) and Nemos young school chums, along with a few surprises to reward Nemo devotees (the origin of the Just Keep Swimming song, for one). The plot, set just about a year after the events of Nemo, takes us from the Great Barrier Reef to the kelp forests off the California coast, where we meet new friends like Hank the septopus (Ed ONeill), Destiny the clumsy whale shark (Kaitlin Olson), and the sonar-challenged beluga whale Bailey (Ty Burrell), as well as Dorys long lost parents, Jenny (Diane Keaton) and Charlie (Eugene Levy). This being Pixar means we also get a healthy dose of Easter eggs, callbacks, and inside gags for the most attentive fans. Here are some of the ones that we caught that you can look for the next time you make a date with Dory. And were certain that we missed a bunch, so let us know via Twitter or comments if you saw something we didnt. Warning: There are some big plot details in here, so stop reading now if you want to avoid being spoiled. Its a Pizza Planet and we just live here Perhaps the best-known of the studios traditional Easter eggs, the Pizza Planet truck made its debut in Toy Story and has appeared in every Pixar feature film since. In Dory, we are reasonably* sure that we saw the pickup among the debris scattered in the shipping lanes during the squid scene. Pay close attention to the squid scene (Disney/Pixar) That also jibes with what Stanton tweeted out last month, writing that the truck appears toward the beginning of the film when queried by a fan. Story continues Somewhere in the first 20 minutes https://t.co/xNNu3jE9vY andrew stanton (@andrewstanton) May 13, 2016 (*I say reasonably because my 11-year-old son insisted he saw it on the freeway during the frenetic chase scene at the end of the film, but I didnt see it myself and thats counter to what Stanton indicated.) Is Morro Bay near the Tri-County Area? Stanton and his team based the Marine Life Institute, a.k.a. The Jewel of Morro Bay, on the Monterey Bay Aquarium and San Franciscos California Academy of Sciences, two facilities near the Pixars Bay Area studios and in the same region as Inside Out and Toy Story, among other Pixar films. Those two films featured specific references to the Tri-County Area, firmly establishing them as part of the same universe (see: The Pixar Unification Theory). The MLI is based on two Bay Area institutions (Disney/Pixar) Morro Bay is about 230 miles south of San Francisco and while Dory doesnt have any direct mentions of Tri-County (at least that we caught), the presence of the Pizza Planet truck and the California setting make it easy to believe that Toy Storys Andy or Inside Outs Riley could pay MLI a visit. However, there is a wink to Pixar HQ during the initial scene at the Marine Life Institute: The two staffers who capture Dory are piloting a boat that has a series of numbers stamped on the side including 1200 and 86. Pixars street address is 1200 Park Ave. in Emeryville and the studio was founded in 1986. Pixar loves hiding Easter eggs in numbers (Disney/Pixar) The Wire reunion on sea lion rock Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) and Jimmy McNulty (Dominic West) were on opposite sides of the law on HBOs unmatched crime drama The Wire. But in Finding Dory, Fluke (Elba) and Rudder (West) are a couple of chummy, chatty sea lions who befriend Dory, Marlin, and Nemo and steal every scene. Dominic West and Idris Elba of The Wire reunitekeep an eye on their flippers for A113 (Disney/Pixar) Aside from Elba and West, there are two other TV pairings among Dorys voice cast. ONeill and Burrell star in ABCs hit Modern Family, while the Saturday Night Live tandem of Bill Hader and Kate McKinnon (who happens to do a mean Ellen DeGeneres impersonation) also cameo, playing a pair of fish that Dory meets during her travels. Where everybody knows your voice Cheers mainstay John Ratzenberger keeps his string alive, voicing a character for the 17th straight time in a Pixar feature. Like many of his more recent cameos, this one is extremely short he plays the crab Bill, a denizen of the blue tang exhibit at the MLI. Youll be forgiven if you didnt catch it right away: Ratzenbergers distinctive voice appears to be digitally altered for the part (which is also briefly on display in one of the trailers). That crab is voiced by John Ratzenberger, even though it doesnt sound like him (Disney/Pixar) Sigourney Weaver the next Ratzenberger? Weaver, who voiced the computer in the Stanton-directed WALL-E (a play on her Alien work), returns to the Pixar Universe as a disembodied version of her real self. She is the celebrity spokeswoman for the Marine Life Institute and her voice is heard throughout the exhibit halls, becoming a running joke as Dory repeatedly notes that Sigourney Weaver said so. This is even funnier for folks who have visited the actual aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences, which features a show narrated by Weaver. Speaking of WALL-E A wall calendar in the MLI namechecks the robot protagonist of Pixars sci-fi classic. The calendar literally pays homage to WALL-E (Disney/Pixar) But thats not all on the walls The aquarium is jam-packed with inside jokes and Pixar references. In the quarantine lab, theres a snapshot of Darla the fish-abusing girl from Finding Nemo adorning one wall Darla, the scourge of sea life down under, pops up again (DIsney/Pixar) while Uku, the volcano from the short Lava (which ran before Inside Out), appears on a magnet on the mini-fridge. Lava him or hate him, Uku appears in magnet form (Disney/Pixar) In addition to appearing at the beginning of the film, Crush the sea turtle (or a reasonable facsimile) can be seen suspended from the ceiling near one of the exhibit tanks as Hank scrambles to get Dory back to her home. Is this really Crush or do all turtles look alike? (Disney/Pixar) Finally, the fine feathered eponymous star of the short Piper, which plays before Dory, is posterized on a wall in a different room at MLI, as initially revealed in a Kelloggs commercial. Piper the bird is as adorable as Piper the short (Disney/Pixar) Finding the original Nemo Alexander Gould voiced the clownfish in the 2003 original. Now 22, he was too old to reprise the role, but that didnt stop director Stanton from bringing him back. He plays one of the hapless Cleveland Aquarium truck drivers duped by Hank and Dory during the films climax, at one point uttering, Were so fired. Pay really close attention to this truck, it is the vehicle of many Easter eggs (Disney/Pixar) The old standbys Aside from Gould, there are a few other Easter eggs tied to the hijacked aquarium truck. The Luxo Ball, which dates back to Pixars very first short, can be seen in the center of the steering wheel, and the requisite nod to Stantons alma mater, A113, is on the trucks license plate. (A113 is the California Institute of the Arts classroom where students like Pixar stars Stanton, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Brad Bird, along with dozens of other animation luminaries, got their start; A113 is one of the most prolific Easter eggs in Hollywood history, up there with the Wilhelm Scream.) Pixars Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and John Lasseter point to their favorite classroom (CalArts) We did it! Now what? Last seen escaping from the dentists office in their plastic bags in Finding Nemo, Gill and his tank crew (Bloat, Peach, Gurgle, Bubbles, Jacques, and Deb) eventually make the scene in Finding Dory. But just barely. They float in during the post-credits sequence, passing by the sea lions and then scooped up by MLI staffers. Stick around to the very end to see Gill and the tank gang make the scene (Disney/Pixar) What we missed One WALL-E reference we didnt spot was Buy-N-Large, the corporate behemoth that has popped up in subsequent Pixar films. We also didnt spot such usual suspects as the Chinese food container (which has appeared in A Bugs Life, Monsters, Inc., and Inside Out), Andys globe from Toy Story (which most recently resurfaced in Inside Out), or a sneak peek at an upcoming Pixar feature (the studio has Cars 3 and the Day of the Dead-inspired Coco in the pipeline for 2017). The scene set in the shipping lanes will require repeat viewings on slo-mo to uncover what is likely a wealth of hidden references. Likewise, the big chase at the end might have some Cars cars or other cartoon cameos that went by too fast for our mortal eyes in the theater. According to the fan site Pixar Post, Fluke and Rudder also have A1 and 13 on their flipper tags at least in some Finding Dory merchandise. Meanwhile, one eagle-eyed fan called Ultimate Orlando claims that piles in the aquarium have the same stamp as those on the Nemo submarine ride at the Disney parks. In the end, what were really kicking ourselves for missing are the two Die Hard references that Stanton said he decided to include after learning about the Internets theory that all the Pixar films take place in the same continuity as Bruce Williss action franchise. If you locate em, please let us know the comments so we can keep an eye out next time we go looking for Dory. Of course, Pixar is so notorious for stuffing its films with inside gags that sometimes fans might see an Easter egg where there might not be one. For instance, several folks have speculated that a VW Beetle that Dory conspicuously swims by is Herbie the Love Bug from the classic Disney family film. However, the VW on the ocean floor doesnt have any of the racing striping or No. 53 stickers visible, making it difficult to believe its an homage to Herbie. No, we dont think the Love Bug has been scuttled, but some do (Disney/Pixar) Pixar knows that movie-goers can obsess over these things, which is why Stanton and company had fun on April Fools Day when they revealed the ultimate Easter egg: (H/t to Pixar Post and its ultra-observant members for initially spotting the Pixar address, WALL-E calendar, and Piper poster.) New York (AFP) - Nearly 15 years after the September 11 attacks, a firefighter who disappeared at the World Trade Center that day has finally been laid to rest. The family buried two blood samples Battalion Chief Lawrence Stack had donated a few months prior to the attacks, after waiting in vain for authorities to recover his remains, nearly giving up hope. Hundreds of firefighters, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Daniel Nigro attended the full-honors funeral held for the 58-year-old at Long Island's Saints Philip and James Catholic Church, near New York, according to the FDNY. "He survived the collapse of the South Tower, quickly freed himself from fallen debris and continued to courageously help others," Nigro said. "He bravely and selflessly stayed to help an injured New Yorker with a severed Achilles tendon. He worked feverishly to find a way to save that person and remove them from harm, as the North Tower collapsed, taking both their lives," he added. Stack's two sons, also firefighters, were among those who carried the coffin, draped in an American flag. The family obtained Stack's blood because the career firefighter had registered on a list of potential bone marrow donors. In doing so he gave a blood sample for type matching, which was discovered on ice at a storage facility in Minnesota, according to local press. The blood was to be buried with full departmental honors at the Calverton National Cemetery on eastern Long Island following the religious ceremony. The firefighter's FDNY jacket was discovered beneath the rubble at ground zero, but search teams never found traces of his body. As the months turned into years, his widow Theresa had decided that after 15 years, it was time to end the wait. Stack's funeral took place on what would have been the couple's 49th wedding anniversary. Of the 2,763 people killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks, only 1,637 have been identified, accounting for 65 percent of the recovered remains. The rest -- some of it microscopic -- is so damaged that it cannot be identified. Of the firefighters who rushed to the World Trade Center as tragedy unfolded that day, 343 were killed. Authorities were unable to recover remains for 127 of them, said Nigro. Los Angeles (AFP) - Firefighters struggled Thursday to contain infernos across the western United States as experts warned that drought-striken California should prepare for an unusually intense wildfire season. Forest fires are a fact of life in much of California but have become far worse because of bone-dry conditions, with the Golden State gripped in its fifth year of drought. A fire in the Los Padres National Forest had expanded to two square miles (five square kilometers) by Thursday, making it the "largest since 2009" in the area, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Information Center told AFP. Strong winds were hampering efforts to contain the blaze, and the operation was expected to be hindered further by near-record temperatures over the weekend in the southern half of California. Los Padres, which begins about two hours' drive northwest of downtown Los Angeles, is popular with hikers and campers, and evacuation orders were issued in at-risk parts of the forest. Sections of Highway 101, which links northern and southern California, were temporarily closed while oil giant ExxonMobil evacuated its refinery in Las Flores Canyon. Another fire further north burned about four square miles and caused road closures, also threatening buildings, although there were no reports of injuries. Lynne Tolmachoff, a spokeswoman for public information organization Calfire, said America's most populous state could see its worst fire season on record this year. Meanwhile, a blaze in Warren Creek, in the northwestern state of Alaska, was raging across eight square miles of a Native American reserve, while four fires were burning up more than 40 square miles in Arizona and New Mexico. Last month fires near Los Angeles pushed 5,000 people out of their homes in the affluent Calabasas area, a suburb which is home to many celebrities including members of the Kardashian family. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) said the southwestern United States could expect "above normal levels of significant fire potential" through at least early July. Story continues "The highest potential will be over Southern California during the first part of the summer as the past rainy season only brought 50 to 70 percent of normal rainfall," it said on its website. "As the summer progresses, above normal significant fire potential area will expand northward to include much of the Sierras and the central coast region." Wildfires in the western United States made 2015 the country's most devastating year since at least 1960. More than 11 million acres (4.5 million hectares) -- an area greater than the size of Denmark -- had been burned by the end of summer, according to data from the NIFC. The agency's data revealed a rise in "mega-fires" since 2000, attributed to factors including a growing number of homes in or near major forests and a trend toward hotter, drier seasons. Last September, more than 1,500 homes were destroyed in two immense fires about 100 miles from San Francisco that caused millions of dollars in damage. By Gleb Stolyarov and Katya Golubkova ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Western investors are jostling with each other for position in Russia in anticipation of the moment when sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis are softened and they can do lucrative business again. Most are not yet coming with money and specific deals - at least, not in the same numbers as before the crisis - so the objective instead is to win favor with the Kremlin by being the first to turn back toward Russia. "Look how many American investors are here, not to mention the Europeans," Sergei Chemezov, head of the state conglomerate Rostec, said at Russia's biggest annual investor show this week, held in St Petersburg. "They understand that we have an enormous market. And whoever comes here first, they get all the spoils," said Chemezov, who used to work with President Vladimir Putin in the Soviet foreign intelligence service. Two years ago, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and its support for a separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Western governments say in public that the sanctions will not be eased until an internationally brokered peace deal on eastern Ukraine, the Minsk agreement, is fully implemented. But many diplomats say in private that deal can never be implemented - not only through Russia's fault but also because the conflict is intractable. At the same time, European economies are stagnating, leaving businesses anxious to get back into the lucrative Russian market. Pressure has therefore been building inside Europe, according to officials with EU member states, for governments to move beyond the Ukraine impasse and lift some of the sanctions, perhaps within the next 12 months. "I think the politicians do listen to business. The politicians have to find their solution," Rainer Seele, chief executive of Austrian energy company OMV (OMVV.VI), told Reuters. GUEST OF HONOR Story continues Italy had the coveted status of guest of honor at the forum in St Petersburg, where investors vie to catch Putin's eye. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was the only head of an EU government to attend apart from the prime minister of Malta. Italy also had the most lavish pavilion of any foreign country at the forum, a large hall whose interior was decorated to resemble an Italian palazzo. Italian Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda said Rome would like to take on the role of building bridges with Russia on behalf of the rest of Europe, and Renzi echoed the sentiment when he took the stage alongside Putin during the forum. "It's a logic of bridges, not walls," he said. Calenda said the two countries had a pipeline of 340 proposed investments, in areas from leather goods to agriculture, that they would work to realize over the next few months. Italy did not have the field to itself, however. "There are a lot of French people here," said an executive at a major Russian company at the St Petersburg forum. "Probably we can interpret this as a signal." Patrick Pouyanne, chief executive of French oil major Total (TOTF.PA), said France had maintained the highest rate of investment in Russia among all Western countries during sanctions. He said there was political rapprochement in the air, in part because France and Russia had learned to work together over the conflict in Syria. "The forum is clearly more active this year. I'm meeting more people this year," he said. "People are adapting." "SANCTIONS AREN'T FOREVER" To be sure, Western investments in Russia are still far from being back to normal. Several of the biggest Russian companies are subject to targeted sanctions, forcing their Western business partners to put joint projects on hold, while the financial sanctions bar many forms of lending to Russia. Even in areas not covered by sanctions, fear of a worsening in political tensions and the hostile atmosphere over Ukraine are still keeping many investors away. A slate of deals were unveiled at the forum, but none on the scale seen at the event in years before the sanctions. "The mood has improved but the facts aren't there," said Vadim Shvetsov, majority owner of Russian automotive company Sollers. He said for investors to return, it would take higher world prices for oil and gas, Russia's biggest export, and a change in the Western rhetoric toward Russia. Still, other people at the forum said Western investors were looking ahead to the future. "Sanctions aren't forever," said Russian Deputy Energy Minister Alexei Texler. In an interview with Reuters, Pavel Grachev, chief executive of Russia's largest gold producer Polyus, said investors were coming back partly because Russia was dialing down the tension in political relations with the West. But there was another reason. "Given that profitability is being squeezed on Western markets, investors are coming here looking for ideas, for profits, whether it's in shares or bonds," Grachev said. "Not for the first time, greed - in the positive sense of the word - is trumping caution." (Additional reporting by Alessandra Galloni, Katya Golubkova, Anastasia Lyrchikova, Olesya Astakhova, Lidia Kelly and Denis Pinchuk, Oksana Kobzeva, Darya Korsunskaya, Denis Dyomkin and Alex Winning; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Alessandra Galloni and Kevin Liffey) By Gleb Stolyarov and Katya Golubkova ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Western investors are jostling with each other for position in Russia in anticipation of the moment when sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis are softened and they can do lucrative business again. Most are not yet coming with money and specific deals - at least, not in the same numbers as before the crisis - so the objective instead is to win favour with the Kremlin by being the first to turn back toward Russia. "Look how many American investors are here, not to mention the Europeans," Sergei Chemezov, head of the state conglomerate Rostec, said at Russia's biggest annual investor show this week, held in St Petersburg. "They understand that we have an enormous market. And whoever comes here first, they get all the spoils," said Chemezov, who used to work with President Vladimir Putin in the Soviet foreign intelligence service. Two years ago, the United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and its support for a separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Western governments say in public that the sanctions will not be eased until an internationally brokered peace deal on eastern Ukraine, the Minsk agreement, is fully implemented. But many diplomats say in private that deal can never be implemented - not only through Russia's fault but also because the conflict is intractable. At the same time, European economies are stagnating, leaving businesses anxious to get back into the lucrative Russian market. Pressure has therefore been building inside Europe, according to officials with EU member states, for governments to move beyond the Ukraine impasse and lift some of the sanctions, perhaps within the next 12 months. "I think the politicians do listen to business. The politicians have to find their solution," Rainer Seele, chief executive of Austrian energy company OMV (OMVV.VI), told Reuters. GUEST OF HONOUR Story continues Italy had the coveted status of guest of honour at the forum in St Petersburg, where investors vie to catch Putin's eye. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was the only head of an EU government to attend apart from the prime minister of Malta. Italy also had the most lavish pavilion of any foreign country at the forum, a large hall whose interior was decorated to resemble an Italian palazzo. Italian Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda said Rome would like to take on the role of building bridges with Russia on behalf of the rest of Europe, and Renzi echoed the sentiment when he took the stage alongside Putin during the forum. "It's a logic of bridges, not walls," he said. Calenda said the two countries had a pipeline of 340 proposed investments, in areas from leather goods to agriculture, that they would work to realise over the next few months. Italy did not have the field to itself, however. "There are a lot of French people here," said an executive at a major Russian company at the St Petersburg forum. "Probably we can interpret this as a signal." Patrick Pouyanne, chief executive of French oil major Total (TOTF.PA), said France had maintained the highest rate of investment in Russia among all Western countries during sanctions. He said there was political rapprochement in the air, in part because France and Russia had learned to work together over the conflict in Syria. "The forum is clearly more active this year. I'm meeting more people this year," he said. "People are adapting." "SANCTIONS AREN'T FOREVER" To be sure, Western investments in Russia are still far from being back to normal. Several of the biggest Russian companies are subject to targeted sanctions, forcing their Western business partners to put joint projects on hold, while the financial sanctions bar many forms of lending to Russia. Even in areas not covered by sanctions, fear of a worsening in political tensions and the hostile atmosphere over Ukraine are still keeping many investors away. A slate of deals were unveiled at the forum, but none on the scale seen at the event in years before the sanctions. "The mood has improved but the facts aren't there," said Vadim Shvetsov, majority owner of Russian automotive company Sollers. He said for investors to return, it would take higher world prices for oil and gas, Russia's biggest export, and a change in the Western rhetoric towards Russia. Still, other people at the forum said Western investors were looking ahead to the future. "Sanctions aren't forever," said Russian Deputy Energy Minister Alexei Texler. In an interview with Reuters, Pavel Grachev, chief executive of Russia's largest gold producer Polyus, said investors were coming back partly because Russia was dialling down the tension in political relations with the West. But there was another reason. "Given that profitability is being squeezed on Western markets, investors are coming here looking for ideas, for profits, whether it's in shares or bonds," Grachev said. "Not for the first time, greed - in the positive sense of the word - is trumping caution." (Additional reporting by Alessandra Galloni, Katya Golubkova, Anastasia Lyrchikova, Olesya Astakhova, Lidia Kelly and Denis Pinchuk, Oksana Kobzeva, Darya Korsunskaya, Denis Dyomkin and Alex Winning; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Alessandra Galloni and Kevin Liffey) Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f12038%2f736998c9c3e443ec9c5bc28bc739e666 A wildfire in Southern California that has already spread to over 4,000 acres created a firenado on Thursday, a rare yet mesmerizing event that's just slightly more believable than a sharknado. The wildfire has caused Santa Barbara County to declare a state of emergency as the blaze spread over the Santa Ynez Mountains. The LA Times reports that only 5% on the fire has been contained. The firenado, which actually isn't a tornado at all, was captured on video in Refugio Canyon, and was formed as the result of hot, dry air rising quickly from the ground, according to Live Science. As the air rises, vertical columns of air are formed which then begin to swirl in a vortex. When these vortexes are formed near a fire, burning material, ash and gasses are picked up, much like a dust devil would pick up sand. Firenados typically only last just a few moments, which is why they are rarely caught on camera. Philippines phone company ad captures the way we text our dads Super relatable Dwayne Johnson tastes candy for the first time since 1989 Rihanna is joyfully glittery in her new video for 'This Is What You Came For' Beyond perplexed kitten sees her reflection for the first time (Reuters) - (Note language in 3rd paragraph) Orlando nightclub gunman Omar Mateen cursed and flippantly discussed the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in a clip from a documentary about the Deepwater Horizon disaster that emerged on Wednesday. Mateen was filmed secretly by the makers of the documentary, "The Big Fix," as he worked as a security guard at a beach at night in Pensacola, Florida where the clean up was taking place. In the video, he disparages workers who were cleaning up the spill saying: "No-one gives a shit here. Like, everybody's just out to get paid. They're, like, hoping for more oil to come out and more people to complain so they'll have the jobs." "(Be)cause once people get laid off here it's going to suck for them. They want more disaster to happen. Because that's where their money making is," he added in the roughly 40-second clip. The film-makers, Josh and Rebecca Tickell, said in a statement that they had turned the footage over to authorities. "We do not want to add any more undue attention to the shooter. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims of the massacre, we grieve with you," they said. Mateen opened fire on Sunday in a gay nightclub in Orlando, killing 49 people and wounding dozens more in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Mateen was shot dead by police after a three-hour rampage through the nightclub. Investigators have questioned Mateen's wife, the FBI said on Wednesday, and a law enforcement source said she could face criminal charges if there is evidence of any wrongdoing. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Alistair Bell) Marco Rubio A Florida Senate candidate may have just tipped Marco Rubio's hand Friday morning. David Jolly, a Republican congressman from the state who is running for Rubio's Senate seat in an August primary, told CNN's "New Day" that "Marco is saying he's getting in." Jolly announced around noon Friday that he's suspending his Senate campaign and instead focusing on reelection to his House seat. A Jolly representative later reached out to CNN, saying Jolly had no knowledge of Rubio's decision. When reached for comment on Jolly's remarks, a spokeswoman for Rubio pointed Business Insider to that response from Jolly's representative. Rubio said Wednesday that he would reconsider his decision not to seek reelection, a decision he made when seeking the presidency in what turned out to be a failed bid. Speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill, the Florida senator said he was considering mounting a last-minute reelection bid for his seat. His announcement came after the Orlando, Florida, terrorist attack the deadliest mass shooting in US history. "I'll go home later this week and I'll have time with my family," Rubio said. "If there's a change in status, I'll be sure let everyone know." Rubio said on Monday that he was thinking about his "service to country" after the Orlando attack, but he declined to speculate at the time on whether it would change his decision not to seek reelection. Since Rubio exited the presidential race after losing the Florida primary to Donald Trump, many Republicans have urged the senator to reconsider his decision not to seek reelection. In an interview with Business Insider earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Rubio to seek reelection, noting that he had "ample time" before the state's June 24 filing deadline. "It will be good for him, good for the Senate, and he can win," McConnell said. "Therefore, it'd make it much more likely that we'll have a Senate majority this year." Story continues "I hope he will decide to run again," McConnell said. Rubio also confirmed a Politico report Wednesday that Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, a close friend of his, asked the senator to run after the tragedy in their home state. Lopez-Cantera is a top contender for the seat. NOW WATCH: Sen. Mitch McConnell on why Rubio should run again for Senate: 'He can win' More From Business Insider An activist dressed as Scrooge McDuck throws counterfeit money from a golden mountain onto protesters during a demonstratio Chief executives are under pressure to produce returns for shareholders often at any cost. Activist investors, who now manage some $174 billion in assets, have exploded onto the scene, shaking up boards and pushing for share repurchases, company breakups, or outright sales in order to get stock prices higher. But the trade-off of this focus on shareholder value is spending that benefits other stakeholders, like employees and customers, said Bill George, the former CEO of medical-device company Medtronic. Value has to be created for your customers and, in turn, your employees, George said in an interview with Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal. "If you do that," he says, "you'll have great value for your shareholders too." George, a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, blames the swing to put shareholders before anyone else on the distortion of money in the financial-services industry. George said: The real problem is that there's just too much money being made on Wall Street. Last year, the top 25 hedge fund managers made $500 million average and the top 2 made a billion seven. There's too high fees. The idea of getting 2% of a person's funds plus 20% of the upside and not sharing in the downside is leading to a lot of short term distortion in the market and unnecessary short term pressures on CEOs. Listen to the whole interview here: "The Price of Profits," our series with Marketplace, looks at what happens when profits become a company's product. For more, visit PriceOfProfits.org. NOW WATCH: Hugh Hefner's son reacts to the sale of the Playboy Mansion More From Business Insider More than a year after resigning as CEO of Participant Media, Jim Berk has made his next move. He is joining podcasting company PodcastOne as CEO. The company, which operates an advertising network for podcasts including The Adam Carolla Show and Freakonomics Radio, announced Thursday that with Berk's hire, PodcastOne founder Norm Pattiz will step down from the role of CEO but retain his position as executive chairman. "Jim has done tremendous work in transitioning companies to their next stage of growth, and with him joining the PodcastOne leadership team, our possibilities are endless," said Pattiz. Berk led Jeff Skoll's Participant for eight years before resigning in April 2015. Under his leadership, the company launched cable network Pivot and released several big films including An Inconvenient Truth and The Help. "It's exciting to enter this media space during a time of unprecedented expansion as consumer interest for the audience format in on-demand programming is experiencing rapid growth," said Berk. He joins the company as the podcasting industry has seen rapid expansion following the success of the first season of Serial. And Berk is not alone in making the move from Hollywood to podcasts. Former Fox TV executive Hernan Lopez launched podcast network Wondery earlier this year. Beverly Hills-based PodcastOne has an advertising network of more than 200 shows that saw 1.5 billion downloads in 2015. Read More: 'Awards Chatter' Podcast Seth Meyers ('Late Night With Seth Meyers') Voesendorf (Austria) (AFP) - The beer flowed and the oompah music boomed in Vienna Friday as France's Marine Le Pen, boosted by the prospect of a "Brexit", fired up a far-right rally of European far-right "patriots" in Austria. The elites of Europe "are scared that the United Kingdom is regaining its liberty, its freedom to trade with whom it pleases," the National Front leader told a flag-waving crowd of some 2,000 people. Introduced to cheers as "France's next president", she said: "We want all the peoples of Europe to take back these liberties. The will of the people has to be respected." Calling Europe's immigration policies "crazy", she called on the British "not to be swayed by the speeches of fear" on May 23 from the likes of EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker. Le Pen also said it would be "indecent" for either side in the debate in Britain to capitalise on Thursday's murder of British MP Jo Cox. The gathering was hosted by Austria's Freedom Party (FPOe), which almost won presidential elections in May and which is leading opinion polls ahead of the next scheduled elections in 2018. "We don't want Europe to be a carbon copy of the United States... We want a Europe of fatherlands," FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache told the beered-up, smoky meeting outside Vienna. "The new fascism comes from the left and from radical Islam," he roared to the audience in a conference centre, a huge glass pyramid, in a commercial zone in Voesendorf. The rally -- called the "Patriotic Spring" -- was a gathering of the Europe for Nations and Freedom alliance, the nine-country European parliamentary bloc that Le Pen chairs. It included Lorenzo Fontana of Italy's Northern League, Marcus Pretzell from Alternative for Germany (AfD), Gerolf Annemans from Belgium's Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) and former UK Independence Party (UKIP) member Janice Atkinson. Story continues - Populism - Populist parties across Europe -- and beyond -- have gained traction in recent years, with their alarm over immigration and attacks on the political "elite" resonating strongly with voters. In Austria, Norbert Hofer of the FPOe -- who welcomed Le Pen to Vienna with a kiss on her hand -- last month came close to being elected to the largely ceremonial but coveted post of president. The party is contesting the result. At an earlier press conference with Strache, Le Pen -- expected to make a strong run for French president in 2017 -- said the French had even more reason than the British to leave the EU. "France possibly has a thousand more reasons to want to leave the EU than the English," and all bloc members "need to question their relations with the EU," Le Pen said. The strength of the Brexit camp was a "strong sign" of a popular awakening, she said. "We want to spread this idea of Europe 'a la carte' that some countries have already attained, like Denmark... and Britain of course," she added. This was the only way "to ensure a prosperous and peaceful future" in a bloc riven by "confusion and chaos". She said that the EU elites wanted "nations to disappear to create a great uniform whole... unable to manage our own budgets, our economic policy and to decide who can come to our countries". "But the peoples cannot be got rid of that easily," she added. I am pleased to announce that the French attorneys, Ludovic Riviere and Michael Malka, were able to convince the Judge in Toulouse to release Freddie Gibbs on bail pending a final decision on the extradition request by the Austrian authorities. He will be released upon the deposit of $50,000 Euros. He will be required to turn in his passport and check in with authorities 3 times per week. We expect him to be released either today or tomorrow while the court decides what to do with the extradition request. Additionally, last weekend, I had the chance to fly to France and meet with Freddie and the attorneys from both France and Austria. After the meeting, and talking to Freddie it is really shocking these allegations were ever filed against him. They were brought months later with no scientific nor physical evidence against him. We are hoping that the Public Prosecutor in Austria sees this and decides not to file formal charges against him. If she does, Freddie will fight them with everything he has. He has worked too hard on his career and family to get where he is and is in complete shock over this false allegation. It is important to note that his fiancee has flown to France to support him. She has his back and knows he didnt do anything wrong. Paris (AFP) - Talks between France's labour minister and the head of the country's main union Friday failed to break a deadlock over labour market reforms which have led to months of anti-government protests. The two sides "did not find consensus," Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri said after meeting for an hour and a half with hardline CGT secretary general Philippe Martinez who has spearheaded the protests. "There are points of disagreement between the CGT and the government on basic things," Martinez said, for his part. "These disagreements were confirmed today." The head of the powerful union reiterated its demand that several key articles of the bill be withdrawn or "rewritten". El Khomri said the text bearing her name could be "enriched" but "without undermining its purpose." The Socialist government's reform is aimed at tackling France's entrenched 10-percent unemployment rate and widespread job insecurity. But critics say the legislation will fail to reduce joblessness, is too pro-business and threatens cherished workers' rights. Notably, the measures would make hiring and firing easier. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday for the latest protests against the bill, descending into the worst violence since the wave of demonstrations and strikes began in March. The unrest in Paris, which left 40 injured, prompted the government to threaten a ban on demonstrations, while the CGT faulted security forces for failing to quell the violence. Ten protesters were on Friday given prison terms ranging from four months behind bars to six-month suspended sentences. Martinez repeated a demand for the Senate to suspend debate on the bill in order to allow new negotiations to take place. The opposition-dominated Senate opened debate Monday on the bill, which bypassed the lower house last month when the government used a constitutional tool to push it through without a vote. Story continues The senators, who are expected to push for changes more favourable to employers, will wrap up their debate on June 24, with a vote set for four days later. The unions have already called new protests for June 23 and 28, and Martinez said Friday he had "no reason" to cancel them. If the two houses of parliament fail to agree on the legislation, the lower house will have the final say -- and Prime Minister Manuel Valls could again use the constitutional manoeuvre to ram the bill through. President Francois Hollande, who faces a re-election bid next April, had hoped for a signature reform to reverse his approval ratings, which are among the worst of a modern French leader. DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Fresh violence in northwest Central African Republic this week has killed several people and forced thousands from their homes, with many seeking refuge in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon, the United Nations said on Friday. The spate of attacks and reprisals took place in Ngaoundaye, about 500 km (300 miles) northwest of the capital, between groups backed by Christian militias and herders supported by Muslim fighters, said the U.N. peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA). Several people have been injured and killed in recent days, houses have been burned and looted, and thousands of people have been uprooted, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "This new spiral of violence will likely cause additional needs in CAR while the increasing insecurity is rendering the work of humanitarian actors even more challenging," Michel Yao, the country's humanitarian coordinator, said in a statement. Central African Republic descended into chaos in March 2013 when mainly Muslim Seleka fighters seized power, triggering reprisal attacks by Christian anti-balaka militias. A fifth of the population fled their homes due to violence and the country remains largely divided along religious lines and controlled by warlords. More than 400,000 people have been internally displaced, and some half-a-million have fled to neighbouring countries such as Chad, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, OCHA said. Aid access in the country is hindered by insecurity and violence, and there were more than a dozen attacks against aid workers last month, according to the U.N. agency. Medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) halted operations in the west of the country last month after a staff member was shot dead during an ambush on one of its convoys.[nL5N18G69J] MSF said more than two-thirds of the country's health facilities have been damaged or destroyed by fighting since 2013, while around 2.3 million people half of the population urgently need humanitarian aid, according to OCHA. President Faustin-Archange Touadera took office in March after elections aimed at drawing a line under the crisis, and observers hope his election will help end the country's unrest. (Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org) Mumbai (AFP) - When Santosh Gaikwad, India's last-known practising taxidermist, first started stuffing animals 13 years ago he would keep dead birds in his family's freezer at home, much to his wife's consternation. Now, as the head of India's only taxidermy centre, he enjoys the use of two deep freezers large enough to hold a lion -- at the government-run workshop in Mumbai's national park. "I had no option but to keep the dead birds in the home freezer," Gaikwad told AFP, flanked by a snarling leopard, Bengal tiger and two contented-looking lionesses. "My wife was afraid because we didn't know how they had died. She thought food might get infected. So I wrapped them in two or three plastic bags, air-tight," he added. Back then, Gaikwad would take the birds from Mumbai's Bombay Veterinary College where he still works as a professor in anatomy department. Now he has built up such a reputation he receives a continuous supply of animals from state governments and pet owners. Taxidermy, popular in British colonial times, may conjure up images of Indian maharajas killing tigers and proudly displaying their stuffed corpses in their lavish palaces. But India's Wildlife Protection Act 1972 outlawed the hunting of wild animals and taxidermy trophies. Instead Gaikwad, 42, stuffs animals that have suffered a natural or accidental death and is inundated with requests to prepare animals for museums and for grieving pet lovers. It may seem a strange hobby to some but "there's a lot of demand" said Gaikwad, clad in a green surgical gown at the national taxidermy centre, opened in 2009 in Mumbai's lush Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Gaikwad, who is the only person authorised by the Indian government to stuff wild animals, explains that "taxidermy is the combination of five arts: "sculpture, painting, carpentry, cobbler, and anatomy". He skins the animal soon after death. Any remaining flesh is then carefully removed. Measurements are taken of the animal's body mass and a cast replica is prepared based on the original skeleton. Story continues - Stuffed Siberian tiger - The real skin is then placed on the mannequin and the finishing touches put in place -- glass eyes, perhaps whiskers and finally the stuffed creature is mounted. He says he has stuffed 13 big cats, including a Siberian tiger, a Himalayan black bear, more than 500 birds, including a Great Indian Bustard and at least 100 fish and reptiles. Gaikwad charges owners up to 3,000 rupees ($45) to stuff an exotic bird and between 10,000 and 18,000 rupees for a dog, depending on breed and size. In 2014, Mumbai resident Susmita Mallik paid him to stuff her large German Shepherd Bruno after it died of a heart attack. She said the dog was "like a child" to her. "I just couldn't think of losing him," she told AFP, adding that Bruno looks "exactly" the same as when he was alive. "He is in the living room. I can touch him and brush him. It makes us feel he is with us," the 43-year-old added. It takes Gaikwad around eight months to prepare a big cat as he has to balance his work with his responsibilities at the veterinary college. He's come a long way since his interest in the ancient art was piqued by a visit to the natural history section of Mumbai's main museum in 2003. "The animals were so realistic that I wanted to learn how to do it but nobody was teaching so I started by searching on the Internet," Gaikwad told AFP. "An assistant to a British taxidermist told me the procedure and from what I learnt from that person and Google I started to make incisions on birds." Those initial attempts were unsuccessful though. "Bird skin is very thin and often it would tear," he explained. - Mounting concerns - After mastering birds and fish, the former veterinarian moved on to cats and dogs before progressing to larger land mammals. Gaikwad says there is no single taxidermy course in India that accompanies all of the five disciplines, and claims to be the only one practising taxidermy on mammals. "There is no next generation. It's a worry," Parag Dhakate, an animal conservationist, told AFP. Gaikwad was upset when a devastating fire at India's natural history museum in New Delhi in April destroyed rare specimens of flora and fauna, lamenting the damage done as "a great loss to education". He sees his work as important to preserving knowledge of India's wildlife particularly if it's an endangered species. "These are national treasures. If we burn them then we cannot see these animals again and their beauty will have permanently disappeared. "Taxidermy is the optimal utilisation of that dead body. It's a rebirth. It's life after death." A defiant fist is raised at a vigil in Los Angeles for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. (Photo: David McNew/Getty Images) The Orlando shooting has once again shone a spotlight on the LGBT community as the target of a terrible act of violence. Its also prompted intense debate over whether the attack was influenced by gunman Omar Mateens Muslim faith. In the aftermath of the shootings, some close to Mateen, including his ex-wife, have suggested that he may have questioned his own sexuality in the months and years before the attack. In general, mainstream Muslim teachings forbid homosexuality, although how this is interpreted varies. According to the Human Rights Campaign, Depending on nationality, generation, family upbringing and cultural influences, Islamic individuals and institutions fall along a wide spectrum, from welcoming and inclusive to a level of rejection that can be marked by a range of actions ranging from social sequestration to physical violence. Yahoo News spoke to three members of this small, relatively unseen community about the often painful paradox of being an LGBT Muslim in the United States. **** MALIK K. Malik K. (not his real name) was born and raised in Jordan by Palestinian parents. He says he started having feelings for men at a young age, but it wasnt until he was about 12, and gained access to the Internet, that he first learned the word gay. It would take another four years for Malik to accept that he was homosexual, but even then, coming out to his Muslim family wasnt really an option. So Malik kept his sexuality a secret until 2013, when, at 24, he was exposed. Someone found pictures of him on the gay dating app Grindr and posted them to Facebook. My life just stopped, Malik says, describing the response from his father and brothers as very aggressive. I had no family, no job, he says. I couldnt stay. So Malik contacted a friend who knew people in the United States and asked him where he should go. His friend put him in touch with someone who had an open room in San Francisco, and he left Jordan on a six-month visitors visa. He hasnt been back since. His family still doesnt even know where he is. Story continues Once in San Francisco, Malik learned that the United States offers asylum to gay people who face persecution in their home country. After a couple of months, he decided to apply for asylum and was approved. Hes now in the process of getting his green card. Malik identifies more as culturally Muslim than practicing. He doesnt always fast during Ramadan, but when hes around other Muslims who are fasting, he wont eat or drink water in front of them. Islam is not the most tolerant religion, but I still find its not a bad religion, he says. Its not what people think. Ever since the shooting in Orlando on Sunday, however, Malik says hes become very hesitant to say anything in defense of Islam, for fear of being associated with the gunman because of his religion. As a result, he says, he hasnt gone out all week, has avoided discussing the shooting with friends, and refrained from weighing in on Facebook debates, where, he says, hes read hateful comments about Islam from people who know him personally. Its not cool to be called faggot and terrorist at the same time, he said, referring to the deluge of hateful comments he has encountered on Facebook. Its very confusing. I cant get it out of my head. Malik also cant help but think about the fact that it was pure chance that landed him in one of the most liberal areas of the country. If, three years ago, my friend had found me a room in Orlando instead of San Francisco, I couldve been there that night, he says. I couldve been killed at Pulse. The night of the shooting, Malik says, I was out with my friends. We were drinking and having fun and dancing all night. This could happen anywhere. Malik still plans to go out and celebrate Pride in San Francisco this weekend, but now Im terrified. Its not going to be the same anymore, he says. People will be going out to support each other, but they will still be worried and keeping an eye open. It could happen anywhere, anytime. While as a gay man, Malik feels like a victim of the attack, hes also starting to feel alienated from the rest of the LGBT community because of his religion. In Jordan, I felt guilty for being gay, he says. Now I feel guilty for being Muslim and I didnt choose any of those. Even before the shooting in Orlando, Malik says the political rhetoric of the presidential election over the last year has made him feel increasingly anxious. Last year, I was so happy to be gay in a country that legalized gay marriage. But now, almost a year after the landmark Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, Malik says, I feel this country doesnt want me anymore. Now what? he wonders. Where should I go? Its very confusing. NAMIR NASSIR As a kid in Pakistan, Namir Nassir was kind of flamboyant. He loved music and dancing, and whether he was at home with his family in Karachi, or with his Muslim relatives in Los Angeles, where he moved at age 15 to attend high school, Nassir says, I was always the odd one out. I spent the first 19 years of my life being in the closet, feeling ashamed of who I was, says Nassir, now 35 and an actor. Then, during the summer after his sophomore year at University of California at Santa Barbara, he finally decided to come out. Nassir was visiting his family in Karachi, and his father was making fun of his newly dyed red hair. He said, Only fags do that. Are you a fag? Nassir recalls. On the spur of the moment, he decided to tell the truth. Nassir says his family disowned him for three months until his older sisters wedding. But although they agreed to make amends for the occasion, for the next 12 or 13 years, his relationship with his family remained strained. Every couple of years, under pressure from his sisters, Nassir says he would take it back to his father, insisting his homosexuality was just a phase. His father suggested electroshock therapy, sex with prostitutes, anything he could think of, Nassir says. Meanwhile, back in California after coming out, Nassir dropped out of college and moved to L.A. I wanted to experience what it was like to be gay, he says. After 19 years of repression, diving into gay life in Los Angeles was a shock to his senses and to his Muslim sensibilities. Do you know how hard it was for me to go to clubs and see white, gay culture? Men with their shirts off, beautiful bodies, drinking, smoking, doing drugs. Nassir says he was compelled to assimilate in order to be accepted by the community, but at the same time felt fetishized by other gay men because he was different. You dont understand the self-loathing, that comes with being gay and Muslim, he said. Or, he added, how deeply, deeply affected a Muslim man is by his religion from the day we are born. And how wrong it is to be gay, how completely and totally against the code of God it is to be gay. It messes with your mind, he says. Its really, really hard. It was a painful journey toward finding his identity as a Muslim gay man, one that he says he would not have been able to endure without his faith. Even though Ive been alone and lost friends and made friends and have family members I barely talk to anymore, throughout it all I have my faith, he says. I pray to God every day. Nassir believes that even though hes gay and has had sex sins in the eyes of Islam the fact that hes never drank alcohol or tried drugs, prays five times a day and fasts during Ramadan, has kept my soul pure. Nassir also credits his religion with allowing him to escape the fate of so many gay Muslim men who spend their lives in the closet, often with a wife and children. I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones, he says. You live your life as a straight man, but all you want to do is be gay and be held by a man, and you see men holding hands and kissing and going to clubs and being happy. Its a terrible thing, because it eats away at your soul, he added. And the biggest problem is there is no one to talk to. In the wake of the recent tragedy in Orlando, Nassir says, now is the time for people who are gay and Muslims to speak up. I like that Anderson Cooper is getting teared up on TV, he says, but I want people to see that you can be someone like me and be gay and go to clubs and have sex and have fun, but I also dont drink or do drugs. There were a few years where Nassir and his sisters did not speak. Now, he says, We have an amazing relationship. As for his father, He acknowledges I am the way I am, but hes still really religious. Hes not going to be joining the Pride Parade anytime soon. RAFIQ Rafiq (not his real name) is a 35-year-old gay man who works in finance in New York. Hes also a practicing Muslim. Though most of his family and friends know hes gay, Rafiq asked that his real name be withheld, because he is not out at work. Rafiq was born and raised in the United States, the third of six children born to a Pakistani father and an American mother who converted to Islam. Rafiq said that marrying an American woman made his father seem rebellious by comparison to the rest of his family, but he still sought to impart Pakistani traditions and religious beliefs to his American children. Rafiq and his siblings were raised Muslim; they were taught to pray, learned Arabic, read the Quran, and went to the mosque. As a family, they didnt eat pork or drink alcohol, and they fasted during Ramadan. When his older brother and sister started dating in high school, Rafiq says, it caused a huge drama with his father, who did not believe in dating before marriage. His dads attitude toward homosexuality was just as traditional. I was closeted for a very long time, and didnt come out to my father for a very long time for fear of being kicked out of the house, he says. Rafiq made the deliberate decision to move out on his own as soon as he graduated from college, but knows how much harder things could have been if he had continued to live with his parents, as most Muslim kids are encouraged to do until theyre married. Ive met gay Muslim men who are married and have kids, and I totally get it it, because of the culture, Rafiq says. If everyone in your circle is strict Muslim, theyll never approve of it. They see it as a lifestyle. Based on the information that continues to emerge about Mateen including reports that the gunman had used gay dating apps, regularly visited Pulse nightclub and, according to his father, had recently become enraged at the sight of two men kissing in Miami Rafiq says, he wouldnt be surprised if the Orlando gunman was struggling with something similar. He may have had an inkling, he may have been questioning his sexuality, he may have been curious. You dont really know, Rafiq says. He may have actually been gay and just afraid of himself. When I first was curious, experimenting with being gay, the last thing I wanted was for someone to find out, he continued. When you are so close with your family and live with them, you lead these dual, secretive lives. In the case of Mateen, Rafiq says, I could totally see if he was living a double life and hiding this from them, if his family was superreligious and if they found out, they might have shunned him or made him feel like a bad person. Whatever Mateens sexuality, Rafiq said this tragedy highlights the need for more support for LGBT people who are having this conflict of religion. Rafiq has accumulated a number of gay Muslim friends over the years, but for most people, who are struggling with being Muslim and being gay, there arent a lot of outlets for you. You cant talk about it in the mosque. Its hard to find each other. If Mateen was in fact gay, Rafiq says, had he maybe had other gay Muslim friends to talk to about what he was going through, or if he had those resources, maybe that couldve helped him. Thats one thing I wonder, how that wouldve changed things if he had those outlets. Now Rafiq says his mother is totally cool with me being gay, and his siblings are fine with it, too though he still gets pressure from his older brother, who has recently become more devout, to conform and marry a woman. Before his fathers death from cancer this year, Rafiq said their relationship came a long way, but he never reached complete acceptance. He always accepted me as his son, but he wasnt going to accept the gay thing, he said. One of the most common misconceptions Rafiq encounters from non-Muslims is that he cant possibly be both gay and Muslim. In fact, Rafiq says he has many gay friends who were raised Muslim but no longer practice because, there are so many things in the religion that are contradictory to who we are especially if youre gay. He struggles with it himself, he says, Like, why am I bothering fasting right now for a religion that believes my people should be killed? Even today, he says, I would never go into a mosque and profess my sexuality, because its not something they would accept. I would not feel safe. But for Rafiq, being a Muslim is as much a part of his identity as being a gay man. So hes found a way to balance the two. Were taught that Allah is all-giving and all-merciful, and on the Day of Judgment, all sins can be forgiven, he says. Like Nassir, Rafiq figures that if I dont drink, I dont commit other sins, I dont kill others, I pray, I fast during Ramadan. If I follow everything right and do things properly, the only sin left would be the fact that Im gay. He realizes this rationale may not be accepted by other Muslims, but says, I dont know how I could embrace my religion any other way. Thats the only way that Ive been able to really justify it. ______ Related slideshows: Slideshow: Funerals and memorials for slain Orlando victims >>> Slideshow: Obama visits families of the Orlando massacre victims >>> Slideshow: Victims of the Florida nightclub shooting >>> Slideshow: Front page coverage of the Orlando mass shooting >>> Slideshow: World reacts to Orlando mass shooting >>> Slideshow: Shooting rampage at Florida nightclub >>> Detmold (Germany) (AFP) - A former SS guard was on Friday convicted by a German court for complicity in the mass murders at Auschwitz death camp, capping what is likely one of the last Holocaust trials. More than 70 years after World War II, Reinhold Hanning, 94, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment over his role at the Nazi-run camp in occupied Poland. "This trial is the very least that society can do to give... at least a semblance of justice, even 70 years after and even with a 94-year-old defendant," chief judge Anke Grudda said. "The entire complex Auschwitz was like a factory designed to kill people at an industrial level... You were one of those cogs" in the Nazi killing machine, she told the accused on convicting him as an accessory to murder in 170,000 cases. During the four-month trial, which involved witnesses giving harrowing accounts of the living hell they faced, prosecutors outlined how Hanning had watched over the selection of prisoners deemed fit for slave labour, and those sent to the gas chambers. They also accused him of knowing about the regular mass shootings and the systematic starvation of prisoners. For Holocaust survivors and inmates' descendants, the trial marked "a big, even though a late, step towards a just examination of the mass murders in Auschwitz". This is because it for the first time focused on "the division of labour in the collective mass murders at Auschwitz," the plaintiffs said in a joint statement. Unlike previous trials of officers who personally sent people to the gas chambers, this case covered the broader organisation of the extermination camp, where inmates were also starved to death or killed in summary executions. - 'A fair trial' - The verdict was welcomed by World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder. "Mr. Hanning got a fair trial, and todays verdict is very clear: He was complicit in mass murder. He was part of a merciless killing machine. Without the active participation of people like him, Auschwitz would not have been possible." Story continues Prosecutors had sought six years in prison on grounds that Hanning "contributed to the extermination aim of the camp", while his lawyers wanted an acquittal, saying he had not personally "killed, hit or abused" anyone. In April, Hanning himself broke his silence, speaking for the first time about his time at Auschwitz in court. Telling victims "I am sorry," he admitted to the court that he knew prisoners were being shot and gassed and that their bodies were burned at the camp. He admitted being "silent all my life" about the atrocities because he felt deep shame, and had never spoken a word about it to his wife, children or grandchildren. "No one in my family knew that I worked at Auschwitz. I simply could not talk about it. I was ashamed," said the white-haired, bespectacled widower, who ran a dairy after the war. "I deeply regret having listened to a criminal organisation that is responsible for the deaths of many innocent people, for the destruction of countless families, for the misery, distress and suffering on the part of victims and their relatives. "I am ashamed that I let this injustice happen and did nothing to prevent it," he told the court. - Few convictions over Auschwitz - More than one million European Jews were killed at Auschwitz. Yet, of the camp's 6,500 SS personnel who survived the war, fewer than 50 were ever convicted. Hanning's trial follows a high-profile case last year against Oskar Groening, dubbed the "Bookkeeper of Auschwitz". Groening was sentenced in July to four years in prison, even though he had previously been cleared by German authorities after lengthy criminal probes dating back to the 1970s. But the legal basis for prosecuting former Nazis changed in 2011 with Germany's landmark conviction of former death camp guard John Demjanjuk. He was sentenced not for atrocities he was known to have committed, but on the basis that he served at the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland -- for having been a cog in the Nazis' killing machine. Another case currently being heard by a German court is that of former SS medic Hubert Zafke, 95, who is charged with at least 3,681 counts of complicity in murder. Hearings have however been repeatedly postponed owing to the poor health of the defendant, raising questions on whether it can go ahead. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre's chief Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, welcomed Friday's conviction but also called on German authorities to "do everything in their power to expedite the remaining cases". "The pursuit of justice for Holocaust victims deserves a maximum effort while those responsible for the crimes of the Third Reich can still be held accountable," he said. By Jessica Resnick-Ault NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global oil majors Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L) are putting small refineries on the auction block as they look to trim lower-margin assets in the face of headwinds from rising crude oil prices. Chevron, the second largest U.S. oil company, is soliciting interest in its Burnaby, British Columbia, refinery and gasoline stations, the company told Reuters. Shell is looking for buyers for its Martinez, California, refinery, two people familiar with the situation told Reuters. Shell declined to comment. These two companies, along with peers Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and BP Plc (BP.L), have sold more than a million barrels per day of U.S. refining capacity in the past three years, according to Stratas Advisors, a Houston-based consultancy. The world's five largest oil majors together still have enough U.S. capacity to refine about 4.7 million barrels per day. Refining profit margins have declined from highs seen in 2015, and the fear is that as crude prices recover from a two-year rout, refiners will be squeezed as the cost of oil rises but the price of gasoline does not keep pace. Selling the plants while margins are still reasonably high allows the majors to exit without a hit to their balance sheets. Chevron also told Reuters it has retained Rothschild & Co to market its 75 percent stake in a South Africa refinery. The fifth oil major, Paris-based Total SA (TOTF.PA), retained Lazard to sell a 50 percent stake in its sole U.S. refinery, but was unable to secure the price it desired, according to sources. Refining has remained a profitable sector during a two-year oil price rout, so these plants can fetch a relatively higher price than exploration and production assets. Chevron and Shell have the highest cash-flow deficits, said Lysle Brinker, director of equity research at IHS Energy, and so have the most motivation to sell. The two companies have been investing in other areas of their business - Shell plunked down $53 billion to buy BG Group earlier this year, while Chevron has spent heavily on large-scale liquefied natural gas projects. Story continues Theyre much more strapped for cash, and theyre accelerating the sale of assets that will get pretty decent prices," said Brinker. "A lot of the asset sales that the big guys have been selling are downstream and midstream, because those have been sought-after by private equity and others because theres more steady cash flow. These assets may prove to be a better fit for smaller buyers that focus on particular regions, such as the North American West Coast, or companies that concentrate on global storage and trading, but not oil production. SMALLER ASSETS ON BLOCK While the majors plan to continue to operate large, profitable refineries that are well integrated with their oil production assets, refineries outside of that footprint are likely to be sold, Brinker said. Chevron's downstream strategy has focused on running large scale refineries that can serve markets in the United States and Asia and on operating petrochemical plants that produce very profitable products. The refinery in British Columbia, however, refines light oil, rather than heavy crude from Canada's oil sands, and its products are distributed in a smaller region around British Columbia and down through Washington state. Selling smaller assets like that is likely something most companies are looking at - or should be - said Mark Routt, chief economist for the Americas with KBC Advanced Technologies in Houston. "Far better to sell it when it's good times than bad times," Routt said. "It's not as good as it was in '15, but its still good times." Chevron in April agreed to sell its 54,000 barrel-per-day Kapolei, Hawaii, refinery to a group backed by private equity, and Shell agreed in March to exit its Motiva Enterprises joint venture with Saudi Aramco. Shell is shedding a plant in Texas as a result of the dissolution of that venture. Chevron previously said it would sell its 75 percent stake in its South African unit, which includes a refinery in Cape Town. (Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Additional reporting by Ron Bousso in London; Editing by Bill Rigby) By Jessica Dye NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) - A lawyer for General Motors on Friday asked a U.S. judge to bar "unprecedented" claims on behalf of millions of customers who say their vehicles lost value because the GM brand was damaged by dozens of recalls, including one for a faulty ignition switch. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said he expects to rule in the next few weeks on GM's motion to dismiss the proposed class actions, in which plaintiffs are seeking to recoup economic losses they say they suffered as a result of more than 70 recalls in 2014. Plaintiffs' lawyers have estimated the claims are worth as much as $10 billion. During Friday's hearing, Furman pressed both sides on whether plaintiffs were allowed to seek damages solely over the tarnishing of GM's brand, and not out-of-pocket costs or defect-related injuries. A lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Steve Berman, said the "avalanche of defects" and high-profile recalls had harmed GM's reputation as a safe and reliable manufacturer, meaning its customers would not be able to resell their vehicles for as much as when they bought them. GM's lawyer, Richard Godfrey, said plaintiffs' theory, if endorsed by the court, would expose companies to massive liability every time they conduct recalls, even for their other products without safety issues. "This is not opening the door, it is destroying the door frame," he said. Following its investigation into the defective ignition switch, GM conducted more than 70 recalls, including for parts unrelated to the ignition switch such as headlights and power doors. The company has paid $2 billion in criminal and civil penalties and settlements over the switch, which can slip out of place and cut power to air bags, steering and brake systems. The part has been linked to nearly 400 injuries and deaths. The company has admitted that some employees knew about the issue for more than a decade before taking action. GM spokesman Jim Cain said on Friday that while the company is taking lessons from the 2014 recalls, "lawsuits like this one brought on behalf of people who haven't suffered any injury should be dismissed." The carmaker is also awaiting a ruling from a federal appeals court on whether it is shielded from certain claims by the terms of its 2009 bankruptcy. (Reporting by Jessica Dye; Editing by Anthony Lin and Alan Crosby) The first time Will Potter encountered the FBI was on his very own doorstep. He says a pair of agents knocked on his door and pressed him for information on his animal-activist friends and threatened to put him on the domestic terrorism list if he didnt cooperate. Potter says he didnt snitch on his animal-activist friends. Ever since then, he adds, hes felt something creepy, intangible and possibly imagined: a sense of being followed and watched. The FBI did not respond to our request for comment or verify Potters version of the doorstep encounter. But today, Potter is an award-winning investigative journalist known for his reporting on government surveillance and secret prisons, right here in America. These Communications Management Units an appropriately Orwellian name sequester inmates within existing prison facilities. Theyre intended to severely restrict and monitor inmates communication, from letters and phone calls to emails, with the outside world. Potter, a TED and Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow, says hes the first journalist ever to venture inside one of these Little Guantanamos. Partly because of that, hes one of the most influential journalists in the field of surveillance, says Charles Eisendrath, director of the Knight-Wallace Fellowship program at the University of Michigan. Potter will be a professor there this fall. He watches the government and it watches him classic countersurveillance. In his TED talk, above, Potter describes how environmental activists, whistle blowers and other so-called domestic terrorists are jailed in these for their actions and, sometimes, their words. The first CMU was established in 2006, at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the confinement of prisoners of inspirational significance, not necessarily the worst terrorists or scariest bad guys. Potter was drawn in as he was covering the case of Daniel McGowan, a member of the Earth Liberation Front who in 2007 was convicted of arson, in part for burning down a lumber company, and sentenced to seven years. When McGowan was transferred to a CMU, Potter petitioned for a visit as a friend and not a journalist, he says and jumped down the rabbit hole. We as Americans have these blinders on, thinking things like this either happen in other countries or in other periods of history in this country, he says. Potter got his first byline at 16, when he started covering suburban city council meetings and the crime beat for his local paper in Texas his beeping pager forcing him to ditch small-town hangouts at the local Taco Bell. I found myself with a lot of the other smartasses, he says. That questioning culture had him hooked. But as he continued to pursue his journalism career, he teetered along the thin line between activism and journalism. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin chosen for its intellectual environment, punk-music scene and the tacos armed with a journalism degree and some experience working for the muckraking magazine the Texas Observer, Potter landed a reporting job at the Chicago Tribune. Even the FBI agrees that his work is well-written and compelling. But the big newspaper felt robotic and impersonal to him. He figured anyone could have written the obits and news briefs he scrawled on deadline. To feed the social justice-y part of his soul, Potter joined up with some animal activists and went door-to-door distributing leaflets. In the process, he says, they were arrested and released and shortly thereafter, those FBI agents showed up at his apartment. You read about the FBIs treatment of social movements and think if anyone is knocking, youre going to put two middle fingers in the air and walk off into the sunset, he says. But it rattled him. It became the start of a true obsession, he says. He took a short break from journalism to work for the ACLU, monitoring the expansion of the Patriot Act and the world of the FBI. Potter is intertwined in his work. He watches the government and it watches him classic countersurveillance. According to memos Potter has received via FOIA requests, FBI agents read his books, follow his work and show up at his talks at prestigious universities like UC Berkeley and Georgetown. The never-ending ambiguity between the personal and the professional has made his work resonate with others, but it also pains him. Potter has suffered anxiety and the D-word, finding distraction in learning how to fix up vintage Honda motorcycles, doing CrossFit or jamming out at punk-rock shows. Theres this idea in journalism that depression isnt something you should be worried about unless youre a war photographer, Potter says. Yet he finds a way to make dark jokes and brings levity to the gravity of this spooky field, Eisendrath says. To be sure, the seriousness is warranted. After all, hes operating as an independent journalist without the backing of a major news organization and its legal department. Its risky, Eisendrath says. But for Potter, his work confirms the power of education; when he writes and talks about his investigations, the fear subsides, he says. Even the FBI agrees that his work is well-written and compelling. Really. They said as much in the memos Potter acquired through his FOIA requests. Now when FBI agents show up to case his speaking events, he can crack a joke that maybe, just maybe, the agents arent free-speech spies at all theyre fanboys. The Little Guantanamos of the United States Related Articles Grace Wales Bonner has been named the LVMH Young Fashion Designer 2016' for her label Wales Bonner. The 25-year-old British designer wins 300,000 to take her budding label to the next level, as well as benefiting from a year-long support program from the luxury brand's team. "I feel quite emotional," the former Saint Martin's student told Relaxnews after the ceremony. But the graduate, remains focused on the year ahead. "I'm just going to work towards building out the show, I'm not going to let it change things too much, because I have a very specific vision of how I want things to work," she said. "I think the mentoring is going to be really helpful to me, and understanding how I can scale the business up and how I can bring people into the team." Wales Bonner, currently on its fourth season, was chosen by a star-studded jury including J.W. Anderson, Nicolas Ghesquiere, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, Phoebe Philo and Riccardo Tisci. Delphine Arnault, Jean-Paul Claverie and Pierre-Yves Roussel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LVMH Fashion Group, completed the line-up. The brand was selected for its elegant hybrid approach towards European and African cultures. The jury also awarded a special prize to young Canadian designer Vejas Kruszewski for his label Vejas. The creative will benefit from 150,000 of prize money, as well as a mentoring program. He hinted at his business plan for the next year, saying: "We're going to invest in developing footwear, and of course what really drives most brands financially is accessories." The third edition of the prestigious LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize was awarded by Lea Seydoux at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Wales Bonner follows London-based Portuguese brand Marques Almeida, which took home the title in 2015. A dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico will take over an area of the ocean the size of Connecticut and there's "no progress" in finding a solution. A report from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium has a grim outlook for the ocean basin. An annual algae bloom that decays and expends oxygen from the water, killing any biodiversity in the region, is expected to cause a hypoxic zone (also called a dead zone) to expand almost three times larger than normal. A map revealing where the bulk of fertilizer runoff in the United States comes from. It's a manmade form of pollution disrupting the ocean that could have dire impacts. This year's dead zone should stretch about 6,800 square miles, and "no progress has been made" on the federal level in addressing the matter, the Louisiana researchers reported. The vast suffocation of ocean water in the Gulf of Mexico is an annual occurrence since the early 1970s thanks to mass-fertilizer runoff from industrial-scale meat production in the Midwest. The fertilizer used to create the United States' enormous corn crop supply drains into the Mississippi river just before blooming, then decaying, in the Gulf. "About 12 million people live in urban areas that border the Mississippi, and these areas constantly discharge treated sewage into rivers," NOAA wrote in a video explaining the dead zone. "However, the majority of the land in the Mississippi's watershed is farm land. Each spring as farmers fertilize their lands preparing for crop season, rain washes fertilizer off the land and into streams and rivers." The fertilizer contains enormous supplies of nutrients that feed phytoplankton growth, causing the massive blooms that result in dead zones. Gun-maker Smith & Wesson (SWHC) rose over 11% from Thursdays close after reporting a monster quarterly report. Revenue in the quarter grew 22% to $211 million. Earnings per share of $0.66 beat estimates of $0.54 and the company-guided range of $0.51-$0.53. This comes after a 7% rise on Monday following the Sunday shooting at an Orlando nightclub, which left 50 people dead and 53 wounded. One reason the stock may be surging is because analysts believe the outlook provided by management is conservative, given it hasnt accounted for a potential spike in demand that would come after the Orlando shooting. Basically, this guidance does not take into account any surge, any potential spike in consumer demand as a result of any of that, CFO Jeff Buchanan said. Basically, all we can do as a business is focused on the things we know, and delivering our and execute our strategy. So with regard to what happened, any impact on demand is unknown and therefore is not included in our guidance. Shares should benefit from not only a sizeable 4Q beat but also a view among investors that the solid guidance given on Thursday is beatable given what is assumed to be a surge in demand in coming months following the Orlando tragedy, Wedbush analyst James Hardiman said. The FBI will release its monthly background check data from its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in the beginning of July. Its seen as the best indicator of monthly gun sales. The recent tragic shooting in Orlando and subsequent gun control discussion are now expected to drive growth in background checks in the short-term, Hardiman said. The Orlando shooting adds to an already tragic list of gun violence over the past year that includes the Inland Regional Center for developmental disabilities in San Bernadino, California in December; a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado in November; the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June of last year. Story continues Event-driven sales The rally in Smith & Wesson shares reflect data showing strong gun demand after tragic events. The chart below highlights some of the most widely reported tragic events and the spike in gun background checks, which is a proxy for demand, following the violence. The largest month of growth for firearm background checks was January 2013, which saw an increase of more than 90%, according to Wedbush. This demand surge was prompted initially by the re-election of President Barack Obama, who had made tighter gun control legislation a part of his platform during the 2012 campaign and in the aftermath of the July 2012 shooting in Aurora, CO. The Newtown, CT tragedy a month after the November 2012 election further prompted an effort to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazine pistols. These events caused a flood into stores, but no ban materialized given lack of support in Congress. And when it seemed demand trickled off a bit, a handful of high-profile tragedies (beginning with the tragedy in Charleston, SC) hit the news in fairly quick succession, sparking a renewed interest by many to enact new gun regulations. The industry saw double-digit growth last summer. Data suggests, contrary to common sense, that Democratic presidents have been very good to the gun industry, at least in the short run, according to Wedbush securities. The drive? The National Rifle Association (NRA) has seized on regulatory comments that prey on gun advocates fear of governmental confiscation of guns. Yet, still, the likelihood of any actual gun legislation is exceedingly low, according to Wedbush. This should allow Smith & Wesson to continue to soar. LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A hearing on the restraining order obtained by Amber Heard against Johnny Depp, in a divorce between the celebrity couple in which Heard has accused Depp of abuse, was called off on Thursday, a day before it was set to occur, court officials said. Heard was expected to testify at the hearing related to the restraining order in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, according to E! News and other media outlets. Instead, the next hearing in the divorce filed by Heard against Depp last month will occur on Aug. 2, court officials said in a statement. The restraining order is part of the divorce case. The delay allows Depp to gather more witnesses to defend himself against abuse allegations, while for Heard it allows the restraining order to remain in effect at least until the next hearing, said attorney Christopher Melcher, who previously served as chair of the state bar of California family law section, in a phone interview. It was not immediately clear which side moved to vacate the hearing set for Friday. Attorneys for Depp and Heard did not immediately return calls. There have been conflicting reports in the media about whether the two sides are moving toward a settlement in the divorce case. Depp's legal team had filed court papers seeking to prevent witnesses from testifying on behalf of Heard at the hearing on Friday, on grounds that the actress' legal team had not provided the names of those witnesses, according to a report on the website of People magazine. A judge on May 27 granted a temporary restraining order for Depp to stay at least 100 yards (91 meters) away from Heard and move out of the couple's shared condominium in downtown Los Angeles. The couple married in February 2015. Heard, 30, said in court filings that Depp, 53, was abusive to her throughout their marriage and that it culminated in an argument last month in which he hurled a cell phone into her face and shattered various objects in her apartment. In a counter argument, Depp's lawyer said in court papers last month that Heard "is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse." (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Andrew Hay) June 17 marks the anniversary of one of the worst acts of hate violence against African-Americans, in at least a generation. Just days before the community of Charleston, South Carolina, began to remember the night when a lone gunman killed nine black worshippers at the Mother Emanuel AME Church, hatred struck again in the LGBTQ community in Orlando, Florida. The parallels between the acts of hatred run deep. Just like in Charleston, the shooter in Orlando entered a place of sanctuary and gunned down people when they were most unguarded and vulnerable. Just like in Charleston, the Orlando gunman had previously expressed hatred toward a historically marginalized minority group. And just like in Charleston, the bloodshed in Orlando drew international headlines and support from all corners of the world. Source: Mic/Getty Images But for one pastor in Charleston, this isn't just a time for a mere rehashing of grief and fear. "If all we do is sit around and sing songs and express our grief, this just becomes an empty exercise to assuage the guilt of other people," the Rev. Nelson Rivers III, pastor of Charity Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, said in a phone interview. "A year later, what we should be doing is announcing all the steps we've taken since the deaths." There have been some changes in South Carolina. After a contentious debate by lawmakers, the state removed a Confederate battle flag from statehouse grounds on July 10 . Formerly a symbol of Southern pride, the banner is widely seen as a symbol of racism and domestic terror. Yet despite several public calls to see the Charleston tragedy as evidence of a need for tougher gun control laws, national leaders still haven't taken action. The same seems to be true in the wake of Orlando. On Thursday, Democratic senators held a 15-hour filibuster until Republicans pledged to hold votes on measures that would expand federal background checks for gun buyers and prevent individuals on the U.S. terrorism watch list from buying guns, Reuters reported. But the measure is unlikely to pass in the GOP-controlled Senate. Story continues Nelson is vice president of religious affairs and external relations for the National Action Network, a civil rights group founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton. He will be participating in a handful of commemorative events in Charleston on Friday. Nelson will also travel to Orlando this weekend to meet with the Latino, Muslim and LGBTQ communities, he said. A year ago, Dylann Roof walked into Mother Emanuel while members met for bible study with their pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney. Roof killed the pastor and eight other worshippers, before he was arrested and jailed. He harbored white supremacist ideals, as evidenced by his website that contained racist rants and photo tributes to Confederate symbols. Roof faces the death penalty on federal murder charges and hate crime offenses. "I have to do it," Roof reportedly told the all-black church group before he opened fire. "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." The Rev. Nelson Rivers III, left, is pictured with Rev. Al Sharpton in North Charleston. N elson, who knew Pinckney and other Mother Emanuel victims personally, sai d previo us mass sho o tings "should have compelled us to action by now" on gun control. Like many others, in 2012, Nelson said he thought news that a lone gunman killed 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Con necticut, woul d spur legislative action. "People can dismiss what happened to the Emanuel Nine because it didn't happen to their mother, father, brother, sister or cousin," Nelson said. "When the children, church members and the people in that [Orlando] club become your brothers and sisters, then you become someone who gets in the arena to do something about it." For any middle and high school student, a top grade on a project for a history class is already impressive. Now imagine beating out students worldwide for those top marks. On Thursday, the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest, announced its 2016 national winners at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD. Nearly 600,000 students from the U.S., its territories and select international schools abroad, submitted work related to the theme Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History at regional-level contests. But less than 1% of them (or nearly 3,000 students) were invited to present their essays, performances, documentaries or websites, at the finals that took place June 12-16. One of the first place prizes went to Amir Abou-Jaoude, 18, the Stanford-bound valedictorian of Henry Clay High School in Lexington, KY., who earned $1,000 and the title of National Endowment for the Humanities Scholar for his 2,500-word essay about the influence of Japanese woodblock prints on Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, such as Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro and Mary Cassatt. Many of these painters were especially inspired by the Japanese artist Hokusai (Katsushika Hokusai), known for his famous Great Wave print from his 36 Views of Mount Fuji series. Monet remarked to Pissarro, something like Oh, this Hokusai wouldve made a great Impressionist, hes doing the same things were doing,'Abou-Jaoude says in a phone conversation with TIME. Picasso saw some of Cezannes paintings that were inspired by Hokusais prints and that inspired him to start working on cubism. So Japanese woodblock prints were not only crucial to the Impressionist [movement] but also crucial to the development of modern art. His papers title, A Pure Invention: Japan, Impressionism, and the West, 1853-1906, is a play on Oscar Wildes famous remark, The whole of Japan is a pure invention. Abou-Jaoude says, The Impressionists encountered this Japanese art after Japan opened to the West in 1853 after a period of isolation. Based on the woodblock prints, Japan represented this place where there was no industrial revolution, this pastoral wilderness, to the Impressionists and others in the West, but Abou-Jaoudes paper argues that they didnt realize how industrialized and militarized the country had become until the Russo-Japanese War of 1906. The Stanford-bound high school graduate decided to focus on Japanese woodblock prints after seeing the Art Institute of Chicagos collection. He was able to read Vincent Van Goghs letters to his art dealer brother Theo about such works, but a lot of the primary sources on this topic were in French and Japanese, so he had to stick to secondary sources, mostly research by art critics, art historians and art collectors. He also went to museums in Tennessee the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville and The Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga plus the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Growing up, Abou-Jaoude says his parents, dragged me to art museums for years and years to look at Impressionist masterpieces, and I used to not like to go because I didnt know what I was looking at, he says. But once I took AP Art History, I became grateful that I had seen all of that stuff already. It really helped. After wrapping up the Democratic nomination, focus has now shifted to whom Hillary Clinton will select as her vice presidential running mate ahead of the Democratic National Convention in July. The Wall Street Journal published Thursday a list of nine candidates reportedly being vetted by the Clinton campaign a list that includes senators, House members, cabinet secretaries and e r. But many of the candidates, while widely known in their home states or cities, are unknown to a national audience. Here's a look at some of the top the people on Clinton's potential VP shortlist. The progressive icon Source: Astrid Riecken/Getty Images Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat and progressive star, is perhaps the best-known member on the list of candidates Clinton is reportedly vetting for the vice presidential slot. Her name is being mentioned more and more as a smart pick for Clinton in recent weeks. She's emerged as a top attack dog against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. And Democrats say her popularity among Sen. Bernie Sanders' left-leaning base could hasten the party's unity process after a protracted primary. Warren isn't swatting down the speculation, telling MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that she's qualified to step into the presidency if the need arises. And she fed into the speculation of her chances, after she met with Clinton in Washington, D.C. Warren does, however, come with downsides. Her progressive bonafides, while beneficial to courting Sanders supporters, could turn off right-of-center independents who are uncomfortable with Trump. It's a group Clinton hopes to woo against her unconventional opponent. And if the Clinton-Warren ticket won in the fall, the Republican governor of Massachusetts would appoint Warren's replacement. A special election would then follow, which Democrats would have a good shot at given Massachusetts' blue leanings. Some say it's not worth the risk to Democrats' chances of winning back Senate control. Democrats must net five seats in the fall to wrest control from Republicans a number that leaves little room for error. Story continues The swing-state senator Source: Andrew Harnik/AP Like Warren, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is well-liked among the progressive wing of the party. A popular figure in his own right in Ohio, Brown could help give Clinton a boost in his home state a crucial contest for any White House hopeful. Brown has served in some capacity as an elected official in Ohio since 1975 first as a state legislator, then secretary of state, member of Congress and senator since 2006. But similar to Warren's case, Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich would appoint Brown's successor in the Senate. And unlike Massachusetts, a subsequent special election would be a challenge for Democrats in a swing state like Ohio. Democrats often find it tougher to turn out their coalition of younger voters and minorities in non-presidential elections. The moderate Source: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Like Brown, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia also hails from a swing state, and could give Clinton a boost in a crucial contest in the fall. He's respected in the Senate, where he's seen as a serious legislator. And he's survived two tough elections, both to his current Senate seat in 2012, and as governor of Virginia seven years before that. Kaine is also a more moderate Democrat, who could help Clinton woo independents and Republicans disaffected by Trump. And Virginia's Democratic governor would appoint his replacement, which would ensure the seat stays in Democratic hands at least until a special election. Still, Kaine comes with other liabilities his biggest being his position on abortion. Kaine does not personally support abortion, due to his Catholic faith. To be sure, he is opposed to overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that granted women the right to legally terminate pregnancies. Still, his moral objection to abortion is a potential liability for Clinton, who's made reproductive rights a cornerstone of her campaign. The new generation Democrat Source: Julio Cortez/AP Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey is also reportedly on Clinton's vetting list. The former Newark mayor and Senate newbie (he was elected to the Senate in a late 2013 special election) has a good story to tell. The African-American senator represents the party's diversity. And at 47, he's part of the younger generation of Democrats that could be set up for a future presidential run from a top position in the White House. He's also good at garnering positive headlines. While serving as mayor of Newark, a troubled city near New Jersey's border with New York, he once saved a woman from a burning house, and personally shoveled driveways of his constituents during a blizzard. Most recently, he was one of the most vocal members of Democrats' 14-hour filibuster to push for gun control in the wake of the shooting massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. But his propensity for the spotlight could also overshadow Clinton herself, who is notoriously press-averse. The anti-Trump Source: Eric Gay/AP Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro has been rumored to be a potential Clinton vice presidential pick since the early days of the 2016 campaign. Democrats thought having the first person of Hispanic descent on the presidential ticket would draw Hispanic voters a critical voting bloc of the Democratic coalition to Clinton's side. And at only 41, Castro is in a good position to run for president in four or eight years. But with Republicans selecting Trump as their nominee, it's unlikely Clinton will need Castro to woo Hispanics. Trump has denigrated Mexicans on the campaign trail, bringing his disapproval rating among Hispanics to 89% in a new ABC News-Washington Post poll. From ELLE The film business is unusual in that nobody gets their start in the same way. Everyone's path is singular, and there is no one right way, only your own way. My personal start in film occurred because of an unlikely chance event in Tokyo, Japan in 1981. I was a modern dancer and choreographer in my mid-20s, having been sent to Tokyo to teach, choreograph, and perform. Modern dancers don't make a lot of money-it's a labor of love, so as I stood that day on the corner in busy Shibuya and wanted a cup of coffee in very expensive Tokyo, it was a big decision. There was a coffee shop on the right and one on the left. I don't remember why I picked the one on the right, maybe it had a more interesting awning or there was a plant outside, but that simple decision changed my life forever. The coffee shop was busy with no available tables, which is not unusual for Tokyo, and I noticed a Japanese gentleman who looked to be in his mid-70s who waved at me, offering me a seat at his table. This man spoke perfect English, and only later I found out he spoke 12 languages, had been Japan's top foreign war correspondent, a Buddhist monk, and currently happened to be head of cultural affairs for the Asahi Shimbun, the largest newspaper in Japan. We ended up talking for the rest of the afternoon, but what I recall most was that he said to me that "meeting was the beginning of parting." I replied that that was so very sad, but his response was that when you understand that this is not sad, you will know something very great. At the time, that sounded so wonderfully Japanese to me, and it was only much later that I began to understand its depth. Yutaka Tsuji and his wife became my Japanese mom and dad during my time in Japan. He was my teacher and mentor. Eventually he shared six stories that happened to him, and what they had in common was that they all happened on Christmas Eve, during different wars in different countries of the world, and were all about human connection. Story continues The stories were simple and profound, and I knew he had told me these stories for a reason, and I knew I had to pass them on. But how? Dance seemed too abstract, and I felt I actually had to tell the stories. They simply haunted me for years. Eventually, I applied to the Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute, a program that I was completely unqualified for, as it's set up for women in the film business, but I wasn't in the film business. I applied anyway, and I unexpectedly got in. When I told some of the advisors the stories I wanted to make into a film-Yutaka Tsuji's stories-I was told to give up the idea if I ever wanted a job in Hollywood, that it was a recipe for disaster, as my film was going to be almost entirely in Japanese, had subtitles, flashbacks, and narration, and was a period piece set in World War II that had only one Caucasian character. But I didn't care, these were the stories I was compelled to tell. I made Tales of Meeting and Parting and it was, amazingly, nominated for an Academy Award for Short Film. This put me on my new path toward film and television. I love being a storyteller and feel lucky to have been able to tell very diverse kinds of stories on shows and films like Twin Peaks, The West Wing, Now and Then, Mad Men, Freaks and Geeks, Gilmore Girls, Ray Donovan, and in my current job as the Executive Producer/Director of Homeland. As things seem to come full circle, my earlier dance career has ended up being incredibly useful in terms of choreographing action sequences that hopefully have emotional resonance as well. Nothing is easy in the film business, and one needs a lot of tenacity, some kind of talent, a first chance and a little bit of luck. My luck was choosing the coffee shop on the right, as well as the generosity of some of the extraordinary directiors I learned from in the beginning of my career. The brilliant George Miller was the first filmmaker I ever met, and he was the one who told me Tsuji's stories were a film and allowed me to shadow him, my first time on a set. The extraordinary Steven Spielberg also allowed me to shadow him, ask him thousands of questions, and ultimately gave me my first job, on Amazing Stories So remember to follow your dream however crazy it seems, and tell the story you feel compelled to tell, no matter what anyone says, and then when you can, be generous and grab the hand of the next generation. * SFC given more power, CEO to sit on listing panel * Three month Consultation on proposals ends Sept. 19 * Proposal comes after investor frustration over current rules (Adds comment, context) By Michelle Price HONG KONG, June 17 (Reuters) - Hong Kong proposed changes to its stock market listing regime on Friday, in a move that could curb the regulatory powers of the city's stock exchange and hand more authority to the securities watchdog in one of the world's top destinations for new share issues. The proposals come after investor criticism of possible conflicts of interest in the current framework where Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEx) acts as both the profit-driven market operator and regulator of initial public offerings (IPOs). HKEx has also clashed with regulator the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) over listing matters. In the 2013 run-up to Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding's blockbuster listing, HKEx came out in support of Alibaba's so-called weighted voting rights while the SFC blocked the shares. Under the new proposals, two new committees will be created to develop and regulate listing policies in Hong Kong. HKEx's CEO will no longer sit on the listing committee while the SFC's CEO will sit on the newly created listing policy committee. The listing policy committee will steer overall policy on listing rules within the stock exchange while the listing function will continue to remain with HKEx. The proposals were published by SFC and HKEx in a consultation released on Friday that will run for three months. The new regulatory structure will help the exchange and SFC better spot and address problems in the market, including market manipulation, back door listings and the rise of shell companies, the SFC and HKEx said on Friday. "There are so many issues we are now facing, sometimes pricing manipulation, sometimes misconduct...to provide a one stop platform so everyone can holistically review everything together is a very good idea", said Brian Ho, executive director of corporate finance at the SFC. David Graham, chief regulatory officer and head of listing at HKEX said the current structure was not broken, but added the new structure, in removing the HKEx CEO from the listing committee "takes away the perception of the conflict around the commercial operations of HKEx." (Reporting by Michelle Price; Additional reporting by Elzio Barreto; Writing by Denny Thomas; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Elaine Hardcastle) By Stella Tsang and Tris Pan HONG KONG (Reuters) - More than 100 activists marched on China's liaison office in Hong Kong on Friday to protest against the detention of five booksellers after one of them recounted his ill-treatment by Chinese authorities. The disappearances had prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities might be using tactics that erode the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997. Lam Wing-kee on Thursday told reporters he had been arrested and detained in China for more than eight months, and that one of his colleagues, Lee Bo, a British national, was abducted from Hong Kong by mainland Chinese authorities. The account contradicted China's official statements that its law enforcement officials would never do anything illegal in regard to the case. On Friday, demonstrators gathered at the liaison office, Beijing's representative office in Hong Kong, and protested against "cross-border abductions", saying the Hong Kong government had not done enough to investigate the case. The demonstrators also tossed over the front gate of the office several newspapers carrying front-page pictures of the booksellers, a petition letter and copies of books about Chinese President Xi Jinping, while a dozen police stood by. "Lam Wing-kee is really brave," said a protester who gave only his surname, Kwok. "I think after the speech, he is no longer able to go back to the mainland, or maybe mainland police will come for him." No officials of the liaison office were immediately available to comment. China's Foreign Ministry said it respected the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents and Lam's arrest was lawful. "Lam Wing-kee is a Chinese citizen," spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. "He violated Chinese law while in China's interior. The relevant Chinese authorities of course have the right to handle it according to law." Hong Kong's acting leader, John Tsang, once again reiterated that it was illegal for any outside authorities to enforce laws in Hong Kong, but stopped short of saying what follow-up steps his government would take. "It is unacceptable to us," said Tsang, the city's financial secretary. All five of the men who went missing and later appeared in mainland Chinese custody worked at Causeway Bay Books, which had specialized in publishing and selling gossipy books about Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. It was returned to Chinese Communist Party rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" framework that guaranteed separate laws and freedoms not granted elsewhere in China for 50 years. Lam told a news conference he had been blindfolded, handcuffed and repeatedly interrogated in a small room where he was kept by himself, and barred from making calls to relatives or contacting a lawyer. He said he had been detained by a little known "Central Examination Group" of the Chinese Communist Party - a special task force that reports to senior Beijing leaders. "This means that he wasn't detained by rogue officials or local officials, but at the highest level," said William Nee, a China researcher of rights group Amnesty International. "This is a very explosive allegation and has the potential to really rock the authorities." One of the booksellers rejected Lam's statement on social media on Friday, however. Lee Bo, the British national, said on his Facebook page he had never told Lam he had been "forcibly taken away to China" and had never heard of the "Central Examination Group". Only one of the five, Swedish passport holder Gui Minhai, remains in detention in China. (Additional reporting by Stefanie McIntyre, Joyce Zhou, Sharon Shi, Twinnie Siu and Clare Baldwin in HONG KONG and Michael Martina in BEIJING; Editing by James Pomfret and Clarence Fernandez) HSBC Holdings plcs HSBC American unit HSBC Finance Corporation has resolved a 14-year old class action lawsuit pertaining to events preceding the acquisition of Household International Inc. in 2003 by the London-based bank. The company will be paying $1.575 billion (1.11 billion) to settle the case. Owing to the settlement, HSBC is expected to record a pre-tax charge of roughly $585 million in the second quarter of 2016. Notably, the settlement is still subject to the court approval. Earlier, the company had disclosed that this lawsuit settlement could be for approximately $3.6 billion. HSBC spokesman Rob Sherman said in a statement, We are pleased to resolve this 14-year case that's based on events that took place before HSBC acquired Household. Following this settlement revelation, HSBC declined more than 2% on NYSE in the after-market trading. Backstory The case, filed in 2002, accused Household International and some of its top executives of misrepresenting statements regarding the companys lending practices and quality of loan portfolio. This led to financial results that showed overstated profits, which in turn inflated the companys share price. In Oct 2002, Household International had agreed to pay $484 million to settle allegations of using predatory lending practices in several U.S. states. Following this settlement, share price of Household International plunged over 50% from mid-2001 to Oct-2002. Thereafter, the companys shareholders filed this case. In 2009, a jury had ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and HSBC was hit with $2.46 billion penalty in 2013. However, HSBC challenged the fine imposed on it and in May 2015, the company was granted partial relief by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Hence, a second trail was ordered. Notably, just a few days before the trail began, HSBC decided to settle the case. Lawsuit Resolved but Concerns Remain Though the settlement will be hurting HSBCs second quarter results, we believe that it removes a legal headwind. Over the last few years, the company has been paying billions of dollars in legal settlements for past business misconducts. HSBC has been striving hard to boost top line amid challenging operation backdrop. Driven by its cost savings and restructuring plans, the company has maintained its profitability. However, global growth concerns, feeble loan demand and stringent regulations are exerting pressure on the companys financials. Currently, HSBC carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked foreign banks include Barclays PLC BCS, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. ITUB and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM. All these stocks hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BARCLAY PLC-ADR (BCS): Free Stock Analysis Report BANCO ITAU -ADR (ITUB): Free Stock Analysis Report CDN IMPL BK (CM): Free Stock Analysis Report HSBC HOLDINGS (HSBC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Image Courtesy : Dhyan Foundation. 50 dogs were burnt alive in Chennai after being poisoned; some reports say the villagers wanted to do away with the dogs just because the dogs had supposedly injured grazing sheep and goats. Then there were reports of some residents of a building in Kolkata who hired men to kill dogs who frequented their building as they did not make a pleasant sight.There are many unbelievable cases of animal cruelty and killing like the case of a lady in Bengaluru who flung 8 puppies on a boulder to death just to teach their mother a lesson as she had delivered the puppies in a drain near the accused ladys gate! Sadly cases of animal cruelty abound in our land of ahimsa. Even the Government is encouraging culling of wild animals as they have the powers under Section 62 of the the ironically named Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 wherein certain animals can be declared as vermin and be permitted to be killed. This has enraged animal lovers and activists who believe that every animal has a right to live and contributes to the eco-system and has a role in the environment. Random killing and increasing the number of animals under the definition of a vermin is definitely not going down well with them. Isheita With Brownie a.k.a Leo! Even if one wants to feed strays, the resistance one has to face for a simple humane act is huge, though Indian Courts have ruled that animal lovers can feed strays and be offered protection in case of threat to their lives while doing so. Many years ago, I would see a stray dog eating paper near my house and was moved by its plight. One day I called out to the dog and it started following me and started frequenting my house for food, much to the chagrin of our insensitive neighbours who felt that the dog was a nuisance, despite the animal being extremely friendly and docile. I got the dog neutered and vaccinated but was pressurised to take the dog into my house since now that I had done all that, it was my dog. Also, some residents even a 70 year old woman and a middle-aged man almost broke the dogs leg with rods and stones and we nurtured it back to health while he lay in pain all day long. We were even threatened that the municipality would be called and the dog killed as it was a nuisance. Since we were moving cities, we were certain that the dog would not survive in the colony we lived in after we left due to extreme inexplicable hatred by some residents.Hence, we started scouring for people to adopt Brownie as we had named him and fortunately for us, we found a kind soul Isheita who took him in. But not every dog is as lucky. Strangely, more often than not, it is the so-called elite/educated class which shuns them and it is the roadside vendors, chai wala, or even beggars who despite not having much feed the strays and take care of them. Tejinder, an animal lover and activist from Dhyan Foundation, Bengaluru who has rescued all kinds of animals and even fostered many accident victim dogs says, Kindness and compassion towards animals sadly does not come naturally to people. They are seen more as a pain, as beings who would rather not be alive. The intolerance and insensitivity is seen to be believed. But there are those handful animal lovers who are working against all odds to ensure that animals are treated well and cruelty prevented. Though many cases are filed, sadly very few perpetrators are taken to task despite the laws. Killing of an animal is illegal and is an offence as defined under Section 11 of The Prevention Of Cruelty to Animals Act. It is a cognizable offence under Section 428 and Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code. Merely having laws protecting strays is not enough, they should be more stringent and proper implementation is needed. Anurag also an animal activist says Torture is not restricted to strays, even some people with pets at home treat them cruelly and we have rescued many such animals from homes where they were tied up 24 hours, made to live in unhygienic conditions and confined to terraces come rain or sun, even physically abused and starved for days on end. Animal Birth Control Rules 2001 framed, under Section 38 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 states that only humane, legal and scientific ways are to be used to vaccinate and sterilized street dogs under Animal Birth Control Programme (ABC). Under this program, stray dogs are picked up, neutered, vaccinated against rabies and released in the place where they were picked up from. Anurag elaborates Every year different municipalities are allocated funds. Part of these funds should go to animal welfare including ABC surgery for dogs which costs Rs. 700-800 per dog. More often than not, municipalities find it easy to have dogs caught and either be killed or re-located to jungles. They hire contract killers and pay them between Rs.10-150 per dog. Many panchayats do mass poisoning of dogs. That is their way of keeping dog population in control. Dog carcasses are bought by many farmers to be used as manure for just Rs. 50-100. Once a dog bite happens in an area, often dogs of that area are beaten to death. Media is seen to cover of one side of the story with graphic pictures. They are never seen to educate people why dog bite happens. Anurag explains that dogs do not usually bite without provocation. They may bite when they perceive aggression on your part, such as a raised stick, or bending to pick a stone, or if you try to touch/catch them or in a bid to protect their owner, or their own territory, or their food/source of food. Mothers may bite to protect their young ones. Some tips on preventing dog bites: Do not run when you see a stray dog, or walk too fast. Do not stare at them. Just let them be theyll let you be. Worldwide statistics reveal that pet dogs are far more prone to biting than are strays. Dogs are classified as companion animals. They are usually friendly towards humans, and are almost always more scared of you than you are of them. Matthew Scully rightly said Animals are more than ever a test of our character, of mankinds capacity for empathy and for decent, honorable conduct and faithful stewardship. We are called to treat them with kindness, not because they have rights or power or some claim to equality, but in a sense because they dont; because they all stand unequal and powerless before us. Mahatma Gandhi believed that the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. It is time we treated our animals well. Saint-Etienne (France) (AFP) - Czech Republic captain Tomas Rosicky said Friday he would miss his country's final Group D game at Euro 2016 against Turkey on Tuesday because of a fresh hamstring injury. The midfielder added he was most probably out for the rest of the tournament too. The injury-prone 35-year-old fell on the pitch grabbing his hamstring while sprinting unmarked at the end of his team's 2-2 draw with Croatia, which was overshadowed by flares thrown onto the pitch by Croatian fans. "I felt well, I knew we needed a point so I forced it even when I had run out of steam," said Rosicky. "Unfortunately I paid for this." He added he would hardly play if the Czechs made it to the knock-out phase. "As you saw, I picked up the ball, I set out and got virtually knocked down -- but nobody even touched me." "It doesn't look good at all." Against Croatia, the Czechs came back from 2-0 down following a lacklustre 75 minutes. They equalised with a 94th minute penalty after the match was briefly interrupted to clear the flares from the pitch. The Czech Republic have a single point and need to beat Turkey if they want to stand a chance of reaching the last-16 phase. "The boys are due to play a wonderful match in which everything will be at stake. I'm sure I won't be there," Rosicky said. Rosicky played only 19 minutes for Arsenal last season because of injuries plaguing him since a Euro qualifier in Iceland in June 2015. His 10-year stint with the London side will come to an end in July as he wasn't offered a renewal to his contract. By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO, June 16 (Reuters) - Ride-hailing companies Uber and Didi have brought many new dimensions to the startup industry, such as making billion-dollar-plus funding rounds routine. Now, they have added another to the list: sharing big investors who are backing both companies, even though they are fierce rivals. Uber, the leading ride service in the United States and much of the world, and Didi Chuxing, which claims 87 percent of the Chinese market for private vehicle ride-hailing, now share at least four investors: asset manager BlackRock, Chinese investment manager Hillhouse Capital Group, hedge fund Tiger Global and insurer China Life, according to investment records and sources familiar with the deals. "It's very unusual to allow the same parties to invest and get information rights of sworn mortal enemies," said Max Wolff, chief economist at Manhattan Venture Partners. "But then again, it's also not common to raise $14 billion as a seven-year-old pre-IPO company." Uber has raised more than $13 billion in equity and debt financing since it started in 2009. Didi this week confirmed a $7.3 billion funding round, bringing total fundraising to more than $10 billion. The practice of backing competitors raises concerns about conflicts of interest, information sharing and whether one company may succeed at the other's expense, according to investors, academics and dealmakers. "I think it looks bad," said Rory McDonald, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who has done research on the topic. "These firms are still private, they are still growing and making strategic choices, and those choices are going to matter a whole lot." According to McDonald's research, companies that have a link to a competitor through a shared investor are on average less competitive and less innovative than if they did not have that tie. Uber said it does not have concerns about sharing investors with Didi and none of them had board seats or board observer seats, so they have less access to and control over the company. Story continues Didi declined to comment. The four investors came in at a later stage in the companies' lives, and likely will not have the influence and close relationships that early-stage venture capitalists would, people who are familiar with such deals say. And for funds such as BlackRock, investments are most often made in isolation by individual fund managmenet teams Startup investors generally try to avoid backing competing startups. But it happens on occasion: venture firm Andreessen Horowitz backed both photo-sharing startups Instagram and PicPlz. The firm later gave back its information access rights to Instagram and did not invest further. PicPlz eventually shut down. But as in the Andreessen Horowitz case, the conflict in venture capital often happens when a startup changes focus or creates a new product, months or years after the VC invested. What has raised alarms with the Uber and Didi investments is that the companies are already in conflict, and still investors are rushing headlong into both, say investors and industry experts. The four common investors are not betting on both companies to hedge one against the other, rather, they are putting the two together to get global coverage, said Paul Boyd, managing director at ClearPath Capital Partners, a wealth management company. The four common investors have funded Uber Global and not Uber China, a separate entity, according to a person familiar with the matter. Investors think Uber's future looks bright outside of China, but their backing of both companies signals Didi has the advantage in China, Boyd said. Regardless, the double dipping will likely create challenges for investors and the companies. Investors may be limited in their information rights and excluded from sensitive or competitive information, according to attorneys. Companies will have to worry about how much to share with investors who are also close with their biggest competitor. "Uber will not be comfortable allowing its investors to have carte blanche access to sensitive information where that information could find its way to Didi," said Nate Gallon, a partner at Hogan Lovells law firm. (Reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco. Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York. Editing by Jonathan Webe and Andrew Hay) By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Ride-hailing companies Uber and Didi have brought many new dimensions to the startup industry, such as making billion-dollar-plus funding rounds routine. Now, they have added another to the list: sharing big investors who are backing both companies, even though they are fierce rivals. Uber, the leading ride service in the United States and much of the world, and Didi Chuxing, which claims 87 percent of the Chinese market for private vehicle ride-hailing, now share at least four investors: asset manager BlackRock, Chinese investment manager Hillhouse Capital Group, hedge fund Tiger Global and insurer China Life, according to investment records and sources familiar with the deals. "It's very unusual to allow the same parties to invest and get information rights of sworn mortal enemies," said Max Wolff, chief economist at Manhattan Venture Partners. "But then again, it's also not common to raise $14 billion as a seven-year-old pre-IPO company." Uber has raised more than $13 billion in equity and debt financing since it started in 2009. Didi this week confirmed a $7.3 billion funding round, bringing total fundraising to more than $10 billion. The practice of backing competitors raises concerns about conflicts of interest, information sharing and whether one company may succeed at the other's expense, according to investors, academics and dealmakers. "I think it looks bad," said Rory McDonald, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who has done research on the topic. "These firms are still private, they are still growing and making strategic choices, and those choices are going to matter a whole lot." According to McDonald's research, companies that have a link to a competitor through a shared investor are on average less competitive and less innovative than if they did not have that tie. Uber said it does not have concerns about sharing investors with Didi and none of them had board seats or board observer seats, so they have less access to and control over the company. Story continues Didi declined to comment. The four investors came in at a later stage in the companies' lives, and likely will not have the influence and close relationships that early-stage venture capitalists would, people who are familiar with such deals say. And for funds such as BlackRock, investments are most often made in isolation by individual fund management teams Startup investors generally try to avoid backing competing startups. But it happens on occasion: venture firm Andreessen Horowitz backed both photo-sharing startups Instagram and PicPlz. The firm later gave back its information access rights to Instagram and did not invest further. PicPlz eventually shut down. But as in the Andreessen Horowitz case, the conflict in venture capital often happens when a startup changes focus or creates a new product, months or years after the VC invested. What has raised alarms with the Uber and Didi investments is that the companies are already in conflict, and still investors are rushing headlong into both, say investors and industry experts. The four common investors are not betting on both companies to hedge one against the other, rather, they are putting the two together to get global coverage, said Paul Boyd, managing director at ClearPath Capital Partners, a wealth management company. The four common investors have funded Uber Global and not Uber China, a separate entity, according to a person familiar with the matter. Investors think Uber's future looks bright outside of China, but their backing of both companies signals Didi has the advantage in China, Boyd said. Regardless, the double dipping will likely create challenges for investors and the companies. Investors may be limited in their information rights and excluded from sensitive or competitive information, according to attorneys. Companies will have to worry about how much to share with investors who are also close with their biggest competitor. "Uber will not be comfortable allowing its investors to have carte blanche access to sensitive information where that information could find its way to Didi," said Nate Gallon, a partner at Hogan Lovells law firm. (Reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco. Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York. Editing by Jonathan Webe and Andrew Hay) (Corrects timing in first graf) By Joy Wiltermuth NEW YORK, June 17 (IFR) - Caliber Home Loans this week sold the first rated non-prime home loan securitization since the financial crisis, a US$137m mortgage bond deal that set an uneasy tone for the sector's reopening. The deal was a success with some market participants, who noted that demand outstripped supply by as much as six times on the deal's top class. But others, mindful of the lax controls in older-vintage residential mortgage deals, said the deal both expanded credit to riskier borrowers and cut back investor protections. "Our expectation was that as credit expands, governance would become better," said Dimitri Rabin, global RMBS and covered bond strategist at Loomis Sayles & Company. "Instead, I was surprised [the deal] expanded credit and was rated - and the quality of the governance had declined pretty substantially." Credit Suisse, sole bookrunner on the deal, declined to comment. Similar deals made up of mortgages to borrowers with less than stellar credit helped fuel the last crisis. Rabin and others pointed out that investor protections against loans going bad - a feature in other securitizations of prime quality home loans in recent years - had been cut back in the new deal. Despite the reduced protections, Ranieri Strategies managing partner Eric Kaplan said the deal nevertheless had been well executed. "The question is whether [this deal] or any other post-crisis deal's standards are sufficient to bring back the anchor investors necessary for a scalable market," he said. "Many investors say no, but fear that some will ultimately chase yield at the expense of standards." RMBS reform advocates, he said, hope this does not come to pass. FIRST RATINGS The new trade packaged loans from borrowers with an average FICO score of 701 and annual incomes averaging US$144,000. Caliber, owned by private equity firm Lone Star Funds, sold a couple of unrated securitizations of similar non-prime home loans to a few niche investors last year. Story continues But this was its first RMBS deal with ratings, garnering the imprimatur of Fitch Ratings and DBRS for the securitization of roughly 370 loans to riskier borrowers. "It's a positive that the rating agencies are somewhat re-engaging in this part of the mortgage market," said Jason Callan, head of structured products at Columbia Threadneedle Investments. The top US$89.424m A1 class of Single A rated notes priced at EDSF plus 160bp, or the narrow end of guidance of 160bp-170bp. The US$48.35m Triple B rated A2 class of 1.66-year notes priced as expected at EDSF plus 225bp. Despite the worries about sour loans, Fitch Ratings said in a call with market participants that the new deal included some protections that were improved from those in pre-crisis bonds. These include better operational and underwriting controls, such as the lender's promise to comply with the powerful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new "Ability to Repay" rule, Fitch analyst Suzanne Mistretta said. The rule prohibits lenders from originating higher-priced mortgages without factoring in a borrower's ability to make monthly payments. The deal also included a thick credit buffer, as its top-rated notes could withstand a sustained 30% drop in housing prices before seeing a loss, Fitch said. The issuance of home-loan securities away from agencies controlled by the US government has barely been sufficient to register on league tables. Only US$23bn of private RMBS has been issued year to date, according to Bank of America-Merrill Lynch data, which showed half of the volume coming from resecuritizations of defaulted and re-performing old mortgages. "We want the market to come back," said Rabin at Loomis Sayles. " we are not sure if we could come back to market with a deal that has no documented relief from conflicts of interest." (Reporting by Joy Wiltermuth; Editing by Marc Carnegie and Natalie Harrison) Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi forces raised the national flag over the government compound in Fallujah on Friday, top commanders said, a breakthrough in the nearly four-week-old offensive against the Islamic State group's bastion. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went on state television to announce that his forces were in control of the city except for a few small pockets of jihadists. They met limited resistance from IS fighters, who were fleeing the city, the commanders told AFP, leaving the organisation on the brink of losing one of the most emblematic strongholds in its two-year-old "caliphate". It is the latest setback for the jihadists who have also lost territory in neighbouring Syria and in Libya in recent weeks. "We promised you the liberation of Fallujah and we retook it. Our security forces control the city except for small pockets that need to be cleared within the coming hours," Abadi said. Military commanders explained that the forces had raised the flag over the government compound in the centre of the city. "The liberation of the government compound, which is the main landmark in the city, symbolises the restoration of the state's authority" in Fallujah, federal police chief Raed Shaker Jawdat told AFP. The overall commander of the operation, Lieutenant General Abdulwahab al-Saadi, said that "Iraqi forces have now liberated 70 percent of the city". Significant parts of northern Fallujah, where thousands of civilians are believed to remain, have yet to be retaken. In December 2015, Abadi announced the liberation of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province where Fallujah lies, but it took several more weeks of fighting to establish full control. - 'Little resistance' - In the deserted, recently reconquered neighbourhoods of the insurgent bastion known in Iraq as the "City of Mosques", elite forces were consolidating positions, stocking up on food and weapons. Dozens of bodies of dead IS fighters were left to rot under blankets amid the rubble of homes destroyed by air strikes, rockets or controlled explosions of the hundreds of bombs the jihadists themselves laid across the city. Story continues Fallujah, just 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, is one of IS's key historical bastions and its loss would leave Mosul as the only major Iraqi city under its control. The US-led coalition, which has carried out air strikes in support of the Fallujah operation, had initially favoured focusing efforts on recapturing Mosul. Abadi, who was facing huge political pressure over the reform of his own government when he declared the launch of the Fallujah operation, vowed Friday that Mosul was the next target. In the hours before the latest push into the heart of Fallujah, Iraqi forces retook several neighbourhoods in quick succession. "This operation was done with little resistance from Daesh," Saadi said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "They know, by experience, that a small number of IS fighters in urban terrain cannot stop an Iraqi security forces ground assault supported by coalition airstrikes," said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. After months of military operations aimed at completely sealing off the city, IS had been expected to fight to the death in a protracted suicide holdout, but recent developments suggest the siege was porous. "There is a mass flight of Daesh to the west that explains this lack of resistance. There are only pockets of them left and we are hunting them down," Saadi said. Tens of thousands of civilians have been forced from their homes since the operation began last month. - Aid groups overwhelmed - The first to escape IS rule were in rural outlying areas, in the early phase of the operation which saw a myriad different Iraqi forces seal the siege of the city. Residents of the city centre had been trapped in dire conditions for days, but recent advances have allowed large numbers to escape. IS "likely quickly discovered that they did not have the forces available to exert social control over the city and prevent civilians from fleeing once the assault into central Fallujah began," Martin said. The Norwegian Refugee Council, which runs camps for the displaced near Fallujah, said the sudden influx meant relief was drying up fast. "Thousands of civilians from Fallujah are right now heading towards displacement camps in a dramatic development that is overwhelming emergency aid provision and services," it said. With IS on the retreat in the city, a window has opened for civilians to leave but the journey remains dangerous, with several cases of fleeing civilians killed or wounded by roadside bombs. There were an estimated 50,000 people in the city when the operation began but it is unclear how many remain. Civilians have been used as human shields by IS, and those who managed to flee face the risk of sectarian-motivated abuse by elements of the pro-government forces. Fallujah is a Sunni Muslim city, and the involvement of Shiite militia groups in the operation had raised fears of sectarian revenge attacks. By Thaier al-Sudani and Stephen Kalin FALLUJA/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi forces on Friday entered the center of Falluja, the Iraqi city longest held by Islamic State, nearly four weeks after the start of a U.S.-backed offensive that cleared out the tens of thousands of residents still there. Government troops, supported by multiple air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition, recaptured the municipal building, though the ultra-hardline militants still controlled a significant portion of Falluja, an hour's drive west of Baghdad, and many streets and houses remain mined with explosives. Federal police raised the Iraqi state flag above the government building and continued pursuing insurgents, according to a military statement. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Iraqi forces had taken back a portion of the city, although he added: "There's still some fighting to be done." Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory shortly after nightfall, as government forces continued pushing into parts of the city held by the militants. Security forces have "tightened their control inside the city and there are still some pockets that need to be cleansed in the coming hours," he said in a brief speech on state television. Troops could be seen coming under sniper fire earlier in the day as they entered a large mosque about 100 meters (300 feet) from the municipal building. Clashes also involved gun fire, artillery and aerial bombardment, sending clouds of smoke towards the sky above the city center. Heavily armed Interior Ministry police units were advancing along Baghdad Street, the main east-west road running through the city, and commandos from the counter-terrorism service (CTS) had surrounded Falluja hospital, the military statement said. Sabah al-Numani, a CTS spokesman, said on state television that snipers were holed up inside the main hospital. Iraq launched a major operation on May 23 to retake Falluja, a bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against U.S. forces that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, and Shi'ite-led governments that followed. The participation of Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias in the battle alongside the Iraqi army raised fears of sectarian killings, and authorities are already investigating allegations that militiamen executed dozens of Sunni men fleeing the city. Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged pro-government fighters in a Friday sermon not to seek revenge against residents. There were no initial signs that Shi'ite militiamen had entered the city proper. Falluja was seen as a launchpad for recent Islamic State (IS) bombings in Baghdad, making the offensive a crucial part of the government's campaign to improve security in the capital. U.S. allies would prefer to concentrate on Islamic State-held Mosul, Iraq's second largest city located in the far north of the country. Enemies of Islamic State have launched major offensives against the jihadists on other fronts, including a thrust by U.S.-backed forces against the city of Manbij in northern Syria. The attacks amount to the most sustained pressure on the group since it proclaimed a caliphate in 2014. MASS DISPLACEMENT Islamic State has begun allowing thousands of civilians trapped in central Falluja to escape and the sudden exodus has overwhelmed displacement camps already filled beyond capacity. More than 6,000 families left on Thursday alone, according to Falluja Mayor Issa al-Issawi, who fled following the IS seizure of city in January 2014. "We don't know how to deal with this large number of civilians," he told Reuters on Friday. The number of displaced people surpassed 68,000, according to the United Nations, which recently estimated Falluja's population at 90,000, only about a third of the total in 2010. Witnesses said Islamic State had announced via loudspeakers that residents could leave if they wanted. It was unclear why the group changed tack after clamping down on civilian movement only a few days ago. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which has been providing aid to displaced people, said escapees reported a sudden retreat of IS fighters at key checkpoints inside Falluja that had allowed civilians to leave. "Aid services in the camps were already overstretched and this development will push us all to the limit," said NRC country director Nasr Muflahi. Islamic State, which by U.S. estimates has been ousted from almost half of the territory it seized when Iraqi forces partially collapsed in 2014, has used residents as human shields to slow the military's advance and help avoid air strikes. Addressing Falluja's residents, Prime Minister Abadi said in his speech: "We want there to be security and peace in this city for you to go back to live there." (Additional reporting by Saif Hameed in Baghdad, Phil Stewart in Washington and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Editing by Dominic Evans) Not everybody loves their job. But if youre bored at work it might not just be making you unhappy, but having a long-term effect on your brain. A new study from researchers at Florida State University suggests that a lack of stimulation in the workplace could a long-term cognitive effect on employees. And the same can be said for working in a dirty environment, the study found. Dr Joseph Gryzwacz, lead researcher on the study, said researchers have been divided in the past as to whether working in a dirty workplace or being stuck in an unstimulating environment takes the biggest toll on peoples brain health as they get older. But the new study suggests both can play a key role in employees cognitive wellbeing. Dr Gryzwacz and his team collected data from nearly 5,000 adults aged 32 to 84, looking at their workplaces and their ability to keep and use information they had learned. They also looked at their ability to complete tasks, manage time and pay attention, as well as any memory issues. The results showed that the more complex someones job is when it comes to learning new skills and taking on new challenges, the stronger their cognitive performance, especially for women, as they aged. Secondly, men and women who had jobs that exposed them to a dirty working environment saw a cognitive decline. (Pictures: Getty) Psychologists say that the brain is a muscle, while industrial hygienists point to chemicals in the work environment that may cause decline, said Dr Gryzwacz. There are real things in the workplace that can shape cognitive function: some that you can see or touch, and others you cant. We showed that both matter to cognitive health in adulthood. The practical issue here is cognitive decline associated with aging and the thought of, if you dont use it, you lose it. Designing jobs to ensure that all workers have some decision making ability may protect cognitive function later in life, but its also about cleaning up the workplace. The studys finding are published in the June issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The fall of Fallujahs center to Iraqi government forces is a real loss to ISIS. The city 40 miles west of Baghdad embodies Sunni resistance in Iraq. It was the site of the first clash by ordinary Iraqis with U.S. soldiers, when Americans were basking in the glow of the invasion. It was also the first city to fall into the hands of Sunni extremists, and, after U.S. forces left the country, the first to fall to ISIS, way back in January 2014. If its fighters are driven from the Western neighborhoods still under ISIS control, its important on several levels, Douglas Ollivant, a former U.S. Army infantry officer and White House aide in charge of Iraq, told TIME. This is important in terms of Iraqi politicsFallujah was seen as a car bomb factory for Baghdad. And Im not on the ground there so I cant see whats happening, but it appears to be falling a heck of a lot faster than any of us anticipated. So maybe this mass strategy of encircling ISIS and making them fight on four different fronts may be working. The more territory ISIS loses, the better, because turf has translated to drawing power. In 2014, when ISIS was capturing territory at a rate that evoked the great Muslim expansion of 7th Century, its momentum was a tremendously powerful recruiting tool. But its been losing territory steadily for more than a year; Iraqi forces and Shiite militias took back Tikrit, then Ramadi, while Iraqi Kurds draw closer to Mosul. And that, along with Turkeys decision to finally clamp down on its long border with Syria, has severely affected recruitment. In April, U.S. officials said the stream of foreign fighters joining ISIS had been reduced to a trickle, from 2,000 a month a year earlier to just 200. Wages are down, with fighters paid just $50 a month, and electricity has been cut back in areas it holds, according to documents recovered from towns that ISIS fled. (The documents were assessed in A Caliphate Under Strain, published in April by the Combating Terrorism Center in West Point.) At the same time, ISIS is growing less and less popular among Muslims across the Middle East, polls show. A survey of Arab youth in 16 countries taken in January and February found 80% rejecting any possibility of support for ISIS , up sharply from 60% in 2015. Story continues The group still has 18,000 to 22,000 fighters inside Syria and Iraq, CIA director John Brennan told Congress on Thursday. And Brennan warned that as ISIS loses ground on the battlefield, it likely will step up its efforts both to plot terror attacks and inspire them abroad. The group claimed to have ordered the double-murder this week of a French officer and his companion outside Paris, and congratulated Omar Mateen for killing 49 people in Orlando in its name a day earlier. But shrinking territory and fundingmany young Sunni Muslims join ISIS for the moneyreally do help reduce the appeal of ISIS, which has developed into a movement. As Ollivant put it: Whats the point of being the Islamic State if theres no state? Osama bin Laden always argued that it was too early to set up a Caliphate, and claim dominion over the worlds 1.2 billion Muslims. Al-Qaeda was established to wage war on the West and slowly prepare the ground for the steps that ISIS hastened to after its successes in Iraq and Syria. If the group ever does lose those territories, Ollivant cautioned that Western governments may find themselves longing for the clarity of an enemy that waved a flag and operated in plain sight. Islamic Statewere actually pretty good at taking out states, Ollivant said, using the name the group uses for itself. Theyve been very very helpful in setting out target arrays for us. The problem is when they go back into the shadows. In the larger sense, all this does is make the hard-core jihadis go, Oh, al-Qaeda was right! And they go back to doing what they did before. By Stephen Kalin BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A top Iraqi general said the army may permit Islamic State militants to flee the offensive on Falluja, but he expected most of them would fight to the end and predicted they faced an internal uprising in the northern city of Mosul. Troops recaptured Falluja's municipal building on Friday, although the ultra-hardline militants are still holed up in several districts and have left many streets and buildings laced with explosives. The military has made quick progress in the city, an hour's drive from Baghdad, prompting the exodus of more than 68,000 residents. Asked if government forces would allow militants a path out of the city to avoid intense clashes in built-up areas that could kill remaining civilians and destroy infrastructure, General Talib Shaghati Mshari al-Kenani said they would try. "But the Daesh terrorists in Falluja will detonate suicide bombs to kill innocent Iraqis, believing they will enter heaven by doing so," he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. Kenani, who heads the Joint Operations Command waging Iraq's war against Islamic State in coordination with a U.S.-led coalition, was speaking at his Baghdad office inside a compound guarded by black-clad special forces commandos. In previous offensives, Iraqi forces have often left a way out for the insurgents to escape, but after losing nearly half the Iraqi territory they seized in 2014 and major transit routes including to neighboring Syria, their options are narrowing. Government troops launched a major operation with coalition air support on May 23 to retake Falluja, a bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against U.S. forces that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, and later Shi'ite-led governments. The participation of Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias alongside the Iraqi army raised fears of sectarian killings, and authorities are already investigating allegations that militiamen executed dozens of Sunni men fleeing the city. Kenani said the military plan for operations inside Falluja proper did not include a role for the militias, grouped under a government umbrella called the Hashid Shaabi. He said the Hashid would likely not be needed either in the campaign for the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, a predominately Sunni city which Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has pledged to retake this year. "The tribal Hashid, local police and volunteers from the Sunni areas occupied by Daesh will help to hold land. No need for additional forces from outside the area," he said, in an apparent reference to Shi'ite militiamen. HOPES FOR MOSUL UPRISING Falluja is seen as a launchpad for recent Islamic State (IS) bombings in the capital, making the offensive a crucial part of the government's campaign to improve security, though U.S. allies would prefer to concentrate on Mosul. The army is pushing about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Mosul towards Qayara, where an airfield could serve as a staging ground for the future offensive, but progress has been faltering. Kenani said the military had information that residents inside Mosul, estimated at more than one million, were preparing to rise up against the insurgents and was in contact with them to synchronize such action with an external military assault. "Cooperation and coordination with Mosul residents will contribute in a big way to the armed forces in liberating the city from Daesh," he said, but gave no details. Groups inside Mosul have reportedly scrawled anti-Islamic State graffiti in public places and attacked militants at checkpoints, but there have not been widespread acts of resistance. Kenani, who is also commander of Iraq's elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) which has spearheaded battles against Islamic State for more than two years, said he expected special forces to remain in the vanguard against pockets of Islamist militants once the government regains control. "These sorts of operations which happen in densely populated areas don't require regular armed forces but rather special operations units which are small and adaptable." The roughly 10,000 members of CTS, established a decade ago with support from the U.S. forces, are considered the best-trained and -equipped fighters in Iraq. Kenani said they would be needed for the foreseeable future. (Reporting By Stephen Kalin) Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel allowed hundreds of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip into Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers Friday, an official said, a week after revoking entry permits in response to a deadly attack. The 300 Palestinians are believed to be the first from the blockaded enclave to be granted entry to pray since Israel shut the border after Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis at a Tel Aviv nightspot on June 8. That measure came during the first week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when tens of thousands of Palestinians visit Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. The permits issued for Friday were the regular weekly quota for worshippers at Al-Aqsa, said a spokeswoman for COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit which manages civilian affairs for Palestinians in the West Bank and liaises with Gaza. "Larger numbers were supposed to enter for Ramadan. That has been cancelled," she said. Israel imposed a tight air, sea and land blockade on Gaza in 2006, designed to prevent the Islamist Hamas movement that controls the territory from rearming. Around 53,000 Palestinians from the West Bank were also allowed into Jerusalem on Friday to pray at Al-Aqsa, the spokeswoman said. Thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank had already been allowed to go there last week in an exception to the entry ban, she noted. The mosque compound, a frequent focal point of Palestinian-Israeli tensions, is revered by both Muslims and Jews, who refer to the site as the Temple Mount. The Tel Aviv attack was the deadliest in a wave of violence that began in October. One of the two attackers was arrested, while the other was shot and underwent surgery. Further details have been placed under a gag order by the Israeli authorities while the investigation continues. (Story corrects in fourth paragraph list compiler to William Reed Media, not Restaurant Magazine, in 13th paragraph, corrects to Sao Paulo, not San Paulo.) By Richard Leong NEW YORK (Reuters) - Osteria Francescana ascended to the top of the annual ranking of world's best restaurants for its inventive twist on traditional Italian dishes, the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list released on Monday showed. The restaurant in Modena, Italy, which was runner-up on last year's list, switched the top spot with the 2015 winner El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain. "The chefs ambitious creations perfectly balance the demands of honoring heritage while embracing modernity," the list's organizers said of Osteria Francescana's chef-owner Massimo Bottura. The list, compiled by William Reed Media, was based the personal experiences of 972 chefs, restaurateurs, food writers and culinary experts, instead of a list of pre-determined criteria. The Best 50 list, which was launched in 2002, has gained prominence among chefs around the globe, rivaling the longstanding Michelin guides with its star system. Michelin assigned three stars, its highest rating, to Osteria Francescana and El Celler de Can Roca. "We did something epic," the 53-year-old Bottura told Reuters after the award ceremony held in New York City, the first time it was held outside of Britain. Another three-star restaurant Eleven Madison Park in New York City was ranked third, moving up two spots from last year. Central in Lima, Peru held at No. 4 for a second year. Noma fell for a second year, down two places from the previous year to No. 5. The Copenhagen restaurant, known for its cutting-edge Nordic cuisine, held the best restaurant title in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. Rounding out the top 10 were Mirazur in Menton, France; Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain; Narisawa in Tokyo; Steirereck, Vienna and Asador Etxebarri in Axpe, Spain. More than half of the restaurants in the top 50 are in Europe. Six are in the United States; six in South America and five in Asia. Three restaurants dropped off from last year's top 10. London's Dinner by Heston Blumenthal tumbled to No. 45, Gaggan in Bangkok slid to No. 23 and D.O.M. in Sao Paulo dipped to No. 11. Monday's ceremony also handed out individual chef awards. Pierre Herme was named world's top pastry chef, while Alain Passard, whose Paris restaurant Arpege landed on No. 19 on the latest list, was given the lifetime achievement prize. Dominique Crenn, who owns acclaimed Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn in San Francisco, was recognized as the world's best female chef. The World's 50 Best Restaurants awards will be presented in Melbourne in 2017. (Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Michael Perry) Putting a smile on our faces! Jennifer Aniston went out to dinner with her hot, scruffy-looking hubby, Justin Theroux, on Thursday, June 16. The couple dined at The Smile in New York City. PHOTOS: Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux's Love Timeline Earlier in the day, the buff actor was spotted showing off his muscles in a tank while biking around NYCs SoHo neighborhood. The Mothers Day actress, 47, and Leftovers star, 44, recently jetted off to the Bahamas for a romantic getaway. Despite recent reports that Aniston was sporting a baby bump on the beach, her rep told Us Weekly that Jennifer is not pregnant. The Cake star married Theroux during a hush-hush, star-studded ceremony in 2015 after a three-year engagement. The HBO star proposed to Aniston on his 41st birthday in August 2012. "Married life is so normal and fun and not much different," Aniston told Harper's Bazaar in March. "We felt married for so long. Im lucky because Justin is the funniest person I've met, and we make each other laugh. Laughter is one of the great keys to staying youthful." PHOTOS: Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux's Matching Style Aniston also couldnt be more proud of her hubby, whose next role will be in the film adaptation of The Girl on the Train. "As they say in the business, 'He's on fire,'" Aniston told Harpers Bazaar. "I'm so proud of him." PHOTOS: Secret Celebrity Weddings Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics, and more delivered straight to your inbox! Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux continued their PDA-filled week in New York City on Thursday night. The Leftovers star held hands with his wife as they left the cozy restaurant, The Smile, and both Aniston, 46, and Theroux, 44, flashed their slight "smiles" upon exiting the eatery. WATCH: Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux Pack on the PDA During Romantic Getaway The A-list couple were also dressed in similar styles. Aniston donned an all-black outfit and a denim jacket, while Theroux wore a dark denim shirt and black pants, making them a perfect match. Splash News The two have returned to NYC following a romantic getaway in the Bahamas. In pics obtained by ET, the bikini-clad actress is seen sweetly kissing her shirtless hubby on the beach. While some tabloids speculated that Aniston was pregnant following the release of her vacation pics, her rep told ET that the rumors were completely false. WATCH: Jennifer Aniston Shows Off Toned Arms in Tank Top After Rep Denies Pregnancy Rumors "She is not pregnant. Shame on InTouch for making up the whole story, but this is not the first time they have done so," the Friends star's rep said on Wednesday. "What you see is her having just enjoyed a delicious big lunch and her feeling safe on private property." WATCH: Jennifer Aniston Sparks New Pregnancy Rumors in Bikini on Vacation With Husband Justin Theroux Related Articles Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux are all about the romantic dates. The couple was spotted enjoying more quality time in N.Y.C. as they hit up The Smile in New York City on Thursday. Naturally, the two were all smiles as they left the Soho spot hand-in-hand. Aniston, 47, and Theroux, 44, dressed casually for their night out, with the actress wearing a black shirt and black pants while holding a denim jacket as she walked out. Her husband sported a gray, button-down shirt and black jeans. The sweet date is the second romantic outing for the couple this week. Aniston and Theroux were spotted out on Tuesday at Mercer Kitchen for lunch in Soho. WATCH: Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux Are Back from Their Sweet Vacation The intimate outings come just days after the couple returned from a romantic vacation in the Bahamas. A source previously told PEOPLE that the recent island getaway was an early anniversary trip for the couple. The two jetted off before Theroux prepares to leave for Australia for work on The Leftovers. Meanwhile, fans of the HBO show were treated to a shirtless photo of Theroux posted on the show's official Twitter account. The caption read: "#BTS with Justin Theroux on #TheLeftovers Season 3 set in Austin." (Reuters) - A black woman who joined protests at New Jersey's Kean University over racial conditions on college campuses was sentenced on Friday to 90 days in jail for making anonymous false threats against black students in an attempt to stoke protests, prosecutors said. Kayla McKelvey, 25, pleaded guilty in April to a single charge of creating a false public alarm after making the threats on social media, the Union County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement. McKelvey was also sentenced to five years of probation and will be required to pay more than $82,000 in restitution among other conditions, the prosecutor's office said. Prosecutors said McKelvey was participating in a rally on racial issues on Nov. 17 and left the event early to post racist threats of violence on social media. "I will kill all the blacks tonight, tomorrow and any other day if they go to Kean University," a tweet read, prosecutors said. McKelvey then returned to the rally and tried to raise awareness of the fake threats, which prosecutors said prompted many students to not attend class in the following days and cost tens of thousands of dollars in additional security for the campus. An attorney for McKelvey could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday. A Linked In account under McKelvey's name describes her as a past president of Kean's Pan African Student Union and a former homecoming queen at the school. Kean University, which sits about 10 miles southwest of Newark, is one of many universities where students staged demonstrations and walkouts last year in support of students at the University of Missouri, where the school president resigned after protests over his handling of racial issues. Shortly after those protests proliferated, several men across the country were charged with making actual threats on social media to kill black students. (Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) As the nation mourns after the mass shooting in Orlando on Sunday, touching stories of humanity continue to poke through the sadness, offering inspiration and comfort. That's exactly what happened on a JetBlue flight carrying the grandmother of one of the victims headed to the central Florida city on Tuesday. The story went viral when Kelly Davis Karas, a flight attendant on board, shared a post on Facebook revealing the touching compassion of passengers after they learned the older woman had lost her grandson, 20-year-old Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo, in the attack. "Today my dear friend Melinda and I had the sad privilege of attending to his grandmother on our flight as she made her journey to Orlando to join her family during this unspeakable time," Karas wrote. "Knowing she was making this hard journey alone, JetBlue employees made sure to be at her side every step of the way." In an effort to make sure the woman was comfortable, the flight attendants offered her pillows, blankets and tissues for the duration of the flight. But the crew didn't stop there. Karas and the other attendant Melinda took it a step further, passing around pieces of paper to everyone on board so that they could sign their names as a kind gesture. "When we gathered them together to present them to her, we didn't have just a sheet of paper covered in names, which is what I had envisioned," she added. "Instead, we had page after page after page after page of long messages offering condolences, peace, love and support. There were even a couple of cash donations, and more than a few tears." JetBlue Passengers and Crew Mourn With Grandmother Traveling to Orlando After Grandson Was Killed in Massacre| Death, Murder, Shootings, Untimely Deaths, Real People Stories As the flight landed, Karas ended with a recently approved message from the airline: "JetBlue stands with Orlando," before witnessing the compassion continue as passengers prepared to deplane. Describing a moment that moved her to tears, Karas wrote that she watched as every person made an effort to say something to the grandmother before exiting the aircraft. "EVERY SINGLE PERSON STOPPED TO OFFER HER THEIR CONDOLENCES. Some just said they were sorry, some touched her hand, some hugged her, some cried with her," Karas wrote. "But every single person stopped to speak to her, and not a single person was impatient at the slower deplaning process." Sunday's shooting in Orlando claimed 49 lives and injured 53 others after a gunman opened fire inside of Pulse nightclub. The shooter was killed at the scene. Luis, who went by "Omar," was a dancer and one of the youngest victims. He graduated from La Vergne High School in Tennessee last year. "He was such a caring, loving person. If you ever needed advice, he was that person," Daniel Suarez-Ortiz, who attended high school with Omar told PEOPLE. "He was just that person to go to for anything." TOKYO, June 17 (Reuters) - Japanese government bonds skidded on Friday, with yields soaring off record lows notched in the previous session and the superlong tenor bearing the brunt of the selling. The 20-year yield jumped 7.5 basis points to 0.170 after plumbing a record low 0.090 percent on Thursday. The 30-year yield rose 8.5 basis points to 0.230 percent, moving away from a record low 0.150 percent marked in the previous session. The 10-year JGB yield added 5.5 basis points to minus 0.150 percent. It had dropped to a record low of minus 0.210 percent on Thursday against a backdrop of growing fears that Britain could vote to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum. Campaigning for the vote was halted after a British member of parliament was shot and fatally wounded on Thursday. June 10-year futures ended down 0.48 point at 152.25. "We think JGBs were overbought, so we exited our position," said Tadashi Matsukawa, head of Japan fixed income at PineBridge Investments in Tokyo. "We might get back in, depending on what happens with Brexit, but JGBs themselves probably have already hit their near-term peak," he said. JGB prices accelerated their losses after poor demand at a "liquidity-enhancing" auction. Japan's Ministry of Finance regularly conducts these auctions of already-issued debt to improve market liquidity, but many investors were unwilling to buy at lofty price levels, market participants said. Tokyo stocks clawed back some of the ground they had lost on Thursday, which also undermined demand for bonds. The Nikkei stock index had shed 2 percent in the previous session after the Bank of Japan held monetary policy steady as expected at the conclusion of its two-day meeting. Earlier on Friday, Japan's government kept its assessment of the economy unchanged this month but warned that consumer prices are rising at a slower pace, casting more doubt on policymakers' three-year effort to shake off deflation. (Reporting by Tokyo market team; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore) CONCORD, N.H. Eighty-eight Civil War flags, some tattered, some stained in blood and ripped by bullet holes, capture the attention of visitors to New Hampshire's State House. Since the 1860s, the banners have hung in the Hall of Flags at the state Capitol's front entrance. New Hampshire men once carried the flags as they marched into battle from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. Flags from the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II and Vietnam joined the collection over the years, bringing it to more than 100 battle flags. "The old standards, pierced by shot and shell, dyed with the blood of our bravest and best, and hallowed by associations with the glorious fields and the noble dead, are priceless relics of the great contest," New Hampshire's adjutant general wrote in 1864, adding that the flags should be permanently displayed for all to see. But as time wears on, lawmakers and historians are debating the flags' futures: If left as they are, how long will they last? And what can be done to preserve them without removing them from public view? Statehouses, museums and libraries nationwide are grappling with similar questions as they seek to preserve historical relics. Maine moved flags from its Capitol to the state museum about a decade ago, placing the flags on special panels for preservation. Rhode Island is now exploring flag preservation and Connecticut recently completed a project. "Many states in our country have these collections, they've very challenging," said Gwen Spicer, a conservator who has restored flags across the country and created a preservation plan for New Hampshire's flags. But New Hampshire has been slow to act. A legislative historical committee scrapped Spicer's plan several months ago to sew the flags to netting to keep them from falling apart. Republican House Speaker Shawn Jasper opposed it, and said he wants the Hall of Flags to remain as is until after the State House celebrates its bicentennial in 2019. He is skeptical of any plan that would remove the flags from the State House. His great, great grandfather marched in battle under two of the flags now on display. "That's pretty moving and pretty meaningful," Jasper said. Advocates for preservation say leaving the flags as they are could accelerate deterioration. State Rep. David Welch, a Republican, has served on a committee on flag preservation for two decades. Money was initially an issue; the latest proposal to put the flags on netting would cost $20,000 to $40,000 each, Spicer said. The sale of New Hampshire-themed bottles of vodka at state liquor stories brought in nearly $90,000 since 2013 and is expected to bring in about $70,000 more. Perhaps greater than money is the fear of potentially damaging the flags or changing the current display. The Hall of Flags is the first stop for thousands of New Hampshire fourth graders touring the State House each year, and lawmakers say seeing the real flags in their original condition make the lessons more compelling. "They see real blood stains on there, real smoke, real bullet holes, and then they hear the story and they're absolutely thrilled to see them," Welch said. But Spicer, the conservationist, cautions against doing nothing. She says the way the flags hang now creates stress on the old material, and that the silk and cotton will eventually deteriorate by exposure to light and temperatures. But more than that, Spicer says key historical facts are missing if the flags remain as they have been for more than a century. Removing the flag and spreading them out even if it means displaying them outside of the Statehouse could show new battle honors or other tidbits of information that tell a richer history. "Part of doing nothing, letting them fall to dust, is that there is no documentation of this collection," Spicer said. "We're not able to actually tell the full story that they have the potential to tell." Jo Cox, the 41-year-old Labour Party member of Parliament for Batley and Spen who was killed Thursday, was a rising star in British politics. The activist was elected to Parliament for the first time last year and quickly made a name for herself on matters such as immigration, Syrian refugees, and Britains membership in the European Union. Prior to that, she spent a decade working at Oxfam, the British aid agency, in various senior capacities in the U.K., U.S. and Brussels. Immediately before she was elected to Parliament in May 2015, she worked at the Freedom Fund, an anti-slavery organization, and at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to a biography on her website. Cox represented an area in which she was born and raisedand of which she was proudin Yorkshire, as can be seen in her maiden speech to Parliament. But that speech is notable not just for her touting of her constituencys typically independent, no-nonsense and proud Yorkshire towns and villages, but also for her reference to how diverse the area is. Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration, be it of Irish Catholics across the constituency or of Muslims from Gujarat in India or from Pakistan, principally from Kashmir. While we celebrate our diversity, what surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us. Cox also lauded her constituencys spirit of nonconformitya spirit she herself exhibited on several occasions as an MP. She was one of 36 lawmakers who nominated Jeremy Corbyn to be the Labour Party leader, but she voted instead for Liz Kendal, his rival, in the leadership election. She later said she regretted nominating Corbyn, who is now the partys leader. Last month, after the partys disappointing election results, she said: I dont think its time for a leadership challenge against Jeremy, but I do think Jeremy needs to personally recognize that this isnt good enough. Story continues Recommended: Why the Stanford Judge Gave Brock Turner Six Months Nor was Corbyn the only target of her criticism. She called David Cameron, the British prime minister, and President Obama a huge disappointment on Syria, where she favored ethical military action to end the civil war and bring President Bashar al-Assad to the negotiating table. She also supported the U.K. admitting 3,000 child refugees from Syriaa controversial stand in a country where the issue of immigration is contentious. You can watch the full speech here. Heres an excerpt: I recognize that this is not easy, but tonight we are being asked to make a decision that transcends party politics. Any member who has seen the desperation and fear on the faces of children trapped in inhospitable camps across Europe must surely feel compelled to act. I urge them tonight to be brave and bold, and I applaud the honorable and learned member for Sleaford and North Hykeham [Stephen Phillips] for an incredibly principled, personal speech. In the shanty towns of Calais and Dunkirk, the aid workers I spent a decade with on the frontline as an aid worker myself, tell me that the children there face some of the most horrific circumstances in the world. Surely we have to do the right thing tonight and support the Dubs amendment. Cox was also a passionate supporter of Britains continued membership in the EU, and her Twitter feed over the last few days urged Britons to vote to remain in the referendum on June 23. She acknowledged that immigrationwhich supporters of the so-called Brexit cite as a major reason for wanting to leavewas a legitimate concern that didnt make someone a racist or xenophobic, but said it wasnt a good reason to leave the EU. Recommended: The Coming Air War Against Donald Trump Over half of all migrants to Britain come from outside the EU, she wrote, and the result of this referendum will do nothing to bring these numbers down. Cox was born in Batley, England, on June 22, 1974. The BBC reports she attended Heckmondwike Grammar School and became the first person in her family to go to college. She studied social and political studies at Pembroke College, Cambridge, from which she graduated in 1995. Heres more: After graduating, she worked as an adviser for the Labour MP Joan Walley and then Glenys (now Baroness) Kinnock. By the end of the 1990s she was head of campaigns for the pro-European pressure group Britain in Europe. She is survived by her husband, Brendan Cox, and their two children, Cuillin and Lejla. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. Joey Feek's life and battle with cancer will soon hit the big screen. In addition to his blog posts that went viral documenting his wife's illness, Rory Feek had also been documenting his Joey's journey on video. The result is the documentary To Joey, With Love, in theaters for one night only on Sept. 20. Rory, who marked what would have been his 14th wedding anniversary to Joey on Wednesday, calls the film "my gift to her." The story begins a few weeks before their daughter Indiana was born in February of 2014 and runs through this past spring. Joey lost her battle with cancer on March 4, she was just 40-years-old. "Most people know Joey and I for the five months we spent in Indiana the beautiful, terrible days and weeks last fall and winter that we intimately shared through my blog posts," Rory wrote on his blog This Life I Live. "They got to see Joey die. To see her face death bravely and pass to the other side with honor. "But Iad like for people to have the chance to see my wife live. To see the incredible woman that she was before the doctors said there was nothing more they could do ... so they can better understand the amazing impact sheas had on me and everyone around her after she learned that the end was coming." Rory continued: "Joey didnat live to see her 41st birthday, but this September, just a week or so after her birthday on the 9th ... my wife will get the chance to live again. On a movie screen, her heart will start beating and her story will come to life once more and it will be my gift to her. And to our girls. And to our friends and family and all who loved her." John Kasich and two other prominent Republicans said on the one-year anniversary of Donald Trumps announcement speech that they wont endorse him for president. Kasich, who ran against Trump in the primary, was asked on MSNBC Thursday about the pledge he signed saying he would support the eventual nominee. Its painful, the Ohio governor said, NPR reports. Look Im sorry that this has happened. Well see where it ends up. Im not making any final decision yet, but at this point, I just cant do it. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan told the Washington Post that not only would he not endorse Trump, he wont vote for him, either. I guess when I get behind the curtain Ill have to figure it out, he said of casting his ballot. Maybe write someone in. Im not sure. Hogan had endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the primary, who later went on to back Trump. Fred Upton, a fifteen-term Republican representative from Michigan, told the Detroit News that Trumps candidacy had gone off the track and that he is going to stay in [his] lane. Theres a lot of things that folks are not happy about with either of these two candidates, Upton said. Were running our own race, and dont look for me to endorse anyone in this race probably the rest of the year. John Stamos is staying in the Fox family. Following the cancellation of his short-lived Fox comedy Grandfathered, the network has cast the Full House favorite as a series regular in the second season of Scream Queens, Variety has learned. Stamos is a new addition to the A-list ensemble cast. Returning members from the original season are Jamie Lee Curtis, Emma Roberts, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Keke Palmer, Billie Lourd, Niecy Nash and Glen Powell, who all will reprise their original characters. Scream Queens season 2 which returns on Tuesday, Sept. 20 will be set in a hospital, after season 1 of the Ryan Murphy horror-anthology series was set in a sorority house. Putting the same characters in a new setting for the fresh episodes, the hospital will be run by Dean Cathy Munsch (Curtis), who has moved on after abolishing the college Greek system and traveled the world in search of a new mission. (For detailed season 2 character descriptions, click here.) Stamos will play Dr. Brock Holt, the hospitals brilliant, but secretive, head surgeon. More new cast members will be announced at a later date. Scream Queens marks a reunion for Stamos and Murphy, following guest-starring spots in Glee and The New Normal. The horror-comedy hails from Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. Stamos short-lived Grandfathered struggled to find an audience this past TV season, but he was get for Fox who developed the 2015-2016 family sitcom as a vehicle particularly for the star. Stamos is repped by WME. Related stories Fox Cancels 'The Grinder,' 'Grandfathered,' 'Bordertown' After First Seasons Evolving TV Ratings Yield Confusion Among Talent, Fans Over What's a Hit TV Land Icon Awards Celebrate Classics With John Stamos, Debbie Allen, Norman Lear 17 Jun - Jonas Gaffud, Philippine's beauty queen maker, is determined to give his best effort in preparing Miss Universe Philippines 2016, Maxine Medina, for this year's Miss Universe pageant. As reported on PEP News, Gaffud, who appeared at the press presentation of Miss Manila 2016 recently, shared that they are already informed about Medina's strength and weaknesses, and will prepare her well for the upcoming pageant. "I know that there are many issues about Medina's weakness in the Q&A portion, that she is not eloquent. If they know Maxine, they will know that she is an eloquent speaker. But when she's nervous, she finds it hard to speak. But we will prepare her for that," said Gaffud. Another thing about Medina that he will have to prepare is her walking. "I have to help her become more confidence in her walk," he said. Meanwhile, Gaffud, who attended the Miss USA pageant earlier alongside Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach, where Miss District of Columbia Deshauna Barber was declared the winner, stated that Wurtzbach is currently busy with her AIDS awareness campaign. "She is attending seminars about AIDS for her talk at the United Nations in September. She doesn't want to speak about the subject without full knowledge, so she is learning all that she can," he said. Gaffud and his team, Aces and Queens, are responsible for training many of Philippine's beauty queens, including Megan Young (Miss World 2013), Ariella Arida (Miss Universe 2013 3rd Runner-up), Janine Tugonon (Miss Universe 2012-1st Runner-Up), as well as the current Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach. (Photo source: pep.ph) The 37th Durban Intl. Film Festival (DIFF) kicked off June 16 with a youthful and energetic doc that was warmly received on whats celebrated across the country as Youth Day. As South Africa commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, a series of student protests that were an emotional high-water mark of the anti-apartheid struggle, the festival opened with The Journeymen, a crowdpleaser by newcomer Sean Metelerkamp, who hit the road for seven months along with fellow photographers Wikus de Wet and Sipho Mpongo to shoot the documentary. Filmed on three chest-mounted GoPros that chronicled their epic, 15,000-mile road trip across the country in 2014, The Journeymen offered a candid snapshot of a nation at a crossroads, with South Africans from a diverse range of backgrounds looking back on two decades of post-apartheid democratic rule. Introducing the movie, acting festival director Peter Machen said, It shows us how far weve come, and how far we have to go in fulfilling Nelson Mandelas dream ofan equitable society. Machen struck a reflective chord early on, starting his speech by thanking all the brave souls whose work over nearly four decades have helped in bringing this mighty DIFF train into the station. It was a reminder that South Africas oldest film festival has faced its own struggles this year an old but powerful locomotive solemnly chugging uphill. For the organizers, the opening-night pageantry offered a chance to get beyond the embarrassing headlines of recent weeks, when a row involving the University of KwaZulu-Natal, whose Center for Creative Arts manages the festival, South African super-producer Anant Singh, whose Shepherds and Butchers was slated to bow this years proceedings, and fest manager Sarah Dawson put the fest in jeopardy. When manager Dawson abruptly resigned last month, citing differences with DIFF management over the selection process that tapped Shepherds for the opening night, Machen stepped in to seize the reins of a festival whose credibility was at stake. Story continues Addressing a controversy that spilled over into the headlines, Machen noted last night, We need to have dialogue, not shouting matches. Echoing the mood, newly appointed director of the Center for Creative Arts, David Maahlamela, channeled his inner Dickens, adding, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Yet for a festival born under the dark cloud of apartheid, when it offered a platform for controversial movies that were frequently banned by the government, DIFF continues to offer a bold voice for works from around the continent. This years edition will again have a strong local flavor, with nearly half of the 100 feature-length films screening in 15 venues across the city showcasing the works of African helmers. For South Africa, the fest will include 10 fiction features and 14 docs. Among the highlights will be director John Barkers political mockumentary Wonder Boy for President, starring South African comic Kagiso Lediga, which will have its world premiere June 17; and Tess, a hard-hitting drama about a 20-year-old prostitute in Cape Town whose life is torn apart by drug addiction and sexual violence. The fiction feature debut for Meg Rickards, whose doc 1994: The Bloody Miracle, won an audience award in Durban in 2014, it has its world premiere June 18. Alongside the screenings will be a wide-ranging industry program that showcases DIFFs important role in bolstering filmmaking around the continent. In addition to a series of workshops and panel discussions, the seventh annual Durban FilmMart will offer 19 projects from across Africa a chance to meet with potential financiers, co-producers and distributors. And the ninth edition of Talents Durban, in cooperation with Berlinale Talents, brings together 20 African filmmakers for a series of workshops, master classes, and networking opportunities with industry professionals. The 37th Durban Intl. Film Festival runs though June 26. Related stories South Africa Launches Black Filmmakers Fund Locations Africa Sets Goals for Luring Prod'n to Region Durban's Regional Film Commission Ups the Ante A Massachusetts probate judge has issued a series of questions in the lawsuit brought by Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman and George S. Abrams over their removal as Trustees of the Sumner M. Redstone National Amusement Trust. The lawsuit was filed on May 23 after Dauman and Abrams were ousted from the entity that has voting control over Viacom and CBS. The complaint asserts that Shari Redstone is manipulating her father to take control - and is a piece of the massive litigation trail that explores Sumner Redstone's competency at age 93, which also includes Redstone's own lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court as well as actions in Delaware Chancery Court. As to the questions from Judge George Phelan, they can pretty much be boiled into two categories. The first and last question is a variation on the same topic: Does a Court have to find Sumner Redstone mentally incapacitated as a predicate to a finding of undue influence by Shari? If Sumner were not mentally incapacitated and had not been unduly influenced to do so by Shari, do the terms of the Trust authorize him to have removed the trustees for no reason? The questions shouldn't be taken as evidence of which way the judge is leaning in advance of a hearing on June 30, when he will decide whether to expedite Dauman's lawsuit. The defendants are arguing that Dauman and Abrams have no standing and that the dispute belongs in California anyway. It's jurisdiction and under what state's authority that comprise the bulk of the judge's questioning. Phelan also wants to know whether California or Massachusetts law applies to interpretations of the Trust including what constitutes mental incapacity, how each state defines such and how the language of the Trust as well as California vs. Massachusetts law deal with the issue of influence. Plus, he wants the parties to brief him on how other factors like administration of the Trust and Sumner's age and limitations impact where this dispute should play out. Read More: Viacom to Cover Philippe Dauman's Legal Bill in Sumner Redstone Lawsuit Judi Dench is set to take the British crown. Again. The Oscar winner will star as Queen Victoria in Working Title Film's Victoria and Abdul, with Stephen Frears set to direct. Focus Features will release domestically, and is co-financing in association with BBC Films. Universal is set to distribute internationally. Based on Shrabani Basu's book, Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant, and with a screenplay by Oscar-nominated writer Lee Hall, who won a Tony for Billy Elliot, the film will tell the true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's reign. Abdul Karim was a young Indian clerk who traveled from India to London to participate in Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1897. He soon found himself forging an unlikely and devoted alliance with the monarch, one that her household and inner circle attempted to destroy. Victoria gave Karim the name "the Munshi," often translated as "clerk" or "teacher," and appointed him her Indian Secretary along with other honors. He served during the final 15 years of her rule. The film will mark the second time Dench has played the historical figure (she was Academy Award nominated for her royal turn in 1997's Mrs. Brown), her third collaboration with Frears (she was nominated again for their last outing together, Philomena) and the director's fifth with Working Title. Victoria and Abdul was developed by Beeban Kidron and Lee Hall at Cross Street Films with BBC Films, and is being produced by Kidron, Academy Award nominee Tracey Seaward (The Queen) and Working Title's co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. "BBC Films is delighted to have supported Lee Hall's terrific script and extremely excited to be back in business with the winning combination that is Stephen Frears and Judi Dench," said Christine Langan, head of BBC Films and exec producer for Victoria and Abdul. Story continues Focus chairman Peter Kujawski commented: "It is a true privilege to collaborate with the great Stephen Frears and the legendary Judi Dench to tell this story of discovery, and it is always an event when Tim and Eric make a film that promises to move and delight audiences around the world." Victoria and Abdul is due to go into production this year for a 2017 release. The film announcement comes just as ITV and PBS ready their big-budget series Victoria, starring Jenna Coleman and focusing on the Queen's teenage years. The eight-part drama is due to launch in the U.K. later this year and on Masterpiece in 2017. Read more: 'Victoria' Teaser Unveiled by ITV Ahead of MIPTV Premiere dwave quantum computer Einstein called it spooky action at a distance. Thats because entanglement, a voodoo-like phenomenon in quantum physics linking particles that once interacted, seems to surpass the speed of light, violating the cosmic speed limit. Because of this, it doesnt fit in with Einstein's theory of relativity, so he concluded that it was too ludicrous to be real. But it is real, as physicists proved last year. And its actually going to be pretty useful, whether for a form of computing that is exponentially faster than what we have now, the creation of unbreakable codes and a more secure internet, or even for solving problems in chemistry and developing new drugs and materials. Now, quantum computing researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia have gotten even better at detecting this spooky phenomenon, which has big implications for the future of entanglement. Quantum cars Heres how entanglement works. Imagine your friend is holding two matchbox cars a green car and a yellow car, one in each hand. If he mixes them up behind his back, their information becomes entangled in a way if he unfolds his right hand and reveals the green car, you know that the yellow car must be in his left hand. Now imagine these are special cars quantum cars. Until your friend reveals one to you, they are undefined, shifting randomly between green and yellow with equal chances of being either color, Cosmos explains. But once you look at one car, the colors of the cars stop changing. If the car youre looking at has frozen at green then you know that the color of the other car must be yellow. So in a sense, the green car has affected the yellow car. And this can happen at any distance. If you have one friend standing in front of you with one car and another friend standing on, say, the moon with the other car, the cars are still entangled, instantaneously affecting each other. So having information about one particle in an entangled ensemble reveals an "unnatural" amount of information on the other, regardless of how many millions or billions of light years separate them, a press release writes. Story continues It allows us to look at one particle that interacted with another particle in the past and know what the other particles state is even if we cant read it because its on other side of universe, Alberto Peruzzo, a senior research fellow with RMIT University's School of Engineering and Director of RMIT's Quantum Photonics Laboratory, told Business Insider. When this is applied to computing, it allows for algorithms that are extremely fast far faster than any algorithms we can come up with using classical mechanics. Computing at warp speed Unlike traditional computers, which are binary and limited to just 0 and 1 (on or off), quantum computing uses particles that can exist in multiple dimensions, and can be 0, 1, 2, or more. This is called superposition. So much more information can be stored and transmitted, said Zixin Huang, a PhD student working on the experiment, in the press release. Quantum computing relies on entanglement between individual particles to store information. But theres a catch. In order to move forward with quantum computing, scientists have to find a way to make sure the particles in question are actually entangled. One of the problems we have today in the lab is that we need to certify that we have achieved entanglement in an experiment, Peruzzo said. When you have a higher number of particles in a quantum state, the dimensionality of system grows very fast. It quickly becomes very hard to actually find that this system is entangled. The recipe for entanglement The key ingredient to the new method is something called mutual information, which quantifies the amount of information obtained about one random variable through another random variable. The recipe is this: We take a two particle system, we calculate mutual information by doing measurements on each of these two particles, Peruzzo said. By comparing the mutual information to a threshold we can certify that we have entanglement. Although at the moment this method can only be used on bipartite (two particle) systems, the scientists are working on extending it to even more particles. They hope it will allow for simpler operations, cutting back the amount of measurements scientists have to make to determine if particles are, in fact, entangled. Other methods require a more sophisticated and complex approach, Peruzzo said. What we did in this work is show a very simple method that allows us to make faster progress in the lab. NOW WATCH: Physicists came up with a simple way you can outperform supercomputers at quantum physics More From Business Insider DECATUR Isabella Ledesma isn't even sure she's going to do choir in seventh grade. Yet she's one of 17 students helping out with a Superheroes to the Rescue day camp at St. Patrick School this week to help raise money for the junior high choir to take a trip to Cincinnati next spring. I'm kind of busy right now because my family is moving, but I like to help so (the adults) don't have so many kids to deal with, said Isabella, 11. Referring to the camper she's paired up with, 8-year-old Alister Kennedy, she said she tries to help him with ideas, but he has good ones, too. Isabella confided that she's only a little nervous that the boy's mom, Sara Kennedy, is one of her teachers at St. Patrick. Yet the third-grader seemed to be having a great time trimming aluminum foil from his Shield of Faith, then following Isabella's direction to press on the foil so that the cross underneath would stand out. It actually shows! Cool! Alister exclaimed. Billie Shay, music and technology teacher at St. Patrick, said the camp started with superheroes the children know, such as Superman, Captain America and Wonder Woman. The focus then shifted to real heroes in human history, such as the Roman Catholic saints and in the children's lives and what makes these people heroic. The four classrooms devoted to the camp are designed to bring all elements of STREAM education into play: science, technology, religion, engineering, art and math. In third-grade teacher Pam Martin-Hull's room, for example, the shield-making was based on Ephesians 6:16-17, which reads in part: take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one ... Fifth-grade teacher Nick Blackburn, meanwhile, had campers build superheroes after choosing materials and totaling the cost of each item in advance. You don't have any dollar limit, but I want you to use what you take, he said. Then kindergarten teacher Lara Vespa helped students make books about superheroes in their lives, and resource teacher Karen Layden led them playing games in the brain break room, involving physical and technological varieties. The large number of junior high volunteers meant that only a handful of the 21 campers in grades 2 through 5 had to share their counselor with another camper. Among the young volunteers doing double-duty were seventh-graders Bailey Nihiser and Sarah Keys, both 12. I like helping the kids so they can bring good stuff home to show their families, Sarah said. Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton arriving at the Royal Ascot. (Reuters/Andrew Boyers) Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton arriving at the Royal Ascot. (Reuters/Andrew Boyers) The Duchess of Cambridge proved to be the queen of effortless beauty once again when she stunned the crowd in her elegant Dolce and Gabbana ensemble at the Royal Ascot horse racing event. Kate Middleton arrived in a carriage with her husband Prince William to grace the event. Their little ones, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, were not in sight. The annual race is popular for attracting attendees arriving in extravagant - and sometimes outrageous - hats. But Kate definitely pulled a show-stopper with her head gear without looking tacky. (Adds details, background) By Daniel Bases NEW YORK, June 17 (Reuters) - Kentucky Governor Matthew Bevin on Friday issued an executive order abolishing and immediately reorganizing the administration of the state's underfunded public pension system. The order abolishes the Kentucky Retirement Systems Board of Trustees and immediately creates the Kentucky Retirement Systems Board of Directors, which Bevin said would include more investment expertise among its expanded membership. "The additional members must have investment experience," the order said, adding that the goal is to also increase transparency and eliminate conflicts of interest, the order said. Kentucky's public pension plans are underfunded by at least $30 billion. In April, Bevin signed an executive order to remove the KRS board chairman. The current board, however, did not allow the governor's appointee to take up his position, saying the Republican governor exceeded his authority. The executive order issued on Friday expands to 10 from six the number of board members appointed by the governor. Under Bevin's order, he appointed John Farris as chairperson of the new board and David Eager to serve as vice chairperson. Their terms expire June 17, 2019. All of the current members of the board will retain their positions. (Reporting by Daniel Bases, editing by G Crosse) Kerry Washington at the White Houses United State of Women Summit on Tuesday. (Photo: AKM-GSI) Bringing an end to violence against women is no easy task, but Kerry Washington is up to the challenge. For the third year, the Scandal star who is pregnant with her second child is serving as ambassador for the Allstate Foundation Purple Purse campaign, which uses financial empowerment to break the cycle of domestic abuse. The 39-year-old actress spoke to Yahoo Celebrity about the cause, which is close to her heart, and how it brought her to Olivia Popes stomping grounds Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, where she spoke at the White Houses United State of Women Summit. Its such a rewarding partnership for me, explained Washington, who has said that she knows more than one person who was a victim of domestic violence. It takes two things that Im very passionate [about] one is womens empowerment and ending violence against women, and [the other is] fashion and by some miracle I get to work in these two spaces that are so fulfilling and important to me. The campaign focuses on educating women about financial abuse how victims cant break free from their abusers for monetary reasons. Its the No. 1 reason why women dont leave abusive relationships, and its the No. 1 reason why, even when they do leave, they go back, Washington explains. The Purple Purse campaign includes the #FreetoWalk short film, Americas Largest Prison Break, which you can watch here: In the celebrity world, the topic of domestic violence has been front and center in recent weeks following Johnny Depp and Amber Heards split. She has accused him of domestic violence, and has taken quite a hit for doing so. We asked Washington what can be done to end the culture of blaming the victim. When you brought up the idea of victim-blaming, it really reminded me of Confirmation and making that movie, she says, referring to the TV flick, which was out in April and saw Washington playing Anita Hill, who knew a little something about the topic. I think a big part of the culture and Joe Biden spoke about this at the summit, as did a lot of the speakers comes from our resistance to deal with the reality, our resistance to accept the truth of the abuses of power that go on in this world. Its important that victims know when they come forward that they are going to be heard, believed, and helped. Story continues She continued, Ending violence against women is no easy task though I think well get there because there are so many hardworking people going at the issue but being able to attack the problem in a way that is so concrete and specific. Knowing that a womans financial disempowerment is the No. 1 reason why she doesnt leave or why she goes back. Its like, Oh, if we empower women financially if we give them the education and the training and the resources to walk away then we can make a tangible difference that gives them enough distance to do the other work. So the more that we support survivors and empower victims to transform into survivors and affirm those stories and share those stories and break the silence, the more we will be confronted with the truth and may be less likely to shame out of fear. Earlier this week, Washington was a guest speaker at the White House United State of Women Summit, where she talked about ending domestic violence. The event brought her back together with President Obama, whom she has supported since his first presidential bid, and first lady Michelle Obama. Does rubbing elbows with American royalty ever start to feel normal? Kerry Washington and Usher campaigning for Barack Obama in 2008. (Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images) I dont think it ever gets normal, she replies. Were very close to them. I hold them in such high regard. Im definitely not as nervous as I was the first time although having known them since the campaign in 08, its a lot of time to be able to find a comfort zone with somebody. She adds, But I think even without their titles, when they leave office, Ill always hold them in a place of awe and reverence because I respect who they are as people, more than their titles even. I just respect them as human beings. Watch Washingtons speech at United State of Women Summit here: Vicky Dinges, the senior vice president of corporate responsibility at Allstate Insurance Company, tells Yahoo Celebrity, Kerry Washingtons passion for ending domestic violence and empowering women has been invaluable to Allstate Foundation Purple Purse. Learn more about the campaign here. The man suspected of murdering British Member of Parliament (MP) Jo Cox on Thursday was identified as Thomas Mair. The 52-year-old, locally known as Tom or Tommy, was arrested shortly after the attack in Birstall a market-town in West Yorkshire, where he has lived for most of his life. Cox was fatally attacked and shot outside her constituency surgery and was pronounced dead at 1.48pm. Police have not formally identified Mair as the suspect but they have searched Mairs semi-detached home and said they are not looking for any other suspects. Since the arrest, neighbors and relatives have described Mair as a quiet loner who needed treatment for mental illness. It has also emerged that Mair had connections with a number of far-right groups in the U.K. and the U.S. Far-right links: Mair communicated with U.S.-based neo-Nazi organization the National Alliance, and bought a manual on how to make a home-made gun from the group in 1999. The Southern Poverty Law Center produced invoices and receipts that showed that Thomas Mair from Batley, West Yorkshire, bought printed material on Chemistry of Powder & Explosives, Incendiaries, and the handbook Improvised Munitions Handbook, which describes how to build a pipe pistol using parts from any hardware store. Mair also purchased a illustrated handbook written by Adolf Hitler, Ich Kampfe, which was given to new members of the Nazi party in the 1940s. Mair was reported to be a subscriber to South African magazine, S. A. Patriot, which is published by the pro-apartheid group White Rhino Club. The Telegraph reports that a White Rhino Club blog post from Jan. 2006 described Mair as one of the earliest subscribers and supporters of S. A. Patriot. It also describes the Patriots editorial stance as being opposed to expansionist Islam and multicultural societies. Story continues Two separate witnesses to the crime say the assailant shouted Britain First as he launched the attack. Britain First, a far-right political party and street defense organization, has denied any connection with Mair and condemned the killing of Cox. The quiet loner: Mair was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and lived in a semi-detached house on the Fieldheld estate in Birstell, a 15-minute walk from where Cox was killed. He lived in the house with his grandmother till her death in 1996, and has since lived alone. Mair is unmarried, childless and has been described by neighbors as quiet and a loner who volunteered to trim their hedges. His half-brother, Duane St Louis, whose father is West Indian, said that Mair once had a girlfriend, but his mate took her off him and he said he didnt want another one, reports the Guardian. St Louis, 41, was shocked to hear about the murder saying Mair would not hurt anyone and never displayed any signs of racism. Speaking to the Telegraph, local assembly line worker David Pickles said: He is just a bit of a loner who keeps himself to himself but always says hello. He seemed to like his own company but I would not say he was unfriendly he would always pass the time of day.I know he spent a lot of time in the library in town and liked to go on the computers there I dont know what he was looking up. History of mental illness: Mair has spoken about receiving psychotherapy and medication in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, where he says he began volunteering after attending a day centre for adults with mental health problems. All these problems are alleviated by doing voluntary work. Getting out of the house and meeting new people is a good thing, but more important in my view is doing physically demanding and useful labor, he said in the interview. Mair was photographed a year later in 2011, volunteering at a local park. Mairs other brother, Scott, 49, told reporters that his brother had a history of mental illness and has never expressed violent or political views. New reports indicate Omar Mateen was texting his wife, checking Facebook and writing posts about the Islamic State while committing the deadliest massacre in modern American history. According to CNN, Mateen wanted to see if Pulse nightclub, the gay bar he targeted in Sunday morning's attack and possibly frequented beforehand, was starting to trend on Facebook. Mateen also called on the United States and Russia to "stop bombing the Islamic State" on one of six accounts tied to the 29-year-old. "You kill innocent women and children by doing U.S. airstrikes," Mateen wrote, according to a letter Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson sent to Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg asking for any data he can provide on the shooter. "Now taste the Islamic State vengeance." For much of his life, Omar Mateen gave clues he was capable of mayhem http://on.wsj.com/28IZD00 pic.twitter.com/xPn8JqSzWC https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ClIhoduUkAAKZFt.jpg:large At 4 a.m. Eastern, he was texting his wife, Noor Salman, to see whether she had heard the news. She had repeatedly tried calling his cellphone, and sent him a text saying she loved him. CNN cited two "law enforcement officials" who indicated that evidence related to Salman's possible involvement will go before a grand jury. He then ended his online activity with a final message: "In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic State in the USA." Just a few weeks before the incident that left 50 dead, including Mateen, and another 53 wounded, Mateen was stopped from buying body armor and bulk ammunition, ABC News reported. The gun shop denied the sale and reported it to the FBI's local headquarters but without any way to follow up on Mateen (license plate, credit card or identifiable surveillance footage) they couldn't investigate the killer. When Mateen was told the store didn't carry the high-end armor he was looking for, employees reported he made a phone call from inside using a foreign language before hanging up and asking about purchasing bulk ammunition. Story continues "Mr. Omar Mateen is a degenerate." Muslim leaders at the #Orlando shooter's mosque fiercely condemn the attacks:https://amp.twimg.com/v/74c7e77a-6e62-482f-b105-22fca680698f ... H ic's original coverage of the shooting: At least 50 people are dead, including the killer, and 53 injured after a gunman entered Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, and opened fire, first on patrons and staff and then on responding law enforcement personnel. Law enforcement sources told CBS News they have identified the suspect as Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen from Port St. Lucie, Florida, who was born to Afghan parents in 1986. The LA Times' Matt Pearce confirmed authorities had given the name to the paper's D.C. bureau as well. Orlando gunman tentatively identified as Omar Mateen, 29, a U.S. law enforcement officials tells my colleagues in our Washington bureau. In an interview with NBC News, the suspect's father, Mir Seddique, apologized and said the massacre had "nothing to do with religion." Instead, he said, the shooting may be tied to an incident several months ago, when Mateen became enraged upon seeing two men kissing in Miami. WATCH: Father of shooter in Orlando club tells NBC News: "We are apologizing for the whole incident"https://amp.twimg.com/v/a1f07521-0c53-4010-b539-d7bf433f0361 ... "At this point, this is an incident, as I can see it, we can certainly classify as a domestic terror incident," Orange County Sheriff's Office spokesman Jerry Demings said, according to CBS News. Lauren Conrad may be happily married to William Tell, but that doesn't mean the two always see eye-to-eye. The 30-year-old Paper Crown designer is the cover girl for Redbook's July issue, and in her interview with the magazine, she gets candid on how her marriage to the lawyer has changed her everyday life. WATCH: 'The Hills' Cast Hints There Are 'Rumblings' About a Revival Redbook Conrad explains that her husband's opinions affect everything she does -- party planning included! "Now that I'm throwing parties with my husband, William, I have to keep in mind that he prefers -- how do I say this -- easier themes than what I've done in the past," she reveals. "He doesn't like to feel that he's asking friends to go out of their way. So now we do a birthday hoedown because everyone owns a pair of cutoffs and a plaid shirt. I'm learning how to compromise." Luckily, the former Hills star doesn't feel the need to be a perfectionist when it comes to event planning, which has helped Tell and his pals feel at ease at her festive, Pinterest-worthy fetes. WATCH: Lauren Conrad Admits It's 'Difficult' to Re-Watch 'The Hills' "I always try to make sure that the party I'm putting together isn't perfect," she adds. "Anything that looks too put-together is too fussy for me. If it feels fussy, then people might not be comfortable. A successful party is about comfort and making people feel welcome." Redbook Parties aside, Conrad and Tell -- who tied the knot in a rustic-chic wedding along the California coastline in September 2014 -- also find themselves debating over collectibles. "I have a collection of teacups I display in my dining room. My husband doesn't get why I love them so much," she dishes. "To be fair, I don't share his passion for guitars." "I mean, I guess I can understand why he might not see the beauty in a gorgeous, hand-painted teacup," she jokes. "We each have our own things, and that's healthy." Story continues RELATED: Lauren Conrad: I've Never Been 'Obsessed With the Idea of Marriage' Redbook Last August, the Celebrate author revealed other challenges when it comes to marriage in an honest article published on her blog. "You always want to be considerate of each other," she wrote at the time. "It's not just about you anymore." She also gushed over her 36-year-old hubby, saying, "My favorite thing about being married is knowing that I have a partner in life that I get to do so many wonderful things with." "Dreaming of the things we will do 20 years from now is so fun," she added. So, what's next for Conrad? Last month, she took to Instagram to tease a potential new TV project with MTV, the same network that made her a household name with Laguna Beach and The Hills. WATCH: Lauren Conrad Teases Potential New TV Project With MTV "Never thought I'd see the day," she captioned a photo of herself fixing a bridesmaid dress from her Paper Crown fashion line, while looking back at a cameraman. Interestingly, she tagged MTV in the snap. Hear more in the video below. Related Articles Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., in February. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) A Congresswoman who is sick and tired of drug testing welfare recipients has introduced a bill in Congress that would subject the rich to many of those same requirements. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., unveiled Thursday the Top 1% Accountability Act, which would require those claiming itemized deductions of more than $150,000 on their tax returns to submit to drug tests or file for less generous tax deductions. The proposal is a shot across the bow at Republican governors in states, including Moores home state of Wisconsin, that require the recipients of certain welfare benefit programs to be drug tested in order to remain eligible to receive assistance. As a strong advocate for social programs aimed at combating poverty, it deeply offends me that there is such a deep stigma surrounding those who depend on government benefits, especially as a former welfare recipient, Moore said in a statement. Sadly, Republicans across the country continue to implement discriminatory policies that criminalize the less fortunate and perpetuate false narratives about the most vulnerable among us. Moore, who represents Milwaukee, used welfare benefits to work herself out of poverty when she was younger and has said that her goal is to ensure others have the same opportunity. Im grateful for the taxpayers for [welfare], and I have given back tenfold, Moore told the Guardian. I think everyone should have that same opportunity. 15 states, including Florida, Michigan and North Carolina, have passed bills that require welfare recipients to submit to drug testing in an attempt to save money on those programs. Wisconsin, however, has gone further, requiring in its 2015 budget that recipients of the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) are tested for drug use, a move the federal government has said violates a provision banning states from imposing additional eligibility requirements on those programs. The state then sued, challenging that rule. Story continues SNAP, or the food stamps program, helps roughly 45 million Americans making $26,100 or less buy food. Benefits are loaded onto an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, which is used to make purchases at most supermarkets or convenience stores. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and others have argued that the requirements save states money and ensure employers have a drug-free workforce to hire from. Employers across the state frequently tell me they have good-paying jobs available in high-demand fields, but need their workers to be drug-free, Walker said in a statement after the drug testing rule went into effect in November. These important entitlement reforms will help more people find family-supporting jobs, moving them from government dependence to true independence. But critics such as Moore argue that they demonize the poor and crack down on a problem that doesnt actually exist. Data from a program in Florida found that only 108 of 4,086 people, or 2.6 percent, tested positive for illicit drugs. And in Arizona, the first state to implement such a rule, only a single drug user was found out of more than 80,000 tested from 2009 to 2012. Moores bill comes as House Speaker Paul Ryan introduces a sweeping reform package for welfare programs in an effort to combat poverty. The proposal includes revamping the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, reforming unemployment insurance and requiring SNAP recipients to be actively searching for work to receive benefits. Ryan unveiled his plans at an event last week, which Moore said inspired the bill. When he stood in front of a drug treatment center and rolled out his anti-poverty initiative, pushing this narrative that poor people are drug addicts, that was the last straw, Moore said. DECATUR Making an omelet can be as easy as cracking eggs. I saw this in a video online, said D'Aunniah Powell, 17, a recent graduate of Eisenhower High School, who is headed to Millikin University in the fall to study biology. She's a counselor at Camp Connections, meeting at Hope Academy this summer, and taught a group of kids how to make omelets in muffin tins. First, the kids learned to crack eggs and carefully pour the contents into a bowl. She showed them how to stir them up and to not be afraid to stir vigorously so the yolks and whites would mix together. One child sprayed the paper muffin cups with olive oil, then they spooned eggs into the cups and added their desired toppings, choosing from tomato, cheese, mushrooms, green pepper or, as one child said, a little bit of everything. Camp Connections' theme this summer is making healthy choices, and what you eat is a big part of that, said Leslie Woolsey, the facilitator. They've already discussed snacks and tried healthy alternatives such as carrots dipped in ranch dressing instead of salty, fatty potato chips or hot fries. The adults did the chopping of the vegetables, with the kids watching closely as Woolsey, Powell and Millikin University student Ronesha Moore explained what they were doing. As Woolsey showed the youth how to slice vegetables, she warned them that knives are sharp and it takes practice to use one safely. Once the egg was in the muffin cups and the veggies added, the whole thing goes into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until the egg is firm, Powell said. Braeden Apholone, 9, has some cooking experience, having made pizza and kettle chips, among other things, in previous camps. I like it, he said of the cooking process, and he doesn't even mind the cleanup chores. When Powell asked for a volunteer to do the dishes, his was the first hand in the air. Fellow camper Nadia Currie, 8, teased Braeden about the kettle chips. She remembers making them, too. They were nasty the first time, she said, and Braeden agreed, with a chuckle, that their first batch didn't turn out, but the second one did, he said. A lot of kids want to cook, but they just haven't had the experience of cooking, Woolsey said. We wanted to give them a hands-on experience. It's kind of hard to divide everything up with so many kids, but we're working and they're taking turns. General Motors announced last month that it would provide compensation to owners of their models of SUVs after admitting it had incorrectly calculated the fuel economy on the vehicles. But that apparently isn't enough for some GM owners who have filed a potential class action against the carmaker. The lawsuit [PDF], filed in a federal court in San Diego, accuses GM of deceptively marketing, and advertising some Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, or Buick Enclave vehicles by overstating the gas mileage since at least 2009. A California woman, who owns a 2016 Buick Enclave, alleges that she was enticed to purchase the vehicle through GM's advertisements that included supposedly exaggerated gas mileage. While GM admitted in May that it had overstated the gas mileage of the model year 2016 Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, or Buick Enclave, the new lawsuit claims that the same issues were found in additional model years, including those from 2009 to 2016. "All of the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Buick Enclave vehicles for model years 2009 to 2016 were represented to have the same inflated gas mileage," the suit states. "Yet all have substantially the same engines, weights, sizes and shapes and, thus, should achieve substantially identical gas mileage." Related Stories The suit alleges that GM has touted the inflated mileage in advertisements, its website, and in other materials for years, allowing the company to charge a premium for the vehicles. In one case, GM represented that the 2009 to 2011 Enclave had "better highway fuel economy than any other eight-passenger crossover." The company also heavily promoted the fuel economy of the Chevrolet Traverse, marketing it as a vehicle that achieves both power and fuel efficiency. Story continues As a result of the alleged unlawful conduct, "the class members have suffered harm in that they bought or leased vehicles they would not otherwise have bought or leased, or paid more for such vehicles than they otherwise would have." For example, the woman claims that prior to purchasing her Buick Enclave she was exposed to marketing materials, including GM's website, that touted the vehicle's mileage. "Plaintiff also discussed the vehicle's gas mileage with the dealer," the suit states. "Plaintiff acted in substantial part on material representations of GM regarding the fuel economy performance of the 2016 Buick Enclave, particularly when compared to other similar vehicles, when deciding whether to purchase the Enclave." The woman believes she was charged and paid a price premium for her vehicle based on the claim that it would achieve 17 miles per gallon in city driving, 24 mpg on highways, and a combined fuel economy of 19 mpg. "Had GM disclosed the accurate fuel economy of the 2016 Buick Enclave, Plaintiff in all reasonable probability would not have purchased the Enclave or would have paid less for it," the suit states. In all, the suit claims that owners of affected vehicles will spend approximately $300 more per year than expected because of the mileage exaggeration, or more than $2,400 during the minimum useful life of such vehicles. The lawsuit seeks to provide owners of affected vehicles with any proceeds obtained by GM as a result of the sale of the vehicles. We will oppose any effort by the plaintiffs bar to interfere with our effort to provide our customers the option to obtain timely compensation for our error, a spokesperson for GM says. Previously, GM alerted dealers that it would try to make it up to thousands of customers by providing them a prepaid gift card valued between $450 and $1,500 or an extended warranty. Under the program, which began on May 25, customers who purchased a 2016 Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, or Buick Enclave can choose between a debit card or a 48-month/60,000-mile service protection plan that improves their existing factory warranty. Those who leased one of the affected vehicles will be offered a debit card. The value of the debit cards will be determined based on whether or not the vehicle was leased or owned, and what type of vehicle it is. We designed this reimbursement program to provide full and fair compensation in a simple, flexible and timely manner, a GM spokesman said at the time the compensation was announced, apologizing to customers for the misstated labels. More from Consumer Reports: 8 Ways to Boost Your Home Value Why your cable TV bill is going up Get the Best Cell Phone Plan for Your Familyand Save up to $1,000 a Year Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright 2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S. kraft-ufc USA TODAY Sports Despite repeated denials from Dana White, rumors of the UFC being sold are heating up by the day. On Wednesday, Ariel Helwani reported that the UFC brass was close to securing a $4 billion deal for the UFC, and today that intel has been verified by another reputable source. According to The Score, the two leading bidders for the UFC are currently the Dalian Wanda Group out of China and Willam Morris Endeavors. One of the investors for William Morris Endeavors, who will be throwing in $25-50 million, is none other than Patriots owner Bob Kraft. Yes, Bob Kraft can potentially be surrounded by Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. Weird. I wonder if Jon Jones is salty his potential new owner traded away his brother, Chandler Jones, to Arizona this last off-season? Now that more details are out, the main question regarding the sale is about the transfer of power from White and his crew to that of the winning bidder. Despite the general dissatisfaction surrounding how the UFC handles fighter pay and media, they know how to run a fight promotion. Theres a reason why everyone else has gone out of business while theyve thrived. So will Dana and the rest ride off into the sunset once everything clears escrow? Probably not. https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremybotter/status/743503803111006208 Of course, fighters are anxious to hear any solid news. I asked Donald Cerrone about rumors of potential UFC sale. His answer: "Hopefully Dana redoes my contract before he leaves." Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA) June 16, 2016 (Via The Score) Los Angeles (AFP) - Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page has denied claims that he plagiarized "Stairway to Heaven," insisting the iconic anthem sounds more like a "Mary Poppins" song than the track he is accused of copying. The 72-year-old guitarist and band mate Robert Plant, 67, are being tried at a civil court in Los Angeles over accusations they poached the rock epic's opening bars from "Taurus," by long-defunct rock band Spirit. Page, who wore a black suit and his white hair in a ponytail, said his chord progression probably had more in common with "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from the 1964 film musical "Mary Poppins" than anything else. He told the eight-member jury that "Stairway" and the Disney number shared the same descending musical pattern, adding that the "chord sequence has been around forever." LA band Spirit, who enjoyed a niche following but never attained the superstardom of Zeppelin, have long claimed the melancholic guitar that opens "Stairway" was taken from the riff that builds after the first 45 seconds of "Taurus." Guitarist Randy Wolfe -- who went by the nickname Randy California -- never took legal action and drowned in Hawaii in 1997, but a lawsuit was filed by his trustee and friend Michael Skidmore. Zeppelin argue that the opening of "Stairway" -- a descending sequence mostly in A-minor -- has been used in music for centuries and that the lawsuit ignores the rest of the song. But expert witness Kevin Hanson said the opening chords of "Taurus" and the picked arpeggio intro to "Stairway" are a departure from the norm because the sequence resolves in the same unexpected way in both cases. "The rhythm is slightly different," the musician said, but added that the first five chords of both tunes were exactly the same. "To my ear they sound like one piece of music," he said. Zeppelin opened for Spirit when the hard British rockers -- Plant, Page, John Paul Jones and the since deceased John Bonham -- made their US debut on December 26, 1968 in Denver. Story continues But the surviving members have submitted testimony that they never had substantive interaction with Spirit or listened to 1967's "Taurus" before recording "Stairway" in December 1970 and January 1971. The lawsuit lists disputes over 16 other Led Zeppelin songs, many of which were settled by giving the complainant a songwriting credit and royalties, including classics "Whole Lotta Love" and "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You." The defunct monthly business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio estimated in 2008 that "Stairway to Heaven" had made $562 million in publishing royalties and record sales, although California's trust would only be entitled to a share of profits dating back to 2011. The plaintiff's case resumes on Friday, with the defense side expected to begin after lunch. By Jonathan Stempel June 17 (Reuters) - A federal judge has ordered actor Leonardo DiCaprio to be deposed in a defamation lawsuit brought by a former Stratton Oakmont executive over his alleged depiction in the 2013 Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street." U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Locke in Central Islip, New York, on Thursday said DiCaprio must be made available for questioning, which was opposed by Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures Corp, DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions and other defendants. The plaintiff, Andrew Greene, sued in 2014 for more than $50 million, claiming that he was defamed in the film through the portrayal by actor P.J. Byrne of a morally and ethically challenged character named Nicky "Rugrat" Koskoff. Paramount has said Koskoff was a "composite character" inspired by multiple individuals, including Greene. DiCaprio, 41, played Jordan Belfort, a stock swindler who founded Stratton Oakmont and whose 2007 memoir was a basis for the film. Greene was a childhood friend of Belfort. In opposing a deposition, defense lawyers said DiCaprio did not write the screenplay, and that there was no claim he had any role in deciding whether alleged defamatory content should be included in or excluded from the film. Greene's lawyers said they had already questioned Scorsese and screenwriter Terence Winter, and that both testified that they met regularly with DiCaprio to discuss the "Wolf" script. Louis Petrich, a lawyer for the defendants, declined to comment. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including DiCaprio as best actor, Scorsese as best director and Winter for the screenplay, but did not win any. Locke's order does not say when DiCaprio will be questioned. The case is Greene v Paramount Pictures Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 14-01044. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler) Less than a week after the Orlando massacre left at least 50 people killed at a nightclub, the physical risks that LGBTQ people face in America are becoming abundantly clear. A New York Times analysis of data collected by the FBI shows just what that risk looks like in the U.S.: LGBTQ people are more likely to be targets of hate violence than any other minority group in the country. LGBTQ people are twice as likely become targets of hate violence than African-Americans and recently surpassed Jewish Americans as the most targeted minority group in the country, according to the analysis. Vigil for Orlando massacre victims in Texas. The numbers help put into perspective the debate among politicians about whether the Orlando massacre was a hate crime or an act of terrorism. The reality is that it could be both, but while American politicians are well-versed in denouncing acts of terror, the implications of hate crime of historic proportions is a reality that lawmakers aren't entirely equipped to deal with. "Sometimes officials make very strange calls when it comes to hate crimes," Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, said in an interview with Mic's Aaron Morrison after the Orlando massacre. "The reality is that most people's motives are very mixed up." He added: "We'll learn less about his motivation than we might have if he had survived the shooting." Memorial for victims of Orlando massacre. Admitting that the Orlando massacre was driven by homophobia, and that it's an extreme example of the violence LGBTQ people face in America, requires conservative politicians to acknowledge LGBTQ people's humanity, according to advocates. "We must understand this event as a consequence of the homophobia, biphobia and transphobia that permeates our everyday environments, such as workplaces, schools, and homes that we all have the responsibility to challenge," Emily Waters, research and education coordinator for the Anti-Violence Project, a national LGBTQ organization, said after the shootings. Story continues This week, Waters and AVP released a report that added even more context to anti-LGBTQ violence in America. In it, they found that anti-LGBTQ murders rose by 20% between 2014 and 2015, and that transgender women of color are twice as likely to be targeted than their white counterparts. "We need to challenge the anti-LGBTQ legislation that is popping up all over the country, and call out the inherent homophobia and transphobia in these bills that incites violence against LGBTQ people," Waters wrote in an email to Mic. "We need policies that promote non-discrimination, but it's important to be thoughtful in developing these policies to ensure that all of our diverse communities are centered." By Sujata Rao LONDON (Reuters) - Top decision makers at Libya's $67 billion sovereign wealth fund were "illiterate" in terms of investment with little knowledge of the derivatives instruments purchased on the advice of Goldman Sachs, an adviser to the fund told a court on Thursday. In a closely watched case in the City of London, the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) is attempting to claw back $1.2 billion from the U.S. investment bank from nine disputed trades carried out in 2008. The LIA argues that the U.S. bank took advantage of its financial naivety by first gaining its trust, then encouraging it to make risky and ultimately worthless investments. Goldman Sachs, which denies all the allegations, maintains that the trades in question "were not difficult to understand". It has pledged to defend itself against the LIA's claims, describing them as "without merit". Robert Miles, a lawyer acting for Goldman, noted while questioning a witness called by the LIA that Mohamed Husain Layas, the Libyan fund's now deceased executive director, had worked in banking for over 30 years, including a stint on the board of Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation (ABC). He said the Bank ABC statements showed the institution provided a series of complex financial products to clients and also traded such instruments, indicating Layas had been familiar with these products. But London-based financial consultant Ali Baruni, who advised the LIA between April and September 2007, described Layas as "illiterate in terms of investments". Baruni said he had resigned after the fund ignored his advice and invested in certain products recommended by Goldman Sachs. He resumed working with the LIA as a consultant in 2013, he told the court. His witness statement, seen by Reuters, shows he has held several banking and consultancy roles since 1978, including at Bankers Trust and the Saudi American Bank. Appearing as a witness for the LIA, Baruni told the court: "I have talked to Mr Layas about some investments, but not derivatives, investments in equities, fixed income and real estate and whatever and his level of sophistication on all of those was very basic." "I would be astonished if he had any understanding of derivatives," he added. Baruni said in his witness statement that by the autumn of 2007, the LIA's senior management had begun to place too much trust in Goldman Sachs, leading the fund executives to "behave in an unprofessional manner". Goldman Sachs says its relationship with the LIA was at all "material times an arm's length one" between banker and client. Miles said there was no evidence to say the LIA had been "financially illiterate" when it made the investments. "You have no basis for that, it's just advocacy," he told Baruni, noting that Hatim Gheriani, another LIA official who had led the alternative investment team and then became CIO, was an experienced banker whose career prior to the LIA included working at Commerzbank in London. Baruni replied that he had "never heard Mr Gheriani speak to me with any level of sophistication on derivatives, valuation of equities or almost any other field of investment". Gheriani whose LinkedIn page shows he worked at HSBC Middle East between 2010-2014 after his stint at the LIA, could not be reached for comment. Libya set up the LIA in 2006, aiming to invest reserves accumulated from oil revenues and to integrate its economy into the international financial system after years of sanctions. Abdulfatah Enaami, who was head of direct investments at the LIA between April 2008 and June 2012, took the witness stand after Baruni. Enaami, now employed by the state-run Libyan Foreign Bank told the court that meeting international bankers after sanctions on Libya were lifted had been a new experience for Libyan officials. He said the fund had been under the impression it would be buying direct shares in companies but had instead received "something else synthetic that we couldn't understand". "We were always relying on the trust and confidence that they would offer us the best product that they can offer," Enaami said. "We were not fully aware they would be selling no matter what...we discovered that afterwards." (Editing by Larry King and Hugh Lawson) In my day job as a geologist, I've been fortunate to be involved with a number of resource ventures over the years. I spend a lot of time in the wilderness looking for big mineral deposits and oil and gas fields. The thing is, most geologists are wildly optimistic -- almost romantically so. They're dreamers, and the idea of a big find keeps them going. But as an analyst, I know that in order to make truly outsized gains in this sector, you need to be selective. The junior resource business holds some of the greatest potential for wealth creation in any industry on the planet. Shareholders of small firms can easily reap hundreds or even thousands of percent returns in the event of a successful discovery by these companies. For example, October 2014 was an historic month for the natural resources sector. We witnessed an incredible event that underscored just how powerful wealth creation can be when it comes to finding, developing and producing commodities. I'm talking about the birth of a new mine. The operation in question is the Eleonore gold mine in Quebec, Canada. Eleonore's owner, Goldcorp (NYSE: GG), announced on October 2 that the mine had reached commercial production -- meaning it was pouring its first gold bars. The operation is expected to ramp up to between 250,000 and 280,000 ounces of output his year, making it one of the premier assets in Goldcorp's world-leading portfolio of mines. But the story of this major gold mine actually began long ago, at a time when few investors cared about the yellow metal. [More from StreetAuthority.com: A Double-Digit Yield That Just Keeps Growing] In the late 1990s a tiny exploration company called Virginia Mines set out to survey the remote wilderness of Quebec -- looking for major mineral discoveries in this proven, yet vast, terrain. Back in those days, Virginia Mines' exploration efforts garnered little attention. Gold was, after all, trading at just a few hundred dollars per ounce -- a 20-year low. The market was about as depressed as it could get. Story continues But for a start-up like Virginia, that was -- in some ways -- a good thing. The dire state of the gold industry meant there was little competition for projects. The company's foresighted management was therefore able to pick up a package of prospective properties across Quebec for little more than the cost of staking the land. The downtime in the gold market also meant there was little competition for funding to gold companies. To be sure, there weren't a lot of investors putting money into these kinds of mining ventures at the time. But a trickle of funding had started to appear -- as a handful of investors began to look at the gold market and think, "It can only get better from here." And it did -- in a big way. Starting in 2001 the gold price in fact went on a phenomenal run, rising to $1,000 per ounce by 2008 -- for a gain of nearly 300% in less than eight years. [More from StreetAuthority.com: If You're Wondering About Oil Prices, Read This] That rise in the metal price lifted all the stocks in the gold sector. But Virginia Mines was a standout during this time -- because it had set itself up perfectly during the preceding bottom in the market. You see, Virginia took the portfolio of exploration properties it picked up when no one was looking, and ran with them, making a major discovery at a then-unknown property -- Eleonore. On September 15, 2004, Virginia announced that it had found gold at Eleonore -- hitting a big swath of mineralization in drilling, consisting of 16 meters of core grading a muscular 18.85 grams of gold per metric ton -- one of the best drill intersections seen in North America in years at that time. Over the next two years, further work would show that the deposit contained four million ounces of mineable gold reserves -- making it a truly world-class discovery when compared with other deposits, which largely struggle to make it past a threshold of even one million ounces. With the gold market now in full swing, the big numbers at Eleonore caught the attention of some major players in the sector, including Goldcorp -- which, in December 2005, offered $420 million to buy out Virginia in order to gain control of the valuable deposit. The chart below shows the rewards that this success reaped for Virginia's shareholders. A stock that could have been had at under $1 at the bottom ended up being cashed out at nearly $16 over the course of a couple years. Today, Eleonore is continuing to create value -- now in form of cash flow for its current owners. [More from StreetAuthority.com: The Best Way To Handle Uncertainty In The Market] And here's the thing... these kinds of explosive growth opportunities can be found at any time in the commodity cycle. In August 2013, for example, I saw a disconnect between the share price and the underlying value of Ivanhoe (IVPAF) -- known as Ivanplats at the time -- an $800 million junior miner that few investors had never heard of. Four weeks after recommending the stock, I advised readers of my premium newsletter, Scarcity & Real Wealth, to take their profits, which amounted to a gain of 50%. More recently -- in September 2014, to be exact -- I advised my readers to cash in on Houston-based Oiltanking Partners (NYSE: OILT), a $4.5 billion energy storage and transportation company that was a $1.4 billion energy and storage company when I recommended it eight months earlier. The take? A cool 72.1% gain for those Scarcity & Real Wealth readers who got into and out of the stock when I recommended they do so. These are a testament to the value that can be won in the junior resources business -- even during the times that appear darkest for the industry. And right now, I'm finding some rare opportunities in the gold sector (and elsewhere) that are setting up for truly astounding gains. If you're interested, I invite you to click here. You'll be taken to a short page that tells you a little more about my newsletter, Scarcity & Real Wealth, and have the opportunity to receive two brand-new research reports just for joining me. Related Articles Young adult suspense writer Lois Duncan died on Wednesday, June 15. The author was 82. PHOTOS: Celebrity Deaths in 2016: Stars Weve Lost Albuquerque-based private investigator Pat Caristo confirmed to the Associated Press on Thursday, June 16, that Duncan died at her home near Sarasota, Florida. According to reports, her husband announced on Facebook that she had collapsed in their kitchen. The thriller writer published 50 titles, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, which was the basis for the 1997 blockbuster by the same title, and Emma Roberts Hotel for Dogs. Celebrity Health Scares Duncan, who taught journalism at the University of New Mexico, also penned Who Killed My Daughter? The nonfiction tome chronicled the writers search for answers in the case of her 18-year-old daughter Kaitlyn Arquettes 1989 murder. The college student, the youngest of Duncans five children, was shot as she drove home from a friends house in Albuquerque. Duncan is survived by her husband, Don, and their children Robin, Kerry, Brett and Donnie. PHOTOS: Best and Worst Movie Remakes Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Were LOLing at this GIF of the Queen scolding Prince William Were LOLing at this GIF of the Queen scolding Prince William Even princes arent immune to the watchful eyes of the Queen. Thats what Prince William taught us after he got a gentle scolding from the Queen last weekend, and its making the Internet LOL in the best way. A 100% perfect GIF has been circulating the Interwebz, courtesy of Twitter user Brandon McGinley. During Trooping the Colour a traditional ceremony marking the official birthday of the British sovereign the royal family appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony when this magical gif was captured. William can be seen crouching down to speak to his (adorable) son, Prince George, but the Queen wanted her grandson to stand up straight. And when the Queen tells you to do something, well, you do it even if you may be set to sit on the throne one day. Theres a reason shes the longest ruling monarch in Englands history, after all. Come for the queen scolding William, stay for the George facepalm. pic.twitter.com/etvmofiU5m Brandon McGinley (@brandonmcg) June 15, 2016 Poor Prince William looked a bit embarrassed and sheepish after that as he quickly rose up on his feet. Its OK, William we know we can disobey our grandmas, either. Plus, Prince George is so cute that its hard to not be distracted by him, so we *totally* get it. Thats not gonna stop us from laughing forever at this GIF on repeat though, TBH. The post Were LOLing at this GIF of the Queen scolding Prince William appeared first on HelloGiggles. Many investors like to look for momentum in stocks, but this can be very tough to define. There is great debate regarding which metrics are the best to focus on in this regard, and which are not really quality indicators of future performance. Fortunately, with our new style score system we have identified the key statistics to pay close attention to and thus which stocks might be the best for momentum investors in the near term. This method discovered several great candidates for momentum-oriented investors, but today lets focus in on Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. (ISLE) as this stock is looking especially impressive right now. And while there are numerous ways in which this company could be a great choice, we have highlighted three of the most vital reasons for ISLEs status as a solid momentum stock below: Short Term Price Change for Isle of Capri Casinos A great place to look for finding momentum stocks is by inspecting short term price activity. This can help to reflect the current interest in a stock and if buyers or sellers have the upper hand right now. It is especially useful to compare it to the industry as this can help investors pinpoint the top companies in a particular area. With a one week price change of 10.0% compared to an industry average of negative 0.2%, ISLE is certainly well-positioned in this regard. The stock is also looking quite well from a longer time frame too, as the four week price change compares favorably with the industry at large as well. ISLE OF CAPRI Price ISLE OF CAPRI Price | ISLE OF CAPRI Quote Fiscal Year EPS Estimate Change for ISLE In addition to price performance, it is also important to take a look at earnings estimate changes for the full year. This can show if ISLE is poised to make a run based on fundamentals, or if the company is simply moving on speculation. Over the past month, the full year earnings estimate for ISLE has risen by 9.4%. On its own this is impressive, but consider that it also beats the industry average of 0.0% too. The trend is undeniably in Isle of Capri Casinoss favor right now, and it suggests that the momentum might be long lasting for this stock. Story continues ISLE Earnings Estimate Revisions Moving in the Right Direction While the great momentum factors outlined in the preceding paragraphs might be enough for some investors, we should also take into account broad earnings estimate revision trends. A nice path here can really help to show us a promising stock, and we have actually been seeing that with ISLE as of late too. Over the past two months, 3 earnings estimates have gone higher compared to none lower for the full year, while we are also seeing that 2 estimates have moved upwards with no downward revisions for the next year time frame too. These revisions have helped to boost the consensus estimate as two months ago ISLE was expected to post earnings of $1.25 per share for the full year, though today it looks to have EPS of $1.43 for the full year now, representing a solid increase which is something that should definitely be welcomed news to would-be investors. Bottom Line Given these factors, investors shouldnt be surprised to note that we have ISLE as a security with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and a Momentum Score of A. So if you are looking for a fresh pick that has potential to move in the right direction, definitely keep ISLE on your short list as this looks be a stock that is very well-positioned to soar in the near term. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ISLE OF CAPRI (ISLE): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research After a couple of years of dismal showings, Latin America exchange-traded funds are roaring back in 2016. For example, the iShares S&P Latin America 40 Index (ETF) (NYSE: ILF) is higher by nearly 15 percent year-to-date. At the country level, the iShares MSCI All Peru Capped Index Fund (NYSE: EPU) is one of this year's best-performing single-country ETFs, developed or emerging markets, with a gain of 47.4 percent. EPU is also one of the year's best-performing non-leveraged ETFs of any stripe. EPU and ILF are just two examples underscoring the LatAm ETF resurgence of 2016. Regional Performance Perhaps more than other regions of emerging markets, Latin America epitomizes the intersection of potential and peril. As ETFs have made scores of developing economies more accessible to advisers and investors, these users of ETFs have consistently heard about the potential of the Latin American investment thesis. Related Link: Right After MSCI Snub, A New A-Shares ETF Debuts They have also heard about the perils, many of which stem from the region being home to several of the most corrupt countries in the world. As Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, is teaching investors, economic heft does insulate a country from corruption. In Latin America, the mix of economic size and corruption can producer dire investor outcomes. See Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. Looking Long Term Some market observers are enthusiastic about Latin America's long-term prospects. Consider the regions young population, expanding middle class, fast adoption of technology and relatively weak market competition conditions are ripe for change. If Latin America takes more steps to encourage innovation, it could be in the drivers rather than the passengers seat as things change. More inclusive growthand ultimately stronger economiescould be on the horizon, said BlackRock in a recent note. Weighing Risk Still, making a long-term bet with Latin America ETFs requires some tolerance for risk on investors' parts. ILF, which allocates over 82 percent of its weight to Brazil and Mexico, has a three-year standard deviation of almost 26 percent. By comparison, the same metric on the MSCI Emerging Markets Index is 16.7 percent. Some of the region's single-country ETFs are even more volatile than ILF. Story continues For those willing to stomach the volatility, there are some data points that speak to the Latin America opportunity set. From the World Banks data, as of the end of 2014, about 50 percent of adults in Latin America didnt have a bank account. While that is down from 61 percent in 2011, the fact remains that too many people have no access to banking services or financing, added BlackRock. See more from Benzinga 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. June 16 (Reuters) - Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc has agreed not to sell its existing inventory of laminate flooring previously sourced from China, the U.S. consumer safety regulator said, as the flooring retailer looks to move beyond allegations the products contained excessive levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) also said that any sale or disposal of the left-over inventory of laminate flooring under scrutiny, which the company discontinued selling in May 2015, will be made only after getting the regulator's approval. Lumber Liquidators has been facing heat from regulators, customers and shareholders after CBS's "60 Minutes" alleged in March last year that the company sold flooring with dangerously high levels of formaldehyde. Following the report, the company suspended the sale of Chinese-made laminate flooring and said it would not sell about 22 million board feet of the flooring. In total, over 614,000 consumers across the United States have purchased the laminates between 2011 and 2015, according to the CPSC statement. "Today's announcement is not intended to cause consumers to pull up Chinese-made laminate flooring installed in their home," said the CPSC. The regulator instead asked customers to reach out to the company to participate in their testing program, to get free air-test kits. The settlement with CPSC removes another big headache for the company and comes a month after it reached a potential settlement to resolve a securities class action lawsuit brought by shareholders. Lumber Liquidators also spent millions settling with the California Air Resources Board as well as on lawsuits, apart from tightening its compliance policy on product sourcing and ramping up marketing efforts. Though the CPSC agreement does not involve any monetary settlement, the company has agreed to continue conducting testing programs for affected consumers. Lumber Liquidators' shares closed at $13.23 in after hours trading on Thursday. The stock has lost nearly three quarters of its value since the CBS report aired on March 1, 2015. (Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru) if this man were around now, he would be promoting the Makers. (Wikipedia.) The previous two installments in this series, The Tools Revolution and Agility, of course concentrated on the private businesses, large and small, and the entrepreneurs who have created and applied the tools that are changing manufacturing in a way parallel to what the internet era has done for (and to) the creation and dissemination of ideas. But just about every complex achievement has a complicated back story. In their recent book American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us To Forget What Made America Prosper, Jacob Hacker of Yale and Paul Pierson of Berkeley underscore what any honest look at economic history reveals. Namely, that the great eras of economic advancement, from England during the first modern industrial revolution, to the versions of that achievement in Germany and the United States and Japan, to the transformation of post-Mao China, have involved public efforts that promote, support, and encourage private economic innovation. Recommended: Why the Stanford Judge Gave Brock Turner Six Months In modern Chinas case, the governments major role for better (and worse) has been obvious. Similarly with the 20th century rise of Japan and Germany and England through its era of most rapid growth as well, for those who have actually read Wealth of Nations and know that it is something quite different from a libertarian tract. This is a case I tried to lay out in detail long ago in an Atlantic story called How the World Works, which is online. For now Ill skip the rest of the argument about how public/private interactions have been so much more fruitful than either alternative: pure statism, or entrepreneurs without the benefit of public investment (for instance, in medical sciences, agriculture, aerospace, info-tech in America), public education, public infrastructure, public rules of fair competition, and so forth. I direct you instead to the Hacker and Pierson book or to a musical you might have heard of, called Hamilton. Story continues Instead Im using the occasion of tomorrows kickoff of the National Maker Week, at the White House, to note some of the public ways in which city, state, and national institutions have been encouraging the private Ive mentioned and will describe in further installments. *** 1) From the White House. You can read about the Nation of Makers events that kick off on June 17 here. If the current administration were Republican, its support for small-scale entrepreneurs involved in tangible manufacturing would seem natural. Since the current administration is not Republican, I take its support as a sign that maybe God willing? we might actually have a case of agreement on practical economic advancement for Americans, beyond the normal national-level paralysis. Maybe? Please let me dream for a minute. The Week of Making kicks off on June 17 (White House) *** Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. * Higher biodiesel content to lift palm oil use to 709,000 T * Industry says consumption should increase to 1.3 mln T * Malaysia lagging behind Indonesia in biodiesel push By Emily Chow KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 (Reuters) - A new mandate in Malaysia to use more biodiesel will not create enough new demand to drain surplus output of crude palm oil (CPO) in the world's second-biggest producer as exports slow in coming months, planters say. Malaysia said in May it will increase the minimum biodiesel content for the transport sector to 10 percent from 7 percent. It will also introduce a 7 percent mandate for the industrial sector. The current low crude oil prices are expected to make it tougher for biodiesel to compete and government predictions of consumption are seen falling short to tackle the surplus. Both programmes, due to start this month, should increase Malaysia's annual domestic consumption of CPO to 709,000 tonnes, the government said. That would be a marginal increase from the current level of about 500,000 tonnes a year, say industry players. They think consumption should increase to 1.3 million tonnes to siphon off domestic stocks bound to rise in the coming months as export demand slows after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Malaysia's palm oil inventories fell 8.8 percent to 1.65 million tonnes at end-May, but are forecast to rise in the last quarter of the year as output sees seasonal gains. (MYPOMS-TPO) "The mandate won't see a significant impact because we are a small nation, unlike Indonesia," said Roy Lim, group plantations director of Malaysian palm oil firm Kuala Lumpur Kepong. NO INCENTIVE Indonesia, the world's top palm oil producer, requires a 20 percent blend of biodiesel into gasoil in 2016 to reduce its crude oil import bill, cut greenhouse gas emissions and create more palm oil demand. The nation consumed 1.05 million kilolitres of unblended subsidised biodiesel from January to May, said Dadan Kusdiana from Indonesia's CPO fund agency. Story continues Previous efforts by Malaysia to boost biodiesel use in the transport sector have had little success because of delayed implementation and weak enforcement. Low crude oil prices will also make it difficult for Malaysia to implement its new biodiesel programmes. With benchmark crude oil futures trading around $47 a barrel, traders say crude palm oil should be around 1,500 ringgit per tonne for biodiesel to be competitive. Benchmark palm oil stood at 2,436 ringgit ($594) a tonne at 0502 GMT on Friday. Still, palm has lost nearly 9 percent in the past two weeks as investors sold off on concerns over weaker exports ahead. "Implementation is going to be tough in this low crude oil price environment. Given the spread between palm oil and crude oil, we don't see an incentive for biodiesel producers," said David Ng, derivatives specialist at Phillip Futures Sdn Bhd. ($1 = 4.0990 ringgit) (Additional reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe in JAKARTA; Editing by Manolo Serapio Jr.) Troubled Malaysian state investment vehicle 1MDB said Friday it plans a "robust response" to an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund's move to seek $6.5 billion via international arbitration of a debt dispute. The Abu Dhabi fund, International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), said on Tuesday that it had submitted a request to the London Court of International Arbitration to intervene in the row. "1MDB will file a robust response to the RFA (request for arbitration)", 1MDB, or 1Malaysia Development Berhad, said in a brief statement. In April, 1MDB defaulted on $1.75 billion in company bonds that were co-guaranteed by IPIC after the Malaysian fund missed an interest payment of $50 million. The debt dispute centres on IPIC's accusation that 1MDB failed to pay back a $1 billion loan from the Abu Dhabi fund. 1MDB and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who launched the state-owned company in 2009, are battling allegations that billions of dollars were looted from it in complex overseas deals that are being investigated by authorities in several countries. 1MDB insists it repaid the IPIC loan, but the Abu Dhabi fund denies that. IPIC is refusing to guarantee the 1MDB bonds until the loan is repaid. Its arbitration request did not specify why it was seeking $6.5 billion. Both 1MDB and Najib vehemently deny wrongdoing. In April, a Malaysian parliamentary committee said at least $4.2 billion in questionable overseas money transfers were made by 1MDB. Najib was plunged into the crisis last year when it was revealed that $681 million in transfers were made to his personal bank accounts in 2013. He says they were "personal donations" from the Saudi royal family. In May, Swiss financial regulators approved the dissolution of Switzerland-based BSI Bank over "serious breaches" of money-laundering regulations in its dealings with 1MDB. Police have arrested a Long Island man after they found Nazi paraphernalia, a cache of weapons and bomb-making instructions in his home, authorities said. Law enforcement officials executing a search warrant on Thursday at the Mount Sinai home of Edward Perkowksi, 29, discovered an arsenal of weapons, including 14 knives, a .40-caliber Glock, six assault rifles, four rifles, 25 high-capacity magazines, a shotgun and a stun gun, Suffolk County police said. Cops said they also found $42,940 in cash, approximately four ounces of marijuana and about 26 grams of hallucinogenic mushrooms, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition in the home. "Todays search warrant might have prevented a deadly, violent incident, like the one we recently saw in Orlando, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Timothy Sini, said at a news conference in Yaphank. Police said they also seized a notebook that contained bomb making instructions, a cell phone, two computers, scales and Nazi paraphernalia. Read: Commuters Upset By Nazi Logos Plastered Across Subway Trains For Amazon Ad Campaign A framed photograph of Adolf Hitler, a book entitled White Power and flags and clothing displaying a swastika were among the items found in Perkowskis house, a police photo showed. To think that this was in the Town of Brookhaven is extremely disturbing, and the brave men and women of the department will stop at nothing to neutralize threats like this, Sini said of the items. Perkowksi was hit with a slew of charges, including eight counts of criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of marijuana. His 25-year-old brother, Sean Perkowski, was arrested on an unrelated outstanding bench warrant, police said. Brookhaven Town Supervisor Edward Romaine said the home was infected with the "disease called hate," The New York Times reported. "And we want to stop hate in this country," he said. "Theres enough." Story continues Read: LA Pride Suspect Arrested With Car Full of Weapons Wanted on Molestation Charges: Prosecutors Neighbors were not surprised by the arrests, telling CBS2 they had been complaining about issues stemming from the home for years. This has been an ongoing problem, neighbor Brian Saltzer told the television station. I have contacted the police about the drug dealing and the violence and the weapons. They assaulted me. Resident John Leonard was shaken by what police discovered. Scares the hell out of me. I mean, that takes it to a whole new level its not just drugs, he told CBS2. I live two houses down, so bomb-making materials, instructions, whatever it might be, that just escalated this. Neighbors believed the home was in foreclosure and that the brothers were squatters. The Town of Brookhaven condemned the home for safety violations, police said. Edward Perkowski pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday. Bail was set at $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond, officials said. His attorney told CBS2 his client hasnt done anything illegal and vowed to fight the charges 100 percent. His brother, who was wanted on a Port Jefferson village court bench warrant for public urination, paid a $50 fine. Watch: Officer Kills Himself After Posting Bail for Child Pornography Charges Related Articles: Paris (AFP) - A radicalised convert to Islam, suspected of planning to attack American and Russian tourists in France, was charged late Friday and placed in detention, a judicial source said. The 22-year-old man, arrested in the southern French city of Carcassonne on Monday after months under surveillance, has been charged with association with a terrorist group, the source said. He was carrying a knife and a small mallet when he was arrested, the source said, adding that the suspect suffered mental health problems and was believed to be planning an imminent attack against tourists. The charges come with France on high alert for terror threats as it hosts hundreds of thousands of foreign fans for the month-long Euro 2016 football championships. The country is still under a state of emergency following the jihadist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in November. On Monday, an extremist pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group knifed a policeman and his partner to death at their home in the Paris suburbs before he was killed in a police raid. The suspect arrested in Carcassonne comes from the southern French town of Lunel -- notorious for the number of residents who have left to wage jihad in Syria -- but had been living in the nearby Tarn region. The suspect told investigators after his arrest "he had spent a lot of time watching videos of the Islamic State group and jihadist sites, and that he was fascinated," the source said. The young man admitted he wanted to go to Syria but could not afford it, so was planning an attack on home soil "in the name of armed jihad", the source said. According to his lawyer Jocelyn Momasso Momasso, "he has explained that his motivations were essentially linked to international politics". He wanted to "avenge his brothers" who have fallen victim to air strikes by the international coalition targeting the IS group in Syria, the lawyer said. Hunter M. Park will face no jail time for threatening to "shoot every black person I see" during protests that roiled the University of Missouri's Columbia campus last year. Judge Kevin Crane of Boone County, Mo., sentenced the 20-year-old to three years suspended sentence and five years probation on Thursday, according to multiple reports. "Hunter is a good person who made a terrible mistake, posted some terrible stuff on the Internet," Park's attorney, Jeffrey Hilbrenner, told Reuters, "but, the Hunter I've gotten to know is a really good person." "I'm going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see." Hunter M. Park In November, Park posted threats to the social media app Yik Yak that earned him a felony charge for making terrorist threats. These included, "I'm going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see," according to the Columbia Daily Tribune. Protesters at the University of Missouri "Some of you are alright. Don't go to campus tomorrow," he added in another post. "We're waiting for you at the parking lots," read a third, according to Reuters. "We will kill you." The threats were a response to student protests over a series of racist incidents on campus. The bulk of the protests lasted nearly two weeks and included a nine-day hunger strike by Mizzou graduate student Jonathan Butler. Tim Wolfe, the former president of the University of Missouri system, resigned amid accusations from students that he'd handled recent developments on campus inappropriately, including the appearance of racist graffiti in a dorm bathroom, racist and homophobic verbal attacks on the student body president and the erosion of graduate students health care coverage. Protesters at the University of Missouri Prosecutors initially recommended three years in prison for Park, but are okay with how things turned out. "We hoped for some incarceration," Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Brouck Jacobs said, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune, "but the fact that he got a felony conviction over a suspended imposition of sentence is appropriate." By Kathryn Doyle One in 10 men and one in 20 women who travel internationally from Great Britain find new sexual partners abroad, according to two new studies. Sexually transmitted infection and HIV prevalence is higher in certain parts of the world, so some overseas partnerships may be riskier than others, said the lead author of one paper. When people travel from home they have the opportunity to meet new people and, depending on why they are traveling, may feel less constrained by social taboos controlling sexual expression, said Dr. Clare Tanton of the Research Department of Infection and Population Health at University College London. Tanton and colleagues analyzed responses to the British National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles between 2010 and 2012. Of more than 15,000 adults living in Britain who responded, over 12,000 said they had at least one sexual partner within the previous five years. About 1,000 said they had sex with a new partner while traveling overseas. This was slightly more common for men and women under age 35, but even for those over age 35, one in 20 men and one in 40 women said they had hooked up abroad. We found that a similar proportion of people reported having had sex for the first time while overseas in our latest survey (carried out 2010-2012) as we found in the previous survey (carried out 1999-2001), Tanton said by email. In the more recent survey, those who had sex overseas tended to have more sexual partners total, and were less likely to use condoms in general and more likely to use drugs or alcohol than others. They were also more likely to have been to a sexual health clinic or have been tested for HIV in the past five years, according to the results in Sexually Transmitted Infections. Unfortunately we dont know what proportion of this sex while overseas was protected but other studies of travelers and STI clinic attendees suggest that a sizable proportion of it probably wasnt, Tanton said. Id like to see people think about buying and packing condoms in the same way they do for suntan lotion as part of their travel preparation. Only one third of men and 40 percent of women who reported a partner while overseas had been to a sexual health clinic in the past five years, so improvements can still be made, she said. One in four men who reported having a new non-UK-resident sex partner said they had paid for sex within the past five years. Another study in the same issue of the journal surveyed international backpackers visiting the islands of Thailand in 2013, more than half of whom were traveling without a sexual partner, and 40 percent of whom said they had sex with a new partner during the trip often another backpacker. Many of the travelers reported never or inconsistently using condoms, most often those from Britain or Sweden. The results demonstrate a mechanism by which disease may be spread from one population to another, said Christopher Lewis of the Institute of Clinical Sciences, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, at the University of Birmingham, who coauthored the second study. This is a particular concern as we see the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea in some parts of the world, and our worry is that gonorrhea may become an untreatable infection, he told Reuters Health by email. Unprotected sex can lead to unplanned pregnancy, HIV infection and infertility, he said. Consistent condom use is the most effective means of preventing the spread of disease during intercourse, Lewis said. We encourage all backpackers, irrespective of age and gender, to pack (and use!) condoms on their travels. Sex may be the main purpose of travel for some people who choose to travel to Thailand, said Dr. Alberto Matteelli, of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Clinic at the University of Brescia in Italy, who coauthored an editorial in the journal. There is nothing wrong with Thailand, Matteelli told Reuters Health by email. What is wrong is the business of sex that is built at the expenses of the dignity and life of many people including a significant proportion of adolescents. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/261R0ip, http://bit.ly/1Yy5FvS and http://bit.ly/1UdQcfl Sexually Transmitted Infections, online June 6, 2016. The men and women of the Orlando Police Department are receiving a collective pat on the back this week from their counterparts in Aurora, Colorado, who are familiar with the horrors of mass shootings. In a new video posted online, members of Aurora's police praise Orlando's officers in the wake of Sunday's mass shooting that killed 49 people and injured 53 inside a nightclub, the deadliest mass shooting in United States history. Among those giving praise in the video are Lt. Stephen Redfearn, who was among the first to respond in 2012 during a mass shooting inside a movie theater that killed 12 people. "We want you to know that whether you were one of the brave men and women who heroically rushed to the scene and saved countless lives or took fire while confronting the suspect, we stand with Orlando," Redfearn says in the clip. Police in Aurora decided to record the video message of support to assist the Orlando officers who'll be dealing with the trauma of Sunday's attack for years to come. Similar messages were created for Aurora's police force soon after the 2012 shooting spree. Patrol men and women as well as detectives, crime scene specialists and support staff appear in the video, which represents the entire 787-member department's response. 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. Aurora's Chief of Police, Nick Metz, says that upon learning of the violence inside Pulse, the members of his department "felt an enormous sense of sorrow for the Orlando community and a great sense of empathy and connection to the men and women of the Orlando Police Department." The Aurora officers collaborated on the video as a way of lending support to Orlando's cops, Metz explains in the clip. "It goes without saying that the Orlando Police Department stepped up," Metz says. "You all did an incredible job in protecting and saving lives that horrific night and for that, we salute you and we are incredibly proud to call you our brothers and sisters in blue." Officer Tomas Campagna adds: "We know what you're going through. And while at the moment it may seem hopeless, we know you're going to get through this as a community and as a police department." Aurora Policewoman Natasha Cabouet tells the camera that "even though we are separated by thousands of miles, we wear the same badge, the same uniform and share the same grief and sorrow." Aurora Police Commander Mike Dailey says the Colorado officers "are here for you and we grieve with you." The gunman in last Sunday's shooting, Omar Mateen, was killed during the attack. Next month, Aurora will mark the fourth anniversary of the theater shooting perpetrated by James Holmes. Last summer, jurors convicted Holmes following a lengthy trial during which police officers and others described the vicious attack. Holmes was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 12 murders and more than to 3,200 additional years for attempted murder and an explosives conviction. Over its three generations in production, the rugged Toyota Tacoma has proven to be an excellent base for creating off-road adventure vehicles, building upon a lineage of tough Toyota pickups stretching back decades. Most are reasonably inexpensive to build, though the keyword there is most however. This monstrous Toyota Tacoma cost a bit extra to engineertry $400,000. Then again, it did have to fend off some of the worlds harshest conditions at the South Pole. In 2011, this Toyota Tacoma journeyed a distance of 700 miles through Antarctica to reach the South Pole, in the process setting the Guinness World Record for the fastest overland journey to the pole, set in one day, 15 hours and 54 minutes. As it happens, the pickup is now up for sale, and it will cross the auction block at Barrett-Jacksons upcoming Northeast event. That trip across the auction block ought to be a tad bit easier than the voyage to the South Pole. According to the listing notes, the rugged Tacoma would have had to endure temperatures as cold as -89 degrees Celsius (about -128 degrees Fahrenheit). The 2011 expedition, which reportedly took years of planning, was led by explorer Jason De Carteret, engineer Kieron Bradley, and writer Jason Thomas. The trio couldnt have picked a much better shop to prep their Toyota Tacoma for the trip. Icelands Arctic Trucksthe world famous 44 up-fitters and the firm responsible for getting Top Gear to the North Poleworked their magic on the Tacoma, equipping it with everything needed to tackle the polar expedition. RELATED: Check Out the All-New 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro Outside, its modifications are clearly evident. The double cab pickup now boasts a NATO Green vinyl wrap to protect its exterior, matched with gigantic 44-inch Mickey Thompson Icepack tires, a mammoth 330-gallon extended range fuel tank in the back, nine-ton winch mounted in the front stinger style bumper, as well as a full suspension overhaul, paired with air-locking ARB differentials. Story continues Inside, things are fairly standard issue, apart from the OMP WRC racing seats, Sabelt harnesses, and burly roll bar. The odometer? When this truck came up for sale early in 2015, it showed just 14,600 miles many of which were likely spent in extreme conditions. Now the pickup shows 14,600 miles. Under the hood, the Toyota four-wheel drive system and automatic transmission mate to a tough 4.0-liter V6, though now its equipped with a TRD supercharger, bumping power up to 380 hp. If its good enough to make it to the South Pole, it ought to be good enough to tackle your local trails Looking to make it your own? The rugged Toyota Tacoma will sell at no reserve on June 24th. RELATED: This Two-Wheel Land Cruiser Video is Beyond Crazy Photo Credit: Barrett-Jackson By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator John McCain said on Thursday that President Barack Obama was "directly responsible" for attacks on Americans like the one in Florida because of policies that contributed to the rise of the Islamic State. But the Arizona Republican later said he misspoke. McCain, who is in a tough re-election race, made the comments after reporters chased him down a marble stairway and into a hallway of the U.S. Capitol. They asked what he was hearing from constituents about gun control issues being debated in the Senate after Sunday's shooting rampage by a gunman who claimed allegiance to Islamic State militants. "I'm hearing a lot from my constituents about what happened and of course I am making them realize that Barack Obama is directly responsible for it," McCain said. "Because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obamas failures, utter failures," McCain said. "So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies." After media reports began to appear about his comments, McCain, who lost the White House to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, posted a clarification on Twitter and then issued a statement that said he meant to blame Obama's policies, not the president personally. I misspoke. I did not mean to imply that the president was personally responsible. I was referring to President Obamas national security decisions, not the president himself," McCain said in the statement. Forty-nine people died in the shooting in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The gunman was U.S.-born Omar Mateen, 29, whose parents immigrated from Afghanistan. McCain, 79, faces multiple opponents in a Republican primary race in August, and some analysts say he is in danger of losing the Senate seat he has held for three decades. Earlier this week, presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appeared to suggest Obama may have been complicit in the Orlando attacks. "Look, we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind," Trump told Fox News. "And the something else in mind you know, people can't believe it ... There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on." (Editing by Doina Chiacu and Tom Brown) The Film Follows a Group of Explorers that Discover a Large Enemy Warship in Space, Which Ultimately Leads to Disaster for Humankind LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2016 / Henry DeVries, a videographer that specializes in documentaries, feature films, and short films, recently announced that his latest project, MECA 3010, is now ready for production. Complete with gaming attributes, MECA 3010 is a short futuristic film that takes four explorers on a journey in which they find a strange rocket ship--the discovery of which ends up changing outer space. It is now centuries into the future, and the Federation of Planets has sent a reconnaissance ship on a mission to locate a special planet in the Milky Way galaxy. Four crewmembers--Captain Zeeroy, assistant Captain Raymoss, and Doctors Amberstone and Stefontroy--are five years into the mission and 500 light-years away from earth when they discover Corvenus, a planet in the Kepier-186f solar system. When the group enters the planet's orbit, they discover a large warship inscribed with Russian markings, which the doctors collect testing samples from. The unexpected occurs, and the crew finds themselves in a situation that will forever alter the universe. DeVries originally envisioned MECA 3010 as a feature film, but eventually made it into a short film. MECA 3010 is now ready for production, and to help with the project's costs, DeVries has taken his campaign to Kickstarter. He seeks the necessary funds to cover pre-production and filming costs, which include components such as set construction, special equipment, and props. In exchange for the public's support, DeVries is offering backers a wide variety of perks such as soundtracks, t-shirts, and the opportunity to be an extra in the film. Individuals interested in learning more about Henry DeVries and MECA 3010 can visit the project's Kickstarter page for additional information. About MECA 3010: Completed in 2015 as a short, MECA 3010 is a film that is now ready for production. Henry DeVries, the creator of the adventure, has the experience of over thirty documentaries, two feature-films, and a short-film under his belt. MECA 3010 has been his pet project: most of the film will be shot in his studio in Rockwood, Ontario, Canada, with actors and crew members from Toronto and surrounding areas. For more information, please visit https://goo.gl/7L1xG4. Story continues Contact: Timmy Gordon admin@rocketfactor.com (949) 555-2861 SOURCE: MECA 3010 The Real Housewives of Orange County has a new addition to the cast this season! To help prepare you for Monday's season 11 premiere, here are five things you need to know about the new Housewife, Kelly Dodd. 1. She was approached for the Bravo reality series previously. "I was approached three years ago for the show," Dodd told PEOPLE at the RHOC premiere party in Los Angeles on Thursday. Ultimately, "it wasnat a good time," admits Dodd. But now, she's joining the show with friend and RHOC cast member Meghan King Edmonds. "Meghan said last year was a blast. [She asked me]: 'Why don't you do it?' " explained Dodd. "And they approached me again, and I was like, 'Let's do it. What do I have to lose?' " RELATED VIDEO: Does Heather Dubrow Think Vicki Gunvalson's RHOC Friendships Can Be Saved? RHOC Friendships Can Be Saved?" data-ad-channel="peoplenow" data-ad-subchannel="peoplenowupclose" data-auto-play="no"> 2. Meghan told her to watch out for costar Vicki Gunvalson. "I told her to watch out for Vicki," Edmonds shared at the party. "And I told her, 'Be honest. Be yourself. Give everybody a fair chance.' " 3. She's steeled for drama. Teased Dodd: "I've had a really, really, really rough season," butting heads with " Shannon Beador big time. Heather [Dubrow] a little bit, and Tamra [Judge] a little bit," she admitted. And the ladies' trip to Ireland "got pretty gnarly," said Dodd, "It was a bunch of drama so things turned." 4. Her husband is a toy executive. "When they approached me again to do the show my family was like, 'Oh my God. Do it! Do it! Let's get all on board,' " said Dodd, who added that at first, her husband, Michael, was "kind of hesitant" when she decided to do the show. However, her daughter said, 'Oh mom! Do it!' " 5. She liked her first experience on reality television. "It's been so much fun. So exciting," said Dodd. "It's a world of something I never experienced and a a great time really." The Real Housewives of Orange County returns Monday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo. This is Olli. Olli is a bus. But Ollis not just any bus, hes its a self-driving, fully-electric bus of the future, partially powered by the IBM Watson AI system and created by Phoenix-based Local Motors. Able to seat (or stand) 12 passengers, Olli is currently taking to the streets of Washington D.C., and will be hitting Miami-Dade County, Las Vegas, and Denmark by the end of the year. Power comes courtesy of an electric motor with a range of 32.4 miles in the city, and a top speed of just 12 mph. But speed and power isnt Ollis forte. Using IBM Watson, the bus is able to communicate naturally with its passengers, says the company. The IBM capabilities of Olli will help improve the passenger experience and allow natural interaction with the vehicle. RELATED: See More of the Local Motors Olli Bus Using four of Watsons API systemsSpeech to Text, Natural Language Classifier, Entity Extraction, and Text to Speechthe system is able to interact with passengers, and quickly track down any locations and information through cloud-based cognitive computing, like that new fro-yo place youve been dying to try. With a potential for huge success, Local Motors hopes to roll out even more Ollis in the future, and not just in the U.S. Berlin, Copenhagen, and Canberra are all on the short list to get their own Ollis as well. RELATED: See Photos of the Local Motors Rally Fighter By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - The city of Charleston came together on Friday for a memorial and other events to mark the first anniversary of the murders of nine members of a Bible study group in what prosecutors called a racially motivated hate crime. The events were made even more poignant coming less than a week after a gunman slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, marking the largest of many mass shootings in modern U.S. history. A stage at Charleston's TD Arena was fronted by banner portraits of each of the nine victims from the rampage at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, including its slain minister and state Senator Clementa Pinckney. Hymns were led by a 100-member choir and a minister prayed for the Charleston and Orlando victims, as well as for the soul of the accused church shooter, Dylann Roof. Roof, 22, could face the death penalty on state murder charges and federal hate crime charges. Roof is white, while his victims were African-American and the federal indictment against him said he acted out of racism. Wilhelmina Jones, 74, a retired hospital worker who helped out as an usher at Friday's service, said the massacre had united the local community. "When this tragedy happened to us last year, we came together as one," Jones said. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley showed the programs from nine funerals she has kept since last summer, and spoke about faith and each victim. She recalled how they welcomed Roof and prayed with him for an hour before they were killed. "Tywanza Sanders stood in front of his 87-year-old aunt and looked the murderer in the eye and said, 'You don't have to do this. We mean you no harm,'" Haley told the congregation. "I will always talk about these people who changed my life." As well as the memorial, events including Bible study sessions, a prayer breakfast, a "unity walk" and tree plantings will take place around Charleston. The church also will open its doors to religious leaders and elected officials from around the nation on Friday afternoon. Story continues The church has had many visitors in the past year, Emanuel's new pastor, the Reverend Dr. Betty Deas Clark, told Reuters during a recent Bible study meeting in the room where the massacre took place. "I believe we're moving forward ... Forgiveness is the message of the hour," Clark said. (Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Bill Trott and Bernard Orr) In a book about the French Revolution he was ghostwriting during the 1920s, Charles de Gaulle opined that some of the countrys generals had been stripped of prestige, often of life, sometimes of honor. As described in Julian Jacksons De Gaulle, Marshal Philippe Petain the champion of Verdun suggested the young captain move the part about life to the end of the sentence. Refusing to bow to the experienced soldiers advice, an uppity de Gaulle declared, It is an ascending gradation: prestige, life, honor. De Gaulle once held Petain in high regard some say his son, Philippe, had been named after the famed marechal. But this editorial quibble foreshadowed their future, as both men went on to rule France, be sentenced to death and trade labels of villain and hero. And Petain would be stripped of his honor, but spared his life, by his former charge. The marshal is a great man who died in 1925. Trouble is, he didnt know it. Charles de Gaulle Colonel Petain, as he was known in 1914, had never seen any action and was preparing to retire at the age of 58. But retirement wasnt in the cards thanks to World War I, during which this cautious military man built a reputation as a great field commander who would not attack until he had an overwhelming superiority, says Robert Paxton, a Columbia University professor emeritus and specialist in Vichy history. Known for vowing to hold Verdun at all costs famously saying, Ils ne passeront pas (They will not pass) he was awarded the marshals baton in 1918. He also developed a taste for leadership and accolades: One of his next roles was mobilizing French troops against the 1925 Rif rebellion in Morocco, a victory that earned him a series of political appointments in the 1930s. When German tanks started rolling toward France again, de Gaulle was neither well-known nor well-liked. Compared with the cautious Petain, de Gaulle had always been Bolshie and, like stereotypical millennials today, the young nationalist told his bosses just what he thought; he was, according to Paxton, ready to take risks on the battlefield. The future first president of the French Republic favored mechanized warfare and the use of specialized armored divisions in combat, rather than sticking with French doctrine, which dictated that tanks support infantry maneuvers. His efforts to repel German forces including the use of tanks at Montcornet in one of Frances few successes at holding off Hitlers troops got him promoted to brigadier general and, later, undersecretary of state for defense and war. De Gaulles objective was winning at any cost, a position that would once more pit him against his former boss. Story continues Better to be a Nazi province was the message from Petain to French Premier Paul Reynaud, Ian Crofton writes in Traitors & Turncoats, noting that the latter fancied joining efforts with Britain to combat Hitler, despite heavy French losses. Leadership squabbles led to Reynaud being out, Petain being in and negotiations for peace initiated with Germany, to the chagrin of de Gaulle and Reynaud. Petain signed an armistice on June 22, 1940, and once again he was hailed a hero for saving the nation from more bloodshed. Petains government moved to Vichy, where it controlled roughly 40 percent of France, with the rest left to German occupation. De Gaulle, meanwhile, moved to Britain, where he drummed up support for Free French Forces, starting with a Winston Churchillapproved BBC radio address to his countrymen. In response, Vichy sentenced de Gaulle to death for treason a high-ranking military leader with an equally high ranking atop Frances hit list. Petain was sure the war was over, Paxton says, while de Gaulle was sure it was not over. One was hailed a hero, the other a traitor, but all of that was about to change. Vichy became a collaborative hellhole known for deporting French Jews, and de Gaulle went on to rally support in Africa, raise troops and help lead the liberation of his country. [De Gaulles] bet was right, Paxton says. With France liberated in September 1944, Vichys elite were summoned to Germany, but Petain returned home to face charges of treason at a trial in the summer of 1945. His defense? If I could no longer be your sword, I wanted to be your shield. Still beloved by many, Petain was stripped of his military rank and sentenced to execution by firing squad. De Gaulle commuted the 89-year-olds sentence, freeing the old man to live out his final days on the Ile dYeu. The marshal is a great man who died in 1925. Trouble is, he didnt know it, de Gaulle said of his former mentors fall from grace. And indeed, as the younger man prospered from his good fortune and sound bet during World War II, he watched Frances once-great hero be stripped of his prestige and honor, but not quite his life. Related Articles A Rochester Hills, Michigan, Muslim group is encouraging its members to break their traditional Ramadan fast to donate blood to help victims of the Sunday shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center is hosting a prayer service Tuesday night. "We condemn this senseless and horrific act of violence in the strongest possible terms," said Dr. Mansoor Qureshi, president of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's Metro Detroit chapter, according the Michigan Live. "Our hearts go out to the innocent victims and their families," Qureshi continued. "We stand in solidarity with them as their neighbors and brothers and sisters in peace. Islam teaches reverence for all human life. This is a time to pray and act to stop such senseless violence in our nation." Many Muslims traditionally abstain from eating or drinking during daylight hours throughout the month of Ramadan. The month, which is based on the lunar calendar, rotates throughout the year; Ramadan 2016 began on Sunday, June 5. A decades-old ban that prevents gay men who have had sex with another man in the past year from giving blood is again causing controversy in the wake of the Orlando shooting. The F.D.A. maintains that its position is scientifically sound and in line with that of other countries, including Britain and Australia, though France dropped its ban on blood donations from gay men last year. This story originally appeared on money.com. A man in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is suing the Transportation Security Administration for $506.85 after, he contends, long airport security lines caused him to miss a flight. Related: The Best Cell Phone Plans of 2016 Human Nikizad says he arrived two hours prior to departure for a flight bound from Minneapolis to Los Angeles but still had to wait more than 90 minutes to get through TSA security, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. As a result, he says, he had to purchase a new ticket. The $506.85 covers the cost of the new ticket, plus additional ground transportation expenses and a $75 court fee to file the lawsuit. I had to buy a ticket with another airline to be able to make my destination and meet my obligations, said Nikizad, a resident surgeon with the University of Minnesota, in his claim. Niizads complaint notes that despite a visit just eight days earlier from TSA head Peter Neffenger and a promise of improvement in security check times, the TSA had limited staff on duty and was using only one body scanner for the regular security line. Related: The One App You Should Check Before You Book Your Next Flight The TSA has come under fire in recent months as airport security lines have reached colossal levels, leading some travelers to abandon air travel plans altogether. While the TSA has implemented some fixes to long airport security lineslike the TSA PreCheck programairlines themselves have stepped up as well, with airlines pledging millions to help the beleaguered federal agency improve its notorious inefficiency. At its home airport in Atlanta, Delta paid to develop entirely newand substantially more efficientsecurity procedures that could become a model for fixing the TSA nationwide. Related: Best in Travel 2016 The case was first filed in Hannepin County District Court and transferred to federal court Friday. Its unclear how the complaint will fare at this stage, as there doesnt appear to be a clear legal precedent. Airport officials and attorneys representing TSA declined to comment to the Star-Tribune, though a TSA spokesperson told the paper that, regarding having a traveler sue the agency over a missed flight, I have never encountered anything similar. Related Articles Tokyo (AFP) - Mitsubishi Motors said Friday it will post a $480 million special loss for the current fiscal year to pay compensation to customers over years of cheating on fuel-economy tests. Mitsubishi first admitted in April it had been falsifying the tests, manipulating data to make cars seem more efficient than they were. Since the scandal emerged, its sales in Japan have slumped and the company last month said its president would resign. The scandal -- reported to cover almost every model sold in Japan since 1991 -- also includes mini-cars produced by Mitsubishi for Nissan as part of a joint venture. "We will post a special loss of 50 billion yen ($480 million)" for the year to March 2017, the automaker said in a statement, "as costs for payments to customers of our company and Nissan Motor". It has already booked 15 billion yen in payments to customers for the year ended in March. It was Nissan that first uncovered problems with the fuel economy data, but Mitsubishi has said the company had no part in the cheating. Yokohama-based Nissan last month threw a lifeline to Mitsubishi as it announced plans to buy a one-third stake in the crisis-hit automaker for $2.2 billion, forging an alliance that will challenge some of the world's biggest auto groups. For the past year to March, Mitsubishi posted a net loss of 72.6 billion yen and operating profit of 138.4 billion yen on sales of 2.27 trillion yen. Following the scandal, it has been slow to give a full-year earnings forecast for the current fiscal year, with the company now "estimating other (future) costs" related to the cheating, Mitsubishi said in the statement. By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Morocco has proposed allowing around 25 civilian staff to immediately return to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in disputed Western Sahara in a sign that tensions between Rabat and the U.N. may be easing, diplomatic sources said on Friday. Earlier this year, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used the word "occupation" to describe Morocco's annexation of Western Sahara in 1975, when Rabat took it over from colonial power Spain. Infuriated by what it saw as a shift away from a neutral position, Morocco expelled dozens of U.N. staff working for the mission there known as MINURSO. The U.N. has been in talks with Morocco to end the dispute for months. U.N. diplomatic sources said on condition of anonymity that the discussions appeared to be producing some results, though they cautioned that nothing has been finalized or signed. "It's true that Morocco has offered to let some 25 staff back in though it's still all being negotiated," a source told Reuters. In April the U.N. Security Council extended MINURSO's mandate for another year and demanded urgent restoration of its full functionality. However, council diplomats and U.N. officials said discussions on restoring MINURSO's full functionality have been slow and difficult. The controversy over Ban's comment during a visit to refugee camps for Sahrawi people is Morocco's worst dispute with the United Nations since 1991, when the U.N. brokered a ceasefire to end a war over Western Sahara and established MINURSO. The diplomatic sources said both Morocco and the U.N. wanted their dispute to end. Morocco, they said, is keen to have Ban come to their country to attend a special high-level meeting on climate change in November. "If this thing is not resolved, I can't imagine the secretary-general attending," a U.N. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Morocco's U.N. mission did not respond immediately to a request for comment. U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous briefed the 15-nation Security Council on Thursday on the MINURSO discussions. Several diplomats at that closed-door session told Reuters Ladsous spoke of positive momentum in the talks with Morocco. After Ban's remarks in March, Morocco demanded that 81 U.N. international civilian staff and three African Union staff leave the mission. It also ordered the closing of a MINRUSO military liaison office. The Sahrawi people's Polisario Front movement, which demands self-determination for Western Sahara, wants a referendum on independence for the disputed territory. Morocco says it will only grant autonomy. Before the reductions, MINURSO had nearly 500 military and civilian personnel. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Andrew Hay) Nobody likes to hear their car has failed its MOT. But a study of more than a million MOT results suggests youre far more likely to get this bad news if you live in Scotland than if youre in the south of England. Research by Automyze, the AAs car management website, found that car owners in Dundee have the highest MOT failure rate in the UK, with more than half of cars in the Scottish city failing their last MOT. Four out of the five UK towns and cities with the lowest MOT pass rates were in the West Country; with Truro (51.5%), Plymouth (51.3%), Exeter (50.5%) and Bath (49.5%), failing their last statutory roadworthiness check. In contrast, the Isle of Man had the highest pass rate in the UK with 71.8% of vehicles passing their last test at the first time. The research showed that seven out of 20 towns and cities with the highest MOT failure rates were in Scotland, with almost half of cars in Aberdeen and Perth failing their last MOT. Out of the 20 towns and cities with the lowest MOT failure rates, 18 were in the south east of England, including London and places in the commuter belt such as Twickenham, Harrow, Dartford, Sutton, Enfield, Croydon, Kingston and Ilford. (Pictures: Getty) Lucy Burnford, director of Automyze, said: There could be a number of reasons why MOT failure rates are higher in Dundee, from the length of time people own their cars to the types of vehicle they own. However, some basic checks could bring failure rates down and save both time and money. There are multiple reasons why vehicles fail their MOT but the most common are tyres, headlights and indicators, which can be so easily fixed before the statutory roadworthiness test. Birstall (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Campaigning for the EU referendum next week was suspended on Friday for a second day as the nation reeled from the murder of a popular pro-Europe MP at the height of a bitterly divisive debate. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old former aid worker and pro-EU campaigner known for her advocacy for Syrian refugees, was killed on Thursday outside a library where she regularly met constituents in her home village of Birstall in northern England. Witnesses told local media the mother of two had been repeatedly shot and stabbed. A 52-year-old man, named by media as local Thomas Mair, was arrested. Described by neighbours as a loner, there were indications that he had extreme right leanings. With just six days left before the historic vote, rival groups campaigning for Britain to leave or remain in the European Union ceased campaigning and politicians joined as one to condemn the killing. But some commentators questioned whether the murder could be linked to a campaign that has stoked high tension by touching on issues of national identity and immigration. The Times newspaper reported Friday that Cox, who became the first British MP to be murdered since 1990, had "had been harassed in a stream of messages over three months". Police were considering putting in place additional security, it said, adding there was no known link between the messages and Thursday's attack. Before Cox's murder, opinion polls were pointing to the likelihood that Britain would vote to leave the EU in the June 23 referendum, a prospect that weighed on financial markets and sent the pound tumbling. The pound rose with Asian stocks Friday after the previous day's selloff, as investors judged the tragedy increased the likelihood of the "Remain" side prevailing. - 'White nationalism' - US advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that Mair, who had lived in the area for decades, was a "dedicated supporter" of National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organisation in the United States. Story continues It said he had spent over $620 on reading material from the group, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people. "Neighbours called him a 'loner' but he also has a long history with white nationalism," the Southern Poverty Law Center said. It added that Mair had purchased a handbook with instructions on how to make a gun, noting that witnesses told media the assailant used a gun of "old-fashioned" or "homemade" appearance. One witness of the attack, cafe owner Clarke Rothwell, told the Press Association that the gunman had shouted "put Britain first" repeatedly during the attack. "Britain First" is the name of a far-right anti-immigration group, but it denied any involvement. Dozens gathered outside Parliament in a vigil to remember Cox attended by Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, flanked by tearful party colleagues. "What's happened is beyond appalling. We are here in silent memory of her loss," Corbyn said as rain began to fall. "She was a fearless campaigner, and a voice for the voiceless. We feel shaken," said Fatima Ibrahim, 23, an activist with Avaaz. In the streets of Birstall, the scene of the attack was cordoned off and police could be seen examining a shoe and a handbag. Mourners left flowers nearby in tribute. - 'Fight the hatred' - In the wake of the attack, commentators questioned whether the tone of the EU referendum campaign had stirred up ugly currents. In the The Spectator, writer Alex Massie noted that the day had begun with the unveiling of a poster by the anti-EU UK Independent Party (UKIP) featuring a queue of migrants and refugees and the words "Breaking point". "The message was not very subtle: Vote Leave, Britain, or be overrun by brown people," Massie wrote. "When you present politics as a matter of life and death, as a question of national survival, don't be surprised if someone takes you at your word." US Secretary of State John Kerry describd the killing as "an assault on everybody who cares about and has faith in democracy". In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Cox's death was "frightful (and) dramatic" and said her thoughts were with the victim's family. Cox, whose first speech in parliament defended immigration and diversity, lived with her husband Brendan and their two children aged three and five, on a houseboat on the Thames. As the news of her death broke, Brendan issued a an impassioned appeal for unity against hatred. "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now," he wrote. "One, that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her." London (AFP) - The murder of pro-European lawmaker Jo Cox will have a sobering effect on the final days of campaigning for Britain's EU referendum, analysts said Friday, as investors appeared more confident of a vote to "Remain". Campaigning for the June 23 vote has been suspended following Thursday's fatal attack on the opposition Labour MP in her constituency in northern England, bringing a heated and divisive race to an abrupt halt. "It has been a rather bitter campaign, with personality conflicts. It might calm people down in a more sober manner," Wyn Grant, professor of politics at Warwick University, told AFP. Opinion polls suggest the referendum is too close to call, although two new surveys published in the hours before Cox died suggested Britain was on course to end its 43-year membership of the European Union. John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the "Leave" campaign in particular may now have to tone down its rhetoric, which had taken a strong anti-establishment tone. "The argument is that the establishment says we can't leave," he told AFP, adding: "Attacking politicians won't be possible anymore." He said: "The 'Leave' side may have to be a little careful with their language." The Times newspaper concurred, noting: "That Ms Cox was a mother as well as a dedicated public servant means that attacks on the 'political class' or 'Westminster elites' are likely to be off limits." However, Curtice said the suspension of campaigning could also hurt the "Remain" side, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, which needs time to regain the lead. Both sides announced Friday that they would not hold any major events on Saturday, leaving them with just four days of campaigning left before a broadcast ban on polling day. "It is not to the advantage of 'Remain' as they need any hour available to convince the undecided," Curtice said. Story continues - Markets gain ground - In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged British politicians to moderate their language, warning: "The exaggerations and radicalisation of part of the language do not help to foster an atmosphere of respect." London mayor Sadiq Khan, who is from the same party as Cox and also backs a "Remain" vote next week, said there was a need to "pause and reflect". "I hope between now and 10pm on Thursday (when the polls close) the campaign is conducted in a different environment than it has been conducted up until now," he told LBC radio. "We don't know the facts surrounding Jo's death. What we do know is there is a environment of hatred, of poison, of negativity, of cynicism." A writer for the Conservative-supporting Spectator magazine, blamed the "Leave" campaign for raising tensions. "When you encourage rage you cannot then feign surprise when people become enraged," wrote Alex Massie in an online article that quickly went viral. The prospect of Britain leaving the EU had weighed on financial markets and sent the pound tumbling amid fears of the potential economic fall-out of a Brexit. But European and Asian stock markets rebounded strongly Friday and the pound was firmer, lifted in part by expectations that Britain will now stay in. "The suspension of campaigning for the UK EU referendum after the tragic death of Labour MP Jo Cox boosted risk appetite," said Nick Stamenkovic, an analyst at broker RIA Capital Markets. Brussels (AFP) - Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders on Friday said it would no longer take funds from the EU in protest at its "shameful" policies on the migration crisis, including a deal with Turkey. The charity, widely known by its French acronym MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres), received 56 million euros ($63 million) from European Union institutions and the 28 member states last year. "MSF announces today that we will no longer take funds from the EU and its member states in protest at their shameful deterrence policies and their intensification of efforts to push people and their suffering back from European shores," the group said in a statement. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning MSF singled out the EU's deal with Turkey in March to stem the biggest flow of migrants into the continent since World War II, many of them from war-torn Syria. "This is really about Europe's refugee shame," Jerome Oberreit, international secretary general of MSF, told a press conference in Brussels. He accused member states of a "shameful European response focused on deterrence rather than providing people with the assistance and protection they need." "The EU-Turkey deal goes one step further and has placed the very concept of 'refugee' and the protection it offers in danger," Oberreit added. - 'Courageous and principled stand' - MSF has been heavily involved in caring for migrants in locations including the Greek island of Lesbos and the French port of Calais, as well as operating a boat called the Argos which saves lives in the Mediterranean. Under the Turkey deal, Ankara agreed to take back all migrants and refugees landing in the Greek islands who did not apply for asylum, and to crack down on people smuggling across the Aegean Sea. In exchange, the EU said it would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey for every Syrian that Ankara takes back from Greece. Story continues Turkey was meanwhile offered visa-free access, increased aid and speeded up EU accession talks if it met certain conditions, one of which was changing its anti-terror laws. MSF said 8,000 people including hundreds of unaccompanied minors had been left stranded in the Greek islands by the deal. The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, said it "takes note" of the MSF decision, stressing that it affected only just over one percent of the Commission's 1.5 billion euro annual aid budget. Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas rejected criticism of the Turkey deal, saying: "The Commission prefers the interpretation of our 28 member states, of the Council of Europe and the United Nations, which are closer to our analysis of the deal rather than the one that the MSF did today." Rights group Amnesty International hailed MSF's "courageous and principled stand". - 'We cannot accept funding' - MSF's Oberreit also criticised a proposal last week to make similar deals with African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries. He pointed out that potential partners included Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan and Afghanistan, "four of the top 10 refugee-generating countries." "We cannot accept funding from the EU or the Member States while at the same time treating the victims of their polices. It's that simple," Oberreit added. MSF said it received 19 million euros from EU institutions and 37 million euros from member states in 2015, amounting to eight percent of its funding. It added that its activities are 90 percent privately funded. "We are looking for other funding channels," MSF migration expert Aurelie Ponthieu told the press conference. "We are not cutting down programmes." The charity said its medics had treated 200,000 men, women and children in the Mediterranean and in Europe in the last 18 months. It also received 6.8 million euros from Norway, which is not part of the EU. Europe has struggled to deal with a wave of more than one million refugees and migrants fleeing war and poverty in Syria, the wider Middle East and Africa since the start of 2015. Cannabis, Business, Expo, Marijuana The Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday to allow banks to provide financial services to legal recreational and medical marijuana dispensaries, according to The Denver Post. Marijuana is still listed as a Schedule 1 substance by the federal government, so marijuana businesses in states where recreational use is legal, like Colorado, are forced to operate on an all-cash basis. The vote on Thursday approved an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill, which provides annual funding for some government agencies, including the Treasury Department. A standalone bill aimed at fixing the marijuana industry's banking issue, with nearly identical language to the amendment, failed to reach any debate last year. It's not clear how the amendment will be received this year. "We've seen this all before," Jeff Foster, a co-founder of JANE, an express ordering kiosk for cannabis retailers, told Business Insider. "I hope that some progress is being made. But certainly what happened yesterday [the Senate's vote] was by no means a watershed moment." This isn't the first time the federal government has tried to give banks the green light to work with marijuana businesses. In February 2014, President Obama announced with the backing of the Treasury Department and the Justice Department that the federal government would not prosecute banks that dealt with money from legal marijuana dispensaries. Marijuana dispensaries were also supposedly allowed to get loans and set up credit and checking accounts with banks, just like any other retailer. None of this actually happened. Two years later, marijuana businesses still can't get loans, and customers can't even use credit cards to buy the product. For many banks, it's simply not worth the risk for banks to do business with marijuana dispensaries. Operating on an all-cash basis is a huge risk for marijuana businesses, who have been forced into a kind of a "gray market" says Foster. Story continues There's the issue of theft it's not uncommon for dispensaries to partner with armored car services to handle all the cash as well as issues with actually tracking the payments, and understanding how much money is actually being exchanged. That's not to mention that dispensaries are forced to pay both their employees and their taxes in cash. "Whether you are for or against legalization, you have to recognize that having marijuana businesses handling huge amounts of cash with nowhere to deposit the money is a public safety concern that Congress has to tackle," says Michael Collins, the deputy director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance. It's likely that the marijuana industry's banking issues will take some time to fix. "Banks still regulate themselves," says Foster. "And the resistance to marijuana is mostly based on reputational risk. There's still a great stigma in the banking community around marijuana. It's palpable." NOW WATCH: Why this Instagram star withdrew $1.2 million in cash then deposited it the next day More From Business Insider London (AFP) - Jo Cox, the British lawmaker murdered on the streets of northern England, had complained to police earlier this year about "malicious communications" she received, police said Friday. A man was arrested in March and was cautioned by police, but he is not the man in custody for Thursday's attack, a statement from London's Metropolitan Police said. Witnesses said Cox, a 41-year-old with two children aged three and five, was repeatedly shot and stabbed in Thursday's assault in the Yorkshire village of Birstall. Her murder came one week before Britain holds a referendum on whether to stay in or leave the European Union, a vote which has sparked a divisive and bitter campaign. "Officers received an allegation of malicious communications from Jo Cox MP, and in March 2016 arrested a man in connection with the investigation," the police statement said. "The man subsequently accepted a police caution. The man who accepted the police caution is not the man in custody in West Yorkshire." The Times newspaper reported that police were considering putting in place additional security for Cox when she died. A 52-year-old man, named by British media as Thomas Mair, was arrested shortly after Cox was attacked. Neighbours told newspapers that he was a loner who had lived in the area for decades, but there were indications he had extreme right-wing leanings. LONDON (Reuters) - British MP Jo Cox, who was killed on Thursday, had previously contacted police after receiving "malicious communications" and they had arrested a man in connection with the investigation in March. Police said that the man they had arrested at that time was not the 52-year-old man who was being held in custody in West Yorkshire following his arrest close to the crime scene. "Officers received an allegation of malicious communications from Jo Cox MP, and in March 2016 arrested a man in connection with the investigation," police said. "The man subsequently accepted a police caution." Cox, a 41-lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party and a vocal advocate of Britain's European Union membership, died after she was shot and stabbed repeatedly by a man who witnesses said shouted "Britain first". Both sides in Britain's EU referendum suspended campaigning after the attack. (Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Guy Faulconbridge) The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has opened a gastronomic exhibit that replicates dishes from some of the top Michelin-starred restaurants around the globe allowing visitors to embark on a culinary world tour without leaving the city. The vision of chef Corey Lee, who helms the triple Michelin-starred San Fran restaurant Benu, In Situ brings the cuisine of superstar chefs from France, the UK, Italy, Hong Kong, Denmark, Spain and Japan to diners at the recently opened museum. For the exhibit-restaurant, Lee worked with chefs to faithfully recreate each dish. Dishes were either chosen from a chef's existing repertoire, or created specially for the In Situ exhibit. The menu will rotate between chefs and restaurants according to seasonality. Opening the exhibit this week, for example, is a caramelized carrot soup from Nathan Myhrvold, author of Modernist Cuisine. Diners can also travel to Paris without leaving town and tuck into a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich filled with Saint-Nectaire cheese and black truffle, from Astrance restaurant. To cap off their meal, they can also sample the pastry wizardry of Dominique Ansel, who contributed his recipe for a sage smoked dark chocolate brownie. The concept is an interesting extension of an emerging trend in the world of haute gastronomy: restaurants and chefs swapping kitchens or hosting pop-ups around the world and breaking down the barriers of brick and mortar restaurants at fixed addresses. Overall, the list of participating chefs represents a powerhouse of some of the most influential cooks in the upper echelons of haute and trending gastronomy today. They include chefs Massimo Bottura, whose Italian restaurant Osteria Francescana was named the world's best restaurant this week; Rene Redzepi of Noma in Copenhagen; Albert Adria of Tickets in Barcelona; Thomas Keller of The French Laundry in Yountville; and Seiji Yamamoto of RyuGin in Osaka among dozens of others. The space can accommodate up to 70 guests and is open during lunch hours but will expand to dinner in the future. There are 600 children registered as suffering from restricted physical capability in Gyumri, Armenias second largest city. Of these, some 200 have cerebral palsy. During the past few years, a number of organizations have been created in Gyumri to assist children with disabilities. The Emili Aregak Day Care Center for Children & Youth with Multiple Disabilities is one of them. Anna doesnt have the means to take her two-year-old son Feliks to additional exercise treatment courses. The boy only attends physio-therapy classes that charge no fee. A special minivan picks up children and takes them to Aregak. Eight year-old Narek is the most silent in the bunch. After being placed in the wheelchair, the boy firmly gripped the wheels and started to ride up and down the halls, greeting everyone along the way. Twelve year-old Sevak says he never used a wheelchair at home. The only time he does is when he attends a once weekly therapy course at the Aregak Day Care Center. Otherwise, the boy, schooled at home, passes the time of day seated in the kitchen. Sevak only accessible outlet is the computer. Once a week, his good friend Davit visits. Margarita has recently signed up for computer classes. She wants to get a job after completing them. A Muslim faith school has accused Ofsted of racist conduct after the schools watchdog voiced concerns at the discovery of highly concerning extremist leaflets. Ofsteds latest report on the Darul Uloom Islamic High School said leaflets containing highly concerning and extremist views - including the suggestion that music, dancing and singing are acts of the devil - were found during its inspection. But the schoo, which caters for boys aged 11 to 16, has hit back at the watchdog, saying the leaflets were not found on its premises but at the back door of a mosque next door. (Picture: Google Street View) The independent school in Small Heath, Birmingham, claimed an Ofsted inspector refused to take off their shoes during the inspection and was extremely belligerent. In a statement issued in response to Ofsteds latest findings, the school said the leaflets had been dumped by a member of the public and had no association with the mosque or school. It said: Furthermore in regards to the inspection in question, the conduct of the Ofsted inspectors during this inspection were unacceptable and racist. Darul Uloom was subjected to a full Ofsted inspection last October when it was rated as inadequate. It then drew up an improvement action plan which was evaluated by inspectors in February. The latest Ofsted report on the school, published this week, said: Leaders and staff have had training in preventing extremism and radicalisation, and been given the latest Government safeguarding guidance. "However, the impact of this work has not rectified safeguarding weaknesses. "A large number of copies of a leaflet containing highly concerning and extremist views, such as Music, dancing and singing are acts of devil and prohibited, were discovered during the inspection. "The leaflets were found in areas shared by the school and adjoining mosque which are used by leaders and in areas used by the pupils from the school. saturn Recently, scientists using NASA's Cassini spacecraft noticed a strange ding in one of Saturn's rings. Saturn is sometimes called the "Jewel of the Solar System." With shimmering pinks, hues of gray, and a hint of brown, its rings resemble a fresco where nature is the painter, NASA writes. The rings are made of trillions of particles of dust, rock, and ice orbiting around the planet at different speeds up to thousands of miles per hour. The size of these particles can range from as small as a grain of sand to larger than a skyscraper. The rings, only about 30 to 300 feet thick, wrap around the planet for about 175,000 miles. The dent was found in Saturn's F ring its outermost discrete ring. The F ring just might be the most active ring in the solar system. Scientists can see its features changing over the course of a few hours. The disruption, NASA said, was probably caused by a small object embedded in the ring. John Weiss, a ring scientist in Washington state, told Fusion: There's good evidence that there's a lot of these sized bodies in the core of the ring itself, but you can't normally see them because they're covered by the dust cloud around them. But they're in there, and every so often move across the ring space and blow a bunch of those dust particles out. This one was traveling faster than [3 feet] per second. When the small object interacted with some of the stuff in the ring's core, it produced something that scientists sometimes refer to as a "jet." Astronomers think that these jets form thanks to the gravitational pull of Saturn's small, potato-shaped moon, Prometheus. It "acts as a cosmic shepherd, sculpting the F ring as it makes its orbit around Saturn," National Geographic writes. "But the moon's route isn't perfectly circular, and its uneven pull can create clumps inside the ring that then shoot out as jets." The collision itself actually happened pretty recently within a day or so of when this image was taken on April 8, Weiss said. In the two months since the picture was taken, "the wound has just about stitched itself back up," National Geographic writes. Story continues Weiss said: You get to expecting in planetary science for things to have happened millions of years ago, and you don't think to ever get to observe things actively happening. But that's the kind of funky thing with Saturn's rings. You can actually see evidence of things that happened yesterday, or the day before. NOW WATCH: Scientists can't explain these mysterious spots on one of Saturn's most remarkable moons More From Business Insider A NASA spacecraft's five-year trek to Jupiter is nearly over. The $1.1 billion Juno probe, which launched in August 2011 on a mission to investigate Jupiter's structure, composition and formation history, is scheduled to begin orbiting the gas giant on July 4. "We're just a couple of weeks from arriving at Jupiter," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said during a news conference today (June 16). "It's been such a great journey, and I can't wait to get there." [Photos: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter] The excitement is tinged with anxiety, however. Juno will fire its main engine for 35 minutes on the evening of July 4, essentially slamming on the brakes to slow down enough to get captured by Jupiter's gravity. If something goes wrong during this crucial maneuver, the spacecraft will zoom right past the giant planet, mission team members said. "It's a one-shot deal. I mean, the whole thing's riding on this JOI Jupiter orbit insertion activity on July 4," Bolton said. "Somebody asked, 'When does the nail-biting start?' It's already started." If everything goes according to plan on July 4, Juno will be captured into a 53-day orbit. Additional engine burns will eventually get the probe into its elliptical, 14-day science orbit, during which Juno will get as close as 2,700 miles (4,350 kilometers) to Jupiter's cloud tops. Over the course of more than 30 orbits, Juno will use its nine science instruments to study the planet's composition, magnetic field and gravity field, among other things. (The instruments' core electronics, and Juno's flight computer, are tucked inside a 400-lb. [180 kilograms] titanium vault to shield them from the intense radiation environment at Jupiter.) The spacecraft's observations will reveal a great deal about how Jupiter formed and evolved information that should have broader applicability, Bolton said. Story continues "One of the primary goals of Juno is to learn the recipe for solar systems," he said. "It's not just our solar system, but how do you make the planets that we discover in other solar systems?" Jupiter was the first planet in Earth's solar system to form, "so it gives you that very first step in the recipe: What happened after the sun formed that allowed the planets to form?" Bolton said. The Juno mission is scheduled to end in February 2018, with an intentional death dive into Jupiter's thick atmosphere. The probe's fiery death is designed to make sure that Juno never contaminates any potential life-supporting worlds, such as Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa, NASA officials said. Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com. Editor's Recommendations Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. By David Ingram and Andrew Chung (Reuters) - An advocacy group for crime victims will oversee the payout of some of the millions of dollars in donations raised for victims of a shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub in an effort to deliver aid as quickly as possible. As of Thursday afternoon, $5 million had been raised online for the victims by Equality Florida, a gay rights group that has decided to distribute the money through the National Compassion Fund, a unit of the nonprofit National Center for Victims of Crime. There are other private fundraising campaigns for the victims of the massacre, including campaigns to benefit specific individuals, but so far only Equality Florida has sought the Washington-based center's help in managing the money. The victim center's executive director Mai Fernandez said the fund planned to disburse emergency money after the authorities confirm an official list of those present during Sunday's massacre at Orlando's Pulse night club where a gunman killed 49 people and injured 53 others. Distributing money to the victims of mass shootings, terrorism and other major crimes can be a fraught process, raising thorny questions about the value of human life, how applications will be verified, who should be making the decisions and how quickly aid can reach those in need. While countries such as France, Italy and Spain have government-run funds that provide benefits to victims of acts of terrorism, the United States largely relies on a patchwork of state-level aid for crime victims and private fundraising efforts. The National Compassion Fund was set up in 2014 to help speed up and streamline the flow of private funds and coordinate efforts on a national level. The Orlando massacre is the fourth shooting for which the fund is collecting contributions. Victims and survivors could also be eligible for compensation from public funds. DOZENS OF CLAIMS The U.S. federal government helps states pay for crime-related expenses including funeral and burial services, medical treatment and mental health counseling. The Florida Attorney General's Office is processing dozens of claims through its victim compensation fund, a spokesman for the office said. The state could also receive money through a $50 million Anti terrorism Emergency Assistance Program, administered by the Office for Victims of Crime, which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. According to Florida law, state-distributed victim compensation that reimburses losses is capped at $25,000 or double that sum in case of a "catastrophic injury." It is too early to say how much in private aid the Orlando victims could receive in total, Fernandez said in a phone interview. "What we disperse is whatever the public gives us." The fund aims to disperse money within nine months and gives 100 percent of what it receives to victims minus fees charged for electronic donations, with administrative costs covered by separate fundraising, Fernandez said. For an attack last year in which a gunman fatally shot four U.S. Marines and a Navy sailor in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the fund says it received $467,335 from 556 donors. The bulk, $331,490, was paid to the estates of the five people killed, with smaller amounts going to those who were physically injured or psychologically traumatized, the fund says. The fund also collected donations for a 2014 shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, and the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, even though that attack took place in 2012 before the fund was created. The fund does not consider variable factors such as lost future income, so, for example, each person severely injured receives the same amount. Merging funds with similar missions is a good idea, said Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who oversaw compensation funds for the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Feinberg is helping to advise the National Compassion Fund. "Having competing funds is a big mistake. The money gets distributed too widely. You don't have a centralized, single fund to maximize distributions," Feinberg said. The victims center approached Equality Florida, which found the offer of help attractive because the center does not charge for its services and provides one-on-one contact with victims, Ida Eskamani, Equality Florida's development officer, told Reuters. "It's sad that there is a need for such an organization." (Reporting by David Ingram and Andrew Chung in New York; Additional reporting by Letitia Stein in Orlando, Florida, and Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Amy Stevens and Tomasz Janowski) Assuming a group of people support you is never really a great move just ask Donald Trump. This is a lesson beer maker Anheuser-Busch learned the hard way this week. A Native American tribe in North Carolina filed a federal lawsuit against the company for illegally using the tribe's logo and slogan in an ad campaign without their permission, the News & Observer reported. Oops. The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina filed the lawsuit Tuesday morning, accusing the beer maker of using its "Heritage, Pride & Strength" slogan on banners hung in convenience stores advertising Budweiser and Bud Light. The banners also feature the Lumbee tribe's logo, a circle that is divided into four different colored quadrants. Lawyers for the tribe argued that the banners leave a "false impression of an affiliation between the tribe and Anheuser-Busch." Lumbee Tribe of NC sues #Anheuser-Busch for unapproved use of tribal trademark. http://bit.ly/1U8mmc4 pic.twitter.com/5yBIKOWM9S https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ck_mzzUWgAEYgVj.jpg:large The faux pas is especially gripping, considering the delicate relationship between Native American communities and alcohol. "Many members of the [Lumbee] tribe find offensive because alcohol abuse is often associated with Native American culture," the lawsuit stated. Native Americans are "five times more likely to die of alcohol-related causes than whites," PBS noted. And problems with alcohol abuse start at a young age, researchers at Colorado State University found. According to the study, 18.3% of eighth-graders in the Native American community and 19.4% of 10th-graders participate in binge drinking. Anheuser-Busch issued an apology to the tribe, placing the blame of the advertising mishap on the wholesaler distributing its beer, Fox News reported. Story continues "Our wholesalers often implement local marketing efforts on behalf of our brands," the apology reads. "The wholesaler responsible for these signs removed them shortly after a complaint was brought to its attention, and has since expressed its regrets. Anheuser-Busch respects the Lumbee Tribe and likewise regrets that this occurred." The advertising has been taken down, but there no word on whether the tribe plans to drop the lawsuit. If they do, someone else may take the opportunity in the name of patriotism to sue the beer maker for temporarily renaming Budweiser "America." NBCUniversal and Dish Network have put down their legal swords over the ad-skipping tech the satellite company introduced several years back and reached a carriage deal. The ad-skipping deal joins Foxs lawsuit ending agreement in February and the settlement CBS and Dish came to in December 2014. NBCUniversal and DISH Network have reached an agreement resulting in the dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over the AutoHop and PrimeTime Anytime features, said a spokesperson for the Comcast owned company. The agreement will allow Dish subscribers to ad-skip a week after a show has initially aired. With NBCU providing no details, the deal also settles the retransmission contract clash between the two parties that Dish threatened to take to arbitration earlier this year. NBC, Fox, CBS and ABC all took their umbrage to court back in 2012 to stop the ad-skipping tech. Essentially, they alleged that the AutoHop technology infringed on its copyrights and breached the terms of their carriage deal with Dish. The No. 2 satellite company responded that the tech was a consumer-friendly change that merely automated the ad skipping that consumers already do with their remote controls and the nets should embrace the future. With motions and filings filling the courts, the matters simmered and were seemingly resolved as those carriage deals came up for renewal. NBCU and Dishs current carriage deal battle involves NBC and Telemundo stations the programmer owns in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and Miami as well as pay TV services including USA, Syfy, Bravo, CNBC, and MSNBC. Dishs satellite service has about 13.4 million subscribers. Related stories More Trouble For 2016 Summer Olympics As Rio Media Warns Of "Total Collapse" Seth Meyers Offers Donald Trump Starring Role In New NBC Series 'Chicago President' FX Networks, CNN Worldwide Win 2016 PromaxBDA Awards Marketing Teams Of The Year Neil Patrick Harris had the sweetest birthday a person could hope for. The former How I Met Your Mother star, who turned 43 on Wednesday, kicked back at a low-key lunch with his husband, David Burtka, their 5-year-old twins, Harper and Gideon, and a special birthday cocktail. WATCH: Neil Patrick Harris' Family Wins Halloween with Epic Star Wars Costumes Burtka snapped a heartwarming pic of Harris and their cute kids enjoying the celebratory meal. The 41-year-old actor and chef captioned the photo, "Happy Birthday lunch with @nph I love eating my way through life with you! You complete me!!" WATCH: Neil Patrick Harris on the Key to a Successful Marriage: You Need to Talk It Out Harris and Burtka, who tied the knot in 2014 at a star-studded ceremony in Italy, welcomed their adorable twins via surrogate in October 2010, and have become one of the cutest celebrity families in Hollywood. Just last weekend, there was another cause for celebration for Harris and Burtka, when their twins graduated from pre-school. Check out the sweet message Harris shared to commemorate the occasion in the video blow. Related Articles A villager was shot dead in a remote mountainous area of Nepal and three others were injured in clashes over a rare and valuable fungus known as the "Himalayan Viagra" for its reputed aphrodisiac qualities, an official said Friday. Every year, thousands of villagers in Nepal and Tibet harvest the parasitic fungus Cordyceps sinensis, known locally as yarchagumba, which grows on the body of a caterpillar. It can fetch huge sums in neighbouring China where it is used in herbal medicines, but is only found at certain elevations and for a few weeks a year. Officials in the western district of Mugu where the clash occurred said they had dispatched a police team on Wednesday after receiving reports of the clash, but they only arrived on Friday morning. "One person was killed while three others were injured when a gang of 10-12 looters shot indiscriminately in the area on Wednesday night," Mugu district chief Keshab Raj Sharma told AFP by phone. "Locals said the gang had stolen their collections." It is not the first time that violence has broken out over the yarchagumba harvest -- in 2009 seven people were brutally murdered in a fight over harvesting rights. Two years after, the court convicted 19 villagers over the case. Sharma said no medical teams had yet reached the spot. A rescue helicopter took off, but had been forced to turn back because of bad weather. Yarchagumba, which means "summer plant, winter insect" in Tibetan, is only found above 3,500 metres (11,550 feet) and forms when the parasitic fungus lodges itself in a caterpillar, slowly killing it. No definitive research has been published on the beneficial qualities of the fungus, but Chinese herbalists believe it boosts sexual performance. Boiled in water to make tea, or added to soups and stews, it is said to cure a variety of ailments from fatigue to cancer. In recent years researchers have said supplies are declining, perhaps due to over-harvesting. Meeting today with Armenias Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchyan and an entourage of professionals from Armenia, NKR Prime Minister Arayik Haroutyunyan stated that the countrys future prospects for growth were inexorably tied to the development of education. If we are capable of ensuring development in the educational sector, we will have a flourishing country. Otherwise, well remain where we are, PM Haroutyunyan said. Haroutyunyan had invited Mkrtchyan and others to Stepanakert to discuss future prospects of the Shoushi Technological University and the education challenges the country faces. Yenagoa (Nigeria) (AFP) - Nigeria's military on Friday said they had arrested 19 suspected oil militants as they ramp up operations to stop pipeline attacks bringing the country's economy to a standstill. Troops thwarted an attempt to blow up a pipeline operated by the Nigerian subsidiary of Italy's Eni and arrested suspected pipeline vandals and oil thieves, it said in a statement. Three coordinators of "several pipeline bombings" were among those detained in operations conducted across the oil-producing southern states of Bayelsa and Delta, it added. "One of the arrested suspects, John Oboka -- aka Jamaica -- confessed to being part of the group that bombed the Nigerian Petroleum Developing Company (NPDC) crude oil pipeline at Escravos," said the statement. There was no indication as to whether those arrested were connected to the Niger Delta Avengers, the high-profile group that has claimed a series of attacks on Nigeria's oil infrastructure since February. The attacks have cut production to an estimated 1.6 million barrels per day, well below the expected 2.2 million bpd, heaping pressure on an economy hit by falling crude prices since mid-2014. Abuja has offered to talk with the Avengers but the militant group has denied reports it has met government representatives. "There is no ideal solution for the federal government, there are just hard and even harder choices to make," Dirk Steffen, maritime security director at Risk Intelligence in Denmark, told AFP. The security operations "bear the risk of alienating the population in the Delta", he said. "It can also encourage some armed groups to join the fight on the side of the Avengers to show solidarity." Oslo (AFP) - Norway announced plans Friday for its biggest military upgrade effort since the end of the Cold War, to bolster its defences against an "increasingly unpredictable" Russia. The Scandinavian country, a NATO member, plans new fighter jets and submarines to boost its ability to protect itself from its vast neighbour, with which it shares an Arctic border. Over 20 years Norway would boost its defence budget by 165 billion kroner (17.5 billion euros at current exchange rate), according to details of a military programming law presented by the government. "Unfortunately the geopolitical circumstances have changed significantly, in a bad way, in recent years," Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a press conference in Oslo. "We have an increasingly unpredictable neighbour to the east which is strengthening its military capacity, and showing willingness to use military force as a political tool," she added. The military programming law aims to upgrade the army both by efforts on maintaining existing resources and buying new equipment. It foresees the purchase of 52 F-35 fighter jets and four submarines, as well as new naval surveillance planes to replace six ageing P-3 Orion aircraft. The extra expenditure will bring Norway's military budget up towards the 2.0 percent of GDP goal fixed by NATO, while not reaching it. Solberg said the country's current military might "is not adapted to the geopolitical situation," describing a "historic defence effort, the biggest since the end of the Cold War." But it is less than the 180 billion kroner sought last year by the armed forces chief Haakon Bruun-Hanssen. Before the military plans can be implemented the rightwing government has to get its proposals adopted in parliament where it is in a minority, and could therefore have to make amendments. Finland, meanwhile, said Friday in a security outlook that it "cannot exclude" the use of military force against its territory by neighbouring Russia. Story continues The country, which shares the European Union's longest border with Russia, has gradually stepped up its cooperation with NATO after Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014 and became involved in the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine. Finland's Foreign Minister Timo Soini said Russia's actions constituted an "essential change" for Europe's security. "The security policy environment of Finland, a member of the western community, has transformed," the ministry wrote in its report, citing "a more tense security situation in Europe and the Baltic Sea region." "The use or threat of military force against Finland cannot be excluded," it added although Soini stressed that Finland does not consider Russia to pose a threat "at the moment". Finland -- which shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia -- was attacked by its powerful neighbour during World War II but has tried to maintain friendly relations with Moscow ever since. But tensions have grown around Finland, with Russian fighter jets buzzing around a US navy ship in the Baltic Sea in April and with NATO increasing its military presence and rehearsals in the area. "We make no secret of our negative attitude to the NATO policy of moving its military infrastructure closer to our border and involving other states in its military activities," Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters on Soini's recent visit to Moscow. While Finland is not actively planning to join the defence alliance, Soini said it intended to "maintain the possibility of allying itself militarily" if need be. O.J. Simpson is ready to settle paternity rumors concerning Khloe Kardashian, with hopes the reality star will visit him in at the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. According to the Daily Mail, the 68-year-old informed Jeffrey Felix, a former Lovelock prison guard, of his wishes. The rumor that wont die has found its way back into the mainstream, oddly on the same week of the ESPN special, O.J.: Made in America. Simpson is currently serving a lengthy 9 to 33-year sentence at Lovelock for an armed robbery assault from 2007. The rumor has been addressed by Khloe and her momager Kris Jenner during the peak years of the Kardashian kraze. For the seventh season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the family took part in a paternity test of their own to prove Khloe was Kris daughter. Kokos comedic approach on the Juice rumors was shortlived after Robert Kardashians other ex-wives claimed he disowned Khloe in private conversations. The audacity you have to mention my fathers name like this! Should be ashamed of urself! I let a lot of things slide but this one is really low YOU ARE DISGUSTING! (yes you know who YOU are.) the reality star tweeted in 2012. In the midst of the chaos, it has also been proved dozens of times that Khloe is indeed the daughter of Rober Kardashian in the form of legal documents and statements from the man himself. Simpson is willing to take the test under the condition Khloe will sit and shoot the breeze with him. If we learned anything during the Made In America series, its that O.J was surrounded by many who fed into his delusions. Looks like that notion has followed him behind bars, no? Sometimes the tragedy of gun violence defies logic. That was certainly the case in Oakland, California, where 16-year-old Reggina Jefferies was gunned down just hours after performing a beautiful dance routine at a funeral for two friends who'd drowned. 16yo Reggina Jefferies'mother shared this video of her daughter's last dance hrs b4 she was fatally shot #ktvupic.twitter.com/EWias0IJ8M Jefferies' mother, Onika Wilson, shared the video with Bay Area local news reporter Paul Chambers after the teen was shot and killed this week. "I called my daughter at 5:25 and asked her if she was okay, and she said, 'Yes,'" Wilson said in an interview with KTVU, before offering a tearful plea for justice in the case. "I got a phone call that my daughter had been shot at 5:36." A mother's tearful plea after her 16yo daughter Reggina Jefferies was fatally shot Tues. in #Oakland. #ktvu at 6:13pic.twitter.com/nXzqcKLCoP Here's KTVU's segment with Wilson. Gun violence in Oakland has been a deeply enmeshed problem for decades. The city has averaged 109 annual homicides since 1945, though those numbers have improved slightly in 2016, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. And while mass shootings like the ones in Orlando or Sandy Hook have prompted national discussion about the cause and effect of gun violence, experts say that in order to really tackle the problem, it's important to name the majority of its victims: young black people like Jeffries. "The nation's consciousness has been raised by the repeated acts of police brutality against blacks," the Brookings Institution wrote in its analysis of race and guns in 2015. "But the problem of public-space violenceseen in the extraordinary distress, trauma and pain many poor inner-city families experience following the killing of a family member or close relative also deserves our special attention." Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama condemned Friday the "heinous" murder of Jo Cox, as he offered condolences to the British lawmaker's widower and praised her "selfless service." Obama called Brendan Cox while traveling on the Air Force One presidential plane, a day after the MP was "brutally murdered," the White House said. Jo Cox was shot and killed in a ferocious attack in the northern English village of Birstall. Police are investigating the 52-year-old suspected attacker's mental health and far-right links. The US-based Southern Poverty Law Center said suspect Thomas Mair supported National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organization in the United States. It said Mair had bought reading material from the National Alliance, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people. "President Obama offered his sincere condolences on behalf of the American people to Mr Cox and his two young children, as well as to her friends, colleagues and constituents," the White House statement said. "The president noted that the world is a better place because of her selfless service to others, and that there can be no justification for this heinous crime, which robbed a family, a community and a nation of a dedicated wife, mother and public servant." Cox, a 41-year-old former aid worker who was campaigning for Britain to stay in the European Union and also spoke out for Syrian refugees, was killed just a few miles (kilometers) from where she was born. She was the first British MP to be murdered since Ian Gow was killed by Irish Republican Army paramilitaries in a car bomb in 1990. By Roberta Rampton CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK, N.M. (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and his family escaped the blistering heat of the Chihuahuan Desert on Friday when they went through a maze of ancient caverns where the only sound was the drip-dripping from stalactites. The subterranean adventure was the first stop on a working vacation during which Obama will spend some time with his teenaged daughters while making the case for more spending on conservation and curbing climate change. It was just like any other family holiday, except the entourage of Secret Service agents, aides and press who follow Obama wherever he goes had to descend the 754 feet (230 m) on elevators in eight shifts. "How cool is this?" he said to the press in the dark, damp alien landscape of the "Big Room," the best known of the labyrinth of limestone caves that actor Will Rogers once called the Grand Canyon with a roof on it." The president is helping celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service while highlighting his plan to reduce climate-changing carbon emissions, which he sees as part of the legacy of his time in office. The White House has said the changing climate evidenced by droughts, increased flooding and wildfires and stronger storms has put national parks at risk. The Obamas were due to fly west later on Friday to the Sierra Nevada mountains and Yosemite, the country's oldest national park and one of its most popular landmarks. Visits to national parks have surged due in part to lower gasoline prices. Still, roads, sewer systems and visitor centers in national parks are aging, and the government is grappling with a $11.5 billion backlog of maintenance projects. At Carlsbad, elevators broke down in 2015, though they seemed in good shape for the Obamas' descent. During his time in office, which will end on Jan. 20, 2017, Obama has added 20 sites to the national park system, protecting more than 265 million acres of public land and water and historic sites with new parks, monuments and restrictions for development, more than any other president. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said national park visits in 2016 were on pace to beat last year's record of 307 million. Tourists contributed an estimated $300 billion to the economy, supporting about 2 million jobs, she told reporters. She wants Congress to remember those numbers as it considers investments in public lands. Republicans have slammed Obama for adding sites at a time when the government does not have enough funding to look after existing ones. "To me, there is little point in conserving lands or allowing the federal government to acquire even more land if we are not going to take proper care of them," Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska who is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said last year. (Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Toni Reinhold) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince on Friday and the two are expected to discuss conflicts in the Middle East including the campaign against Islamic State, a White House spokesman said on Thursday. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman, is on a visit to the United States aimed at restoring frayed relations with Washington and to promote a plan to slash the kingdom's dependence on oil revenues. Friday's meeting will take place at the White House. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the meeting would provide an opportunity to discuss issues including the conflicts in Syria and Yemen and "our cooperation with the Saudis in the campaign against ISIL," as Islamic State is also known. U.S. officials have expressed unease about the Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, which has resulted in large-scale civilian casualties, according to the United Nations and human rights groups. Reuters reported last week that the United Nations had removed the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen from a child rights blacklist after intense pressure by Riyadh. Prince Mohammed, whose influence in Saudi governing councils appears to be growing rapidly, is being given wide access to Obama's administration. He met with Obama's National Economic Council at the White House on Thursday afternoon to discuss the plan the prince is championing to transform the Saudi economy by 2030. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker were among those present. "U.S. officials welcomed Saudi Arabia's commitment to economic reform and underscored the United States' desire to be a key partner in helping Saudi Arabia implement its ambitious economic reform program," the White House said in a statement after the meeting. Prince Mohammed, who is also the Saudi defense minister, also is due to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter at the Pentagon on Thursday. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Additional reporting by Eric Beech; Writing by Timothy Gardner and Warren Strobel; Editing by Tom Brown and Cynthia Osterman) CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK, N.M. (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday spoke by phone with Brendan Cox, the husband of slain British Member of Parliament Jo Cox, the White House said. Obama, who is touring some Western U.S. national parks with his family, offered his sincere condolences to Cox on behalf of the American people during a phone call from Air Force One, the White House said. Jo Cox, a lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party and a vocal advocate of Britain's European Union membership, died on Thursday after she was shot and stabbed repeatedly by a man who witnesses said shouted "Britain first." (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Eric Walsh; Editing by Eric Beech) Few days ago HayPost took part in New York-2016 world philately expo. The Armenian collection with stamps from 2013, 2014 and 2015, presented by HayPost, took the second place at the philately competition organized under the auspices of the Universal Postal Union within the framework of the expo. The collection consists from 29 stamps and Souvenir sheets, dedicated to the Armenian culture, history, the nature of Armenia, etc. The exhibition of HayPost in the great international philately expo of New York, organized once a decade, awoke high interest among the experts. Special attention was attached to the models of stamps and S-sheets dedicated to the Pope, developed and designed by the experts of HayPost. These stamps and S-sheets are already printed and shall be cancelled in a solemn ceremony during the visit of the Pope to Armenia. The expo counted with participants from more than 120 philately unions and organizations of different countries, National Operators of Postal Communication from more than fifty countries. This was the first time HayPost presented an individual pavilion in an exposition of such a high range, making Armenia more visible to the philately world. Two S-sheets, dedicated to New York-2016 expo and Rio-2016 Summer Olympics, were cancelled by HayPost during this event. HayPost CJSC HayPost Trust Management B.V. R By Timothy Gardner and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia on Friday discussed ways to support Iraqis in their fight against Islamic State militants and the importance of a political transition in war-torn Syria, the White House said. Obama met with Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval office for about an hour. The deputy crown prince is visiting the United States to repair frayed relations and to promote a plan, known as Vision 2030, to slash the kingdom's dependence on oil exports. "The President expressed appreciation for Saudi Arabia's contributions to the campaign against ISIL," the White House said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. The two talked about steps to support Iraqis "including increased Gulf support to fund urgent humanitarian and stabilization needs," the White House said. U.S. officials have expressed unease about the Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, which according to the United Nations and human rights groups has resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties. Saudi Arabia is worried about closer relations between the United States and Iran, Riyadh's arch enemy, after a 2015 nuclear deal. Obama welcomed Saudi Arabia's commitment to a political settlement of the Yemen conflict and support by the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which the kingdom is a member, to address humanitarian needs and rebuild the country, the White House said. On Syria, Obama and the prince talked about the importance of supporting a political transition away from President Bashar al-Assad, the White House said. The United States is working with international partners on what it calls a Syrian-led transition process facilitated by the United Nations, but so far there has been little progress. Over 50 diplomats at the U.S. State Department signed a memo, leaked on Thursday, that was critical of the Obama administration's Syria policy and called for targeted military strikes against Assad's government. Asked about the memo, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, also in Washington, told reporters the kingdom had been arguing for a "more robust intervention" including airstrikes, a no-fly zone, and a no-drive zone, from the beginning of the five-year civil war. Obama does not see a military solution to the crisis in Syria, White House spokeswoman Jen Friedman said. Both Washington and Riyadh are anticipating the release of classified pages of a U.S. report into the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, that some U.S. lawmakers have alleged link Saudi government officials to the attacks. Jubeir said investigations show that the allegations "are not correct and they don't hold." (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Roberta Rampton aboard Air Force One; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Andrew Hay) Shinola President Obama frequently brags about Detroit-based Shinola, claiming its watches, bicycles, and other goods assembled in the US are a symbol of a revival in American manufacturing. Unfortunately, the Federal Trade Commission seems to disagree with that characterization, and the company is now implementing a remedial action plan on recommendation from the FTC to avoid enforcement action. The letter the commission sent to Shinola's parent company, Bedrock Manufacturing, on June 16 detailed a prior FTC review of Shinola that "raised concerns that certain marketing materials overstated the extent to which certain Shinola ... products ... are 'made' or 'built' in the United States." The company is being forced to clarify its "Built in Detroit" slogan on all of its products and advertising copy, as the FTC says it could mislead customers to instead think they are purchasing a product made in the US. In order for a product to be claimed to be "made in the US," it must be assembled in the US from "all or virtually all" American parts. Shinola's slogan attempted to avoid this FTC requirement, and the company is not secretive about using foreign parts for the products assembled in the Motor City while listing all part sources on its website. Shinola obama The company has been criticized for touting American manufacturing while using mainly foreign parts to assemble. Notably, the company uses a Swiss- or Thai-manufactured movement for most of its watches, and in some cases, the parts used to assemble the watches were 100% from foreign sources. The FTC saw a potentially misleading difference between a "made in the US" claim, which the FTC polices, and Shinola's "Built in Detroit." The letter details the actions Shinola must implement and has implemented to remedy the situation, including: clarifying "Built in Detroit" in its website and all marketing and advertising materials; adding tags and materials detailing the sources of the parts used in products; redesigning watch-case backs to add "from Swiss and imported parts"; updating employee training manuals; and developing "enhanced policies and procedures, including additional legal review, to avoid future deception or mislabeling." Story continues The company must also stop using its "Where American is Made" slogan to describe itself, the FTC says. Shinola It's notable that the "made in the US" requirement is stricter than manufacturing claims in other countries. Switzerland, which is still arguably the watchmaking capital of the world, requires only that a watch's movement be Swiss-made and the watch cased and inspected in Switzerland to be called "Swiss made." For a movement to be Swiss, it needs to be made with 60% of its component's value from Switzerland. In a statement, Shinola's founder, Tom Kartsotis, said: We have always believed that Built in Detroit most accurately describes the watches (and jobs) that are being created in Detroit and will continue to mark our watches as "Built in Detroit." While the FTC did show us some flaws in our communication, we believe that we have genuinely tried to be completely transparent as to the origin (and mission) of our products from the outset. We are thankful to the FTC for helping us identify some areas of improvement within some of our communication, which we began adopting over the last year. Kartsotis criticized the inflexibility of the "made in the US" designation, saying that "the truth is that Shinola is and has been a leader in bringing as much of the manufacturing process back to the US as it can possibly achieve." Shinola "Many of the components and raw materials are simply not available in the US," Kartsotis said in the statement, implying that American supply chains are just not up to the standard to create a "made in the US" watch to the FTC's requirement. "We found it confusing that a car, for example, isnt held to the same standard as a watch," Kartsotis said. "Until a change in policy clarifies for the consumer what it truly means to be Made in the USA, Shinola will always strive to do as much as it can in America with the benefit of an American workforce." Shinola has carved a niche among consumers who are looking for a nice watch but aren't willing or able to shell out the coin required for a high-end Swiss brand like Rolex. Shinola CMO Bridget Russo told NewCo that the company generated $100 million in revenue in 2015, up from $20 million in 2013 and $60 million in 2014. Hodinkee first noted that "Built in Detroit" is already completely gone from Shinola's website, replaced with a much tamer "The first watches assembled at scale in the United States in decades." Read the full FTC letter here. Note: An earlier version of this article claimed Shinola was forced to drop it's "Built in Detroit" slogan completely, but the company will continue to use it while clarifying parts used in its products. NOW WATCH: Why this Instagram star withdrew $1.2 million in cash then deposited it the next day More From Business Insider London (AFP) - Defending champion Andy Murray survived a stern test from Kyle Edmund to reach the Queen's Club semi-finals with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory over the British wildcard on Friday. Murray will play Croatia's Marin Cilic in the last four on Saturday in a rematch of the 2013 final at the Wimbledon warm-up event in west London. But the world number two had to dig deep to remain on course for a record fifth Queen's crown after a lacklustre first two sets against an inexperienced 21-year-old ranked 83 places below him. Canadian third seed Milos Raonic will face Australia's Bernard Tomic in the other semi-final. Murray defeated 2012 champion Cilic in the final three years ago but if the 29-year-old wants to repeat that he will have to improve significantly on his curiously limp performance against Edmund, who showed why he is regarded as Murray's likely successor as British number one with an inspired effort before being blown away in the deciding set. "I train with Kyle a lot so I know how good he is. He is big, strong and when he is on, he is very tough to play against," Murray said. "Kyle is the future of the game in this country. I have felt that in practice and I felt that in the match. "He served extremely well, but I tried to up my aggression at the start of the third set and thankfully it worked." Murray had waited 10 years to face a British opponent until he beat Aljaz Bedene in the second round on Thursday and just 24 hours later the top seed was taking on another compatriot in the promising Edmund. It was the first all-British Queen's Club quarter-final in the Open era and the first last eight showdown between two Brits on the ATP Tour since Tim Henman defeated Greg Rusedski in Adelaide in 2002. - Status quo - Murray took the first set despite being some way short of his best against Edmund, who appeared unperturbed by being unexpectedly awoken in the early hours of Friday to take delivery of a washing machine in his new flat. Story continues The Scot was on the ropes when Edmund took the second, but he hit back emphatically with a pair of early breaks to finally restore the status quo in the third set. Former US Open champion Cilic battled back to defeat American Steve Johnson 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4 in the day's first quarter-final as the fifth seed advanced to the Queen's semi-finals for the third time. "I really enjoy playing here. Grass suits my game and when I'm in good form I can always play really well," Cilic said. "I'm looking forward to Saturday's match. It's going to be probably a little bit of a crowd against me, but I'm going to enjoy that." Raonic took advantage of Spanish sixth seed Roberto Bautista Agut's busy scheduled to sweep into the last four with a 6-1, 6-4 victory. Bautista Agut had to finish the second set of his rain-delayed second-round win over Donald Young earlier on Friday and he looked drained as Raonic slammed down 19 aces and booked his first Queen's semi-final appearance in just 60 minutes on court. World number nine Raonic's run to the last four comes in the week he started working with American great John McEnroe as his coach. Standing between Raonic and his third ATP Tour final of 2016 is world number 22 Tomic. The 23-year-old will be in his first Queen's semi-final after beating Luxembourg's Gilles Muller 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-2. Tomic has been practising with Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt this week and the four-time Queen's champion's advice has clearly rubbed off during his best winning streak since February. By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped about 4 percent on Friday, as a weaker dollar and less anxiety about Britain's possible exit from the European Union encouraged investors to buy riskier assets. Brent more than recovered the losses of the previous day, when it slid 3.6 percent, yet crude futures still ended the week lower after daily declines from Monday through Thursday. Brent crude futures' front-month contract (LCOc1) settled up$1.98, or 4.2 percent, at $49.17 a barrel. The front-month in U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures (CLc1) rose $1.77, or 3.8 percent, to settle at $47.98. It fell $1.80 in the previous session. For the week, Brent was down nearly 3 percent and WTI dropped more than 2 percent. The dollar fell nearly half a percent on Friday, retreating from its two-week high on Thursday that had weighed on demand for greenback-denominated oil from the holders of the euro and other currencies. [FRX/] Britain mourned the death of UK member of parliament Jo Cox, a day after the vocal advocate for Britain remaining in the union was murdered. Her death threw the country's referendum on its EU membership next week into limbo. Oil prices rose in spite of data showing U.S. energy firms adding oil rigs for a third week in a row, suggesting higher production to come. Oil services firm Baker Hughes reported 9 rig additions this week, the same as the week before and after the 3 rigs in the previous week. [RIG/U] "People were looking for some trigger to sell the market down and the relatively small rise in oil rigs didn't provide it, so everyone who was short crude had to rush and cover," said Scott Shelton, broker at ICAP in Durham, North Carolina. "Also, volume was lighter than usual, so whatever trades done carried the day for the bulls." Volumes for Brent and WTI were just at around 200 million contracts each on Friday, versus the nearly 300 million on Thursday for both, Reuters data showed. Story continues Some analysts said with the UK's future in the EU still unknown until a vote next Thursday, oil could come under pressure again on fears of a Britain exit, or "Brexit". Julian Jessop, chief economist and head of commodities research at Capital Economics, told Reuters Global Oil Forum an U.K. exit could drive Brent to as low as $40. "It's mainly Brexit at the moment ... before people start to look at the more fundamental oil/commodity drivers again," Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro, said. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in LONDON; Editing by David Goodman and David Gregorio) Most auteurs prefer their starlets to be seen and not heard, but as any good writer or filmmaker knows, your actors only elevate the material on screen. With Olivia Wilde, Vinyl creators Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, Terence Winter and Rich Cohen found a lynch-pin collaborator, who infused more blood and guts into her character Devon a 1970s free spirit femme and wife to rock label czar Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale)than possibly imagined. After playing all sides in an array of genres including TRON: Legacy, Cowboys & Aliens, Rush and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Devon was a role that harnessed Wildes entire core, exposing the shades, hues and warts of a tortured spouse who has outgrown her time. Even though Vinyl didnt meet HBOs expectations with the network bailing on a second season after severing ties with Winter on the series, we cant forget the breathless on-screen chemistry between Wilde and Cannavale; a a counter-culture Taylor and Burton. In directing the pilot for Vinyl, Scorsese yearned for Devon to be something more than just the unhappy housewife to an unhinged, cocaine-addled music exec. Marty doesnt see his females as accessories to men, said Wilde. I found him to be an incredible feminist, treating his male and female characters equally. When Devon cops Richie after a guitar playing, drunken bender in their den at the end of the pilot, Wilde thought, I think theres more there. So, she pitched Scorsese something that wasnt in the script on the day of the shoot. I drank whiskey and spat in Bobby [Cannavale]s face, says Wilde, Marty walked up to me after and said, Now, shes somebody. Wilde forged a shorthand with Scorsese during an audition for The Wolf of Wall Street. She was up for the role of Leonardo DiCaprios wifeanother domestic damsel who endures a monstrous alpha male better-halfa part that went to Margot Robbie. It was during Wildes screen test that she found, Marty and I had good sense of communication. It was so thrilling to see how he works. Hes so clear about what hes looking for and open to what you present, which is rare [in a director]. And hes someone who is really observing and listening to the actor. As such, it comes as no surprise to hear that Wilde didnt have to read for the role of Devon. She was already a shoo-in. Story continues Wildes Devon on Vinyl is essentially the Factory girl that left Andy Warhols building. A promising fashionista photographer entrenched in the 70s Gotham party scene, shes an amalgamation of British Invasion songwriter-performer Marianne Faithfull and Factory gal Edie Sedgwick in regards to her art. She has this love for photography and an understanding of musicians, and is sensitive to the artists way, says Wilde, who also likens Devon to photographer Annie Leibovitz. Women today can only exist in an independent way because of the social revolution promoted by [women like] Devon. They found themselves to be part of the counterculture revolution of the 1960s, thus facing the consumerism of the 1970s, whereby they had to figure out a balance between living independently and the life of a mother. In some ways, Devon was the what-if spin on Sedgwick, who was estranged from Warhols circle and met a tragic fate at 28. What if Sedgwick accepted Bob Dylans invitation to move up to Woodstock, NY for a better career and life, leaving her debaucherous one at the Factory behind? Devons move to Greenwich, CT with Richie is a partial dramatization of that fantasy. For Devon, I wanted there to be a strong sense of where she came from. She was an artist who was energized by chaos and an experimental sense of adventure; someone who never fit in the norm of society. I knew from early on that there had to be a reason behind her shift; why Richie and her moved to Greenwich. There was a traumatic event that changed the course of her life, to make that sacrifice in episode six where shes pregnant with their first child and she loses it and their best friend in a car crash. In Cannavale, Wilde found a fellow actor who could emotionally flip on a dime, and tap into an icy rage; something she could draw from. Hes creative, loose and eager to play. That comes from his years working in the theater, says Wilde. Both actors were adamant that their connection onscreen had to be sublimely passionate. They could light each others fires, and yet were capable of destroying each other. While Richie battles a world thats falling apart around him through coke and booze (his depreciating record label, not to mention hes a suspect in a radio kingpins murder), Devon battles the mediocrity of suburbia and contends with her crazed man. Wilde credits Winters choice in making Richie a different type of guy from Tony Soprano: Richie cant bring himself to cheat on Devon, and thats something that separates him from other antiheroes. Richie and Devons conflict is different. The scene where Devon and Richie meet each other at the Velvet Underground for the first time, and make love in the bathroom, was a crucial moment for the actors in regards to establishing their footing with the duos intensity. No pun, it was the big bang scene when the two of them collide, explains Wilde. Bobby had a lot of patience in this scene, performing it with no self-consciousness or nervousness. We maintained a real awareness of what we were trying to tell in that moment. When most marriages fall apart, quite often the reasons for their unwinding were already there before they even realized it. Wilde and Cannavale wanted to play the reality of that. One flashback early on in the series showed Devon and Richie fighting soon after they arrived in Greenwich. He wanted another child; she yearned to work. Rather than play the scene in shouts, the actors expressed their intention to play the drama in a flirty, pillow talk type of way. It was one of the conversations early on in a marriage, where as a couple they didnt realize the truth the other was saying. Its when you dont hear what your spouse is telling you, when youre distracted by the haziness and newness of love, says the actress. Looking back on that scene, Wilde adds, Bobby was in touch with that and understood it with these characters, and we were able to create this beautiful scene. Related stories 'Mr. Robot' Star Martin Wallstrom On Personal Tragedy And The Pathology Of Tyrell Wellick John Oliver Dissects Brexit Vote, Warns Americans: "There Are No F***ing Do-overs" 'Game Of Thrones': Scores Are Settled And Chaos Reigns In Thrilling Season 6 Finale It's been one year since Dylann Roof entered a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and opened fire, killing nine people. It was an event that shook the nation, especially the black community, at its core and tipped off a national conversation about , , and in modern America. The massacre specifically sparked outrage for its racist motives Roof, it came out, considered himself a . A manifesto he penned before the attack, and which was discovered during the investigation, stated, "We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me." On the one-year anniversary of the Charleston church massacre, here's Mic's previous coverage from June 18, 2015, on the historical significance of Roof targeting the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church to carry out his killings of black people. Original story: On Wednesday night in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, authorities say a 21-year-old white man entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and gunned down nine black parishioners during a Bible study gathering. Officers tracked down and arrested the suspect, identified as Dylann Storm Roof, at a traffic stop in North Carolina before noon on Thursday, Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said during a press conference. Twelve hours earlier, Mullen was among the first public officials to describe the murders as a "hate crime." Roof, a native of Lexington, South Carolina, about two hours northwest of the Charleston coast, can be seen on surveillance video entering the church. But even as new details emerge about the suspect and his motives, we must also consider the historical significance attached to the scene of the crime a broader frame that includes a city and state with deep and, in some cases, abiding ties to the most violent chapters in American history. Story continues 1. The Emanuel AME Church is no ordinary house of worship. Source: David Goldman/AP Known as "Mother Emanuel," the church is the oldest African-American congregation in the South. During his remarks Thursday, President Barack Obama described it as a "sacred place in the history of Charleston, and in the history of America." Both Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, spoke there. "The Emanuel AME Church quite literally represents black freedom in Charleston." Parishioners first came together under its banner in 1816, according to the National Parks Service, which traces two remarkable centuries that saw the structure itself repeatedly attacked, destroyed and rebuilt. In 1821, cofounder Denmark Vesey began to a plan a slave revolt. But word spread and the church was destroyed, burned down as more than 35 "alleged participants" were executed. "The Emanuel AME Church quite literally represents black freedom in Charleston," Robert Greene II, a doctoral candidate at the University of South Carolina, told Mic early Thursday. "It was a hotbed for abolitionism and resistance to slavery." Between 1834, when black churches were banned, and 1865, congregants continued to hold services in secret or underground. "After the Civil War ends," Greene said, "Emanuel becomes a symbol of black political and social power in Charleston, to the point where even in the 20th century, during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, it's a place where black activists in Charleston often gathered." 2. The Confederate flag still flies in the state capitol. Source: Chris Hondros/Getty Images That divisive symbol of the Civil War South still hangs over the statehouse grounds in Columbia. South Carolina is one of a handful of Southern states which continue to insist on displaying the flag or allowing residents to ask for it to be printed on their license plates. (Coincidentally, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Texas could deny private citizens from ordering the design featured on personalized tags.) Even on Thursday with nine black men and women killed in an alleged hate crime just two hours away in Charleston the Confederate flag remained on display. 3. Charleston was a major slave-trading center before the Civil War. A 2011 New York Times report addressed the city's reluctance to memorialize its place as one of the largest slavery centers of the 18th century. "You're standing in the actual showroom, the place where traders sold and buyers bought American blacks who were born into slavery," reads a sign in the Old Slave Mart Museum, according to the New York Times. The exhibition wasn't completed and opened to the public until 2007. "The city was built on slave labor and, for nearly 200 years, thrived under a slave economy," author and columnist Brian Hicks wrote in the Charleston Post and Courier. By his count, nearly 10% of the 4 million slaves toiling in the U.S. by 1860 were located in South Carolina, and "about 40% of enslaved Africans brought into the country passed through Charleston Harbor." 4. There are no statewide hate crime laws in South Carolina. Nineteen known hate groups are currently operating across South Carolina, according to the latest count from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The state is one of only five across the country without its own hate crime law. In this case, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has already launched a federal investigation to run concurrently with South Carolina's criminal probe. In Charleston, though, there is little doubt as to the nature of what happened Wednesday night. "We believe this is a hate crime; that is how we are investigating it," police chief Mullen said just hours after the shooting. The alleged killer's decision to target the Emanuel congregation also pointed to more sinister intentions. "If [the alleged gunman] were to hit a church on a Wednesday night, this definitely be the most high-value target in Charleston," Greene told Mic. 5. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gives the state an "F" on gun laws. "Someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun," Obama said during his remarks Thursday afternoon. "This type of mass violence doesn't happen in other advanced countries." South Carolina is among the most permissive states in the country when it comes to the trade and possession of firearms. Early Thursday, Reuters quoted an uncle of Roof's saying the 21-year-old's father gave him a gun during a recent birthday. The uncle described the suspect as "adrift," but even if Roof turns out to have been suffering from a diagnosed psychiatric illness, he would not have been subject to a background check before receiving or purchasing a firearm. Source: Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence In 2010, the Center for American Progress reported "five gun murders for every 100,000 people" in South Carolina, about "39% higher than the national average." 6. Walter Scott was shot in the back and killed by a police officer in North Charleston. On April 4, former police Officer Michael Slager fatally shot Walter Scott, an unarmed black man, as he attempted to run away during a traffic stop. But it wasn't until mobile phone video surfaced contradicting Slager's account that police began a proper investigation, which led to a murder charge days later and a formal indictment on June 8. In the aftermath of the killing, state senator and pastor Clementa Pinckney became increasingly vocal in his calls for pending legislation that would require police wear body cameras while on patrol. Pinckney called on his colleagues in state government to embrace the legislation, not as a "golden ticket" or "end-all-fix-all," but a useful means "to paint a picture of what happens during a police stop." Pinckney, who was leading Thursday night's study session at the church, was among the shooting victims. "A lot of folks in North Charleston were not surprised by [the Scott shooting]," Greene told Mic on Thursday, "because it was an example of how race relations in Charleston have always been pretty rocky." aerie iskra ss16 5 Is this the end of Photoshop as we know it? Some companies are trying to get a bill passed that gets the Federal Trade Commission to put restrictions on the way images are altered in advertisements. It's called the Truth in Advertising Act of 2016. This act started as a pledge. It was first written in 2014 in partnership with the Brave Girls Alliance, but now, clothing company ModCloth is working virulently to make something happen. It was the first retailer to sign the pledge, and the company recently went to Washington, DC, to raise awareness for the bill. It's also launching a letter-writing campaign to help get the act moving. This bill would set up guidelines for airbrushing, but it wouldn't entirely eliminate the practice. It's a necessary evil that sometimes can eliminate a wrinkle in apparel, for instance. It would, however, force companies to refrain from "materially changing models in advertising in the same way you can't claim that a car can drive you 500 miles an hour and ... fly," ModCloth founder Susan Gregg Koger told Business Insider in a phone interview. She said: I'm not a politician, but I'm 31 years old ... I'm in the fashion industry. I understand what can go on behind the scenes with photo shoots and understand [that] even though we [ModCloth] don't materially alter images, I understand how it can work. But emotionally it's ... tough to be surrounded by advertising where you're seeing [an] unrealistic ideal of [how] beauty looks. I know that if I feel that way, then younger people feel that way as well. This is a conversation that's happening all around the world right now ... [and] there's been more and more ... research [that] shows that it is truly harmful ... particularly to young people, particularly to young women. Modcloth Politicians are on board, too. The bill is currently sponsored by Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, Democratic Rep. Lois Capps of California, and Democratic Rep. Theodore E. Deutch of Florida. Story continues Ros-Lehtinen said in a press release: The Truth in Advertising Act is important for so many young women and men who face body image issues due to unrealistic depictions in advertisements. Young women and men are often trying to live up to an unattainable and unhealthy "ideal body" instead of a healthy body. All stakeholders should come together and find a solution that respects consumer health and well being while permitting creativity and artistic expression. Some companies have already omitted airbrushing from their campaigns. ModCloth has, and Aerie has arguably been leading the industry with its airbrush-free #AerieREAL campaign, too. NOW WATCH: Sports Illustrated's first curvy cover model says this simple routine changed her life More From Business Insider By Markar Melkonian Twenty-five years ago, Free Market Moseses in Yerevan announced that socialism was dead in word and in deed, forever and ever. In a country that the U.S. Strategic Air Command had targeted for nuclear strike by forwardly deployed bombers stationed in Turkey, demonstrators in Opera Square hoisted portraits of their Free Market hero, American President Ronald Reagan, the savior of the Captive Nations. Fast forward to 2016. Bitter regret now seizes the former Captive Nations, from Budapest to Belogorsk. In Armeniaa country that western pundits describe as a rare post-Soviet success storythe years since Freedom have plunged the majority into poverty, as the population has shrunk to less than three-quarters of its Soviet size. A USAID survey conducted in 1999 showed that 54% of the sample population preferred life in Soviet Armenia to life in Free Independent Armenia. Six years later, researchers at the United Nations calculated that, barring unforeseen events, Armenias population would drop by another 500,000 by 2050. (Arminfo, March 2, 2005) Meanwhile, a new generation ofdemocratic socialists has descended on what used to be Ronald Reagans front lawn. According to a YouGov survey earlier this year, 43% of Americans under thirty have a favorable view of socialism, while fewer than one-third have a favorable view of capitalism.(https://www.washingtonpost.com, 5 February, 2016) Of course, one could ask what the word socialism might mean to the young Americans surveyed. Whatever it might mean, though,some freemarketeers are worried: It is safe to say that billions of dollars have been spent over the past two decades promoting and educating the public on the benefits of capitalism and free markets, the pro-capitalist website breitbart.com noted shortly after the survey results were published, Yet, something has gone horribly wrong. What went horribly wrong, for young Americans in the bottom 99% at least, was capitalism. In America, the global showcase of capitalism, a new generation has come of age with a devastating recession,stagnant wages, poor job prospects, eroding benefits, crippling student loan debt, a declining middle class, and a huge and expanding gap between the super rich and the rest. It would be interesting to hear from Armenias old champions of The American Way--Levon Ter Petrosyan, Vazgen Manukyan, Paruyr Hairikyan, and all the rest of them. What do they have to say about developments in the United States of America, their model of Free Enterprise? Armenias majority--the poor, the under-employed, the unemployed, pensioners, displaced farmers, working class women, youth, and consumersthey dont have much to celebrate in their diminished and impoverished homeland. They have been provided with plenty of Free Enterprise indoctrination, but not much in the way of jobs, affordable housing, safe streets, legal redress, or decent schools. The champions of The American Way have gutted Armenias industrial infrastructure, lengthened the work week, lowered the legal working age, and massively privatized public property without compensating the dispossessed. They have logged out forests, poisoned rivers, polluted aquifers, and washed out swaths of topsoil. They have cut healthcare, slashed teachers salaries, and raised university tuition beyond what most families can afford. They have presided over escalating domestic abuse and driven women back into their traditional roles in the dark. Their Free Enterprise has caused wave after wave of emigration, produced tens of thousands of abandoned families, and emptied the countryside. They have rigged elections, pushed poor families out of their homes, neighborhoods, and farms, and allowed capitalist gangsters to get away with murder, literally. For everyone except a small minority at the top, much has gone horribly wrong in Free Independent Armenia. The capitalists, clearly, are waging class war, but it is a war that acompact, well-equipped capitalist army is waging against an unarmed, aimless, confused mass of workers who, so far,have not revealed the faintest most fleeting spark of awareness that they constitute a class under attack. Unless and until resistance rises from below, Armenias capitalist rulers will continue to drive the rest of the population into the ground like a tent stake. And this does not bode well for the nations future. There is reason for hope, though. The Dem.Em (I Oppose) protests two years ago against attempts to privatize the pension system achieved victory, however limited and revocable that victory may be. So also in the case of strong popular resistance to bus and electricity rate hikes. There are clear lessons here: it was only thanks to broad-based solidarity and direct action that workers, commuters, and consumers were able to push the ruling class back from its maximalist plans. Armenia, a country ravaged by capitalist rule, needs proactive unions. But where are they? The Confederation of Trade Unions has little influence in the private sector, where the worst abuses take place. When the owners ofthe privatized Kimprom and Nairit chemical plants get away with nonpayment of months of back wages to workers, they are loudly announcing that wage earners should not expect anything in the way of even the most basic workers rights in Armenia. The captains of industry are themselves teaching workers in Armenia that if they want a better future for their children and their fellow workers, then they had better get organized to fight along class lines.In other countries, workers facing such extreme abuses have occupied factories, mines, and offices and operated them in their own interest. Armenia has dozens of self-styled political parties, including a few one-man shops run by oligarchs, egomaniacs, and divinely anointed saviors. To the extent that these parties have any discernible platforms at all, they are indistinguishable: one party or another might be more or less hostile to Moscow, but they all pretty much accept without question the same assumptions of liberalism that have done so much harm over the course of the past three decades. There is a common feeling that elections are just a stage-managed spectacle involving back-room haggling, vote buying, and ballot stuffing. No wonder, then, that electoral politics arouses little excitement. The level of political debate in Armenia is worse than a joke. What we hear for the most part are the old free market fairy tales and jumbled-up NGO jargon, combined with a noxious mixture of nationalistic emotionalism, Turk-hate demagoguery, conspiracy theories, and Russo phobia. Thebest way to clear this fetid air and to raise the level of political debate in the country would be for young people to start educatingthemselves in Marxist theory. Among the dozens of nominal political parties in the country, there are several that call themselves socialist. But none of these parties have a record of fighting back in the class war that the oligarchs have been waging against Armenian workers. There are a couple of titular communist parties, too. But until now, even as events have prepared the ground for a popular reception, these parties have for some reason remainedinert. All of this underscores what more and more of our compatriots have been observing in recent years: the conditions exist for the emergence of a strong working class party in Armenia--but none has yet been forthcoming. The poor and disenfranchised majority needs a party of its own. They need a party of, by, and for wage earners, women, youth, pensioners, and consumers.They need a militant party of labora party organized to defend workers and to fight back in the class struggle that the plutocrats are waging against the rest of the country. Where is our communist party? Sitting on its hands, waiting for a sign from Moscow? The day is past due. Comrades, get to work! Markar Melkonian is a teacher and an author. His books include Richard Rortys Politics: Liberalism at the End of the American Century (1999), Marxism: A Post-Cold War Primer (Westview Press, 1996), and My Brothers Road (2005). From Road & Track I believe that any sufficiently enlightened future historian will look back at the present day as "The Shameless Era." We're all taught nowadays that shame is a bad thing. I'm not so sure. A lot of people in our past performed necessary tasks, as diverse as milking cows before dawn and rushing a Japanese machine-gun nest, out of a desire to avoid being shamed. Those days, as my future third wife Este Haim likes to say, are gone. We're all shameless nowadays. It's now totally acceptable for grown men to do the following things in public: dress up like giant furry creatures, cry over emotional issues, back down from fights, own "sports cars" with an automatic transmission. So now's the time to admit something shameful myself, and it goes a little something like this: For a long time, well into my twenties, I was a little fuzzy on how the internal combustion engine worked. Oh, sure, I could identify the four cycles of the Otto engine, and I could repeat various things that Patrick Bedard had written in Car and Driver, but I fundamentally misunderstood how and why engines made power. I thought that all fuel-injected cars were direct-injection. I didn't understand why restrictive exhausts robbed engines of power, and I really, really didn't understand how acoustic wavelengths affected that either. Nor could I readily tell you the difference between a traditional exhaust manifold and a header. I had no excuse for this. I'd worked in a parts department. I'd personally handled allthe parts that make up a gasoline engine. And I was a skilled bike mechanic,having worked in Schwinn dealerships since I was 14 years old andeventually owning my own mail-order bicycle shop in my late teens. I'd even fixeda few cars, including pulling cams out of a Fiat Spider and swapping gaskets. Ijust didn't really know exactly how everything worked under the hood. What I really needed was a kind of a Grand Unified Theory of Engine Performance that wouldgive me the foundation to understand and assimilate new information. I eventually found this G.U.T.E.P when I started working with an ECU tuner on a particularly junkykit car that I spent something like $41,000 on way back in 2001. It wassupposed to make 180 horsepower from a 2.0-liter Zetec; it actually made 89 atthe wheels. I wasn't the only person who got scammed by the "registeredassembler" of these vehicles, and eventually 10 or 11 of us got together andpaid somebody to retune our cars. I ended up with something like 137 hp at therear wheels thanks to that somebody. Story continues An engine is nothing but an air pump. This is what our aftermarket tuner told me, and what I'm telling you: An engine isnothing but an air pump. I'm sure you've heard that, but I want you toreally take a moment to understand it. The more air an engine can process, themore power it can make. This explains a few things right off the bat: why the 8.2-liter V10 in the Viper ACR makes more power than the .05-liter (50cc) engine in my son's TopKart. But it also explains why the 1.0-liter engine in a Kawasaki ZX-10 makes more power than the 2.0-liter engine in a Hyundai Elantra; the ZX-10 can rev to 14,500 rpm whilethe Elantra redlines at 6750. When they are both at redline, the ZX-10 isactually taking in more air every minute, because it's drawing in half as muchair more than twice as often. Increasing an engine's redline effectivelyincreases its displacement. How does changing the cam in a car increase power? Well, it can increase the durationthat the intake valves are open, enabling the cylinder to be more effectivelyfilled with air. It can also increase the duration that the exhaust valves areopen, getting more of the bad air out and increasing the vacuum effect of thenext intake stroke. Cold-air intakes draw cooler air from outside the engine compartment into the engine.Cold air is denser than hot air. That increases the effective displacement ofthe engine as well. (Disclaimer: Most cold-air intakes are pretty useless, inmy experience. They do make the car sound cool, however.) Ram-air intakeslightly pressurize the incoming air, which means that more air gets into theengine. The straighter an intake is, the better it works, because fast-flowingair doesn't like right-angle corners any more than motorcycles do. Superchargers and what we used to quaintly call turbo-superchargers (but now just callturbochargers) force more air into the engine. A 2.0-liter engine being boostedwith 1 bar of additional pressure is effectively a 4.0-liter engine. It's notquite that simple because boosted air is hot air, and hot air isn't as dense ascool air, but you get the idea. On the other side of that, restrictor plateskeep an engine from getting more than a certain amount of air, thus reducingthe power that an engine can make. You'll notice that I haven't talked about fuel yet. That's because the ratio of fuelto air in an engine is essentially fixed by science-it's called thestoichiometric ratio, and it is 14.7 parts of air to each part of fuel. Thatproper mix of fuel and air is the primary reason modern engines make so muchmore power than their pre-Millennial predecessors. Without computers andsensors, it's impossible to correctly provide the right amount of fuel at alltimes. Carburetors are not particularly good at that task. Fuel injectors arebetter, because they can be controlled by computers precisely. You can fuss with the air/fuel ratio a bit, leaning it out for quicker combustion. You canalso use extra fuel over and above the proper ratio to cool a turbochargedengine down a bit, a trick that is in the playbook of everybody who's evergotten 1000 horses out of a Nissan GT-R. By and large, however, the properamount of fuel supply is determined by the amount of air you can get into acylinder, not the other way 'round. So once you have a computer to do the mathand a fuel system that can fulfill all the requests, you've made all the extrapower you're going to make via that path and you're back to the primary task:getting more air in the engine. Using the engine-as-air-pump model, it's easy to understand the three major ways ofgetting more power. We can increase engine displacement, causing it to take inmore air in every revolution. We can increase the redline of the engine,allowing it to take in the same amount of air more often. Or we can pressurizethe engine, allowing it to fit more air into the cylinder each time. Each of these methods has its drawbacks. Large-displacement engines are heavy and bulky. Theyuse a lot of fuel, even at idle. High-revving engines are also high-stressengines, meaning you have to either accept a shorter lifespan (see: DOHC Neon,GM Quad 4) or use more expensive materials that can take the stress (see:Ferrari 458 Speciale, Yamaha R1). They're also short on torque at low revs,because they just aren't processing that much air. The aforementioned ZX-10might be stronger than an Elantra at redline, but if you're spinning bothengines at 2500 rpm, you're going to get a lot more power from the Hyundai.That's why Suzuki never sent us a GSX-R-engined Justy. (I think.) Turbocharging is the current belle of the ball everywhere you look. Turbocharging is the current belle of the ball everywhere you look. While I love old-school, mega-powerturbo engines like what you get in a McLaren 675LT or a Porsche GT2, I have toadmit that the current crop of low-pressure, low-revving, low-excitement turbosappearing everywhere from BMW to Volvo leave me cold. I think the reason for itis that computer-controlled turbos destroy that precise relationship betweenthrottle position, engine revs, and engine power that most of us have come to expectand enjoy. Modern turbo engines, like electric motors in automotiveapplications, feel strongest at low revs and fall apart on the right-side ofthe tachometer. The reason for that is simple: You can optimize a turbocharger to provide a whole bunch ofair eventually, as was the case in the old-school Porsche 930 Turbo, oryou can optimize it to provide a reasonably effective amount of extra airalmost immediately. The latter is how almost everybody does it now. No sir, Idon't like it. I wish I could explain why. Maybe it's because human beingsnaturally associate fast breathing with activity. We are naturally aspirated.Some of us have bigger lungs than others, but we all have to breath fast andhard in order to run a mile or row a boat. Humans are air pumps, too. Maybe that explains why, in my forties, I'm starting to feelmore nostalgic about Seventies cars. As a teenaged bike racer, I was like that458 Speciale, breathing hard and fast with big gulps. Now I'm like a '77Cutlass Supreme, revving low and slow on my way to the grocery store. I'mpretty shameless about that, I suppose. Born in Brooklyn but banished to Ohio, Jack Baruth has won races on four different kinds of bicycles and in seven different kinds of cars. Everything he writes should probably come with a trigger warning. His column, Avoidable Contact, runs twice a week. Hours before the fourth season was set to drop on Netflix, the Orange Is the New Black cast was in high spirits for its New York City premiere, which doubled as a reunion since their shoot six months ago. "I literally keep jumping all over the carpet because I want to hug my friends!" Jackie Cruz told The Hollywood Reporter outside the SVA Theatre in Chelsea on Thursday night. Jessica Pimentel echoed before the bash at the Top of the Standard, "Some of us don't even get to work with each other on set, and when we do, it's four in the morning and we're dirty and moody. Here, we're happy and laughing and looking our best, and we get to party all night." The upbeat mood of the ensemble cast in attendance - including Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Natasha Lyonne, Taryn Manning, Laverne Cox, Samira Wiley, Dascha Polanco, Lea DeLaria, Diane Guerrero, Laura Gomez, Vicky Jeudy, Nick Sandow, Michael Harney and more, as well as creator Jenji Kohan - is a stark contrast to the heavy topics they tackle onscreen, including the prison system's treatment of mental illness and timely issues like Black Lives Matter. Read More: 'Orange Is the New Black' Binge-Watching Guide: The Best Way to Devour Season 4 "Jenji Kohan is not just a fluffy, thoughtless, silly little girl who wants to write and get famous in Hollywood. This is one of the most provocative and inquisitive minds I've ever encountered, and she's going to legitimize her own imagination," reflected Kate Mulgrew. "She's going to force you to contend with these issues in a way that's going to rivet you, unsettle you and change you." Likewise, the creator and showrunner told the audience before screening the first episode, "I'm so excited to unleash this on the world and see how they react. We're already starting on season five and it's bananas." Yael Stone, Adrienne Moore, Alysia Reiner and more castmembers wore a silver ribbon in solidarity with the victims of the Orlando tragedy. "This week more than ever, we need these conversations," said Cindy Holland, vp original content, Netflix, in introducing the episode. "We need these tears and we need the laughter that the series can bring us." Story continues #OITNB premiere: @Lavernecox, Adrienne Moore, @YaelStone and Lea DeLaria rock their ribbons. #PrayforOrlando pic.twitter.com/pT2uXs5cAf - Ashley Lee (@cashleelee) June 16, 2016 Read More: 'Orange Is the New Black' to Tackle Black Lives Matter in Season 4 Despite such an emotional season and its untimely release, Uzo Aduba sees value in an optimistic perspective. "We have to celebrate - a bittersweet one, but one that honors the work and its pretty tough hurdles with as much heart, focus and commitment as we can," she told THR. "And more than anything, people will see current and topical issues rub up against creativity and artistry." For fans ready to binge the particularly dark season at midnight PT, Mulgrew shared insightful advice: "Take a deep breath and let it go, which is what we're cautioned to do before we give birth. Something like that is about to happen." Likewise, Samira Wiley warned with a big smile: "Get ready - with your tissues!" of courseeeeee the #OITNBPremiere party has slammin themed cocktails. pic.twitter.com/08FUKxF014 - Ashley Lee (@cashleelee) June 17, 2016 Season four of Orange Is the New Black dropped at 12 a.m. PT/3 a.m. ET on Netflix Friday, June 17. Follow THR's complete OITNB coverage, including interviews with the cast, here. See More: 'Orange Is the New Black' Cast Reunites for Emotional Season 4 Premiere For the fourth season of Orange Is the New Black, Spencer Kornhaber and Sophie Gilbert are discussing the series via recaps, taking turns to analyze one episode at a time. Spoilers abound; dont read further than youve watched. Episode Two, Power Suit Read the review of the previous episode here. Spencer, in your recap of episode one you noted the tonal whiplash of proceedings. I couldnt agree morethe way in which the episode ended, with Piper smugly parading through the prison to the tune of Papa Roachs Last Resort before the camera cut abruptly to Alex literally cutting someone into pieces, felt especially jarring. But its kind of refreshing to see a show that refuses to hew the conventions of any one particular genre, and it certainly makes OITNB feel more like the tragicomedy of the real world, where my Twitter feed at any one time is a hot mess of Donald Trump, mass shootings, and lemur gifs. Recommended: The Unbelievable Tale of Jesuss Wife To address your point about Cindys war with her Muslim bunkmate, my instinct after watching the second episode is that this season is going to be all about, if youll excuse the mixed metaphor, turning up the heat on Litchfields melting pot. When Piper first arrived in prison in season one, she was openly shocked by the ways in which racial dynamics played out in prison, with inmates mostly sticking within groups divided by color. Over the last three seasons, those divisions started to blur a little: Soso was adopted by Taystees crew, Black Cindy converted to Judaism, Normas short-lived cult attracted a diverse group of misguided followers. More Orange Is the New Black Oitnb IMDb But with the number of inmates suddenly doubling it was almost inevitable that fault lines would be reinforced, with the newbies seeking out alliances and the existing inmates looking to assert their dominance and the status quo. Not to mention having the extra pressure of several hundred women trying to coexist in a space thats way too small for them (under similar conditions, battery hens inevitably start pecking each other to death, as Soso pointed out). Story continues Caputos attempts to mollify the inmates in their new cramped quarters were predictably hilariousfree earplugs! breathing exercises! port-a-potties!but also a more menacing illustration of the banality of bureaucratic evil on display. These women arent women to the corporate types running their livestheyre heads in beds, worth $30,000 a year each to the shareholders making money off their increasingly unpleasant conditions and unpaid labor. Last season, the board running Litchfield at least had comic relief thanks to Mike Birbiglia. Now it seems increasingly sinister, with a roomful of people in expensive suits (Caputo among them) vying to find ever more inventive ways to capitalize on societys most vulnerable, from imprisoned women to veterans. Recommended: The Scholar Who Discovered the Jesus's Wife Fragment Now Says It's Likely a Fake The flashback this episode explored Ruizs life before prison: Shes the daughter of a Dominican drug dealer who took great pains to support his community, and she rejected that community when her father hit on one of her school friends, taking up with another dealer from a rival Mexican gang. On the one hand, these scenes showed how complicated heritage can be: Ruiz saw clearly that her father was just another criminal playing the same game as everyone else for all his talk about pride, but she also took revenge on a new inmate for beating up Blanca when loyalty required it. On the other, they offered some insight into Yadriel, Ruizs mostly nonverbal partner, who shocked everyone after his daughter was born in season two by chattering away at the baby. When it comes to thinking about the new inmates, Im a little concerned that having so many additional characters means less time for the old ones. Especially underserved right now is Taystee, who took over being the mother to Vees crew after Vee was finally shunned (before escaping, and being mowed down by Rosa). Not to mention Sophia still being locked up in SHU (thanks to the increasingly guilty Mendoza). But the show has definitely come to peace with sidelining Piper, to the extent where shes more comic relief now than a dramatic protagonist. With Piper, with Judy King, and with Caputo, Orange seems to be exploring how power and money are both illusory in nature and enormously significant when wielded over others. Yogas suspicion of Judys VIP setup was dismantled with a single cup of herbal tea; Caputos care for the inmates wellbeing seemed far less important than impressing a female board member with his new suit. And then theres Piper, bribing her new bunkmate to be her Secret Service protection to impress the new inmates and maintain her vastly inflated status as a badass. I think its fair to assume that none of this can last. Recommended: The New Nostalgia Best line: (Im going with two.) Yadriels summation that lifes pretty crazy, but at least you can get snacks, you know? And Maritzas, If I hadnt buried my feelings so deep that they only come up when I watch Stepmom, Id totally be tearing up right now. Questions: Is Maritza safe on van duty with the guard who raped Pennsatucky? What kind of mental trauma is Alex going to suffer from after murdering the guard sent to kill her? How long can the inmates last under current conditions before a riot breaks out? Is Judy supposed to be Martha Stewart or Paula Deen? Read the review of the next episode here. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. Taylor Schilling If theres one hue you rarely see worn at an Orange Is the New Black party, its orange. Shocked? Dont be. It makes sense its too on-the-nose, too potentially corny and too much of an open call for fashion puns. Therefore, for last nights season four premiere at the SVA Theater in New York City, the stars wore a mix of looks, from bold reds to cool jumpsuits to pops of champagne sparkle. At the premiere, many of the shows stars proved that black, indeed, is actually still the new black, including Diane Guerrero (in Alexis) and Jackie Cruz (in DKNY). Taylor Schilling also opted for a one-shoulder black Osman look with a statement neckline. I never feel like Im in the cool kids club with clothes, so I just put on what I like, Schilling once told PEOPLE. And when it comes to wearing orange, its not high on her list. When asked if she would wear the citrus-y hue to the 2014 Emmys, she said absolutely not. Her exact words? Someone would have the right to throw eggs at me if I wore orange. Ouch. Natasha Lyonne Shades of blue were also popular, including Alysia Reiners two-piece look and Laura Prepons Nha Khanh tea-length number. Natasha Lyonne chose a statement navy with her Opening Ceremony dress featuring an extremely oversize ruffle, as well as accessories by Annie Costello Brown and Another Feather and Olgana Paris heels. She Instagrammed a shot of her ruffles and wrote, thanks @openingceremony. Thanks @openingceremony!! @semitransparent @kristingallegos @wessles @taranitup49 A photo posted by Natasha Lyonne (@nlyonne) on Jun 16, 2016 at 9:50pm PDT Its also worth noting nude and champagne looks turned heads, with Selenis Leyvas fringe Nicole Miller number and Karina Ortizs Jovani mini. Laverne Cox chose a top and bottom by Laquan Smith, and if the fabric of the top looks familiar, its because Serena Williams wore it as a slip dress earlier this week. Laverne Cox Red dominated, not only for Red (Kate Mulgrew) but also for Dascha Polanco (in Jovani), Jessica Pimentel (in KLS Kimora Lee Simmons) and Yael Stone (in Dion Lee). Story continues Dascha Polanco Meanwhile, Samira Wiley (in Milly) and Laura Gomez (in Veronica Beard) made a case for pants, in a jumpsuit and two-piece suit, respectively Laura Gomez and Uzo Adubas white Elizabeth Kennedy structured sheath was one of our favorites of the night. But, wheres Taystee, a.k.a. Danielle Brooks? The actress is currently starring in The Color Purple on Broadway, and therefore did not attend the red carpet event. However, she was ready for the after-party, posting an Instagram in a white dress captioned, You want me or nah? You want me or nah? @oitnb A photo posted by Danielle Brooks (@daniebb3) on Jun 16, 2016 at 9:22pm PDT Isnt the answer always yes? Which look did you like best? Tell us in the comments below! Sharon Clott Kanter Orange Is the New Black returns to Netflix on Friday, June 17, 2016. The cast gathered at the SVA theater in New York City on Thursday, June 16, 2016 to celebrate the show. These red carpet looks are much more glamorous than those prison jumpsuits, right? Taylor Schilling attends the Orange Is the New Black Season 4 premiere in New York City on Thursday, June 16, 2016, June 16, 2016. Laura Prepon attends the Orange Is the New Black Season 4 premiere in New York City on Thursday, June 16, 2016. Taryn Manning attends the Orange Is the New Black Season 4 premiere in New York City on Thursday, June 16, 2016. Laverne Cox attends the Orange Is the New Black Season 4 premiere in New York City on Thursday, June 16, 2016. Kate Mulgrew attends the Orange Is the New Black Season 4 premiere in New York City on Thursday, June 16, 2016. Orlando Bloom is partnering with China's Bliss Media on a new production venture. The newly formed entity, called BlissBloom Productions, will be jointly run by the actor and Bliss Media CEO Wei Han. Their first project will be the $30 million Shanghai-set action thriller Smart Chase: Fire & Earth, starring Bloom and directed by French filmmaker Julien Seri (Night Fare). Bloom has a huge following in China, where he is affectionately known as the "elf prince" (jingling wangzi), stemming from his Lord of the Rings role. The announcement was made Friday at the Shanghai International Film Festival. Smart Chase follows a down-and-out private security agent who gets ambushed while attempting to escort a valuable Chinese antique out of Shanghai. Shanghai-based Bliss Media has become an increasingly active player in projects traversing Chinese and international markets. The company, which has an office in Los Angeles, launched the $150 million Bliss-CODI Film & TV Investment Fund at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The fund is targeting international film and television equity investment, taking the Chinese distribution rights to the projects it backs. Bliss Media previously launched the Yoozoo Bliss Film Fund, a $100 million equity fund designed to finance 10 international productions and Chinese co-productions over five years. Creative Artists Agency (CAA) advised on the formation of both funds and represents the companies. Thus far, aside from Smart Chase, Bliss has invested in Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge, starring Andrew Garfield; Pablo Larrain's Jackie, starring Natalie Portman; and is co-financing Michael Mann's Ferrari. Read More: China's Bliss Media Launches $150 Million Film and TV Fund In response to Sunday's mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people, a Muslim group in Detroit held a prayer service Tuesday and is urging its members to break their Ramadan fast to donate blood, MLive reported. "We condemn this senseless and horrific act of violence in the strongest possible terms," Mansoor Qureshi, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community's metro Detroit chapter president, told his members, according to MLive. "Our hearts go out to the innocent victims and their families. We stand in solidarity with them as their neighbors and brothers and sisters in peace. Islam teaches reverence for all human life. This is a time to pray and act to stop such senseless violence in our Source: Wilfredo Lee/AP Muslims of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center are among many Muslims who fast for the monthlong holy Islamic holiday Ramadan, which lasts from June 5 to July 5. The metro Detroit chapter weren't the only Muslims to donate blood for Orlando victims in the middle of Ramadan. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also urged Muslims to donate blood, the Cut reported. Muslim American Mahmoud ElAwadi posted this viral picture of himself donating blood on Sunday: "Yes I donated blood even though I can't eat or drink anything cause I'm fasting in our holy month Ramadan just like hundreds of other Muslims who donated today here in Orlando," he wrote. A school yearbook photo of Omar Mateen in 2001. (Photo: Martin County School District) STUART, Fla. Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateens troubled school days included an incident where he was charged with battery and another where a school official said he was suspended for cheering the Sept. 11 attacks two days after they took place. On Thursday, the Martin County School District released records showing Mateen was suspended 15 times when he attended junior high and high school from 1999 until 2003. At least two of those suspensions were the result of violent incidents. Mateens final suspension was on Sept. 13, 2001, and was issued by a school administrator named Evelyn Stettin. In a conversation with Yahoo News on Thursday, Stettin said Mateen was suspended for celebrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which occurred two days earlier. He was very pleased to see it happen, Stettin said of the attacks. We took him out of class, and we were trying to, you know, talk with him, and we had a school psych present, but basically he didnt show any remorse. Nothing. I mean he was pretty happy it happened. Stettin said school officials discussed Mateens reaction to the terrorist attacks with his parents. She suggested Mateens parents were unconcerned by the incident. We spoke to the parents and they didnt really do very much about it, lets put it that way, Stettin recounted. Multiple former classmates of Mateens told the Washington Post they also recalled his joyful reaction to Sept. 11. Stettin also said her son attended school with Mateen. She said her son thought Mateen was very weird. He stayed by himself a lot. He didnt do a lot of socializing, Stettin said of Mateen. Mateens disciplinary records show two of his suspensions were due to fighting with injury, which means they involved a violent incident. Those incidents occurred days apart on May 3 and May 9, 2001, at Martin County High School. On Thursday, the Florida Department of Corrections released dozens of records from Mateens brief employment as a prison guard when Mateen was 19. Those files include a letter where Mateen described one of the violent incidents at his high school in his own words. Story continues When he applied for the Department of Corrections job, Mateen had to explain a 2001 criminal charge for battery and disturbing a school function. In a one-page handwritten letter to prison officials, Mateen said he was charged following a May 2001 fight with another student in his math class at Martin High School. The letter, dated Sept. 26, 2006, says the disruption charge was later dismissed and that he received probation for the battery charge. It has been five years since the fight occurred and I have not gotten in any altercations ending up in physical contact, Mateen wrote. This was an experience of me growing up and I learned a big lesson from it. In the prison employment application, Mateen also admitted to experimenting with marijuana when he was in his early teens. Based on his academic records, Mateens youthful drug use may have gotten him in hot water at school. In addition to suspending Mateen for celebrating 9/11, the records show that Stettin, the school administrator, issued him a seven-day suspension on May 15, 2001. That suspension was identified as being for an unspecified rule violation that did not involve violence. Stettin told Yahoo News she didnt recall the specific details of that incident, but she said a suspension of that length is always a fight or drugs. According to records, Mateen worked as a correctional officer from October 2006 to April 2007 before being terminated for failing to obtain state licensing required for the job. Early Sunday morning, Mateen entered the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., where he killed 49 people and injured more than 50 others in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Mateen, 29, was killed in a shootout with police at the nightclub. Authorities are currently investigating the attack. Read Mateens handwritten letter about his May 2001 fight below. Related slideshows: Slideshow: Funerals and memorials for slain Orlando victims >>> Slideshow: Obama visits families of the Orlando massacre victims >>> Slideshow: Victims of the Florida nightclub shooting >>> Slideshow: Front page coverage of the Orlando mass shooting >>> Slideshow: World reacts to Orlando mass shooting >>> Slideshow: Shooting rampage at Florida nightclub >>> From Cosmopolitan According to the Washington Post, the Senate Homeland Security Committee sent a letter to Facebook asking for their help in the investigation of Omar Mateen, the man who killed 49 people and injured 53 more at Orlando's gay nightclub Pulse on Sunday morning. The letter included some of what Mateen had written on Facebook recently (though it's unclear if they were posted statuses or private messages). "America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state..I pledge my alliance to [Islamic State leader] abu bakr al Baghdadi ..may Allah accept me," he wrote. Followed by "The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west" and "You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic state vengeance." The New York Daily News reports Mateen searched Facebook for "Pulse Orlando" and "Shooting terms during the hours-long attack, presumably to see if the massacre was trending. The Committee letter also explains Mateen was tied to five different Facebook accounts and that he looked up the San Bernardino shooters December attack in May. Though Mateen reportedly pledged his allegiance to ISIS during the shooting, a CIA representative told The Guardian they've not been "able to uncover any link" between Mateen and the terrorist organization at this time. The FBI also confirmed Mateen was not in contact with or directed by ISIS before the attack. A GoFundMe for the victims, survivors, and their families has raised more than $4.7 million since Sunday. You can donate here. Follow Tess on Twitter. Orlando shooting victim Angel Colon, recovering at the Orlando Regional Medical Center, was reunited on Thursday, June 16, with a police officer who helped saved his life. Colon had described the events of the shooting to press on June 14, telling them he was shot three times in his left leg, and broke a bone in his right leg after he was trampled by people fleeing from the gunman. He spoke highly of a police officer who dragged him out to safety. Hospital officials identified the man as Eatonville Police Officer Omar Delgado, who is shown here visiting Colon on June 16. Credit: Orlando Regional Medical Center Employers in all 100 of the largest federally recognized metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) expect net payroll increases in the third quarter. The expected increases among employers in New Orleans and Baton Rouge are the smallest, barely above zero. And they lag well behind employer expectations at the top of the list. Also, a third of employers in two MSAs expect positive payroll growth. According to a study by Manpower titled "United States Employment Outlook Q3": During Quarter 3 2016, 23 percent of U.S. employers surveyed expect payrolls to increase. Meanwhile, 5 percent of employers anticipate a decline in staffing levels and 71 percent expect no change in their hiring plans. ALSO READ: 50 McDonald's Menu Items With the Most Calories Also: For Quarter 3 2016, all 100 of the largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States report positive Net Employment Outlooks. At the bottom of the list, expectations for net increases are only 1% among employers in New Orleans, and in Baton Rouge 2%. At the top of the list, 34% of employers in Albany expect payrolls to increase. The figure in Richmond is 33%. Expectations varied widely by sector: For the U.S. as a whole, employers in 12 of the 13 industry sectors report positive hiring prospects for Quarter 3 2016, based on seasonally adjusted data: Leisure & Hospitality (+23%), Wholesale & Retail Trade (+20%), Transportation & Utilities (+19%), Professional & Business Services (+18%), Nondurable Goods Manufacturing (+14%), Construction (+13%), Education & Health Services (+13%), Information (+13%), Durable Goods Manufacturing (+13%), Financial Activities (+12%), Government (+12%) and Other Services (+9%). Employers in the Mining sector expect payrolls to decline, reporting an Outlook of (-4%). ALSO READ: Why AMD Could Continue to Outperform NVIDIA and Intel Methodology: More than 11,000 interviews were conducted with employers within the United States, including all 50 states, the top 100 MSAs, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, to measure hiring intentions between July and September 2016. The mix of industries within the survey follows the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) supersectors and is structured to be representative of the U.S. economy. All participants were asked, How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of September 2016 compared to the current quarter? Related Articles The winners of the annual Worlds 50 Best Restaurants list were announced last night in New York City, and claiming the No. 1 spot for the first time was Osteria Francescana, a tiny, 20-year-old spot in Modena, Italy, which clocked in at number two last year. Chef-owner Massimo Bottura is known for his whimsical takes on traditional Italian ingredients, with dishes like Five Stages of Parmigiano Reggiano, honoring the regions culinary heritage while displaying a notable artistic bent. We caught up with Bottura recently, and he named his 11 favorite restaurants in Italy for us. El Celler de Can Roca, last years winner, slipped a notch to second place, and the vaunted Noma, which hadnt been ranked below third since 2009, fell all the way to the fifth slot. New Yorks Eleven Madison Park rose to number three, also winning the Art of Hospitality Award. (We should mention that the restaurant put its hospitality on display by hosting an epic party after the awards, featuring Questlove on the decks, bar-dancing by some notable chefs, and phenomenal quantities of Perrier-Jouet and cocktails featuring spirits from The 86 Co.) Central, in Lima, Peru, maintained its number four position from last year. Other United States entries on the list are Alinea, in Chicago, at number 15; Le Bernardin, in New York City, at number 24; Saison, in San Francisco, a new entry at number 27; Estela, in New York, also a new entry at number 44; and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, outside New York City, at number 48. Dominique Crenn of Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn in San Francisco was named the Worlds Best Female Chef. The complete list can be seen on the Worlds 50 Best Restaurants website. We offer our congratulations to all of the restaurants and chefs honored. (theworlds50best.com) More From Robbreport.com Abstract Art Gets a New Canvas, Thanks to Montblanc The Innovative Black Swan Yacht Concept Is a Dramatic Black Beauty Worlds Top French Chefs Gather to Celebrate French Cuisine Story continues 10 of the Worlds Top Chefs Help Mirazur Celebrate Its 10th Anniversary This Exclusive Retreat in Sri Lanka Is One of the Worlds Best Villa Rentals Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing Fast-Track a Hybrid Hypercar [BREAKING NEWS] Panama City (AFP) - The law firm at the center of the "Panama Papers" scandal says it expects the prosecution of a worker from its Geneva office detained on suspicion of stealing company documents. Mossack Fonseca said in a statement from its Panama headquarters that it had lodged complaints in several jurisdictions against people believed to be "involved in the theft of information that occurred in our company." That referred to the leak last year of a massive number of documents covering nearly four decades of business by the law firm, which specializes in setting up and managing offshore companies. Reports based on the purloined documents resulted in the "Panama Papers": revelations of how many leaders, politicians, celebrities and a few criminals around the world used entities started by Mossack Fonseca to stash assets. Though offshore companies are not in themselves illegal, they can be used to engage in illegal activities such as tax evasion or money laundering. Mossack Fonseca said in its statement it was "fully confident" that authorities in the various countries would "see through the corresponding (legal) processes in a transparent and effective manner." On Wednesday, Swiss authorities announced that an information technology employee for the law firm working in its Geneva office had been placed in provisional detention on suspicion of stealing confidential documents. The spokesman for the Geneva's prosecutor's office, Henri Della Casa, told AFP that "a criminal case has been opened... following a complaint by Mossack Fonseca." He declined to comment on whether an arrest had been made. News of the detention was first given by the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, which said it had no information on whether the arrested individual was the so-called "John Doe" who has claimed credit for the unprecedented "Panama Papers" leak. Mossack Fonseca said in April that the leak was the result of a hack that came from foreign servers. The parents of a 12-year-old black Texas girl who suffered serious rope burns around her neck during an overnight field trip are suing their daughters private school, claiming in a lawsuit filed this week that her white classmates injured her on purpose. In a lawsuit seeking $3 million filed Monday in Travis County against Live Oak Classical School and the owner of Germer Ranch, where the incident occurred, attorney Levi McCathern said the so-called attack was racially motivated. Sandy Rogely had enrolled her daughter referred to in the suit as "K.P." in the largely white private school in 2014, and though the girl initially flourished at the $7,000-a-year institute, she began having problems with other children in fall 2016, according to the lawsuit. K.P. began to come home with disturbing reports that her classmates did not accept her, would not talk with her, and even physically bullied her, the suit said. In two incidents described as physical bullying, K.P. was allegedly assaulted by one specific classmate. Read: House Speaker Paul Ryan Calls Donald Trump Judge Comments 'Racist' In one incident, the boy pushed K.P. to the ground in the cubby room, and in the other, he kicked, pushed, and shoved her during a class assignment when the teacher was not looking, McCathern wrote. Rogely said she immediately contacted the school, but her "pleas for help were met with deference to the Live Oak boy who bullied K.P." Then, during an end-of-year overnight class camping trip to Lawrence Germers ranch on April 28, K.P. and 21 other children came across a rope swing hanging from a tree while they explored the property. K.P. helped pull the seat of the swing back using a long rope and then watched as other children took turns on the swing, with her back to three boys, who are white, who were standing within arms length, the lawsuit said. In the group of boys was the same classmate who allegedly bullied her. Story continues During one swing, K.P. watched as some of the other kids pulled the pull-rope back, ready to swing another child. She watched the kids let the rope go, thinking this was just like every other turn. "However, she did not see what the boys behind her were doing, and the next thing K.P. knew, she felt the rope wrap around her neck and she was violently jerked to the ground with the pull-rope wrapped around her neck, the lawsuit said. Pictures of the swing and rope allegedly involved in the attack were included in the lawsuit. (Levi McCathern) The rope cut into her skin and left a severe and painful burn. K.P. looked up, and saw the three boys an arms length from where she was laying, it continued. None of the three boys, nor anyone else, helped her off the ground or helped remove the rope from her neck as they would have done if it had been an accident. The girl got up on her own, unwrapped the rope from her neck and found the school principal and another chaperone, who applied Vaseline to her neck and gave her Motrin, but K.P.s mother was never notified of the incident, the suit claims. The next day, Sandy waited in the parking lot to pick up K.P., and when she got in the car, Sandy thought K.P.s neck had been ripped open and stitched back together based on how the injury appeared. Rogely brought her daughter to the emergency room, where she was treated for severe rope burns around her neck. Read: Celebrity-Endorsed EOS Lip Balm Caused Women to Bleed, Lawsuit Claims Sandy recalls doctors commenting on the severity of the injury, the suit said. Police were called to the hospital and are investigating the incident. The lawsuit claims that no one from the school followed up with Rogely or K.P. that weekend to discuss what happened on the trip, nor did anyone explain why the girls mother wasnt notified of her injury. Sandy was terrified for her daughters safety, the document said. Live Oaks actions, and inactions, left K.P. with scars, both emotionally and physically. Sandy refused to allow her daughter to continue to be subject to this treatment, and she removed K.P. from Live Oak immediately. Since then, two separate families have come forward claiming they too took their children out of the school due to relentless bullying that went unaddressed by the school, the suit said. The suit claims negligence, gross negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the school. It claims premises liability against Germer, alleging that the swing on Germers land was unsafe and that he knew of the risk but did nothing to eliminate it. The suit asks for $3 million. I asked for $3 million, and there are a lot of reasons for it, McCathern told WacoTrib.com. I think part of it is to compensate the victim, part of it is trying to send a message that we have to protect these defenseless kids up at school, and I think part of it is to punish the school for not taking care of the kids and following through with responsibilities to notify parents when they have a student that is seriously injured. David Deaconson, a Waco attorney representing the school, told WacoTrib.com the incident was an accident and the school has since revised its parental notification protocol. My response would be that anyone can allege anything they want to in a petition, but that doesnt make it fact, he told the website. Live Oak will continue to rely on and stand behind the actual facts and that this was an accident. The Blaco County Sheriffs Offices investigation into the incident is ongoing. Watch: 17-Year-Old Girl Creates Moving Video to Speak Out Against Cyber Bullying Related Articles: Relatives slit the throat of a young mother who was pregnant with her second child after she married against their will in eastern Pakistan, officials said Friday, the latest in a spate of so-called "honour killings". Muqaddas Bibi, 22, married Taufiq Ahmed three years ago in defiance of her family, who considered a marriage for love -- rather than an arranged marriage -- shameful, police investigator Mohammad Arshad told AFP. Bibi's ties with her family were severed after the marriage, Arshad said, but her mother and brother allegedly approached her at a clinic where she was having a check-up on Thursday and convinced her to come home, saying they accepted her decision. Local police station chief Gohar Abbas said that when Bibi reached her parents' house, her father, brother and mother cut her throat with a knife and she died on the spot. Bibi had a 10-month old daughter and was seven months pregnant when she was killed, he added. Abbas said that her family fled from their house after the murder in the village of Buttaranwali, some 75 kilometres (46 miles) north of Punjab provincial capital Lahore. Police are hunting for them and have already detained another relative for inciting the killing, he said. Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in conservative Muslim Pakistan each year on the pretext of defending what is seen as family honour. Last week sixteen year-old Zeenat Bibi was killed in Lahore by her mother for marrying a man of her own choice in a case that sparked condemnation throughout the country. It was swiftly followed by another killing, of a couple in Lahore who married without their family's consent. On Sunday a young girl was killed by her brother for insisting on marrying the man of her choice in the city of Sialkot, also in Punjab. A film on honour killings in Pakistan won an Oscar for best documentary short in February. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate the "evil" amid publicity for the film, "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness", but as yet no fresh legislation has been tabled. Washington (AFP) - Pentagon chief Ashton Carter on Friday hit out at Russia for bombing US-backed forces in southern Syria who he said were fighting the Islamic State group, calling their actions "problematic." "This was an attack on forces, first of all, that were fighting ISIL. Obviously that's the first thing that's problematic about this Russian conduct," Carter told reporters, using an alternate acronym for the IS group. Carter admitted that perhaps Russian forces made a mistake when they conducted a series of air strikes on Thursday near al-Tanaf -- but said in that case, it highlighted poor intelligence on their side. "If it was their intention, it is the opposite of what they said they were going to do," he said. "If not, it says something about the quality of information upon which they make their strikes." On Thursday, a senior US defense official said that Russian aircraft had not been active in the al-Tanaf area on Syria's border with Iraq "for some time" and that there were "no Syrian regime or Russian ground forces in the vicinity." The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two US-backed fighters -- one Syrian and one Iraqi -- were killed in the strikes. The Syrian belonged a group of fighters from the New Syrian Army, trained by the British and the Americans in a coalition camp in Jordan, while the Iraqi was a tribal fighter, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. Russia's defense ministry said late Thursday that it had not carried out any strikes targeting opposition forces included in the ceasefire, without mentioning Al-Tanaf. The United States and Russia have put in place a channel of communication so that they can ensure that their separate air campaigns in Syria do not result in any unsafe incidents. But Carter said the communications link "was not professionally used." "We are trying to clarify the facts and use that channel with the Russians to understand what went on," he said. Story continues The US military launched a $500 million program in early 2015 to train entire units of "moderate" Syrians to fight Islamic State jihadists. But the program drew heavy fire last fall after admitting the efforts had floundered, with numbers of trainees falling massively short of the planned 5,000. One group even handed over ammunition and other gear to a local Al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Al-Nusra Front. Since then, the Pentagon's new strategy is to work with just a handful of members from each fighting group, instead of an entire unit. Syria's five-year war has killed more than 280,000 people and displaced millions. Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f119205%2fgettyimages-490771034_copy LONDON Miss Great Britain Zara Holland has been stripped of her title after being shown having sex on reality show Love Island earlier this week. Wednesday night's episode of the show which places 12 singletons on an island showed Holland having sex with fellow contestant Alex Bowen. SEE ALSO: Army officer captures Miss USA crown Holland who was crowned Miss Great Britain in September 2015 has had her title rescinded by the Miss Great Britain organisation. In a statement, the organisation said that it could no longer promote Holland as "a positive role model" after her conduct on the ITV2 show. We wholly understand that everyone makes mistakes, but Zara, as an ambassador for Miss Great Britain, simply did not uphold the responsibility expected of the title," the statement continued. But, not everyone agrees with the organisation's decision. People have taken to Twitter to express their fury that Holland has been "de-crowned." "This is just misogynistic what is shameful about having sex???" read one tweet. "Miss GB stripped of title for having sex... Absolute BS. Are we living in the dark ages?" read another. Some people said the move was outdated. Others felt that Holland's sexual freedom had been challenged. And others believed the move was sexist. By Mitra Taj LIMA (Reuters) - A Peruvian prosecutor said Thursday that late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and two Brazilian construction companies may have bankrolled President Ollanta Humala's campaigns before he took office in 2011. Prosecutor German Juarez has been investigating first lady Nadine Heredia, the co-founder and current president of Humala's party, for her possible involvement in undeclared campaign contributions. He asked a judge to bar her from leaving Peru. Humala has presidential immunity against investigation until five years after the end of his term on July 28. No charges have been filed. Roy Gates, Heredia's lawyer, said prosecutors had not identified any crimes linked to party finances to substantiate money-laundering suspicions. Juarez said an informant gave prosecutors a letter addressed to Humala signed by Chavez that mentions some $2 million in "investments" in Humala's first presidential bid in 2006. The letter has not yet been examined for authentication. "Burn any evidence, brother, for the good of us all. This is revolutionary, socialist aide," said the letter, as read by Juarez in a televised hearing. If authentic, it would show the lengths Chavez went to spread his so-called Bolivarian revolution across Latin America. Humala, a former radical military officer, once looked up to Chavez as a mentor. But in 2011, after losing the 2006 presidential election, Humala kept Chavez at a distance and won after campaigning in the more moderate style of Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Humala has denied taking money from Chavez. Humala's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Heredia has said she has no intention of leaving Peru and is cooperating with investigators, whom she describes as under pressure from political foes. Another informant alleged that construction companies Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL] and Grupo OAS, both tangled in a vast corruption scandal in neighboring Brazil, gave Humala and Heredia hundreds of thousands of dollars and paid the salary of an adviser close to Brazil's Workers Party to help with Humala's 2011 campaign, Juarez said. Odebrecht declined to comment and OAS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Odebrecht won a $5 billion natural gas pipeline contract during Humala's term after its sole competitor was disqualified from a public auction. The company has said the bidding process was fair. Brazilian police said earlier this year they were investigating potential bribes from Odebrecht to Humala. Both Humala and Odebrecht denied any wrongdoing at the time. (Reporting By Mitra Taj; additional Reporting By Marco Aquino) Peter Gabriel has released a new seven-minute song celebrating the late Muhammad Ali. In the track, titled "I'm Amazing," which he debuted Thursday, Gabriel sings "Look at me, look at me, can you see what I can do?" Gabriel sings. "'Cause I'm amazing." Sting, Peter Gabriel To Tour: Exclusive In a Facebook post, Gabriel explained that he wrote the song a few years ago and it was, in part, "inspired by Muhammad Ali's life and struggles." "At the time of his death, when so many people are celebrating his life and thinking about all he achieved, it seemed the right time to release it," he wrote. 5 Songs Inspired by Muhammad Ali Ali passed away June 3 due to "septic shock due to unspecified natural causes," according to his family. "I'm Amazing" is Gabriel's first release in nearly three years, following the track "Why Don't You Show Yourself" that was featured in the live concert album and film Back to Front: Live in London in 2013. Listen to it here: BRASILIA (Reuters) - The new chief executive of Petroleo Brasileiro SA on Thursday said the state-run oil company has received offers to buy a stake in its fuels-retailing unit BR Distribuidora SA in recent days, boosting plans to raise cash and cut debt. Pedro Parente did not say who made the offers or how much of the unit was being sold. He made the remarks to the GloboNews 24-hour cable network in his first TV interview since taking office June 1. Parente has said that Petrobras, as the company is known, must speed up a $14 billion divestment plan to shed fields, distribution systems, hydrocarbon processing units, power plants and other operations that offer lower returns than its core offshore oil and gas production business. Without the sales, he said, Petrobras will make little progress cutting its $130 billion debt, the largest in the oil industry. Nor will it be able to afford development of new discoveries that are among the world's largest. The government has earmarked royalties from those areas for health care and education and is counting on oil to boost industrial development. Parente said he has not discussed the sale of its stake in Braskem SA, Latin America's biggest petrochemical company, an asset many believe to be on offer. Petrobras is Braskem's No. 2 shareholder. Brazil's interim-President Michel Temer picked Parente to restore Petrobras' financial health in the face of a corruption scandal, debt and falling crude prices. Reviving investment at Petrobras, responsible for about 10 percent of Brazil's GDP, is key to Temer's goal of ending the country's deepest recession in decades. Parente also said an internal Petrobras probe of contract-fixing, bribery and political-kickbacks will continue with the full support of the board of directors. Few Petrobras employees were involved in diverting billions of dollars of investment to favored contractors, executives and politicians, he said. The vast majority are honest and free of blame in the conspiracy under investigation in Brazil, the United States and Europe, he added. Story continues Temer has himself been implicated in the scandal, a little more than a month after taking over from suspended-President Dilma Rousseff who now faces a Senate trial for allegedly breaking budget laws. In a plea-bargain agreement published by Brazilian prosecutors on Wednesday, the former head of a Petrobras' shipping and gas-pipeline unit said Temer asked him for cash from the scheme to finance an ally's political campaign. Rousseff was chairwoman of Petrobras' board for seven years when much of the criminal activity took place. Both Temer and Rousseff deny any involvement in the scandal. Two members of Temer's cabinet resigned in his first fortnight in office due to allegations they had tried to obstruct the Petrobras investigation. His tourism minister quit on Thursday after a new graft allegation. Parente reaffirmed support for a bill in Congress to drop the legal requirement that Petrobras lead and finance at least 30 percent of all new development in Brazil's most promising oil region, a move that would open the area to more foreign investment. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Writing by Jeb Blount; Editing by Sandra Maler, Andrew Hay and Michael Perry) BRASILIA (Reuters) - The new chief executive of Petroleo Brasileiro SA on Thursday said the state-run oil company has received offers to buy a stake in its fuels-retailing unit BR Distribuidora SA in recent days, boosting plans to raise cash and cut debt. Pedro Parente did not say who made the offers or how much of the unit was being sold. He made the remarks to the GloboNews 24-hour cable network in his first TV interview since taking office June 1. Parente has said that Petrobras, as the company is known, must speed up a $14 billion divestment plan to shed fields, distribution systems, hydrocarbon processing units, power plants and other operations that offer lower returns than its core offshore oil and gas production business. Without the sales, he said, Petrobras will make little progress cutting its $130 billion debt, the largest in the oil industry. Nor will it be able to afford development of new discoveries that are among the world's largest. The government has earmarked royalties from those areas for health care and education and is counting on oil to boost industrial development. Parente said he has not discussed the sale of its stake in Braskem SA, Latin America's biggest petrochemical company, an asset many believe to be on offer. Petrobras is Braskem's No. 2 shareholder. Brazil's interim-President Michel Temer picked Parente to restore Petrobras' financial health in the face of a corruption scandal, debt and falling crude prices. Reviving investment at Petrobras, responsible for about 10 percent of Brazil's GDP, is key to Temer's goal of ending the country's deepest recession in decades. Parente also said an internal Petrobras probe of contract-fixing, bribery and political-kickbacks will continue with the full support of the board of directors. Few Petrobras employees were involved in diverting billions of dollars of investment to favored contractors, executives and politicians, he said. Story continues The vast majority are honest and free of blame in the conspiracy under investigation in Brazil, the United States and Europe, he added. Temer has himself been implicated in the scandal, a little more than a month after taking over from suspended-President Dilma Rousseff who now faces a Senate trial for allegedly breaking budget laws. In a plea-bargain agreement published by Brazilian prosecutors on Wednesday, the former head of a Petrobras' shipping and gas-pipeline unit said Temer asked him for cash from the scheme to finance an ally's political campaign. Rousseff was chairwoman of Petrobras' board for seven years when much of the criminal activity took place. Both Temer and Rousseff deny any involvement in the scandal. Two members of Temer's cabinet resigned in his first fortnight in office due to allegations they had tried to obstruct the Petrobras investigation. His tourism minister quit on Thursday after a new graft allegation. Parente reaffirmed support for a bill in Congress to drop the legal requirement that Petrobras lead and finance at least 30 percent of all new development in Brazil's most promising oil region, a move that would open the area to more foreign investment. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Writing by Jeb Blount; Editing by Sandra Maler, Andrew Hay and Michael Perry) 'Slip and Fall' Injury May Sound Minor, But a Fall Can Cause Major Problems PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2016 / Philadelphia Slip & fall accidents are a leading cause of injuries that can cause lifelong physical disabilities, according to Philadelphia's accident lawyer Rand Spear. Rand Spear Philadelphia Slip and fall accident lawyer in a Google podcast says slip & fall cause more injuries than even motor vehicle accidents, reports Rand Spear, Philadelphia's accident lawyer, who spoke on a recent podcast on the topic. He represents those in Pennsylvania and New Jersey who are injured in slip and fall accidents. The National Flooring Safety Institute estimates that falls account for more than eight million emergency room visits in the U.S. each year. Fractured bones are a serious consequence of falls and more than 5% of those who fall suffer broken bones. Hip fractures are the most serious type of broken bone injury due to a fall. They lead to the greatest number of health problems and deaths. Older people are especially vulnerable to a hip fracture caused by a fall. 85% of Workers' Compensation claims are caused by employees slipping on the job. Rand Spear says many people are able to walk away from vehicle accidents but many are injured in slip and fall accidents. "Oftentimes the injuries are much more severe and that really is common sense. When you're in a motor vehicle you've got his big metal object around you to protect you. You're in a padded seat and you have a seat belt. But with a slip and fall there's really nothing to shield you, nothing to protect you," he says, "These are very serious accidents that have long-term lifelong consequences so you really have to be very careful if you are involved in any type of slip and fall accident." There could be many parties who may be held legally responsible for the injuries and harm done due to a slip and fall injury, depending on the facts of the accident, according to Spear. It could be, Story continues The landowner, A tenant whose lease states they are responsible for maintaining the property, or If the cause was ice, snow or a cracked sidewalk, it may be a maintenance or landscaping company responsible because they failed to remove snow or ice or keep the area safe. The facts of the accident are key to whether a legal claim may be successful or not. Spear says if necessary a staff member may take photos of the area where the accident happened. The accident victim or someone with the person could take photos at the time of the accident using a smartphone if necessary. They may show important evidence as to the condition of the area and if it was unsafe. If the condition was slippery due to the weather it's important to gather evidence as soon as possible so that your accident lawyer has as much ammunition as possible to prosecute your case. While gathering evidence is important Spear says, "Number one the most important thing is to get immediate medical attention if you really are injured. Get yourself checked out. You need to make sure everything's OK and you're in good shape. After that the next most important thing you want to do is to call an accident lawyer and tell them what happened." Spear offers a free consultation for those injured in slip and fall accidents. There's no charge to discuss the facts and you can find out what's involved with the legal process and what you need to do. "If you have photographs and witnesses someone from our office can really jump on the case and get a head start in order to fully represent you to the fullest extent of the law," Spear says. If you or a loved one has been injured in a slip and fall accident in Pennsylvania or New Jersey contact Rand Spear for a free consultation. You will be able to discuss the accident, learn about the applicable laws and your best options for obtaining compensation for your injuries and damages. Call 888-373-4LAW immediately to schedule your free consultation. SOURCE: Rand Spear the Accident Lawyer via Submit Press Release 123 Vigil in Kathmandu Candles are lit around a sign that reads Pray for Orlando during a vigil in Kathmandu, Nepal, in memory of the victims of the Pulse gay nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla.. (Photo: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters) Candles are lit around a sign that reads Pray for Orlando during a vigil in Kathmandu, Nepal, in memory of the victims of the Pulse gay nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. Iraqi soldiers gesture in the center of Fallujah, Iraq. According to the Associated Press, Iraqi special forces battled their way into the center of Fallujah, capturing a key neighborhood and a government complex from Islamic State group fighters. U.K. Member of Parliament Hilary Benn places flowers near the scene of the slaying of Member of Parliament Jo Cox, 41, who was shot and stabbed Thursday in Birstall, United Kingdom. These are just a few of the photos of the day for June 17, 2016. See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron will on Friday visit the northern English constituency of an opposition Labour member of parliament who was killed in a street attack on Thursday, his spokeswoman said. Cameron will join Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to pay his respects to Jo Cox, who died after being shot and stabbed on her way to a meeting with local residents. A spokesman for Cameron's Conservative Party said it would not contest the resulting election to select a new member of parliament for the seat of Batley and Spen, near Leeds. (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Elizabeth Piper; editing by Stephen Addison) Moscow (AFP) - Pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva said Friday she would challenge in court the IAAF decision to uphold Russia's suspension that would sideline Russian athletes from the Olympic Games in Rio. "This is a human rights violation. I will not remain silent, I will take measures," she told TASS news agency. "I will appeal to the human rights court," she said, without specifying in which court she planned to challenge the ruling. Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis has welcomed nine more Syrian asylum-seekers to Rome, two months after he flew another group back from Greece aboard his personal plane, the Vatican said Thursday. The latest group had also been living in a transit camp on the Greek island of Lesbos after making the perilous sea crossing from Turkey. "A second group of nine refugees arrived in Rome yesterday (Wednesday)," a Vatican statement said. "The refugees, six adults and three children, are all Syrian citizens who were in the Kara Tepe refugee camp," it added. The pope in April brushed off criticism over the earlier group saying, "I didn't make a choice between Christians and Muslims. All refugees are children of God." They were selected by officials on the grounds that their paperwork was sufficiently in order to secure rapid agreement on their transfer from the Greek and Italian governments. The three families have since settled into life in Rome and started to learn Italian. Over 1.1 million people have crossed clandestinely from Turkey to Greece since the start of 2015, with hundreds drowning en route. Many of them are Syrians, fleeing the horrors of the country's war. Arrivals in Greece have drastically fallen over the past weeks after Turkey agreed to take back anyone denied asylum in return for billions in EU cash and other concessions. Human rights groups have criticised the arrangement. Pope Francis has previously condemned Western society for its indifference to refugees, making the cause of migrants trying to reach Europe one of the defining themes of his papacy. The violent agitation by the Jat community in Haryana in February this year brought to the fore the stark problems when an entire police and administrative machinery were brought to their knees by a protest called for by one of the states most powerful communities. The Jat community was protesting the lack of reservation in educational and employment. The Supreme Court, in Ram Singhs case, had struck down the Central Governments notification including Jats in the Central list of OBCs for the state of Haryana, Bihar. Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and two districts of Rajasthan. The Punjab and Haryana High Court also stayed reservation given to Jats under the OBC category for government jobs and educational institutions in Haryana. These protests have come in the wake of powerful communities such as the Patidars in Gujarat that are now agitating for reservation, despite not fulfilling the criteria of being historically disadvantaged. The youth in these communities, finding it increasingly difficult to get government jobs and opportunities, have resorted to violent agitations and mobilized effectively to make their voices heard. Map of the state of Haryana, where the Jat agitations took place, Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India_Haryana_map.svg In a damning indictment of the states response to the agitation, the Prakash Singh Committee Report on the Role of Officers and Police Administration during the Jat Agitation criticised the state machinery for their callous attitude, and inability to bring the situation under control. The agitation came in the wake of deep divisions in the state as a result of this demand for reservation with calls for non-Jat communities to unite being mad e publicly by representatives of other communities in the state The agitation took a heavy toll with 30 people killed, more than 200 injured, and property worth 20,000 crores of damaged. Thirty educational institutions and 20 police chowkis were damaged. In unprecedented scenes canals that provided water to Delhi were targeted, schools and universities were attacked, and even the residence of the states finance minister was targeted two days in a row. Story continues While the Committees report does not mention any incidents of sexual violence, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which is hearing a case related to the Jat agitation, has taken suo moto cognizance of allegations of sexual assault on the Delhi-Ambala highway. The Haryana government initially denied that incidents of sexual violence took place, but the state police have now filed gang rape charges in an FIR related to the case of an Australian national who was travelling on NH-1 on 21 February near Murthal when she was allegedly gangraped. Of the districts affected, Rohtak was the worst hit, and the Committee, while specifying incidents in Rohtak observed that the state seemed to have withered away in the district on 19 and 20 February. The members of the Prakash Singh Committee interviewed a large number of respondents from the police and public, and have recorded a detailed narrative of events, with a district wise break up of the statements recorded, and detailed recommendations on steps that need to be taken to prevent such a situation from arising. One of the disturbing observations of the Committee was the role of the police, which played a partisan role, looking away most of the time, and sometimes actively abiding the agitators. Diligent police officers wanting to take action were hindered by signals from their political superiors, who were reluctant to use force on the agitators. In damning statement, the Committee observed, The administration could not have been more inept, the police could not have been more derelict and collusive. These recommendations include training of police in anti-riot drills and ensuring that every district have at least one company of police specially trained to deal with riots. The Committee also recommended that Central forces such as the Border Security Force should not be called in on a routine basis to deal with civilian agitations in states, which the local police should be able to handle. The Committee also recommended that the army should be called in as a last resort in these situations. The Committee asked for strict action to be taken against those who disrupted traffic along national highways or important railway routes. Significantly, the Committee called for the enforcement of the F.S. Nariman Committees guidelines for liability for damages during riots that have been endorsed by the Supreme Court that. The Nariman Committee had recommended that a retired High Court judge or a sitting or retired District judge should be appointed a claims Commissioner to estimate damages and investigate liability in these situations. (In case of an event that spans two judges a Supreme Court judge would be appointed) Once a nexus between the event and the damage is established the damages would be calculated sing the principle of absolute liability. The actual perpetrators of the violence and the organizers of the event would share liability. Even if a fraction of these recommendations were implemented seriously, it would go a long way in acting as a deterrent against such violence, and would do justice to the amount of effort that has gone into this meticulous exercise. June 17 (Reuters) - 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 Volkswagen plans to launch more than 30 all-electric cars by 2025 as the scandal-hit company repositions itself as a leading player in environmentally sustainable driving. (http://bit.ly/1YvJUg1) Lloyds has won a narrow victory over thousands of bondholders and will now not have to pay extra money to buy back their investments. The decision by the Supreme Court, which saves Lloyds about 1 billion pounds ($1.42 billion), has infuriated some of the savers and investors. (http://bit.ly/1YvJBlp) The Guardian The Bank of England has issued a fresh warning that a vote to leave the EU in next week's referendum risks knocking economic growth, pushing the pound sharply lower and sending shockwaves through the global economy. (http://bit.ly/1Q7F8Ea) The House of Commons energy and climate change committee's report, Low Carbon Network Infrastructure, has called for the National Grid to be stripped of its powers for balancing the energy system in Britain due to a potential conflict of interest. (http://bit.ly/1OteKUI) The Telegraph Barclays has branded accusations of fraud levelled by financier Amanda Staveley against the bank as "fundamentally misconceived", court documents show. (http://bit.ly/1W2gC8t) HSBC has agreed to pay more than 1 billion pounds ($1.42 billion), to settle a securities fraud class action that stemmed from the bank's takeover of a U.S. sub-prime lender more than a decade ago. (http://bit.ly/1XsxFBP) Sky News The Bank of England has issued a fresh warning on the economy ahead of the EU referendum, saying it is "increasingly probable" a Brexit would send the pound plunging further. (http://bit.ly/1YvGVnT) Downing Street is targeting company bosses who have previously remained neutral in the EU referendum campaign in an attempt to swell business support for 'Remain' in a final push ahead of next week's poll. (http://bit.ly/1YvIRwC) The Independent Past and current bosses of Unilever have voiced their support for the UK remaining in the EU ahead of the referendum on 23 June. (http://ind.pn/1YvIrXh) ($1 = 0.7033 pounds) (Compiled by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler) June 17 (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 * Oracle aims high in race to the cloud (http://bit.ly/1OtivJW) * UK $1.1bn stock fund withdrawals largest in a year (http://bit.ly/1OtiHc1) * MPs say National Grid should be broken up (http://bit.ly/1Otjk5l) * Redstones raise heat over Viacom with board shake-up (http://bit.ly/1OtiRjz) Overview - Larry Ellison, Co-founder and chairman of Oracle said that Oracle would be the first company to reach $10 billion in cloud revenues. - UK equities invested funds recorded a $1.1 billion of redemptions this week, as many investors are braced for the referendum on Britain's membership of the EU. - MPs have said that the National Grid, the company that run's Britain's electricity system, should be broken up to transform the UK's energy supply. - Sumner Redstone and Shari Redstone have moved to replace the five independent directors of the Viacom board, beginning a new saga in the fight for control of the media group that owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures. (Compiled by Sangameswaran S.; Editing by Sandra Maler) June 17 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Dozens of State Department officials protested this week against U.S. policy in Syria, signing an internal document calling for targeted military strikes against the Damascus government and urging regime change as the only way to defeat Islamic State. (http://on.wsj.com/1UZrXRy) - A two-year campaign by the United States and other countries to defeat Islamic State has failed to disrupt its capability to carry out terrorist attacks, CIA Director John Brennan said. (http://on.wsj.com/1UZryyt) - A lawmaker from the UK's main opposition Labour Party, Jo Cox, died Thursday after a brutal attack on the street in northern England, prompting a halt to official campaigning ahead of next week's referendum on EU membership. (http://on.wsj.com/1UZrKOa) - Sumner Redstone's National Amusements moved to replace five board members of Viacom Inc, deepening turmoil in the mogul's $40 billion media empire and setting up a likely legal battle over corporate governance. (http://on.wsj.com/1UZsinr) (Compiled by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru) (Recasts with confirmation of alligator signs) By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Fla., June 16 (Reuters) - Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, plans to install signs warning of alligators in the area where a 2-year-old boy was killed by one of the reptiles, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Police divers recovered the body of Lane Graves on Wednesday from the man-made lake where he had been snatched by the alligator as he played at the water's edge the night before. The resort had "No Swimming" signs where the boy was killed at the Seven Seas Lagoon, but did not specifically mention alligators. A source with knowledge of the situation said the resort now plans to install signs explicitly warning of the dangerous animals. The boy was grabbed by the reptile at the water's edge at about 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday while his family, on vacation from Omaha, Nebraska, relaxed on the shore nearby, authorities have said. His parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, tried to save the child but were unable to free him from the alligator's grip. A complete autopsy was conducted on Thursday afternoon on the body of the boy, which was found intact underwater. "The cause of death was ruled as a result of drowning and traumatic injuries," the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office said in a brief statement. It did not elaborate. Rose Silva, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, said on Thursday that a probe into the toddler's death was ongoing, but was not criminal in nature. The Graves family released a statement praising local authorities and adding: "Words cannot describe the shock and grief our family is experiencing over the loss of our son. We are devastated and ask for privacy during this extremely difficult time." The aquatic predators often roll their larger prey beneath the surface until their victim stops breathing, experts say, and then stash the body away to eat later. Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger spoke with the family by telephone on Wednesday and expressed his sympathies, the company said. Story continues Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said on Thursday that resort beaches that were closed after the attack would be off-limits to guests until further notice. "All of our beaches are currently closed, and we are conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols," Wahler said in a statement. "This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings." SIXTH ALLIGATOR CAUGHT The alligator was believed to be between 4 and 7 feet (1.2 and 2 meters) long. Trappers killed and opened up five alligators on Wednesday for sign of the boy before his body was recovered. The trappers remained at the lagoon on Thursday after removing a sixth alligator from the water late on Wednesday in an effort to find the one that snatched the child, said Greg Workman, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission's executive director, Nick Wiley, has said there is a good chance they have already captured the alligator in question. But officials said the search would go on until that was proved by forensic tests such as DNA studies, teeth measurements and comparison of bite marks. Workman said the commission also has wildlife officers on the scene around the clock. He said they are searching all day, but especially at night when alligators are more active because of cooler temperatures and less human activity. Disney shares gained 11 cents to close at $98.38 on Thursday. Its Orlando resort is the most visited theme park in the world, drawing more than 20 million visitors last year. The incident came ahead of Thursday's opening of the company's first theme park in China, a $5.5 billion project in Shanghai that boasts Disney's tallest castle. The attack happened on a beach by Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, an upmarket property just one stop from the Magic Kingdom on Walt Disney World's monorail. The hotel's website - showing rooms starting at $569 a night before taxes - says guests can enjoy diversions such as "bask on the white-sand beach." (Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Letitia Stein in Tampa, Fla., and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Curtis Skinner, Matthew Lewis and Sandra Maler) By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, plans to install signs warning of alligators in the area where a 2-year-old boy was killed by one of the reptiles, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Police divers recovered the body of Lane Graves on Wednesday from the man-made lake where he had been snatched by the alligator as he played at the water's edge the night before. The resort had "No Swimming" signs where the boy was killed at the Seven Seas Lagoon, but did not specifically mention alligators. A source with knowledge of the situation said the resort now plans to install signs explicitly warning of the dangerous animals. The boy was grabbed by the reptile at the water's edge at about 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday while his family, on vacation from Omaha, Nebraska, relaxed on the shore nearby, authorities have said. His parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, tried to save the child but were unable to free him from the alligator's grip. A complete autopsy was conducted on Thursday afternoon on the body of the boy, which was found intact underwater. "The cause of death was ruled as a result of drowning and traumatic injuries," the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office said in a brief statement. It did not elaborate. Rose Silva, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, said on Thursday that a probe into the toddler's death was ongoing, but was not criminal in nature. The Graves family released a statement praising local authorities and adding: "Words cannot describe the shock and grief our family is experiencing over the loss of our son. We are devastated and ask for privacy during this extremely difficult time." The aquatic predators often roll their larger prey beneath the surface until their victim stops breathing, experts say, and then stash the body away to eat later. Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger spoke with the family by telephone on Wednesday and expressed his sympathies, the company said. Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said on Thursday that resort beaches that were closed after the attack would be off-limits to guests until further notice. "All of our beaches are currently closed, and we are conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols," Wahler said in a statement. "This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings." SIXTH ALLIGATOR CAUGHT The alligator was believed to be between 4 and 7 feet (1.2 and 2 meters) long. Trappers killed and opened up five alligators on Wednesday for sign of the boy before his body was recovered. The trappers remained at the lagoon on Thursday after removing a sixth alligator from the water late on Wednesday in an effort to find the one that snatched the child, said Greg Workman, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission's executive director, Nick Wiley, has said there is a good chance they have already captured the alligator in question. But officials said the search would go on until that was proved by forensic tests such as DNA studies, teeth measurements and comparison of bite marks. Workman said the commission also has wildlife officers on the scene around the clock. He said they are searching all day, but especially at night when alligators are more active because of cooler temperatures and less human activity. Disney shares gained 11 cents to close at $98.38 on Thursday. Its Orlando resort is the most visited theme park in the world, drawing more than 20 million visitors last year. The incident came ahead of Thursday's opening of the company's first theme park in China, a $5.5 billion project in Shanghai that boasts Disney's tallest castle. The attack happened on a beach by Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, an upmarket property just one stop from the Magic Kingdom on Walt Disney World's monorail. The hotel's website - showing rooms starting at $569 a night before taxes - says guests can enjoy diversions such as "bask on the white-sand beach." (Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Letitia Stein in Tampa, Fla., and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Curtis Skinner, Matthew Lewis and Sandra Maler) By Barbara Liston ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, plans to install signs warning of alligators in the area where a 2-year-old boy was killed by one of the reptiles, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Police divers recovered the body of Lane Graves on Wednesday from the man-made lake where he had been snatched by the alligator as he played at the water's edge the night before. The resort had "No Swimming" signs where the boy was killed at the Seven Seas Lagoon, but did not specifically mention alligators. A source with knowledge of the situation said the resort now plans to install signs explicitly warning of the dangerous animals. The boy was grabbed by the reptile at the water's edge at about 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday while his family, on vacation from Omaha, Nebraska, relaxed on the shore nearby, authorities have said. His parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, tried to save the child but were unable to free him from the alligator's grip. A complete autopsy was conducted on Thursday afternoon on the body of the boy, which was found intact underwater. "The cause of death was ruled as a result of drowning and traumatic injuries," the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office said in a brief statement. It did not elaborate. Rose Silva, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, said on Thursday that a probe into the toddler's death was ongoing, but was not criminal in nature. The Graves family released a statement praising local authorities and adding: "Words cannot describe the shock and grief our family is experiencing over the loss of our son. We are devastated and ask for privacy during this extremely difficult time." The aquatic predators often roll their larger prey beneath the surface until their victim stops breathing, experts say, and then stash the body away to eat later. Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger spoke with the family by telephone on Wednesday and expressed his sympathies, the company said. Story continues Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said on Thursday that resort beaches that were closed after the attack would be off-limits to guests until further notice. "All of our beaches are currently closed, and we are conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols," Wahler said in a statement. "This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings." SIXTH ALLIGATOR CAUGHT The alligator was believed to be between 4 and 7 feet (1.2 and 2 meters) long. Trappers killed and opened up five alligators on Wednesday for sign of the boy before his body was recovered. The trappers remained at the lagoon on Thursday after removing a sixth alligator from the water late on Wednesday in an effort to find the one that snatched the child, said Greg Workman, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission's executive director, Nick Wiley, has said there is a good chance they have already captured the alligator in question. But officials said the search would go on until that was proved by forensic tests such as DNA studies, teeth measurements and comparison of bite marks. Workman said the commission also has wildlife officers on the scene around the clock. He said they are searching all day, but especially at night when alligators are more active because of cooler temperatures and less human activity. Disney shares gained 11 cents to close at $98.38 on Thursday. Its Orlando resort is the most visited theme park in the world, drawing more than 20 million visitors last year. The incident came ahead of Thursday's opening of the company's first theme park in China, a $5.5 billion project in Shanghai that boasts Disney's tallest castle. The attack happened on a beach by Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, an upmarket property just one stop from the Magic Kingdom on Walt Disney World's monorail. The hotel's website - showing rooms starting at $569 a night before taxes - says guests can enjoy diversions such as "bask on the white-sand beach." (Additional reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Letitia Stein in Tampa, Fla., and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Curtis Skinner, Matthew Lewis and Sandra Maler) Angry protesters gathered in Hong Kong Friday after a city bookseller broke silence to reveal how he was blindfolded, interrogated and detained in China for eight months for trading titles critical of Beijing. In a surprise interview sure to infuriate Beijing, Lam Wing-kee late Thursday vowed to break bail, refusing to return to the mainland, and further defied Chinese authorities by blowing the lid on how he was detained on a visit to China and interrogated for months with no access to a lawyer or his family. Lam Wing-kee is one of five booksellers who published salacious titles about leading Chinese politicians and disappeared at the end of last year in a case that drew international condemnation and heightened fears Beijing was tightening its grip on Hong Kong. All of the men resurfaced in mainland China where four of them, including Lam, are under investigation for importing banned books into China. Lam returned to Hong Kong Tuesday on bail and was due to go back Thursday but instead decided to remain and tell his story. A succession of political groups protested outside China's liaison office in Hong Kong Friday. Members of pro-democracy party Demosisto shouted "Defend the freedoms of Hong Kongers!" and plastered posters supporting Lam over the outside wall. Demosisto is calling for self-determination for semi-autonomous Hong Kong, as young campaigners seek more distance from Beijing amid fears of disappearing freedoms. Teenage activist Joshua Wong, one of the founders of the party, called Lam a hero. "Lam is the role model for Hong Kong people -- facing the suppression of the communist regime," Wong said. Rights group Amnesty International slammed China's treatment of the booksellers, saying Lam had confirmed what many had suspected. "It seems clear he, and most likely the others, were arbitrarily detained, ill-treated and forced to confess," said Mabel Au, Director of Amnesty International Hong Kong. Story continues - Suicide watch - Lam told how his confession, televised by Chinese state media in February, was scripted and directed and that he recited it out of fear of what would happen to him. In harrowing detail he explained how the toothbrush he was given in detention was tied by a thread which was held by a guard to prevent him from committing suicide by swallowing it. Fellow booksellers Lui Por and Cheung Chi-ping returned to Hong Kong in March on bail, but both were reported to have quickly gone back to the mainland at that time. Their colleague Lee Bo, who says he went to China of his own free will and is helping mainland authorities with their inquiries, has also been back and forth to Hong Kong. On his Facebook page Friday he asked reporters crowded outside his apartment block in the city to leave him alone. He also refuted Lam's claim that Lee had told him he had been taken to the mainland against his wishes. Lee's case caused the most outcry because he was the only bookseller who disappeared on Hong Kong soil, prompting allegations that Chinese enforcement agents were operating illegally in the city. The fifth man, Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, remains in detention. inside out When Pixar recruited the psychologist Dacher Keltner to consult on the 2015 film "Inside Out," they were hoping Keltner would lend his expertise on human emotion. The film invites viewers on a journey inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl, Riley, after she moves with her family to a new city; the emotions of joy, sadness, fear, disgust, and anger all take the form of animated characters. But Keltner, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, also studies power dynamics his new book is titled "The Power Paradox." And he couldn't help but scrutinize the way Pete Docter, the film's director, managed his team. When I spoke with Keltner recently, he told me that the award-winning film's success is largely attributable to Docter's leadership style specifically, his willingness to listen to other people's ideas. Keltner cited one moment in particular that illustrated Docter's openness to outside perspectives. The big question hanging over the Pixar team was whether Joy should band with Sadness or Fear to save Riley's personality. In his gut, Keltner said, Docter felt that Joy and Sadness should go together, but a group of senior executives were rooting for Fear. Instead of making a quick, unilateral decision, Keltner said Docter held "the intensest conversations" about the role of different emotions. At one point, Keltner walked around the Pixar campus with Docter and co-director Ronnie del Carmen, and the three were "just engaging in this really deep conversation about what is sadness and how does it differ from depression and what happens if young kids see this?" Meanwhile, Docter was gathering observations from his family and from other members of the Pixar team. Ultimately, he decided to choose Sadness to accompany Joy on the journey. inside out riley Story continues "It really struck me," Keltner told me, "just the openness of his inquiry into that decision. And I think that's one of the things we've learned about great leadership, is people who go around and really get the best ideas from the people around them to make these critical decisions" are the ones who succeed. In "The Power Paradox," Keltner writes that listening is a key way to practice empathy and that empathy is the surprising route to power and influence. He cites research suggesting that teams led by empathetic managers are more productive, innovative, and satisfied with their work. Moreover, Keltner writes that power comes from empowering others. He highlights Charles Darwin as a prime example: The scientist wrote hundreds of letters every year to individuals as varied as missionaries and neurologists, in order to collect ideas that he synthesized in his own writings. Ultimately, Keltner told me, "the more wisdom you get from more people, you're going to produce better things. And it's the task of the leader to go get that information." NOW WATCH: A Harvard psychologist says this is key to being more confident and powerful More From Business Insider There is another twist to the battle between homebuilder PulteGroup, Inc. PHM and the companys largest shareholder and founder, William J. Pulte. This time William J. Pulte has made public a letter that he sent to the board of directors of the company detailing the necessary qualifications that PulteGroups next chief executive officer (CEO) should possess. Pulte owns approximately 8.9% of stake in the company. PulteGroups long-time CEO, Richard Dugas, will retire as Chairman and CEO in May next year. Pulte believes that the CEO candidate should possess public homebuilding company CEO experience or at least 25 years of homebuilding and land acquisition experience. He believes the candidate should have relevant experience of managing multiple homebuilding operations in multiple U.S. markets, operating in a recessionary environment and building effective leadership teams at senior levels of an organization. PULTE GROUP ONC Price PULTE GROUP ONC Price | PULTE GROUP ONC Quote In a bid to expedite the search process, Pulte said that tangible results from the same should be available before July 31. Pulte also expressed interest in working constructively with the board to identify the next CEO. Pulte claimed that he received a letter from director Patrick O'Leary's in May inviting him to suggest candidates to succeed Mr. Dugas. The letter also informed him that the board has retained an executive search firm to assist in the CEO search process. However, the board, in an SEC filing, disclosed the letter sent by Patrick to Pulte. The letter clearly stated that the CEO search process would be confidential and Pultes role in the same was limited to the request for candidate names. In April, Pulte, made public a letter he had sent to the board that recommended the immediate removal of Dugas from the post of CEO and a change in the companys direction. Pulte expressed his displeasure over the companys announcement that Dugas will retire next year and requested the board to accelerate the process. Bill Pulte, his grandson, and another board member, Jim Grosfeld, criticized Dugas decision to move the companys headquarters to Atlanta as well as change its overall performance strategy. Story continues In another letter, Pulte demanded that lead independent director, James J. Postl, should resign immediately from all his positions in the company. In response, James J. Postl, issued an open letter to its shareholders stressing the boards strong support for Dugas and the companys value creation strategy which has produced significantly higher profitability and shareholder returns. Not paying heed to Pultes requests, shareholders overwhelmingly re-elected Mr. Dugas as chairman and chief executive, along with all 10 director nominees, at Pultes annual meeting in May. PulteGroup carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the construction sector are TopBuild Corp. BLD, Simpson Manufacturing Co., Inc. SSD and Installed Building Products, Inc. IBP. All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SIMPSON MFG INC (SSD): Free Stock Analysis Report PULTE GROUP ONC (PHM): Free Stock Analysis Report TOPBUILD CORP (BLD): Free Stock Analysis Report INSTALLED BUILD (IBP): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Saint Petersburg (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said he was willing to reach out to Europe to mend relations shattered by the Ukraine crisis but insisted the West was responsible for the bad blood. Putin was making a pitch at Russia's major annual economic forum in Saint Petersburg to improve business ties with Europe, as Moscow desperately tries to breathe life into its recession-hit economy battered by Western sanctions. "European business wants and is ready to work with our country. European politicians need to reach out to business, to show wisdom, far-sightedness and flexibility," said Putin. "We remember how all this started. Russia did not initiate today's collapse," he added. "We hold no grudge and are willing to reach out to our European partners but obviously this can't be a one-sided game." Russia's energy-driven economy is locked in its longest slump since Putin came to power over 16 years ago, caused by both Western sanctions and plunging oil prices. - Crimea sanctions renewed - As Putin was talking news emerged that the European Union had rolled over for another year sanctions adopted in response to Moscow's March 2014 annexation of Crimea, which prohibit the EU from doing business on the peninsula. Sources in Brussels say that broader economic sanctions over a pro-Russian uprising in east Ukraine that have hit Russia's financial sector could be extended by the EU as early as next week ahead of their expiration at the end of July. Russia in August 2014 introduced an embargo on a raft of food from the West in retaliation for the sanctions. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who sat next to Putin on the stage, came to the economic forum with a large delegation of businessmen. He pointed out that the spiral of tit-for-tat measures have hit European producers. "The sanctions and those put in place in reprisal negatively affect both Russian and European companies," he said in an interview with TASS news agency. "Both sides suffer." Story continues Speaking Thursday at the forum the head of the EU commission Jean-Claude Juncker warned Russia that the economic sanctions would not be dropped until Russia fully implemented a peace deal to end the conflict in east Ukraine that the West blames on Moscow. "The next step is clear: full implementation of the agreement -- no more, no less," Juncker told Russia's main economic forum ahead of a meeting with Putin. "This is the only way to begin our conversation and the only way to lift the economic sanctions that have been imposed." The Juncker-Putin meeting -- their first in Russia since the EU imposed sanctions -- had sparked Kremlin hopes it might signal the start of a return to business-as-usual with the bloc. Putin, who has previously insisted that the worst of Russia's economic crisis is over, said he was targeting a return to growth rates of "no lower than four percent". But Russia's gross domestic product shrank by some 3.7 percent last year and the IMF predicts its economy will contract by 1.5 percent this year before experiencing modest growth in 2017. It takes a special type of crazy to drive more than 3,000 miles in a single day. But since 1923, that's exactly what teams have done at France's annual 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. It's the oldest still-active auto competition of its kind. When it kicks off this weekend, 60 teams of three drivers will cover nearly 3,300 miles roughly the same distance from Seattle to the southern tip of mainland Florida testing the limits of science and sanity. All day. All night. Man versus machine. Despite the physical and technological challenges, the race format is fairly simple: Drive a car for 24 hours and complete as many laps as possible. The famed Circuit de la Sarthe a combination of permanent track connected to public streets is roughly 8.5 miles long. The 2015 winners went around it 395 times, marking the second-most laps in the race's history. That year, the drivers were behind the wheel of a high-tech, prototype Porsche (PAH3-DE), going an average speed of 140 miles per hour. This Saturday, at the start of the 84th running, the same three men won't be defending their title as a team. Porsche, however, will be defending its spot at the top of the podium. That's because for manufacturers, Le Mans is all about reputation. Back in the early automotive days, when humans could easily outlast their cars, automakers looked at this event as a way to earn bragging rights. They still do. Just ask the Germans. Over the past 20 years, 18 German-manufactured cars have won. Of those winners, 13 were Audi. The country's domination began in earnest in the mid-1970s. Before that, victories were largely celebrated by French, Italian and British automakers. However, there was a brief period in the 1960s when Ford (F) was the car to beat. In fact, starting in 1966, the American company won Le Mans four years in a row. Afterward, the automaker stopped competing altogether. Now, 50 years since that first historic victory, Ford is making its triumphant return to Le Mans. And picking up where it left off, one of its cars qualified for the pole position that is, in its class. It's Porsche that has the overall No.1 car at the start. Still, who really has the early bragging rights going into this year's race? Just ask the Germans. Each week, Jay Leno shares his thoughts about hot topics in the auto industry. Tune in to "Jay Leno's Garage" Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CNBC. Melrose Place continues to heat up as a must-shop destination in L.A. New York-based designer Rachel Comey has opened her eponymous brand's first West Coast boutique within spitting distance of cool canteen Alfred Coffee & Kitchen. The 2,600-square-foot, light-soaked space has a warm, earthy vibe with terra cotta-colored floors, poured concrete walls and wraparound wicker bench positioned across from a neat display of her highly-coveted shoes. (Rainbow fringed mules, anyone?) Comey, known for creating down-to-earth clothes with a twist, and embracing different textiles in her clothing and footwear, says she wanted "a mix of elements - some that feel crafty, others that feel industrial" in the space. There's also a hand-felted mural on the dressing room wall that could almost qualify as its own mini art exhibit. NOW OPEN: Inside the Rachel Comey store on Melrose Place. (Photo: Courtesy) Comey partnered with Brooklyn-based architect Elizabeth Roberts and San Francisco-based interior designer Charles de Lisle to achieve her dream space on the West Coast, much like she did for her 95 Crosby boutique in New York. The designer also worked with L.A.-based architect Linda Taalman. Comey tells Pret-a-Reporter she chose to open on Melrose Place "because there's a lot going on and I could relate to that. There's all these women designers on this street, too, which I really liked. It made me think that our customers might cross-over and appreciate each other's work. I thought that was nice - the community aspect." (The Row, Violet Grey, Irene Neuwirth, Zero + Maria Cornejo and Monique Lhuillier are among the boutiques lined up along the serene shopping stretch.) ON DISPLAY: Rachel Comey designs and a pair of shoes on display. (Photos: Courtesy) In celebration of the new store opening, Comey and Rashida Jones co-hosted a party Wednesday night attended by some of Hollywood's most self-assured style makers including Kim Gordon, Miranda July, Busy Philipps and Tracee Ellis Ross. Story continues Jones finds Comey's work "encapsulates cool, effortless urban girls. It's aspirational to me - I want to be the girl that she dresses." Lucky for Jones, she was wearing head-to-toe Comey during the soiree. Though it's hard to choose just one Comey piece worth obsessing over, the Parks and Recreation alum didn't skip a beat when sharing her favorite. "The Glinda jumpsuit is the best thing I own - I have it in two colors," she tells Pret-a-Reporter. "The fabric is just really good. It's flattering. The minute I put it on, I feel cool, elegant and I feel like I don't need to do anything else except maybe put on a pair of shoes that's worthy of it." Phillipps agrees, sharing, "She does these jumpsuits unbelievably well." But for Phillipps, her absolute favorite Comey item is a denim dress from last spring. "I wear it so frequently, " she says with a laugh, adding, "To me, it's the perfect denim dress." With so many strong, intelligent women already wearing Comey's clothes, we couldn't help but wonder if there were any other famous ladies that the designer would love to see in one of her creations. As Comey struggled to come up with a name, she called upon Ross for some advice. To which the Black-ish star suggested, "Helen Mirren or Charlotte Rampling." COMEY'S CREW: Tracee Ellis Ross (Photo: Getty Images for Rachel Comey) Rachel Comey, 8432 Melrose Place, 323-852-3152; rachelcomey.com Read More: Funny Is in Fashion: Carrie Brownstein Is Directing a Comedy Film for Kenzo These two Belgians have joined forces once again for the Raf Simons Fall-Winter 2016 campaign. In the same vein as the ad campaign for the Belgian designer's Spring-Summer 2016 men's collection, Willy Vanderperre's photos are in a two-part format, with a portrait on one side, and a silhouette on the other, the aim being to showcase the key looks of the Fall-Winter 2016 collection. This season, once again, the campaign is audacious and mysterious, with a somber backdrop. The photos were taken in the countryside, under a stormy sky, with light and shadows that create a slightly unsettling atmosphere. The model Luca Lemaire, another Belgian, has worked with Raf Simons before. He is at the heart of this campaign, striking poses which accentuate the enigmatic and alarming feel of the photos. He is seen from the back, straight on, close up, hidden under an oversized hood, and in one photo his eyes seem to be rolling into the back of his head. This Belgian designer and photographer have worked together many times. Willy Vanderperre has shot all of Raf Simons' ad campaigns since Fall-Winter 2013, and had previously worked with him in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Mick was a standout this pilot season, a lower-profile comedy from first-time creators, John Chernin and Dave Chernin, which came in surprisingly strong, becoming an instant frontrunner and landing one of the only two series berths Fox gave to its six comedy pilots. Part of the credit for the success of the pilot goes to the director, Randall Einhorn, who had worked with the Chernin brothers and Kaitlin Olson, cast as the lead in The Mick, on FXs Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia. At the time, he had no deal beyond the pilot because he was tied to ABCs The Muppets. But when that show was canceled and he became available, The Mick producer 20th TV jumped in to lock in Einhorn with a deal that will keep him on the show as director/executive producer, helming several more episodes of the comedys initial 13-episode order. Additionally, he will likelydirect another pilot for the studio next season. When John and Dave brought us their hilarious script for the pilot, we of course agreed that Randall should direct it, as theyd all done such brilliant work together on Its Always Sunny, said 20th TV president of creative affairs Jonnie Davis. He turned in a flawless pilot, which runs the gamut from big, physical set pieces to incredibly nuanced, comedic takes. We of course wanted to ensure hed continue as director/executive producer in series, but we also wanted to leave the door open for him to direct another pilot for us next year. Were thrilled he said yes. The Mick marks the third consecutive pilot directed by Einhorn to go the series, following Wilfred at FX and The Muppets at ABC. He also directed the opening episode of the second season of FXs Fargo. Einhorn executive produces The Mick alongside John Chernin, Dave Chernin, Nick Frenkel and Oly Obst of 3 Arts. Einhorn is repped by WME, Odenkirk Provissiero and Bloom Hergott. Related stories ABC And Fox Begin Signing Upfront Ad Deals Topping Rate Expectations Story continues Fox Sets Fall 2016 Premiere Dates, Goes For Traditional Rollout 'Empire' Co-Creator Danny Strong Inks Overall Deal With 20th Century Fox TV LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmaker Jo Cox was shot dead in the street in northern England on Thursday, causing shock across Britain and leading to the suspension of campaigning for next week's referendum on the country's EU membership. Following is a summary of reaction: BRENDAN COX, JO'S HUSBAND "Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy, and a zest for life that would exhaust most people." "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now, one that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her." BRITISH PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON "We have lost a great star. She was a great campaigning MP with huge compassion, with a big heart." "It is right that we are suspending campaigning activity in this referendum, and everyone's thoughts will be with Jo's family and her constituents at this terrible time." LABOUR PARTY LEADER JEREMY CORBYN "We've lost a wonderful woman, we've lost a wonderful member of parliament, but our democracy will go on. Her work will go on. As we mourn her memory, we'll work in her memory to achieve that better world she spent her life trying to achieve." "Jo died doing her public duty at the heart of our democracy, listening to and representing the people she was elected to serve." "In the coming days, there will be questions to answer about how and why she died. But for now all our thoughts are with Jo's husband Brendan and their two young children." FINANCE MINISTER GEORGE OSBORNE "Jo fought to help the refugees from the Syrian civil war she gave a voice to those whose cry for help she felt was not being heard." "It changed attitudes and I know it contributed to a change in policy. She will never know how many lives she helped transform. Today, doing that job, she senselessly lost her own life." U.S. PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE HILLARY CLINTON "I am horrified by the assassination of British MP Jo Cox, murdered earlier today in her district in Northern England. By all accounts, she was a rising star. It is cruel and terrible that her life was cut short by a violent act of political intolerance. It is critical that the United States and Britain, two of the world's oldest and greatest democracies, stand together against hatred and violence. This is how we must honor Jo Cox -- by rejecting bigotry in all its forms, and instead embracing, as she always did, everything that binds us together." GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL "The incident is terrible, dramatic and our thoughts are with the people affected the Labour lawmakers, the politicians. I don't want to connect this with the vote on Great Britain staying in the European Union." FRENCH PRIME MINISTER MANUEL VALLS "Deeply sad for Jo Cox and the British people. Through her it's our democratic ideals that were targeted. Never accept that!" U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY "I join you in expressing my deep sorrow that a young parliamentarian, who obviously was a young woman of enormous talent, has been killed in the conduct of her duties with her constituency. It is an assault on everybody who cares about and has faith in democracy. And our thoughts are profoundly with the family her husband, her children and with all of the British people, who I know feel the loss profoundly." DUTCH FINANCE MINISTER JEROEN DIJSSELBLOEM, CHAIRMAN OF GROUP OF EURO ZONE FINANCE MINISTERS "The UK is a beacon for peaceful politics, and we hope that the British public ... can make their democratic choices serenely and in a safe way next week." DANISH PRIME MINISTER LARS RASMUSSEN "My thoughts are with her family, her friends, and the British people. It was a true shock to me that a British politician was killed during the campaign." SCOTTISH FIRST MINISTER NICOLA STURGEON "This is utterly shocking and tragic news, which has left everyone stunned." "She was held in huge regard as a brilliant young woman, who had already contributed a huge amount in her time in Parliament, and today she was simply going about her job as a local MP." U.S. AMBASSADOR TO BRITAIN MATTHEW BARZUN "We are heartbroken by the loss to her family and country of MP Jo Cox. My love and our love to them, in this time of unbearable grief." FORMER U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, WHO SURVIVED SHOOTING IN 2011 "Absolutely sickened to hear of the assassination of Jo Cox. She was young, courageous, and hardworking. A rising star, mother, and wife." MAX LAWSON OF CHARITY OXFAM, WHO WORKED CLOSELY WITH COX "Jo was a diminutive pocket rocket from the north. She was a ball of energy, always smiling, full of new ideas, of idealism, of passion. She gave so much to Oxfam." DAVID MILIBAND, FORMER BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY "People in need around the world have lost a tireless, effective and redoubtable champion today following the murder of Jo Cox MP. Her passionate advocacy, first of all working in NGOs and then in Parliament as an elected representative, on behalf of vulnerable and displaced people was a study in effective activism." JOHN CURTICE, POLLING EXPERT AND POLITICS PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE "It's fairly clear no one is quite sure what has happened. Until it's clear who was responsible and what their motivation was or it might have been, all it does is stop the campaign when the 'Remain' side probably would not want it to be stopped." MUJTABA RAHMAN, EUROPE PRACTICE HEAD AT EURASIA GROUP "This will hurt the momentum of the 'Leave' campaign, which has been gaining steadily in recent polls." "It will allow British Prime Minister David Cameron an opportunity to act like a statesman and retrieve the agenda, something he has lost over the last week. "If the incident is confirmed to have been motivated by Brexit, it will also reflect poorly on the more strident elements of the Vote Leave campaign, potentially swinging undecided voters toward 'Remain'." ALAN RUSKIN, GLOBAL CO-HEAD OF FX RESEARCH AT DEUTSCHE BANK "Certainly people are talking about the possibility that this does influence the Brexit vote in favor of 'Remain'. It is a tragic event all around. There is a sense, there is an immediate emotional reaction, but there is still a week before the referendum itself." "It definitely is seen as part of the story, the recovery of risk. Generally you are seeing so-called riskier assets recover. All the assets, whether equities, aussie/yen or sterling/yen are recovering. They are up on the perception of a higher probability of a 'Remain' vote." (Compiled by David Milliken, Andy Bruce and Estelle Shirbon, editing by Sarah Young) LONDON (Reuters) - Lawmaker Jo Cox was shot dead in the street in northern England on Thursday, causing shock across Britain and leading to the suspension of campaigning for next week's referendum on the country's EU membership. [nL8N1991FN] Following is a summary of reaction: BRENDAN COX, JO'S HUSBAND "Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people. "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now: one that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her." PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON "We have lost a great star. She was a great campaigning MP with huge compassion, with a big heart." "It is right that we are suspending campaigning activity in this referendum, and everyone's thoughts will be with Jo's family and her constituents at this terrible time." LABOUR PARTY LEADER JEREMY CORBYN "We've lost a wonderful woman, we've lost a wonderful member of parliament, but our democracy will go on. Her work will go on. As we mourn her memory, we'll work in her memory to achieve that better world she spent her life trying to achieve." "Jo died doing her public duty at the heart of our democracy, listening to and representing the people she was elected to serve." "In the coming days, there will be questions to answer about how and why she died. But for now all our thoughts are with Jo's husband Brendan and their two young children." U.S. PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE HILLARY CLINTON "I am horrified by the assassination of British MP Jo Cox, murdered earlier today in her district in Northern England. By all accounts, she was a rising star. It is cruel and terrible that her life was cut short by a violent act of political intolerance. "It is critical that the United States and Britain, two of the world's oldest and greatest democracies, stand together against hatred and violence. This is how we must honour Jo Cox -- by rejecting bigotry in all its forms, and instead embracing, as she always did, everything that binds us together." GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL "The incident is terrible, dramatic and our thoughts are with the people affected the Labour lawmakers, the politicians. I don't want to connect this with the vote on Great Britain staying in the European Union. "I think the lesson must be that we have to treat each other with respect, even if we have different political views. "The exaggerations and radicalisation in some of the language do not help to foster an atmosphere of this kind of respect. That is why all of us who value the democratic rules of the game know how important it is to be careful to set limits in choosing our words and in making our arguments, and to treat with respect those who think differently, who have different faiths, who live differently, and who love differently. Otherwise the radicalization will be difficult to stop." FRENCH PRIME MINISTER MANUEL VALLS "Deeply sad for Jo Cox and the British people. Through her it's our democratic ideals that were targeted. Never accept that!" U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY "I join you in expressing my deep sorrow that a young parliamentarian, who obviously was a young woman of enormous talent, has been killed in the conduct of her duties with her constituency. It is an assault on everybody who cares about and has faith in democracy. And our thoughts are profoundly with the family her husband, her children and with all of the British people, who I know feel the loss profoundly." BRITISH FINANCE MINISTER GEORGE OSBORNE "Jo fought to help the refugees from the Syrian civil war she gave a voice to those whose cry for help she felt was not being heard." "It changed attitudes and I know it contributed to a change in policy. She will never know how many lives she helped transform. Today, doing that job, she senselessly lost her own life." DUTCH FINANCE MINISTER JEROEN DIJSSELBLOEM, CHAIRMAN OF GROUP OF EURO ZONE FINANCE MINISTERS "The UK is a beacon for peaceful politics and we hope that the British public ... can make their democratic choices serenely and in a safe way next week." DANISH PRIME MINISTER LARS RASMUSSEN "My thoughts are with her family, her friends, and the British people. It was a true shock to me that a British politician was killed during the campaign." SCOTTISH FIRST MINISTER NICOLA STURGEON "This is utterly shocking and tragic news, which has left everyone stunned." "She was held in huge regard as a brilliant young woman, who had already contributed a huge amount in her time in parliament, and today she was simply going about her job as a local MP." U.S. AMBASSADOR TO BRITAIN MATTHEW BARZUN "We are heartbroken by the loss to her family and country of MP Jo Cox. My love and our love to them, in this time of unbearable grief." FORMER U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, WHO SURVIVED SHOOTING IN 2011 "Absolutely sickened to hear of the assassination of Jo Cox. She was young, courageous, and hardworking. A rising star, mother, and wife." MAX LAWSON OF CHARITY OXFAM, WHO WORKED CLOSELY WITH COX "Jo was a diminutive pocket rocket from the north. She was a ball of energy, always smiling, full of new ideas, of idealism, of passion. She gave so much to Oxfam." DAVID MILIBAND, FORMER BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY "People in need around the world have lost a tireless, effective and redoubtable champion today following the murder of Jo Cox MP. Her passionate advocacy, first of all working in NGOs and then in parliament as an elected representative, on behalf of vulnerable and displaced people was a study in effective activism." HENRIETTE REKER, MAYOR OF COLOGNE, WHO SURVIVED A POLITICALLY MOTIVATED STABBING LAST OCTOBER "The death of Jo Cox has really affected me. Xenophobic slogans inevitably lead to violence. "We all bear the responsibility that such a situation never happens again in Germany or Europe." JOHN CURTICE, POLLING EXPERT AND POLITICS PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF STRATHCLYDE "It's fairly clear no one is quite sure what has happened. Until it's clear who was responsible and what their motivation was or it might have been, all it does is stop the campaign when the 'Remain' side probably would not want it to be stopped." MUJTABA RAHMAN, EUROPE PRACTICE HEAD AT EURASIA GROUP "This will hurt the momentum of the 'Leave' campaign, which has been gaining steadily in recent polls." "It will allow British Prime Minister David Cameron an opportunity to act like a statesman and retrieve the agenda, something he has lost over the last week. "If the incident is confirmed to have been motivated by Brexit, it will also reflect poorly on the more strident elements of the Vote Leave campaign, potentially swinging undecided voters towards 'Remain.'" ALAN RUSKIN, GLOBAL CO-HEAD OF FX RESEARCH AT DEUTSCHE BANK "Certainly people are talking about the possibility that this does influence the Brexit vote in favour of 'Remain'. It is a tragic event all around. There is a sense, there is an immediate emotional reaction, but there is still a week before the referendum itself." "It definitely is seen as part of the story, the recovery of risk. Generally you are seeing so-called riskier assets recover. All the assets, whether equities, aussie/yen or sterling/yen are recovering. They are up on the perception of a higher probability of a 'Remain' vote." (Compiled by David Milliken, Andy Bruce, Estelle Shirbon and Ana Nicolaci da Costa, editing by Susan Thomas) By Letitia Stein ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - From pulpits in Orlando and beyond, church leaders are reckoning with religious views often hostile to homosexuality after a gunman killed 49 people at a gay nightclub, with some wondering if they are contributing to breeding contempt. At a prayer service soon after the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Reverend Joel Hunter confessed he did not know how to pray for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community targeted in the attack. "I have been searching my heart: is there anything I did that was complicit in that loss?" said Hunter, senior pastor at Northland, a nondenominational Christian church based in central Florida near Orlando, site of the Sunday morning shooting that also left 53 wounded. The show of support from church leaders, including denominations that reject homosexuality and same-sex marriage, raised hopes that the shooting could mark a turning point for acceptance of the gay community in religious circles. Authorities have described the massacre by 29-year-old Omar Mateen as both terrorism and a hate crime. But fears persist that the warm embrace could end after a few sermons. "Stand with the community when there isn't a crisis," said Terry DeCarlo, executive director of the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said faith-based leaders were talking openly about how to support the gay community for the first time, signaling to her "a transformational moment." Patty Sheehan, an openly gay city commissioner in Orlando, choked back tears standing alongside local Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders at a news conference held as churches planned burial services for victims. "They did not die in vain because of what is happening right now," Sheehan said. "If you are softening your hearts, and there has been a change of heart, thank you." The bishop of the Catholic diocese in St. Petersburg, Florida, two hours from Orlando, wrote a poignant blog post acknowledging that religion can lay the groundwork for the violence seen in Orlando. Story continues "Sadly, it is religion, including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people," Bishop Robert Lynch said. 'WE APOLOGIZE' On Sunday, First Baptist Orlando Pastor David Uth plans to use his pulpit to remind his 19,000-member congregation that even if they do not agree with people's lifestyle, they should remember that God's love encompasses all. "We're the worst at really, genuinely loving like Jesus," he said of Baptists, calling it a church failure that gays and lesbians feel unwelcome in its pews. "That we own completely. We apologize." This week, the Southern Baptist Convention at its annual meeting passed a resolution rejecting same-sex marriage and transgender bathroom rights, even as it separately condemned the mass shooting in Orlando. The Reverend Terri Steed Pierce is senior pastor at Joy Metropolitan Community Church, which serves the gay community, about one mile away from the club where the shooting took place. She was incensed after being left off the roster of pastors at the service earlier this week that was attended by the region's top elected officials. "I'm a gay pastor of a gay church, and our people were the ones gunned down, and yet we werent invited to the table," she said. "We continue to be relegated to the margins, even in the faith community." The organizers of the event said it was hastily planned and Steed Pierce was not purposefully excluded. After a separate news event a day later, Steed Pierce said only one other religious leader came up to talk to her. He remarked that he was a sinner, too, she said. "I am stopping you right there," she said, recalling their conversation. "I am not sinning. I am being who God created me to be." (Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Mary Milliken) (Adds offer sweetened, dissident shareholders, Nevsun approval, Nevsun CEO quote) By Nicole Mordant VANCOUVER, June 17 (Reuters) - Shareholders of Reservoir Minerals Inc, a small mining company with a large copper deposit in Serbia, voted in favor of a takeover by fellow Canadian miner Nevsun Resources Ltd, Reservoir's chairman said on Friday. More than two-thirds of Reservoir shareholders supported the friendly takeover deal, Reservoir Chairman Miles Thompson said at a special meeting of shareholders in Vancouver. The vote comes hours after Nevsun sweetened its bid for the mining exploration and development company by $75 million in cash, after a campaign by dissident shareholders. That is equal to an extra C$2 ($1.55) per Reservoir share. Reservoir and Nevsun, which owns a copper-zinc mine in Eritrea, had agreed on April 24 that Nevsun would buy Reservoir for about $365 million in cash and stock. Nevsun also gave Reservoir about $135 million in funding to help it buy out its partner from the upper portion of its flagship Timok copper project in eastern Serbia. The eleventh-hour sweetener comes after two Reservoir shareholders, China-based smelting company Shandong Xiangguang Group and Jing Bao, a China-based natural resources investment company, urged fellow shareholders to reject the Nevsun takeover bid, on the grounds it was too cheap. Shandong Xiangguang, its affiliates, and Jing Bao collectively own more than 14 percent of Reservoir's shares. Nevsun accused Jing Bao and Shandong Xiangguang, which last week made an unsolicited $130 million financing proposal to Reservoir, of trying to seize the Timok asset "for their own interests." Nevsun shareholders also voted in favor of the transaction in a separate vote on Friday. "We're looking forward to moving the Timok project into the development stage," said Nevsun Chief Executive Cliff Davis. ($1 = 1.2871 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Writing by Susan Taylor in Toronto; Editing by Phil Berlowitz) Vicki Gunvalson is no stranger to drama, and fans can rest assured knowing that she's not holding back on the new season of The Real Housewives of Orange County. While at the RHOC premiere party in Los Angeles on Thursday, Gunvalson told PEOPLE that yes, a lot happened in a year, but she's just focusing on being happy. "I'm happy," she began. "It's been almost a year since Brooks [Ayers] and I broke up, and a lot can happen in a year. I'm trying to mend my heart. I got my heart broken, but it was in God's timing you know I just believe that what is to be is to be, and it wasn't meant to be, so I'm at this new place and I'm happy. I'm really fortunate to have good people in my life right now. Really good people." Last season featured Ayers' controversial cancer diagnosis following his statement in November where he admitted to fabricating medical records to make it appear that he had been a patient at cancer hospital City of Hope. After the whole ordeal with Ayers, the reality star felt as if there was a target on her back when she returned for the new season. "When I was going through that I would have expected compassion, hugs, 'Whatever you're going through, Vic we're here for you. We love you,' " Gunvalson explained. "If that happened to them, one of their husbands or boyfriends was lying to them or not telling them the truth, I wouldn't get mad at them, I'd get mad at the person not them. So, it really was confusing to me and I was in a really dark place for a long time. I'm out of it. I'm good." "It took a lot of prayer, a lot of good friends that would be there for me that really said, 'You know what you're going to get through this. This is just a life lesson. It's a bump in the road. In the big picture life, nobody died,' " she added with a laugh. "I mean, what is everybody so worried about? It's my life. But we got through it. We're good now. It was hard. It was hard." Story continues The reality star did admit that it's never going to be the same within the group. "I don't think we're ever going to get through what I went through with them and what they went through with me last year, and be 100 percent okay," she said. "But I'm okay with it. I'm really okay with it and they're going to think what they want to think, and I'm going to think about them what I want to think, and I hope everyone's good and happy, and we work together basically. You know we are friends, and I am not in their business the way that they were in mine. I really don't care. They care a lot. I always think this, 'If they're not talking about you. You got something to worry about.' So they're talking about me, so I'm okay with it." If that whole ordeal wasn't hard enough, Gunvalson had to experience even more heartbreak when her mother died. "I just had a lot of losses last year," she said. "A lot of betrayal. Brooks betrayed me. The girls betrayed me. My mom left me. It was like, Who's left?" "I've cried more being on reality TV than I have my whole life, and I'm 54 years old so it's not easy," she added. "You got to really be tough and you got to take punches, but I've chosen not to read social media. I have a publicist that helps me, and he'll send me a lot of positive things, and I said, 'Don't show me any negative because if I read negative things I will then start thinking that about me or my circumstance.' " Go Angels! #perfectnight A photo posted by Vicki Gunvalson (@vickigunvalson) on May 21, 2016 at 8:04pm PDT Yet, Gunvalson remains upbeat and is focusing on her new relationship with Steve Chavez and making sure she doesn't let her daughter down by messing it up. "Briana loves Steve," she said. "She's really happy. She says, 'Mom don't mess this up.' And I'm like, 'Okay! I won't. I'll try not to!' " The Real Housewives of Orange County returns Monday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo. Ascot (United Kingdom) (AFP) - French trainer Jean-Claude Rouget took the Coronation Stakes for the second successive year on Friday at Royal Ascot as Qemah stormed to victory. Rouget, who holds the European record for winners trained with over 6,000 to his credit, said he had achieved a childhood dream in winning the Group One race for the best fillies over a mile in Europe. "To do the double is a childhood dream," said Rouget, who trained Ervedya to victory last year. "But I want more winners here because for me it is the best racing in the world." For jockey Gregory Benoist it was also a day of dreams being fulfilled as he rode a pearler of a race on the winner. "This is amazing for me, it's like a dream for me," said Benoist. "I can barely speak, there is too much emotion. "I will never forget this. The dream will remain in my head." His brilliance and joy was in stark contrast to that of Ryan Moore on the fancied Aidan O'Brien runner Alice Springs. Not for the first time in the past few weeks Moore left his mount with a huge gap to make up which was not helped when he was also behind a wall of horses in the finishing straight. Once clear of trouble Alice Springs made up a huge amount of ground but only good enough for third. Earlier Dougie Costello's decision to switch from riding over jumps to the flat paid off handsomely as the 34-year-old Irishman drove Quiet Reflection to an impressive win in the sprint the Group One Commonwealth Cup. It was a first Group One success in Britain for trainer Karl Burke whilst the syndicate that owns the filly -- who has lost just one of her seven starts -- celebrated in a wonderfully exuberant fashion which is not often witnessed in the rather conservative confines of the Royal meeting's winners enclosure. "I'm so lucky, it's been a long road," said a tearful Costello, who joins a select group of jockeys to have won Grade One races over jumps and Group Ones on the flat. Story continues "She is such a game mare. You want every ride to be like her," added Costello, who brought his two-year-old daughter up onto the podium to receive his trophy. Burke, who served a year's ban from the sport in 2009 for passing on information to an owner, said it was a huge moment for him to at last win a Group One on home turf. -- 74th Royal Ascot win -- Frankie Dettori rode another masterful race, to give trainer Michael Stoute his 74th Royal Ascot victory, in guiding Across The Stars to the King Edward VII Stakes, known as the 'Ascot Derby'. Stoute, most famously the trainer of the ill-fated Epsom Derby champion Shergar, said he wasn't aware he had drawn to within one of the all-time trainers record held by the legendary late Henry Cecil. "I haven't been consciously going for breaking the record," said the 70-year-old Barbados-born handler. "Henry was a great character and a great trainer and I thank God he had Frankel in the closing stages of his life when he was battling cancer." The opener provided O'Brien with his fourth winner of the meeting but not from the one he was expecting. Cuff his favourite was never at the races and it was Seamie Heffernan who took the honours on board Brave Anna in the Group Three Albany Stakes for two-year-olds. The winner was an extra special one as she is owned by Evie Stockwell, the mother of John Magnier, O'Brien's employer. "It's nice to ride out a winner for this lady because she is an important member of the team," said Heffernan, who was slapped with a nine day ban afterwards for using the whip 12 times in the final furlong. (Reuters) - U.S. Representative David Jolly ended his bid for a U.S. Senate seat from Florida on Friday, opening the way for Marco Rubio to seek re-election in an effort to help Republicans maintain control of the chamber. "Marco is saying he's getting in," Jolly, a fellow Republican who has been running to fill the seat for the past 10 months, said on CNN. Rubio dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Later Friday, Jolly, who represents the area around St. Petersburg and Clearwater, said he will run for re-election to his congressional seat. "Today I am asking my friends and neighbors to let me continue doing my job as a member of Congress," Jolly said in a news conference in Clearwater. He will likely face former Governor Charlie Crist, a Democrat, in the Nov. 8 election. Rubio, who ended his presidential bid in March, said this week he was reconsidering running and may decide as early as this weekend. Representatives for Rubio declined to answer questions about his future plans. At the news conference, Jolly said he fully expects Rubio to run for re-election to the Senate. His spokesman Preston Rudie told Reuters the congressman "had no actual knowledge of a Rubio decision." Rubio's entry into the senate race would complicate Democrats' efforts to win back a majority in the Senate in the November election. Republicans won control of the Senate in the 2014 mid-term election and now hold 54 seats in the 100-seat chamber. Democrats have 44 seats and two independents are aligned with them. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans have urged Rubio to run despite a pledge during his presidential campaign not to seek re-election. They cited polls showing he is the only Republican who can win the state. The deadline is June 24 for candidates to file with Florida election officials their intention to run for the Senate. The Republican primary election will be held on Aug. 30. (Reporting by Kouichi Shirayanagi and Richard Cowan; Editing by Susan Heavey and Jeffrey Benkoe) Washington (AFP) - Russia bombed US-backed fighters in southern Syria, according to a US official in Washington, who said the aggressive action by Moscow raises "serious concern." "Today, Russian aircraft conducted a series of air strikes near al-Tanf against Syrian Counter-ISIL forces that included individuals who have received US support," said the senior defense official, who requested anonymity. "Russian aircraft have not been active in this area of southern Syria for some time, and there were no Syrian regime or Russian ground forces in the vicinity," the official said. It was not known how many fighters were struck and the extent of casualties or which group they belonged to. The US military launched a $500 million program in early 2015 to train entire units of "moderate" Syrians to fight Islamic State jihadists. But the program drew heavy fire last fall after admitting the efforts had floundered, with numbers of trainees falling massively short of the planned 5,000. One group even handed over ammunition and other gear to a local Al-Qaeda affiliate, known as the Al-Nusra Front. Since then, the Pentagon's new strategy is to work with just a handful of members from each fighting group, instead of an entire unit. Much of the attention is being focused on the Syrian Democratic Forces, a largely Kurdish coalition that has scored some significant gains against IS jihadists. The CIA has also been involved in training Syrian rebels, though the secretive agency has not officially provided any details of its efforts. The bombing would likely further strain already testy ties between Moscow and Washington on the Syrian issue. "Russia's latest actions raise serious concern about Russian intentions. We will seek an explanation from Russia on why it took this action and assurances this will not happen again," the defense official said. Russia and the United States co-chair a 22-nation group that supports a UN-led process to end Syria's five-year civil war through a negotiated deal. Story continues On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry told Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to respect a fragile ceasefire, warning that Washington's patience was running out. World powers have failed to turn the cessation of hostilities, in effect since February 27, into a durable truce and Damascus has stepped up its military campaign against the Islamic State group and rebels, especially in the city of Aleppo. The United States has accused Russia of working to consolidate the regime of Assad, its ally, and continuing to attack the opposition. The five-year war has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions. By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia launched a second air strike on U.S.-backed Syrian fighters battling Islamic State, even after the U.S. military used emergency channels to ask Moscow to stop after the first strike, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday. The official, who spoke to on condition of anonymity, said a small number of Syrian fighters were killed in Thursday's air strikes in southern Syria. The Pentagon has criticized the strike near al-Tanf, saying it raised concerns about Russian intentions in Syria and promising to bring up the matter with Russia. No Russia or Russian-backed Syrian ground forces were in the area at the time. "This was an attack on forces first of all that were fighting ISIL. And obviously that's the first thing that's problematic about this Russian conduct," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters, using an acronym for the radical group Islamic State. "The Russians initially said they were coming in to fight ISIL, and that's not what they did." Asked about the incident, the Kremlin said on Friday it was hard to distinguish between moderate and Islamist extremist rebels on the ground when it came to targeting air strikes in Syria because they were frequently fighting close to one another. Carter did not get into details about the sequence of events but told a news conference that "the channel that we have to communicate with them in instances like this wasn't professionally used." The incident underscored tensions with Russia and came as a leaked, internal State Department memo illustrated frustration within the U.S. government about America's handling of the war in Syria. More than 50 State Department diplomats signed the memo, which was critical of U.S. policy in Syria and called for military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE GAPS? Washington has refused to join forces with Russia in Syria against Islamic State, accusing Russia of acting solely to prop up Assad's government. Moscow began air strikes in Syria last September. The United States has called on Assad to step down but has refrained from directly targeting his forces. Communication between the United States and Russian militaries on Syria has been limited to contacts aimed at avoiding an accidental clash as they carry out separate bombing campaigns and small numbers of U.S. forces operate on the ground. Although no U.S. forces were in the area at the time of Thursday's strikes, the U.S. military activated the emergency communications channels with Moscow to tell Russia to stop striking the area, the official said. Some time passed after that communication but Russia carried out a subsequent strike, the U.S. official said. Carter suggested either Moscow struck the fighters intentionally or faced significant intelligence gaps. "If that was their intention (to strike forces battling Islamic State), then thats the opposite of what they said they were going to do," Carter said. "If not, then it says something about the quality of the information upon which they make airstrikes." The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said warplanes had struck a meeting of U.S.-backed forces fighting against Islamic State in al-Tanf village, near the al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq, killing two fighters and wounding four. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow; Editing by Bill Trott, Toni Reinhold) Russia Track and Field The global governing body for track and field has barred the Russian track and field team from the Summer Olympics in Rio because of widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs and a lack of effort to clean up their athletes, according to The New York Times. Ultimately, the fate of the team will be determined by the International Olympic Committee. However, as The Times notes, the IOC typically defers to the governing bodies of individual sports. Russia has been banned from international competitions for the past seven months after the World Anti-Doping Agency accused Russia of what The Times describes as "an elaborate government-run doping program." There is some feeling that the IOC could still allow athletes who have never tested positive for the drugs to compete. However, whistleblowers have alleged that many of the steroid users have never tested positive, The Times reports. This would be the first time that an entire nation was barred from an Olympic sport because of doping. NOW WATCH: Golf legend Greg Normans advice for Jordan Spieth after his Masters meltdown More From Business Insider Washington (AFP) - Saudi Arabia on Friday reiterated its call for air strikes against Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria, after US diplomats broke ranks with the White House to push for robust action. Briefing journalists after talks at the White House, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the kingdom had long urged Washington to lead a military response to undermine Assad's control. At the Saudi Embassy, Jubeir noted that from the very start of the crisis, Riyadh had pushed for "a more robust policy, including air strikes, safe zones, a no fly zone, a no drive zone." He said Saudi Arabia wanted to arm Syria's "moderate opposition" with ground-to-air missiles and repeated an offer to deploy Saudi special forces in any US-led operation. Riyadh's position is not new: Saudi officials have long been discreetly critical of US President Barack Obama's cautious approach to the five-year-old conflict in Syria. But Jubeir was speaking after the US State Department was forced to confirm that many of its own diplomats had signed a cable on a "dissident channel" calling for more robust action in Syria. Obama is reluctant to see US forces drawn into another Middle East conflict, and many in Washington are concerned that weapons sent to the rebels fighting Assad could get into the hands of extremists. But a lengthy US and Russian led diplomatic initiative to persuade Assad and the opposition to begin talks on a political transition has yielded only the shakiest of ceasefires. UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince requested a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after the United Nations infuriated Riyadh by briefly blacklisting a Saudi-led coalition for killing children in Yemen, a U.N. spokesman said on Friday. Mohammed bin Salman is expected to be in New York next week for meetings with business leaders after a visit to the U.S. West Coast and has requested a meeting towards the end of the week, U.N. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "An official request has come to the office of the secretary-general for a meeting with the deputy crown prince and as soon as we're able to confirm something we shall," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. He added that the U.N. had not yet responded to a June 8 letter to Ban from Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi on behalf of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen asking the United Nations to reveal details on the sources of information for its report on violations of child rights during armed conflicts. Dujarric said this week the United Nations would not disclose those sources. The U.N. report on children and armed conflict said the coalition, which began an air campaign in March 2015 to defeat Iran-allied Houthi rebels, was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in the conflict last year, killing 510 and wounding 667. Riyadh, a major U.N. donor, had threatened to cut off funding to a Palestinian aid program and other U.N. initiatives. Saudi Arabia denied using threats, although Ban himself confirmed the initial Reuters report. The coalition's removal from the blacklist prompted angry reactions from human rights groups including Human Right Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam, which accused Ban of caving to pressure from powerful countries. They said that Ban, in the final year of his second term, risked harming his legacy as U.N. chief. The Saudi-led coalition includes Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols; Editing by James Dalgleish) By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Almost $122 million is needed to prevent and manage the medical complications of the Zika virus spreading throughout the Americas and causing birth defects in babies, the World Health Organization said on Friday. A specific focus is needed on supporting women and girls of child-bearing age, the UN health agency said as it set out a revised joint strategy with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) for how to handle the mosquito-borne virus. Zika has caused alarm throughout the Americas since cases of the birth defect microcephaly were reported in Brazil, the country hardest hit by the outbreak. The rare birth defect is marked by unusually small head size and potentially severe developmental problems. Brazilian authorities have confirmed more than 1,400 cases of microcephaly in babies whose mothers were exposed to Zika during pregnancy. On Thursday, U.S. health officials reported three babies there have been born with birth defects linked to likely Zika virus infection in their mothers in pregnancy, along with three cases of lost pregnancies linked to Zika.. WHO director-general Margaret Chan said much had been learned about Zika, how it spreads, the consequences of infection and how to control it since global health authorities set out their initial response plans earlier this year. WHO declared Zika a global public health emergency in February. "The response now requires a unique and integrated strategy that places support for women and girls of child-bearing age at its core," she said in a statement. The plan highlights several aspects of the Zika outbreak "that require a collaborative, global response," the WHO said. These include, the potential for further international spread of Zika given the wide distribution of Aedes mosquitoes capable of transmitting it; the lack of population immunity in areas where Zika virus is circulating for the first time; and the lack of vaccines, treatments and rapid diagnostic tests. Chan said "coherent funding mechanisms" were essential for the plan to be implemented successfully, and noted the number of donors engaged in the global Zika response had risen to 60 from 23 in February 2016. WHO, PAHO and other agencies say they need $121.9 million to implement the revised plan from now until December 2017. (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Janet Lawrence) Sonys comedy Rock That Body starring Scarlett Johansson is scheduled for release on June 23, 2017 when it will open against Paramounts Transformers: The Last Knight. Rock That Body is a raunchy comedy that follows a group of five friends who rent a beach house in Miami for a wild bachelorette party that goes off the rails. Jillian Bell, Kate McKinnon and Ilana Glazer also star. The film is directed by Lucia Aniello from a script she wrote with her writing partner Paul W. Downs. The two are also writers on Comedy Centrals Broad City and co-created the mini-series Time Traveling Bong along with Glazer. They are also currently involved in a project they describe as a female spinoff of the 21 Jump Street franchise. The script for Rock That Body appeared on the Black List in 2015. Sony picked up the project last year in an aggressive bidding war. Both Aniello and Downs will produce the film through their Paulilu banner. Matt Tolmach and Dave Becky will also produce. Johanssons 2014 action movie Lucy was a surprise hit with over $450 million in worldwide grosses. The four previous Transformers films, based on the Hasbro toy line, have grossed over $3.7 billion worldwide for Paramount. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Don Murphy and Tom DeSanto will produce the latest iteration. Related stories Josh Duhamel Returning to 'Transformers' Franchise Fifth 'Transformers' Movie Gets Title Kate McKinnon, Ilana Glazer, Jillian Bell Join Scarlett Johansson Comedy 'Rock That Body' On Monday, Twitter went nuts when ScHoolboy Q presumably tweeted what everyone thought was his official album cover for his soon-to-be released Blank Face LP, featuring a blurred version of the infamously hilarious #CryingJordan meme. About a day later, the rapper tweeted the cover to the deluxe version with a blanked out face of The Donald. But, on Thursday afternoon, Q made an appearance on TMZ Live and squashed the rumors, confirming hes not using either cover for his album and that he was just trolling. The fact that people actually think that I would use that as my album cover is funny. So, I just actually trolled the people because soon as I put it up on my Twitter, everyone just said Schoolboy Qs album cover, Schoolboy Qs artwork, but they defeated the purpose of what I was doing. I have a concept behind it. The rapper said he was planning on putting out a series of covers, but people on social media didnt give him a chance to tweet the others before declaring the first two as real. People are so quick to jump on things, Q said. It was only out for two minutes, they didnt even give me a chance to post my next picture. I was literally getting ready to post my next picture and like four websites picked up on it. After the initial hype, Q says he called his managers at TDE to see if they could actually gain clearance to make the covers a real thing but they simply said, Nah. I doubt we can do that. They never attempted to reach out to Michael Jordan or Donald Trump. Qs Blank Face LP is set to drop (for real) on July 8. The rapper says he plans to discuss the albums concept in more detail after its release. He showed the official cover during TMZ Live and then tweeted it later with the caption OFFICIAL JULY 8TH. OFFICIAL JULY 8tH pic.twitter.com/exxCxblb12 ScHoolboy Q (@ScHoolBoyQ) June 16, 2016 (Via TMZ/Pitchfork) Supermassive black holes, the kind that sit at the center of most galaxies, sometimes shoot out streams of hot, ionized gas that get twisted and propelled by magnetic fields. These jets are so bright, they're often visible far across the universe from where they erupt. Black hole jets are hard to predict, though. Sometimes they shoot out and rip through the galaxy and out into intergalactic space, but other times they sputter and fizzle out. Artist's illustration of a black hole jet. Now, a team of astronomers have simulated black hole jets, and they might have an explanation for why some get snuffed out. The research could help us figure out how galaxies form around black holes. The astronomers realized that the fates of the jets are probably tied to the magnetic fields around the black hole. Jets with more stable magnetic fields are broader and have enough power to burst beyond the edges of the galaxy. If the magnetic fields inside the jets aren't stable, then the streams of gas narrow and eventually break, spilling a bubble of hot gas into the galaxy. "If I were to jump on top of a jet and fly with it, I would see the jet start to wiggle around because of a kink instability in the magnetic field," theoretical astrophysicist Alexander Tchekhovskoy said in a University of California, Berkeley, news release. "If this wiggling grows faster than it takes the gas to reach the tip, then the jet will fall apart. If the instability grows slower than it takes for gas to go from the base to the tip of the jet, then the jet will stay stable." Collapsed black hole jets heat up the whole galaxy. When that happens, the temperature spike stops more gas from falling into the black hole and essentially stunts its growth. So it seems collapsed jets help keep the size of supermassive black holes in check. More research may help us understand how jets influence the overall size of galaxies as well. Borreal Forest2 Climate change is expected to have a dramatic impact on ecosystems across the world, creating winners and losers: Some species are likely to survive in a warming climate, and some simply wont. A new study in Science examined more than 26,000 trees across an area the size of Spain (583,000 square kilometers) and found that boreal forests in far-northern latitudes may one day act as a climate refuge for black spruce, the foundational tree of the northwoods ecosystem and the most dominant species in these forests. Northern boreal forests make up nearly 30 percent of the planets forested area, and store about 20 percent of the earths carbon. In Canada, these boreal forests stretch over 10,000 continuous kilometers (over 6,200 miles), making them one of the worlds greatest remaining forests on the planet. They are home to a number of wildlife, including numerous migratory birds and 85 species of mammals, such as caribou, snowshoe hare, lynx, bears, and wolves. Canadas pulpwood industry is also concentrated in these boreal forests of Quebec and the country is a world leader in the production of paper and pulpwood products (such as household tissues.) During this century, the northwoods will experience some of the Earths largest increases in temperature, Loic D'Orangeville, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at Universite du Quebec a Montreal and Indiana University, said in a press release. His study looked at data from tree ring analyses that revealed that these forests are sensitive to changes in both temperature and precipitation. A warming climate increases the amount of water boreal forests need to survive and, according to DOrangeville, it is possible that only part of North Americas boreal forest will have enough water to compensate for the increase in water demand. However, moving northwards, temperatures cool and evaporation diminishes. From their results, it looks like the 49th parallel (49 degrees north in latitude) will roughly delineate between the winners and the losers. Above the line, black spruce are going to benefit from the warming. Below, they won't. Story continues Borreal Forest4 The fate of this forest is important for both ecological and economic reasons," Neil Pederson, co-author and senior ecologist at the Harvard Forest, told Business Insider. "The Canadian government is already shifting forest management northwards in this region [because] they are recognizing that trees that are not economically viable today are likely going to become economically viable and important. Of course, predicting the future exactly is impossible, Pederson cautions. Some forests below the 49th parallel might be more resilient than expected and above the line, forests could be hit by unpredictable disasters, or black swans as he calls them, that could change their fate. The megafires of western Canada and Alaska this past year are examples of such unpredictable and potentially catastrophic events. Still, the study offers a note of hope, as identifying potential havens for biodiversity is important for planning for the economic and ecological future. Now, the next step for the research is to look at other species in these forests to see if their findings hold up. NOW WATCH: Here's what popular dog breeds looked like before and after 100 years of breeding More From Business Insider By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court in Atlanta ruled on Friday that district courts cannot hear challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's use of in-house administrative proceedings to pursue enforcement cases. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the fourth federal appeals court to rule for the SEC, which critics say can benefit from pursuing enforcement cases in-house because they offer procedural advantages that can make it easier to win. By a 3-0 vote, the appeals court threw out preliminary injunctions that had blocked the SEC from pursuing two cases. In one, the SEC accused Gray Financial Group Inc and two executives of steering public pension funds to invest in alternative investments they knew did not comply with Georgia law, enabling them to collect extra fees. The SEC, in the other case, alleged that the real estate developer Charles Hill committed insider trading. Lawyers representing the Gray defendants and Hill did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Targets who have challenged SEC in-house courts have argued that the appointment of SEC administrative law judges, and hurdles that can make it impossible for the president to remove them, make the proceedings unconstitutional. But in Friday's decision, Circuit Judge Jill Pryor said Congress intended to deprive federal district courts of jurisdiction over such claims. She nonetheless said "we are without doubt" that the Gray defendants, Hill and others in similar positions can receive meaningful judicial review of their claims. New York financier Lynn Tilton is among others to challenge the constitutionality of SEC in-house courts. A federal appeals court in New York rejected her challenge on June 1. The cases are Hill v SEC, 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-12831; and Gray Financial Group v. SEC in the same court, No. 15-13738. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Alan Crosby) One of the many highlights of CMA Music Festival in Nashville every year is the fan club parties hosted by artists as a way to thank their most fervent supporters. For Chris Young, his fan-centric event at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum last week was a chance to perform some of his hits and also pay tribute to a few of his musical inspirations. Keith Whitley's 10 Greatest Love Songs In addition to his own songs, including "Aw Naw," "Getting' You Home (The Black Dress Song)" and "Drinkin' Me Lonely," Young, flanked by an acoustic and electric guitar player, dusted off an unplugged take on ZZ Top's Eighties rocker "Sharp Dressed Man." He also revisited his country roots with a sweet rendition of "When You Say Nothing at All," which was first a hit for Keith Whitley in 1988, when Young himself was very young 3 years old. The second of five consecutive Number One hits for Whitley, who died of alcohol poisoning less than a year later, the tune penned by veteran writers Don Schlitz and Paul Overstreet would return to the top of the charts seven years later in a version by Alison Krauss. Her interpretation went on to be named CMA Single of the Year. Young is currently on tour and has recently announced the dates for his headlining fall trek. The I'm Comin' Over Tour with Cassadee Pope, plus Dustin Lynch and Dan + Shay on various dates, launches September 29th in Bakersfield, California. Related Hillary Clinton is for the children. On Thursday, the presumptive Democratic nominee took to Instagram, sharing a new campaign video in which she promotes her longstanding journey to help children across the globe. "For Hillary, one thing's never changed: Helping children has been a cause of her life, and it always will be," the video was captioned. "For Hillary, one thing's never changed: Helping children has been a cause of her life, and it always will be." A video posted by Hillary Clinton (@hillaryclinton) on Jun 16, 2016 at 1:24pm PDT The clip begins in 1950, showing a young Clinton playing on a front lawn before it fast forwards to her college graduation in 1973 and onto her political career, including her time in Arkansas in the eighties, her stint as First Lady starting in 1997 and her term as Secretary of State beginning in 2009. Throughout the video, a narrator details Clinton's achievements and efforts, including her education reform, fighting for healthcare for eight million kids and working to end trafficking. Just as Clinton's newest video emphasized her inspiring a new generation, she shared a letter from a young voter who detailed her plans to support Clinton, despite being too young to vote. "My grandpa is voting for you so he is taking my vote!" the child wrote in a letter to presumptive Democratic nominee. "I think you would make a good president because there has never been a girl president and I think you must have good laws in mind too!" A photo posted by Hillary Clinton (@hillaryclinton) on Jun 16, 2016 at 6:42pm PDT Clinton's campaign has been on a winning streak since she claimed victory in a handful of Western states earlier this month, including California, and later took the Washington D.C. primary by a wide margin. Although she's already garnered the necessary amounts of delegates to be named the presumptive nominee, her rival, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, has vowed not to concede until the Democratic National Convention in July. Still, Clinton has received a handful of heavyweight endorsements as of late, including President Obama and Oprah Winfrey. "It's about time that we make that decision," Winfrey told Jimmy Kimmel. "Regardless of your politics, it's a seminal moment for women. What this says is, there is no ceiling, that ceiling just went boom! It says anything is possible when you be leader of the free world. I'm with her." Ben Fleischman, of Madison, who is disabled and receives supportive services, recycles office materials in this file photo in the City-County Building, with help from vocational trainer Gina Shea. Part detective, part health inspector and all loving parent -- that's how it feels when you're choosing a day care provider. Entrusting your child to someone else takes more than a leap of faith. It's about vetting backgrounds, bringing checklists, looking around, asking questions and not assuming that licensure guarantees quality. Below, experts -- including a parent who learned through hard experience -- help you sort out the process. [See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids' Health.] All child care is not created equal, says Michelle McCready, chief of policy with Child Care Aware of America. To choose quality, safe and affordable day child care, she says, "We encourage parents to have a strong process in place." Start early, she suggests: During pregnancy is not too soon to begin looking at child care options. States and communities have varying availability, and some centers have waiting lists. Making a call to local experts is the next step. On Child Care Aware's website, plug in your ZIP code to find the child care agency serving your area. This free resource is "a great hidden secret" that many parents aren't aware of, McCready says. "They can walk you through the facts about child care and provide a list of child care options in your area that meet your needs," she says, whether you're looking for a family provider, a center or after-school care. You can also ask about child care subsidies, area licensing requirements and how to get information about complaints and licensing violations. Check Records Licensure and a mother's due diligence weren't enough to save Quale Johnson, who died Sept. 25, 2008, during his second day in day care. This week, LeVaughn Westbrook, his mother, testified at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on the implementation of a child care improvement law that she and many others have fought for since. The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG) of 2014 made sweeping changes to health, safety and educational requirements for child care providers and boosted funding for day care subsidies and staff education. It also increased transparency and parental access to information on individual providers. Story continues Because of CCDBG, states must open and offer easy electronic access to records including monitoring and inspection reports on individual providers; statistics on deaths, serious injuries and substantiated child abuse in child care settings; and licensing requirements, monitoring procedures, criminal background checks processes and criminal offenses that bar people from being child care providers. Safeguards such as these might have prevented her infant son's death, Westbrook believes. Now a social worker and mother of two in Fairfax, Virginia, she lost 2 1/2-month-old Quale after dropping him off with his family day care provider in DeKalb County, Georgia. Back then, even though Westbrook did all the right things, such as seeking licensed day care, visiting the provider in advance, interviewing the provider and watching how she interacted with other children, the tragedy still occurred. Even now, uncertainty remains around the circumstances of her son's death, which are detailed in an October 2009 follow-up story in the Flint Journal. Inadequate supervision by the provider, failure to abide by safe-sleep requirements and a lack of CPR and first aid certification were eventually uncovered after Westbrook kept insisting on answers. But she had no way of knowing about previous complaints against the provider or whether she or others in the home had a criminal background or were listed on a sex offender registry. Today, as a parent seeking child care, much of this information is at your fingertips. Before visiting a provider, click on your state to go through an online search for individual quality ratings, inspection reports and information on required background checks. Quality rankings and accreditation listings are more tools to help you find the best day care. The National Association for the Education of Young Children helps parents find high-quality child care programs that meet its standards. Visit With Purpose An in-person visit will give you a better sense if a program will work for you, McCready says. You're the eyes and ears on day-to-day activities such as sleep, eating and play. You may even want to come back another time or two. Pay attention to adult-to-child ratio. And ask: How many children are there for each adult? Day-care checklists give appropriate ratios depending on a child's age. Parents for Safe Child Care provides a checklist for choosing quality child care. (A variety of checklists are available online.) During the visit, ask about the caregiver's qualifications, training and early child education. Find out about first aid and safety: Is there a CPR-certified person on staff? "For infant care, specifically, are they trained in safe sleep practices and infant CPR?" McCready adds. And a very basic question: Who has access to the child? "We strongly promote anybody who's taking care of the child, or potentially could be left alone with the child, should have a comprehensive background check," she says. [See: How to Promote Safe Sleep for Your Infant.] Safe sleep is the top issue for infants in day care, says Dr. Danette Glassy, a primary care pediatrician at Mercer Island Pediatrics near Seattle. "Have the caregivers taken a training in safe sleep?" she asks. "Are the cribs the newest models and not recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission? Are [infants] always in sight, even while they're asleep?" Safety alone isn't enough. Infants need emotional and social support from providers to thrive. "If they're not really loving and responsive and creating good relationships with the babies, that sets them off on a trajectory that's not healthy down the road," Glassy says. Toddlers bring on another dimension of safety concerns. "What can they get into?" is the question, Glassy says. Parents should observe how providers store medicines and chemicals, and look for trouble spots where kids could climb and fall. Also, she says, "Is the outdoor equipment developmentally appropriate to young, exploring bodies, as opposed to the 4- and 5-year-olds?" [See: The 5 Latest Poison Control Threats Kids Face.] Day care food is another important area, so ask providers what they're feeding babies, toddlers and preschoolers. "Is it developmentally appropriate?" Glassy says. "Does it follow current guidelines on what we know is healthy nutrition?" Cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting and hand-washing are important components of day care safety, especially for infants. A baby under 6 weeks old with a high fever will almost certainly be hospitalized, Glassy says, even if the likely culprit is a cold. Worst-case scenarios for day care-related infections include meningitis, bacterial pneumonia and whooping cough, Glassy says. So you need to know whether all caregivers are fully immunized, she says. And it's OK to ask about other kids at the day care. "You bet," she says. "Your child is at risk if there are many children in that setting who aren't fully immunized." Infants under 6 months old who have not completed vaccinations and still can't receive a flu shot rely on others around them for protection. Listen to Your Heart After you've done your due diligence, you're ready to make your decision. And that includes going with your heart. "Parents should trust their instinct," Glassy says. "They know. They should trust that little inner voice." Once you've selected the best provider for your family's needs, McCready says, make sure to build a strong connection and maintain it. That, she says, means "ensuring that you're staying involved with that provider, and those communication channels are open." Lisa Esposito is a Patient Advice reporter at U.S. News. You can follow her on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at lesposito@usnews.com. Once you have chosen your online degree program, you may be uncertain about how to now ensure your success. You may not even know what steps to take next. Perhaps you are also worried about how you will manage your online studies while juggling everyday life. However, fear not. There are a few easy steps you can take to ensure you are prepared to start your online degree program. 1. Research and confirm credit requirements: Once you have determined the degree you want to pursue, it's important to know how many credits you'll need to complete it. Visit the online degree program's website and make an appointment to speak with an enrollment counselor and determine the required credits. If you are looking to transfer course credits, you should also research your existing credits to determine if any will count toward your online degree. For example, ASU Online, the online programs at Arizona State University, offers a transfer credit guide tool to help prospective students determine whether they can use their credits. [Discover these four steps to transfer online associate credits to a four-year online program.] Knowing the exact number of credits required to complete your degree will also help you estimate how much time you'll need to set aside to study for each course as well as when you'll graduate. Likewise, this will help you with time management once your coursework begins and give you a goal to aim for. 2. Explore financial aid and scholarship options: You should ensure that you are aware of the degree program's financial obligations before you enroll. Typically, students can receive financial support in the form of scholarships, grants, federal work study and loans. Knowing the type of degree and credits you need can help you determine many of the associated costs and the type of support that will be right for you. Almost any student can qualify for some form of financial aid regardless of income, so it's important to be aware of your options. Story continues [Find out how to decipher the true cost of your online degree.] Your school of choice may also offer interactive tools -- such as a cost calculator, budget worksheets and scholarship searches -- to help you prepare financially. And be sure to contact the school's financial aid office to learn more about your options and how to use these tools effectively. 3. Determine your access to student resources: Explore your access to student services and resources. Online students should have access to tools such as digital libraries, online tutoring, career services and academic advisors. Having these resources on hand will help you adjust to life as an online student and build a support system for information, advice and encouragement along the way. [Discover four tips for using support services as an online student.] Like many other students, you may know that you want to receive a college education and that an online program is the best fit for you, but you may need help ensuring you are well prepared to accomplish your goals and dreams. These simple steps will help set you up for success before you even begin your online degree program. Joe Chapman, director for online student services at Arizona State University, is responsible for supporting and retaining students at ASU Online. He holds a bachelor's degree in business marketing from Northern Arizona University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and has worked in online student services for more than 12 years. In response to Donald Trumps comments about Late Night with Seth Meyers, the comedian has made the presidential candidate an amazing offer. Claiming that hes heard a theory that Trump actually never wanted to be president of the United States and is just looking for ways to undermine his candidacy, Meyers said he came up with a way out for Trump. If you drop out of the presidential race any time between now and the beginning of the GOP convention on July 18, NBC will award you a 13-episode scripted series where you would play the president of the United States of America, Meyers said on Thursdays episode. Youd still get to be the president of the United States, but on TV. See Video: Seth Meyers Doubles Down on Donald Trump Ban Adding that Meyers has not run this by the network NBC added a disclaimer at the end of segment, stating the proposition was not real he offered Trump a premiere in January, just in time for the inauguration of the next president. This way, he said, the world can watch you be president with no real-world consequences! However, Meyers said Trump is still banned from Late Night. Also Read: Actually, Donald Trump, Seth Meyers' TV Ratings Are Pretty Good Meyers laid out his ban on Tuesday night, a protest of the GOP presidential candidates refusal to issue press credentials to the Washington Post. Trump laughed off his denied access on Wednesday, explaining he only does shows with good TV ratings anyway. He has begged me to do the show for the last two years, Trump said. I have told him emphatically no. I only like doing shows with good ratings, which as everybody knows, I only make better (by a lot). Watch Meyers offer above. Related stories from TheWrap: Anti-Donald Trump Protestor Bloodies Photographer With Rock Donald Trump Says 'Ask the Gays,' Gays Make Him Immediately Regret It on Twitter Donald Trump Yanks Press Credentials of 'Phony and Dishonest' Washington Post Diffa (Niger) (AFP) - Seven gendarmes have been killed in an attack on a refugee camp in Niger hosting civilians who have fled Boko Haram, security and humanitarian sources said Friday. Thursday's attack at the southeastern Nguagam camp, home to both internally displaced Nigeriens and refugees from across the border in Nigeria, came shortly after a major visit by lawmakers and UN personnel. "Seven gendarmes were killed. They were buried today," a humanitarian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP. A security source confirmed the toll. "Three Boko Haram vehicles arrived in the area," El Hadj Kilibou, one of the camp's residents, told AFP. "They went to attack the position of the gendarmes, who abandoned their post. They took the vehicles and set fire to the gendarmes' camp," added Kilibou. "They were wearing gendarmes' uniforms and were onboard gendarme vehicles. I saw it with my own eyes. They said to me, 'Don't run, stay, we're not killing civilians.'" Kilibou fled a massive Boko Haram attack in the town of Bosso on June 3 that left 26 Nigerien and Nigerian soldiers dead as well as numerous civilians, prompting 50,000 people to flee. Humanitarian and security sources said the Islamist group had infiltrated the camp, just a few kilometres from the Nigerian border, in order to watch what is happening there. Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 people dead in Nigeria and made more than 2.6 million homeless in its quest to form a hardline Islamic state. Extending the attacks to neighbouring countries from their base in northern Nigeria, the group's ascendancy has prompted a regional military fightback from Niger, Chad and Cameroon. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government officials on temporary duty in Nicaragua were expelled this week, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday, adding the action was "unwarranted and inconsistent with the positive and constructive agenda" it seeks with Managua. State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing that three officials had only recently arrived in Nicaragua when they were expelled on Tuesday. He did not elaborate on what they were doing in the Central American country. Nicaragua's government said that in an "unfortunate incident," it removed two U.S. officials from the country who were performing Customs security work tied to anti-terrorism, without the knowledge of local officials. It was not immediately clear why Nicaragua and the United States had different figures for the number of U.S. officials in the country. "Such treatment has the potential to negatively impact U.S. and Nicaraguan bilateral relations, particularly trade," Kirby told reporters when asked about the incident. "We've conveyed our strong displeasure," Kirby said, referring specifically to Francisco Campbell, Nicaragua's ambassador to the United States. In a letter distributed to the press, Campbell said the U.S. officials' anti-terrorism activities "were carried out without the knowledge or the proper coordination with Nicaraguan authorities, which is ... very delicate and sensitive." Nicaragua said it told the U.S. government "of the necessity to inform (them) about official missions that come to Nicaragua, and to coordinate their work." Kirby did not say whether Nicaragua's ambassador had been summoned to the State Department or the U.S. sentiments had been conveyed in some other manner. "We believe it was unwarranted and inconsistent with the positive and constructive agenda that we seek with the government of Nicaragua," he said of the expulsion. (Reporting by David Alexander, Additional reporting by Ivan Castro in Managua; Editing by Tom Brown and Peter Cooney) A man with an apparent history of causing disturbances at the U.S. Capitol was shot Monday afternoon when he drew a gun inside the complexs visitor center, authorities said. Capitol police did not name the wounded suspect, who Chief Matthew Verderosa said was previously known to his officers. But ABC News and other news outlets identified him as Larry Dawson of Tennessee, who interrupted a House session last October by shouting that he was a prophet of God. **EDITORS NOTE: Suspect's face was slightly obscured digitally at the request of DC Fire and EMS Department.** WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 28, 2016: Police and EMS personnel transport the person believed to be the gunman away from the shooting scene at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center on March 28, 2016 in Washington, D.C. The lone gunman was shot by police and taken into custody and a female civilian was struck by bullet fragments and transported to the hospital. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images) On Monday, Verderosa said, the man set off a metal detector before pulling a weapon from his clothing at about 2:40 p.m. At least one officer fired, striking the suspect. No officers were injured, but a bystander suffered minor wounds when she was hit by flying shrapnel. It has not been determined how many officers fired their weapons, the chief told reporters. Verderosa said investigators believe the man was acting alone and was not tied to a terrorist group. No reason to believe this is anything other than a criminal act, he said. The suspect was undergoing surgery at a Washington hospital late Monday afternoon. Verderosa said the mans condition wasnt immediately known. One weapon was recovered at the scene, Verderosa said. Slideshow: U.S. Capitol Visitor Center shooting>>> Mondays shooting sent dozens of Capitol staffers and visitors scrambling for cover. Diane Bilo of Cincinnati said her husband heard a single shot in the Capitol visitors center and a clip of bullets being fired. Bart Jansen (@ganjansen) March 28, 2016 The Capitol building and White House were locked down for more than an hour as more police responded to the scene. The chief confirmed that officers had located what they believe is the suspects vehicle. Investigators swarming this silver Dodge pickup in the Capitol parking lot. @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/BN24wQLbxP Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) March 28, 2016 Though Congress is currently in recess, there were tens of thousands of people in Washington on Monday during a typically busy spring break and tourist season. An estimated 35,000 people were expected to visit the White House for its annual Easter Egg Roll. Shortly after the lockdown at the White House was lifted, several hundred tourists were seen moving freely outside the fence and taking selfies as if nothing had happened. Story continues The Capitol Visitor Center opened in 2008. It is located on the east end of the National Mall between the Capitol and the U.S. Supreme Court. Capitol Visitor Center was constructed in response to shooting in Capitol that killed two police officers in 1998. carl hulse (@hillhulse) March 28, 2016 The U.S. Capitol Police have been on heightened alert since last weeks terror attacks in Brussels. There was an active-shooter drill at the Capitol earlier Monday. Gun laws in Washington are among the strictest in the nation. Until 2008, handguns were banned in the District, and until 2014, the carrying of open and concealed weapons was prohibited. (Open carry remains prohibited.) Yahoo News editor Dylan Stableford and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles). Related video: On Thursday, the Chicago Premium Outlets of Simon Property Group Inc. SPG celebrated its grand re-opening with the announcement of the entry of more top-notch retailers. In fact, this celebration marked the successful completion of an all-encompassing renovation of the 170-store center and this is likely to be accretive for the Indianapolis, IN-based retail real estate investment trust (REIT), going forward. In fact, last August, Chicago Premium Outlets witnessed massive expansion initiatives which significantly increased the centers retailer activities. Chicago Premium Outlets is the largest center in the Chicago market and with this latest renovation, it is fast turning into a prized center in Simon Propertys global portfolio, offering unmatched value for the shoppers. The new retailers which are slated to open this month include Versace, Forever 21 and performance shoe standout Salomon. Other prime retailers which are in the queue to open their shops at the center are Victorias Secret and its popular offshoot Pink, Restoration Hardware, shoemaker Geox Breathes, Steve Madden, Lands End, high-end childrens apparel brand Hanna Andersson and Bath & Body Works. Simon Property is engaged in acquiring, owning and leasing a diverse portfolio of shopping malls. The company reported first-quarter 2016 funds from operations (FFO) per share of $2.63, up from $2.28 in the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter was $2.54. Growth in operating income as well as new developments and expansions aided the results. SIMON PROPERTY Price SIMON PROPERTY Price | SIMON PROPERTY Quote Zacks Rank & Other Stocks Currently, Simon Property has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the retail REIT sector can consider stocks like Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. ROIC, Saul Centers Inc. BFS and Urban Edge Properties UE. Each of these stocks carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SIMON PROPERTY (SPG): Free Stock Analysis Report SAUL CENTERS (BFS): Free Stock Analysis Report RETAIL OPPURTUN (ROIC): Free Stock Analysis Report URBAN EDGE PROP (UE): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Middle Eastern destinations would soon overtake the city-state. Singapore is currently among the top three destinations for muslim travellers currently during the holy month of Ramadan, but its expected to cede this position in five years. According to the Ramadan Travel Report 2016 by MasterCard-CrescentRating, Singapore is projected to be the third most attractive destination for travel during Ramadan in the years from now to 2020, with Malaysia in the lead, followed by Indonesia. However, in the years following 2020, the report said Middle Eastern destinations are poised to become more attractive destinations. A total of 50 destinations across the globe were analyzed in the study and benchmarked across three criteria average daytime temperature, fasting duration and Global Muslim Travel Index 2016 scores over the next 15 years until 2030, the report said. From now until 2030, the report said Singapore will remain in the top 20 list for travel during Ramadan, due to the relative consistency in average daytime temperatures and fasting durations of these equatorial destinations. In the short term from now till 2020, Malaysia is predicted to take the overall lead, followed by Indonesia in second, and Singapore in third place, the report added. More From Singapore Business Review By Masayuki Kitano SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's exports unexpectedly jumped in May, helped by growth in non-electronic shipments such as gold and pharmaceuticals, although analysts remain pessimistic about the trade outlook amid persistently sluggish global demand. Non-oil domestic exports grew 11.6 percent in May from a year earlier, the trade agency International Enterprise Singapore (IE Singapore) said on Friday in a statement. That beat the median forecast of a 2.3 percent contraction in a Reuters poll. On a month-on-month, seasonally adjusted basis, non-oil domestic exports in May expanded 16.8 percent, well above the median forecast of 2.6 percent growth. A rise in pharmaceuticals exports helped give a lift to May exports, but sustainable drivers of external demand are still lacking, said Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy for OCBC Bank. "It's a nice surprise, given all the gloom and doom out there. Full year, IE Singapore is looking for a contraction and so are we. So it's probably a blip, but it's still nice for now," Ling said. "One month is not going to change the story for the whole quarter, we suspect." Non-electronic NODX rose 19.0 percent in May from a year earlier. This was led by exports of pre-fabricated buildings, non-monetary gold and pharmaceuticals, IE Singapore said. Exports of non-monetary gold rose 436.7 percent from a year earlier, it added. Last month, Singapore slashed its exports forecasts for this year. IE Singapore saw non-oil domestic exports contracting 3.0-5.0 percent, compared with previous expectations of a 0.0-2.0 percent expansion. Exports to China, Singapore's top overseas market, fell 10.1 percent in May from a year earlier, after declining 7.4 percent in April. That came even as China's imports in May reported the smallest decline since they turned negative in November 2014, spurring some hopes of a pick-up in domestic demand in the world's second-largest economy. Shipments to the United States grew 9.1 percent last month on-year, compared with a 7.0 percent slide in April. Sales to Europe contracted 14.0 percent in May after gaining 20.6 percent in April. (Additional reporting by Aradhana Aravindan; Editing by Sam Holmes) Solar panels could sprout on top of older Madison apartment buildings. The city could provide space for a large solar installation, or begin a pilot project using technology to store sun- or wind-derived energy for later use. Those proposals and more are part of a plan endorsed by the City Council last week to give tangible paths toward broader goals adopted five years ago. Were taking a big step with this work plan, said Raj Shukla, chairman of the Sustainable Madison Committee that chiseled the recommendations. We know this is not all going to happen next year, he said. This provides a road map for issues we would like to work on. The Energy and Carbon Work Plan approved this week follows the Madison Sustainability Plan the City Council approved in 2011. It called for reducing carbon-related pollution 80 percent by 2050; using renewable sources for 25 percent of the electricity, heat and transportation energy by 2025; and cutting energy use 50 percent by 2030. They were a lot of great ideas with very little by way of solid steps, Shukla said. Were very excited that the city of Madison is continuing to show clean energy leadership and putting some actionable steps behind commitments that they had previously made, said Tyler Huebner, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a renewable energy advocacy group. Shukla said one of the top recommendations is to create a city government position on sustainability. Its very easy for other priorities to trump environmental concerns. We believe that having an advocate in the city a high-level position would focus priorities, Shukla said. Another important step will be to see if the 2011 goals should be updated, he said. Science and technology have advanced since then (while) the severity of the challenges that we see have become more clear and more intense, Shukla said. Other proposals include: Start a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program to help finance residential energy updates, as Milwaukee has for commercial properties, paid back through property taxes and spread over time. Develop a plan for LED city street lights. Analyze the cost of carbon-based pollution from city vehicles and buildings and how to offset it, as companies such as Microsoft and Disney do. Continue residential group purchases of solar units. Benchmarking will be an important aspect, said Ald. Ledell Zellers, District 2. She noted the city already has plans for LED street lights on parts of the East Side. The lone no vote from the 20-member City Council came from Ald. David Ahrens, Dist. 15, the only council member on the Sustainable Madison Committee. Ahrens said the plan lacks substance, except for the PACE financing program, and the city has little authority over energy use by residents and businesses. Ahrens said he would like Madison to commit to installing another megawatt of solar power and to invest in more hybrid and electric buses. He said if a city sustainability staff member is added, the employee should focus on making city government buildings more energy efficient. Also this week, the city revived its MadiSUN Group Buy for Rooftop Solar, letting homeowners make joint purchases of solar units to hold down the cost, and offering low-interest loans through Summit Credit Union and the state Focus on Energy program. It is the first time the group buying program is being used since 2012. The city hesitated, said Madison facilities and sustainability manager Jeanne Hoffman, after Madison Gas & Electric proposed rate revisions in 2014 that would have decimated payments to solar-equipped households that send excess power to the grid. The provision was later scrapped. Working with MGE will be crucial for the city plans success, Shukla said. He said MGEs 2014 rate proposal, which also called for raising fixed monthly electric charges from $10.50 to $67 by 2017, did a lot of damage to MGEs reputation. The proposal was later amended, raising the monthly fixed charge to $19 instead. MGE, meanwhile, released its own Energy 2030 plan last November. It calls for using renewable sources for 25 percent of retail customers needs by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and encouraging energy efficiency. Shukla was not dismayed that MGE and the Sustainable Madison Committee devised separate plans rather than collaborating on a single proposal. MGEs scope of work goes beyond the city of Madison. Also, what the Sustainable Madison Committee wants to accomplish is not exclusively related to MGE, Shukla said. MGE registered in support of the citys work plan before the City Council. MGE staff are looking forward to working with city representatives to determine how we can partner and where we can advance common interests, Chairman and CEO Gary Wolter said in a statement. Shukla said he expects talks between the Sustainable Madison Committee and MGE to begin by early July. Shukla said attacking global warming is a matter of social and racial equity. The people who are most affected, fastest, by pollution and by global warming are typically the poorest, the most vulnerable and often, the brownest, he said. At the same time, he said, expanding green energy can provide jobs. His passion for the issue, though, stems from his young daughters, ages 3, 5 and 8, and how they might be affected by global warming. It is becoming more and more difficult to look them in the eye when I know what is coming from an ecological and possibly an economic standpoint, Shukla said. Diplomatic revolt. Over 50 U.S. diplomats have signed an internal State Department memo sharply critical of the Obama administrations Syria policy, in which they call for airstrikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The memo says Washingtons Syria policy has been overwhelmed by the continuing slaughter of civilians in Syria, and demands a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process. The memo, sent along an established dissent channel within State that allows officials to vent frustrations and suggest changes in policy, would flip the existing American policy on its head, and there is little sign that the White House is open to changing course. The current strategy calls for airstrikes against the Islamic State, while participating in negotiations with the regime and the Russians. Those talks, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have all but collapsed amid the continued bombing of civilian targets by Syrian and Russian aircraft. More than 400,000 people have been killed in fighting in Syria since 2011, and over 11 million have fled the country or are internally displaced, according to U.N. figures. JSOC takes control of drone program. Sort of. The CIA has seriously curtailed the number of drone strikes it has taken against militants this year, launching at most seven strikes, according to a new report. That puts the spy agency on course to take fewer shots from remotely piloted aircraft than in any year since 2007. But appearances may be somewhat deceiving. A new collaboration between the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) sees the CIA still flying plenty of intel-gathering drone missions to track down militants in Yemen and Pakistan, but handing the controls over the JSOC at the last minute to actually pull the trigger. Law professor Robert Chesney has some smart things to say about the new arrangement. Amid all this, president Obamas signature strike program continues to hit targets from Somalia to Yemen and Afghanistan, as FPs Dan De Luce and Paul McLeary recently pointed out. Story continues Russia vs. U.S.-backed rebels. In a sign of the confused situation on the ground in Syria, Russian warplanes hit U.S.-backed Syrian rebels near the town of al-Tanf in southern Syria Thursday. A senior defense official said that Russian aircraft had not been active in this area of Southern Syria for some time, and there were no Syrian regime or Russian ground forces in the vicinity. The official added that the bombing runs raise serious concern about Russian intentions. Syrian rebels captured the al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq from the Islamic State in March. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the planes hit a meeting of U.S.-backed forces, killing two fighters and wounding four others. War talk. Theres a chance that Beijing would risk a military confrontation with the United States if it started dredging on a disputed shoal off the coast of the Philippines, retired U.S. Navy Adm. Dennis Blair said Thursday. But FPs Dan De Luce reports the admiral thinks in a clash with the United States and its allies, Beijing almost certainly would lose. If the Chinese push there, I think theres going to be trouble, said Blair, who once oversaw U.S. forces in the region as the former four-star head of Pacific Command. And its trouble that the United States and the Philippines are going to win because the military situation is set up that way. If it wanted to fight over the Scarborough Shoal, Chinas logistics lines would have to stretch for hundreds of miles over open ocean, something that would stress the countrys still-emerging military capabilities. Torture days are over. The head of the CIA John Brennan said Thursday his agency would never go back to torturing detainees, FPs Elias Groll writes. In response to a question from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon spurred by presumptive Republican nominee for president Donald Trumps gleeful pro-torture stance, Brennan declared, I certainly, while I am director of CIA, have no intention of bringing such a program back and would not engage in EITs such as waterboarding and other things ever. Not Duffel Blog. Exciting news for the U.S. Army. On Thursday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley announced that soon soldiers will likely be able to roll up the sleeves on the Army Combat Uniform, just like Marines have been able to do for years. But hold on, young grunt. First therell be a 10-day pilot program at Fort Hood to make sure the plan is feasible. Thats right. A 10-day pilot program. To ensure that United States Army soldiers are capable of properly, and responsibly, rolling up their sleeves. Cant wait for the after action report on this. Good morning again from the Sitrep crew, thanks for clicking on through for the summer 2016 edition of SitRep. As always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley China Meet Maj. Gen. Chang Dingqiu, the up and comer in Chinas Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) whom the South China Morning Post suggests could be tapped to lead the service one day. Chang, 49, is currently both Chinas youngest major general and the youngest deputy commander among Chinas theater commands, recently established along the lines of the Defense Departments unified combatant commands. The Post writes that current PLAAF chief is expected to retire next year, potentially paving the way for Changs ascension. NATO Russian hackers are on the march, but in the face of the threat, the New York Times declares NATO as essentially MIA on cyber. The Atlantic alliance has said that it can treat certain cyber attacks as events that would trigger its Article 5 collective defense provision. But its less clear what kinds of attacks could cause NATO to invoke Article 5 or what it plans to do to cope with breaches and attacks that fall short of it. Part of the problem, according to the Times, lies in the hesitance of more established NATO cyber powers like the U.S. and U.K. to share their secrets and tools with other members. Syria Israels top military intelligence officer says Syria is once again cranking out weapons to give to Hezbollah, according to IHS Janes. The Israeli Defense Forces Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi is thought to be referencing a Syrian version of Irans Fateh 110 short-range missile. Halevi also hinted that Israeli intelligence has managed to recruit a number of sources from within Hezbollah, saying, no military has had more intelligence than Israel currently has about the group. The war in Syria may have just gotten even more complicated as reports emerge of fighting within the Assad regimes coalition. The Jerusalem Post reports that Hezbollah troops and Syrian army forces briefly engaged in open warfare near Aleppo following a dispute about military strategy after Syrian forces wanted to withdraw from positions that the Lebanese terrorist group had taken heavy casualties capturing. Reports of the fighting, sourced to a Syrian news outlet, claimed that Syrian warplanes carried out three airstrikes against Hezbollah troops as part of the conflict. The Islamic State The Islamic State now has more recruits than al Qaeda had at the peak of its strength, says CIA director John Brennan. Brennan, testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday, puts the Islamic States end-strength at 20,000, which the U.S.-led coalition has helped to shave down from 33,000 since last year. The CIA chief warned that the group may try to carry out more attacks similar to those in Brussels and Paris as it loses territory in Iraq and Syria. Brennan also pointed to the Islamic State in Libya as the groups most dangerous affiliate. The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria, part of the groups Human Rights Council, has released a report saying the Islamic State has and continues to carry out acts of genocide against the Yazidi populations of Iraq and Syria. The report says that the jihadist group is still holding at least 3,200 Yazidi women and children in captivity. The Islamic State began committing atrocities against Yazidis in Iraq after it laid siege to civilians from the minority group hiding on Iraqs Mt. Sinjar. It has reserved some of its most horrific abuses against Yazidi women and girls, raping them and selling them into sexual slavery. Think tanked The Center for a New American Security has released its final report from the ISIS Study Group, a collection of national security officials it convened to study options for the next administration to take on the terrorist group. The report, Defeating the Islamic State: A Bottom-Up Approach, recommends that the U.S. put more emphasis on training and equipping Sunni Arab forces in Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State and use coercive military threats, to protect American-backed fighters from Russian and Assad regime attacks. It also calls for the next administration to remove artificial manpower limitations, restricting the number of U.S. forces involved in the fight against the jihadist group. Photo credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images Snapchat is putting its financial weight behind a new digital magazine called Real Life, which will focus on "essays, arguments, and narratives about living with technology." In a blog post, Snapchat researcher and Real Life editor-in-chief Nathan Jurgenson writes that the mag will publish one piece of writing each weekday, not one bit of it news, reviews or gossip. "It will be about how we live today and how our lives are mediated by devices," he explains. The publication launches June 27 on a dedicated website -- not on Snapchat itself -- though Jurgenson notes that "we may eventually expand to other mediums and formats as well." The project is being supported by Snapchat, which recently raised $1.8 billion in funding, and Jurgenson acknowledges "inherent complexities attached to being funded by a company in the field of what we're publishing about, sometimes critically." Jurgenson writes that Snapchat's financial support -- but not editorial influence -- means it can focus on the writing, and not page views and Facebook shares. The rest of the editorial staff includes senior editors Rob Horning, Alexandra Molotkow and Sarah Nicole Prickett, and managing editor Soraya King. A free launch event is planned on June 27 at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City. Real Life is me, @snpsnpsnp, @robhorning, @alexmolotkow, and @soraya_king. i wrote a thing about it here https://t.co/I5BIkGYRi6 - nathanjurgenson (@nathanjurgenson) June 16, 2016 v v v v excited to introduce REAL LIFE (the magazine!), launching June 27: https://t.co/unpXmt8pOn - Alexandra Molotkow (@alexmolotkow) June 16, 2016 ap677338237672 The day Snapchat brought in the bed was a weird day in the office. Next came the hangers in the closet with clothes on them and the pictures of random people on the walls. Before long, it looked like Snapchat had set up an apartment inside the office, a former employee told Business Insider. "It was like an IKEA set up, but nobody really slept there," the ex-Snapchatter said. Adding a bed wasn't just a new office perk. For the last 18 months, Snapchat has been inspected by the city of Los Angeles for its use of the Thornton Lofts apartment spaces, which the company uses as offices. The beds were hauled in ahead of an inspection by city officials, the former employee claims, to give the impression that someone was living there when really it was just more office space for Snapchat's growing staff to sprawl into. A Snapchat representative said that the company was in compliance with regulations, but declined to comment further on the matter or provide information about who lives in the units. Yet some of the neighbors were suspicious. According to case records obtained by Business Insider through a public-records request, Snapchat's office at 619 S. Ocean Front Walk came under inspection by the LA Department of Building and Safety starting in March 2015 after somebody complained that it was being converted into another use. The first complaint said that residents "believe that a commercial office/business use is being housed in the entire building, when part of it is supposed to be residential condo units." The second complaint was more direct and included the other office space it had been renting. "The 10 residential units in the combined projects at 619 and 701 Ocean Front Walk are being used by Snapchat Inc., primarily for office and not residential uses," alleged the complaint. Parking spaces that were supposed to be available to the community were also removed, according to the complaint. The friction with the neighbors and the unusual office arrangement provide a revealing window into the rapid growth at Snapchat, which has become one of the most popular apps among teens, even as its operations have remained closely guarded by the company's penchant for secrecy and its Los Angeles home base, hundreds of miles away from most of its internet rivals. Story continues When an inspector toured the property in May, escorted by a lawyer, he noted a kitchen, a shower, and a "bedroom with a bed and closet with clothing." Alongside it were "several docking stations for computers used for commercial services." Another case-management form notes that one condo included at least eight desks set up. The condo units appear to be zoned as "live-work" spaces, which means that Snapchat would be allowed to use the apartments for work. But the units must also have a resident, and it's unclear who is "living" in the Snapchat office. snapchat venice The furniture was added to make it look like someone was living there in compliance, according to the ex-Snapchatter, but no one ever did. Instead, the perk of working in one of these vacation-condo-style apartments meant that Snapchat employees would hit the beach and then shower off in the bathroom. For people working late or on odd shifts, there was a bed to nap on. The employees worked around the fake photos on the walls and ignored the hangers in the closets. On June 15, the inspector closed the case for the LA Department of Building and Safety and referred it to the Los Angeles housing department. Based in Venice, the $18 billion company has struggled to build its real-estate empire to match the pace of its growth. Snapchat built its campus by expanding into small office buildings throughout the eclectic neighborhood, instead of planting its roots in a corporate office park, as its rivals up in Silicon Valley have. That sprawl, though, has presented its challenges, as shown by the inspections spurred by worried neighbors. Its expansion hasn't slowed, though, and the company recently signed a contract to expand out of Venice by taking up space at the Santa Monica airport. NOW WATCH: Mark Cuban explains why downloading Snapchat is a huge mistake More From Business Insider Shares of Sohu.com Inc. SOHU tumbled to a 52-week low of $37.81 during yesterdays trading session. Shares of this China-based Internet portal, however, recovered marginally to close the trading session at $38.58. The company, yesterday, backed off from its earlier proposal of a $600 million equity and debt investment. In Dec 2015, the companys CEO, Charles Zhang had proposed the formation of a special purpose entity through which the group planned to repurchase shares and notes of the company. However, the company has now revealed that it will seek and consider alternative financing options for the company, which disappointed investors. But it is also important to note that the company has been going through tough times since it reported its first quarter 2016 results in April. Though the reported loss was lower than expected, sales declined year over year, thereby raising concerns for long-term growth. The companys business has been impacted by uncertain macroeconomic conditions in China, in addition to persisting sluggishness in its brand advertising business. Furthermore, the company has been cutting down its spending levels, which will make market share gain more difficult in the near term due to stiffening competition from peers. On the other hand, it is necessary for the company to continue investments in product development to drive growth, which will also weigh on its financials in the near term. Nonetheless, the companys strength in search, online video and mobile businesses is a positive. The online gaming business also has some decent growth potential. SOHU.COM INC Price and Consensus SOHU.COM INC Price and Consensus | SOHU.COM INC Quote Sohu has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) at present. Better-ranked stocks in the broader technology space include Facebook, Inc. FB, EarthLink Holdings Corp. ELNK and CommVault Systems, Inc. CVLT , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SOHU.COM INC (SOHU): Free Stock Analysis Report EARTHLINK HLDGS (ELNK): Free Stock Analysis Report COMMVAULT SYSTM (CVLT): Free Stock Analysis Report FACEBOOK INC-A (FB): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A controversial scheme offering university scholarships to young South African women who remain virgins is unconstitutional, the Commission for Gender Equality ruled on Friday. The "maiden's bursaries" offered by a local mayor sparked a nationwide debate in January, with critics slamming the scheme's emphasis on virginity as outdated while traditionalists said it would help preserve African culture. On Friday, the gender commission said the program discriminated against women because male students were not subjected to the same tests. "Any funding by an organ of state based on a woman's sexuality perpetuates patriarchy and inequality in South Africa," it said in a statement. Rights groups applauded the ruling. "It is not the cultural practice that is the problem here; it is the allocation of state funds on the basis of girls sexuality that violates the constitutional protection to equality, dignity and privacy," said Sanja Bornman, an attorney with Lawyers for Human Rights. Recipients of the scholarships, which were offered only to women, were required to undergo virginity testing each time they returned home for holidays, and could lose their scholarships if it was determined that they had engaged in sexual activity. Dudu Mazibuko, the mayor who initiated the program, said in January it would help reduce teenage pregnancy and the spread of HIV/Aids as well as widening job opportunities for women in her small municipality in KwaZulu Natal province. Mazibuko, a member of the ruling African National Congress, argued that there was already a strong culture of virginity testing in the poor eastern coastal province. But gender activists and some political parties condemned the practice, with the Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party describing it as "patriarchal and anti-women". (Reporting by Pete Vernon; Editing by Stella Mapenzauswa and Catherine Evans) Liverpool (AFP) - A single question was on the lips of the thousands of investors gathered in the city of Liverpool in northwest England this week: what will happen if Britain leaves the EU? From a small English milk producer to a large Indian employer, no fewer than 30,000 businessmen and women gathered for the International Festival for Business, the largest meeting of its kind in Britain. The UK will go to the polls on June 23 to settle the debate on its continued EU membership. The campaigns for and against were this week thrown into disarray after the killing of lawmaker Jo Cox just seven days before the vote. Polls have indicated growing support for leaving, days ahead of the referendum with markets reacting nervously. "The European referendum is clearly bringing a degree of uncertainty to business markets," said Ian McCarthy, director of the International Festival for Business. "Let's hope that when there is a decisive result toward the end of June, business can get back to what it does best which is developing products and services," he said. The vast exhibition hall on the banks of the River Mersey was buzzing with product presentations, conferences and private meetings, where organisers expect contracts worth 265 million ($374 million, 334 million euros) to be inked. But in every spare moment, talk turned to the potential fallout of an exit: whether Prime Minister David Cameron's gamble in calling the vote could imperil his political future; and whether a break with Brussels bureaucracy could be positive. "In case of a Brexit we would have the biggest recession in a generation, but we would survive," said Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bicycle, the maker of iconic folding bikes. "For my business I prefer to be in Europe but we would survive anyway, we would adapt." Anyone making predictions about what would happen however, is wasting time, he added. "You can't make figures in advance about the consequences because a Brexit would not happen overnight." Story continues International organisations, including the International Monetary Fund, have warned that Britain's economy will suffer if it leaves. - 'Alone and isolated' - Proudly showing off his antique sewing machine, master leather craftsman Keith Hanshaw said he was not afraid. From his studio in Huyton, in the suburbs of Liverpool, his small company The Leather Satchel exports bags as far as Japan and Australia. "In the short term, nothing good would come from a Brexit. But on a medium to long term, it could help to sign free-trade agreements," said Hanshaw, an affable company executive director with a neatly trimmed beard. Leaving the bloc would allow Britain to negotiate trade deals without having to take into account the diverse interests of the EU's 27 other members, he believes. Hanshaw is planning to vote in favour of Brexit, but admits that many of his employees are happy with the status quo. The economic redevelopment of Liverpool and much of post-industrial Britain is vulnerable to shocks. From the opening of the port city's first docks in 1715 to 1960 the city enjoyed two and a half centuries of prosperity. It was the starting point of goods destined for export around the British Empire, and a departure point for emigrants from Ireland and around Europe seeking a better life in the United States. The city experienced a steep decline after 1960, but has experienced a burgeoning revival in the last two decades. Its docks, once the foundation of the city's wealth that fell into obsolescence, have been regenerated as a cultural and tourist hub thanks to a share of the 1.5 billion in European funds that the city has received, according to local authorities. Work is underway to develop a new port, capable of accommodating the latest generation of container ships, due to open this year. "The Brexiters who demand that we should leave Europe quite simply tell you that the grass is greener on the other side," said Joe Anderson, mayor of Liverpool and a member of the centre-left Labour party. "My belief is that there would be desert on the other side and a lonely path for the UK left alone and isolated." Its hard to imagine America without the Statue of Liberty, but the icon of freedom didnt make its first full appearance in New York until June 17, 1885. libertyatnight400 Liberty at night. National Park Service. The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor to great fanfare that day, but to the surprise of no one familiar with the Statue project, its full public debut was put on hold for another year after a logistical problem cropped up: the statues mammoth pedestal didnt exist. Link: Like our Facebook page and share this with a friend! The project started in 1865 and it took 21 years for the Statue of Liberty to be conceived, built in pieces, shipped to America, and hoisted on its pedestal on Bedloes Island. Edouard de Laboulaye, a leading French intellectual and an expert on the U.S. Constitution, dreamed that the statue would inspire the French people to follow the example of the American people, including the late President Abraham Lincoln. Laboulaye also believed the 13th Amendment, which abolishing slavery in the U.S. in 1865, was proof that justice and liberty for all was possible. It took 10 years for Laboulaye to come up with plan for the Statue. He enlisted sculptor Auguste Bartholdi to design the monument and Bartholdi helped to raise 400,000 Francs in conjunction with the Franco-American Union. Bartholdi selected Bedloes Island as the spot for the Statue, and the plan included American fundraisers paying the pedestal, while the French said for the Statue. The arm holding the torch was completed in 1876 and shown at Philadelphias Centennial Exposition. It was then moved to Madison Square Park in New York City until 1882 to help with the fundraising. The Statue was built in Paris and presented by the Franco American Union to the United States Ambassador, Levi Morton, on July 4, 1884. The Statue was then taken apart, and sent to the United States aboard the French Navy ship, Isere. The Statue arrived in New York Harbor on June 17, 1885, well before the pedestal was completed. The next year, once the pedestal was finished, immigrant workers re-assembled the Statue, and on October 28, 1886, the Statue made its debut. Story continues About 1 million New Yorkers gathered for the ceremony, as Bartholdi released a French flag that covered the Statue of Libertys face. President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty, as a gift from France and a sign of mutual friendship. The 151-foot-tall Statue cost $250,000, paid for by the French. The pedestal, at 154 feet, cost $270,000 paid for by American sources. One thing missing from the Statute and pedestal was the famous plaque with a poem from Emma Lazarus. She wrote the sonnet as part of the fund raising effort , and it was added in 1903. Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she With silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Recent Historical Stories on Constitution Daily How Aaron Burr changed the Constitution How much do you know about the American flag? The history of legal challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences moves forward today with notification to all branches of the finalists in the 2016 Board Of Governors election, in most cases four final contenders in each of the 17 branches. As Deadline was first to report exclusively on April 7, the Academy made a major sea change in the way these elections are conducted, for the first time opening up the contest to every one of the 6,000-plus voting members of the organization. Previously, it was generally a nominating committee within each branch that selected candidates to run for Board seats. Now, democracy has taken over, as the Academy encouraged all members to get involved, and many more did put their hat in the ring resulting in a vote from each branch for todays finalists. The Academy elects one-third of its Board each year, with winners serving three-year terms and eligible to run three times before being termed out for a year. Among notables on the list of candidates is the highest profile name, Steven Spielberg, who is running for Kathryn Bigelows seat in the Directors Branch (she is not going for re-election). Hell compete against John Badham, Thomas Carter and Lisa Cholodenko. Past President Hawk Koch, who may have eyes on running again for President when Cheryl Boone Isaacs presumed fourth term is up in 2017, is trying to return to the Boards Producers Branch just as he attempted in last years election. He faces incumbent and chair of the Foreign Language Committee Mark Johnson, Paula Wagner and Stephanie Allain, the latter one of the very few African Americans who made the cut despite the well-publicized diversity push by the Academy for more minority representation in the group. Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams, whose new film Life, Animated is a must see for anyone who cares about great documentaries, is another African American in the running, competing against past Documentary Branch board members Michael Apted and Rob Epstein along with one of this years Doc Feature nominees Liz Garbus (What Happened Miss Simone?). Williams became the first African American director to actually win an Oscar in 2010 for his doc short Music By Prudence. In an effort to increase diversity on the Board, the Academys current BOG voted to create three new Governor positions which were announced recently that went to African American Reginald Hudlin, Latino Gregory Nava and Asian Jennifer Yuh Nelson. Its a good thing because this years group of candidates doesnt promise to make a significant difference in that regard although there continues to be a significant influx of female candidates which can only be counted as some nice progress on the Acads part. Story continues Mandatory Credit: Photo by Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock (5584910gl) Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Steven Spielberg 88th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon, Los Angeles, America - 08 Feb 2016 If there was an effort to mirror this years Presidential election where the establishment appears to be on the ropes, at least in the primary process, the Academy isnt throwing out the incumbents at least not yet. Ten incumbents are back in the running for the Board including Ed Begley Jr. (Actors), John Bailey (Cinematographers), Judianna Makovsky (Costume Designers), Jan Pascale (Production Designers), Amy Pascal (Executives), Bill Corso (Makeup and Hair Stylists), Mark Johnson (producers), Nancy Utley (Public Relations), Jon Bloom (Short Films And Feature Animation) and Robin Swicord ( Writers). The latter is competing with past Governor James L. Brooks, James Schamus and Larry Karaszweski (who narrowly lost a seat last year to Billy Ray in a rare run-off). One of the most interesting races will be in the Public Relations branch where Fox Searchlight co-President Nancy Utley will be vying for a second three year term against former Board member and presidential candidate Rob Friedman , now co-Chairman of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. He could also be vying to return to the BOG with presidential ambitions next year. Both Utley and Friedman are former marketers who made their way into the PR branch with those credentials but now run major film companies. They will be vying with PR veteran Tony Angellotti (among other clients he is the consultant for Universal live action and Pixar/Disney animation awards campaigns) who could become a first-timer to the BOG after serving many years on the PR Executive Committee. Finally there is Bruce Feldman, a PR veteran who now consults as well as runs a specialty gift business, perhaps the most outspoken candidate of all. He has aggressively run for this position, spelling out on a platform specific things he would do, and sometimes vocally opposing Board actions in the past. In a way he is the Trump card in the PR race, an anti-establishment candidate looking to shake things up. By making it this far (there were reportedly over 40 contenders in the PR branch alone) he is proving that making a little noise can have an effect. It got Feldman all the way to this point. Voting among each branch for their new or returning Governor starts June 29 with ballots due on July 12. Final results will be announced on July 21. The election for Academy President where Boone Isaacs will be running for her fourth and final one-year term will be in August. Further, names of the first new batch of Academy members accepted since the organization launched an international search to significantly increase the numbers of minority and women members (following the latest #OscarsSoWhite controversy) is expected later this month. Related stories Steven Spielberg, Matt Charman And Marc Platt Reteam For Walter Cronkite Vietnam Pic John Williams' AFI Gala Had The Ultimate Hollywood Soundtrack 'The BFG': New Trailer & Poster For Steven Spielberg's Take On Roald Dahl Tale DODGEVILLE More than a dozen residents gathered in a sitting room at Upland Hills Health Nursing and Rehab Center patiently awaiting the arrival of a special guest. Sporting a Green Bay Packers jersey and scooting along in a custom wheelchair, Noah, a 2-year-old white bichon poodle mix with no eyes and deformed hind legs, entered the room. Residents faces lit up at the sight of him. Some silently outstretched their hands to pet him as he was brought near. Others held Noah like a baby, clutching him close to their chests. Nurses watching the interactions became teary as he was gently placed from lap to lap. Its the same everywhere Noah and his owner, Lisa Edge, go. For reasons that are at once obvious and mysterious, the severely disabled but determined little dog brings out emotional responses when Edge takes him to visit schools and nursing homes. The goal: To provide a lesson in accepting differences and bullying, a problem Edge, a former kindergarten teacher from Mineral Point, has dealt with firsthand. During their visit in Dodgeville, Noah was calm and even-keeled as residents and staff members took turns holding him. Some chuckled as Edge broke out his sunglasses and showed off the homemade skis she attaches to his wheelchair when he plays outside in the winter. Edge said her goal is to teach children to feel empathy for Noah, not sympathy. She said people often underestimate Noah because of his disabilities, but when he begins to move around and interact with people he quickly proves that his differences dont stop him from living a normal life. The students in Judy Benishs fifth-grade class in Mineral Point were in awe of Noah when he visited. The school has been putting a bigger focus on inclusiveness and empathy in recent years, but Benish said its important those ideas are reinforced. Its always good to have that reminder that not everybody is the same and that people are different, she said. Edge adopted Noah a little more than a year ago after he was rescued from a backyard breeder in California. He was nursed back to health by Saving K9 Lives Plus, a dog rescue organization in the Los Angeles area. In recognition of his anti-bullying mission, Noah has been named a semi-finalist in the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards. The national competition acknowledges the achievements of dogs and their owners. People can cast a vote once a day for their favorite dog until June 22 to determine the competitions finalists. Noah, whos competing in the emerging hero category, is one of 24 semi-finalists across eight categories. Other categories include rescue and therapy dogs. In addition to his wheelchair, Noah also wears a lightweight copper halo around his head to help sense his surroundings and keep him from bumping into objects. His participation in the Humane Association competition could help raise awareness about blind or disabled animals, many of which are abandoned or never adopted because owners dont know how to treat their disabilities, said Silvie Bordeaux, the creator of the halo. Bordeaux created the product, called Muffins Halo, four years ago when her own dog, Muffin, became blind due to cataracts. Edge owns four other disabled dogs Yorkies Lexi and Tater Tot, and Malteses Amazing Grace and Nicky. People often think it takes more work to care for disabled dogs, but Edge said that hasnt been the case for her. These are the dogs nobody wants, she said. Just because they look different doesnt mean theyre any less of a companion Of all of her animals, Noah demands the most attention, she said, because he likes to be held almost constantly. Hes just taught me a lot about life, she said. It doesnt matter what you look like, you can still bring joy and happiness and peace to people. These are the dogs nobody wants. Just because they look different doesnt mean theyre any less of a companion. Lisa Edge dog owner History is shaped by actors great and small. When most Americans hear about the destruction of slavery during the Civil War, they think of President Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation. But on the anniversary of Juneteenththe day former slaves in Texas celebrated emancipation, on June 19, 1865, when the Union Army reached themit is important to recall the central place of the enslaved themselves in the movement to abolish slavery. Thousands of slaves ran away to Union Army lines from the very start of the war and helped initiate the process of emancipation. They were simply doing what runaway slaves had done before the war: voting with their feet for freedom. Fugitive slaves radicalized abolition by their tactics, contributing to the growth of the Underground Railroad. While we are well acquainted today with the derring-do of Harriet Tubman, soon to adorn the front of the twenty-dollar bill, Tubman was not alone. Many abolitionists made running off slaves a quintessential form of abolitionist activism. In the years before the Civil War, former slaves gave abolition its most potent issuethe controversy over how the North would treat fugitive slavesand its most dynamic exponents, fugitive slave abolitionists. The black abolitionist Leonard Grimes was arrested and jailed in Virginia for assisting fugitive slaves. Grimes eventually moved to Boston where he pastored the Twelfth Baptist Church, which was known as the fugitive slave church because so many of his congregants were runaways. White abolitionists were also imprisoned for their fugitive slave activism. Charles Torrey died in a dank Maryland jail, Jonathan Walkers hand was branded with the initials SS for Slave Stealer in Florida and Calvin Fairbanks was released from a Kentucky jail only after the Civil War started. The abolitionist Laura Haviland confronted bloodhounds during one of her forays to the south. John Parker, a former Alabama slave, was perhaps one of the most daring conductors of the abolitionist underground along the Ohio River. Parkers narrative abounds with military terminology when he describes his escapades, which resembled tactics of guerilla warfare and insurgency. Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter Nothing united the different factions of the abolition movement better than the fugitive slaves desperate bid for freedom. Fugitive slaves abetted by abolitionist vigilance committees, antislavery lawyers and politicians moved the issue of abolition into northern state- and courthouses. Northern personal liberty lawsattempts to grant fugitives trial by jury and prevent the kidnapping of free blacks into slaverychallenged the extraterritoriality of southern slave codes and the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution. The preeminent abolitionist editor William Lloyd Garrison condemned the criminalization of blackness after the passage of the draconian Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which compelled Northern citizens to participate in the capture of fugitive slaves or anyone thought to be one. It could easily make every black person a suspected runaway and facilitated the kidnapping of free blacks, as in the now well-known case of Solomon Northup. As the fugitive slave abolitionist Jermain Loguen of Syracuse, N.Y., wrote, It outlaws me, and I outlaw it. The Underground Railroad arose in areas in the north that already had significant free black populations and abolition societies. These nodes of abolitionist activismBoston, Syracuse, Christiana and Oberlinbecame the sites of dramatic fugitive slave rebellions in the 1850s when abolitionists resisted the implementation of the fugitive slave law. The actions of fugitive slaves foretold the defection of runaway slaves into Union army lines. Self-emancipated slaves, as Garrison called them, also found their way into Indian territory, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean, and even stowed away in ships all the way to Britain, making their freedom claims the stuff of international law and diplomacy. Long before the booming of guns, the enslaved and their allies were involved in a long-drawn out battle with slaveholders. The daring activism of fugitive slaves also revolutionized abolitionist discourse. Slave narratives came to constitute the movement literature of abolition. In detailing the horrors of slavery, whippings, family separations and backbreaking labor, they provided an effective riposte to the proslavery argument that painted a picture of benevolent slaveholders and contented slaves. It was recounting and writing a firsthand account of his experience in slavery that made the great black abolitionist Frederick Douglass a leading light of the movement. Slave narratives inspired popular antislavery novels such as Harriet Beecher Stowes runaway bestseller (pun intended), Uncle Toms Cabin. Stowe listed the narratives from which she had drawn material in her Key to Uncle Toms Cabin when slaveholders and critics challenged her portrayal of slavery. The abolition movement was an interracial radical social movement of disfranchised people, men and women, white and black, free and enslaved. Slave resistance lay at its heart. On this Juneteenth, it is important to recall that African Americans were not passive recipients of the gift of freedom but architects of their own liberation. The Long View Historians explain how the past informs the present Manisha Sinha is the author of The Slaves Cause: A History of Abolition and Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Calling all last minute shoppers! In case you forgot, Fathers Day is Sunday. But dont go into panic mode. We found a gift that even the pickiest dads will love. The best part? Its 30% off! PEOPLEs List co-host Jerry OConnell modeled the trendy gingham ZB Savoy bow tie while filming a recent episode (catch clip above!), and shared why the accessory will instantly upgrade any dads wardrobe. The tie is sold as a set alongside a pair of cuff links and a leather wallet stamped with SB Savoys cool monocle-wearing mascot. The ultimate gentlemans pack retails for $99, but were offering a 30% discount all weekend with the code PEOPLETV, which brings the gift set under $70. Plus, ZB Savoy will donate portion of the proceeds to the Prostate Cancer Foundation . Jerry O'Connell SB Savoy Bow Tie Thats not all. Everything on PEOPLE Shop is eligible for the same 30% discount with the code PEOPLETV. So in between all your beach time and barbecues this weekend, whip out your credit cards and treat yourself. What are you getting your dad for Fathers Day? Share Below! Brittany Talarico MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - France's hardline CGT union ended on Friday a strike that had paralyzed traffic for 26 days at the Fos Lavera oil terminals on the Mediterranean, the country's biggest oil hub, a management official at port operator Fluxel said. "Unloading resumed at the port at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Friday," the official told Reuters. More than 50 oil tankers and other vessels had been held up in the harbor near Marseille, unable to unload cargo, since CGT union members joined the nationwide rolling protest against a government labor reform on May 23. (Reporting by Jean-Francois Rosnoblet; Writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Toni Reinhold) Here are 5 stocks added to the Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) List today: Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. WMS is a manufacturer of thermoplastic corrugated pipe, providing a comprehensive suite of water management products and drainage solutions. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings has been revised 11.2% downward over the last 30 days. Advance Auto Parts Inc. AAP is a specialty retailer of automotive parts, accessories and maintenance items. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings has declined 10.8% over the last 30 days. Ascena Retail Group Inc. ASNA operates as a national specialty retailer of apparel for women and girls. It has seen the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings being revised 10% downward over the last 30 days. Community Healthcare Trust Incorporated CHCT is engaged in the acquisition of properties which are leased to hospitals, doctors, healthcare systems or other healthcare service providers. The Zacks Consensus Estimate revision for its current year earnings was a negative 6.7% over the last 30 days. Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD is an independent biopharmaceutical company that seeks to provide accelerated solutions for patients and the people who care for them. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for its current year earnings has moved 1.5% lower over the last 30 days. View the entire Zacks Rank #5 List. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ADV DRAINAG SYS (WMS): Free Stock Analysis Report ADVANCE AUTO PT (AAP): Free Stock Analysis Report GILEAD SCIENCES (GILD): Free Stock Analysis Report ASCENA RETAIL (ASNA): Free Stock Analysis Report COMM HLTHCR TR (CHCT): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research David Bowie as the Goblin King in Labyrinth (Everett) All this week, were celebrating the great movies that hit screens 30 years ago in 1986. Go here to read more. It all begins with David Bowies right hand. When the rock star makes his dramatic entrance in Jim Hensons Labyrinth, playing the villainous goblin king Jareth, he comes bearing a gift for petulant teenager Sarah (Jennifer Connelly): a crystal ball that hovers and dances across his hand as if by magic. But its not magic its juggling. And its not Bowies hand at all, but the arm of master juggler Michael Moschen, crouching behind Bowie in every scene that involves Jareths gravity-defying crystals. Related: The Magic of the Goblin King: An Appreciation for David Bowie in Labyrinth Labyrinth premiered in theaters in June 1986; I first saw the film, in which Sarah must find her way through a perilous maze to rescue her kidnapped-by-goblins baby brother, when I was 8 years old. Ten years later, during my first week of college, my heart skipped a beat when I saw a student practicing Jareth-style ball manipulation outside the dining hall. It was called, I learned, contact juggling. And the most remarkable thing about it was that it looked just as magical in person as it did on film. Watch behind-the-scenes footage of juggler Michael Moschen juggling crystals for David Bowie on the set of Labyrinth (from the documentary Inside the Labyrinth). Thats the thing about the effects in Labyrinth: Theyre real. As the films puppeteer coordinator Brian Henson explains it to Yahoo Movies, In those days, all the movie magic happened in the camera the effect was really happening. That robot goblin as tall as a building? Actually a hydraulic puppet as tall as a building. The hole Connelly falls through, where shes caught by helping hands? The actress plummeted off a moving platform down a 40-foot shaft, lined with hundreds of rubber and actual hands. In the years after Star Wars created the modern special effects industry, but before computer-generated imagery began taking over, all the effects in fantasy, sci-fi, and horror films were created by makeup artists, puppeteers, and other filmmaking wizards. And Labyrinth, fueled by the boundless imagination and ingenuity of director Jim Henson, represents the peak of practical effects. Story continues An oddball coming-of-age narrative that combined dark fantasy elements, absurdist Monty Python humor, Bowie pop songs, and Muppets, Labyrinth wasnt a hit when it premiered in the summer of 1986. Reviews were extremely mixed, with some critics finding Labyrinth too dark or grotesque; while Time magazine praised Henson for out-Disneying Disney, the San Francisco Chronicle mocked his overbearing showcase of bizarre rubber duckies. The film did, however, develop a devoted following on VHS by 1980s kids like me, who have gone on to show it to our own children. Despite the current nostalgia for practical effects (see: the marketing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens), the virtues of Labyrinths special effects have gone largely unsung. I find this oversight baffling, especially because evidence of the Henson crews extraordinary work is so easy to find. Its all documented in the 1986 behind-the-scenes TV special Inside the Labyrinth, included on the Labyrinth DVD and Blu-ray (and easily viewable online: watch excerpts here). The hour-long documentary shows exactly how the crew constructed, among other marvels, an army of goblins riding dragon-like creatures and an MC Escher-inspired room of impossible staircases. When actors are on set, they appear immersed in the films world: Details that would now be added digitally, like dewdrops on a forest floor or a backdrop of the Labyrinth sprawling into the distance, were right there in living color. Its a childs wildest dream of what walking onto a movie set would be like. The creation and filming of the helping hands, from Inside the Labyrinth: Creating this rich visual world required a massive amount of pre-production work, as Brian Henson tells Yahoo Movies. In those days we would rehearse a long time, he explains. I dont even know what our rehearsal schedule was; probably 20 weeks. (Thats unthinkable in contemporary filmmaking, when special effects are largely accomplished after the actors finish shooting.) During those rehearsals, Henson worked with both his director father and Jim Hensons Creature Shop to ensure that the films dozens of puppet characters would perform on camera in exactly the way that they should. Every time we went into a set, we had to cut it to bits and ask, Where are the puppeteers going to be? Where are the wires going to be? How are we going to disguise the wires? How do we disguise the holes? he recalls. For big group scenes like Jareths chamber, where Bowie sings the song Dance Magic, Henson would spend over a week placing and drilling puppeteers, so that every five feet had action that was locked and rehearsed before the main camera crew came in. Further invisible work was required to control the puppet characters, most notably Hoggle, the grumpy goblin sidekick for whom Brian Henson provided a voice. The most complex animatronic puppet ever created at the time, Hoggle required one puppeteer inside his costume and four more (including Henson) to move his expressive face: two performing the mouth and jaw, and another two working the eyes and eyebrows, all using radio controls. After weeks of rehearsal, the Hoggle team worked in perfect harmony, and characters performance seems effortless. Youd never guess at all the heavy lifting going on behind the scenes. Though Labyrinth was a paragon of practical effects, it was also a pioneer of computer effects: The owl that swoops through the opening credits is one of the earliest examples of a CGI character on film. Jim Henson was a visionary who saw the potential of that technology before most filmmakers even dreamed of it. But much as I appreciate great digital effects, Ill never see a CG magic trick come to life before my eyes like those crystal balls did. If Id been on the set of Labyrinth, I could have chatted in real time with Hoggle or the worm who invites Sarah to tea. I think thats one reason I continue to find the film so bewitching: Its the record of a living, breathing world of creatures and magical effects, a one-of-a-kind artistic creation the likes of which we may never see again. Watch the Labyrinth trailer: Read more: Summer of 86: 'Stand by Me Takes on Life, Death, and One Epic Barf-o-Rama Summer of 86: The Terrifying Madness of Manhunter and Our First Introduction to an Infamous Serial Killer Summer of 86: Ferris Buellers Day Off Let John Hughes Graduate from Teen Movies With Honors Summer of 86: The Wild, Wacko Genre Mashup of Big Trouble in Little China Summer of 86: The Top Gun Music Editor Remembers How He Took Audiences Right Into the Danger Zone Summer of 86: Aliens and the Adrenaline Jolt of a Lifetime The offending fowl from Howard the Duck (Everett) All this week, were celebrating the great and not so great movies that hit screens 30 years ago in 1986. Go here to read more. The summer of 1986 had a huge amount to offer audiences, from seminal teen movie Stand By Me to the dark sci-fi horror of Aliens. But there was one film that even the most committed nostalgist would struggle to defend except in a so-bad-its-good kind of way, a movie that despite coming from minds behind Marvel Comics and Star Wars was gleefully slammed by critics and proved a giant financial disaster. That film, of course, was Howard the Duck. In 1984, with the original Star Wars trilogy complete, George Lucas left his position as president of Lucasfilm in order to focus on producing. For one of his first projects, he was keen to reteam with Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, two film-school buddies with whom hed collaborated on the scripts for American Graffiti and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. They suggested tackling a Marvel Comics character called Howard the Duck. (Huyck and Katz would write the script together, Huyck would direct, and Katz produced with Lucas.) Created by writer Steve Gerber and artist Val Mayerik, Howard is an anthropomorphic bird from an alien planet. Though he first appeared in 1973, his own hit title debuted in 1976. The Howard comics frequently parodied or satirized not just the superhero world, but everything from film noir to the politics of the time. Cynical, wisecracking and often accompanied by his on-off girlfriend Beverly Switzler, he quickly became a cult favorite. Despite the impact Marvel had had on pop culture, by 1986, none of the companys comic-book characters had ever made it to the big screen. But Lucas was determined to try, with Universal jumping at the opportunity to back the film. On the DVD making-of documentary, Huyck and Katz indicate that the plan was originally to make an animated movie, but since Universal wanted the film much faster, Lucas agreed to live action. Story continues Lea Thompson and Howard (Everett) Huyck and Katzs script sees Howard (performed mostly by the three-and-a-half foot tall actor Ed Gale in a suit and voiced by Broadway musical actor Chip Zien, who was picked over the likes of Robin Williams and Jay Leno) magically transported from his home of Duckworld to Earth, where he saves pop star Beverly (Back to the Future star Lea Thompson) from a mugging using his trademark Quack-Fu martial art. With the aid of janitor/scientist Phil (Tim Robbins), they eventually discover that scientist Dr. Walter Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) is responsible for bringing Howard to Earth, only for Jenning to become possessed by the evil Dark Overlord of the Universe. Its loosely plotted stuff, but it was clear that Howard himself was meant to be the big draw. The problem was, the films marketing campaign oddly shied away from showing him: The poster showed only a ducks bill poking out of an egg because, Den Of Geek would later report, executives feared that audiences wouldnt pay money to see a film whose lead was a person in a duck suit. A lot of work was put into bringing Howard to life (we went through a huge R&D project finding the right feathers. A lot of us put in more than 100 hours a week, Industrial Light & Magics Charlie Bailey would later tell Wired). But the experimental technology caused the shoot to go wildly over schedule I wound up getting paid twice for that movie because of all the overtime, Robbins said earlier this year. Lea Thompson would later agree, telling the AV Club that the film took six months to shoot it was a gigantic movie, and everybody wanted that part. Universals marketing blitz as the Aug. 1 release date approached included a hotline where you could call and listen to a new recording of Howard every day (listen to some of them here), and a Budweiser tie-in. But still, Howards actual face was kept from audiences, even in the trailer. By the time it appeared, few were charmed. Howard is about as lovable as a dishwasher, wrote the Chicago Tribunes review. Most of the reviews were just as toxic (One Lame Duck, went the Los Angeles Times headline), and the film went on to take just $16 million domestically on a reported $36 million budget. Years later, Lucas would claim that hed read the tea leaves early on, telling a Tribeca Film Festival audience in 2015 I told the producer and writer its not gonna work You cant put a dwarf in a duck suit and make it work! And Tim Robbins agreed, telling Crave this year the duck was miscast I dont mean the people that were inside the suit, I mean the design. But looking back on the film, the effects are only the beginning of the films problems. For one, the anarchic energy of Gerbers original comics is nowhere to be found: Here, Howard comes across as a sort of washed-up insult comic a befeathered Rodney Dangerfield and hes a sour, unappealing figure to spend time with. (Also, his relationship with Bev mostly comes across as creepy.) Watch a trailer: Huyck and Katzs script feels torn between a sci-fi action adventure, a broadly comedic kids film, and a foul-mouthed (or fowl-mouthed?) adult comedy, with Howard leering after scantily clad women and beating up hoodlums. The result is a movie that feels like it doesnt appeal to anyone. Huyck hasnt directed since, and as legend (and the book The Battle of Brazil) has it, Universal executives Frank Price and Sidney Sheinberg had a fistfight over who was to blame. Price left the studio just six weeks later, the Variety headline reading Duck cooks Prices goose. Thompson, meanwhile, half-defends the film as an interesting movie, while admitting that it takes a lot of strength, a lot of perseverance to love Howard the Duck. Shes grateful to it, though, telling The Hollywood Reporter this week that shed initially turned down John Hughess Some Kind of Wonderful, only to accept the role when Howard tanked so badly. I wouldnt have done [it] if Howard wasnt such a bomb, Thompson said. The shoot for Some Kind of Wonderful brought another Howard into her life: Howard Deutch, the films director. Thompson and Deutch fell in love during the shoot and married in 1989 (their daughter Zoey costarred in Richard Linklaters Everybody Wants Some). Perhaps thats why Thompson recently reunited with her avian co-star: She recently made a cameo, in drawn form, in the eighth issue of the relaunched Howard the Duck comic series by Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones, which sees Howard as a private eye in the Marvel universe, and has been a cult hit since it first appeared last year. Its further proof that you cant keep a good duck down. The 1986 movie might have been a decidedly inauspicious start for Marvel movies, but they would eventually learn their lessons, with 2008s Iron Man spawning an entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. And Howard wasnt left behind. In 2014, fans who waited through the credits of Marvel Studios megahit Guardians of the Galaxy were greeted with a surprise: The films post-credits scene sees Benicio Del Toros the Collector sharing the screen with a martini-sipping, CGI incarnation of Howard (voiced by Seth Green). I have a feeling that Marvels gonna redo it because of the technology they have today, George Lucas would say, not long after Guardians release. The wildly prolific studio hasnt announced any plans yet. But who knows where Howard will hatch next. Read more: Summer of 86: Stand by Me Takes on Life, Death, and One Epic Barf-o-Rama Summer of 86: The Terrifying Madness of Manhunter and Our First Introduction to an Infamous Serial Killer Summer of 86: Ferris Buellers Day Off Let John Hughes Graduate from Teen Movies With Honors Summer of 86: The Wild, Wacko Genre Mashup of Big Trouble in Little China Summer of 86: The Top Gun Music Editor Remembers How He Took Audiences Right Into the Danger Zone Dont feel guilty if youre confused by the twists in the battle for Viacom. The story has become complicated, and vitally important, in the month since lawyers for Sumner Redstone informed CEO Philippe Dauman that he had been jettisoned from the controlling shareholders inner circle. Theres a lot more at stake than Daumans career and reputation. Yesterday, Redstones camp moved to replace five Viacom board members, which could reshape the company. He also controls CBS. And the court cases from the dispute could affect governance practices across corporate America. We sorted through the issues shortly after Redstones camp declared war on Dauman. But after all thats taken place, this is a good time to take another look at where things stand: Q: Whos running Viacom? A: Dauman and the board are still in charge. But theyre mostly caretakers until the Delaware Chancery Court determines whether the National Amusements (NAI) board has the right to change Viacoms bylaws, directors, and management. Q: National Amusements? Doesnt Redstone own Viacom? A: Yes, but indirectly. He owns 80% of the privately held exhibition chain, which gives him the power to pick its board. NAI, in turn, owns 80% of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS. That gives it the power to pick their boards and write their bylaws. Q: What do you mean by voting shares? A: Viacom and CBS each have two classes of stock. The ones Redstone controls come with one vote apiece. The ones the public trades dont include voting rights. Q: Does that mean National Amusements can do whatever it wants with Viacom and CBS? A: Pretty much. Company bylaws spell out the theater chains authority. And a doctrine of corporate law called the business judgment rule gives people in power a lot of leeway. You cant use your voting control to steal, Charles Elson, Director of the University of Delawares John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, tells me. But if you have a different judgment about where the company should go, you win. Story continues In the end, he says, its not about the law. Its about the structure that created this company with two classes of stock. This is the reason why dual class stock should be banned as a financing tool, Elson says. Q: What happens if Redstones competent? A: Then its ballgame over. He can choose whos on his family trust, and how to vote his NAI shares. Q: If its that simple, then how can Dauman challenge Redstone? A: Dauman says Redstone, whos 93 and ailing, isnt really making the decisions. He allegedly has become incompetent, and is being manipulated by his daughter Shari, whos President of NAI and Vice Chair of Viacom and CBS. Q: Why would that matter? A: If Sumner is out of the picture, then his seven-member family trust controls his NAI holdings the source of his power. And if the trust is in charge, then several major decisions made in the last month were invalid, Dauman says. Q: What decisions? A: The battles began on May 20 when Redstones lawyers told Dauman and Viacom director George Abrams that theyd been kicked off of the family trust and the NAI board. Since then, NAI said it changed Viacoms bylaws in a way that could derail Daumans effort to sell a 49% stake in Paramount. And, yesterday, NAI said it will replace five Viacom directors, including Dauman. Q: Does Viacom still plan to sell a stake in Paramount? A: Dauman said hes closing in on a deal that would add $10 a share to Viacoms market value. But its hard to imagine anyone going through with it if Daumans authority is in doubt, and Redstone opposes. Q: Who will decide if Redstone is competent? A: Its not clear yet. Dauman and Abrams filed a court challenge in Massachusetts, where the family trust was created. The judge there said last week that hell decide by the end of this month whether to grant the duos request for an expedited trial as well as an independent examination of Redstone. Meanwhile Redstones team has asked a court in California, where he lives, to validate his ability to make his own decisions. That court threw out a challenge to his competence last month, but isnt scheduled to consider the new case until July. And now Viacom wants the Delaware Chancery Court to make a judgment about Redstones competence to determine whether NAI has the right to change its directors. Q: Why is Redstones competence relevant in the Chancery Court case? A: Viacom says its key to the decision to kick Dauman and Abrams off the family trust which set in motion a chain of events that should invalidate the decision to change Viacoms directors. Q: What does Redstones team say? A: It hasnt filed court papers yet. But it is expected to argue that the issue is not relevant. Even without Sumner, three of NAIs six directors supported the decision to replace Dauman and Abrams. And the issue in Delaware involves a vote by the NAI board, whose competence is not in question. Q: What makes Dauman believe that Redstone is incompetent and being manipulated? A: His team wants a court to order an independent examination to prove the point. And it says that there are a lot of reasons to be concerned. Dauman says Redstone seemed out of it when he last saw his boss in March. Since then Redstone has been silent on board conference calls, refused to meet with long time friends on the board, and seemed to be making decisions that are dramatically inconsistent with his past positions. Q: The guys 93 and ailing. He hasnt appeared in public since May 2015. A: Still, Dauman has the burden of proof. Q: What do Redstones people say? A: They say the old man is still in charge. They had a geriatric psychiatrist examine him and testify to his competence on two key days: May 20, when Redstones lawyers informed Dauman and Abrams that their client had kicked the duo off the trust and National Amusements board, and then May 24 when replacements were named. Q: Anything else? A: Redstone visited the Paramount lot on Friday. He sat in his van, but studio CEO Brad Grey came down to visit him. In an open letter to Redstone this week, Lead Independent Director Fredric Salerno pointedly said that his people staged a drive for you, with Shari to Paramount. Redstone made a similar visit on Tuesday to CBS, where CEO Les Moonves saw him for about 10 minutes, the Wall Street Journal reported. CBS would not confirm that the meeting took place. Q: A majority of the family trust voted to ratify the move to oust Dauman and Abrams. Doesnt that mean he loses no matter what a judge says about Redstones competence? A: The 12-page trust document hasnt been made public, although lawyers have quoted a few passages from it. So we dont know what it says about procedures to vote a trustee out. Q: How can Dauman stay on if a majority wants him off? A: Deadline disclosed early last year that the trust calls for a majority of members to be independent of the Redstone family. Whats more, if an independent member leaves, then other independent members get to choose a replacement. Dauman might be able to challenge the vote to replace him and Abrams as independent members on the grounds that it included votes from the Redstone family. Q: Lets say hes right and stays on the trust. Hed still be in the minority. A: True. But he may see an angle to turn the tables: Trustees must make decisions that benefit all five of Redstones grandchildren and succeeding generations. Dauman conceivably could challenge decisions that he believes fail that test or, more to the point, that he believes just help Shari and her part of the family. Q: That would be hard to prove. A: Heres where its noteworthy that Dauman has the support of the two daughters of Brent Redstone, Sumners long-estranged son. Theyre beneficiaries of the trust and fear that theyll be left in the cold if Shari controls the body. She and her son, Tyler Korff, are trustees, leaving Brents wing unrepresented. Keryn Redstone said that Shari and her three children have succeeded in reversing decades of my grandfathers careful estate planning and are poised to seize control of Viacom and CBS. Q: How about the NAI directors? They also voted to oust Dauman from their board and want to block a Paramount deal. A: Here, too, Dauman could argue that an effort to derail the deal is designed to mess with him not to serve the trusts beneficiaries. Wall Street liked the idea of selling the Paramount stake. Q: There are a lot of court cases. What are the odds that Dauman will survive? A: Not good considering that hed probably have to win every case. At the end of the day, his power came from Redstone. Dauman probably wont last long if thats gone and a majority of the trust and NAI board support Shari. Q: Could he win some love on Wall Street? A: Probably not, even though investors are notoriously fickle. Viacom shares have lost 31% of their value over the last year, and nearly half over the last two years. More telling: theyve appreciated nearly 20% since May 20 when the Redstone-Dauman fight began a period when the overall market was up just 1.3%. That suggests investors are eager to see a change. Q: What would happen if Dauman is forced out? A: We dont know. Many analysts believe Viacom would be better off if NAI merges it with CBS, putting CEO Les Moonves in charge. But Moonves may not want to take on channels including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and BET that mostly target young people an audience thats cooling to cable and warming to digital media. Yesterdays announcement by NAI that it would leave Daumans long-time colleague COO Tom Dooley on the board led to speculation about another possibility: He could take charge, if Daumans out, and provide stability at Viacom while a reconstituted board figures out what to do. Q: So whats Daumans end-game? A: Who knows? His camp says hes fighting for strong corporate governance that represents all shareholders, not just the Redstones, and a turn-around strategy that could bear fruit. Q: Is that plausible? A: Perhaps, but few believe it. Dauman owes his job to his close relationship with Redstone. Is he truly independent? I dont think so, Mark Rogers, CEO of corporate director recruitment firm BoardProspects.com says. And governance watchdogs hate its practices including the boards agreement to pay Dauman $54.1 million in 2015. Some of that was due to perks from a contract renewal. Still, it made him the countrys third highest paid CEO with a 22.1% raise in a year when Viacoms stock value declined 42.5%. Q: So is it all about money? A: Thats the more popular view, buttressed by this mornings disclosure that Viacom agreed to pay Daumans legal and PR bills for his fight to remain on the Redstone trust and NAI board. It also would be consistent with history. He worked out a great deal for himself in 1999 when Redstone had to jettison him, and Dooley, following Viacoms acquisition of CBS. The broadcasters boss at the time, Mel Karmazin, was signed to run Viacom and didnt want to worry that he might be undermined Redstones then-close friend. Dauman and Dooley left with severance of about $150 million apiece, plus stock options, before Redstone brought them back in 2006. Related stories Redstone Judge Seeks Opinions About "Undue Influence" And Jurisdiction Redstone Team Says There's "No Justification" For Viacom To Pay Dauman's Legal And PR Bills Dauman Wants Massachusetts Judge To Hurry Decision On Redstone Case Calling the injuries a Fitchburg man inflicted on his girlfriends son horrific, a Dane County judge sentenced the man to 20 years in prison Thursday for causing the boys child-abuse death. Baby Corey (Pulliam) was not your son, Circuit Judge David Flanagan told Corey Holly, 26, after Holly had repeatedly referred to the 2-month-old boy as his own son. He was the son of two other people. But Corey was an infant that you squeezed to death with your bare hands. The 20-year sentence will start after Holly finishes serving a six-year sentence he received after his parole for prior armed robbery convictions was revoked. Hollys lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Mario White, also called for a 20-year prison sentence, but said it should be served at the same time as the six-year sentence Holly received for the revocation, shortening the actual time he spends behind bars from 26 years to 20. After his release from prison, Holly will remain on extended supervision for another 20 years, the maximum possible time he could serve on supervision for the crime, keeping him under state supervision until he is 72 years old. In February, Holly pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide for the Feb. 23, 2015, death of Corey Pulliam, who was the son of his girlfriend, Susan Pulliam. A criminal complaint states that Holly told Fitchburg police he lost it and squeezed the boy because he would not stop crying. The boy died from blunt force trauma to the torso, including broken ribs and a lacerated liver. Holly initially told police he didnt know what happened to the boy, first saying he had slipped into a sink while being burped, but then he admitted squeezing the boy. In court Thursday, Holly apologized to Pulliam and her family, and said he was making no excuses for his actions. He was more expressive in a defense sentencing memorandum, in which he said he considered the boy to be his son. I do not go a day without thinking of my son and where we should be, he said in the memorandum. I cry when I think about my son. My only wish in life is to go back and been more patient with my son. I love him and will always love him no matter what. Pulliam, who is deaf, said in court through a sign language interpreter that she didnt want Holly to go to prison. I would like you to give him some probation instead of sending him to prison, she said. In the defense memorandum, Pulliam said she has forgiven Holly and wants to be with him because he helps me. He makes me happy, he helps me do better, Pulliam said in the memo. He is the one who helps me. With my family, I dont have that. But Maureen Roman, who is Pulliams aunt and is her legal guardian because of Pulliams cognitive and emotional disabilities, told Flanagan that Holly was physically and emotionally abusive toward Pulliam and was taking financial advantage of her. In a letter she wrote to Flanagan, she said that Holly had even listed the baby, whom Roman referred to as Baby Kenneth, as a dependent on his income tax form, a discovery made when she took Pulliam to an accountant to help her file her own income tax return. In court Thursday, Roman mourned the fact that the boy didnt make it to his first birthday. Do you know where he spent his first birthday? Roman asked. Six feet under ground in a black hole thats damp and cold. Do you have any idea what its like to stand before a childs grave? Or to pick out a babys casket? Brussels (AFP) - A Belgian man has been arrested and charged in connection with the Islamic State suicide bombings that killed 32 people in Brussels in March, prosecutors said late Friday. The 30-year-old, named as Youssef E.A, is one of several charged over the March 22 attacks that struck Brussels airport and a city metro station. The man has been charged with "participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to terrorist murders, as a perpetrator, co-perpetrator of accomplice", Belgium's federal prosecutor said. It added in a statement that several suspects linked to the bombings took part in a reconstruction Friday at an apartment in the Brussels suburb of Etterbeek. The flat is believed to have been "used as a safehouse" by the attackers and as the point of departure for the attack at Maalbeek metro station, the statement said. Osama Krayem, a Swede of Syrian origin who has been charged over both the Brussels bombings and November's jihadist attacks in Paris, took part in the reconstruction. He is suspected of buying the bags used for the Brussels suicide bombings. Caught on CCTV minutes before the metro bombing alongside suicide attacker Khalid El-Bakraoui, he decided not to go ahead with detonating his own device, according to his lawyer Vincent Lurquin. Brothers Smail and Ibrahim Farisi, 31 and 27 years old respectively, also assisted with the reconstruction. They are suspected of renting the flat to the attackers and cleaning it a day after the bombings. A 31-year-old man arrested in June, identified by prosecutors as "Ali E.H.A" and named by media as Ali El Haddad Asufi, has also been linked to the apartment and took part in the simulation. Bilal El Makhoukhi, a 27-year-old Brussels resident arrested in April, also took part, although his suspected role in the Belgium attacks is not clear. He was sentenced to five years in jail in 2014 after going on trial alongside several members of Sharia4Belgium, a group that sent jihadists to Syria. He is reported to have been injured fighting in the war-torn country. TAIPEI (Reuters) - Activists in Taiwan called on the island's largest industrial group, Formosa Plastics, to investigate recent mass fish deaths in Vietnam, near where the company has a steel plant. The deaths in April of fish in Vietnam's Ha Tinh province, where the Taiwan group's $10.6 billion steel plant is located, and three other provinces along a 200 km (125 miles) stretch of coast, sparked rare protests in Communist-ruled Vietnam. A preliminary Vietnamese investigation found no link between the plant and the mysterious fish deaths. Vietnam has invited experts from Germany, Japan, the United States and Israel to inspect the Ha Tinh site in an attempt to find the cause. They have yet to announce any findings. Echo Lin, an activist shareholder in one of the group's companies, said the company should investigate the disaster. "It is their responsibility to prove that they are innocent," Lin told reporters outside the annual meeting of Formosa Plastics Corp, the conglomerate's flagship firm. "That's why we ask them to conduct an investigation and clarify if it is not related to the company."A small group of protesters, including Vietnamese workers in Taiwan, rallied outside the hotel where the company held it meeting. Some held signs reading "I love the beach; ruining the environment is a sin". During the meeting, Lin, who is secretary-general of the Environmental Jurists Association in Taiwan, asked the company's senior management to investigate independently and disclose its findings. Formosa Plastics Corp Chairman Jason Lin told shareholders the group had asked to take part in the investigation being led by Vietnam and it was awaiting the international inspectors' findings. "Formosa Plastics Corp is only investing. We do not participate in its management," Lin said of the steel plant, adding that he could not speak on its behalf. Formosa's steel plant project is one of the largest foreign direct investments in Vietnam. The plant is 70 percent owned by companies in the Formosa Plastics group, while Taiwan's China Steel Corp controls 25 percent and Japan's JFE Steel Corp holds 5 percent. Taiwanese lawmakers have begun to take notice of the case on concern it may become a foreign relations problem as the new Taiwan government steps up efforts to deepen trade and economic ties with southeast Asia. (Reporting by J.R. Wu; Editing by Robert Birsel) Paris (AFP) - It's what modern fairytales are made of. A classical violinist wracked with self-doubt takes a job teaching children in one of Brazil's most crime-ridden favelas, and ends up creating an orchestra with young delinquents and teenage mothers. Except the story behind "The Violin Teacher", a film which has been moving audiences to tears, is true. And the Latin American movements it is based on, which teach poor children how to play instruments after school, have been hailed as the future of classical music. Having seen his young actors drawn from a tough Sao Paulo slum learn to play Bach as he shot the film, director Sergio Machado is now evangelical about the city's Baccarelli Institute. "It is magical. What they do is fantastic," he told AFP in an interview by phone from Brazil. Machado's own 11-year-old son was so impressed by what he saw happening on set that he took up the violin himself. The institute, set up by musician Silvio Baccarelli in 1996 in the sprawling favela of Heliopolis, is "one of the most important cultural projects in Brazil", Machado said. - 'Playing themselves' - Inspired to some degree by Venezuela's El Sistema movement -- which has produced a long line of classical music prodigies from equally humble backgrounds including Gustavo Dudamel, now head of the Los Angeles Philharmonic -- it aims to give children a refuge from often chaotic and dangerous lives. Three thousand children a year pass through the institute, which has been championed by the Indian-born star conductor Zubin Mehta. Machado was initially sceptical about the method before being utterly won over. "The great conductor, Italian Claudio Abbado said that because of this and what El Sistema is doing, Latin America is the future of classical music. And he is right." The director said he didn't set out to make a sugary tearjerker that just played on the emotions but wanted to reflect the true reality of people's lives. Story continues "Yet there is hope. I wanted to do a film about people who are trying to change this really dark reality," he added. "All of the kids in the film are non-actors. They all came from that community and brought their own experience into the film and they are playing themselves. "There is one scene where a girl starts screaming about her life. That is real, she is talking about herself," he said. - Begged for a part - At first Machado wanted to cast a white actor as their inspirational teacher "because I was kind of thinking of myself". But Lazaro Ramos, one of Brazil's biggest stars, begged him to play the violinist, a gifted soloist who cracks during an audition for the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. "He wanted it so much. 'I have never begged for a part in my life', he told me. 'I need to do this, because it's my life. I come from places like this and this happened to me'." Just as in the film, a brilliant teacher spotted Ramos's talent and helped save him from the streets. Ramos "comes from a very, very tough situation", Machado said. "His mother died when he was very small, he has known hunger and the worst kind of problems and yet he became a star." That helped to bond him to the favela kids in the orchestra, Machado said. "He is what all these kids want to be. He understands them. They are what he was. We became very close." And with the exception of the final concert, when the institute's orchestra took up the relay, all the music in the film from rap to Strauss is played by the actors. "In a normal city the musicians come from the middle classes. Here they come from the common people, really the common people," said Brazil's most revered conductor Isaac Karabtchevsky, who loves to work at the institute. "I find it amazing that you can play Mahler with these children. I believe that God is there." "The Violin Teacher" is on release across much of Europe and Asia this summer. Personal items from the Manhattan Upper East Side estate of late comedienne Joan Rivers are set to be auctioned off with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. Expectations are for the auction to bring in at least $1.5 million. The auction, conducted by Christies, includes everything from furniture to handbags, gowns and even jewelry from Rivers vast collection. Rivers daughter, Melissa, explained how she decided what to offer up for auction, and what to keep as mementos of her mothers life. The things that were most important to me were things that people wouldnt want in the auction. You know, things from her night stand, etc, Melissa said. A portion of the proceeds from the auction will go to benefit two charities. The first, Gods Love We Deliver, a New York-City based organization focused on providing meals to individuals too sick to shop or cook, and the second, Guide Dogs for The Blind. It seems fitting one of the more unique items on the auction block is a Tiffany dog bowl. Spike, whose name is engraved on the bowl, was one of Rivers beloved dogs. Christie's Deputy Chairman Jonathan Rendell explained the factors involved in deciding how to price Rivers belongings. With sales like this, we price them at what we think the market price is. We dont put in the celebrity factor. You cant really factor that in, but it always seems to have a huge effect, Rendell said. According to him, the item that could fetch the biggest price tag is a diamond brooch. I think that the big diamond brooch is something that people are really going to go for, Harry Winston, designed by Joan Rivers, its a very personal object for her, Rendell said. Related Articles Taraji P. Henson has some thoughts on female friendship and empowerment. "Don't take no shit," Henson, who owns the delicious role of Cookie Lyons on Empire, told People before accepting an award at the 2016 Women In Film Crystal + Lucy Awards in Los Angeles. "You know, know you have a voice. Know that your voice is important, and fight until it's heard." Later that day, Henson told the crowd: We're all we got, ladies. If we don't support each other, who will? We have a bad rap sometimes in this industry diva, difficult, catty. When all we're doing is, in those moments when you call us being difficult, we're fighting for what we deserve. Preach, Cookie! Preach. From Cosmopolitan One day after publishing steamy photos of Taylor Swift "snogging" with her rumored new boyfriend Tom Hiddleston, The Sun has revealed its account of exactly what went down in the weeks leading to Hiddleswift. According to the British tabloid, weeks after Taylor and Tom met during the week of the Met Gala in New York City (which included a pre-gala dinner at Anna Wintour's house), Taylor pulled the plug on her relationship with Calvin Harris. To top it off, one source tells The Sun that Taylor did it by phone (yes, the student has become the master, etc.) while Calvin was recovering from that car accident. There's also this from what The Sun calls "a well-placed source": Things had not been right between Calvin and Taylor for some time. She met Tom and was swept off her feet. He made it very clear how interested in her he was. They swapped numbers and got chatting. After Taylor ended things with Calvin, he sent her flowers and they agreed to meet up. Before anyone jumps to conclusions, the source cautions that "nothing happened before things were officially over with Calvin, but let's just say Taylor was hardly broken hearted." Oh. Man. Anyway, as with all things not coming directly from a celebrity or subject's mouth, do take all of this gently and with the finest grain of salt. Remember, another source told E! just a few weeks ago, when you were all recovering from the end of Tayvin, that Calvin was the one who ended things and not the other way around. And even though it's since been deleted, remember that time Calvin tweeted about how "the only truth here is that a relationship came to an end & what remains is a huge amount of love and respect?" Remember how Taylor even retweeted it? What a difference two whole weeks make! Follow Peggy on Twitter. Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f118961%2fbully-1 The Internet doesn't like bullies. Neither does Tayla Sekhmet. That is why the 13-year-old from Dysart State High School in Queensland, Australia, alongside her mother Kali, created a petition on Change.org to get her school to do something about it. SEE ALSO: 4 myths that will change how you define bullying "I'm the most unpopular kid at school and people make my life a living hell," Tayla writes in the petition. "Every day people call me fatso, weirdo, ugly, freak, and tell me I should kill myself. I've been pushed to the ground, had people go through my bag, or break my scooter when I rode it to school. Even people in other grades who I don't know do these things to me too." The student claims that the school hasn't done anything to alleviate the situation, despite repeated complaints, calls and meetings. "I have told teachers many times, my mum has called the school, and I have had school meetings," she wrote. "None of this is helping. I've been told to just ignore these people, but I can't take it anymore. I don't know what else to do or where else to go for help." As of Friday morning, the petition, which launched on Monday, has collected more than 41,000 signatures. Tayla wrote that she would show the signatures to "my school and the Government to show them other people want to take a stand against bullying." A spokesperson from the Queensland Department of Education told Mashable Australia via email that bullying is "not tolerated" in their schools. "Any situation that threatens the safety and wellbeing of students and teachers is treated seriously, and dealt with as a matter of urgent priority," the spokesperson said. "The school has been working closely with the family for some time to resolve their concerns ... The principal is happy to meet with the family at any time if they have ongoing concerns." Story continues 'There needs to be a better policy' Kali told the Brisbane Times that Tayla has been bullied since she started at the school and that she understands not everyone has a great time at school, but the language being used by students is "full on." The petition also aims to help other victims of bullying. "There needs to be a better policy from the education department for dealing with bullying," Kali said. SEE ALSO: This text line is helping teens talk about mental health without saying a word In an update on the petition Friday, Kali wrote that her daughter Tayla "cried" upon reading the comments of support. "She couldn't believe that so many people could care about in her words 'a insignificant freak like me,'" Kali wrote. "I know that you are all random strangers on the internet and we will never meet, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for signing this petition, because you have changed my daughter's life forever." As politicians point fingers and sling accusations about what could have been done to prevent the shooting deaths of 49 people in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday morning, the limitations and power of the federal governments terrorist watch list system have come under sharp scrutiny. Wednesdays 15-hour filibuster by Senate Democrats came to a close early Thursday after GOP leaders agreed to permit votes on two amendments to an annual appropriations bill: one that would bar Americans included on the terrorist watch list from buying guns, and another that would mandate universal background checks all for gun buyers. Expanding the power of the watch list, which was created after 9/11 and is monitored by the FBIs Terrorist Screening Center, was also the focal point of remarks by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who suggested that a broader list might have prevented shooter Omar Mateen from purchasing the assault weapon plus the ammunition. Yet the breadth of the list in its current form has long attracted criticism, and litigation. I dont think that expanding the list does anything to make us safer, David C. Gomez, a retired FBI counterterrorism expert with nearly 30 years of law enforcement experience, told TakePart. Over time, it has become inefficient, if not problematic. The watch list is too easy to get on and too hard to get off. More than 1.5 million names were added to the master list, which includes numerous subsets such as the no-fly list, between 2009 and 2014, according to an Associated Press investigation. As of September 2014, the Terrorist Screening Center confirmed that at least 800,000 names were on the list. The broadest version of the database, called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, included 1.1 million people as of December 2013. Being added to the listas Mateen was from 2013 to 2014, before being removed after an investigation proved inconclusivecan be far more than inconvenient. Story continues Inclusion on the list can mean any number of severe consequences, including invasive, lengthy detention at airports; no flying; additional screening time when you do fly; and invasive encounters from traffic stops to attempts to obtain government issued licenses, said Hugh Handeyside, a staff attorney with the ACLUs National Security Project. Thats to say nothing of the shame of being denigrated as a terrorism suspect. Yaseen Kadura, a U.S. citizen and Indiana resident of Libyan descent, knows firsthand the jeopardies that accompany being placed on the list. Kaduras cell phone was seized while he was interrogated at the border between Canada and Michigan after a vacation, and he was also prevented from traveling to Libya in 2012 because of his placement on the no-fly list. The medical student is one of five plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against multiple government agencies in April by the Council on American-Islamic Relations challenging the placement of Muslims on the terrorist watch list. Multiple other lawsuits have challenged the governments alleged practice of encouraging people on the list to become confidential informantsand, some allege, punishing them if they decline to cooperate. The FBI credits inclusion on the watch list in part for the apprehension of Jose Padilla at Chicagos OHare International Airport in 2002. Though Padilla was on the watch list, it was ultimately a tip from a detained al-Qaida operative, who alleged that Padilla had been directed to carry out an attack with a radiological bomb, that led to Padillas detention. He was held without charge by the military and later sued the U.S. governmenta case that ultimately failed. According to Gomez, the bloated lists inefficiency stems from the fact that multiple federal agencies can add people to it, and do so with different sets of criteria for nominating new additions to the database. The FBI, the CIA, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies all have the authority to propose new additions. All additions remain on the list unless the National Counterterrorism Center receives evidence that they should be removed. Government documents leaked to The Intercept in 2014 after being kept secret for years, which outline the guidelines for nominating people to the list, reveal that roughly half of the people in the database at the time had no connection to any known terrorist groups. People put them on the list for different investigative reasons, as opposed to strictly terrorism, said Gomez. The 166-page government guidelines illustrate just how low the threshold of proof for being added to the list is. A name may be added if there is merely a reasonable suspicion that the person may pose a threat, which, Handeyside notes, is a very low standard. Once a person is added to the list, only the nominating agency that put them there can remove themanother major sore spot for civil liberties advocates. The government is also not required to notify someone if they are on the watch listeven if they are denied the ability to board a planemaking it even more difficult, if not impossible, to challenge inclusion in the database. The guidance doesnt come close to giving people on the list a meaningful opportunity to contest their inclusion, said Handeyside. Broad lists of this sort are necessarily ineffective because they undermine the purpose of the system, which is to direct resources toward people who are actual threats. Take the Pledge: Dont Be Silent: Take the Pledge to Be an Ally for Racial Justice Related stories on TakePart: Counterterrorism Efforts and Human Rights at Odds in France, Experts Say When Terrorists Attack, Refugees Are Less Welcome FBI Aids Criminal Investigation Into Flint's Water Crisis Original article from TakePart A federal district court rejected Texass attempt to bar the federal government from resettling Syrian refugees in the state and dismissed the lawsuit on Wednesday. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission failed to state a plausible claim for relief or prove it could challenge the governments actions under existing law, federal district judge David Godbey ruled. Texas officials originally filed the lawsuit last December against the federal government and the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit agency that assists with refugee resettlement. The legal fight came amid a broader backlash by some states, largely led by Republican officials, to resettling Syrian refugees after the terrorist attacks in Paris last November. Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the commission to suspend its cooperation with federal officials three days after the attacks. At the time, the agency also asked the court to halt the imminent arrival in Texas of a Syrian refugee family, but Godbey declined to intervene. Recommended: Why the Stanford Judge Gave Brock Turner Six Months In the lawsuit, Texas accused the federal government of violating the Refugee Act of 1980, which requires resettlement agencies to consult regularly with state governments before placing refugees in a state. While both agencies provided Texas with advance notice of resettlements, state officials asked their federal counterparts and the IRC for more specific information about individual refugees in the weeks leading up to the lawsuit. Godbey declined to address whether the federal government had actually violated the Refugee Acts consultation requirements. Instead, he ruled that Congress hadnt provided Texas or other states with the necessary legal means to challenge federal actions under the Act. Texas acknowledged Congress had provided no explicit mechanism, but argued the law implicitly included one. But this argument failed to convince Godbey, who cited the statutes history and structure to disprove it. Story continues His order also dismissed the commissions allegation that the IRC violated its contract with Texas by resettling refugees without proper communication. Texas argued the Refugee Act required the IRC to provide close cooperation and advance consultation. But that language is best read as advisory, Godbey wrote, contrasting its vague urgings with more explicit commands elsewhere in the Act. Texass defeat comes as other states continue to fight refugee resettlements in the courts. In March, the Obama administration asked a federal court to dismiss a similar lawsuit by Alabama. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam declined to veto legislation last month that would allow a lawsuit to go forward in that state. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. PLEASANT HILL, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 17, 2016 / Textmunication Holdings, Inc., (OTC: TXHD) ("Textmunication"), a Nevada corporation, announces First Quarter Results for the Three months ended March 31, 2016: Revenues were $88,410 for the March 2016 quarter versus $82,278 for the March 2015 quarter Aspire Consulting Group, which is 49% owned, had $250,000 in gross billings during the first quarter, resulting in $10,149 in distributions and $5,616 in Income from Investment in Equity Method Investee "The First quarter of 2016 was transformational to the business of Textmunication Holdings," said Wais Asefi, CEO. "During the first quarter, we accomplished two significant milestones: First, we partnered with significant enterprise software companies in the health and fitness industries and began to roll-out our services to their members. Second, we completed the acquisition of Aspire Consulting Group who had gross billings of $250,000 and distributed $10,149 to us as they expanded their partnerships." In the health and fitness industries, we have exclusive partnerships with the leaders in gym management software and salon software. Under those partnerships, we provide a sophisticated texting solution to notify their customers about billing, promotions and key information. We believe these partnerships will begin to impact our financial statements in the second quarter and on through the second half of the year. Aspire has added two significant partnerships in the past five months. They are actively bidding with their partners on significant government contracts, and as they continue to bid and win business, we believe Aspire will show significant traction in the upcoming quarters. Our net loss of $1.2 million was mainly non-cash expenses related to financing our business by borrowing money from investors who require us to convert their notes at a discount to the market price of our stock. In the first quarter, approximately $1.0 million of the $1.2 million loss was the non-cash charges associated with these notes. Story continues We have a plan to retire these notes, and it begins with our core business achieving cash flow positive status from operations. We are confident that we will achieve operational status by the end of the second quarter, at which point we will be able to either generate cash flow to repay the notes, or work through advisors to raise funds to consolidate and repay them. We do not believe it's in our shareholder's best interests to convert these notes and increase the number of shares outstanding. We believe our strategic partnerships are unique for a company of our size, and as we leverage our platform and relationships, we are excited about potential for our business. Note on forward looking statements: Certain statements that we make may constitute "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include information concerning future strategic objectives, business prospects, anticipated savings, financial results (including expenses, earnings, liquidity, cash flow and capital expenditures), industry or market conditions, demand for and pricing of our products, acquisitions and divestitures, anticipated results of litigation and regulatory developments or general economic conditions. In addition, words such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "projects," "forecasts," and future or conditional verbs such as "will," "may," "could," "should," and "would," as well as any other statement that necessarily depends on future events, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, and they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although we make such statements based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. We caution investors not to rely unduly on any forward-looking statements and urge you to carefully consider the risks described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent Forms 10-Q, which are available on SEC's website at sec.gov. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update any forward-looking statement in the event it later turns out to be inaccurate, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Textmunication Holdings, Inc. Shareholder Relations Phone: 1-800-677-7003 Email: IR@Textmunication.com SOURCE: Textmunication Holdings, Inc. A Middleton man who was charged Friday with shooting two men near a South Park Street restaurant last month said he was defending himself after one of the men pulled a gun on him that jammed as he tried to fire it, according to a criminal complaint. Tyreese M. Howard, 23, told police he shot Nicholas Moore and Octavius Hooker, both 26, after Moore jumped out of a car with a gun in his hand and pulled the trigger several times but the gun didnt fire, according to the complaint, filed in Dane County Circuit Court. I thought I was dead, Howard told police, according to the complaint. But Howard, who was arrested Monday, said that after seeing Moores gun jam twice as Moore tried to fire it, Howard fired his own gun. (Expletive), I just shot. (Expletive), Howard told detectives, the complaint states. He said Moore was able to get his gun to fire once, but the shot missed Howard. Howard was jailed on $25,000 bail after appearing in court Friday. He will return to court next week for a preliminary hearing. Howard was charged with two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and six counts of criminal damage to property, along with obstructing police and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said police do not believe that Moore is related to Martez Moore and Kortney Moore, or that the shooting is related to a spate of gunfire deaths in April and May. Martez Moore, 30, was killed in the parking lot of a Far West Side tavern on April 19, and his brother, Kortney Moore, 28, is charged with shooting another man to death outside a convenience store on Rimrock Road on May 11. A friend of Martez and Kortney Moore, Darius Haynes, was killed on May 10. Both Moore and Hooker have been released from local hospitals, DeSpain said. According to the complaint: Police were called about 3 a.m. on May 22 to the area near La Hacienda restaurant, 515 S. Park St., where Moore was found shot and was taken to Meriter Hospital. Hooker was taken to UW Hospital. Moore sustained gunshot wounds to the upper part of each leg, to his hand and a graze wound to his head above his ear. Hooker was wounded in the femoral artery of his left leg. Six cars in the area were also damaged by gunfire. Later that day, a Rock County Sheriffs deputy called Madison police to report that a confidential informant there had contacted the sheriffs office and said he had been given a gun by someone involved in the Park Street shooting. The deputy recorded a call between the informant and Howard, in which the informant asked Howard if he wanted the informant to bury the gun, but Howard told him to hang onto it. Madison police contacted the informant directly, and he said that Howard had told him he fired the gun eight to 10 times that morning after being approached by Moore. The gun was a Glock 9mm handgun. Fired rounds collected from the shooting scene were taken to the state Crime Lab, along with the gun, and the lab found that the rounds had been fired by that gun. On Monday, officers in the 1100 block of Moorland Road spotted Howard, who saw police and started walking toward a building. He ran as officers told him to stop. A gun was found along the route of the chase. At first, Howard denied being involved in the shooting but then told Detective Daniel Nale that he would take it on the chin like a man and say what really happened. Back in 2014, lifestyle brand ModCloth, which specializes in body-inclusive retro-infused apparel, was the first and only retailer to sign the "Heroes Pledge for Advertisers," which promised to not augment the bodies of their models on its website or advertisements. Around the same time, American Eagle's loungewear offshoot Aerie similarly pledged to stop airbrushing images of their models. For both companies, the benefits have been huge, with Aerie reporting a double-digit increase in sales and ModCloth reporting only positive results, from their sales to their customers' reactions. "As a culture, we're choosing which media we consume," ModCloth's founder, Susan Koger said in an interview. "It's not all controlled from the top down like it used to be. We want to see true beauty. We want to see reality." Now, it's ModCloth yet again further progressing the anti-airbrushing debate and this time they're taking it all the way to Washington D.C. Politico's Frances Holuba, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen and Susan Koger On Thursday at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington D.C., Koger and a number of fans of ModCloth and its mission met with the legislators behind the Truth in Advertising Act. The bill, which was first proposed in 2014, asks for the Federal Trade Commission to not only report the businesses that frequently alter images of people, but to develop a framework with which to deal with and regulate the advertisements that significantly change a person's image through image-altering techniques. Over the past few years, the bill has languished in Congress, largely because, as Koger puts it, it was deemed as not that important. When the bill was initially proposed, there was a rally on Capitol Hill, but nothing (and n) came of it. There was also a Change.org petition, which earned about 42,000 signatures while falling shy of its goal of 50,000. Rep. Lois Capps and Susan Koger "I think that it's easy for people to look at it and question how helpful would it be," Koger said. "People should know better. I could imagine that it's easy for our lawmakers to not be able to devote the time to make this happen. This conversation's continuing to happen around the world. As we , eventually I'm hoping we can take some action now." Story continues But for Koger, now is the time, especially given the response ModCloth, Aerie and the anti-digital alteration movement as a whole have given. The U.K. has at the very least addressed the movement on a larger, governmental level, with a bill proposed by British members of Parliament all the way back in 2009 that called to ban digital retouching in ads directed toward children altogether. While that bill basically disappeared, plenty of altered ads are swiftly banned by the Advertising Standards Authority each year in the U.K., including many for beauty products targeted toward young people. Meanwhile, magazines released in the United States are frequently called out for digitally augmenting the models on its pages. Over the course of the last few months Zendaya, Lena Dunham, Gigi Hadid, Kerry Washington and Victoria Beckham (among others) were all victims of being digitally altered by a magazine. All of this has gone down while many a study reveals just how harmful altering images is for young people, with a reported 78% of girls being unhappy with their bodies by age 17. To that end, Koger and the representatives who initially sponsored the bipartisan bill, including Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), gathered on Thursday in hopes of, at the very least, Source: ModCloth "For me, it's raising awareness," Koger said. "Getting our community involved, showing that they can be a part of this and giving the representatives in Congress the sense that there is support in the fashion industry to see this come to a pass." Although she admits that the bill won't be easy to pass ( or even get a vote on, she's not letting that quell ModCloth's overall confidence with how the future of fashion and advertising is represented. "If anything, it's going to take a lot of voices. As a non-politician in this world, that's how I believe the system works," Koger said. "I think it will, and this fits along with lots of changes in how we consume media, and see true diversity. It'll hopefully allow men and women, as they're consuming advertising, That they're not enough." To ensure that as many voices are being heard as possible, ModCloth is encouraging fans of the bill and brand to write to Congress about their personal journeys with body acceptance. Then, Koger hopes Congress will be closer to understanding why it is so important for young people to feel comfortable in their bodies. "At ModCloth, ," she continued. "This legislation ." Reggie Yeo, 51, (left) with his nine-year-old son, Ivan Yeo at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (Photo: Reggie Yeo) By Erin Kimbrell and Sharlene Maria Sankaran Reggie Yeo, a 51-year-old single father, will be celebrating Fathers Day on Sunday (19 June) without the presence of someone who is close to his heart: his 13-year-old daughter, Hannah Yeo. The sales executives daughter has been spending time with her mother in Taiwan in the past few weeks. Yeo, who has custody of his daughter and nine-year-old son, Ivan Yeo, is among the Singaporean single fathers for whom Fathers Day is a poignant time to reflect on the challenges of raising their children. Yeo told Yahoo Singapore that it has been emotionally trying experience at times for him since he became a single father in 2010. On special occasions like Chinese New Year reunion dinners and Mothers Day, his children would often feel the absence of his ex-wife. From a young age, they started to ask why they didnt have a mother. So I have to guide them psychologically. Its a struggle to make sure I guide them properly and that they are not affected by our own (marriage) failures, said Yeo, who will be celebrating Fathers Day with his son and 77-year-old father. Coping with the cost of living The single fathers that Yahoo Singapore spoke to said that they find it challenging to balance between work and family. As such, Tom, who has been a single father for about 13 years, hoped for greater awareness and support from the government. I dont think the government even acknowledges that single fathers exist in Singapore, said the 51-year-old field service engineer. In response to queries by Yahoo Singapore, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) said that there are no records available on the number of single fathers in Singapore. As the breadwinners, single fathers like 62-year-old Daniel often find it hard to cope with the rising costs of living and education. The taxi driver has been a single father for 15 years to his daughter, who is now 21 years old. Story continues In a normal family, there are two parents, you can either have dual income or one would be working while the other would to take care of the children. Once you take one away, problems will arise if they cannot find the support they need, said Daniel. For Koh Soon Kiang, a 46 year-old pilot who has two teenage sons, single parents have to learn how to manage their lifestyle expectations and curb their expenses. If you want to give a child everything, everything is expensive. I (simply) want my kids to grow up healthy and to have a lot of fun during their childhood years and understand the process of growing up, Koh said. Koh Soon Kiang, 46, (right) with his sons Dominique Koh, 17, (left) and Wesley Koh, 14 (centre). (Photo: Koh Soon Kiang) Single fathers can turn to voluntary welfare organisations, such as Family Service Centres, HELP Family Service Centre, and The Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) for counseling and other assistance programmes. In an email to Yahoo Singapore, AWARE said it aims to promote more supportive and equitable policies and more welcoming attitudes towards single parents. Providing emotional support In the past, Koh and his ex-wife would assume separate roles of being the disciplinarian and mediator to their children. But the dynamics of parenting changed once Koh became a single father and he had to assume both roles. Many times, after I discipline or scold (my sons), I will calm myself down and talk to them nicely again to explain to them why I had to discipline them, Koh said. For Tom, his main challenges were to help his then seven-year-old daughter cope with the trauma of his ex-wife packing up and leaving their home, and her puberty in later years. Growing up, sometimes my daughter would need help with her girl issues. I was blessed that my mom and sisters were around when I needed their help, said Tom, whose daughter is now 20 years old. Koh is similarly grateful for the support from his family since he became a single father seven years ago. His parents take care of his sons whenever he goes on flight duty. Despite their struggles, the single fathers who were interviewed said that the joys of seeing their children grow up are immeasurable. Tom said, Seeing my daughter grow up to be a good person. Playing with her and making her laugh. Even being with her when she is sad. These are the joys of fatherhood. For Yeo, he cherished the little moments like meal times with his children. When they say I love you, with their little hands holding on to a cup of mashed potatoes, you can feel that their love for you is pure, he said. Yahoo Singapore wishes all fathers a Happy Fathers Day Thai police say they will again try to arrest Buddhist sect leader Phra Dhammajayo in the next coming days after thousands of his followers foiled their attempt Thursday by blocking the approach to his temple. The sect leader heads an organization described as having the character of a charismatic cult, with intense loyalty demanded of its 10 million followers, who have flocked to the movements outlandish headquarters, Wat Phra Dhammakaya. Phra Dhammajayo briefly achieved international notoriety in 2012, the Wall Street Journal reports, by making bizarre claims that Steve Jobs had been reincarnated as a warrior spirit and was dwelling in a heavenly palace. The 72-year-old is now wanted on charges of money laundering and the embezzlement of $14 million from a credit union allegations he vigorously denies. For weeks, he has refused to attend court to answer the charges, the Journal says, with his supporters claiming that he is medically unable to leave Wat Phra Dhammakaya. Buddhist monks are no stranger to controversy in Thailand with many scandals involving fast living, animal trafficking and rape rattling the publics perception of the countrys main religion. Much criticism has centered around Phra Dhammajayo, with scholars calling its practices unorthodox and misleading. According to the BBC, some say the sect has close political ties with former Primer Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown by the military. [WSJ] From Esquire Hours before Bernie Sanders met with Barack Obama to discuss the future of the 2016 presidential race and what the next few months look like for the Democratic agenda, Thurston Moore was at home, in London, eagerly anticipating their conversation. Moore, together with Joyful Noise Recordings and the Bernie Sanders Campaign, has released "Feel It In Your Guts," a limited run flexi-disc that weaves excerpts from some of Sanders' most moving speeches together with a twelve-string acoustic movement composed by the noise statesman and Sonic Youth guitarist. "Feel It In Your Guts" is a thoughtful meditation and welcome listen at a time when headlines-and candidates-are screaming out buzz words and threatening overtures, and Moore is proud to "join hands" with Sanders and his campaign by lending his talent to this recording. "A recording like this is a gesture," he says. "Anyone who knows me is pretty much already pro-Bernie; I'm just adding to the patina of love." But it isn't just love that Moore is bringing to the intersection of music and politics. In a conversation about "Feel It In Your Guts," Moore-an American living overseas, who returns to the States for the occasional gig and teaching engagement-has been watching the brewing madness of the impending election from afar, and he has plenty to say about perspective and why he wanted to participate in this project in the first place. Below are Moore's thoughts on everything from the connection between Sanders and hip-hop to the importance of artists using their platforms to encourage awareness and effect change at a crucial time. On Donald Trump: "It's like Ronald McDonald running for President." November almost seems like a million years away, but it's almost around the corner when the country sort of shifts into this completely new paradigm. I'm kind of wanting to be there in November, but at the same time, I kind of enjoy having a bit of a distance. It seems like an interesting position to me, to be away from the USA and seeing the process as it moves forward and changes, from eight years of Obama into either a continuation of the Democratic party, which is what we all-which is what I-would like to see, and this kind of threat from this completely inane Republican party. It's like Ronald McDonald running for president. On Hillary Rodham Clinton's nomination: "I think it's disingenuous to say that it's time for the Bernie Sanders campaign to throw in the towel." [Hillary Clinton's presumptive nomination] was expected. It's always politics per usual. The fact that there's a revolution going on with Bernie Sanders' campaign, or at least wanting to instill a revolution in a global system, it's such a radical idea. The fact that it's gained so much momentum and been represented by such a large and vocal demographic, it's completely exciting. I wasn't really surprised by Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee, which isn't really the case, completely, at this point. We still have until July 25. I think it's disingenuous to say that it's time for the Bernie Sanders campaign to throw in the towel. A lot of the campaign is about voicing something that's important to a very large and potent demographic of the United States of America. He needs to sort of minimize his campaign because it's not going to have the level of fun he's had the past few weeks. On Bernie Sanders' speeches: "I said, 'This person has zero chance of advancing this dialogue,' and I was wrong." I don't know Bernie Sanders personally. To me he seems a very consistent ideologue. If you look at any speech Bernie Sanders has given since the Ronald Reagan era, it's always been consistent with his ideology: It's always about focusing on the imbalance of power in the American economic society, and it's also the imbalance of power in society in regards to race, gender, and innateness as it improves through sociopolitics. That, to me, is the most important thing in his voice. He's always been consistent, and he's also a very sophisticated politician, and I think that's something we've all been recognizing in this last twelve months. I never knew of Bernie Sanders before last July, and it was from teaching at a progressive liberal university in Boulder, Colorado, called Naropa University, where I saw someone espousing the virtues of Bernie Sanders as a potential candidate. That was the first time I heard his name. I'm not somebody who is involved in the political world in any sort of celebrity kind of way. I was curious as to whom this outlier was working from the margins. I started listening to him, and I really got on board with what he was saying. I said, "This person has zero chance of advancing this dialogue," and I was wrong. I think everybody in the media was wrong about how things were going to progress, be it through Bernie Sanders' progression to attracting so much to his agenda, as it was for somebody like Donald Trump, who was just a wild card doofus on the Republican side. In retrospect, I think we'll see Barack Obama as one of the great presidents of our age, and the fact that, you know, this is kind of an American dynamic of wanting to replace him with someone who's so extremely the opposite of him by the name of Donald Trump, a real estate magnate with no political history. It's really interesting how divisive our society is as a people and who we are as a country. It's really interesting how divisive our society is as a people and who we are as a country. On the ideal presidential candidate: "It's not about guarantees and promises. It's about representation." I'm not an anti-Hillary person; I hear so many Bernie Bros talking about their animosity towards Hillary Clinton through her history of saying one thing and doing another. She's a professional politician, and an American politician. I totally understand what that is. It's not about guarantees and promises. It's about representation. It's about delegation. It's about having this kind of responsibility in how to delegate power in office to people that work for the good of the country. We certainly are not into the promotion of commerce through any kind of war industry. She is kind of hawkish, but I think she's hawkish with reservation. I really don't have too much issue with her in any real respect. It's such a world beyond me. I try to live within simple means. I prefer the language that I hear coming from Bernie Sanders than I do Hillary Clinton, but they're both of the Democratic Party, and I will vote Democratic. If Bernie Sanders decides to continue to run as an Independent or with the Green Party, I'll make up my mind at that point, but historically, that's always very sort of detrimental within a two-party system. On Trump's popularity: "The majority of the country, is it really sort of pro-fascism?" We really don't know who our neighbors are in that respect. The majority of the country, is it really sort of pro-fascism? If it is, it's time to sort of have a good debate here, because it's going to create a bit of a civil unrest in America, to put it lightly, if that's going to be the domineering factor of our country. I think I'm ready to sort of fight for the good fight. I'll be in the trenches. If it's something that does indeed happen, it's time to create that strong a voice and opposition to it. I think that Bernie Sanders' campaign is the strongest opposition to that. I think Hillary Clinton is more moneyed in opposition to that, and money is power in the United States, and we all understand that. Bernie Sanders, he's an activist and always has been. On "Feel It In Your Guts" as "this small, outsider way of demonstrating our respect towards this person who's always talking about respect." I'm sort of known as a fairly anachronistic noise guitarist. I could do some kind of feedback symphony or some kind of more radical noise guitar thing. I tried doing that; I just didn't feel right, and it's all about feeling. I put together some twelve-string guitar ideas I had. I sent them to the label, and they had a mix engineer put it together. I thought it sounded pretty cool. I didn't put so much on it; I thought it was something we were going to do that was just this small, outsider way of demonstrating our respect towards this person who's always talking about respect. It's all about humanitarian respect. I had sort of felt like maybe it's a little too weird for the campaign to put something like this out. But, no, they gave it the green light. The campaign had a lot of odds to plate besides greenlighting a seven-inch flexidisc of Bernie Sanders' excerpted speech while a twelve-string acoustic guitar plays. I don't think that was really big on their list. [Laughs] On music and politics: "I think musicians have a certain responsibility to use their public celebrity to represent what their stance is politically." Music is primarily a central art form. When I see music being used in politics, it's either a straightforward diatribe, or it's just being used as background sound, as soundtrack music. I think musicians have a certain responsibility to use their public celebrity to represent what their stance is politically. I really appreciate people like Patti Smith who come out and talk about these issues onstage. I don't think most musicians are very articulate in political dialogue so much, but I don't think most of the people in the public arena are articulate in any way. As we can see in the Trump campaign, most people respond to the simplicity of his truths: "I will win!" "I will take care of this!" That kind of language is very interesting to me because music doesn't have that kind of definition. Music is more of an abstract, more of an emotional language. Does music have a power to influence anything in politics? I don't think so, but I think a musician can. There are lots of sort of right wing, Trump-espousing musicians as well, probably. I wonder who they are. During the Bush campaign you would see a lot of pro-Bush, "Let's go kick some ass, America!"-kind of voices out there. I haven't seen so much pro-Trump music. What does Trump listen to? I think the music is evocative of the energy of the musician towards any kind of emotional factor, but it's the musician who makes whatever statements he wants to make. From Woman's Day A lethal combination of sweltering heat and child safety locks led to the death of a 3-year-old boy in Houston on Thursday. The boy was looking for a toy when he entered a car through an unlocked front door, according to CNN. He then climbed into the backseat of the car, which was parked near home, but couldn't open the door due to child protective locks, CNN said. He was trapped for 30 to 45 minutes before family members found him and immediately called 911 while starting CPR, according to Click2Houston. He died shortly after arriving at the Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital. The nonprofit organization Kids and Cars found that on average, 37 children die each year in hot cars due to heatstroke and other heat-related deaths. Car temperatures can reach 110 degrees even if it's only in the 60s outside, according to USA Today. A child's body temperature raises three to five times faster than adults. Temperatures were as high as 100 degrees in the area when the tragedy occurred. A heat advisory is in place in the Houston area until Saturday. A police spokesperson said the death was a tragic accident and no charges will be filed as of now, the New York Daily News reports. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump meets with supporters following a June 16 rally in Dallas. (Photo: Ron Jenkins/Getty Images) DALLAS It was the nicest compliment Donald Trump had ever heard. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in the middle of speaking at a boisterous rally here Thursday night when a woman interrupted the candidate, shouting from the crowd near the side of the stage that she loved his famous coif. Trump, who had been mocking the Obama administration for its handling of nuclear weapons negotiations with Iran, stopped dead in his tracks. She said, I love your hair. Thats the nicest thing anybody is going to say about me, the New York real estate mogul declared. It is my hair, he quickly added. Again thanking the woman, Trump seemed surprised and repeated her compliment. I love your hair, he said with a degree of marvel. And then Trump looked back toward the assembled press corps, whom he had mocked earlier as totally biased anddishonest. Did you get that on tape? Trump said. I hope you got that on tape because I want it for my children. It was moment of levity in a rally full of it as Trump gleefully marked his one-year anniversary of entering the presidential race and his unlikely rise to become the GOP nominee. Slideshow: Head of state: Hair of the Donald >>> Like most Trump events, the rally was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, but the candidate, apparently in a good mood, largely brushed them off at one point even thanking a man in a cowboy hat who flipped the candidate the bird as he was escorted out by security. I love cowboy hats. But I like Make America Great Again hats better, Trump said, referring to his campaign swag. Then suddenly, Trump was struck by inspiration: He told the crowd he would start making cowboy hats emblazoned with his campaign slogan, an idea that sparked wild cheers from the several-thousand-person strong audience. Thank you, protester! Trump called out. Trump spoke at a smaller-than-usual venue on Thursday: a ballroom at Gilleys, a Dallas offshoot of the country nightclub made famous by the film Urban Cowboy. It was a last-minute location decision after the campaign had trouble booking a venue elsewhere in the Dallas area. Two neighboring cities Grand Prairie and Irving reportedly declined to host rallies for the GOP candidate, citing logistical concerns. Story continues Trump apologized to supporters for the small venue but did highlight Gilleys history at one point randomly calling out that he wanted to ride that horse, an apparent reference to the clubs legendary mechanical bull. Wheres that horse? I want to go on the horse, Trump declared. Hey, you want to hit the papers tomorrow? Lets get that horse. Ill ride that horse. The problem is even if I make it, they will say I fell off the horse. At one point, Trump reminded voters that he had entered the race a year ago Thursday, and as he does at nearly every stop he talked up his litany of primary wins and all the Republican rivals he had vanquished, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. But Trump did not namecheck Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a bitter rival who has yet to endorse him in the race. This is the one-year anniversary, Trump told supporters. Hopefully were going to make it a worthwhile year. A Monona man who prosecutors said dealt the heroin that killed a Waupun man in February and caused the near-fatal overdose of another was found guilty Thursday of first-degree reckless homicide and several other charges. Christopher T. Jenkins, 36, showed little reaction as Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds read the verdicts, reached by a jury of four men and eight women, after about three hours of deliberation Thursday. Jenkins was convicted of supplying the heroin that caused the death on Feb. 10 of Joshua M. Strate, 32, and an overdose that was nearly fatal to David J. Beloungy, 21. Strates body, along with Beloungy, who was breathing irregularly, was found in a van parked on Kong Road in the town of Pleasant Springs. The investigation quickly led to Wyatt Staff, 20, who lived about 800 yards from where the van was parked, and Staff led investigators to Jenkins. Along with first-degree reckless homicide, Jenkins was convicted of delivery of heroin and second-degree reckless endangerment. The homicide conviction carries up to 40 years of combined prison and extended supervision, while the endangerment conviction carries up to 10 years. The heroin delivery conviction is a 12-year felony. Jenkins was also convicted of a second heroin delivery charge for selling heroin the following night to Staff, who bought it under police control, and charges of heroin and marijuana possession. Jenkins will be sentenced in about two months. In closing arguments Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Matthew Moeser walked jurors through evidence that showed how Beloungy and Strate came to the Madison area early Feb. 10, looking for heroin from Staff, a friend of Beloungy. Staff called Jenkins and arranged a purchase at the Microtel motel on Madisons Far East Side. In the van, still at the Microtel parking lot, they used the heroin, and Beloungy and Strate both passed out. Staff, panicked and not knowing what to do, drove to Pleasant Springs, parked the van on Kong Road and walked home. Moeser said video surveillance at the motel and phone records all tied events together. But Jenkins lawyer, John Smerlinski, argued that the logistics are ridiculous, and that the evidence is uncertain at best. He argued that the heroin could have been purchased from another dealer that Staff called that night, but Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Blais, in a rebuttal argument, pointed out that there was only one call to the other dealer, against several made to Jenkins. Smerlinski said there was no way to tie a phone number in records to Jenkins because the phone was a burner phone, but prosecutors said other evidence tied the number to Jenkins. And Smerlinski asked jurors whether they should trust Staff, who left two friends to die in the cold. This is the character of the person that they want you to believe, he said. Blais responded that prosecutors dont get to pick their witnesses. Tupac : Trump Rapper Tupac Shakur once discussed Donald Trump in an extended rant on capitalism for a 1992 MTV interview that reportedly never aired. In the eight-minute interview which was the rapper's "first MTV interview as a solo artist," according to the video Shakur contrasts his underprivileged upbringing with the privileged world of "family heirlooms" and capitalist empires. "When you born, usually, you're born into a dynasty or an empire," Shakur said. "You're born, like, as a junior or following in your father's footsteps." Then, around the video's five-minute mark, he speaks about Donald Trump and his business: "You want to be successful you want to be like Trump? Gimme, gimme, gimme. Push, push, push. Step, step, step. Crush, crush, crush. That's how it all is. Nobody ever stops," Shakur said, describing what he sees as the selfish forces of capitalism. The video, which now has over a million views, was uploaded to YouTube in February 2010. According to The Hollywood Reporter, MTV was "unable to confirm whether the video ever aired" on the channel. Shakur would go on to have one of the most prolific careers in rap history in a span of five short years. He was shot and killed in Las Vegas 21 years ago, at the age of 25. Watch the interview below. NOW WATCH: 6 details you might have missed on the season 7 finale of 'Game of Thrones' More From Business Insider Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey's new prime minister on Friday stretched out a cautious hand of reconciliation to Turkey's regional foes, saying he wanted no permanent tensions with Black Sea and Mediterranean neighbours after serious ruptures with Egypt, Israel, Russia and Syria. Binali Yildirim, a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, took over the premiership in May from Ahmet Davutoglu who had spearheaded a policy of projecting Turkish power in the region. Some analysts have suggested that Davutoglu made way for Yildirim to allow a more reconciliatory foreign policy that would allow Turkey to mend bridges with its enemies and return to its former dictum of "zero problems" with neighbours. "Israel, Syria, Russia, Egypt... we cannot have permanent enmity with these countries which border the Black and Mediterranean Seas," Yildirim said in his first major interview with Turkish reporters, quoted by the Hurriyet daily. - 'See big picture' - Relations with Russia tumbled to post Cold War lows when Turkey on November 24 shot down a Russian warplane over the Syrian border. Moscow then blocked the sale of tours to Turkey, wrecking tourism in the south of the country where the industry was hugely dependent on Russian tourists. "We need to look at the big picture," said Yildirim. "There is no hostility between our peoples. It's possible to go back to the old days and take our relations even further." His comments come after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter this month to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin congratulating him on Russia's national day, the first such high level contact since the plane crisis. Russia has so far responded cooly, but pro-government daily Yeni Safak said Friday Turkey had prepared a nine step "roadmap" for normalising political and economic relations by September 1 and full ties by December 15. Previously tight relations between key NATO member Turkey and Israel were downgraded over the 2010 deadly storming by Israeli commandos of a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza, which left 10 Turkish activists dead. Story continues Yildirim said Turkish diplomats were working on a solution for normalisation, with the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza the key condition. "I don't think the remaining period will be very long" until a result for normalisation is achieved, he said. Turkish press reports have suggested a breakthrough may come soon, with Ankara keen to wrap up the issue before the Turkish foreign ministry's powerful pointman on Israel, Feridun Sinirlioglu, takes up a new job in New York as Turkey's representative to the United Nations. - 'Turkey wants Egypt ties' - Relations with Egypt suffered a similar downturn after the 2013 ousting of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, a close Ankara ally, and Erdogan has denounced President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as an "illegitimate tyrant". Yildirim said Ankara would never accept the 2013 "coup" but said "this should not be an obstacle in the commercial relations between our countries". "The development of relations is in the interest of the two peoples," he added. Reports have suggested that Turkey's increasingly close ally, fellow Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia, is keen to engineer a reconciliation between Cairo and Ankara. On the Syria conflict, Turkey has always called for the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad and opposed attempts by Syrian Kurds to carve out an autonomous region. "The territorial integrity of Syria is important for us," Yildirim said. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu Friday met US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ankara, telling him of Turkey's anxieties over the US support of Kurdish militias in Syria, foreign ministry sources said. Turkey however has denied suggestions it may be prepared to soften its position that Assad must depart immediately for there to be a solution in Syria. "Would you (as a refugee) be convinced to return to Syria if Assad is to stay and kill your family again? It's not feasible," a senior Turkish official said this week. By Gulsen Solaker and Ece Toksabay ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's government wants to remove hundreds of top judges and give President Tayyip Erdogan more say on appointments in a major overhaul it says will speed up courts, but opponents fear the move will undermine judicial independence. The government says the judicial review will allow it to weed out the followers of a U.S.-based Muslim cleric accused by Erdogan of attempting to topple him, and help streamline high courts bogged down by a backlog of cases.Critics say it is an attempt by Erdogan to cement control over the courts, which they say he already uses to intimidate opponents. Prosecutors have opened around 2,000 cases against people for insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014, including journalists, cartoonists and teenagers. Under the draft law being debated in parliament, all 711 judges at two of the highest courts - the Council of State, which hears cases lodged by citizens against the government, and the Supreme Court of Appeals - will be removed. Some are expected to be reappointed, but it is unclear how many. Erdogan will then be able to appoint a quarter of the judges at the Council of State, allowing him to stack one of the country's most important legal bodies with his allies. "This will consolidate all power into one man's hand," Metin Feyzioglu, the head of Turkey's bar association, said in a statement, describing the planned changes as dangerous. The reform will more than halve the number of judges at both the Council of State and the Supreme Court of Appeals, with most cases instead being concluded at regional appeals courts. Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the aim was to end a crippling bottleneck in the court system, part of wider reforms he said were demanded by investors. "Justice right now is slow and clearly that is an issue for the business community," he said in an interview. "We have this system where millions of files end up at the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State, roughly 2 million files, which means justice certainly needs to be speeded up," he told Reuters, estimating 80 percent of cases would from now on be concluded at regional courts. GULENIST INFLUENCE Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has said he wants to erase the influence of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally accused of using his network of followers in the judiciary and other institutions to try to overthrow the government. The cleric, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, denies the charges. "It is clear that some people in the judiciary have connections with Pennsylvania," Bozdag said late on Thursday at a meeting in parliament. "For them it's not important to follow the constitution or law because their loyalties lie elsewhere." Ankara considers the Gulen movement, which has millions of followers worldwide, a terrorist organization. The preacher and Erdogan had a public falling out in 2013 when police and prosecutors seen as sympathetic to Gulen opened a corruption investigation into Erdogan's inner circle. But opponents say the fight against Gulen is an excuse for Erdogan to tighten his grip. Seven TV stations were fined on Friday for broadcasting an opposition party meeting at which supporters chanted a slogan insulting Erdogan, while the head of the DISK labor union said on Twitter she was briefly detained also on accusations of insulting the president. "The government claims to be doing this to remove names close to Gulen, but the real aim is to set up their own cadre in high courts," said Ilhan Cihaner, a former prosecutor and a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People's Party. "The current changes will allow the government to oust any judge whose decisions they don't like." (Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall, Orhan Coskun and Seda Sezer; Editing by David Dolan and Dominic Evans) It's the dreaded failure topic: "Describe a situation taken from your personal or professional life where you failed." MBA applicants often freak out when faced with this common admissions essay question because they fear that showing any weakness will torpedo their admissions chances. However, at one point or another, everyone faces adversity, failure or setbacks, whether at work or in life. Your response to these situations demonstrates your character, and business schools understand that failure represents a learning opportunity. This essay is your chance to demonstrate your maturity, flexibility and leadership qualities. Leaders aren't always successful; rather, they are willing to admit to failure and find motivation in their misfortune. [Learn about five key qualities of successful MBA applications.] So how do you tell the business school admissions committee how failure has truly affected you? First, start with some real introspection. It's important to use a failure that is emotionally important to you. Your failure should also be real and something that led you to gain some insight about yourself. The negative situation could have led to a transformative experience for your team, a positive opportunity for someone else or a chance for you to better understand another person through a team challenge. The admissions committee will easily see through an accomplishment that you frame as a failure; furthermore, that will not demonstrate your maturity or ability to grow. Think creatively about this aspect -- do your best to describe how you have changed your approach as a result of the failure. When brainstorming for this essay, think first about what you learned from the situation you plan to detail; then work backward to describe the circumstances and the initial challenge or hurdle. That will help you more optimistically view the whole situation. What did you learn from the experience and how did it impact your life or demonstrate a specific aspect of your character, goals or accomplishments? Story continues [Check out tips for writing a concise MBA admissions essay.] Think honestly about all the emotions you felt. As ugly as they may have been, be honest and write them down. From there, try to more eloquently describe your feelings in your essay. Remember, even the most difficult situations often lead to personal growth and likely have contributed to the individual you are today. For example, one of my clients was caught plagiarizing a term paper during college. He was very lucky the school did not expel him, but he did fail and have to repeat that course. This startling wakeup call became a valuable life lesson. It spurred him to join student government, help develop for the school policy guidelines on cheating and speak publically about his plagiarism experience and the importance of respecting intellectual property. When he applied for business school, his transformative experience resonated with the admissions committee and he ultimately attended one of the top-three MBA programs in the country. The key here is detailing not only your actions but also your feelings. Another client I worked with chose to write about her layoffs at three different companies over a five-year period. Although the layoffs had nothing to do with her job performance, each experience devastated her, and she struggled both financially and emotionally until she finally landed a position that allowed her to flourish. [Consider these four reasons for writing an optional business school application essay.] She turned those low moments into a powerful admissions essay of resilience and problem-solving. She showed how the experience ultimately taught her waysto better evaluate career opportunities. Demonstrating this type of humility and self-awareness made a positive impact on the admissions committee, and she ultimately attended the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania -- with a scholarship to boot. As you finalize this essay, focus on embracing the positive aspects of your past mistake and demonstrating the ways you have used the incident as an opportunity to learn and grow. This may just be the factor that makes your candidacy stand out amid a sea of so-called "perfect" applicants. (Adds comment from BC Lumber Trade Council, paragraphs 8-9) By David Ljunggren OTTAWA, June 17 (Reuters) - Talks between the United States and Canada on a long-running dispute over softwood lumber exports have bogged down amid "significant differences," the two nations said on Friday, potentially paving the way for a fresh round of lawsuits. U.S. producers complain that Canadian lumber is subsidized, and have in the past launched trade challenges that resulted in the United States imposing billion of dollars in tariffs. The most recent round of arguments ended with a 2006 deal that expired in October 2015. Both sides agreed to take no action for a year after that, but without a new treaty, U.S. firms have made clear they will file new damage claims. In March, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked officials to work out possible solutions and report back within 100 days. That deadline runs out on June 18. "Significant differences remain between us," said U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and Canadian Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland in a joint statement. "The United States and Canada have made significant advances in exploring the key issues and priorities ...(and) are committed to continuing negotiations." Reuters reported on June 10 that the talks were making little progress. Canadian officials say one challenge is that domestic producers are split over the best strategy. {nL1N1920GZ] BC Lumber Trade Council Chief Executive Susan Yurkovich said she believes an agreement can be reached that will provide certainty for lumber producers on both sides of the border. "However, if a reasonable agreement cannot be reached, we are also prepared to work alongside the Canadian government to defend the industry against any potential trade actions brought by the United States," Yurkovich said in a statement. Major Canadian lumber firms include Canfor Corp, West Fraser Timber Co, Interfor Corp and Resolute Forest Products Inc. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Diane Craft and Sandra Maler) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Steering and braking problems linked to two crashes and five injuries in 135,000 Toyota sport utility vehicles have prompted the opening of a federal investigation, a U.S. auto safety regulator said on Friday. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it has 135 complaints from 2001-2002 model year Toyota Sequoia SUV owners alleging incidents of unexpected vehicle stability control activations resulting in automatic braking of the left or right wheel and unexpected steering pull. A preliminary probe is the first step before NHTSA decides whether to demand a recall. Toyota spokeswoman Cindy Knight said the company is cooperating with NHTSA. Around half of the complaints said a faulty sensor was diagnosed as the cause of the problem, while other complaints report similar symptoms and driving conditions, NHTSA said. Most of the complaints reported an unexpected activation at highway speeds. Some reported the incident as feeling like a "jerk" to the steering wheel. In 2010, Toyota recalled 50,000 2003 Sequoia SUVs because the vehicle stability control system could activate at low speed for a few seconds during acceleration NHTSA had launched an investigation in 2008 into the issue and upgraded it in 2009. Toyota insisted at the time the issue wasn't a safety issue but agreed to recall the vehicles anyway. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio) By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Most of the 47 countries that pledged support to U.N. peacekeeping at a summit led by U.S. President Barack Obama have taken steps to lock in the commitments, according to a draft report seen by Reuters, but several of them - including Spain - are lagging. The U.S.-led push for more U.N. troop options comes amid allegations of misconduct and sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers in Central African Republic. Officials and diplomats said it was hoped surplus troops would allow the U.N. to exercise more discretion with its 16 current missions. The United Nations is using some of the new troops on offer as leverage to put pressure on poor-performing units, a U.N. diplomat said, citing the repatriation of hundreds of Democratic Republic of Congo troops from Central African Republic after sexual abuse accusations. The U.N. draft report on the status of the pledges made at Obama's September summit showed some of the support promised by 10 countries had already been deployed to U.N. missions in Mali, South Sudan, Congo and elsewhere. More than 40,000 troops and police, as well as helicopters, military engineering companies and field hospitals, were pledged during Obama's summit of world leaders at the United Nations in a bid to boost the capacity of peacekeeping. The draft report on the pledges will be given to member states but will not be made public, and could change before it is distributed, said a U.N. diplomat familiar with the report. "There is substantial progress but we want all countries to follow through as soon as possible," said a U.S. official on condition of anonymity. Spain had pledged troops, helicopters and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. "But they subsequently communicated to the U.N. that those were contingent on the U.N. selecting a Spaniard as force commander, at which the U.N. balked," a U.N. diplomat said. Another diplomat said Spain completely withdrew its pledge after the U.N. chose General Michael Beary of Ireland. Spain's U.N. mission declined comment. Uganda, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Norway, Spain, Brazil and Vietnam have not followed through on all or part of their pledges, said the U.N. draft report. U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Joe Dunford and Deputy British Chief of Defence Staff General Gordon Messenger will host a closed-door meeting on Friday at U.N. headquarters to assess progress on realizing the pledges. Washington pays for about 28 percent of the $8.2 billion U.N. peacekeeping budget. (Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau at United Nations; Editing by Matthew Lewis) KINSHASA (Reuters) - United Nations peacekeepers killed seven rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday as part of operations to tamp down rising inter-ethnic tensions in the area, the U.N. mission said on Friday. South African troops from the U.N. Force Intervention Brigade fired on members of a primarily Kobo and Nande militia after they tried to prevent aid workers giving out food to Hutu civilians in a displacement camp in the town of Buleusa in North Kivu province, mission spokesman Charles Bambara said. Eleven other militiamen were wounded while the rest fled, Bambara added. The U.N. troops suffered no casualties. The U.N. intervention in Buleusa follows a week of surging tensions between Hutus and the Kobo and Nande communities after rumors spread that members of the FDLR, a Hutu militia with officers implicated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, had infiltrated displaced persons camps. Nande and Kobo militiamen killed at least four Hutus and burned hundreds of their huts in Buleusa on Monday, according to Samuel Ntaota, a spokesman for the local Hutu community. Ethnic rivalries, foreign invasions and competition for mineral-rich land have stoked persistent conflict among eastern Congo's dozens of rebel groups over the last two decades, costing millions of lives. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Marine Pennetier and Mark Heinrich) TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy lifted a temporary drinking ban on its 18,600 sailors in Japan on Friday after a senior officer said personnel had shown they understand how alcohol-fueled bad behavior can damage relations with the Japanese community. The drinking ban was imposed 11 days ago after Japanese police arrested a U.S. sailor on the southern island of Okinawa for drink-driving following a car crash that injured two people. That incident came as U.S. forces were already trying to repair relations in Japan after an American civilian working for the military was arrested on suspicion of murdering of a 20-year-old Japanese woman and dumping her body. "The temporary restriction on alcohol was not intended to be a punishment, nor was it ever intended to be permanent," Rear Admiral Matthew Carter, commander of the U.S. Navy in Japan, said in a statement. "We took this pause to train and reflect on the dangers of alcohol abuse," he said. Sailors will be allowed to drink alcohol on U.S. bases there and in private residences outside, but not in off-base bars. Anger among Okinawa residents at the U.S. military presence threatens to derail the relocation the U.S. Marines' Futenma air base to a less populous part of the island, a plan agreed in 1995 after the rape of a Japanese schoolgirl by U.S. military personnel sparked huge demonstrations. Okinawa's governor and many residents want the Marines off the island. A demonstration against the U.S. presence planned for Sunday in the capital Naha could attract thousands of people. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Paul Tait) A private airplane landed at Reedsburg Municipal Airport early Friday at a speed too fast to stop and too slow to regain flight, causing it to go off the end of the runway and through an 8-foot chain-link fence. The plane crossed the street and stopped in a grassy area next to a grocery store, near the intersection of Zinga and Veterans drives, Reedsburg Police Chief Timothy Becker said. The single-prop plane was piloted by Donald G. Kargel, 72, of Stillwater, Minnesota, Becker said. He was trying to land, realized too late he was running out of runway and tried to accelerate but he was going too slow to pull up, said Becker. Neither Kargel nor his passenger, Mary J. Kargel, 70, was injured. Four fence posts and the fence were flattened, Becker said. Kargel, who has a valid pilots license, had landed a plane at the Reedsburg airport in the past, he said. The plane, with one wheel and landing gear broken off but wings intact, was towed back through the fence and onto the airport property. The U.S. will stay in the Black Sea says a U.S. Navy Secretary on Thursday, despite Russia warning that the patrolling U.S. destroyer undermines regional security. Speaking to Reuters, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says it is the U.S. Navys role to deter aggression and keep sea lanes open in the Black Sea basin, which bounded by Russia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Ukraine and Turkey. Were going to be there, Mabus told Reuters of the Black Sea. Were going to deter. Thats the main reason were there to deter potential aggression. Romania and Turkey are going to push for for a bigger NATO presence in the Black Sea in response to increased Russian aggression in the region. They are expected to propose the joint initiative in a NATO summit in July. Russia has its own Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol and says it poses no threat to the security alliance [Reuters] By Steve Scherer ABOARD THE USS MASON (Reuters) - The United States will maintain its presence in the Black Sea despite a Russian warning that a U.S. destroyer patrolling there undermined regional security, the U.S. Navy Secretary said. The USS Porter entered the Black Sea this month, drawing heavy criticism from Moscow. Turkey and Romania are expected to push for a bigger NATO presence in the Black Sea at the NATO summit in Warsaw next month. Aboard the USS Mason, another U.S. destroyer, in the Mediterranean on Thursday, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told Reuters that it was the U.S. Navy's job to deter aggression and keep sea lanes open. "We're going to be there," Mabus said of the Black Sea. "We're going to deter. That's the main reason we're there -- to deter potential aggression." Mabus spoke days after Russia criticized NATO discussions about a creating a permanent force in the Black Sea. "If a decision is made to create a permanent force, of course, it would be destabilizing, because this is not a NATO sea," Russian news agencies quoted senior Foreign Ministry official Andrei Kelin as saying. Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014, has its own Black Sea Fleet based at Sevastopol. The NATO summit takes place as relations between Russia and the alliance are severely strained over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis and in Syria. While Russia says it poses no threat to alliance, NATO is considering what to do to counter what it sees as growing Russian aggression. Mabus said the United States follows the rules of the Montreux Convention, which states that countries without a Black Sea coastline cannot keep their warships there for more than 21 days. NATO members Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria are all Black Sea Basin countries. Bulgaria appeared to buckle to Russian pressure on Thursday. Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said he would not join a proposed NATO fleet in the Black Sea because it should be a place for holidays and tourists, not war. Also increasing tensions with Moscow is the U.S. Navy's deployment of two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean ahead the NATO summit as Washington seeks to balance an increase in Russian military activities in the Mediterranean. "We've been in the Mediterranean continuously for 70 years now, since World War Two," Mabus said. "We've been keeping the sea lanes open...It's what we do." (Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Angus MacSwan) By Daniel Trotta POTTSVILLE, Pa. (Reuters) - Kate Lynn Blatt once lived as a woman at home but went to work in a battery factory as a man, a painful phase in her gender transition that would later propel her to the forefront of a constitutional battle for transgender rights in America. She decided to start over, interviewing as a woman for a new job with the outdoor equipment and apparel retail chain Cabela's Inc , landing it, and finally leaving her life as a male behind. A 6-year transition, starting from when she graduated high school, was finally over. "Oh my God, it was the most liberating thing I've ever experienced in my entire life," Blatt said in an interview in her hometown of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, about 90 miles (150 km) northwest of Philadelphia. "And then slam," she said, smacking a fist into her palm. "Employee discrimination." Blatt, now 35, is suing Cabela's for sex discrimination, saying she was subjected to all manner of humiliation by superiors and co-workers during the six months she worked as a seasonal stocker in 2006 and 2007. In a preview of the current controversy in the United States over which bathroom transgender people should use, Blatt claims she was denied use of the women's room. She was fired, she said, when Cabela's alleged she threatened a co-worker's child during an altercation at work, a claim Blatt denies. Cabela's, through a company spokesman, declined to comment. The lawsuit, brought by Blatt in 2014, also challenges a little-known clause in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) as discriminatory because it specifically excludes transgender people from protection. Cabela's has called on U.S. District Judge Joseph Leeson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to dismiss Blatt's claims under the ADA. The judge's ruling on that motion, the next step in the case, could come at any time. Blatt's lawyers, Neelima Vanguri and Brian Farrell of Philadelphia-based Sidney L. Gold & Associates, are asking the judge to rule that the clause of the ADA violates the U.S. Constitution because it denies equal protection for all under the law. Story continues The ADA was landmark legislation that expanded the rights of disabled people, but some exceptions were written into the law following a debate influenced by the late Jesse Helms, a Republican senator from North Carolina. The law says "disability" shall not include "transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, or other sexual behavior disorders." Judges customarily avoid ruling on constitutional issues, preferring to settle disputes on narrower grounds. Even so, at a time of expanding transgender rights in America, the Blatt case directly challenges what her lawyers consider discrimination codified into law. TRANSGENDER IN AMERICA Blatt knew from her first memories that she was a girl, taking advantage of every Halloween to dress as a girl and wearing panties from age 10. In high school, before making her transition, Blatt only let a few trusted friends into her life. "Every person I met as a guy was another person I would have to come out to as transgender later, so I just avoided it," she said. For years she lived a dual life, but that became unmanageable. Her job in the battery factory required employees to shower on the premises after work because of their exposure to chemicals, and she was starting to grow breasts from the hormones she was taking, so she told co-workers she was now Kate. When a co-worker's husband learned of Blatt's transition and confronted her on the job site, she left, becoming free to live as Kate full-time. Blatt, a proud firearms owner, grew up hunting and fishing in rural Pennsylvania and soon felt at home working for Cabela's, which specializes in guns, outdoor equipment and apparel. The Cabela's where she worked in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, is a 250,000-square-foot (23,000-square-meter) amusement park of a store, decorated with big-game taxidermy, including an elephant, and an aquarium. All manner of outdoor shoes and gear are on sale, along with hundreds of models of guns and stacks of ammunition. But problems arose immediately. She was told she must use the men's room. Later she was directed to a gender-neutral restroom where families can change diapers. She also claims in her suit she was required to wear a tag calling her by her birth name James, even after she had legally changed her name and gender with the state of Pennsylvania. After Cabela's fired her, Blatt said she gave up on the workplace and started her own business fixing up old houses. NO LONGER A DISORDER Among transgender people, seeking justice for a "disability" is somewhat controversial. At the time the ADA was passed in 1990, transgender people were diagnosed with "gender identity disorder," which might have been covered under the law if it were not for the Helms-inspired exclusion. Being transgender today is no longer considered a disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, but it can give rise to gender dysphoria, a type of anxiety that may require medical treatment and thus should also be covered by the ADA, transgender advocates say. While her case plays out, a transgender rights controversy has overtaken the United States. At least 18 states have anti-discrimination laws protecting transgender people, but officials in more than a dozen states are suing U.S. President Barack Obama's administration for directing public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. Federal appeals courts have generally sided with the White House, saying its interpretation of civil rights law to protect transgender people is acceptable, but it could be overturned by a future president. In the meantime transgender people, estimated at 0.3 percent of the population by a 2011 study conducted by Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, are fighting their own battles. "For the larger part of my childhood, I felt alone," Blatt said. "I had no idea there were other people. There's tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people like me in this country, and I never knew it." (Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Scott Malone and Diane Craft) KAMPALA (Reuters) - A soldier shot dead four women and three children in a barracks in Uganda's capital Kampala on Thursday, a military spokesman said. Sergeant Isaac Obua "has just gone bonkers" and was himself killed, military spokesman Paddy Ankunda said in a Twitter post. Another unidentified soldier told a local television station the killer, part of a medical team, had been trying to attack his wife under the "influence of alcohol and possibly marijuana". "Fortunately the wife escaped but those who were within proximity of the scene fell victim," the soldier said. In April 2014, a soldier in the western Ugandan district of Ntoroko killed 10 people, including five military colleagues, then shot himself, after quarrelling over a woman in a bar, local media reported. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Andrew Heavens) [Photo: Wynsor World of Shoes] With Fathers Day on the horizon, everyones talking about the perfect gift to present on Sunday, but one company has genuinely nailed the ideal gift that keeps on giving. Some may say just in time whilst dads may groan at the thought of receiving a pair of shoes, wait for it to help them get their groove on. Drum roll for the Dad Dancing Shoes, a new product launched by the shoe retailers Wynsors, with the intention to tackle one of the lifes formally inescapable embarrassments Dad Dancing." To help dads along the way to dance-floor success, these shoes come specially equipped with an electronic remote, for the occasion of dated dance moves being attempted. To avoid public embarrassment, families can take control of the remote just in time before the old-school moves are whipped out. *Phew* Mark Chalmers, Director at Wynsors World of Shoes, spoke of the benefits of the shoes: At Wynsors, we think theres absolutely nothing wrong with Dads out there who like to enjoy themselves on the dance-floor, but we wanted to offer some reassurance to families who are often left feeling a tad uneasy when the dancing becomes a little too enthusiastic. We think the Dad Dancing Shoes will help families find a compromise for future embarrassing situations. And to top that off, the Dad Dancing Shoes come with a 10-year cringe-free guarantee and if you need a last minute present for Sunday, you can buy your pair from the site. So, do these shoes sound like the present your dad needs? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK And if youre interested in blogging for us? Join our Yahoo Blogger Network! By Atul Prakash LONDON (Reuters) - The scale of withdrawals from UK equity funds was the second highest on record because of uncertainty over the June 23 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Friday. Worries that Britain, the world's fifth-largest economy, could decide to quit the EU in next week's vote have dominated markets this week and driven investors towards safe-haven assets such as gold and away from stocks. "June thus far has been all about the risk-off Brexit trade," BAML strategists wrote in a note to clients. While betting odds indicate that Britons will vote to stay in the EU, some recent opinion polls have put the "Leave" camp favouring Brexit as being in the lead. However, campaign activities were suspended late on Thursday, with Britain's politicians and public left in shock after a pro-EU lawmaker was fatally shot in the street. One poll set for publication on Friday was delayed until the weekend. BAML said the UK equity funds lost a net $1.1 billion, the biggest outflow in 13 months, in the week to June 15. The UK funds registered a record weekly outflow in the middle of last year when Britain's share market came under intense selling pressure on some poor UK economic data and uncertainty regarding Greece's debt situation. On a broader scale, European equity funds saw their 19th straight week of outflows, with $4.7 billion, the largest amount in seven weeks, leaving the funds. Precious metals continued to draw in risk-averse investors, BAML said. Global bond funds witnessed $1.2 billion of outflows, the first time in 11 weeks and the largest in five months, it said, adding that precious metals attracted $1.1 billion during the week to post inflows in 21 out of the previous 23 weeks. Prices of gold rose on Friday to trade near a two-year high. The precious metal is generally seen as a safe-haven asset and its appeal rises in difficult times. (Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Keith Weir) By Anjuli Davies LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit uncertainty has taken its toll on British dealmaking, with merger and acquisition (M&A) activity this year at its lowest as a proportion of global activity since records began in 1980, Thomson Reuters data showed on Friday. British companies are preparing for the possibility of a so-called Brexit after the country votes in its June 23 referendum on European Union membership, with the prospect of a "Leave" vote coming into sharp focus. The value of M&A involving British companies has reached $57.6 billion so far this year, down 69 percent on the same period last year, representing the slowest year-to-date period since 2013, the data shows. That gives Britain a record low 4 percent of the global M&A total so far this year. At its peak in 2000, British M&A accounted for 18 percent of the worlwide total over a comparable time period. Inbound cross-border M&A in the UK has reached $43.8 billion so far this year, down 74 percent from a year ago. Investment banking fees paid by UK companies in the period total $1.9 billion, a 22 percent year-on-year decline and the slowest year-to-date fees figure since 2012. Capital markets fees, meanwhile, have dropped by 37 percent from a year ago to the lowest level since 2003. Worldwide M&A activity has fallen 20 percent to $1.44 trillion so far this year after hitting a record high in 2015. Oil prices, worries about slowing growth in China and Britain's looming Brexit referendum have all weighed on sentiment. European M&A of $295 billion this year is down 24 percent, while U.S. dealmaking is down 19 percent at $623 billion. (Editing by David Goodman) During my years working as a historian and especially since becoming the director of Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Ive often talked with journalists from various countries and publications who hold views different than my own. The more professional the journalist, the less he or she reveals his or her own personal opinions, and the more he or she tries to listen and then reflects truthfully the opinion of the person with whom he or she has spoken. Many of these journalists have asked questions that provoked discussion. The questions Josh Cohen posed for his Foreign Policy article (The Historian Whitewashing Ukraines Past, May 2), however, were not journalistic they were those of a prosecutor. After reading the first few lines of his initial email requesting comment from me on February 25, I already understood he was talking to me as if I were the accused. How would you respond to Western historians allegations that you or your staff has a willingness to ignore or even falsify historical documents? he asked. His other questions were similar in nature. Despite the angry, even accusatory, tone, I prepared detailed answers, and yet only fragments of my responses were printed in his article. This was not in order to present my point of view, but in order to prevent accusations that there was an absence of balance in his article an article in which multiple sources are quoted saying critical things about me and my work. The credibility of these sources, upon closer inspection, is questionable at best. It was through Jeffrey Burds, a professor of Russian and Soviet history at Northeastern University, that I not only found out about the so-called falsified and censored documents released in an 898-page book published by my staff, but that any of my colleagues had produced an 898-page book at all! At no point in the article does Burds name the book in which this supposed falsification took place. I was surprised by the words of Canadian historian Marco Carynnyk, who Cohen quoted in his article saying he had problems accessing the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) archive when I was director. Perhaps Cohen misunderstood, because I have a letter from Marco (who, I hope will forgive me for being forced to publish our private correspondence from 2010): You know, perhaps I do not agree with your evaluation of some aspects of Ukrainian history, Marco wrote in his email. But I will always be grateful to you for the fact that in the last year you gave me access to the SBU archives. And this was not preferential treatment. When I oversaw the SBU archives, people were ensured equal access for the first time ever. Cohen also quotes a Ukrainian historian named Stanislav Serhiyenko who laments the ways I could use a new law to restrict access to archives for research. I could not recall a historian with that name; thats because Serhiyenko is not a professional historian, but rather a left-wing student activist, who works with and is published in the pro-Russian publication Gazeta 2000. He has, however, done research in the SBU archives. When Serhiyenkos comments appeared in Cohens article the current director of the archives, Andriy Kohut, expressed surprise in a Facebook post on May 4: In contrast to Josh Cohens comments, he never complained to the archive staff about having access. Cohens article is full of factual mistakes and distortions. Streets were not, as he wrote, renamed after leaders of the OUN and UPA under President Viktor Yushchenko, or if they were, there was never any direct involvement from the then-president. Cohen asserts that I defended the soldiers of the Waffen SS Galicia division. There arent any examples of times I defended them; instead, I write about them as victims of war Ukrainians mobilized by hostile propaganda to fight for someone elses purpose. Finally, it was not the president who appointed me the director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory; rather this was done by a government decree. At the time of my appointment on March 25, 2014, Petro Poroshenko was not yet president. Therefore, to say he enlisted the support of nationalist forces is ridiculous. Moreover, I am not a member of any political party. The deeper the author gets into history, the more errors there are. With ease, he states unconfirmed figures: 70,000-100,000 Poles were killed by the UPA, he says. These were the figures quoted in political statements but there is no study based on sources, or, at the very least, reliable methodology that calculates these numbers. The origin of the figure of 35,000 Jews Cohen claims were killed by nationalists in western Ukraine is also unclear. Its one you cant find in the works of even those historians who are the most critical of the OUN. Furthermore, Cohen insists that the OUN took an active participation in the 1941 Jewish pogrom in Lviv. There are no OUN documents to suggest such an active participation of the organization during this time; while individual members of the OUN took part, the organization was more focused on announcing the June 30, 1941 Act of Restoring Ukrainian Independence. Also, while it is true that Ukrainians did take part in the killing of Jews in Ukraine during the Holocaust, the exact number is still unknown, and is certainly no greater than the number of other nationalities who also collaborated in the Holocaust with the Germans. OUN members also saved hundreds of Jews from German executioners one of them being Olena Viter, a Greek-Catholic nun and OUN member who has been honored by Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. But aside from factual errors, and questionable sources, the bigger point is this: One of Cohens main arguments is that I am whitewashing Ukrainian history by including the Ukrainian liberation movement within Ukraines national historical narrative and ignoring its involvement in the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing of Poles during the Second World War. He calls this revisionist history. I would disagree. During the Soviet period, the mention of the nationalists was automatically associated with Nazis (even though the two were not the same thing). Moreover, the Holocaust was almost completely Sovietized: that is, the emphasis was on how Soviet citizens were the real victims of the Holocaust, not Jews. In no way am I, or the Institute of National Memory, falsifying the narrative of the Holocaust especially when that narrative was all but forgot in mainstream Soviet Ukrainian history. If anything, the Institute has worked hard to place the Holocaust and its memory back into the Ukrainian national historical narrative by including it in public displays and discussions. Cohen also systematically ignores more than 10 years of history in which the Ukrainian nation was split between two larger countries, devastated by genocide, the Pacification, the Great Terror, repression and inter-ethnic strife. Yes, the OUN was a militant organization no historian denies that fact. But what Cohen is doing is denying the importance of the OUN to western Ukrainian history during the interwar period something he himself accuses me of doing with the memory of Red Army soldiers. Neither I, nor the Institute of National Memory, are denying the heroism of the Red Army during World War II; the many commemorations and remembrance celebrations that are included in the May 8-9 festivities throughout Ukraine are an indication of this. Red Army soldiers sat side-by-side last year with the veterans of the UPA and neither group had any problem with this. Cohen only had to glimpse at the YouTube footage of the 2015 Remembrance Day concert in Kiev to understand this. What Cohen has begun to grasp but only slightly is the overarching problem of Ukrainian history: Eastern Ukrainian history and western Ukrainian history were never identical, and one cannot please one group over another. If Ukrainian historians did what Cohen suggests, then western Ukrainian history would be left out of the national historical narrative (which is, in fact, what occurred in the Soviet Union). Therefore, while he claims that in Luhansk and the East, I am ignoring half the population, what he is suggesting is that we should ignore the other half. What I, and the Institute are working hard on doing, is advocating for a united national historical narrative in which all historical activities of all Ukrainians are mentioned nationalist, communist, and even those of the diaspora Ukrainians who fought in the Allied forces on the beaches of Normandy, in Monte Cassino, and in the Pacific Theatre. Cohen takes a very Soviet perspective on the history of Ukraine during World War II. Ukrainians did kill other nationalities; they also killed other Ukrainians, and other nationalities killed each other, and Ukrainians, in horrible ways. This period of Ukrainian history resists being simplified to black and white. For instance, while, the OUN and UPA did not collaborate with the Germans or the Soviets, there were occasional individual pacts of understanding among all three. Records even indicate that Red Army soldiers warned UPA units about incoming Soviet Secret police troops when the Ukrainian Front was pushing westward throughout Ukraine. The accusations that the OUN and UPA collaborated, and that they participated in the Holocaust and in ethnic cleansing are characteristic of Soviet historiography and propaganda. Its a narrative that is still supported by a number of researchers in the West to this day (including those referred to in Cohens article, like Carynnyk and Burds). But Cohen presents this as the only correct version of events, and thus, attempts to argue against their views, based on newly discovered documents becomes deplorable revisionism words that, for many readers in the West, have a clear association with Holocaust denial. What Cohen certainly does understand is the importance of the consolidation of Ukrainian democracy which requires the country to come to grips with the darker aspects of its past. But that can only be done if Ukrainians understand all sides of their national history not just the one-sided, Soviet-heavy version. Ukrainians need to come to terms with the complex historical experiences that took places during the Second World War on their territory experiences that differed between regions, and even between towns and within families. That is why it is important that Ukraines historians, no matter what topic they write about, should have the ability to write about it in a free and professional way (and enjoy the luxury of being openly criticized). The most important conclusion Cohen draws in his article is that I am restricting access to the archives in order to censor and promote my version of Ukrainian history. A number of researchers expressed concerns about this possibility prior to the introduction of the de-Sovietization law. A year has passed, however, and there have been no cases of restrictions on academic freedom or access. Thats because the law does not allow for this. In contrast, the number of users accessing the old KGB archives has significantly increased, including researchers from outside Ukraine, and the number of Ukrainian citizens gaining access to them has grown by almost 50 percent, according to archive data. The transfer of historical documents from the Security Services, the Foreign Intelligence Services, and the Ministry of Interior not only rids these agencies of the extra work, but it also allows for the documents to be processed by historians and archivists, instead of soldiers and officers. This transfer is an important element of the general democratic transformation of a post-totalitarian society. The International Council on Archives recommends, as best practices: Records produced or accumulated by former repressive bodies must be placed under the control of the new democratic authorities at the earliest opportunity and these authorities must assess the holdings in detail. The security bodies must ensure the transfer of selected files and documents either to the national archives, to the institutions dealing with compensation or reparation for victims of the repression and purging of former officials, or to the Truth Commissions. This was why special archival laws were adopted last year; our law is similar to ones that already operate in 11 post-communist countries in eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania, among others). It is this very opening of communist secret service archives that is to act as the main guarantee against the state imposing one single view of the past. Furthermore, it helps serve as one of the guarantees of democratic development. This is why Ukraine chose to follow the examples of its neighbors after the Euromaidan. This process sits in contrast to the closed Russian archives (which were recently put under the direct control of Putin). These serve as the foundation for the rehabilitation of totalitarianism, and are being used for this purpose today. But this is quite another, more dangerous, story about the rewriting of the past and the use of archives, one to which Josh Cohen is not paying any attention. Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images A brief mention of privatizing cul-de-sacs to lessen the burden of strained road construction funding has sparked a debate in Fitchburg over whether the mayors comment was a conversation starter or a serious proposal. Mayor Steve Arnold made the suggestion in a May 20 cover letter for his proposed 2017-21 capital improvement plan, shortly after he criticized City Council members for cutting road resurfacing funding in the current budget. Annual funding for resurfacing projects had been around $850,000, but the council cut funding below $500,000 during 2016 budget deliberations last fall. Now, Arnold is seeking to restore funding to levels above the previous mark. I am well aware that the Council has little taste for immediately increasing this funding to a sustainable level (about $1.1 million per year to resurface every 30 years) and resurfacing the backlog over two to three years using borrowing over ten years, Arnold said in the letter. Without significant new funding, our roads will continue to get worse. Funding can be via the tax levy, changing policy to assess part of the cost to adjacent property owners, or new ideas not yet considered. We can also consider privatizing roads now maintained by the public, such as cul-de-sacs. None of these options are attractive, but we owe it to residents to honestly address this funding shortfall. While Arnold insists the drastic suggestion was a ploy to highlight the overall condition of Fitchburgs roads, his opponents on the City Council believe it was a legitimate pitch or a poorly conceived conversation starter at the very least. I think it was a serious proposal, said Ald. Jason Gonzalez, District 2, who accused Arnold of exaggerating the condition of Fitchburgs roads. I think hes not being honest when he says it wasnt a genuine idea he had. It caught everyone off-guard and I think it upset a lot of people. It wasnt a way to start a discussion on road funding. The spat is the latest example of the deep divisions that exist among Fitchburgs elected officials. Prior to his election as mayor last year, Arnold led a minority coalition of left-leaning City Council members against a more business and development-driven council majority and former Mayor Shawn Pfaff. The groups consistently sparred over plans for new fire stations and neighborhoods. As mayor, Arnold and his three council allies have continued to be out-voted on many local issues, so Arnold said hes resorting to using absurd proposals to try to gain cooperation from his opponents. Weve got about 124 miles of roads and if roads last for 30 years, we should be doing about 4 miles of road a year and were doing a lot less than that. What that means is, on average, the worst roads are getting worse and were just getting further and further behind, he said. If you dont want to spend the taxpayers money on this, what do you want to do instead? So, I throw out these obviously terrible ideas so they have some comparison of what their other options are. Gonzalez called it disingenuous for the mayor to suggest the council does not support road projects. He said council members want more data on road conditions from the citys public works department to assist in prioritizing spending on roads. I think you need to look at the specific roads and address the specific situation not just rebuild to rebuild, he said. Arnold wants the council to approve $950,000 in resurfacing funds for next year and increase that amount by $50,000 a year over the next four years. Fitchburgs five-year capital improvement plan will go the Plan Commission next week. Amendments from the council are due June 30, and the City Council will vote on the plan by late July. We can also consider privatizing roads now maintained by the public, such as cul-de-sacs. STEVE ARNOLD Fitchburg mayor New York (AFP) - US Ambassador Samantha Power and UN envoys from 16 countries gathered at a New York gay landmark Thursday to galvanize global efforts to advance LGBT rights after the Orlando attack. "We couldn't think of a more symbolic place after the monstrous attack in Orlando to come than this one," Power said at the Stonewall Inn, considered the birthplace of the American gay rights movement. The senior diplomats mostly from Europe and Latin America met to discuss new initiatives to promote the rights of sexual minorities following the shooting rampage at a gay nightclub in Florida. Power said the group of ambassadors is working "to ensure that there are far fewer no-go zones" for LGBT people worldwide and "far more safe spaces that don't get punctured." Forty-nine people were killed and 53 were injured at the Pulse nightclub in the early hours on Sunday when a gunman opened fire in the worst shooting in modern US history. The UN Security Council on Monday strongly condemned the Orlando attack, agreeing on a statement that for the first time mentioned the targeting of people on the basis of sexual orientation. French Ambassador Francois Delattre, who chairs the council this month, said "the struggle for the rights of LGBT people is vital. It is an essential struggle that we are waging on all fronts." Chilean Ambassador Cristian Barros Melet said the group of countries is pushing for a special expert on LGBT rights to be appointed and who would report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Dutch Ambassador Karel van Oosterom, a member of the so-called Core Group of countries on LGBT rights, called for a "worldwide global action to address this," and said "the Core Group will be instrumental to do that." The Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village was the scene of rioting in 1969 after gays rebelled against police raids and harassment at the bar. Homosexuality is illegal in some 77 countries worldwide. In five countries, it is punishable by the death penalty. Lesbos (Greece) (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said Saturday that the "detention" of migrants who have arrived in Greece since March should cease immediately, as he visited the frontline of the migration crisis engulfing Europe. He made the comments after visiting two camps on the Greek island of Lesbos, where some 3,400 migrants are being held while officials assess whether they can legitimately claim asylum. "Detention is not the answer, it should end immediately," said Ban, who held talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens earlier in the day. "I recognise the difficulties but the world has the wealth, the capacity and the duty to meet these challenges," he said on Lesbos, the entry point for hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving in the EU last year. "These people have been through the worst," Ban added. "The people of Lesbos are showing the world the best -- you have opened your homes, hearts and wallets to support people in need." Under a controversial deal between the European Union and Turkey that came into force in March, failed asylum seekers face being sent back from the Greek islands to Turkey. More than 45,000 migrants are currently trapped on Greek territory, following not just the EU-Turkey deal but also a string of border closures in Balkan countries to the north. Most of the migrants are now in state-run camps that aid groups including the UN's refugee agency have labelled poorly-equipped and inappropriate for a long stay. Ban praised Greeks for showing "remarkable solidarity ... as Greece faces tremendous challenges of so many desperate people fleeing war and persecution". Greece's Aegean holiday islands have seen more than a million refugees and migrants arrive over the last year-and-a-half -- many of them Syrian refugees -- seeking new lives elsewhere in the EU. Lesbos alone accounted for around 500,000 arrivals in 2015, according to UN figures, as Europe battles its worst migration crisis since World War II. Story continues The EU-Turkey deal has drastically reduced the flow, but rights groups say this has come at the cost of human rights violations. On Friday, medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said it would no longer accept funding from the EU in protest at its "shameful" migration policies, including the Turkey deal. Since it came into force in March, more than 460 people have been sent back to Turkey, where critics say they face discrimination and possible danger. - 'Deeply distressed' - A relocation programme promising to move successful asylum claimants to other EU states has made little headway. "The international community must do more to resolve conflicts and address the factors causing so much suffering and upheaval," Ban said. "We must stand together against the border closures, barriers and bigotry and against the criminals and predators who traffic in human beings," the UN secretary-general added. "I call on the countries of Europe to respond with a human and human rights-based approach." At talks earlier Saturday hosted by Tsipras in Athens, the Greek leader gave Ban a life-jacket that was discarded, like thousands of others, by a migrant arriving on a flimsy boat from Turkey. "It's a symbolic gift, a life-saving tool for thousands of refugees who arrived in the Greek islands after crossing the Aegean Sea," Tsipras said as he presented the item to the UN chief. Ban put on the jacket, calling it an "important gift", but then quickly took it off as he thought of the thousands who never made ashore. The UN chief said he was "deeply distressed" by the large number of refugees who have lost their lives in crossing the Aegean as well as the Mediterranean route from north Africa. Since the beginning of the year, more than 2,500 people have died in the Mediterranean compared with 1,855 in the same period last year, according to the International Organization for Migration. By Malathi Nayak NEW YORK (Reuters) - Unions representing nearly 40,000 Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) workers ratified a new labor deal on Friday, the company said, ending a months-long dispute that had prompted a nearly 7-week employee strike. The new contract, effective immediately, will run until Aug. 3, 2019, Verizon said in a statement. Last month, a tentative deal was reached that included 1,400 new jobs and pay raises topping 10 percent. Since May 31, union members had been casting votes that were tallied by the unions. Workers including network technicians and customer service representatives in Verizon's Fios internet, telephone and television services units walked off the job on April 13 after contract talks reached an impasse. The action was called by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The previous contract expired in August, and healthcare coverage ran out at the end of April. Sticking points in contract negotiations had included job relocations, offshoring call-center jobs, pensions and healthcare coverage. Employees resumed work on June 1 after the tentative deal was reached. New York-based Verizon said it would add 1,300 call center jobs on the East Coast, and 100 new network technician jobs. It also agreed to withdraw proposed cuts to pensions and accident and disability benefits. The company won cost savings through changes in healthcare plans and limits on post-retirement health benefits. The strike will hurt second-quarter earnings and potentially cost up to 7 cents per share, Verizon's chief financial officer said earlier this month. Verizon and the two striking unions were in contract discussions with the help of the U.S. Department of Labor. In mid-May, U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez brought the parties back to the negotiating table. The strike, one of the largest in recent years in the United States, drew support from Democratic U.S. Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. (Reporting by Malathi Nayak; Editing by Diane Craft and Richard Chang) A United Kingdom writer Guy Hibbert has signed with UTA, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned. He previously was with WME. The real-life interracial love story between the first president of Botswana (David Oyelowo) and his wife (Rosamund Pike), directed by Belle's Amma Asante, currently is in post-production. Hibbert is an executive producer on the film, as he was on the last project he penned, Gavin Hood's 2015 military drone drama Eye in the Sky, which starred Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul. Hibbert's first feature, Five Minutes of Heaven, starring Liam Neeson, earned him the 2009 Sundance World Cinema Screenwriting Award as well as the BAFTA TV Award for best writer a year later. The British television veteran, who previously earned best single drama honors for No Child of Mine in 1998 and Omagh in 2005, was victorious again in the category in 2014 for Complicit. He also wrote and executive produced the BBC and Sundance TV's 2014 Chinese adoption miniseries One Child, starring Harry Potter's Katie Leung. Hibbert continues to be repped by the U.K.'s Independent Talent Group. Washington (AFP) - The United States killed six Al-Qaeda fighters last week in three separate air strikes in central Yemen, the military said Friday. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) "remains a significant threat to the region, the United States and beyond," US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement. "We remain committed to defeating AQAP and denying it safe haven regardless of its location." The United States, which considers AQAP the most dangerous Al-Qaeda branch, regularly conducts air strikes against the jihadist group in Yemen, mostly using drones. The first strike took place on June 8 in Al-Badya Governorate, killing two Al-Qaeda operatives and destroying their weapons-laden vehicle, CENTCOM said. A June 10 strike in Marib Governorate killed two fighters, while a June 12 strike in Shabwah Governorate killed two others. AQAP has several thousand "adherents and fighters" in Yemen, where it is "very active," CIA Director John Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. "There is an active effort underway to continue to dismantle and destroy that organization." There are also "several hundred" fighters loyal to the Islamic State group in Yemen, Brennan said. AQAP has taken advantage of the country's civil conflict between Huthi rebels and Yemeni government forces to expand its influence in the country's south and southeast. US soldiers had been deployed in Yemen until March 2015, when the last troops left the country in the face of a Huthi rebel advance. However, a "very small number" of US soldiers recently returned to the southern port of Mukalla, retaken from AQAP in April, the Pentagon confirmed last month. The US Navy launched two AV-8B Harrier II ground-attack aircraft to join Operation Inherent Resolve and the campaign against the Islamic State on Thursday, June 16. Two aircraft launched from assault ship USS Boxer in the Persian Gulf, while US Naval Forces Central Command ordered simultaneous action of combat planes from USS Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean. This marked the first time that the US Navy has launched strikes against the Islamic State from both the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. Credit: YouTube/US Navy bikini atoll bravo marshall islands More than 60 years after the US dropped dozens of nuclear bombs on the Marshall Islands, residents of the tiny nation still may not be able to return. Radiation levels in some areas of the country are almost double what is deemed safe for human habitation, according to a new Columbia University study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Between 1946 and 1958, the US tested 67 nuclear weapons on the Marshall Islands, a chain of atolls in the Pacific Ocean with a population of just 52,000. The most famous test, the "Bravo shot," was dropped on Bikini Atoll in 1954 and was 1,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Residents of the atoll were displaced, and today it remains uninhabited. The researchers discovered that radioactive materials on Bikini Atoll are producing 184 millirems of radiation a year almost double the safety standard of 100 set by the US and the Marshall Islands. Some parts of the region hit a whopping 639 millirems per year. Scientists had once predicted Bikini Atoll's radiation levels to be as low as 16 millirems a year, suggesting that the radiation has persisted far longer than previously imagined, according to Science News. There is a silver lining for the Marshallese: The other five islands analyzed in the study fell safely below the 100-millirems-per-year threshold. Marshall Islands The research could help clear the way for many displaced Marshallese to return home. Currently, almost half of the population lives in the main urban area of Majuro, and as rising shorelines threaten to submerge entire islands, the country is becoming increasingly overcrowded. American nuclear testing remains an unmistakable piece of the national psyche, and officials continue to fight for global nuclear disarmament. In March, the nation sued the UK, India, and Pakistan in a largely symbolic attempt to pressure them to dismantle their nuclear arsenals. Story continues Meanwhile, refugees and their descendants are finding homes in the US, particularly in the thriving Marshallese communities in Honolulu and Springdale, Arkansas. More testing needs to be done on the islands' food and water sources to determine whether they are safe for habitation, the scientists wrote. NOW WATCH: Bananas give you more radiation exposure than living next to a nuclear power plant More From Business Insider Washington (AFP) - The US Justice Department has dropped plans to sue the former head of Countrywide Financial, a driver of the subprime mortgage debacle behind the 2008 financial crisis, his lawyer said Friday. Los Angeles attorney David Siegel told AFP that the Justice Department had informed him that Angelo Mozilo, who built and ran what became the country's largest mortgage issuer before the market collapsed in 2006, is no longer under investigation. "We are pleased and gratified with the news that the DOJ has closed its investigation without further litigation," Siegel said. The Justice Department declined to comment on the issue. With the Obama administration under pressure to punish bankers and mortgage companies responsible for the crisis that spurred the 2008-2009 Great Recession, two years ago the Justice Department opened a civil investigation into Mozilo's role at Countrywide. In the housing boom in the early 2000s, Countrywide issued and sold millions of mortgages to homebuyers. Many of those were low-quality loans that were fraudulently labeled good investments and packaged into securities that eventually failed, at a huge cost to investors. The 2014 Justice Department civil investigation into Mozilo's role was opened after a previous criminal probe was abandoned. Mozilo has not gon untouched by the fallout from the crisis. In 2010 he and others were ordered by the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay $67.5 million in fines and disgorged profits for related issues of substandard mortgages used in mortgage bonds. Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide in 2008, agreed in 2014 to pay $17 billion in fines, restitution and borrower relief over subprime mortgages issued by Countrywide and other units, and the damages homeowners suffered as a result to the market crash. Last month a US appeals court threw out a nearly $1.3 billion penalty against Bank of America, concluding the bank had not committed fraud amid the housing bust. A development partnership is planning to redevelop and preserve a prized Downtown block that holds the iconic Essen Haus restaurant, other establishments and the Hotel Ruby Marie. Robert Worm, who owns the site, is working with Kothe Real Estate Partners on preliminary plans for a project costing tens of millions of dollars that would demolish the Essen Haus and Come Back In. Those establishments with many interior fixtures preserved would continue in the new space, which also could include a new hotel, housing or commercial space and a parking structure. The concept would raze four duplexes from 110 to 118 S. Blair St. but fully preserve the Hotel Ruby Marie and Up North Bar at the corner of East Wilson and Blair streets. This is a gateway, Worm said during an interview at the Come Back In on Friday afternoon. I want this development to be meaningful to Madison. We want something that shows off Madison. Worm said hes still working out details of the partnership with Kothke Real Estate Partners of Madison. Company officials could not be reached Friday afternoon. Ald. Marsha Rummel, 6th District, who represents the area, said in an email newsletter that she is organizing a neighborhood meeting in coming weeks. She said any new development needs to respect the areas historic fabric. Its a site with a lot of development potential and it also has some hurdles because there are two historic districts involved and the national register district, she said. Worm, who turns 68 on Sunday and has owned the establishments since 1983, said he wants to have a conversation with the neighborhood as plans take shape. Weve been here 33 years, he said. Wed like to be here another 33 years. Wed like to have a new structure with the same Essen Haus character and ambiance. The proposal is the second attempt to redevelop the roughly two-acre property. In 2004, developers were seeking to buy the land from Worm and offered a 16-story mixed-use project that was withdrawn amid protests from residents and city officials. A scaled-back, eight-story redevelopment with condominiums, retail space and parking fell through in 2005. Its now time for a project that offers the best of the old and new, Worm said, noting that the existing establishments are energy inefficient, have old pipes and some electrical issues. The second floor above the Essen Haus is unusable, and five efficiency apartments above the Come Back In need renovation, he said. The four duplexes have no historic value and the 120-space surface parking lot is an inefficient land use, he said. I think we all knew that at some time there was going to be a large development on this property, he said. The historic building to be preserved, built in 1875, was renovated and reopened in September 2000 as the Hotel Ruby Marie named after Worms mother with 15 rooms and featuring the Lakeview Bakery and Deli and Germania Collectibles. The Up North Bar with its northern Wisconsin decor is also part of that structure. The current vision has the Essen Haus and Come Back In in a new building that would be three or four stories facing East Wilson Street, with the structure stepping up in height toward the center of the property. The main building could be up to 10 stories but would be roughly the height of the Cardinal Bar building to the west and MG&E building to the East, he said. The Downtown Plan allows six stories at the location, Rummels posting said. Worm said he would remove and store countless items of memorabilia including the famous hanging beer steins at the Essen Haus as well as brickwork and tin ceiling from the establishments and return many to the new facilities. The concept would allow rooftop dining with views of Lake Monona and modern touches like allowing diners to see the kitchen, he said. The developers would like a hotel with a national brand connected to the Hotel Ruby Marie, but are uncertain about the number of rooms, commercial space, or housing units to be proposed, Worm said. The parking structure could be above or below ground or some of both, he said. Jeff Vercauteren, president of Capitol Neighborhoods Inc., said its too early to predict neighborhood sentiment for the project, which partly lies in the First Settlement Historic District. Its a good opportunity to revitalize the corner, he said. If executed well, it could be a really good addition to the neighborhood. But Vercauteren noted some residents had concerns about a new six-story building at 330 E. Wilson St., also done by Kothke, and that height is likely to be an issue with the Worm-Kothke proposal. Worm is unsure when formal plans will be submitted to the city to trigger a formal review process, or when ground might be broken on the project. Orlando (AFP) - A top US lawmaker said Thursday authorities were probing the Facebook activity of the Orlando nightclub shooter, after an investigation found Omar Mateen made extremist posts during the massacre and searched for news of his attack. Ron Johnson, the Republican chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday asking the company to share specifics of five accounts apparently used by Mateen. Lawmakers are trying to determine if there are ways for intelligence and law enforcement communities to monitor social media platforms like Facebook "so that we can prevent these tragedies," Johnson told CNN on Thursday. "This is our job, to see what has happened in the past, what can we possibly do to prevent this from occurring in the future and how can we find bipartisan solutions," the Republican said. Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 in his shooting spree early Sunday at the Pulse gay nightclub in the Florida resort city of Orlando. Authorities have said he was apparently radicalized after watching jihadist propaganda online. In his letter to Zuckerberg, Johnson said Mateen apparently posted sometime during the attack that he was pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group's leader, and "America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state." He also allegedly posted: "The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west" and "In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic state in the usa." Mateen also allegedly searched for "Pulse Orlando" and "Shooting," Johnson said. A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed the company has received the senator's letter, which asked Facebook to provide investigators with details of Mateen's Facebook accounts and activity. She said Facebook had not yet responded to the request but has been working with law enforcement from the outset of the investigation. Story continues Also Thursday, CNN reported that Mateen's wife suspected he was going to carry out an attack that night, even though he told her he was going out to see a friend. When the news of the shooting broke, 30-year-old Noor Mateen called him frantically, CNN said, citing unidentified sources. He didn't pick up, but texted her about 4 am asking if she had seen the news. She responded: "I love you," the report said. Authorities have refused to comment on reports that Mateen's wife would face charges over her alleged knowledge of Mateen's intentions to carry out an attack. Tokyo (AFP) - The US Navy said Friday it has loosened an alcohol ban on personnel in Japan 11 days after it was imposed following a drink-driving case on the southern island of Okinawa. The US Navy introduced the alcohol ban and restrictions on leaving base for sailors in Japan on June 6 after one was arrested for allegedly driving while intoxicated and injuring two people. The United States has been under intense pressure to rein in crime by its military and related personnel after a series of other incidents on Okinawa, including the suspected rape and murder of a 20-year-old local woman. In a statement Friday, the navy said that all sailors in Japan -- including on Okinawa -- can now drink on base and in their off-base homes but those in Okinawa will remain under a stricter curfew, meaning they must return to base by midnight instead of 1 am for others. Sailors, however, are not permitted to drink at off-base bars or restaurants. "We are taking this latest step because our sailors have demonstrated that they understand the strategic impact of their performance on liberty," Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, commander of the US 7th Fleet, said in the statement. On a visit to Japan last month, US President Barack Obama vowed improvements after a civilian base employee was arrested in connection with the alleged rape and murder. Such incidents have long sparked protests on the strategic southern island crowded with US bases and have been an irritant in relations between Tokyo and Washington. US officials have grown increasingly concerned that the behaviour of its troops could jeopardise support among Japanese for their security relationship. Rear Admiral Matthew Carter, who commands the US Navy in Japan, stressed that out-of-control drinking threatened to harm ties. "We must all be on the lookout to step in before alcohol-related incidents jeopardise our relationship with Japan, he said. The decision to loosen the drinking regulations came a week after the navy said that sailors free to leave base, however they must submit details about their planned activities. Okinawans are planning a major rally Sunday in protest over the heavy US military presence and crimes by US personnel. The island was the site of a major World War II battle followed by a 27-year US occupation and pacifist sentiments run high. Shari Redstone had better have thick skin as she prepares for Viacoms court case to keep its board intact. Its likely to be a messy and embarrassing affair, with her cast as the villain, based on company filings today at Delawares Chancery Court. (Read them here and here.) Viacom wants to dig deeply into Sumner Redstones communications with his daughter whos President of National Amusements and Vice Chair of Viacom and CBS as well as the 93-year-olds decision-making ability, as part of its effort to go to trial within 100 days. Redstone-controlled National Amusements, which owns 80% of Viacoms voting shares, said today that it wants to replace five of Viacoms directors, including CEO Philippe Dauman. Viacom asked the court to keep the current board in place while it prepares for an expedited trial. The main argument is that the communication from Redstones lawyers on May 20 ousting Dauman and director George Abrams from two key positions in the moguls empire set in motion a chain of events that led directly to the flawed authorization by NAIs board to remove George Abrams, Philippe Dauman, Blythe McGarvie, Frederic Salerno and William Schwartz as directors on the Viacom Board. The filing adds that this was orchestrated by Redstones daughter, Shari which makes the removal effort invalid. Another Viacom court document colorfully says: Now, when Mr. Redstones physical and mental conditions have dramatically declined and he is unable to fend for himself, Shari has moved into his home, taken over his life, isolated him from contact with others, and purports to speak for him. In other words, unsatisfied with assets now worth more than $1 billion derived from gifts her father made to her over the years, Shari now seeks to become Mr. Redstones puppet master, pulling his strings behind the scenes to improperly seize control of Viacom. In doing so, Shari is attempting to use her fathers control to dismantle his own estate plan to serve her personal interests. Story continues It adds that her improper actions are creating significant uncertainty, impairing commercial and customer relationships and causing employee unrest. Among other things, she is intent on interfering with Viacoms efforts to explore a possible, very valuable transaction that could generate a minority investment in Paramount Pictures, together with commercial and strategic benefits. Lead Independent Director Frederic Salerno says that in a recent phone conversation, Shari indicated that if Mr. Salerno supported her efforts, she would not undertake to remove him. Mr. Salerno promptly informed Viacoms Governance and Nominating Committee about Sharis threat. Shari had the same conversation with and made the same proposal to another Viacom director. Related stories Redstone Team Says There's "No Justification" For Viacom To Pay Dauman's Legal And PR Bills Dauman Wants Massachusetts Judge To Hurry Decision On Redstone Case Sumner Redstone & The Battle For Viacom: What You Need To Know, Pt. 2 UPDATE, 2:28 PM: Heres Viacoms answer to those who object to its decision to pay CEO Philippe Daumans legal and PR bills in his effort to have controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone found incompetent: Blame Shari Redstone, the company Vice Chair who Dauman says is serving as a puppet master to her 93-year-old father. Dauman wants a Massachusetts court to find that she orchestrated an effort to have him and director George Abrams dumped from the family trust and the board of National Amusements, which controls Viacom. On the very day that notice went out, Viacom says, Shari and her representativesmade it obvious the issue is control of Viacom. It is certainly in the interests of all of Viacoms stockholders that the Massachusetts actions be pursued in order to preserve the independence of Viacoms board. PREVIOUS, 1:35 PM: Sumner Redstones camp is none too happy about Viacoms decision to pay the legal and PR expenses for CEO Philippe Daumans effort to remain on the controlling shareholders family trust and the board of National Amusements. Dauman and director George Abrams are diverting valuable corporate resources to a campaign to have Redstone, 93, declared incompetent, Redstone-controlled National Amusements says in a statement. There is no justification for Viacom to use company dollars for the cases. Thats especially relevant in light of Viacoms announcement that its fiscal third-quarter earnings will fall short of estimates. The need for strong, independent oversight of Viacom could not be more apparent. PREVIOUS, 4:02 AM: Viacom shareholders will pick up legal and PR expenses for CEO Philippe Dauman and director George Abramss efforts to maintain their positions on the Redstone family trust and the National Amusements board, the company disclosed this morning in an SEC filing. Story continues The company agreed on Monday to indemnify the execs for their courtroom battles in Massachusetts and California to demonstrate that controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone cannot manage his own affairs. Viacom will pay or promptly reimburse Dauman and Abrams for their costs and expenses including attorneys fees, expert witness fees and fees of public relations and other consultants, the filing says. The execs want the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court to overturn a move by Redstone or, they say, the people around him to oust them from key positions in his media empire. On May 20 they were told that he wants them off his family trust and the National Amusements board. The trust will control Redstones 80% stake in National Amusements when hes unable to do so. The theater chain owns 80% of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS. Dauman and Abrams say that the moves were invalid because Redstone is already incompetent and being manipulated by his daughter, Shari whos President of National Amusements and Vice Chair of Viacom and CBS. Redstones camp says hes still calling the shots. It asked a California Superior Court in Los Angeles to validate the Chairman Emeritus ability to dump Dauman and Abrams. Under the indemnification agreement, Dauman and Abrams will repay Viacom if a court finds that their decision to sue in Massachusetts breached their fiduciary duties or was not in the best interest of Viacom. Theyll also fork over any cash from any recoupment or other economic recovery of costs and expenses in the two cases. Related stories Redstone Judge Seeks Opinions About "Undue Influence" And Jurisdiction Dauman Wants Massachusetts Judge To Hurry Decision On Redstone Case Sumner Redstone & The Battle For Viacom: What You Need To Know, Pt. 2 By Jessica Toonkel (Reuters) - Viacom Inc disclosed on Friday it would foot the bill for embattled Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman's legal fight against controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone, even as Wall Street cheers the executive's potential departure. The disconnect demonstrates the complicated corporate governance challenge Viacom's board is facing in the battle for control of Redstone's $40 billion media empire, which includes CBS Corp and Viacom, investors and corporate governance experts said. "I don't think it's appropriate to use shareholder money for the suit," said Ben Strubel, a principal with Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based wealth manager Strubel Investment Management, which owns non-voting shares of Viacom. "I don't think it's appropriate to use shareholder money toward his compensation given the company's performance." Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV and Paramount, has been struggling to turn around its ratings. Reflecting some of that weakness, the company's stock is down nearly 50 percent over the past two years. On Friday, Viacom said its third-quarter profit would fall well short of Wall Street expectations, citing a disappointing domestic box office haul from its latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and disruption stemming from all the controversy. Viacom's stock has risen about 15 percent since May 20, when Redstone removed Dauman and board member George Abrams from the seven-person trust that will ultimately control Redstone's media empire. About half of that rally came on Thursday when Redstone ousted Dauman and four others from the Viacom board. Viacom shares fell 1.4 percent to close at $44.42 on Friday. If a judge affirms the new slate of directors, they have the authority to overhaul Viacom management, which may include Dauman. If he is removed, he could potentially receive nearly $90 million in severance, according to compensation consultant Equilar. Still, Viacom's board, led by lead independent director Fred Salerno, has argued that 93-year-old Redstone, who they believe is being manipulated by his daughter Shari, is not the one making decisions in the best interest of all shareholders. Story continues On the very day that Mr. Redstones representatives acted to remove Mr. Dauman and Mr. Abrams, they made it clear the issue was about control of Viacom. It is clearly in the interests of all of Viacoms stockholders that the Massachusetts actions be pursued in order to preserve the independence of Viacoms board." The fight over control between Dauman and Redstone is playing out in courtrooms in Delaware, Massachusetts and California. In a May 23 lawsuit filed in Massachusetts, Dauman and Abrams are contesting their removal from Redstone's family trust and the board of National Amusements Inc, the holding company for Redstone's voting shares. The trust will control Redstone's stake after he dies or is declared mentally incompetent. National Amusements, in a statement on Friday, said there was "no justification" for Viacom's funding of the legal fight against Sumner Redstone. "The need for strong, independent oversight of Viacom could not be more apparent," the statement said. The fact that the company is funding a lawsuit from its CEO against its controlling shareholder points to the complexities of having a family run a multi-billion dollar company, said corporate governance consultant Francis Byrd. "It does appear to be unseemly but these are the sorts of complications you find with a controlled company where the family drama can easily bleed into the corporate operations," Byrd said. Naveen Sarma, a credit analyst with Standard & Poor's, said he would have preferred the board stay out of the power struggle. "We would rather they would have remained an observer but they have chosen to take sides," he said. The ratings agency last month lowered its corporate governance rating of Viacom from satisfactory to fair, due to the uncertainty engulfing the company. Standard & Poor's is watching whether the power struggle affects the company's operations, Sarma said. The company itself now acknowledges that the legal drama is hurting its bottom line. On Friday, Viacom said its third-quarter earnings will miss Wall Street estimates, marking the first time since October 2008 that it has put out such guidance. The company cited the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and a delay in completing an agreement with an unnamed streaming video provider. It also blamed the latter on "the recent and highly public governance controversy." The media company also said it expects domestic ad sales to decline about 4 percent in the third quarter ending June 30, an improvement from last quarter's decline of 5 percent. Viacom said it expects adjusted earnings of about $1.00 to $1.05 per share in the quarter. Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of $1.38 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. (Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru and Anna Driver in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Bernard Orr) A day after Sumner Redstone moved to fire CEO Philippe Dauman and four other directors from Viacom's board, the embattled media giant said Friday its fiscal third-quarter earnings will fall short of estimates. It was the first time since October 2008 that it has put out such guidance, Reuters said. The company also said it expects domestic sales to decline about 4 percent in the quarter, better than the last quarter's 5 percent drop. Its stock price was up nearly 1 percent late Friday morning, but later reversed and ended the session down 1.4 percent. The company issued its guidance a day after the board shakeup announcement. Dauman remains CEO for now of the $40 billion media giant and he and the four others will stay on the board until a Delaware court affirms the changes. After the board moves, analysts at RBC Capital Markets said Friday that Viacom's future looked brighter. "Coming change to Viacom's management removes a major overhang," they said in a note to clients, titled "A New Hope." RBC upgraded Viacom shares to sector perform from underperform and raised the price target on the share price to $45 from $34. "When we initiated coverage on Viacom with an Underperform rating, we felt that strategic and earnings risks existed, and embattled management was unlikely to change due to the controlling interest of National Amusements (NAI)," the analysts said, referring to Redstone's privately owned holding company. "A lot has changed on the management front, ... which we believe paves the way for his eventual removal." National Amusements owns 80 percent of Viacom shares . Questions have been raised about whether the 93-year-old Redstone is making his own decisions or whether he is sound enough to do so. Last month , a California judge dismissed a lawsuit questioning the media mogul's competency. Viacom's Class B shares have done well this year, trading nearly 8 percent higher, yet remain more than 33 percent lower over the past 12 months. Story continues VIAB 12-month chart Source: FactSet Disclosure: RBC makes a market in Viacom shares. Clarification: This story was revised to clarify that Dauman and the four other board members will remain as directors at least temporarily, pending a court decision. More From CNBC By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - Video-sharing website Vimeo LLC cannot be held liable for copyright infringement for unknowingly hosting older music uploaded by its users, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday, dealing a blow to record labels seeking broader protections. In a victory for internet service providers, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York also held that the mere fact that Vimeo employees had viewed videos with copyrighted sound recordings was not enough to prove the company ignored red flags of infringement. The case, pursued by Capitol Records and Sony Corp units, was closely watched in Silicon Valley, with Vimeo's appeal drawing support from Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, and other companies. "Today's ruling by the Second Circuit is a significant win for not just Vimeo, but all online platforms that empower creators to share content with the world," Michael Cheah, Vimeo's general counsel, said in a statement. The Recording Industry Association of America, the labels' trade group, said in a statement it was disappointed with the ruling, which it said came despite evidence showing Vimeo's company policy was to look the other way. "Now, more than ever, it is clear that Congress needs to act to fix a law enacted in the days of dial-up Internet connections," the group said. A lawyer for Capitol Records, a unit of Vivendi SA, and the Sony units declined to provide immediate comment. The case focused on the interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. The law protects internet service providers from liability when users upload copyrighted content while requiring them to remove the material if they receive notice or otherwise become aware of the infringement. The lawsuit, filed in 2009, alleged copyright infringement over music in 199 videos that Vimeo users had uploaded to the site. U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in 2013 ruled Vimeo was protected under the DMCA safe harbor provisions with regard to 153 videos. But she held that the safe harbor was not applicable to recordings from before 1972, the year Congress first included them in the scope of federal copyright law. Pre-1972 recordings are protected by state law. She also said Vimeo could face trial over whether it had known of "red flags" that made infringement apparent. Thursday's ruling reversed those holdings. Writing for the three-judge panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Pierre Leval said that interpreting the act as leaving providers exposed to liability under state copyright laws would defeat Congress' intent. "Service providers would be compelled either to incur heavy costs of monitoring every posting to be sure it did not contain infringing pre-1972 recordings, or incurring potentially crushing liabilities under state copyright laws," he wrote. The case is Capitol Records LLC et al v. Vimeo LLC et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 14-1048. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Additional reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang and Peter Cooney) The European Union Competition Commission (EC) has decided to take a decision on the proposed joint venture (JV) between Vodafone Group Plc. VOD and Liberty Global Plc. LBTYA in the Netherlands on Jul 19, 2016. However, this deadline is provisional and can be extended if the regulatory authority wants to extensively investigate the potential impact of this JV on the competitiveness of the Netherlands market. In Feb 2016, British telecom giant Vodafone and Liberty Global - the largest cable MSO (multi service operator) in Europe decided to merge their Dutch operations to form a 50-50 JV. As per the agreement, Vodafone will pay 1 billion (approximately $1.12 billion) in cash to Liberty Global to bring the valuation of each of their local units on par. The two companies are expecting to achieve cost and revenue synergies of 3.5 billion (around $3.9 billion) after factoring in integration costs. The deal is expected to close by end-2016, subject to regulatory approval. Notably, last year, the two companies had been negotiating on a series of transactions including global asset swaps. However, the merger negotiations were abandoned after the two companies failed to reach an agreement on valuations. At the moment, Vodafone and Liberty Global are combining their Dutch businesses. Both the companies have declined to comment whether there is a possibility of the deal being extended to other markets in the future. Vodafone has a nationwide 4G LTE network in the Netherlands serving around 5.13 million mobile and about 73,000 fixed broadband subscribers. Meanwhile, Liberty Global, through its Ziggo subsidiary, serves approximately 4.1 million pay-TV subscribers in the country. Of the total, nearly 3.1 million customers also use Ziggos broadband service while 2.5 million customers use its voice service. It is worth mentioning here that Ziggo already has an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) agreement with Vodafone Netherlands. At present, Ziggo serves around 181,000 mobile customers in the country using Vodafones wireless network. In the event of the deal materializing, the combined Vodafone-Liberty Global entity will pose a formidable challenge to key players like Royal KPN NV and T-Mobile Netherlands of Deutsch Telekom in the country. Story continues Liberty Global is a leading cable MSO with presence in 12 European countries. Besides its triple-play (video, voice and fixed line broadband) services, the company now also offers mobile services. Apart from Ziggo in the Netherlands, Liberty Global offers wireless service in the UK post its Virgin Media acquisition. The company received the European Union regulatory nod to take over Belgian wireless operator BASE N.V. from Royal KPN N.V. Vodafone, on the other hand, is a global telecom operator offering wireless and wireline services). The company recently diversified its operations in the cable-TV space after the acquisitions of Kabel Deutschland in Germany and ONO in Spain. Therefore a combination of Vodafone and Liberty Global can offer quad-play wireless, wireline, voice and video services. Zacks Rank & Other Stocks Currently, Vodafone carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) while Liberty Global has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). A couple of better-ranked stocks are NTT DoCoMo Inc. DCM and Cablevision Systems Corp. CVC, both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report CABLEVISION SYS (CVC): Free Stock Analysis Report LIBERTY GLBL-A (LBTYA): Free Stock Analysis Report NTT DOCOMO -ADR (DCM): Free Stock Analysis Report VODAFONE GP PLC (VOD): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Heres how members of Wisconsins congressional delegation voted on major issues this week. Note: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, did not vote. By custom, the speaker does not vote except in rare circumstances. HOUSE GUNS, EXPLOSIVES, TERRORIST WATCH LIST: Voting 236 for and 171 against, the House on Tuesday blocked a parliamentary tactic by Democrats designed to bring to the floor a bill (HR 1076) that would prohibit the sale of firearms or explosives to individuals on the Federal Bureau of Investigations Terrorist Watch List. The bill has been shelved in the GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee since February 2015. A yes vote opposed a procedural move by Democrats to bring gun legislation to the House floor. Voting yes: James Sensenbrenner, R-5th, Glenn Grothman, R-6th, Reid Ribble, R-8th Voting no: Mark Pocan, D-2nd, Ronald Kind, D-3rd, Gwen Moore, D-4th Not voting: Sean Duffy, R-7th IRS SCRUTINY OF POLITICAL MONEY: Voting 240 for and 182 against, the House on Tuesday passed a bill (HR 5033) that would reduce Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of campaign-finance activity by nonprofit groups receiving tax-exempt status under Section 501(c) of the tax code. Opponents said it would expand the influence of anonymous funds in U.S. politics. A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate, where it appeared likely to fail. Voting yes: Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Ribble Voting no: Pocan, Kind $576 BILLION FOR U.S. MILITARY: Voting 282 for and 138 against, the House on Thursday passed a $575.7 billion military appropriations bill (HR 5293) for fiscal 2017 that includes $43 billion in emergency funding through April 2017 for fighting wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other combat zones. A yes vote was to send the bill (HR 5293) to conference with a similar Senate measure. Voting yes: Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Ribble Voting no: Pocan, Kind, Moore USA PATRIOT ACT SURVEILLANCE: Voting 198 for and 222 against, the House on Thursday refused to prohibit the government from coercing companies to build security flaws into products such as cell phones that would facilitate searches by law enforcement agencies. A yes vote was to limit surveillance under the USA Patriot Act. Voting yes: Pocan, Kind, Moore, Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy Voting no: Ribble BAN ON DREAMER ENLISTMENTS: Voting 210 for and 211 against, the House on Thursday refused to amend HR 5293 (above) to prohibit undocumented people known as dreamers from joining a Pentagon program that recruits specialists in areas such as linguistic skills. A yes vote was to bar Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals aliens from a certain Department of Defense program. Voting yes: Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Ribble Voting no: Pocan, Kind, Moore CLIMATE CHANGE, MILITARY POLICIES: Voting 216 for and 205 against, the House on Thursday stripped HR 5293 (above) of funding to implement President Obamas January 2016 directive that the Department of Defense must identify and assess the impact of climate change on national security and build climate-related risk-management into their decisions. A yes vote was to defund the presidents climate-change directive. Voting yes: Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Ribble Voting no: Pocan, Kind, Moore SENATE $602 BILLION FOR U.S. MILITARY: The Senate on Tuesday passed, 85 for and 13 against, a $602 billion military policy bill for fiscal 2017. In part, the bill (S 2943) would authorize $59 billion in emergency spending for combat operations; $50 billion-plus for active-duty and retiree health care; $3.4 billion for Afghanistan Security Forces; $1.3 billion for efforts targeted at ISIS and $500 million in security assistance including arms for Ukraine. The bill would require women to register for the draft starting in 2018, prohibit another round of base closings and require the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison to remain open. A yes vote was to send the bill to conference with a similar House measure. Voting yes: Tammy Baldwin, D, Ron Johnson, R KEY VOTES AHEAD Next week, the House will take up the 2017 Internal Revenue Service budget, health savings accounts and a separation of powers bill, while the Senate will vote on several gun measures. Thomas Voting Reports Los Angeles (AFP) - He is the God of Gore, the Sultan of Splatter, the Emperor of Entrails -- and the brains behind some of the most iconic blood and guts set-pieces in film history. If you've seen something in a violent movie that made the blood drain from your face, there's a good chance that Oscar-winning Greg Nicotero provided the special effects. The 53-year-old and his partners have worked on more than 400 TV and film projects, from George A. Romero's "Day of the Dead" in 1985 to last year's Quentin Tarantino splatter-fest "The Hateful Eight." Best known these days for his effects work and directing on AMC hit series "The Walking Dead," Nicotero's obsession with the macabre began back in 1975 with "Jaws." "I needed to know how they did it. When the movie came out I was obsessed with learning everything I could about how they built that shark," said the filmmaker, who was 12 when Steven Spielberg's tour de force hit theaters. Nicotero's effects have provided some of the iconic moments of modern cinema, from the "hobbling" scene in "Misery" (1990), when James Caan's ankles are shattered by a sledgehammer-wielding Kathy Bates, to the ear-slicing in Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs." "What makes that so memorable is that you don't see it on screen. The camera is on him, and then Mike Madsen goes in with the razor and then the camera pans away and Madsen enters the shot holding the ear," he says. "You don't see it, and I'll never forget Quentin telling me over and over again how many people objected to seeing it." - Barbecued sausage meat - A tour of Nicotero's workshop 35 miles (55 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles is like dying and going to horror geek heaven. There are vampires, werewolves, giant piranhas, a huge shark suspended from the ceiling, a T-Rex head, a lifesize horse and models of aliens, monsters and ghouls of all kinds and their messed-up victims. Story continues In Nicotero's office, severed arms are propped up on a wooden cabinet while decapitated heads clutter the floor the way a stray box of paperclips or a paper coffee cup might in a normal workplace. And then there are the zombies -- dozens of them in various stages of decomposition. There are smashed heads with eaten-away faces, broken hands, cloudy eyeballs and dentures stacked neatly in drawers. The blood that pours from every gouge, slash and gunshot wound in Nicotero's universe is corn syrup and food coloring, while the human flesh is usually barbecued sausage meat. Nicotero grew up in Pittsburgh, where the legendary Romero and his special effects supremo Tom Savini were busy redefining the horror genre, having shocked the world with 1978's "Dawn of the Dead." "I grew up 30 minutes away from where they filmed 'Dawn of the Dead' and the cemetery from 'Night of the Living Dead' was 20 minutes from my house," says the father-of-two. After a chance meeting at a restaurant in Rome, Nicotero became friends with Romero and quit pre-med to manage the make-up effects department on "Day of the Dead," the third in the horror master's zombie trilogy. - Zombie boot camp - Within a year he had moved to Los Angeles where he rented a house with freelance make-up effects artists Howard Berger and Bob Kurtzman, and the three would eat pizza, drink beer and watch horror movies together. They channeled their shared interest into KNB EFX, a workshop that would grow into a 20,000 square foot base of operations northwest of LA, serving film and television productions all over the world. Nicotero won an Oscar in 2006 for his work on "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and in 2010 Frank Darabont, his director on "The Green Mile," asked him to join a new TV series called "The Walking Dead." It quickly became the most-watched show in the history of cable television, and Nicotero graduated from special effects and co-executive producing to becoming its most prolific director. He has recently set his sights beyond the film and TV to theme parks, working on a walk-through "Walking Dead" attraction opening at Universal Studios on July 4. Nicotero has provided the make-up and special effects, as well as training for the attraction's 100 extras at a zombie boot camp showing them how to find "their inner walker." So having used rubber prosthetics, countless gallons of fake blood and some of the most talented artists in the business to murder, maim and maul in every way imaginable over three decades, is there anything that could possibly scare the God of Gore? "Spiders," he says instantly, without having to think about it. "But other than that, nothing." Bordeaux (AFP) - Jon Walters will miss the Republic of Ireland's Euro 2016 clash with Belgium on Saturday due to injury, manager Martin O'Neill confirmed. "Jon Walters is not going to be fit so we will have to make at least one change. We will have a look at it and decide on it tomorrow morning," said O'Neill at a press conference in Bordeaux on Friday. Stoke City forward Walters had been a serious doubt with an achilles problem that had been dogging him in the build-up to the tournament and forced him off in the second half of Monday's 1-1 draw with Sweden at the Stade de France. He did not train at the Irish squad's base in Versailles, near Paris, on Thursday. James McClean replaced Walters during the Sweden game and is a contender to start in the crucial Group E encounter with the Belgians. Ireland saw group rivals Italy clinch qualification for the last 16 by beating Sweden 1-0 in Toulouse on Friday. That result turned up the pressure ahead of the match in Bordeaux, in which O'Neill wants his side to reproduce their promising performance against Sweden. "I think from the way the team played they will draw great strength from that," he said, indicating that, Walters apart, the line-up may be unchanged at the impressive Matmut Atlantique stadium. "There have been a few days now (since the first game) and the main bulk of players who played most of that match have had time to rest up, and actually I think that game will have brought them on somewhat." Belgium have been heavily criticised for their display in losing 2-0 to the Italians in their opening match, but former Celtic manager O'Neill refused to be taken in by what he saw in Lyon from the likes of Premier League stars Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku. "They are talented, very talented. They would maybe look at us and some of our players don't play at the level they play at week in and week out," he said. "Individually they are as talented as any side in the competition and if they went on to win (the tournament) it would not be a major surprise to me." To truly appreciate this amazingness, you need a little bit of set-up: Last weekend, the royals attended the Trooping the Colour parade -- where Princess Charlotte also made her first public appearance. There is video of the family, including Prince William and Queen Elizabeth in her lime green best, together on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. Let's call this video "The Prequel": The Queen and the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace #TroopingtheColour #Queenat90https://t.co/vA2xcOkwWr The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) June 11, 2016 WATCH: Kate Middleton Looks Lovely in White Lace Dress for First Royal Ascot Appearance -- See the Pics! There are four frames, in particular, we need to discuss, clockwise from top left: BBC 1. Prince William directs his 2-year-old son, Prince George, to wave to the crowd. 2. Prince George does as told and waves to crowd at the palace. (Real cute wave.) 3. Prince William proceeds to crouch down to his son's level as he speaks with him. 4. Queen Elizabeth is like, "WTF?" Oh, wait. Here's one more frame: BBC SHE DID NOT COME TO PLAY WITH YOU. SHE CAME TO SLAY. And now, behold this GIF that keeps on giving: Come for the queen scolding William, stay for the George facepalm. pic.twitter.com/etvmofiU5m Brandon McGinley (@brandonmcg) June 15, 2016 Even baby Prince George was like *face palms*. WATCH: Kate Middleton Stuns in a Color-Block Dress for Queen Elizabeth's Birthday Party It's worth noting that the Duchess of Cambridge (see also: Kate Middleton) was not reprimanded when she bent down to speak with young George. Story continues Getty Images OK, Princess Charlotte, say goodbye! Getty Images Meanwhile, Prince William just made history as the first royal to land the cover of an LGBT magazine. Hear the anti-bullying message he sent to Attitude magazine in the video below. Related Articles Though vomiting, anorexia, lethargy and diarrhea may be common in newborn puppies, this Texas family may have saved their dog in the nick of time when they brought him into the hospital. Read: Family Discovers Furry Friend in Its Dishwasher: 'It Was Bizarre' When the family of four brought Thanos, a 4-month-old pit bull puppy, to the Cy-Fair Animal Hospital in Cyprus, it was clear he wasn't acting like himself. "His family adopted him not too long before that, but it was very obvious that he was a big part of the family and loved very much," said Dr. Michael Lavigne, a veterinarian in Animal Planet's The Vet Life. "It's really scary, he's like a member of our family," the father said in the clip. "We didn't know what was going to happen. The kids were worried. We're a family together." Lavigne told InsideEdition.com that he could immediately tell something was wrong: "Thanos was vomiting and not eating for several days when he was brought in on this visit. He was lethargic, and didn't want to play or do much of anything like he normally would. Even though Lavigne said these signs are not uncommon among puppies, the symptoms could point to many different problems. To stay on the safe side, Lavigne could then be seen in the Animal Planet clip taking Thanos for an x-ray, after the dog's young owners gave him a kiss goodbye. Though Lavigne wasn't able to distinguish what was stuck in his stomach, he was worried about an obstruction in the canine's intestine, and suspected it had already done some damage to Thanos' body. "Prior to surgery, it was still unclear how serious his case would actually turn out to be," he told InsideEdition.com. "Because of how long he had gone without eating, it was definitely time to go in surgically to explore. Waiting too long to go to surgery can sometimes be detrimental." Story continues They brought the pit bull puppy into surgery, where Lavigne can be heard in the clip discovering what was causing the puppy discomfort: "It looks like... is that a sock?" The toe was chewed out, and the sock already caused inflammation and bruising to Thanos' intestinal tract. But, Lavigne had good news the sock passed through his intestines, making it relatively straightforward to pull the sock out of colon. "Because I didn't end up having to open the intestines or stomach, the surgery was not as invasive or complicated, which resulted in a much quicker time for Thanos," Lavigne told InsideEdition.com. Read: Like Father Like Dog? Men Pose With Their Dogs In A Unique Father's Day Photoshoot Three months after the surgery, Lavigne was happy to report that the baby pit bull's prognosis was excellent: "Thanos is doing great now! He's growing a lot, and back to being a normal, playful puppy." He can be seen in the clip from The Vet Life back to his energetic old self, rolling around and playing with the rest of the family. For more stories like this, be sure to catch The Vet Life, premiering Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET on Animal Planet. Watch: Meet the Warthog Piglet and Rottweiler Puppy That Became Best Friends After Being Rescued Related Articles: By Madeline Kennedy (Reuters Health) - Aerobic exercise four hours after a memorization task, but not exercise right afterwards, was linked to improved recall in a series of Dutch experiments. Newly-learned information turns into long-term knowledge through a process of stabilization and integration of memories, the study team writes in Current Biology. This requires certain brain chemicals that are also released during physical exercise, including dopamine, noradrenaline (norepinephrine) and a growth factor called BDNF, they explain. The brain processes new memories for a while after learning. Physical exercise is able to improve these post-learning processes, senior author Guillen Fernandez, director of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, told Reuters Health by email. To explore when exercise would most improve learning, researchers recruited 72 participants and tasked them with learning to match a series of 90 locations with pictures over a 40-minute period. The participants were split into three groups: one group exercised immediately after learning, one group exercised four hours later and one group did not exercise at all. The exercise groups did interval training for 35 minutes on a stationary bike, including spurts at maximum intensity. Two days later, the participants returned to the lab to test how much of what theyd memorized they could recall. During the recall test, the each subject was in a MRI scanner so researchers could monitor activity in different areas of the brain. The group that had exercised four hours after learning remembered significantly more information on the follow-up test, while the immediate-exercise group did no better than the group that did not exercise. Activity in the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with forming memories, was very similar among people in the delayed-exercise group during the recall task, but less consistent in the other participants, the researchers note. They speculate that the consistency of activation in the hippocampus in the delayed-exercise group could indicate greater efficiency or coherence in the way the brain pulls up the memory and might relate to differences in memory strength. While strong memories will be remembered no matter what, Fernandez said, weaker memories that would normally be forgotten within a day may last longer if the brain releases more dopamine and norepinephrine. People looking to improve their learning should perform fairly intense exercise to make sure that enough of the critical brain chemicals are released, he said, but cautioned against taking this too far. Very intensive exercise might also have negative effects. The authors note that more research is needed to determine if exercise will help memories last beyond the two-day period they studied. They add that the type of memory may be important, and that procedural or body memory of activities like tying a shoe may be better helped by immediate exercise than other kinds of memories. Having a regular exercise routine may be helpful as well said Marc Roig, an assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal who studies the effect of cardiovascular exercise on memory. Several weeks of cardio exercise, such as jogging, can make the hippocampus larger and improve peoples memory, he told Reuters Health. The type of exercise may not be important, though, added Roig, who was not involved in the new study. Most studies have looked into aerobic exercise but recent data shows that resistance training and high intensity interval training may also be beneficial. When thinking about how to maximize your training regimen to improve/maintain memory do not ask yourself only what type of exercise, intensity or frequency is the best. Ask yourself when to train to achieve the best results, Roig said. SOURCE: bit.ly/1OsVDu4 Current Biology, June 16, 2016. cowboy boots america republican A handful of major US companies have reportedly suggested that they will not sponsor next month's Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Those corporations which include Wells Fargo, UPS, Ford, Motorola, JPMorgan Chase, and Walgreens have not explicitly said that the expected nomination of Donald Trump was a factor in their decisions, but each had been a sponsor for the 2012 convention in Tampa, Florida. The Bloomberg report notes that many of the companies say that they won't back the Democratic convention either. Large companies typically sponsor the conventions to help pump up their brands, even if they remain politically nonpartisan. The corporations are joining a growing list of prominent Republican politicians and donors that have declared they'll sit out of the convention, including former Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, Arizona Sen. John McCain, 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and the Koch brothers, billionaire donors known for supporting conservative causes. RNC national committeeman James Dicke told Bloomberg that he's not worried: "Fundraising has slowed down, but we will get there and, so far, we've raised considerably more money than any other convention has ever raised." NOW WATCH: TRUMP SPOKESPERSON: Why the Republican party has 'miserably failed' More From Business Insider The Awaaz Foundation, in 2007, had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting that the measures taken by authorities on curbing noise pollution from sources such as traffic and construction, has been inadequate so far. The PIL will be coming up for hearing on Friday, June 17. While the Maharashtra state had commission noise barriers and demarcated silence zones, nothing much else has been done to curb the menace of noise pollution. With this years festivities yet to start, citizens and anti-noise crusaders are hoping that the state, and the rest of the country, will finally take some stringent measures to curb noise pollution. Indias noisiest cities: A real time continuous noise monitoring study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), earlier this year, has given Mumbai the dubious distinction of being the noisiest city in India. The metro is already listed as the third noisiest in the world. According to the report, the most number of safe noise level violations between the years 2011-14, were in Mumbai. While the noisiest spot in Mumbai was the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) headquarters at Sion Circle, monitoring stations installed at Vashi Hospital and Bandra also showed noise levels exceeding the prescribed limits by 100 per cent. Festivals, firecrackers, traffic, construction activities, loudspeakers, all add on to the din. While noise levels beyond 80 decibels is hazardous, areas in Mumbai such as Sion and Chembur recorded levels beyond 85 decibels. Lucknow came second, with Hazratganj, a major shopping centre situated in the heart of the city, the noisiest. Hyderabad came third, with the two commercial zones, of Abids and Punjagutta recording the highest noise levels. Delhi came fourth, with ITO recording the maximum noise level violations, while Chennai stood fifth, with Guindy recording the maximum violation. The cities of Bengaluru and Kolkata had the least number of violations. How noise pollution harms: Noise is measured in decibels. While we aree surrounded by different kinds of noises every day, it becomes undesirable when it crosses a certain level, and interferes with our sleep, conversation, ability to think clearly, and other daily activities. This is termed as noise pollution. While a normal conversation, or background music, is around 60 decibels, household appliances such as air conditioners and air coolers are around 60-68 decibels, a vacuum cleaner is 75 decibels, heavy traffic sounds are around 80-89 decibels and fire crackers and fire arms are around 150 decibels. Exposure to noise levels beyond 140 will cause ear pain and damage, however, any sounds above 85 decibels, in general, are harmful. Prolonged exposure to high decibel noises may lead to the following problems: Hearing impairment: Our ears are able to take certain levels of noise without getting damaged, but constant exposure to loud noises, or even a brief exposure to a very loud noise (120 decibels and above) can damage our ear drums and the highly sensitive hair cells that are located in the cochlea, causing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Cardiovascular problems: A study conducted by the School of Public Health at Imperial College London found that exposure to high decibel levels, such as aircraft noise, raises the risk of heart diseases by 20 per cent. Sleep related disorders: Constant exposure to loud noise can hamper our sleeping pattern, which then may lead to irritability, stress and other health issues associated with lack of sleep. Increased waist size: Researchers from the Karolinska University in Sweden conducted a four year study which found that the more people were exposed to loud traffic noise, the more their waist size increased. The study found that there was nearly a centimetre increase for every ten-decibel rise in the noise levels. After tracking 5,000 people exposed to plane noise for ten years, they found that the waistlines of people who were most exposed to aircraft noise, increased by 6 cms. Birth defects: Noise pollution also has a deadly effect on babies in the womb. Research has found that that for every six-decibel increase in traffic noise, there was a drop of 15g to 23g in birth weight. A Chinese study had found that exposure to high noise levels in the first trimester of pregnancy led to a greater risk of congenital anomalies. Stress: While low and soothing music helps reduce the stress levels, exposure to high levels of noise can lead to stress and anxiety, which may lead to hypertension, and increase the chance of heart attacks and strokes. Inability to work or think coherently: A study conducted by the Cornell University in New York, found that workers who were constantly exposed to office din from machinery, telephones and office chatter had higher levels of adrenaline in their urine than those who worked in quiet environments. Those working in an open environment were also less effective at puzzle solving, while those in the quiet group slept better and were less irritable. If you only read one thing: Just say the words. Bernie Sanders delivered his long-overdue concession speech late Thursday but couldnt bring himself to acknowledge hed been defeated by Hillary Clinton. Sanders said hed work with her to try to defeat Trump, but didnt officially declare the end of his campaign. But the delay wont matter muchhes already lost much of his influence at the Democratic convention, following Clintons strong finish in the primaries and the defection of some of his top supporters to the presumptive Democratic nominee. John McCain proclaimed Thursday that President Obama was directly responsible for the Orlando attack because of the failure to anticipate the rise of ISIS in Iraq. The stunning statement comes days after Trump seemed to insinuate the same about Obama, and reflects a coarsening of the nations political discourse in this campaign season. McCain, a noted defense hawk, is facing the toughest re-election fight of his careerand his 2010 fight had already shifted him rhetorically rightward. Notably, McCain was given an award for civility in public life just last week. The GOP struggle over how to deal with Donald Trump as their standard bearer is nowhere near resolved, with more lawmakers saying they wont or cant back himand some rescinding prior endorsements. There is almost nothing they can do to block Trump at this point, but as the party begins to contemplate its post-Trump future at the GOP convention, the notion that the establishment abandoned the nominee who won a plurality of the primary vote may only exacerbate the underlying roots of Trumps rise. The Trump supporter in Hillary Clintons hometown. George W. Bush stumps for Republicans down-ballot. And foreign policy experts reject Trumps conspiracy theory. Here are your must-reads: Must Reads Bernie Sanders Does Not Concede Democratic Nomination to Hillary Clinton TIMEs Sam Frizell on the end Story continues President Obama: Orlando Families Grief Is Beyond Description Renews gun control call after meeting with victims and first responders [TIME] Foreign Policy Experts Condemn Donald Trumps Remarks on ISIS Support Trump claim derided as conspiracy theory by experts, TIMEs Haley Sweetland Edwards reports 51 U.S. Diplomats Urge Strikes Against Assad in Syria Internal State Department memo calls for shift in U.S. policy [New York Times] Despite Trumps Calls for Action, Senate Gun Debate Headed Down Familiar Path Partisan bickering, followed by inaction [Washington Post] Trump, Clinton Money Awash in Conflicts of Interest U.S. ethics laws werent written to account for a commander in chief with such far-reaching interests. [Politico] Sound Off Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaida went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obamas failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq. Sen. John McCain to reporters on the Orlando attack You cant make this up sometimes. Speaker Paul Ryan responding to Donald Trumps call for top GOP leaders to be quiet Bits and Bites Eighth Grader Impersonates Presidential Candidates at Graduation [TIME] John McCain: President Obama Directly Responsible for Orlando Shooting [Associated Press] Paul Ryan on Donald Trump: You Cant Make This Up Sometimes [TIME] An Unlikely Savior Emerges to Help Endangered Republicans: George W. Bush [New York Times] Armitage to back Clinton over Trump [Politico] Shunned, Stared at, Still for Trump: The Holdout in Hillary Clintons Town [New York Times] WASHINGTON When in his 1964 GOP acceptance speech Barry Goldwater declared that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, a reporter sitting near journalist/historian Theodore White famously exclaimed: My God, hes going to run as Barry Goldwater! Six weeks into Donald Trumps general election campaign, Republicans are discovering that he indeed intends to run as Donald Trump. He has boasted he could turn presidential respectful, respectable, reticent, reserved bordering on boring at will. Apparently, he cant. GOP leaders who fell in line behind Trump after he clinched the nomination expected, or at least hoped, he would prove malleable, willing to adjust his more extreme positions and tactics to suit a broader electorate. Two problems. First, impulse control: Trump says what he actually feels, whatever comes into his head at any moment. Second, a certain logic: Trump won the primaries Sinatra-style, his way against the odds, the experts and the conventional rules. So why change now? You win the pennant, Trump explained, and now youre in the World Series you gonna change? Hence his response to the Orlando terror attack. Events such as these generally benefit the challenger politically because any misfortune that befalls the nation gets attributed, fairly or not, directly or indirectly, to the incumbent party (e.g., the 2008 financial collapse). And Hillary Clinton is running as the quasi-incumbent. The textbook response for the challenger, therefore, is to offer sympathy, give a general statement or two about the failure of the incumbents national security policy, then step back to let the resulting national fear and loathing, amplified by the media, take effect. Instead, Trump made himself the (political) story. First, he offered himself unseemly congratulations for his prescience about terrorism. (Hed predicted more would be coming. What a visionary.) Then he went beyond blaming the president for lack of will or wisdom in fighting terrorism, and darkly implied presidential sympathy for the enemy. Theres something going on, he charged. He then reiterated his ban on Muslim immigration. Why? Because thats what Trump does. And because it worked before. It was after last Decembers San Bernardino massacre that Trump first called for a Muslim ban. It earned him lots of opprobrium from GOP leaders and lots of support from GOP voters. He shot up in the polls, never to descend until he clinched. So why not do it again? Because the general election is a different game. Trump assumes the GOP electorate is representative of the national electorate. Its not. Take the Muslim ban. Sixty-eight percent of GOP voters support it. Only 38 percent of Democrats do. And there are about 7 million more Democrats in the country. (Independents are split 51-40 in favor.) The other major example of doing whats always worked is the ad hominem attack on big-dog opponents. It worked in the primaries. Trump went after one leading challenger after another, knocking them out sequentially. Hillary Clinton is a lousy campaigner but her machine is infinitely larger and more skilled than any of Trumps 16 GOP competitors. More riskily, Trump is now going toe-to-toe with a sitting president. Barack Obama is no Jeb Bush. Hes not low energy. Hes a skilled campaigner who clearly despises Trump and relishes the fight. And he carries the inestimable advantage of the gravitas automatically conferred by seven and a half years of incumbency. Moreover, he now enjoys an unusually high approval rating of around 53 percent. Trumps latest favorability is 29 percent (Washington Post-ABC News). Its no accident Trumps poll numbers are sliding. A month ago, when crowned as presumptive nominee, he jumped into a virtual tie with Clinton. The polls now have him losing by an average of six points, with some showing a nine- and 12-point deficit (Reuters/Ipsos and Bloomberg). This may turn out to be temporary, but it is a clear reflection of Trumps disastrous general election kickoff. His two-week expedition into racism in attacking the Indiana-born Mexican judge. His dabbling in conspiracy, from Ted Cruzs fathers supposed involvement in the Kennedy assassination to Vince Fosters (very fishy) suicide. All of which suggests, and cements, the image of a man who shoots from the hip and is prone to both wild theories and extreme policies. Reagan biographer Lou Cannon thinks the Goldwater anecdote is apocryphal. How could anyone (even a journalist) have thought Goldwater, who later admitted he always knew he would lose, was going to run as anything but his vintage, hard-core self? Same for Trump. Give him points for authenticity. Take away for electability. New Belgium Brewing Company employees 2013 Fort Collins, Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing Co. is one of the largest craft breweries in the country. Last year, it produced 914,063 barrels and brought in $225 million in annual revenue. If you ask Kim Jordan, the company's cofounder, former CEO, and current executive chair of the board, a key component to New Belgium's success has been the talented employees it's been able to attract and retain which is part of the reason why workers now own the entire company and workplace anniversaries are celebrated lavishly. Jordan No. 13 on the BI 100: The Creators began formally awarding stock to employees in 1995 after reading "The Great Game of Business," a book by management expert Jack Stack. She was inspired by Stack's urge to apply open-book management, the practice of full financial and business transparency within the company. "The inclination to have as flat a hierarchy as we could manage and a really trusting, transparent, engaged group of coworkers was really important to me," Jordan told Business Insider in a recent interview. By 2000, New Belgium officially transitioned to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), a type of retirement plan that awards employees stock in the company to be distributed upon their exit. In January 2013, Jordan announced to more than 450 thrilled employees at the company's biannual retreat that she sold her remaining 59% stake to the ESOP. New employees are now awarded stock upon their one-year anniversary at New Belgium. Kim Jordan New Belgium Brewing Company The sale codified Jordan's commitment to the well-being of her employees. Unlike other iconic craft breweries like Dogfish Head and Lagunitas, which have sold stakes to outside investors, Jordan's sale to the ESOP represents a conscious effort to fight the wealth gap, avoid cuts and layoffs a buyer might have demanded, and keep her employees involved in the future of the company. Story continues Jordan called the practice of broadly shared equity "a form of honoring human capital and its contribution to a vibrant business milieu." Another way New Belgium honors human capital is through generous benefits. The company has a 93% retention rate and cheerily celebrates coworkers' anniversaries at the company. For instance, employees receive a branded fat-tire cruiser bike a tradition started in 1999 as a nod to the brewery's flagship beer at year one, a one-week trip to Belgium at year five, a $1,000 travel voucher at year 15, and a four-week paid sabbatical at years 10, 20, and 30. "Our purpose, the thing that guides us over the longest term, that we never really fully achieve, is to make our love and talent manifest," Jordan said. "It's not just about making sure people get lots of perks, it's about building a community." NOW WATCH: At Sam Adams, its OK to tell your boss f--- you More From Business Insider A cyber security firm hired by the Democratic National Committee announced on Monday that two groups affiliated with Russian intelligence were responsible for infiltrating the Democrats network and stealing a ream of confidential election-related information. Two days later, a hacker claiming to be acting as a lone wolf, who said he was unaffiliated with the Russians and called himself Guccifer 2.0, leaked what appeared to be a 200-page document consisting of largely unsurprising opposition research on Donald Trump. The leak called into question who, exactly, had been responsible for the hack on the Democratic headquarters. If it was really the Russians, as the DNCs cyber security firm, CrowdStrike, claimed, who was this Guccifer 2.0 figure? (The name harkens back to an actual Romanian lone wolf who hacked the Bush family, among others, and is now in a jail in Virginia.) Had the DNCs cyber team misattributed the breach to the wrong group? Had it failed to detect a different breach that had successfully stolen more confidential information? Then, on Thursday, a flurry of articles in the tech media threw a curve ball: Several cyber security experts suggested that perhaps Guccifer 2.0 was only claiming to be acting independently, in an elaborate effort to cast doubt on CrowdStrikes assertion that the Russians had been behind the breach. Meanwhile, to add further to the fog of cyberwarfare, Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump raised the possibility on Wednesday that the Democrats had pretended to hack their own network in an effort to leak negative stories on Trump to the press. Maybe they werent hacked; maybe they just want to get it out there, Trump mused in an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News. (That seems unlikely as the alleged oppo research on Trump released so far was mostly based on previously published articles voters could already find themselves on Google. The document featured chapters like Trump has no core and Trump is a liar.) Story continues In the shrill and contorted media environment of an election year, unraveling this tangle of finger-pointing could have serious political implications. If the hackers do indeed turn out to be Russian, its confirmation that a powerful foreign state is seeking to influence, or at least spy on, domestic U.S. politics. If the hackers turned out to be politically-motivated domestic actors, American votersnot to mention the Clinton and Trump campaignscould expect more potentially unsavory documents to surface before Election Day. For example, in addition to claiming responsibility for the DNC hack, the Guccifer 2.0 hacker also bragged about having access to documents from presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clintons State Department computer and to Democratic donors financial information. If those claims are trueand huge emphasis on that ifit could be a game-changer in an already-historical strange election year. Alternatively, if the hackers turn out to be random neerdowells out for a thrill, the immediately implications on U.S. electoral politics might be more limited, but raise disturbing questions about the security of all political communications. As of now, the question of who, exactly, is behind the DNC hack, as well as possibly related hacks on Republican political groups, and both Hillary Clinton and Trumps networks, remains a question mark. What top U.S. technologists know for sure is that at least two groups of hackers were willing to take a major riskand make a substantial investmentto access the DNCs network. Who is behind the attacks remains unclearand, unfortunately, a satisfying answer isnt likely to come any time soon. Attribution is incredibly difficultI wouldnt say impossible, but its very difficult, Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of cybersecurity strategy at Illumio, told TIME. Investigations like this do not wrap up quickly and often do not wrap up at all because its very hard to tell where they came from. Amit Yoran, the president of the cybersecurity firm RSA was also noncommittal on whether thered ever be a smoking gun. I think attribution is one of those topics that people like to rush to because it makes for sexier reportingyou want to make a meaningful story for non-technologists, he told TIME. Saying you know who was responsible makes for a very compelling story. But its also very hard to do well in the cyber domain, especially over a short period of time with a sophisticated actor. Gleicher, who served as director for cybersecurity policy on the National Security Council at the White House, added that this particular case might be especially tricky since the perpetrators were apparently hiding in the DNCs system for a long time. CrowdStrike, the cyber security firm hired by the DNC, reported that at least one of two groups of hackers that breached the DNCs network had been in the system since last summer. Because they were in there so long, its going to be very hard to unwind everything, to track back to reality, Gleicher said. Reg Harnish, the CEO of GreyCastle Security, a New York-based cybersecurity company, says hes doubtful that Crowdstrikes investigationand its determination that the Russians are to blameis the end of the story. Ive been personally involved in hundreds of these investigations, and you just dont end up in the same place where you began, he told TIME. This particular case, he said, is complicated by all the politicking going on. You have people being politically correct or outright lying, Harnish added. I think theres a lot of misinformation out there right now. Scott Borg, the head of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, echoed the skepticism. Our best guess is that the second (and apparently less skillful) of the two intruders was not Russian intelligence, he told Politico on Thursday. We are also uncertain about the first group, he added. CrowdStrike said in a blog post Monday that there were two distinct breaches of the DNCs network. One group of hackers, which CrowdStrike called Cozy Bear, was in the network since summer 2015, and largely monitoring the DNCs email and chat communications. The other, which the firm named Fancy Bear, triggered alarm bells when it broke into the network in late April, targeting opposition research files on Trump, CrowdStrike said. In a statement sent to TIME, CrowdStrike defended its assessment that the DNC had been breached by hackers affiliated with the Russian intelligence community. CrowdStrike stands fully by its analysis and findings identifying two separate Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries present in the DNC network in May 2016, the statement said. It then acknowledged Guccifer 2.0s claims to have accessed the DNCs network and said it was exploring the documents authenticity and origin. Regardless, these claims do nothing to lessen our findings relating to the Russian governments involvement, the CrowdStrike statement said. The DNC would not reply to several emails and voicemails from TIME asking whether the organization had notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation or another federal law enforcement agency. The FBI would neither confirm or deny that it was investigating the breach. A spokeswoman at CrowdStrike said she had not heard of the firm collaborating with any federal investigation. It would surprise me if they did not get international law enforcement or the intelligence community involved with this case, Yoran said. Its dealing with potentially extremely sensitive information that would have a great impact on U.S. policy. Stephen Elop Over the years, there's been a lot of anxiety over whether or not Microsoft should sell off business units like Xbox and Bing, seen as secondary to the tech titan's profitable Windows and Office businesses. And despite the Xbox's high level of brand recognition and popularity, Microsoft executives themselves haven't always stood up for the gaming business. If former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop had gotten the Microsoft CEO job, he reportedly would have sold off Xbox, and Bing search, too. Worse, in 2014, Bill Gates said that he would "absolutely" support then-new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella if he chose to sell off Xbox. Two months later, Nadella himself said that the Xbox was "non-core" to Microsoft's business. It's a good thing that Microsoft didn't go through with it, at any point. Because while it's definitely been a tumultous few years, the Xbox business is finally poised to help feed back into Microsoft's core business after all, even as the console converges with Windows 10. It won't be easy, but the payoffs include a big boost to Microsoft's efforts to get Windows 10 everywhere and bolster its own app store. Play Anywhere At this week's E3 gaming mega-event, Microsoft announced the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative. A whole slew of high-profile games, notably the highly-anticipated shooter "Gears of War 4," will be available on both Windows 10 and Xbox One. Buy a copy for one, get it free on the other, with synced-up save games. It's a good thing for consumers. There are only 20 million Xbox One consoles in the world, by analyst estimates, but there are 300 million-plus Windows 10 devices out there and counting. So if you have both, you get some extra flexibility. Even if all you have is the PC, though, then boom, there are a lot more great games coming. gears of war 4 xbox one Having more games on the Windows Store in Windows 10 is also a good thing for Microsoft, as it looks to beef up its its lagging app selection compared to the Apple App Store and Google Play Market. Story continues Games, needless to say, are popular on every platform at the time of writing, four of the top five highest-grossing games on the iPhone App Store are games (the fifth is Spotify, holding the #1 spot). Race to zero Games make app store operators a lot of money: Apple, Microsoft, and Google all take a 30% cut of app purchase prices and in-app purchases. But according to Statista, the average price of an app circa January 2016 is just $1.16, with the average price of a game a measly$0.57. But, and this is important, the MSRP on a new Xbox game on release day is $59.99, both in retail stores and digitally. Now, with more Xbox games slated to hit the Windows Store on Windows 10...well, 30% of $59.99 is just shy of $18. Furthermore, even big-budget, $59.99-at-launch games like "Rise of the Tomb Raider" are offering in-app purchases, of which Microsoft can take a cut. bill gates xbox Better yet for Microsoft, it publishes top game franchises like Halo, Forza Motorsport, and Gears of War, all of which are coming to Windows 10 in one form or another. That means they won't be showing up on competing PC platforms like the Mac, or rival consoles like the Sony PlayStation 4. It's an advantage that's hard to match, and it can bring gamers to Windows 10 while also monetizing them. Finally, Microsoft also offers Xbox Live Gold, a $59.99/year premium gaming service that enables online multiplayer gaming on the Xbox consoles, alongside other benefits. It slots right in to Microsoft's broader ambition to sell more subscriptions, notably seen in its success selling the Microsoft Office 365 productivity service. Selling the Xbox Live service to Windows 10 users will be tough, but not impossible the subscription also includes access to "free" games every month on the Xbox, and it's not hard to see how that could be expanded to PC owners. This isn't necessarily good news for everyone: Apple's App Store has seen some backlash over what Spotify calls the "Apple Tax," as developers resent the notion of giving App Store owners any portion of their hard-earned revenue. And it remains to be seen if gamers will embrace this blending of the Xbox and Windows 10 ecosystems. So it's a big, ambitious, risky bet. But the potential payoffs are huge, as Xbox games could both drive people towards Windows 10 and help Microsoft capitalize fully on the Windows Store. If Microsoft had sold Xbox off, it's a bet that wouldn't have even been possible. Oh, and about Bing: That worked out okay, too. Thanks in large part to Windows 10 and the Cortana digital assistant, Bing has finally become a profitable business. NOW WATCH: 5 hidden features to get the most out of your Xbox One More From Business Insider Amid lighthearted chatter about Cheetos-flavored popcorn and cinema seats that blast water in moviegoers' faces, a somewhat darker buzzword - OK, two buzzwords - circulated through Las Vegas during CinemaCon in April. Sean Parker's Screening Room concept overshadowed much of the conversation on the trade-show floor, and not in a good way: The plan to offer new releases to at-home viewers for $50 a go was received as one might expect from an industry already under fire from emerging technologies. Two months on, the chatter now moves across the Atlantic. Disney, Paramount, Universal, StudioCanal, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks Animation are set to show off upcoming wares later this month in Barcelona at CineEurope, the official convention of the International Union of Cinemas trade body, but the talk among European exhibitors likely will center on this new threat to their precarious traditional business model. While much of the vocal opposition to Screening Room's disregard for the theatrical window has been confined to Hollywood circles, European cinema owners could feel the punch harder, according to several executives. "In the U.S. there are vast parts of the country not heavily screened, where it might take one or two hours to get to the next theater, so it might have an advantage," says Martin Moszkowicz, head of TV and film at Constantin, Germany's largest movie producer and distributor, which also owns several multiplexes. "But in Germany this doesn't exist; there are screens everywhere, so it would be more damaging." Read More: Relativity Chief Dana Brunetti: Sean Parker's The Screening Room Doesn't Go Far Enough Jan Runge, CEO of the Brussels-based IUC, says the cinema landscape is far less consolidated throughout Europe, with a bigger tier of medium-sized companies and far more local theaters. "Day-and-date releases of films would hurt many of these smaller operators," he says. Story continues The frequency of cinemagoing also varies wildly. Whereas in the U.S. it is considered part of the weekly routine, Europeans are a decidedly more fickle bunch. "Here it's more eventized," says Moszkowicz, who cites a landscape of "incredible" free TV already pumping quality content into homes. "People go to movies less frequently, especially in Germany, and if they go it has to be something special." With considerably steeper ticket prices (the U.K. average is nearly $3 higher than the U.S. average, and in parts of Scandinavia tickets can top $15), any additional incentive for uncommitted cinemagoers to stay home could pummel the industry further. But naturally, not everyone is concerned. Curzon, one of the U.K.'s smaller cinema chains with 11 operated sites, launched its own VOD service in 2010 and has been at the vanguard of day-and-date releasing since, thanks to its own distribution arm. In April, it revealed plans for a curated SVOD platform with 100 to 200 titles - even as it continues to roll out physical theaters. Read More: MPAA Chief Agrees to Meet With Screening Room Execs Over $50 Home Movie Service "I wouldn't be spending millions of pounds on new cinemas if I thought it was cannibalizing our business," says Curzon Home Cinema director Philip Mordecai, who asserts Screening Room is "fantastic" and "well overdue." Mordecai, who is surprised others have not followed Curzon's digital model, says the chain plans to push its physical presence to 20 to 25 sites and about 70 screens. He believes a less-is-more approach to bricks-and-mortar theaters is key to his company's survival during a post-Screening Room era. "If you're Odeon or Vue or Cineworld in the U.K. and you've got thousands of screens each, and if more and more films go to being available day-and-date, then a large proportion of people who currently go to the cinema to see these new films won't have to and won't go," says Mordecai. "But I'm not trying to build 1,000 screens in the U.K." *** 3 Barcelona Bars Not to Miss Very much a nocturnal animal, Spain's most cosmopolitan city doesn't take kindly to those planning an early night. Once CineEurope's free bar dries up, sample the offerings at three of the city's finer cocktail establishments. Dry Martini 162-166 Aribau With world-class mixologists trained at a nearby cocktail "academy," this cozy, dark, wood-clad and exceedingly classy shrine to late-night drink is the famed flagship establishment of Javier de las Muelas, aka the High Priest of the Martini. Be sure not to miss the masterful concoction that gave the place its name. Solange 143 Aribau Formerly named Harry's Bar in honor of the Parisian legend, this slick golden-tinged lounge was taken over by noted mixologist family the Pernias in 2014 and renamed after Daniel Craig's first Bond girl in 2006's Casino Royale. Try the El Senorito, a Spanish take on 007's drink of choice that includes a dash of chocolate mole bitters. Bloody Mary 3 Ferrer de Blanes Lounge on a sofa and celebrate all things tomato juice, vodka and Worcestershire sauce in one of Barca's newer, hipper establishments. While the classic remains just that, take a chance and sample the clam juice-spiked Bloody Caesar, the Orient Express' sake-and-wasabi twist or the bourbon-soaked Bloody Kentucky. This story first appeared in the June 24 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. Gliding through the sun-lit Greenhouse at Platform in Culver City, Tamara Mellon, co-founder of Jimmy Choo and founder of her namesake luxury label that filed for bankruptcy in December, almost blends in. Recently relocated to L.A., the 48-year-old is clad in a black dress she "just found at a vintage store," chatting with the crowd before a panel discussion with Katherine Power, co-author of "The Career Code" and CEO of Clique Media Group. Before the event, Mellon chatted with Pret-a-Reporter about her new start in L.A., the planned September re-launch of her Tamara Mellon brand (price points will be lower than before, but designs will still be sexy, strong and confident, and the business model will be direct-to-consumer), and advice she has for young women. Pret-a-Reporter: Is it scary to be starting over? Tamara Mellon: It's actually really exciting. This is the first time that I feel like I'm really going to be authentically me, and I have an amazing team now to help me execute it so, no it isn't scary, actually I'm more excited. Where did that decision come from to move to LA? I feel that there's a migration west. I feel like LA is at a tipping point right now, and it's having this real renaissance moment. The music world has transitioned west. The art world is exploding. Technology is exploding here. There are more startups than ever before, and I want to be on the tipping point of that. I want to be ahead of the curve of that. And so for creativity, for art, for fashion, for music, I want to be in that moment, which I think is really exciting in LA. How does LA style differ from New York style? Well, obviously LA has its own look, which is more casual. But, I think it's developing a look which is becoming global, and everyone is now looking at LA for their style inspiration, and that never used to be the case. It used to be New York, London, Paris, Milan, and LA now is really rising. Story continues Something that you've been talking about is that you're not going to adhere to "the fashion calendar." How does not adhering to the calendar benefit your business model, and do you think that viewpoint is catching on throughout the fashion industry? I think it's catching on. There's a huge conversation about 'buy now, wear now,' which is what I tried to do three years ago [with my fashion line]. And what that means is shortening the gap between showing the product and when the customer can buy it. So, we're going to be doing monthly fashion drops, so the customer can come to our website and she has something new and exciting to see every month. But at the same time, we're going to be selling timeless classics, which never go out of fashion. So, we all have things in our closet that we repeat-buy all the time, and we're going to have those available to her. Katherine Power is going to be joining you today. She was a pioneer in bringing a print-magazine feel to online, how can you relate to her in trying to be a pioneer in the luxury shoe industry, as she was a pioneer in her own sense? Well, we're pioneering, really, the next generation of luxury, and that's how I feel I kind of connect with her on that. Because we're also building this in a very different way, a lot of traditional fashion positions no longer exist in this business. We're looking for people to run an ecommerce site, data analysis, engineers. Whereas a traditional fashion business, you'd have people who did wholesale, and sales, so we're thinking about building the next generation of luxury and what that looks like. Can you give me a sense of your vision for the re-launch? You know, I think all women love shoes. I always say there are no demographics with us. So, it's really all women love shoes and that's what we want to be about, we want to be able to service women with this brand. It doesn't matter how old you are, what your income is, what you do, we want all women to come on board with this. Do you have any advice for women who want to start a career in the fashion industry? I would probably say, you know what I did, start at the bottom. I think it's really important to understand a business from the ground up, even though we're in a massive transitional phase of the industry, and the fashion industry will never operate again like it has done for the last 50 years. But I would say, no job is too small, learn from the ground up, and believe in what you're doing. Or be with a company that you really believe in. A recent investigative report by Dan ODonnell on WISN-AM (1130) shared a troubling scenario. Wisconsin teachers in some school districts are regularly being verbally and physically assaulted by students, and administrators are not confronting the growing problem. According to the report, teachers fear for their students and their own safety, and risk losing their jobs when they take a stand. Satisfying a social justice agenda has become more important than appropriate discipline in our schools. As a result, the education of all our students is diminished, and teachers have become pawns in a political game. Much study has been done on the subject of bullying in our schools and the toxic stress this places on students ability to learn. Lost in this important topic has been the growing problem of violence and threats against teachers. Our teachers are spending an increasing amount of their instructional time focusing on students who are disruptive in the classroom to the detriment of those who truly would like to learn. Just as it is unacceptable for a student to feel unsafe at school, it is equally unacceptable for a teacher to feel the same. Evidence in ODonnells report is serious and must be confronted. Appropriate staff training in early intervention, crisis management and application of discipline must be a component of addressing this growing problem. I agree with many experts who blame the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. In a January 2014 letter, this agency encouraged schools to reexamine student disciplinary policies for racial or ethnic disparities. If circumstantial evidence supports that a school has suspended, expelled or applied basic discipline of students disproportionately on one racial or ethnic group over another, it could trigger a federal investigation, something no district wishes to endure. Except in the most extreme cases, schools have responded by reducing or eliminating suspensions and expulsions, rather than facing federal inquiries. Students know the rules arent being enforced, and they know school administrators are loathe to mete out appropriate punishment when federal dollars are at stake. The consequence is chaos in the classrooms. The pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice has empowered troubled students to be even more disruptive. It has traumatized teachers who are discouraged from taking strong action. It has diminished learning in the wider student body. The Legislature must act in the best interest of our teachers who want to teach, and students who want to learn. I will work with my legislative colleagues and education professionals to support our classroom teachers and encourage school administrators to deal with school violence directed at schools. It is unacceptable for any school district to turn its back on the safety of teachers and students. School safety is in the best interests of students, teachers and society. This discussion must transcend politics. Our children and teachers are too important to set this issue aside. From Cosmopolitan New details about Brock Turner's life pre-Stanford - and pre-sexual assault - have emerged, and it seems friends who knew him aren't incredibly surprised to find out about his crimes. According to an exclusive investigation by In Touch, featuring in this week's issue, the women's swim team at Stanford were wary of Turner (a member of the college's men's swim team) long before he sexually assaulted an unconscious woman behind a dumpster last January. "Brock's arrest wasn't surprising to anyone on the team," an anonymous swim team insider told In Touch. "From the beginning, the women swimmers had found him very, very odd. Brock would make comments to the women such as 'I can see your t---s in that swimsuit." In an even more disturbing detail, In Touch's source says the women from the swim team tried to come forward during Turner's trial and tell the judge about some of the negative experiences they'd had with him. But those discussions and the possibility of sending letters to the judge were apparently halted. "There were rumblings that the women were pressured by Stanford officials not to do it since they hadn't witnessed any crime that Brock had committed," the source said. As uncovered by newly released court transcripts, Judge Aaron Persky's decision to issue a light sentence was based heavily on a series of positive character reference letters people wrote on Turner's behalf. At Stanford's graduation ceremony, held Sunday morning, students carried protest signs that read things like, "Stanford protects rapists," and "125 years of rape culture" (this year was Stanford's 125th anniversary as an institution). Jonathan Fiske, a graduating student who helped organize the graduation protest, told the Washington Post that he, and many other students, believe part of the reason Turner's sentence was so light is because Stanford didn't want a "big PR issue." "We're using momentum from this case to bring light to broader issues," Fiske told the Post. "It's a big PR issue. Stanford likes to keep this pristine image and sweep things under the rug." Story continues Several of the character reference letters written for Turner argue that he wasn't the sort of guy you would expect to drink heavily to the point of making bad decisions, like choosing to rape an unconscious woman in a secluded area outside of a party. One of those letters came from Turner's childhood friend, Leslie Rasmussen (who's since apologized for her letter, because in it, she blamed the victim and not Turner for his crime). In Rasmussen's letter, which we now know Persky based much of his judgment on, she writes that she couldn't have imagined Turner committing a crime like the one he was unanimously convicted of. "If I had to choose one kid I graduated with to be in the position Brock is, it would have never been him," she wrote. "Brock is not a monster." But according to details that emerged during the In Touch investigation, high school friends of Turner's aren't so surprised to find him in the position he's currently in (that of a convicted rapist). Mark Otto, who told In Touch he went to high school with Turner at Oakwood High School in Ohio, said the environment they grew up in is conducive to the sort of ignorance that might lead to the sort of behavior exhibited by Turner. "The thing about Oakwood, Ohio is that people live in a very sheltered bubble," Otto said. "There's a lot of ignorance, and no willingness to change or learn." Otto added that people in their hometown are more upset that Turner's swimming career is over than that he sexually assaulted a woman who couldn't consent to anything he was doing that night last January. "I think his white male privilege is giving him this lenient sentence, the whole situation is just surreal," one former classmate, who asked to remain anonymous, told In Touch. Several sources also told In Touch that the claims he made to his probation officer about not having a history of party going or drinking were lies. "In high school, Brock hung out with tons of kids who drank excessively," one former high school classmate told In Touch. "College was definitely not his first time experimenting with drugs or alcohol." The full In Touch investigation into Brock Turner's past is available now on newsstands, if you're interested in hearing what people who knew him in previous years have to say. But what matters most now is that Brock Turner is a convicted rapist and will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life for his crimes. Follow Hannah on Twitter. Cook Out shake A Cook Out worker was fired after an interaction with Donald Trump supporters that had Trump fans calling for a boycott of the legendary fast-food chain. Last week, Shannon Riggs and her cousins were turned away from a Cook Out in Colonial Heights, Virginia, when they showed up in Donald Trump shirts and hats. According to WTVR, an employee yelled, "Hell no! I'm not serving them" after spotting the family in their Trump apparel. The group placed their order but didn't receive their food, so they eventually canceled their order and had their money refunded. "Once you witness [discrimination] firsthand, it's a totally different experience," Lauren Wolfrey, one family member, told WTVR. "I was in a state of shock." The incident prompted outrage on social media, with people calling for a boycott of the fast-food chain. Cook Out, Inc, huh? They won't be in business long expressing hatred for Trump backers. We're MOST of the country. https://t.co/poB3GRthA5 Smiley 4 America (@SCrankenhoofIII) June 14, 2016 Back of The Bus Policy: Cook Out Restaurant Employees Refuse to Serve Trump Supporters https://t.co/QeW0zrcmPr The bigoted Left#CNN GOP Michael (@Canine_Rights) June 14, 2016 RETWEET THIS: Never eat at @CookOut_ again. They refuse to serve Trump supporters: https://t.co/yEWtAUtL0Y The Kincannon Show (@kincannon_show) June 14, 2016 On the other hand, it also inspired some degree of amusement and support from people who agreed with the anti-Trump employee. Story continues Why I love Cook Out! People threaten a boycott after Cook Out rejected Trump supporters https://t.co/jkAfU0peBR via @BI_RetailNews Christine Kim (@chrisinkyung) June 17, 2016 In Virgina, Cook Out workers denied service to Trump paraphernalia-wearing customers, meaning you have another reason to get a milkshake now Chloe Zacher (@its_chlochlo) June 17, 2016 On Thursday, Cook Out released a statement saying that the employee who did not want to serve the Trump supporters was fired for rudeness. Here's the fast-food chain's full statement: In response to an incident that occurred June 10th at our Colonial Heights, VA location a customer was not denied service. However, a Cook Out employee did violate our policy on rudeness when taking a customer's order. The manager on duty immediately had someone else take the customer's order. After placing her order, we understand that the customer remained dissatisfied with her experience. The manager on duty apologized and granted the customer a refund when requested. The employee that was rude was immediately terminated per policy. This was an isolated action of a single person and does not represent the principles on which Cook Out operates. To deny anyone from eating at one of our restaurants would never cross our mind and of course, would be totally ludicrous. NOW WATCH: We tried Shake Shack's new Bacon CheddarShack burger here's the verdict More From Business Insider OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's Parliament on Friday adopted a law allowing medically-assisted death for the terminally ill, brushing aside critics who wanted the legislation to cover people with degenerative diseases. After weeks of political wrangling, the upper Senate chamber voted in favor of a law which makes Canada one of the few nations where doctors can legally help sick people die. Some Senators complained the scope of the law - initially passed by the House of Commons elected chamber - was too narrow and should not be restricted to those facing imminent death. The law, drafted after Canada's Supreme Court last year overturned a ban on physician-assisted suicide, must receive formal approval from Governor General David Johnston, the acting head of state. That process is a formality. The Supreme Court ruling covered willing adults facing intolerable physical or psychological suffering from a severe and incurable medical condition. The Liberal government, though, narrowed the scope of the legislation to cover only those people whose death was reasonably foreseeable. Critics said this would condemn people with degenerative conditions like multiple sclerosis to unbearable suffering. Government officials say the new law is a first attempt to address a highly sensitive and controversial topic and could be broadened in years to come. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Marguerita Choy) Jerry Lawler, known to WWE fans as The King, was arrested in Tennessee on Friday following an incident with his girlfriend, TheWrap has learned. Lawler and his girlriend, Lauryn McBride, were both taken into custody on charges of domestic assault a misdemeanor with each claiming the other had assaulted them. WWE came down swiftly on Lawler and suspended him indefinitely while an investigation is underway, according to their official website. Also Read: WWE Star Adam Rose Domestic Violence Case Dropped WWE has zero tolerance for matters involving domestic violence, and per our policy, Jerry Lawler has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest, the company said in a statement. Lawler has been with WWE since 1992, both as a color commentator and occasional wrestler. Prior to that, he established himself as a major draw in Memphis, where he was dubbed The King of Wrestling. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. While Lawler is known to abstain from drinking and drugs, unlike many other wrestlers of his era, he has had run ins with the law in the past. In 1993, Lawler was arrested for statutory rape, but the charges were later dropped. He also allegedly tore up a ticket given to him by a Tennessee police officer and threw it back in the officers face in 1999. Related stories from TheWrap: WWE Signs Distribution Deal With China's PPTV WWE Star Luke Harper Cast in Horror Movie 'Mohawk' WWE Superstar Brock Lesnar Reveals His UFC 200 Opponent (Video) WWE wrestling legend Jerry The King Lawler and his girlfriend, Lauryn McBride, were both arrested in the early hours of Friday, June 17, after an argument turned violent. The pair are both facing domestic assault charges. PHOTOS: Stars at Court According to The Associated Press, 66-year-old Lawler and 27-year-old McBride were both booked into the Shelby County Jail around 1 a.m. Friday after police were called to Lawlers home in East Memphis, Tennessee. Lawler told police that McBride was intoxicated and had scratched him in the face, threw a candle at him and kicked him in the groin throughout the course of their argument. PHOTOS: Celebrity Mugshots McBride, on the other hand, alleged that Lawler had struck her in the head and pushed her against a stove, even pulling out an unloaded pistol at one point and telling her to kill herself with it, according to local site WREG Memphis. The wrestler claims that McBride was the one who brought the weapon out. The AP reports that police arrested both parties since they were unsure which of the two was the primary aggressor. Both have court appearances set for Monday. PHOTOS: Biggest Celebrity Scandals of 2015 The WWE released a statement via Twitter on Friday, June 17, noting that #JerryLawler has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest. Lawler joined WWE in 1992 and has previously run for mayor of Memphis several times. Four or five days rest? Statistically it seems to be the difference between success and struggles for Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka will take the mound on five days rest Friday night when the New York Yankees continue their four-game series with the Minnesota Twins. Tanaka will be pitching on more than four days rest for the eighth time this season and the numbers show he performs better with the slightly more rest. The right-hander is 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA when getting more than four days' rest. With four days in between starts, he is 1-2 with a 4.70 ERA in six starts. Tanaka has made his last two starts on four days rest but an off-day Monday gave him the extra day. He allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings against the Los Angeles Angels on June 6 but Saturday against Detroit, Tanaka allowed five runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings. Tanaka has attempted to downplay the rest issue by saying, "No, not necessarily" when asked about his comfort level with five days vs. four days in between starts. And manager Joe Girardi is tired of answering those questions. "I mean I'm sure there's something to it, but as a manager, when you're playing 40 out of 41 days, you can't have a six-man rotation, you just can't do it. Your roster would be all screwed up." There was little that went wrong for the Yankees in Thursday's series opening 4-1 victory that stopped a four-game losing streak. CC Sabathia pitched six gritty innings and Didi Gregorius hit a tiebreaking three-run home run off Fernando Abad in the seventh. The Twins lost 10 of their last 17 games since sweeping Seattle from May 27-29 and Thursday's loss was highlighted by failures to produce clutch hits. Minnesota stranded 10, went 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position as its lone run came via an Eduardo Nunez single. And to demonstrate how poorly things have gone for the American League's worst team, Abad had not allowed a home run until Thursday and is one of the Twins performing well with a 1.16 ERA. Story continues "We just wanted to give him a chance to come in and face that part of the lineup," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "You're hoping for a strikeout but even a walk wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. He tried to get ahead and (Gregorius) was ready." The Twins will hope left-hander Pat Dean will be ready to give the Yankees fits. New York has faced a left-handed starting pitcher 22 times and lost 14 of those games. Dean will be making his sixth start and the Twins hope it goes as well as Sunday when he allowed one run and three hits in 6 1/3 innings in a no-decision against the Boston Red Sox. Minnesota won Dean's last start on a 10th-inning home run by Max Kepler and the one run was a career-low and the 6 1/3 innings was the second-longest start for the 27-year-old. Joe Mauer will likely be back in the lineup Friday for Minnesota after sitting out Thursday. Mauer has reached safely in 27 straight and if he reaches he will join Lenny Green (1961) and Hall of Famer Rod Carew (1977) as the only Twins to have two streaks of reaching safely in at least 28 games during a single season. yung-lean-factory Image via Yung Lean The fascinating life of Yung Lean continues to reveal itself through a series of new interviews. A week after telling stories of taking acid in Canada, the normally reserved Swedish rapper opened up about mental health, drug addiction, and family in an in-depth interview published with FADER today. He revealed that addictions to lean, Xanax, cocaine, and marijuana brought him to a very dark place that involved carrying a knife around and writing a book about nightmares of people turning into rats. This led to him checking into a mental hospital and eventually returning to his parents home in Sweden. While Yung Lean recovered and put the final touches on his latest album Warlord with producer Yung Gud, he decided to accept a job at a shampoo factory. Wed just stand there pressing buttons, he says of his time working on the assembly line. Wed put music in the speakers, dance around the factory. It was very nice. Its like Lou Reed. After he did some tours, he went home and worked in his dads factory. You cant always be on the top, you know? This humility falls in line with the relatively soft-spoken character weve come to expect from the 19-year-old rapper who told us in April, I dont wanna be a star. Related: Yung Lean: Digital Cover Story More from Pigeons & Planes For Immediate Release Chicago, IL June 17, 2016 - Stocks in this weeks article include: B&G Foods Inc. (BGS), J. M. Smucker Company (SJM), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY), Pretium Resources Inc. (PVG) and FTI Consulting Inc. ( FCN). Screen of the Week of Zacks Investment Research: Combat Volatility with These 5 Low Beta Stocks For investors looking to cut their portfolio risk, low beat stocks are great. A lower level of market exposure means that losses will be minimized in case of a downturn. This is why an investor with a long-term horizon prefers to invest in stocks carrying lower risks. One of the most popular metrics used to measure such risk is beta. Understanding Beta Beta indicates the volatility of a particular stock with respect to the market. In other words, beta measures the extent of stock price movement relative to the market (we are considering S&P 500 here). If a company has a beta of 1, it means that the volatility of the stock is the same as that of the S&P 500. In the same way, if the stocks beta is greater than 1 then it is more volatile compared to the market. Conversely, a beta below 1 signifies less volatility. Now, if a portfolios beta is 3, it is three times more volatile than the market. Hence, if the market is projected to give 20% return, the portfolio will then definitely contribute 60% return which is amazing. However, the opposite case also holds true. If the market slips 20% then the portfolio return plummets 60% which is surely a matter of concern. The Winning Strategy In our screening criteria we included beta in the range of 0 to 0.6 for short listing low risk stocks. But this cant be the only criterion for betting on stocks. The other parameters that need to be added to create a winning portfolio are: Percentage Change in Price in the Last 4 Weeks greater than zero: This ensures that the stocks saw positive price movement over the last one month. Average 20 Day Volume greater than 50,000: A substantial trading volume ensures that the stocks are easily tradable. Price greater than or equal to $5: They must all be trading at a minimum of $5 or higher. Zacks Rank equal to 1: Whether good market conditions or bad, stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) have a proven history of success. Here are five of the 11 stocks that qualified the screening: B&G Foods Inc. (BGS) is involved in manufacturing and distributing frozen and shelf-stable foods along with household products across U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. The company has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters with a positive average surprise of 5.67%. For 2016, B&G Foods earnings are projected to improve 38.8% year over year. The J. M. Smucker Company (SJM) is a leading marketer and manufacturer of consumer food and beverage products and pet food and pet snacks in North America. J. M. Smucker has surpassed Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the last four quarters with an average earnings beat of 19.93%. For the coming quarter, the companys earnings are expected to grow 29% over the prior-year quarter. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMY) is a global specialty biopharmaceutical company with focus on discovering, developing and delivering innovative treatments for serious diseases. It is to be noted that the company surpassed expectations in each the last four quarters with an average positive earnings surprise of 27.67%. Bristol-Myers projected earnings growth for this year is impressive at 29.5% year over year. Pretium Resources Inc. (PVG) is involved in the exploitation and development of precious metal resources that include gold, silver, and copper deposits in the U.S. The company posted a positive average earnings surprise of 35.42% for the last four quarters. FTI Consulting Inc. (FCN) provides specialized consulting services across 26 foreign countries with a total headcount of more than 4,200 employees. In three of the last four quarters, the company posted positive earnings surprises with an average beat of 30.96%. Moreover, the companys year-over-year projected earnings growth rate for 2016 is 27.7%. You can get the rest of the stocks on this list by signing up now for your 2-week free trial to the Research Wizard and start using this screen in your own trading. Further, you can also create your own strategies and test them first before taking the investment plunge. The Research Wizard is a great place to begin. It's easy to use. Everything is in plain language. And it's very intuitive. Start your Research Wizard trial today. And the next time you read an economic report, open up the Research Wizard, plug your finds in, and see what gems come out. Story continues Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today .. Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. Disclosure: Performance information for Zacks portfolios and strategies are available at: https://www.zacks.com/performance . Zacks Restaurant Recommendations: In addition to dining at these special places, you can feast on their stock shares. A Zacks Special Report spotlights 5 recent IPOs to watch plus 2 stocks that offer immediate promise in a booming sector. Download it free Sign up now for your free trial today and start picking better stocks immediately. And with the backtesting feature, you can test your ideas to see how you can improve your trading in both up markets and down markets. Dont wait for the market to get better before you decide to do better. Start learning how to be a better trader today: https://at.zacks.com/?id=111 Disclosure: Officers, directors and/or employees of Zacks Investment Research may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. An affiliated investment advisory firm may own or have sold short securities and/or hold long and/or short positions in options that are mentioned in this material. About Screen of the Week Zacks.com created the first and best screening system on the web earning the distinction as the "#1 site for screening stocks" by Money Magazine. But powerful screening tools is just the start. That is why Zacks created the Screen of the Week to highlight profitable stock picking strategies that investors can actively use. Each week, Zacks Profit from the Pros free email newsletter shares a new screening strategy. Learn more about it here https://at.zacks.com/?id=112 About Zacks Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978. The later formation of the Zacks Rank, a proprietary stock picking system; continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Click here for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZacksInvestmentResearch Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Contact: Jim Giaquinto Company: Zacks.com Phone: 312-265-9268 Email: pr@zacks.com Visit: www.Zacks.com Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer . Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report B&G FOODS CL-A (BGS): Free Stock Analysis Report SMUCKER JM (SJM): Free Stock Analysis Report BRISTOL-MYERS (BMY): Free Stock Analysis Report PRETIUM RES INC (PVG): Free Stock Analysis Report FTI CONSULTING (FCN): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. While Donald Trump continues to bad-mouth trade deals and all things Mexican (or perceived to be), Gov. Scott Walker is shaking hands in Mexico City, Xochimilco and Guadalajara this week. Thats the difference between campaigning and governing. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has been playing off the fears of many Americans who worry an unpredictable and competitive global economy could undercut their employers and cost them their jobs. Walker, no longer a candidate for president, has returned to running state government full time. His duties this week include a trade mission to Mexico, where hes pursuing an important and much more realistic goal than Trumps talk of building a nearly 2,000-mile wall between the United States and Mexico. Walker hopes to help Wisconsin farmers, manufacturers and entrepreneurs sell more products to our longtime trading partners south of the border. More Wisconsin exports will mean more jobs here. And more commerce in both directions, while challenging for some industries, will improve the overall economies and standards of living in both countries. Free trade encourages higher productivity, which is key to raising Wisconsin incomes. Both nations get to sell more of the products and services theyre best at producing and providing. The GOP governor this week also touted Wisconsin as a great place for Mexican investment, which could help businesses expand. Trump, in sharp contrast, has treated Mexico as a problem, rather than an opportunity. Trump has claimed he can make Mexico pay for his fanciful wall. Good luck with that. Parts of the border are vast deserts. Trump also has insulted Mexican immigrants as rapists who bring drugs and crime here, and Trump recently claimed an Indiana-born judge was a Mexican and therefore biased against him in a court case. Walker didnt concentrate enough on expanding trade during his first term, so its good to see him pushing for greater exports now. Trump and Bernie Sanders, another populist running for president, though as a Democrat, have railed against trade deals. Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has snubbed President Barack Obama, too, on his agreements with a dozen Pacific Rim nations and Europe. But Wisconsin has gained far more from trade deals than it has lost. Rather than killing jobs, trade has led to substantial growth in employment, output and incomes in Wisconsin, UW-Madison economics professor Noah Williams wrote this spring in Forbes magazine. Wisconsin has enjoyed tremendous growth in trade, Williams noted, particularly in higher-wage industries such as engine building. At the same time, consumers have saved money on lower-cost imports, such as sweaters. Wisconsin has a trade deficit in merchandise, the professor acknowledged. But our state has done very well at selling services abroad. More than one in five Wisconsin jobs are tied to trade. Mexico is Americas economic ally. Trumps wall, no matter how tall he imagines it would be, cant stop globalization in the digital age, which is lifting millions of people out of poverty. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL- March 23, 2015 Today, Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights Features: First Trust Dorsey Wright Focus 5 ETF (FV-Free Report), iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM-Free Report) and PowerShares DWA Momentum Portfolio (PDP-Free Report). Beat the Market with Momentum ETFs Everyone loves a winner and that applies to stocks as well. While the popular finance theory Random walk states that the past movement of the price of a stock cannot be used to predict its future movement, history shows that recent past performance can be a pretty good predictor of short-term future performance. (Read: 3 Biotech ETFs Crushing the Market in 2015) Momentum Effect Documented in Academic Studies It has been more than two decades since the academic discovery of "momentum effect" in stocks; Jegadeesh and Titman documented in 1993 that strategies which buy stocks that have performed well in the past and sell stocks that have performed poorly in the past generate significant positive returns over 3- to 12-month holding periods. The study further found that the profitability of these strategies is not due to their systematic risk or to delayed stock price reactions to common factors. The momentum effect was seen in almost all the markets studied and in time periods going back to more than 200 years. A study by AQR Capital Management, found that best momentum US stocks outperformed worst momentum ones by more than 10% a year between 1927 and 2010. Reasons for this outperformance are not difficult to understand. Enthusiastic investors love pouring money into high fliers, even ignoring fundamentals at times. (Read: 3 ETFs Surging at the Start of 2015) Price Momentum Driven by Earnings Momentum? Although momentum investing involves price action as the determinant of momentum, stock prices are mostly driven by earnings growthactual as well as expected. At Zacks, we strongly believe that earnings momentum drives stock prices. So, momentum stocks are usually stocks of companies that have been doing the right things and showing strong growth potential. Momentum as a Complement to Value On the face of it, value investing strategy looks virtually opposite of momentum since it involves purchase of healthy companies with solid fundamentals that have been ignored by investors. In fact, value and momentum strategies exhibit negative correlation and while momentum strategies work in shorter time periods, value strategies deliver returns over longer term. (Read: Bet on These Top Ranked Tech ETFs for Outperformance) A simple combination of these two strategies can be very effective in boosting portfolio returns while hedging risk (learn more about this strategy in my forthcoming article on the topic). ETF Options Available to Investors Momentum investing strategies have grown in popularity and there are a number of ETF choices available that provide a diversified, low-risk way to profit from these strategies. Below, we have discussed 3 popular choices in this space. First Trust Dorsey Wright Focus 5 ETF (FV-Free Report) The investment approach of this ETF is primarily based on technical analysis, with a focus on relative strength. Relative Strength, in simple words, is used to measure a securitys price momentum relative to its peers. The relative strength analysis is conducted on a weekly basis and the index is accordingly rebalanced. FV is actually a fund of funds that consists of the top five ranked First Trust sector and industry ETFs as identified by their relative strength rankings. So instead of focusing on individual stocks, this ETF focuses on sectors whose price action is superior to others in the universe. Currently the fund has highest exposure to ETF following Biotech, Healthcare and Internet industries. The product is one of the most successful launches in 2014. It made its debut in March last year and has already managed to attract more than $2.5 billion in assets. It is slightly pricey due to its enhanced indexing approach, with an expense ratio of 95 basis points. So far it has more than justified its higher fee with a market crushing return of 25.9% over the past one year. iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM-Free Report) This ETF seeks to track the performance of large- and mid-cap US stocks exhibiting relatively higher momentum characteristics. It was launched in 2013 and has managed to attract more than $600 million is assets so far. With an expense ratio of just 15 basis points, this is the cheapest option in the space. In terms of sector exposure, the ETF is tilted towards Healthcare sector (32% of the asset base), followed by IT (23%) and Consumer Discretionary (12%). Apple is currently the top holding of the fund, with Microsoft, Gilead Sciences, J&J and Amgen rounding out the top five. MTUM has returned 17.5% over the past 12 months compared to 15.5% return by the broader market SPY. PowerShares DWA Momentum Portfolio (PDP-Free Report) PDP is based on Dorsey Wright Technical Leaders index which selects 100 large- and mid-cap US stocks based on, among other factors, their performance relative to other stocks in the universe as also the relative performance of industry sectors and sub-sectors. The ETF is rebalanced quarterly. The ETF made its debut in 2007 and is now one of the most popular options in the space with $1.9 billion in AUM. It is however pricier compared with MTUM, with an expense ratio of 65 basis points. The product is heavily exposed to the Consumer Discretionary sector (28% of the asset base) followed by Healthcare (21%) and Industrials (17%). Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Apple and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals are the top three holdings currently. PDP has returned 17.6% over the past 12 months compared to 15.5% return by the broader market SPY during the same time frame. The Bottom Line These ETFs offer a great way to profit from the momentum strategy, which is based on the fact that winners over the past few months tend to continue to outperform in the short-run. Investors however need to remember that these strategies will tend to underperform during market corrections. At the same time, with a growing US economy and still accommodative monetary policy, I do not expect a severe correction in the stock market anytime soon. About Zacks Zacks.com is a property of Zacks Investment Research, Inc., which was formed in 1978. The later formation of the Zacks Rank, a proprietary stock picking system; continues to outperform the market by nearly a 3 to 1 margin. The best way to unlock the profitable stock recommendations and market insights of Zacks Investment Research is through our free daily email newsletter; Profit from the Pros. In short, it's your steady flow of Profitable ideas GUARANTEED to be worth your time! Click here for your free subscription to Profit from the Pros. Get the full Report on FV FREE Get the full Report on MTUM FREE Get the full Report on PDP FREE Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZacksResearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZacksInvestmentResearch Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report FT-DORSEY WFFF (FV): ETF Research Reports ISHRS-MSCI US M (MTUM): ETF Research Reports PWRSH-DWA MO PO (PDP): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Washington (AFP) - The number of Zika infections appears to be increasing quickly in Puerto Rico, US health officials said Friday, sparking fears that thousands of pregnant women -- and their unborn children -- could be at risk. So far in the United States, Puerto Rico -- a US commonwealth in the Caribbean -- is the hardest-hit area, with nearly 1,400 cases reported. In the continental US, a total of 756 cases have been reported. Among pregnant women, 234 women in the continental US have shown lab evidence of Zika infection, with or without symptoms, and 189 others have been counted in the US territories including Puerto Rico. Tom Frieden, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the rise in infections in Puerto Rico could mean "in the coming months, it is possible that thousands of pregnant women" could be infected. "This could lead to dozens or hundreds of infants being born with microcephaly in the coming year," he told a teleconference with reporters. More than 60 countries and territories have been affected by the ongoing outbreak. Most of them are in Latin America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. The mosquito-borne Zika virus can cause the birth defect microcephaly, leading babies to be born with unusually small heads and deformed brains. Frieden's projections were based on blood screenings done at donation centers in Puerto Rico. Of the 12,777 tests done from April 3 to June 11, 68 came back positive, or 0.5 percent. But for the week ending June 11, 1.1 percent of the samples tested positive for the virus. "Although the blood donors do not represent the general population, the increasing prevalence of blood donations that test positive for the virus likely reflects an overall increase in infection in the population at large," Frieden said. "If you look at the graph, you can see a steady line upward with the infection rate," he said. The blood test used in the United States to detect the virus was developed by Swiss drug giant Roche, and got Food and Drug Administration approval in late March. Story continues Frieden said it can only detect the virus if it is currently present in the blood, and cannot show past infections. On Thursday, US health officials said Zika has been linked to birth defects in the fetuses and babies of six women in the United States who were infected. Three of the women gave birth. The CDC plans to issue weekly updates on pregnancy outcomes for women infected with Zika. Experts warn that the continental United States will likely see an increase in cases as summer begins in the northern hemisphere. The virus, which usually causes only mild, flu-like symptoms, can also trigger adult-onset neurological problems such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which can cause paralysis and death. The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947: Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda's Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948: Virus recovered from Aedes africanus mosquito in Zika Forest 1952: First human cases detected in Uganda and Tanzania 1954: Virus found in Nigeria 1960s-80s: Zika detected in mosquitoes and monkeys across equatorial Africa 196983: Zika found in equatorial Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan 2007: Zika spreads from Africa and Asia, first large outbreak on Pacific island of Yap 2012: Researchers identify two distinct lineages of the virus, African and Asian 201314: Zika outbreaks in French Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia. Retrospective analysis shows possible link to birth defects and severe neurological complications in babies in French Polynesia March 2, 2015: Brazil reports illness characterized by skin rash in northeastern states July 17: Brazil reports detection of neurological disorders in newborns associated with history of infection Oct. 5: Cape Verde has cases of illness with skin rash Oct. 22: Colombia confirms cases of Zika Oct. 30: Brazil reports increase in microcephaly, abnormally small heads, among newborns Nov. 11: Brazil declares public health emergency November 2015-January 2016: Cases reported in Suriname, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, French Guiana, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Ecuador, Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Curacao, Jamaica Feb. 1: World Health Organization (WHO) declares public health emergency of international concern Feb. 2: First case of Zika transmission in United States; local health officials say likely contracted through sex, not mosquito bite Feb. 5: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says virus being actively transmitted in 30 countries, mostly in the Americas Feb. 8: U.S. President Barack Obama requests $1.8 billion to fight Zika Feb. 12: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika infections and 4,314 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 462 confirmed as microcephaly and 41 determined to be linked to virus Feb. 17: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika and 4,443 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 508 confirmed as microcephaly and most of those cases are linked to the virus. WHO seeks $56 million to fight Zika. Feb. 18: CDC adds Aruba and Bonaire to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 32. Feb. 23: CDC investigating 14 cases of possible sexual transmission of Zika. CDC also adds Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 34. Feb. 25: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases number more than 580 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,100 suspected cases of microcephaly. Feb. 27: France detects first sexually transmitted case of Zika. Feb. 29: CDC adds St. Maarten, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 36. March 1: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 641 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,222 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 8: WHO advises pregnant women to avoid areas with Zika outbreak and said sexual transmission of the virus is "relatively common." March 9: CDC adds New Caledonia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 37. March 15: Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country. March 16: Cape Verde identifies first case of microcephaly. March 18: CDC says during Jan. 1, 2015 to Feb. 26, 2016, 116 residents of the United States had evidence of recent Zika virus infection based on laboratory testing. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 863 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,268 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 19: CDC adds Cuba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 38. March 21: South Korea confirms first case of Zika. March 22: CDC adds Dominica to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 39. Bangladesh confirms first case of Zika virus. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 907 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,293 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 29: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 944 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil said the number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped slightly to 4,291. March 31: According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, though conclusive proof may take months or years. April 1: CDC adds Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 40. April 4: CDC adds Fiji to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 41. April 5: Vietnam reports first Zika infections. April 6: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,046 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 4,046. April 7: St. Lucia confirms first two cases of Zika, contracted locally. April 12: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,113 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 3,836. It was the second week in a row that the overall total figure fell. April 13: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. CDC adds St. Lucia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 42. April 14: Colombia confirms two microcephaly cases linked to Zinka. April 18: Peru reports first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus. CDC adds Belize to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 43. April 19: Chilean authorities find Zika mosquito for first time in decades. April 25: Canada confirms first sexually transmitted Zika case. April 26: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly climbed to 1,198 from 1,168 in the week through April 23, but suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,710 from 3,741 a week ago. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2, the health ministry said, in its first national report on the epidemic. April 29: Puerto Rico reports first death related to Zika, according to the CDC. The country also confirmed 683 Zika cases, including 65 pregnant women, and five suspected cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from Zika, the CDC reported. May 4: Panama confirms four microcephaly cases tied to Zika. May 6: Spain gets first case of Zika-related brain defect in a fetus. May 9: CDC adds Papua New Guinea, Saint Barthelemy and Peru to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 46. Honduras suspects first case of microcephaly in Zika patient. May 11: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly dropped to 1,326 in the week through May 7 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,433. May 12: CDC adds Grenada to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 47. May 13: Puerto Rico reports first case of Zika-related microcephaly. May 20: WHO says an outbreak of Zika virus on the African island chain of Cape Verde is of the same strain as the one blamed for birth abnormalities in Brazil. May 24: Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at 1,434 for the latest week to May 21. Suspected ones under investigation declined to 3,257. May 26: CDC adds Argentina to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 48. June 9: WHO issues updated guidelines on prevention of sexual transmission of the Zika virus, including advising women living in areas where the virus is being transmitted to delay getting pregnant. June 14: El Salvador confirms first case of microcephaly linked to Zika. SOURCES: World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by the Americas Desk) Washington (AFP) - Apple said Friday it continues to sell its iPhones in China pending an appeal of a ruling which said the smartphones violated a patent of a Chinese manufacturer. An Apple spokesman said in a statement to AFP that "iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as well as iPhone 6s, iPhone 6S Plus and iPhone SE models are all available for sale today in China." "We appealed an administrative order from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month and as a result the order has been stayed pending review by the Beijing IP Court," the statement said. A May 19 ruling said Apple violated design patents of Chinese maker Shenzhen Baili for its iPhone6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and would be barred from selling those models. The news comes with China an increasingly important market for Apple as it deals with a slowdown in global smartphone sales. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus infringe on a design patent, say regulators in China Regulators in China are ordering to stop selling its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones in Beijing due to a patent infringement, according to reports. The two phone models are said to infringe on an exterior design patent held by Chinese firm Shenzhen Baili for a smartphone called the 100C, The Wall Street Journal reports. Apple is filing an administrative litigation to reverse the ban, Engadget reports. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The order comes after Chinese regulators shut down Apples iBooks Store and iTunes Movie services in China, the companys second biggest market worldwide. In its earnings report from April, Apple also revealed that its revenue in China fell by 26%, worrying some investors. Still, Apple CEO Tim Cook said when speaking to CNBCs Jim Cramer that he could not be more optimistic about China. Google is facing accusations that it stole the technology behind one of its most intriguing moonshots, Project Loon. The project involves beaming internet down to remote areas from unmanned balloons circling the skies. A company called Space Data, which is also using balloons for the same purpose, filed a lawsuit against Google parent Alphabet, which alleges that Google execs violated a non-disclosure agreement and infringed two patents. DONT MISS: Foxconn employee says iPhone 7's most anticipated new feature was canceled Space Data was founded in 1997, the suit reveals, and in 2004 it started its balloon-based commercial internet project. Space Data has a license from the FCC that lets it provide narrowband personal communications services nationwide, and broadband spectrum licenses in remote and rural areas, ZDNet reports. The company serves Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Armed Services deployed on four continents. How does Google come into play? It turns out that in February 2008, a dozen Google execs including Larry Page and Sergey Brin visited Space Datas facilities in Arizona. There, the Google execs were given access to Space Datas sensitive information, which the company alleges Google used to power its own Project Loon project. "Space Data and Google engaged in extensive discussions about Space Data's business, including its technology, and its financial model, and Google was also given access to Space Data's balloon production line and network operation center where they saw a map of balloons in the sky and the wireless communications coverage Space Data was providing across 1/3 of the United States," the suit says. Space Data says that subsequent Google interviews with the press suggest that Google swiped Space Datas work. Google started its Project Loon operation in 2013, with internet balloons currently deployed in Australia, Brazil, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. The two parties inked a mutual confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement in 2007, before Googles visit. Story continues Related stories Android apps are officially available on Chrome OS New free tool lets you send Gmail attachments that self-destruct Android N is 'Namey McNameface' in latest Android N preview release More from BGR: How excited would you be if your iPhone looked like this? This article was originally published on BGR.com U.S. Health-Care Law Just Got Even More Confusing: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online today at Bloomberg View. Did politics figure in Gov. Wolfs pick for high court? Chris Brennan of The Philadelphia Inquirer has this report. In Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet, Moral Vision and a True Believers Zeal. In todays edition of The New York Times, Adam Cohen has this review of Jeffrey Rosens new book, Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet. Judge tosses Dave Agemas suit after self-professed ex-Muslim terrorists speech shut down: John Agar of MLive.com had this report back in March 2015. Today, a partially divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued this decision on the resulting appeal. Blind man files discrimination suit over law school admission test: CNN.com had this report back in May 2011. Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued this ruling affirming a district courts dismissal of the lawsuit. Senate panel advances Schott to federal appeals court: Patrick Marley of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an article that begins, The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced the nomination of Wisconsin lawyer Donald Schott to fill the longest judicial vacancy of its kind. U.S. top court puts some limits on government fraud lawsuits: Lawrence Hurley of Reuters has this report. Veteran-owned businesses win at Supreme Court: Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report. And The Associated Press reports that Justices rule against VA in disabled vets contract dispute. Top Lawyers at 44 Companies Urge U.S. Senate to Consider Garland: Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News has this report. Kansas lawmakers to debate schools, lessening courts power: The Associated Press has a report that begins, Kansas legislators were discussing a short-term education funding fix Thursday to satisfy a state Supreme Court order while also debating longer-term proposals for curbing the courts power to force school finance changes. In Bashman news from China: The South China Morning Post reports that Uniformed officers in China bash man on the street for failing to produce his ID. This morning, SCOTUS defeated SCOTUSblog: This morning, for the first time in my experience, the web site of the U.S. Supreme Court provided access to a newly issued decision before the issuance of the decision was even mentioned on the opinions live blog of SCOTUSblog. For those of us who were wondering when the Court would finally make its own web site the preeminent source for learning first about newly issued rulings, that day seems to have arrived. By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Ride-hailing companies Uber and Didi have brought many new dimensions to the startup industry, such as making billion-dollar-plus funding rounds routine. Now, they have added another to the list: sharing big investors who are backing both companies, even though they are fierce rivals. Uber, the leading ride service in the United States and much of the world, and Didi Chuxing, which claims 87 percent of the Chinese market for private vehicle ride-hailing, now share at least four investors: asset manager BlackRock, Chinese investment manager Hillhouse Capital Group, hedge fund Tiger Global and insurer China Life, according to investment records and sources familiar with the deals. "It's very unusual to allow the same parties to invest and get information rights of sworn mortal enemies," said Max Wolff, chief economist at Manhattan Venture Partners. "But then again, it's also not common to raise $14 billion as a seven-year-old pre-IPO company." Uber has raised more than $13 billion in equity and debt financing since it started in 2009. Didi this week confirmed a $7.3 billion funding round, bringing total fundraising to more than $10 billion. The practice of backing competitors raises concerns about conflicts of interest, information sharing and whether one company may succeed at the other's expense, according to investors, academics and dealmakers. "I think it looks bad," said Rory McDonald, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who has done research on the topic. "These firms are still private, they are still growing and making strategic choices, and those choices are going to matter a whole lot." According to McDonald's research, companies that have a link to a competitor through a shared investor are on average less competitive and less innovative than if they did not have that tie. Uber said it does not have concerns about sharing investors with Didi and none of them had board seats or board observer seats, so they have less access to and control over the company. Didi declined to comment. The four investors came in at a later stage in the companies' lives, and likely will not have the influence and close relationships that early-stage venture capitalists would, people who are familiar with such deals say. And for funds such as BlackRock, investments are most often made in isolation by individual fund management teams Startup investors generally try to avoid backing competing startups. But it happens on occasion: venture firm Andreessen Horowitz backed both photo-sharing startups Instagram and PicPlz. The firm later gave back its information access rights to Instagram and did not invest further. PicPlz eventually shut down. But as in the Andreessen Horowitz case, the conflict in venture capital often happens when a startup changes focus or creates a new product, months or years after the VC invested. What has raised alarms with the Uber and Didi investments is that the companies are already in conflict, and still investors are rushing headlong into both, say investors and industry experts. The four common investors are not betting on both companies to hedge one against the other, rather, they are putting the two together to get global coverage, said Paul Boyd, managing director at ClearPath Capital Partners, a wealth management company. The four common investors have funded Uber Global and not Uber China, a separate entity, according to a person familiar with the matter. Investors think Uber's future looks bright outside of China, but their backing of both companies signals Didi has the advantage in China, Boyd said. Regardless, the double dipping will likely create challenges for investors and the companies. Investors may be limited in their information rights and excluded from sensitive or competitive information, according to attorneys. Companies will have to worry about how much to share with investors who are also close with their biggest competitor. "Uber will not be comfortable allowing its investors to have carte blanche access to sensitive information where that information could find its way to Didi," said Nate Gallon, a partner at Hogan Lovells law firm. (Reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco. Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York. Editing by Jonathan Webe and Andrew Hay) Whether it's suing Samsung over rounded corners, or being accused of plagiarism by the Android crowd, Apple and plagiarism seem to go hand-in-hand. Its latest copyright law is something a little different though. According to Engadget, a "random Chinese company" has accused Apple of aping the design of its 100C smartphone. At first glance, you can kind of see where it's coming from: the 100C looks vaguely like an iPhone 6, if you close your eyes, take a couple shots and squint real hard. DON'T MISS: Video shows us 50 new features that are hidden in iOS 10 This isn't a laughing matter either: Engadget reports that the Beijing Intellectual Property Office has ordered Apple to stop selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in Beijing, because consumers wouldn't be able to tell the "minute differences" between the two handsets. The ban does not apply to Apple's newer iPhone models, so it's unclear what kind of impact the order might have on sales in the region. I don't understand Chinese, but I've spent three minutes playing my own game of spot-the-difference between my iPhone 6, and the photo of a 100C I found on the internet. Notable differences include: The 100C has capacitive buttons on the front, and no home button The flash is below the camera, not next to it The camera module doesn't stick out on the 100C The 100C runs a basterdized version of Android After buying a 100C, you still have an arm and a leg left Admittedly, a toddler that's never held a smartphone might struggle to tell the difference between the two devices, but the two devices are really just similar in the way that every smartphone is just a black rectangle of metal and glass. Apple is appealing the ruling, but given the spin-the-wheel nature of copyright protection in China, the winner will be anyone's guess. UPDATE: WSJ says sales are indeed halted. CNBC says sales are not halted. Fight. Related stories Story continues Apple will probably never release iMessage for Android Why it doesn't actually matter that Apple's iOS apps can't be deleted 9 new iOS 10 features Apple 'stole' from third-party apps More from BGR: See Mark Zuckerbergs hilarious Facebook Live Q&A with Jerry Seinfeld This article was originally published on BGR.com The FCC won a major victory over net neutrality this week, and the surprise wasnt so much that it prevailed but that its legal win was so sweeping. There had been some expectation, on Wall Street, on Capitol Hill and in the legal community, that the D.C. Circuit would chip away at some of the FCCs rules of the road for the internet. The FCC actions that looked to be under threat included extending the regulations to mobile carriers, and a general conduct rule which, in the words of FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, was meant to stop new and novel threats to the internet. But the judges upheld those actions, as well as the FCCs jurisdiction over interconnection, which has become a flashpoint in the broadband ecosystem after Netflix balked at being charged fees from some internet providers to carry its traffic. AT&T, one of the ISPs seeking to overturn the rules, has vowed to appeal. Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, like Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, are once again talking about legislation. And theres some sense that if Donald Trump were to become president, he would favor overturning to rules. So which is likely? An appeal. The many internet providers and telecom companies challenging the rules can either ask for a rehearing before the larger en banc panel of the D.C. Circuit, or they can appeal directly to the Supreme Court. The latter is where net neutrality may ultimately end up anyway, but the Supreme Court vacancy makes it less-than-certain that justices would jump at taking the case. Four justices must agree before a case is accepted for review. This case presents some issues on both sides, in terms of whether the court will take it, said Paul Werner, partner at Sheppard Mullin in Washington D.C., who puts that odds at 50-50 that the high court would grant review. Courts have shown more deference to agency actions, particularly when they are tasked with filling in gaps of ambiguous statutes. That actually was at issue in 2005, when the Supreme Court, in NCTA v. Brand X, ruled that the FCC was within its authority to classify cable broadband service as an information service, rather than a telecommunications service, which subjects Internet providers to more regulation. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the dissent in the Brand X case, and found fault with the way the FCC classified cable modem as an information service. He even ridiculed it. Story continues That was a different time and a different FCC. The agency last year essentially did a switcheroo and reclassified broadband as a telecommunications service. That established a solid legal footing to impose robust rules requiring that internet providers treat all traffic equally, as courts have twice before gutted previous versions of the FCCs net neutrality rules . The net neutrality case also does not present a conflict between circuits another factor that can interest the justices. Working in favor of the court taking the case is that the stakes are so far reaching. This case does raise considerable issues of importance for the public and for the national economy, given that the policies at issue really do implicate the internet, which affects the everyday lives of Americans, Werner said. AT&T has indicated that it would appeal, and after the ruling the cable industry pointed to the partial dissent of Judge Stephen Williams. He agreed that the FCC could reclassify broadband as a common carrier, but wrote that the rules were in fact an unreasoned patchwork. Although he agreed with much of the majority opinion, he still found fault with the way that the agency justified their rules. Congressional action. Thune tried to forestall the FCCs action in 2015 with his own net neutrality legislation, which included a ban on blocking and throttling of internet content, as well as paid prioritization. That in and of itself was significant, but Democrats and the White House balked at provisions that stripped the FCC of some of its authority over broadband. Earlier this week, the Senate Commerce Committee passed legislation that exempts small internet providers from the net neutrality transparency requirements. But that legislation is a far cry from a more far ranging bill. Its hard to see that going very far in an election year, and even if it did, there is always the prospect of a veto from President Obama. He publicly endorsed reclassifying the internet in 2014 and the White House was lukewarm to the idea of legislation back then. The election. Hillary Clinton tweeted out support of the D.C. Circuits decision, writing that the ruling was a big win for consumers, innovation and freedom of expression on the internet. There has been a lot of speculation that, should she be elected, she would continue the policies of the current Democratic majority. Today's #NetNeutrality decision is a big win for consumers, innovation, and freedom of expression on the internet: https://t.co/FcXI66zHDF Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 14, 2016 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Trump hasnt said much about net neutrality it is not a top-tier issue, at least not yet. It got some mention in the Republican debates, but largely from references by Jeb Bush. Ted Cruz rather famously called it Obamacare for the internet. After Obama threw his support behind reclassification, Trump tweeted in 2014 that Obamas attack on the internet is another top down power grab. Net neutrality is the Fairness Doctrine. Will target conservative media. The appellate judges rejected arguments that the FCC rules violate the First Amendment, and the regulations themselves do not dictate content. Wall Street. The end of this story hasnt been written yet, research firm MoffettNathanson said in a blog post. They believe that the ruling could embolden the FCC to act on other issues, like a proposed new set of privacy rules for internet providers. They believe that the rules could even lead to oversight over pricing, even though agency officials say that such rate regulation is exempt. The end of the story hasnt been written, but is an end even in sight? After all, the net neutrality debate has been going on for more than a decade. The previous iteration of the FCC rules was challenged by Verizon, and the result was a court victory but a more stringent set of rules. John Mayo, professor of economics, business and public policy at Georgetown University, said that while industry enjoys operating in an environment of policy certainty, he says that questions still remain about the impact of having the net neutrality rules in place. I would argue that this creates regulatory uncertainty, he said. He believes that the high court may have an appetite for reviewing the actions of the commission in a slightly broader context, given that its legal authority is heavily reliant on the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Congress back then, he said, intended the internet to be subject to light regulation. Commissions will come and go depending on the administration, but if you give a regulatory authority more latitude from which to regulate, the economic truism is that it will regulate more, he said. Michael Copps, a former FCC commissioner and champion of reclassification, thinks that its time to move on. He tweeted on Friday, Hey Big Cable/Telecom: You lost # netneutrality on EVERY count. Now spend your $ on better broadband not lobbyists. Hey Big Cable/Telecom: You lost #netneutrality on EVERY count. Now spend your $ on better broadband not lobbyists https://t.co/0Ykey2rzMn Michael Copps (@coppsm) June 17, 2016 Related stories Donald Trump Revels in Revoking Washington Post Credentials Appeals Court Upholds FCC's Net Neutrality Rules President Obama Says Orlando Attack Was 'Homegrown Extremism' Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fstory%2fthumbnail%2f11966%2f18e1f7012be84784824499c62f581397 A crafty robot was able to escape the clutches of scientific research and make a dash for freedom outside a research lab in Perm, Russia on Tuesday. The robot, named Promobot, was being taught to move around on its own when a worker reportedly left a gate open. Promobot traveled about 164 feet, stopping in a nearby street when its battery ran out, the BBC reported. SEE ALSO: Jerk human beats up Boston Dynamics robot An alternative theory is that the robot was fed up with its human overlords and decided to end its life in protest by standing in traffic. Maybe it heard about the abusive conditions at Boston Dynamics. But some Russian media is skeptical, claiming that this was just a clever marketing stunt to garner attention for the humanoid robot. After all, the Promobot company did post a video of the incident to its YouTube channel. In the video, a police officer rolls up to the spot where the robot is blocking traffic, and a few moments later a man moves Promobot out of the street. Russian media reported that the robot was in the road for approximately 30 minutes before it was retrieved. According to the company, the robot is designed to talk to people, help them with navigation and answer questions. Bonus: Corgi butts in slow motion Liberals have used the State for progressive ends in the past. The Obama administrations recent decree to school districts on transgender bathroom rules advances the cultural Marxist agenda of destroying traditional America. The bipartisan internationalist cabal that now occupies our capital city has used the structural mechanisms of the State to practically give away our country and our birthright. So its high time that conservatives shed the idealism and get more serious about advancing our values when we control the apparatus of the State. Its been done in the past. Indeed, and ironically, that is the model that conservatives must embrace in the decades to come if they expect to actually roll back the progressive monolith. They have to both be persistent and play the long game as the progressives have done so successfully for a century as well as change tactics when necessary and use the State as a mechanism to achieve conservative ends. This may not appeal to the Randian idealism of many in the current conservative movement, but it is absolutely necessary to save the United States and Western Civilization. "L'Etat Pour Nous" - The State for Us. My French isnt that good. But even though the translation app may not be exactly right, the meaning is clear. We conservatives must take control of the State and once again use it for conservative ends. Consider the policies enacted by the Republican Congress and President Lincoln in the wake of the Southern secession. The Morrill Tariff raised rates to levels more in line with a policy that would protect American industry and workers from foreign competition. Is it any wonder that American industry came to lead all countries in many production categories by the turn of the century? Senator Justin Morrill did not just confine himself to tariffs though. He was responsible for the Morrill College Land Grant Act of 1862. As a poor boy from Vermont, he remembered how the lack of a more formal education affected his prospects. So this act set aside federal money and lands to be granted to the States to establish mainly agricultural colleges. The purpose was to further educate American citizens for the benefit of America. The same Republican Congress also passed the Homestead Act and the Transcontinental Railroad Act in 1862. Keep in mind at the time that Lincoln and his party were mainly against slavery because they wanted to protect the Western lands for settlement and development by poor and middle class white men. Recall that Lincoln, as a Congressman and Senatorial candidate, was a proponent of containment of slavery to existing areas, eventual emancipation of some kind, and then re-colonization of freedmen to Africa. These projects went back all the way to the Monroe Presidency. So, Lincoln was using the State to confer benefits on his fellow countrymen, as he defined them. Nonetheless, all of the aforementioned policies worked to help build our families and our nation. Ever watch Little House on the Prairie? All of the stories of the God-fearing Ingalls family and their struggles out West hammering out a life made possible by these policies are heart-warming and uplifting. I dont know of such an inspiring show today despite the cornucopia of on-demand choices. And yes, we also accepted immigrants at the time and were able to assimilate them in to the fabric of our nation partly because of their Judeo-Christian religious and cultural backgrounds but also because of the expanding domestic economy aided and abetted by the protectionist tariffs. Having a nice huge frontier to give economic opportunity to many of them also helped. But this era, like everything temporal, ended. Wealth and power got too concentrated and it went to some peoples heads and after World War I monetary policy was a major driver of the boom of the 1920s. When Depression struck, our country was at a crossroads. Would the deflationary forces overwhelm Americas middle class? Or would the State step in and help the middle class? It is interesting that this same philosophy of using the State to advance the interests of the majority of Americans was extended by the Democratic Party during the time of the New Deal. albeit with different tools. The Republican Party had run out of gas and was intellectually flaccid by the 1930s. But the new policies that fostered conservative family values included increased government spending, higher tax rates on the wealthy, and support for unions. Clearly these ideas are not what many today consider conservative in their means, but they clearly led to conservative ends. For those who disagree, please describe how the late 1940s thorough the 1960s were bad times for the American family? At that time, many large families could be supported on one income which allowed the other parent to stay home and raise respectable and morally upright children. Is it any wonder that so many of the Greatest Generation venerated FDR so much? And how were these policies bad for America in general? We had large corporations that were the envy of the world, we had trade surpluses, and we built out the infrastructure of our nation including the Interstate Highway System. We had enough wealth still to fund a massive space exploration program and put a man on the moon. Is it any wonder that Donald Trump is talking about finding ways to spend more money here on our crumbling bridges, roads, and airports? Maybe its because he grew up in this era and saw that it worked. Now, I am not advocating any of the above policies per se or on their own. Economic conditions change and policies need to change with it. Its one of the reasons President Reagans reduction of income taxes reinvigorated the economy in the 1980s. But Reagan was only a laissez-faire purist rhetorically. He also spent government money to boost the economy much of it on the military. He also utilized protectionist measures when appropriate including a measure that helped Harley-Davidson stay in business. Reagan used the State for US. It shouldnt be that novel on an idea the idea that our government looks out for Americans first. Its long past time that this approach become the norm again, or I fear we wont have a country left to sing an anthem to. Our last best hope is awaiting our support on November 8. CHICAGO - Illinois' Congressman Luis Gutierrez (IL-04) wants immigrants today to have a "more generous welcome" than his parents did when they came to the United States from Puerto Rico in the 1950s. In the decade of 1930-1939 the annual rate of migration to the United States averaged 1,800 people annually. In the decade of 1950-1959, by contrast, the Puerto Rican exodus was taking place at a rate of 43,000 persons a year. Gutierrez, one of Congress' most vocal and radical immigration amnesty supporters, said he will continue to fight for a "safe, legal and orderly" immigration system as he commemorated June as Immigration History Month. In the early 1960s, there was a legend about an elderly lady in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. The town officials got special permission from the state to open the polls at a minute after midnight on Election Day so all the town voters could vote and the town would beat other towns to be the first in the nation to report results. Everyone had voted except for one older lady. Town officials and news media walked a few blocks from the polling place to her front door and apparently woke her up. The chief election judge said to her, "You are the only person in town who has not voted yet and we want to close the polls so we can report results." The annoyed woman, who shunned many town events, replied, "Sorry, I never vote, it only encourages them." and she then shut the door. While Civics teachers are horrified when voting participation is not high, Americans do have the right not to vote as well as the right to vote. Their reasons do not matter. Sometimes people skip voting because they don't follow politics or find it boring and they just don't care who wins. Civics teachers argue that nonvoters give more disproportionate power to those who do vote. Maybe yes and maybe no. When Mitt Romney ran against President Obama on November 6, 2012, voter turnout dropped from the 2008 level of 62.3 percent of eligible voters down to 57.5 percent in 2012. In spite of an increase in 8 million more eligible voters in 2012, voters declined from 131 million in 2008 to 126 million in 2012 and 93 million eligible Americans chose not to vote at all in 2012. Some people might not vote because they are too busy or don't dare. Others, like the lady in Dixville Notch might choose not to vote to protest the choices. Is the nonvoter's choice not to participate responsible? A Civics teacher would argue no but advocates of freedom might say yes because protesting is also a civic act. Some counties try to force 100 percent participation by eligible voters but the U.S. has never coerced people to vote against their wishes. To be honest, given the fact that many voters now are not as well informed as they should be on candidates and policies, maybe it is not a bad thing that millions choose not to vote. The problem of course is that someone will wind up winning and we all have to live with that choice. WASHINGTON - Washington GOP insiders are said to be "near panic mode" concerning Donald J. Trump's presidential bid against Hillary Clinton. The situation has gotten so bad that Trump told GOP insiders to "be quiet" this week. "You know, the Republicans, honestly folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone. But you know what, I think Im going to be forced to. I think I am going to be forced to, our leaders have to get a lot tougher, he began. Then with a bite, he said, "And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Don't talk, please be quiet. The numbers aren't good. Within the past week, a Bloomberg poll showed Trump dropping 10 points from 47 to 37 with Clinton nearing the magical 50, with 49 percent and winning. The Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson is polling at nine percent. Tata Motors is in the process of ascertaining the extent of damage due to the incident. The Sanand plant, which has an annual production capacity of 2.5 lakh units, currently manufactures only two passenger car models of the company. (Photo: ANI) By India Today Web Desk: Tata Motors on Thursday said a fire broke out at a unit of one of its vendor partners in the company's Sanand manufacturing facility that rolls out Nano and the recently introduced hatchback Tiago models. "A fire broke out at the vendor park of M/S Supreme Treaves, our supplier of trim parts for the Nano. The fire is under control now and no injuries were reported," a Tata Motors spokesperson said. advertisement ALSO READ: Maruti Suzuki's Manesar and Gurgaon plants shut temporarily The company said it is in the process of ascertaining the extent of damage due to the incident. While there is no impact on production of Tiago, the company is still assessing whether Nano manufacturing will be affected, the spokesperson added. ALSO READ: Can Tata Tiago be a game changer for Tata Motors? The Sanand plant, which has an annual production capacity of 2.5 lakh units, currently manufactures only two passenger car models of the company. The plant was set up after Tata Motors was forced to withdraw the Nano project from its original site at Singur in West Bengal in October 2008 as it faced opposition from displaced farmers led by Trinamool Congress. ALSO READ: Tata Motors launches Tiago hatchback, priced at Rs 3.20 lakh A similar incident took place on May 31, when a fire broke out at the Subros India, Manesar, the biggest supplier of air conditioning systems to Maruti Suzuki. The accident affected Maruti Suzuki's production unit for almost a day and a half, resulting in a loss of around 10,000 units. --- ENDS --- The Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 presents an intriguing and aesthetically dynamic vision of the future of luxury mobility. This 'Vision Vehicle' is one of four announced by the BMW Group in Munich on 7 March 2016, as it launched its centenary celebrations. By India Today Web Desk: In a spectacular event at London's Roundhouse, the Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 was presented. The car defines the future of luxury mobility. Codenamed 103EX, it is the marque's first ever pure 'Vision Vehicle'. The Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 presents an intriguing and aesthetically dynamic vision of the future of luxury mobility - a completely personal, effortless and autonomous Rolls-Royce experience, wrapped in a design that ensures a 'Grand Sanctuary' for its occupants, and a 'Grand Arrival'. advertisement ALSO READ: Rolls Royce Wraith 'Inspired by Music' comes to India The 103EX Concept uses a zero-emissions electric powertrain unlike the V12 motors of today. Torsten Muller-Otvos, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars said, "With the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 we were mindful not to dwell on the past. We wanted to be as innovative as possible and at the same time transcend the design history of the marque." Brought to life by Rolls-Royce after many months of study and consultation with current patrons of the brand, the car represents their clearly expressed desire for an assurance that the marque's plans for the future of luxury personal mobility will continue to embody the key attributes that have made Rolls-Royce the preferred marque of the most discerning and powerful patrons in the world for over a Century. This 'Vision Vehicle' is one of four announced by the BMW Group in Munich on 7 March 2016, as it launched its centenary celebrations - THE NEXT 100 YEARS. In addition to being the centenary of the BMW Group, 2016 also represents a seminal moment in the history of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. The 28-inch wheels are each hand built from 65 individual pieces of aluminium. The 28-inch wheels are each hand built from 65 individual pieces of aluminium. ALSO READ: Maserati, Rolls Royce and Porsche now on Droom The centrepiece of the cabin is the beautiful sofa. The best seat in the house, it is an exquisite, futuristic interpretation of modern furniture design. Clothed in the most opulent fabrics, it gives the impression of floating within the cocoon of the cabin thanks to the artful use of lighting and modern materials. Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 The very size of the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 announces the importance of its precious cargo. At 5.9 metres long and 1.6 metres high, it mirrors the perfect dimensions of today's Phantom Extended Wheelbase, whilst the ever constant Spirit of Ecstasy grows in stature, harking back to the regal Phantoms of the 1920s. Hand-crafted by the finest European glassmakers of today, she lights the way to the future of luxury. She is poised atop the re-imagined, yet still iconic, Pantheon grille with the red Double-R badge of an experimental Rolls-Royce. advertisement ALSO READ: Rolls-Royce Wraith Series II spotted testing There is no steering in the EX103's cabin, freeing up space for the passengers. The lower section is more dramatic in its design and in what it achieves. Draped in a silk-like 'Crystal Water' colour scheme, its surfacing achieves a lightness that belies the vehicle's size. This is automotive 'Haute Couture'. From whatever angle the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 is viewed, it seems to float, whether at rest or in motion. The newly liberated Pantheon grille is now the unencumbered prow of the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100. It is the front of a fully enclosed and smooth-bottomed hull that echoes the form language of 1920's Rolls-Royces, with its 'boat-tail', and within which the entire accommodation area is located. For Rolls-Royce, the end of production of the seventh generation Phantom - considered by aficionados to be "the best car in the world" - represents the completion of the first phase of the Rolls-Royce brand's renaissance under BMW Group custodianship. The success of Phantom, Ghost, Wraith and now Dawn serves as the foundation for a new chapter. advertisement ALSO READ: Rolls-Royce celebrates second highest sales record in its 112-year history --- ENDS --- Delhi police said both the girls were released after a few hours of questioning. By Shuja-ul-Haq : Two Kashmiri girls pursuing MBBS in Bangladesh were detained at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport for carrying a bag with the word "bomb" written on it. The Delhi Police said both the girls were released after a few hours of questioning. Nothing suspicious found in their baggage, police said. However, parents claim that the girls haven't reached Srinagar yet. advertisement "They were detained. We got to know when one official at Srinagar airport made us speak to the girls who were detained at the Delhi airport. After that we have no contact with them", said Bilal Ahmad, father of one of the girls. He added, "We are scared we have no idea what happened with them in Delhi. We went to meet the chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. They didn't allow us to enter the residence there." --- ENDS --- Sources in the Intelligence Bureau said that about 180 small ports and islands are on the hit list of terror organisations active in the region. The 26/11 attackers had used the sea route to sneak into Mumbai. By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: Intelligence agencies have warned the government about terror threat to port and small islands spread across the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. According to intelligence inputs, terrorists are on the look out for launching an attack similar to the 26/11 Mumbai attack on these vulnerable targets. Sources in the Intelligence Bureau said that about 180 small ports and islands are on the hit list of terror organisations active in the region. Militants may take advantage of slack security at these locations to strike, intelligence reports said. advertisement 26/11 Mumbai attack: Never seen photos of NSG operation HOME MINISTRY'S SECURITY MEETING Earlier this week, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh chaired the meeting of Home Ministers, Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police (DGPs) of coastal states and Union Territories in Mumbai. The meeting was convened to review the coastal security of the country. During the meeting, Rajnath Singh reviewed all aspects of security along the country's 7,516 km long coastline. He stressed upon the need to safeguard not only industrial, commercial establishments and strategic installations, but also the entire coastline from external threats through sea routes. 26/11 Mumbai attacks: Ex-Pakistan envoy to US Husain Haqqani's explosive revelations The Intelligence Bureau also tabled a report concerning the security audit of ports and islands. Following this report, the government has directed the concerned agencies to strictly implement the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for coastal security which were put in place after the November 26, 2008, Mumbai attacks. The 26/11 attackers had used the sea route to sneak into Mumbai. While 164 people were killed, over 300 were wounded in the commando operation-like terror attack. List of islands on terror radar. PORTS, ISLANDS ON TERROR HIT LIST Intelligence agencies have warned the government that over 180 ports in states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala are on the terror hit list. Terrorists have also identified 30 such islands where they can strike. SHIPS MAY BE USED AS LAUNCHPADS Intelligence inputs received from terror groups have also revealed that militants may use Indian ships operating close to the coastal areas to launch an attack. Terrorists have also identified at least 10 small isolated islands which can be used to carry out their sinister plans. Also Read: 26/11 attacks: 'US intel agencies had evidence of ISI's hand in 2009' 26/11 Mumbai attacks: 35 questions answered by David Headley --- ENDS --- The gang of robbers first sedated the bizman's parents and then attacked and strangled him to death in Chhatarpur. By Tanishka Sharma: A 38-year-old businessman was strangled to death allegedly by a gang of robbers, who first sedated the victim's parents and attacked him at a farmhouse in south Delhi's Chhatarpur area in the wee hours of Thursday. SUSPECTS ARRESTED Five suspects have been arrested but the involvement of insiders could not be ruled out. According to a senior police official, the deceased Rohan Gupta was a divorcee and used to live with his parents in the farmhouse. He was exporter of hosiery items and had recently started dealing in auto mobile parts in Noida. advertisement Also read: Man brutally raped and killed Kerala student after fight with her over construction Hit-and-run case: How drunk student killed 2 with speeding car in West Delhi --- ENDS --- To prevent any untoward incident, an alert has been issued in Patiala, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Pathankot. By Manjeet Sehgal: Ahead of the release of Udta Punjab in theatres across the state today, security has been beefed up to prevent fringe elements from staging protests against the release. Several police teams have been deployed outside 51 theatres in Punjab and 9 theatres in Chandigarh, where four shows are likely to occur. To prevent any untoward incident, an alert has been issued in Patiala, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Pathankot. advertisement The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress have appealed to the citizens to watch the movie, which is based on the existing drug problem in the state. Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh has requested the producers to provide him discs of the film to distribute among party workers and spread awareness. "Captain Amrinder Singh himself is keen to watch the film," said his Media Advisor, Vimal Sumbly. However, the ruling Akali Dal-BJP government is not ready acknowledge the menace in the state. On Thursday, a leaked version of the controversial film coursed through the internet, with over 70,000 uploaders squeezing it into dozens of torrent and live streaming websites and lakhs of people downloading it. This leak is expected to cause a huge loss to the producers. Also read: Pirates spoil Udta party --- ENDS --- "I would say caste is anti-national because it divides the nation.," the 82-year-old economist said. By PTI: Nobel laureate Professor Amartya Sen criticised the practice in India of branding people who don't "toe a certain line" as anti-national. Addressing a special event at the London School of Economics (LSE) to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Dalit rights activist Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Sen said: "One issue that keeps coming up in India is people being branded as 'anti-national' for not toeing a certain line". advertisement "I would say caste is anti-national because it divides the nation. We want to be national, not anti-national, for which it is important to eliminate all divisions," the 82-year-old economist and philosopher said. Referring to Ambedkar, a former LSE student, as a "great social revolutionary and an intellectual powerhouse", he added: "It is through education we can truly bring about change in the world. That is the vision which Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us for a united nation." 'Dr Ambedkar's Relevance Today and in the Future' was organised by the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations UK (FABO UK) in collaboration with the Inequality and Poverty Research Programme, Department of Anthropology at the LSE and the India Observatory at the LSE to coincide with the centenary of Dr B R Ambedkar joining the LSE. The aim of the day-long conference was to bring together academics, economists, business leaders, equality champions, politicians and women leaders to highlight the relevance of Ambedkar's work on the economic and social reforms in India and beyond. "London holds a special place in the life of Babsaheb Ambedkar and his home at King Henry's Road will serve as memorial dedicated to social justice. He was a great intellectual, jurist, human rights champion who struggled against all odds in his goal of nation-building. The best way to honour him is to try and follow his ideals," said Dr Virander Paul, the deputy high commissioner of India to the UK. Ambedkar, referred to as the architect of the Indian Constitution, registered for a Master's degree and took courses in Geography and Political Ideas alongside Social Evolution and Social Theory and went on to complete a PhD thesis at LSE. The year 2016 marks the centenary of his first visit to LSE in 1916. --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) US-based Amazon today said it has witnessed a 250 per cent year-on-year growth in bringing new sellers on board as it looks to tap into the booming ecommerce market in India. The company, which is making multi-billion dollar investments in India, has over 85,000 sellers on board. "We started with 100 sellers three years ago and now we have over 85,000 sellers growing at 250 per cent year-on-year and adding over 90,000 products a day," an Amazon India spokesperson said in an emailed statement. advertisement Amazon, which competes with the likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal, has cut its commissions by 25-30 per cent across categories like mobile phones, PCs, electronic devices and personal care appliances. "We think these revised rates can significantly help sellers to perform even better and succeed in their business. In addition, we continue to innovate and offer best in class services such as Fulfilment by Amazon, Easy Ship, Seller Flex, etc to help them with fulfilment/logistics so that they can focus on their business," the Amazon spokesperson said. Flipkart, on the contrary, had recently increased its commissions across key segments and asked sellers to bear the costs of logistics in case of returns. Recently, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had said the company will invest USD 3 billion in India. This is in addition to the American e-commerce giants USD 2 billion infusion in 2014, taking its total investments here to over USD 5 billion. The funds will be channelled towards enhancing customer and seller experience, Amazon India managing director Amit Agarwal had told PTI. "India is a key market for Amazon and we will work towards continuing to reduce operating costs for sellers backed by good logistics and fulfilment capabilities," he had added. PTI SR ADI ABK --- ENDS --- The party chief has issued a warning to its MPs for spending less time with the grassroots level workers of the party in a meeting in Allahabad. By Rakesh Upadhyay: Upset with complaints regarding its lawmakers playing truants from their constituencies, the BJP leadership has warned its MPs to spend quality time with the grassroots level workers of the party. The warning came at a meeting of BJP parliamentarians chaired by party chief Amit Shah in Allahabad. From the total of its 71 MPs from Uttar Pradesh, as many as 13 were reported absent at the meeting. advertisement VARUN SKIPS THE MEET Sultanpur MP Varun Gandhi was among those not present, party sources said. A senior leader associated with the organisation, who requested not to be named, said that Gandhi should not have skipped Shah's meeting. NO MORE COMPLAINTS TO BE TOLERATED The BJP president, in his speech, warned that the party would not tolerate any more complaints about its MPs staying out of their constituencies for no valid reason. Party sources quoted him as having told the lawmakers that they would have to cut down on their travel to Delhi, Lucknow or to other parts of Uttar Pradesh. An MP report-card that Shah examined showed that at least 25 Lok Sabha members from the party had a below average record of attendance in their constituencies over the past 24 months. According to insiders, the BJP president reprimanded at least one such MP individually from eastern UP for his consistent absence from his borough. He warned the particular MP to stay put in his area for the next 21 days at least. The BJP leadership has also advised some of its lawmakers to regularly submit their travel and cell-phone details to organisation secretaries in order for them to keep a record of MPs' movements. Also read: BJP will rely only on Modi's image for UP election: Amit Shah Why Amit Shah thinks BJP will return in 2019 with a greater majority --- ENDS --- Wadia Bai Meghwar had married her cousin Suresh in a Karachi court on May 4, 2016. However, a few days later someone from an influential family of the area took Wadia from their home, promising to marry the couple in a traditional wedding but was instead forcibly married off to a 56-year-old man by her brother. Forced conversions have become routine in some parts of the country. (Photo: Reuters) By India Today Web Desk: In yet another case of kidnapping and forced conversion from Pakistan, a jirga (traditional assembly of leaders that makes decisions according to the teachings of Islam), forcefully remarried an already-married Hindu girl to an elderly man in Tharparkar district of Sindh province in Pakistan. Wadia Bai Meghwar had married her cousin Suresh in a Karachi court on May 4, 2016. However, a few days later someone from an influential family of the area took Wadia from their home, promising to marry the couple in a traditional wedding. But to Suresh's surprise, Wadia never returned to him and was instead forcibly married off to a 56-year-old man by her brother. advertisement Wadia's is not the only such case. Minority Hindus in Pakistan continue to suffer from forced conversions and discrimination with recent reports suggesting there is no end to their plight. PAST INCIDENTS In March 2016, Harya was kidnapped from her village in the Umerkot district of Pakistan's Sindh province. A week later, Harya was presented in a local civil court and was declared a Muslim and the wife of the man who had abducted her. In 2014, Dharmo Sochi was approached by a Muslim businessman demanding his Hindu daughter, Madhuri's, hand in marriage. The businessman, Jameel Solangi, allegedly threatened the family with abduction and murder unless they caved in. In 2012, a 14-year-old Hindu girl, who was kidnapped from Jacobabad city in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, has been forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man. CASE OF CONVERSIONS Although there are no confirmed statistics on forced conversions in the country, according to a report by the Movement for Solidarity and Peace in Pakistan published by Asian Human Rights Commission, at least 1,000 Pakistani girls are forced into Muslim marriages and made to convert to Islam annually. The report found that forced marriages usually follow a similar pattern: girls between the ages of 12 and 25 are abducted, made to convert to Islam, and then married to the abductor or an associate. If a complaint is filed, then "girls are held in custody by the abductors and suffer all kinds of abuse and violence". Even if the case is taken to court, the girls are threatened and pressurized by their husband and his family to declare that their conversion was voluntary. And so the case is closed. Victims are sexually abused, forced into prostitution, and suffer domestic abuse or even wind up in the human trafficking cycle. Such cases rarely end in the girls going back to their real families. From the moment the controversy begins, right up until the court hearing, the girls live with their kidnappers and suffer trauma and violence. These fragile girls are told that they "are now Muslims and that the punishment for apostasy is death". advertisement The ongoing issue has become so severe now that a significant number of Pakistani Hindus are forced to migrate to India. NEED FOR LAW Forced conversions have become a grave human rights concern in Pakistan. Recently, PTI lawmaker Lal Chand Malhi, serving as MNA on a minority seat, argued for the need to pass and implement legislation on forced conversions, reports the Express Tribune. Malhi, a parliamentarian from Umerkot, the only district in Pakistan where almost half the population is Hindu, has said that forced conversions have become routine in some parts of the country. He also pointed out that a significant portion of Pakistani Hindus belong to the lower castes and they neither have the means nor the influence to report cases of forced conversions. Highlighting the existence of this class barrier, Malhi said that cases of forced conversions often get reported only when the upper caste Hindus are the victims. UNREGISTERED HINDU MARRIAGES Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a leading Hindu parliamentarian in Pakistan has been pushing for a legislation against forced conversion of girls from the minority community on the pretext of marriage. And after decades of delay and inaction, the Hindu minority community in Pakistan now has a marriage law as a parliamentary panel has unanimously approved the Hindu Marriage Bill. advertisement The bill was passed in February 2016 by lawmakers in Sindh. Activists say that without such a law, Hindu women are targets for forced conversions, abduction and rape, and there is a lack of rights for widows. "The main issue faced by our community is forced conversions as the kidnapped girls ultimately submit to the key demand of the kidnappers - convert and marry a Muslim," he said. There are around eight million Hindus in the country of 180 million. Most of the Hindus reside in southern province of Sindh. According to the bill presented by Vankwani, all the Hindu marriages should be registered in the relevant district councils within 15 days and the marriage certificates must be attested by the pundit who solemnised the marriage, along with two witnesses. What remains heart wrenching is the lack of a concentrated effort to put a stop to this evil practice by the provincial and federal governments. This clearly exposes the government's indifference or bias amongst its own countrymen. --- ENDS --- advertisement By Mail Today: Days after union HRD minister Smriti Irani had an online brush off with Bihar education minister Ashok Chaudhary, who addressed her as "dear" in a tweet, the BJP leader poured her heart out in a passionate Facebook post talking about gender empowerment, breaking the glass ceiling and how successful women are treated. On Thursday, Irani posted a long write-up on Facebook, recounting her experiences as a woman politician and listing her accomplishments as a cabinet member. advertisement LETTER FROM AUNTY NATIONAL Irani, 40, who usually likes to take her opponents head on, ended the Facebook post with a sarcastic "Regards, Aunty National," a clear reference to the term used by the Congress to describe her during the recent JNU crisis where some students were jailed for allegedly raising anti-India slogans. The post, which went viral on the social media, received 7.4k likes, 881 comments and 3.6k shares. SPEAK UP OR YOU WILL LOSE OUT In her Facebook message, Irani talks about being a rebel and says women are usually asked to keep mum against attempts to humiliate them. "Why not respond? Why zip it? The standard answer such a question begets is, 'It is not worth it. Nuksaan tumhara hoga, ladke ka kuchh nahi bigadega (you will lose, not the boy)'," she raged. SMRITI IRANI'S RISE TO POWER She says she was a popular TV star, and now a politician who rose through the ranks by fighting for her rights and taking on Congress leader Kapil Sibal in Delhi's Chandni Chowk and later Rahul Gandhi in the Amethi parliamentary polls. She also talks about the strong reactions she received after being given the high profile HRD portfolio in 2014. "You represent your nation in the International Parliamentary Union, get unanimously elected to represent the Asia Pacific region, become part of the drafting committee on the Syrian crisis and yet some 'intellectual' says anpad, the minute you are given the opportunity to serve as HRD Minister," she said. Irani's Facebook post further talks about online trolls, inefficient colleagues ganging up "with other boys in the club" and points out that "the successful women always tell you that they continue to crack the whip." Recalling moments from her political life, she said, "And then politics happens. Not when you are a fading star, not when you are unemployed but when you are at the peak of your success. You are given the hard battles to fight, you accept (Chandini Chowk & Amethi were no cakewalk my friends). You work from the grassroots up. Serve as Youth Wing Vice-President in State, become State Secretary, 5 times National Executive Member, 2 times National Secretary and once the National President of Women's Wing." advertisement "You become possibly the youngest ever woman to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha, speak on issues ranging from the budget to women's security," said Irani. Also Read Oh dear! Smriti Irani in another Twitter fight, this time with Bihar education minister --- ENDS --- By PTI: Hyderabad, Jun 17 (PTI) Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, Syed Muazzem Ali, today visited the city-based Administrative Staff College of Indias historic Bella Vista campus and and interacted with its Chairman K Padmanabhaiah and faculty members. "The most valuable asset of our country is manpower. We can properly utilise the manpower by imparting training at various levels at regular intervals. ASCI is imparting a good training module for Bangladeshs middle-level officers through a series of programmes," Ali said, according to a release from ASCI. advertisement "We will jointly make efforts to promote and strengthen the fraternal ties between our two institutions and two countries," he said. Padmanabhaiah, a 1961 batch IAS officer, said, "India and Bangladesh share a lot of common characteristics and Bangladesh is the leader in issues like micro finance. We can benefit from mutual cooperation." ASCI Director-General Prof Paramita Dasgupta and the Programme Director Prof M Chandrasekhar and Bangladesh High Commission Counsellor Jamal Uddin Ahmed were also present. ASCI had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Foreign Training Branch of the Ministry of Public Administration (MoPA), Government of the Peoples Republic Bangladesh, to train their civil services officers in nine batches. "Out of the nine programmes, six are meant for the Deputy Secretary and equivalent level officers (middle-level, with 10-15 years of experience) and three are for the Joint Secretary and equivalent level officers (senior level, with 20 plus years of experience). We have already completed training for three batches so far," the Programme Director Prof M Chandrasekhar was quoted as saying in the release. PTI VVK NP --- ENDS --- Bengal's textile department has launched this initiative of introducing the baluchari sarees on mobile screens. By Soudhriti Bhabani: Good news for saree lovers, especially those who love the gorgeous colours and rich work of Bengal's famous baluchari sarees. Now these resplendent sarees will be available right on your mobile screen. You can check out various designs, colours and motifs and place an instant order just with a single click on your cellphone. Inspired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's vision to take Bengal's classic art forms to the global arena, the state textile department has devised an initiative to make baluchari saree available online. advertisement "We have started making Bengal's textiles available online through West Bengal Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd (Manjusha) and Tantuja so that people from all across the world have access to them. We have already received a decent response not only from domestic buyers but also from overseas - be it the UK, the US or Germany," minister of state for textile, West Bengal, Swapan Debnath told Mail Today. WHAT IS THE INITIATIVE AIMED AT? The initiative, Balucharisaree.in, was launched in collaboration with a private player, Brand Next, which has developed the mobile application and the online platform to sell the original product. It aims to popularise the dying artwork and create a direct interaction between Bengal's weavers and actual buyers, eliminating any middlemen. Debnath also said that the state has also started a pilot project to train Bengal's weavers at Burdwan's Dhatrigram and Nadia's Phulia. "We have brought experts weavers from Benaras for giving training to local weavers," he added. Murshidabad district and Bankura's Bishnupur in West Bengal are the only two places where authentic baluchari sarees are produced. It takes approximately a week to produce one such sari. Also read: Why the promising online Banarasi saree bazaar failed to click Digital India: Internet helps weavers create e-commerce portal --- ENDS --- Ram Singh Bahadur (18) had joined work recently and was harassing the victim (22) often. Recently, when no one was at home, Bahadur allegedly raped her and threatened her against revealing it to their employers. By Aravind Gowda: A Nepali man has been arrested by the Bengaluru police for raping a woman from Jharkhand at the home of a businessman. ACCUSED THREATENED VICTIM Ram Singh Bahadur (18) and the victim (22) were working at the home of a same businessman in the city. Bahadur had joined work recently and was harassing the victim often. Recently, when no one was at home, Bahadur allegedly raped her at knife-point and threatened her against revealing it to their employers. advertisement VICTIM FILED COMPLAINT Though the victim did not reveal the incident for a few days, later, she informed her employers. They filed a complaint with the police on the basis of which Bahadur was arrested. ALSO READ: 2 held for attempt to rape in Bangalore hospital --- ENDS --- By PTI: Medininagar (Jharkhand), June 16 (PTI) Hitting out at the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar, Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today alleged that the state has turned into, "maha jungle raj." "Bihar has turned from jungle raj to maha jungle raj," the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said at a press conference here. Union MoS for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh, who was also present at the press conference, alleged,"Goonda raj is prevailing in Bihar, while the state government is protesting the developmental works done by the Centre." PTI COR PVR PR NSD SNP --- ENDS --- advertisement By Rohit Kumar Singh: It appears that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may soon land in another controversy and that too in connection with another incident happened some 1000 kms from Delhi, in Bihar. The Intermediate Toppers Scam that rocked the country and pose innumerable questions over dubious colleges, fake mark sheets and how student became fake toppers. India Today is in possession of a letter written by Kejriwal to the Education Department of Bihar regarding a student of the dubious Bishun Rai College of Baccha Rai in Hajipur in 2015. Divya Prakash, who passed his exams in science stream last year, is yet to get his mark sheets and certificates from Bachcha Rai's college. advertisement BACCHA RAI SOUGHT RS 1 LAKH TO ISSUE CERTIFICATE Prakash's parents alleged that Rai sought a sum of Rs 1 lakh from them to issue their son's certificates. The family members of Prakash approached the Delhi CM last month after they were unable to find a solution to the situation. CM's office immediately wrote a letter to the Education department of Bihar to help the student get his certificates from Bishun Rai College. "We request the director of the education department to help Divya Prakash get his certificate," stated the letter from Kejriwal's office. It's been over a month after the letter was written, but Divya's issues have not been solved yet and his aim of becoming an engineer seems uncertain. Kejriwal's office wrote the letter on May 13. BIHAR EDUCATION MINISTER ASSURES HELP After receiving the letter, Bihar Education Minister Ashok Chowdhary promised to look into the matter and resolve the issue related to Baccha Rai's collage. Chowdhary added that he will be speaking to the chairman of Bihar School of Examination Board, Anand Kishore but also added that if Divya's case is also of a fake mark sheet then there could be trouble. "I will ask the Chairman of the Bihar School of Examination Board to look into the matter and resolve the problem of the student", said Ashok Chowdhary. Interestingly, the letter is also an indication of Rai's fame among the political circle. Despite the letter from Kejriwal's office, the Bihar government has failed to resolve Divya's problem. The letter to the Bihar government was written almost a fortnight before the scam broke. Also Read: Bihar topper scam: No one comes second at Baccha Rai's college --- ENDS --- By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Jun 17 (PTI) The ruling BJD in Odisha today staged demonstrations in all the districts to protest against fuel price hike on June 15 by the Centre. The BJP, on the other hand, attacked the state government for imposing high tax on petrol and diesel leading to price rise of essential commodities. Congress, meanwhile, held both the central and state governments responsible for the rise in the price of commodities including fuel. advertisement Members of BJD youth wing today demonstrated at the Collectors office in all 30 districts along with state capital and demanded roll-back of the increased fuel price. The Centre on Wednesday increased price of petrol and diesel by 5 paise and Rs 1.26 a litre respectively. In a statement, Odisha BJP general secretary P Harichandan claimed that BJDs protest was an eye wash to divert public attention from the chitfund scam where ruling party leaders have been exposed. Stating that the state government collects Rs 13.58 per litre of petrol and Rs 12.57 from per litre of diesel as tax , Harichandan demanded reduction in the tax in order to ease the people from price rise. "The Odisha government should take cue from the BJP ruled Goa where tax on fuel is minimal," Harichandan said. Meanwhile, OPCC president Prasad Harichandan asked the state government to reduce the rate of VAT on fuel and Centre to bring down the rate of cess, excise tax on petrol and diesel. PTI AAM NN SMJ LNS --- ENDS --- Sources in the BJP said the political resolution adopted at the executive meet included references to initiatives of the state and central governments for welfare of the people. By Rahul Noronha: A political resolution supporting reservations in promotions in government jobs for SCs and STs was presented and adopted by the BJP during the party's state executive meet at Rewa. The possibility of a cabinet reshuffle also marked the discussions at the two-day state executive meet that concluded on Friday even though there was no formal announcement of the same. advertisement Sources in the BJP said the political resolution adopted at the executive meet included references to initiatives of the state and central governments for welfare of the people. Besides this the political resolution also supported the CM's announcement a few days back when he said that the state government was committed to the idea of reservations in promotions and if need be a fresh law would be enacted to continue with the practice. The Madhya Pradesh High Court had on April 30 quashed the MP public services rules 2002 that provided for reservation in promotions for SC and ST employees in the service of the state government. On May 12, the state government appealed at the Supreme Court demanding that the state High Court's orders be stayed. The Supreme Court instead ordered that status quo be maintained. Sources said that there were murmurs of dissent within the BJP when the resolution was made to include reference to support reservations in promotions. A section of the leadership felt that a large section of employees were against it and would be counter productive for the BJP to push for reservations in promotions beyond a point. State BJP incharge and national vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe also addressed the delegates and said that ministers should remain in constant touch with party workers and warned of problems in case the gap between workers and office bearers widened in the party. --- ENDS --- "No Swimming" signs put up in Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida after a 2-yerar-old boy was snatched and killed by an alligator. Lane Graves, a 2-year-old boy who was grabbed by an alligator in a lagoon at Walt Disney World. Orange County Sheriff's Department via social media/Handou (Reuters) By Reuters: Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, plans to install signs warning of alligators in the area where a 2-year-old boy was killed by one of the reptiles, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. 2-YEAR-OLD SNATCHED BY ALLIGATOR Police divers recovered the body of Lane Graves on Wednesday from the man-made lake where he had been snatched by the alligator as he played at the water's edge the night before. advertisement The resort had "No Swimming" signs where the boy was killed at the Seven Seas Lagoon, but did not specifically mention alligators. A source with knowledge of the situation said the resort now plans to install signs explicitly warning of the dangerous animals. The boy was grabbed by the reptile at the water's edge at about 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday while his family, on vacation from Omaha, Nebraska, relaxed on the shore nearby, authorities have said. His parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, tried to save the child but were unable to free him from the alligator's grip. A complete autopsy was conducted on Thursday afternoon on the body of the boy, which was found intact underwater. TRAUMA AND DROWNING CAUSED DEATH "The cause of death was ruled as a result of drowning and traumatic injuries," the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office said in a brief statement. It did not elaborate. Rose Silva, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, said on Thursday that a probe into the toddler's death was ongoing, but was not criminal in nature. The Graves family released a statement praising local authorities and adding: "Words cannot describe the shock and grief our family is experiencing over the loss of our son. We are devastated and ask for privacy during this extremely difficult time." The aquatic predators often roll their larger prey beneath the surface until their victim stops breathing, experts say, and then stash the body away to eat later. Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) Chief Executive Bob Iger spoke with the family by telephone on Wednesday and expressed his sympathies, the company said. Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said on Thursday that resort beaches that were closed after the attack would be off-limits to guests until further notice. "All of our beaches are currently closed, and we are conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols," Wahler said in a statement. "This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings." SIXTH ALLIGATOR CAUGHT The alligator was believed to be between 4 and 7 feet (1.2 and 2 meters) long. advertisement Trappers killed and opened up five alligators on Wednesday for sign of the boy before his body was recovered. The trappers remained at the lagoon on Thursday after removing a sixth alligator from the water late on Wednesday in an effort to find the one that snatched the child, said Greg Workman, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The commission's executive director, Nick Wiley, has said there is a good chance they have already captured the alligator in question. But officials said the search would go on until that was proved by forensic tests such as DNA studies, teeth measurements and comparison of bite marks. Workman said the commission also has wildlife officers on the scene around the clock. He said they are searching all day, but especially at night when alligators are more active because of cooler temperatures and less human activity. --- ENDS --- The documents reveal how DJB hired a Hyderabad-based consultant without the process of tenders in 2010. The water tanker service project was presented as a highly technical work since it required GPS fitted vehicles. The scam has set back the government-owned Delhi Jal Board by more than Rs 400 crore. (Picture for representation purpose) India Today has obtained a report that reveals murky details of the Rs 400-crore Delhi Jal Board (DJB) water tanker scam. The documents, a 130-pages long docket of board meeting details and tender documents, reveal how DJB hired a Hyderabad-based consultant without the process of tenders, and how another firm Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd (DIMTS) too was hired at the same time without tender to monitor water tankers through GPS technology which was already in operation. This took place in 2010 under the then DJB chairperson Sheila Dikshit who was also the CM of Delhi. advertisement The scam has set back the government-owned Delhi Jal Board by more than Rs 400 crore. Documents state that Delhi Jal Board was misled by the DJB "Authorities and Management, Private consultant and Companies" under the patronage of the then chairperson. This investigation report, submitted by a 5-member probe committee constituted by AAP Minister Kapil Mishra in June 2015, puts the position of the former DJB chairperson under a cloud. Earlier today, Sheila Dikshit spoke exclusively to India Today , where she hit out at the AAP government, asking who AAP minister Kapil Mishra is and questioned the timing of his allegations. FACT SHEET: WATER TANKER SUPPLY PROJECT The DJB has been hiring water tankers since its inception. But under the Water Tanker Supply Service (WTSS) project, the service was presented as a highly technical work since it requires GPS fitted vehicles. A Hyderabad-based private consultant named National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) was engaged on a nomination basis without inviting tenders, despite having qualified engineers within DJB to undertake this task. NISG played a major role in this corruption scandal. The DJB in consultation NISG invited tenders five times to run the GPS-fitted water tanker service. But every time the rate for hiring a tanker for a guaranteed 1200 km per month running was hugely escalated in complicity with DJB officials. The bidding process In the first Bidding process, DJB invited tenders on March 9, 2010 to hire 450 GPS-enabled 3 Kilo liters (Kl) and 9 Kl capacity water tankers as well as for tracking 800 existing DJB tankers under "Water Tanker Distribution & Management system" (WTDMS) for its 8 zones for a period of seven years. But the process was abandoned abruptly and tender was discharged. In second Bidding process, tenders were invited on July 2, 2010 for a reduced number (105) of tankers for only two zones I and II. A fixed rate was guaranteed for 1,200 km per vehicle per month which translate to 40 km per day. Any additional kilometer per day was to be paid extra. Uncommon to the bidding practice, a company named SPML Infra Ltd offered the lowest bid, almost half of DJB's suggestive price of Rs 42,000. This was against the departmental suggestive cost of Rs79,557 for 3 Kl and Rs 50,400 against Rs 1,05,528 for 9 Kl water tanker per vehicle per month. Conspicuously, the suggestive cost worked out by the NISG was much higher than the cost of estimate and market price and above the prices at which DJB was hiring water tankers. Then the contract was awarded to SPML at the total cost of Rs 50.98 crore for seven years. This was approved by the Sub-Technical Committee, the Technical Committee, the Work Advisory Committee and the DJB Board. But suddenly within six weeks, DJB cancelled the award of work order and decided to reinvite bids. In the third attempt, tenders were invited on September 21, 2010 for three Zones - V, VII and VIII and SPML Infra was again the only bidder who bid for all three zones, quoting almost same price of Rs 46,200 against the departmental suggestive cost of Rs 79,557 for 3 Kl and Rs.55,080 against Rs 105,528 for 9 Kl water tanker per vehicle per month. The Work Advisory Committee approved the prices of the lowest bidder SPML at the total cost of Rs 168.30 crore for a seven year period. Again in board's next meeting on March 29, 2011, the board scrapped the tender. In the fourth attempt, tenders were invited on March 31, 2011, for same zones -V, VII and VIII, but this time another firm Ramkey Enviro Engineers Ltd was the only bidder, quoting a price much higher than what offered by SPML in previous two attempts - Rs 1,15,000/ for 3Kl and Rs 1,35,000 for 9 Kl at a fixed rate as guaranteed for 1200 km per vehicle per month. Interestingly the DJB suggestive cost was arbitrarily reduced to Rs75,249 (from Rs.79,557) for 3 Kl and Rs93,868 (from Rs.105,528) for 9 Kl per VMT per month. Ramkey prices were thoroughly evaluated and approved by the DJB's sub-technical committee, the technical committee, and the work advisory committee. The three committees then recommended the DJB for award of work at a negotiated rates of Rs 1,09,250 (or Rs 91 per km) for 3 Kl per VMT and Rs 1,28,250 (or Rs 107 per km) for 9 Kl at the total cost of Rs 357.57 crore for a seven year period. But tender was once again discharged and the Board decided to re-invite tenders. advertisement FINAL TENDERING PROCESS advertisement Lastly on December 28, 2011, tenders were invited for the fifth time. This time it was for five zones - I, II, V, VII & VIII. However this time, the conditions were further relaxed and undue advantages were given to companies or consortium. Finally the tender was awarded at an amount three times more than the first bidding process. advertisement SHEILA BACK IN HEADLINES Former Delhi chief minister and Congress Sheila Dikshit is suddenly back in the headlines after recent meetings with the Gandhi's and the AAP government in Delhi accusing her of the Rs 400-crore tanker scam that happened when she was in power in the capital. Yesterday, Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung cleared a probe against Dikshit in the alleged tanker scam after a complaint was sent to LG's office by Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra. "Why is this 'scam' coming out now? It is politically motivated (According to reports, she could be given Congress' top post in Punjab or be made CM candidate for Uttar Pradesh)," Dikshit said. She then spoke about the process regarding purchase of the tankers. "I didn't make the decision alone. IAS officers, MCD members, even some BJP memebers were part of the decision making." "The tankers they are accusing me of choosing are still going strong," she added. --- ENDS --- A huge lizard was seen loitering outside a house in Thailand, trying to make its way in. By India Today Web Desk: No, it's not a crocodile or an alligator. But it is the worst nightmare of a herpetophobiac. It is a lizard. Oh no, we're not fooling you. To be precise, this creature is a lizard species known as Komodo dragon, and it was seen lurking on the porch of a house in Thailand on Wednesday. The residents had the mental faculty to pull out their phones and film as the giant lizard tried to force its way into their home. Thus, we now have the pictures of Ms Godzilla 'Scares-a-lot' Lizard all over the social media. Source: Attanai Thaiyuanwong/ Facebook advertisement Attanai Thaiyuanwong, whose house the monster reptile was trying to invade , has also shared a live video on Facebook. Coconuts Bangkok reports that Ms Godzilla 'Scares-a-lot' Lizard is actually called Selena (ahem), and is said to be a frequent unwelcomed guest in the neighbourhood. Komodo dragon are usually found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, etc. Probably this one here is on a trip and needed a place to crash. --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) Government is exploring the feasibility of contract farming of pulses in African countries -- Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi -- as it looks for a long-term solution to domestic shortage and high prices. A delegation may visit Mozambique to examine the possibility of growing pulses through contract farming, a senior government official said today. advertisement "For long-term solutions of the pulses crisis, we are exploring the option of working with Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi. These countries grow tur and arhar similar to our domestic varieties. So, we are exploring this option," the official said. Stating that farming is unorganised in these countries and done at a very small scale, he said the government will explore the option to take land for contract farming with the involvement of private players. The other option could be offtake agreement with these countries. The official, however, acknowledged absence of sufficient infrastructure in these countries to raise output and facilitate imports, in which case India may have to offer help. "No decision has been taken so far. It is only at a discussion stage. These countries have no company or trading organisation for exports or to do contract farming," the official said. A delegation might visit Mozambique soon to explore these possibilities as well, he said. Production of pulses is estimated to have declined to 17.06 million tonnes in 2015-16 crop year (July-June) due to drought while domestic demand is around 23-24 million tonnes. The country imported about 5.5 million tonnes last fiscal, largely through private trade, but it was not enough to cool the skyrocketing prices, which have gone up to Rs 200 per kg in the retail market. PTI JTR MJH ARD --- ENDS --- By PTI: conference Panaji, Jun 16 (PTI) Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal today expressed his displeasure over non-participation of some states in the power conference underway at here, and has sought a report in this regard. "Please let me know why some of the states are not represented here. I presume if ministers have not come, their Secretaries must have come. But if Secretaries have also boycotted the meeting, submit a report to me," he told his Secretary after the inauguration of the two-day event. advertisement "If they (states) act like this, we will have to behave in similar way. Last time, I had made it abundantly clear that we have a lot of time to help and solve problems of the state but it will have to be two-way traffic, it cannot be one way. I am very keen to know the reason why few states could not come," the minister said. Goyal sought the details about the absent ministers, the Secretaries attendance from all the states, and reasons for their not being here. "Ministers from the North East have not been able to come. Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura.. If they have any specific problem then we will resolve it," the minister said. Referring to the conference held in Guwahati previously, Goyal said the meeting had sent a very strong signal that India will go to North East. "All of us from across the country assembled in North East and discussed the problem of India. It is for the first time in the history of India that a national conference of all power ministers, or for that instance of any ministers from any ministry, had ever met in North East," he said. "Last time I had mentioned about the importance of everybodys participation at the highest level. More so because this gives us the chance to learn from your experiences, to understand what is best for each state, what could be a better way to do it," the minister said. "It is probably the first time in so many years that you had a power ministers? conference religiously organised every six months. It is a matter of satisfaction that in last two years we have been able to maintain the discipline and sanctity of this forum which in some sense represents the team which is going to change the future of India. It is going to change the very basis of making India a superpower. "Not only for the sheer importance that electricity as a sector has in peoples lives but also for the fact that the world today is recognising that India is truly committed to making a difference to the life of poor," he said. PTI RPS DK SRY RYS --- ENDS --- advertisement By PTI: Mumbai, Jun 16 (PTI) BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy today said passage of the bill facilitating the Goods and Services Tax (GST), being hailed as the biggest indirect taxation reform, will "not benefit" the economy significantly. "I dont think GST is going to be a game-changer. If it comes, it is ok. If it doesnt come also it is ok," he said, speaking at the industry lobby Indian Merchant Chamber (IMC) here. advertisement "GST...it is not big deal for the Indian economy. There is a feeling that it will simplify the tax system, I have no objection to it," he said. It can be noted that the industry has been pegging an increase of upto 2 percentage points in the GDP growth just by the passage of this legislation which is stuck for many years now under two Union governments. Swamy also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had objected to the GST when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and now the Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha is objecting to it. "At one stage, when Mr Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister, he took objections and wrote a letter to the government," he said. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said earlier this week that most of the states barring Tamil Nadu have come on board on the long-pending Goods and Services Tax bill and expressed hope of pushing the legislation in the upcoming Monsoon Session. PTI AA KRK KND BAS --- ENDS --- The operation is being conducted by the Army and the police. By India Today Web Desk: Two militants were killed in a fierce gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore area between security forces and terrorists, who were allegedly trapped inside a house. The operation is being conducted by the Army and the police. TRAPPED MILITANTS "Security forces on information about the presence of militants, surrounded a house in Chana mohalla locality today (Friday) morning," a senior police said. advertisement "As the security forces closed on the house, they came under heavy gunfire from hiding militants." "There are reports of two militants firing from inside the house," the official added. --- ENDS --- By PTI: Lucknow, Jun 17 (PTI) Sparring over Kairana "migration" intensified today with the ruling Samajwadi Party and Congress rubbishing reports of exodus and alleging that atmosphere was being vitiated by BJP which gave a 15-day ultimatum to the Uttar Pradesh government to bring back those who have shifted. Mounting pressure, state BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya met Governor Ram Naik with the demand for a CBI probe into the "exodus" while presenting the report of a five-member party team that visited Kairana area in Shamli district for an on-the-spot assessment. advertisement BJP MLA Sangeet Som, an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case, also took out a rally to highlight the issue. Countering it, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Atul Pradhan also took out a separate rally. Som gave a 15-day ultimatum to the UP government to bring back those who had left Kairana, in an apparent bid to keep the issue alive ahead of Assembly polls in the state early next year. Almost around the same time, SP spokesman and senior Cabinet Minister Shivpal Yadav hurriedly convened a press conference to accuse BJP of "vitiating" the communal atmosphere in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the polls. "There is no exodus in Kairana or anywhere in the state. We have intelligence and other reports in this regard. BJP leaders including Hukum Singh and others are inciting communal passions for political gains as Assembly elections are near," he said. "Their only work is to orchestrate riots...they are the same people who masterminded Muzzafarnagar riots," he said, adding, "...be it Sangeet Som or anyone else, the state government will not let anyone to plan riots. We will collect proof against them and will expose them before media soon". In a similar refrain, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pradip Mathur rubbished reports of migration from Kairana on communal lines and accused BJP of "poisoning" the atmosphere in the state to polarise votes before the polls. CPI-M leader Md Salim said a section of Kairanas population including both Hindus and Muslims have migrated from the UP town over years due to socio-economic issues and criminalisation and not because of communalisation and demanded that BJP apologise for its Hindu exodos claims. BSP chief Mayawati, meanwhile, attacked both SP and BJP, saying the yatras by the two parties smacks of an "understanding" between them to somehow vitiate the communal atmosphere for reaping political benefits by instigating riots. PTI ABN SAB SMI AKK --- ENDS --- The Indian Air Force is expected to procure 70 of these basic trainer jets, which can also carry weapons. By India Today Web Desk: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore today to witness the first test flight of Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40), country's indigenous basic trainer aircraft, and the minister was impressed with the efforts of young HAL techies. Army and Air Force now possess world's best light combat helicopter The two-seater aircraft designed and developed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was flown by Group Captain C Subramaniam and Group Captain Venugopal for about 10 to 15 minutes at the HAL Airport. advertisement After the test flight at the HAL base, Parrikar got into the cockpit of the trainer jet to get a closer look of the aircraft. "I request them to bring it still earlier, by the beginning of 2018, so that they can go into serial production in 2018 itself," Parrikar said. "When I came here in March 2015, they had promised me within one year they will fly the aircraft. I am happy that they have kept the assurance," the Defence Minister added. #WATCH: Inaugural flight of India's indigenous basic trainer aircraft, HTT-40 in Bengaluruhttps://t.co/Wm9GsvFZlc ANI (@ANI_news) June 17, 2016 ALL ABOUT HTT 40: Aimed at being used for the first stage training for all flying cadets of the three services, HTT-40 had made its maiden flight after much delay on May 31. Officials said detailed design phase of HTT-40 was launched in August 2013 with HAL's internal funding and was completed in May 2015 and from there it has taken 12 months to fly the first prototype. Indian Air Force is expected to procure seventy HTT-40 aircraft. HAL has said that the programme aims to achieve its operational clearance by 2018, and towards this the company will be manufacturing three prototypes and two static test specimens. Designed to meet the current demands of the Air force, there is also a provision to include weapons for the trainer aircraft. According to officials, the indigenous content on HTT-40 is close to 80 per cent with about 75 plus systems out of the total 90 on the aircraft sourced from local players and sister divisions of HAL. HTT-40 aircraft weighs about 2,800 kg and has Turbo Prop engine of 950 shp class. My congratulations to the brilliant young team of technocrats at HAL. #HTT40 pic.twitter.com/kEmGhht9zN Manohar Parrikar (@manoharparrikar) June 17, 2016 #MakeInIndia #HTT40 has 80% indigenous content with more than 40 Indian MSME vendors. Manohar Parrikar (@manoharparrikar) June 17, 2016 --- ENDS --- The three women, who are currently undergoing training at the Air Force Academy in Hakempet near Hyderabad, are the first batch of female pilots to be inducted in an IAF fighter squadron. The three women flying cadets (left to right) Mohana Singh, Bhawana Kanth and Avani Chaturvedi. By Manjeet Negi: Flying cadets Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh are on the brink of creating history. The three women, who are currently undergoing training at the Air Force Academy in Hakempet near Hyderabad, are the first batch of female pilots to be inducted in an IAF fighter squadron. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will be at the Hakempet airbase tomorrow (June 18) for the passing out parade where he will officially announce the induction of the three women in the fighter stream. advertisement 10 amazing facts about IAF WHERE THEY COME FROM While Bhawana Kanth belongs to Begusarai in Bihar, Avani Chaturvedi is from Rewa, Madhya Pradesh and Mohana from Vadodara, Gujarat. Avani's father is an engineer and her brother is in the Army. Bhawana's father is employed with the Indian Oil Corporation. Mohana's father is a warrant officer in the IAF. Meet India's first three women fighter pilots RIGOUROUS TRAINING The three women have undergone rigorous training at the Hakempet base over the last six months. The cadets have undergone the mandatory 55 hours of flying on Stage I trainer - the Pilatus PC 7 basic trainer. After flying the Pilatus and Kiran jet trainers, these pilots will be flying the Hawk advanced trainer jets in the next phase of their training till 2017. They will then be seen in the advanced cockpits of Sukhoi and Tejas fighter jets of Indian Air Force. From India Today magazine: India's missing munitions "For me, it is like a dream come true. I always wanted to be a fighter pilot. As far as training is concerned, there was no difference when compared to our male colleagues. Be it physical fitness or mental robustness, the tests all were on the same level," said Mohana Singh. "We all are thrilled. It's the fighters who actually define the Air Force of any country," added Avani Chaturvedi. THE HISTORY While women pilots have been flying helicopters and transport aircraft since 1991 in the IAF, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who finally took the decision to allow women into fighter jet cockpits. In 2012, Flight Lieutenants Alka Shukla and MP Shumathi became the first female pilots to complete training on combat helicopters. In February, 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee had announced that women cadets will be allowed in combat roles in all three services. Also Read: Kiren Rijiju flies Sukhoi-30MKI, says an amazing experience like no other IAF's Mirage test lands on Yamuna Expressway as part of trials --- ENDS --- With nearly 53 per cent applications rejected this year, there is a big jump in the proportion of visas being denied in the last two years - 24 per cent in 2015 and 17 per cent in 2014. The rising number of declined visas has prompted the Indian High Commissioner to enquire from New Delhi about the reasons behind the rejections. By Abhishek Bhalla : Thousands of Pakistanis wanting to cross the border to meet their families are finding it difficult to come to India as every second visa application was rejected this year. The increasing proportion of declined visas has prompted Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale to enquire from New Delhi the reasons for a large number of requests being turned down. advertisement With nearly 53 per cent applications rejected this year, there is a big jump in the proportion of visas being denied in the last two years - 24 per cent in 2015 and 17 per cent in 2014. REASON FOR REJECTING THE VISA In a recent communication to Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Bambawale has raised concerns about the increasing proportion of visa applications being rejected. "I would be grateful if the reasons for the drastic increase in rejected visas can be ascertained and conveyed. If there is no plausible reason for drastic visa reductions then please do help in ensuring that the proportion rejected visas is retained," he wrote. Out of 33,191 applications received this year till May 31, 17,581 were rejected. The number of visas declined was 9,335 out of 38,557 applications in 2015 and in 2014, 8,910 visas were denied out of 50,338 applications. ALL BECAUSE OF PATHANKOT ATTACKS? Officials say following the attack on the Pathankot Air Force base by Pakistani terrorists, the increased hostilities between the two countries has had an impact on the bilateral relations. There have been several skirmishes on the border with Pakistani troops over the last two years. There has been an increase in intelligence inputs indicating that Pakistan-based terrorists could enter the country, leading to heightened scrutiny, sources said. Earlier this year in January, soon after the Pathankot attack, a group of nearly 75 pilgrims who wanted to visit a shrine near Agra were denied visa on procedural grounds. Citizens of both countries have families across the border and visit religious places in large numbers. Last month, Bambawale met the Home Secretary and the two discussed measures to speed up the visa process for Pakistanis. Not only has the number of rejections spiralled, thousands of applications are pending for long citing security clearance. Officials said expediting the lengthy visa procedure is on the cards but security concerns cannot be overlooked. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE VISA AGREEMENT? In 2012, India and Pakistan signed a liberalised visa agreement that proposed a timebound approval to boost trade and people-to-people contact. While the visa rejections are on the rise, the Narendra Modi government is working at amendments in existing laws to ensure that the process for getting Indian citizenship for persecuted Hindus in Pakistan is made hassle-free. A Bill to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, is likely to be introduced during the Monsoon session of Parliament scheduled in July-August. advertisement Earlier the Narendra Modi government had rolled out an online system for Long-Term Visa applications that allowed Pakistan nationals to live in India for a period of five years. Within a year of assuming power, the NDA government gave over 4,000 citizenships to Hindus from neighbouring countries while the UPA had handed out a little over 1,000 in its five-year rule. Also read India denies visas to 5 Pakistan diplomats for Kolkata World T20 match India to issue only 250 visas to Pakistan fans per match --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 17 (PTI) India has taken up with Bangladeshi authorities the death threat to a priest of the Ramakrishna Mission in Dhaka by suspected militants claiming to be from the ISIS even as security at the complex has been beefed up. The Ramakrishna Mission received a threat letter on Wednesday which said the priest will be killed if he continues to preach his religion, amid a string of targeted murders across the country by suspected militants in the recent months. advertisement External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said today that the Indian High Commission has taken up the issue with Bangladeshs Foreign Ministry and police. "High Commission of India, Dhaka, has contacted both Bangladesh Police and MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and have been assured of full support and protection. We are also in direct contact with the RK Mission in Dhaka," Swarup said. He said police presence at the complex has been strengthened. Swarup said the First Secretary (Consular) in the High Commission visited the RK Mission this morning to review the security. The Dhaka Ramakrishna Mission is a branch of the Belur Math in Kolkata. A police official in Dhaka yesterday had said the priest received the letter on Wednesday evening on a computer-composed IS letterhead with the perpetrator identifying himself as one AB Siddiqui. "Bangladesh is an Islamic state. You cant preach your religion here. If you continue preaching, youll be hacked to death with machetes between the 20th and 30th," the officer quoted the letter as saying. The letter, he said, did not mention any month. Suspected Islamists have killed a number of secular activists, Hindus and other minorities across Bangladesh in recent months prompting authorities to launch a nationwide anti-militant clampdown since Friday. Bangladesh authorities have detained nearly 12,000 people in a nationwide crackdown to halt a spate of deadly attacks. Some of those arrested were linked with outlawed Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh. Though most of the attacks were claimed by the Islamic State or its affiliates and other similar extremist groups, the Bangladesh government has repeatedly dismissed the claims and said the attacks were carried out by homegrown outfits linked to the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. PTI MPB GSN --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) India and Thailand today decided to ramp up cooperation in the fields of economy, counter terrorism, cyber security and human trafficking besides forging closer ties in defence and maritime security. The announcement was made here after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held extensive talks with his visiting Thai counterpart General Prayut Chan-o-cha. The leaders said early conclusion of a balanced Comprehensive Economic and Partnership Agreement is a shared priority. advertisement Modi said both the countries have prioritised completion of India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral highway and early signing of the Motor Vehicles Agreement between India, Thailand and Myanmar. Following the delegation-level talks, in which also Army Chief Dalbir Singh Suhag was also present, two agreements - Executive Programme of Cultural Exchange (Extension of CEP) for 2016-2019 and an MoU between Nagaland University and Chiang Mai University, Thailand - were signed. In a bid to attract tourists from Thailand, especially to the Buddhist sites in the country, Modi announced that India will soon facilitate double entry e-tourist visas for Thai citizens. Talking about the issue of terror, the Prime Minister said both countries were aware that rapid spread of terrorism and radical ideology pose a common challenge. In our shared objective to combat these challenges, India is particularly grateful to Thailand for its assistance and cooperation, he said. "Beyond terrorism, we have agreed to further deepen our security engagement in the fields of cyber security, narcotics, transnational economic offenses and human trafficking," Modi said while addressing the media. Noting that India and Thailand were also maritime neighbours, he said both the countries have agreed to forge a closer partnership in the fields of defence and maritime cooperation. "A partnership to meet our bilateral interests and to respond to our shared regional goals," he said. On trade and commerce, Modi said a more "diversified commercial engagement" between both countries would not only benefit the respective economies but also enable greater regional economic prosperity. He welcomed the first meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Business Forum to be held later today. He said that besides trade, there are also ample avenues for greater manufacturing and investment linkages. "We see a particular synergy between Thai strengths in infrastructure, particularly tourism infrastructure, and Indias priorities in this field. "Information Technology, pharmaceuticals, auto components and machinery are some other areas of promising collaboration. We also see early conclusion of a balanced Comprehensive Economic and Partnership Agreement as our shared priority," he said. (MORE) PTI SAP SRY ZMN SRY --- ENDS --- advertisement By PTI: From Abhishek Shukla Windhoek, Jun 17 (PTI) Indias public and private businesses are ready to invest in resource-rich Namibias mining sector using environment-friendly processes to back the countrys developmental goals, President Pranab Mukherjee said today. Addressing students of Namibia University of Science and Technology, Mukherjee said Namibia is blessed with rich natural resources and an abundance of mineral wealth. advertisement "Their efficient extraction and value addition using environment-friendly methods will contribute to the sustainable development of Namibias mining sector. Our public and private enterprises stand ready to join your endeavours in this direction," Mukherjee said. He recalled the old friendship between the two countries and cited Indias example which was earlier a food importer and later emerged as the worlds largest producer of wheat and rice for two years. "At the time of Indias independence, India, due to her weak agriculture sector, had to import food grains. However, soon enough, due to proper planning and synergy between science and public policy, the excellence of our scientists and the selfless toil of our farmers, our country saw a revolution in agricultural productivity," he said. He said in the sphere of bilateral trade and investment, fruitful economic exchanges between India and Namibia underscore the much larger potential waiting to be realised. The President said an MoU has been signed on setting up a centre of excellence in IT in Namibia which will contribute to enhancing the capacity and skill levels of Namibian IT students and professionals. "We intend to commence the setting up of this centre as soon as possible, in consultation with the Government of Namibia," he said drawing huge applause. Mukherjee said during bilateral discourse, the areas that have been prioritised for collaboration between the two countries include human resource development, capacity building and educational and cultural exchanges. "In this context, I would like to mention Indias flagship programmes like Skill India, Make in India, Digital India and 100 Smart Cities as they could be successful models in Namibia as well," he said. The President said "India remains committed to partnering with Namibia as your people pursue their developmental goals and national aspirations embodied in Government of Namibias Vision 2030 and Harambee Prosperity Plan". PTI ABS KUN AKJ KUN --- ENDS --- By PTI: Dubai, Jun 17 (PTI) An Indian man has been allegedly killed when he resisted a robbery attempt by Omani nationals, following which six of them have been arrested. John Philip, a fuel station employee who hailed from Kerala, was found dead by the Royal Oman Police (ROP) on Wednesday. Philip had been missing since last Friday and police was searching for him since Saturday after a colleague reported him missing, the Times of Oman reported. advertisement "His body was found. He was murdered," a senior police official said, adding investigation is on. Money between OMR4,000 and OMR5,000 (over Rs 6,50,000) is missing from the station he used to work in, officials from the victims company said. According to the report, the CCTV cameras were found damaged following his disappearance and its cassettes are missing from the fuel station. Philip, who had been working in Oman for the last 13 years, is survived by his wife Binu and their two children. His relatives had approached the Kerala government and the Indian government to trace him. PTI CORR AMS PMS AMS --- ENDS --- The fifth instalment of popular film series is underway. And Harrison Ford will be back as Indiana Jones. Spielberg and Harrison Ford join hands for the fifth film in the series By India Today Web Desk: The fifth instalment of the popular Indiana Jones film series is underway. Steven Spielberg, the director of the popular film series, has recently assured that he won't do away with the title character played by Harrison Ford. "The one thing I will tell you is I'm not killing off Harrison at the end of it," Spielberg told the Hollywood Reporter. advertisement Spielberg added that he is pretty excited to direct the yet-untitled film. And the Jaws director also assured that the film will be 'straight down the pike for the fans'. Earlier, Harrison Ford told BBC that he wanted to act in another Indiana Jones movie but he wanted Spielberg to direct the film. The actor told BBC, "I've always thought there was an opportunity to do another. But I didn't want to do it without Steven. And I didn't want to do it without a really good script. And happily we're working on both." The last outing of Indiana Jones film series was Indiana Jones: Kingdom Of Crystal Skulls, which release on 2008. --- ENDS --- MH Ambareesh's failing health is said to be the reason for the Congress to consider removing him from the Cabinet while there were also questions over his contribution as a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government. By Aravind Gowda: Karnataka's Housing Minister and veteran Kannada film actor MH Ambareesh, who is likely to be dropped from the Karnataka Cabinet for poor performance, today said that "Cabinet reshuffle did not matter to him anymore." NEVER ASKED TO BE IN THE CABINET, SAYS AMBAREESH "I never asked to be in the Cabinet. They made me a minister... They have the liberty of removing me from the Cabinet... I am happy either ways, as I have served the people for three years. I have never aspired for anything," said a visibly upset Ambareesh in his home-town Mandya. advertisement SIDDARAMAIAH AND AMBAREESH NOT ON GOOD TERMS Ambareesh's failing health is said to be the reason for the Congress to consider removing him from the Cabinet. There were also questions over his contribution as a minister in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government. Siddaramaiah and Ambareesh are not on good terms since the last few days. AMBAREESH'S REMOVAL MAY UPSET VOKKALIGAS Speculations about his removal from the Cabinet have led to unrest in south Karnataka districts where the actor is popular. He represents the second biggest community - Vokkaligas - in Karnataka and the Congress intends to appoint someone younger in his place. ALSO READ: Karnataka: 2 ministers face action over sons' transactions --- ENDS --- Jo Cox was killed Thursday by a gun- and knife wielding attacker in her small-town constituency, one week before what would have been her 42nd birthday. Tributes for Labour Party MP Jo Cox, who was shot dead in the street in northern England, are displayed on Parliament Square in London, Britain, June 16, 2016. Photo: Reuters By AP: Jo Cox fought against poverty and discrimination in developing countries, worked in Parliament for a solution to the civil war in Syria and campaigned for Britain to remain in the European Union. In charity work and politics, she took up causes across the globe, from some of the world's most dangerous countries to her home constituency in Yorkshire. COURAGE IN ABUNDANCE advertisement "I've been in some horrific situations where women have been raped repeatedly in Darfur. I've been with child soldiers who have been given Kalashnikovs and kill members of their own family in Uganda," the Labour Party lawmaker told the Yorkshire Post last December. "That's the thing that all of that experience gave me - if you ignore a problem it gets worse." Cox was killed Thursday by a gun- and knife wielding attacker in her small-town constituency, one week before what would have been her 42nd birthday. ADVOCATE OF THE REMAIN MOVEMENT A day earlier she had campaigned on the River Thames in London with her husband and two young children. Her husband, Brendan Cox, posted images on Twitter of the family in an inflatable dinghy, waving a flag supporting continued British EU membership ahead of the June 23 referendum. "Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people," Brendan Cox, said in a statement Thursday after her death was announced by police. Besides her career in politics, Jo Cox described herself on her personal website as an avid runner, cyclist and mountain climber. She was elected to the House of Commons last year as a Labour Party lawmaker representing the constituency of Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire. She divided her time between the family's houseboat on the Thames and a home in Batley and Spen. INVOLVEMENT IN FORMING POLICY AGAINST ISIS In Parliament she made finding a solution to the Syrian civil war a top priority. She was critical of Britain's reluctance to deepen its military involvement against Islamic State militants, but abstained in a vote on airstrikes because she said the plan didn't devote enough attention to stopping the "brutality" of President Bashar Assad. "I'm not against airstrikes in principle," she said. "In fact, as part of an integrated strategy for Syria they are almost certainly a necessary part. But airstrikes are a tactic not a strategy, and outside a strategy I fear they will fail." advertisement Cox grew up in West Yorkshire in a working class home. Her mother was a school secretary and her father worked in a toothpaste factory in Leeds. When she finished her studies at Cambridge in 1995, she was first in her family to graduate from a university. But she described her years at Cambridge as difficult, telling the Yorkshire Post that is where she realized that "where you were born matters." "I didn't really speak right or know the right people," she said. "I spent the summers packing toothpaste at a factory working where my dad worked and everyone else had gone on a gap year. To be honest my experience at Cambridge really knocked me for about five years." After university she spent a decade working in various roles for Oxfam, the British aid agency. She then joined Sarah Brown, the wife of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on a campaign to reduce the number of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth. She also worked with several other charities, including Save the Children, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the anti-slavery group The Freedom Fund. For four years she chaired the Labour Women's Network, a group campaigning for more women to run for political office. advertisement Cox initially backed Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership after Ed Miliband resigned. She later said she regretted that decision and instead voted for one of his opponents, Liz Kendall. Corbyn on Thursday praised Cox's record of public service and humanitarian work. "Jo Cox died doing her public duty at the heart of our democracy, listening to and representing the people she was elected to serve," he said. "It is a profoundly important cause for us all." --- ENDS --- Three days after being asked to steady the Congress ship in Punjab, Kamal Nath steps down as the state in-charge in the face of a verbal assault from the Opposition. For almost the entire day on June 15, Congress Lok Sabha MP Kamal Nath was waiting patiently for party president Sonia Gandhi to return to Delhi from a personal visit. He had made up his mind to quit as general secretary in-charge of Punjab, a position he had been given only three days ago. The Congress veteran was "deeply hurt" by the smear campaign launched by Opposition parties linking him to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. At 7 p.m., not long after Sonia returned, Nath sent her his resignation. "The primary issue in Punjab today is drugs. I resigned because I did not want to offer an opportunity to our rivals to distract attention from the drugs issue," Nath told India Today. Just 24 hours before his resignation, the Congress general secretary, known for his meticulous planning, seemed to have embraced his new job with gusto. On June 14, he was seen immersed in an article written by Fareed Zakaria on the US presidential elections. As recent elections in India have been fought and won around personality cult, moving closer to the US presidential format, Nath was scouting for a few tips from the American experience. advertisement It's this ability to think differently and execute ideas effectively that had forced the Congress to fall back on the 69-year-old Nath, a nine-time Lok Sabha MP, to chalk out a strategy for Punjab. Congress insiders saw this as the return of the Chhindwara MP to the inner circle of the Nehru-Gandhi family. One of Sanjay Gandhi's closest friends, Nath was also Rajiv's trusted lieutenant. During the second edition of the UPA government, his cross-party acceptability made him Sonia's go-to man to manage allies and the Opposition. In the recent Rajya Sabha elections, Nath ensured victory for Congress candidate Vivek Tankha from Madhya Pradesh even though the party was short of one MLA. All he did was dial good friend Mayawati for help and she readily obliged. However, party circles have long been abuzz with murmurs that vice-president Rahul Gandhi does not particularly care for Nath's style of functioning. When he was not made leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha in 2014, Congress veterans saw it as a sign of Rahul's lack of trust in the Madhya Pradesh leader. Nath laughs off such speculation, saying he has always enjoyed a warm and cordial relationship with Rahul. Sources in Rahul's office also told India Today that Nath has remained one of his primary troubleshooters. He was, for instance, head of the committee that finalised the Congress candidates for the recent Assam assembly elections. "He will be an important cog when Rahul restructures the top order of the party," says a senior Congress leader. "His political experience and election management skills are indispensable." Among the big states headed for elections next year, the Congress sees a chance of making a comeback in Punjab, riding the supposed anti-incumbency against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Of course, the Aam Aadmi Party could put a spanner in the works. However, the reaction to Nath's appointment was something the Congress did not anticipate. Minutes after his name was announced on June 12, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted asking Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh to explain his stand on Kamal Nath, "who allegedly had a role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi". BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya also tweeted that the appointment amounted to rubbing salt into Sikh wounds. SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh accused the Nehru-Gandhis of honouring people accused in the anti-Sikh riots with plum posts. advertisement On June 13, Nath's phone kept ringing constantly, with mediapersons seeking his reaction to the verbal onslaught against him. He had an answer ready, along with hundreds of photocopies of the relevant bit of Justice Nanavati Commission report, which states: "In the absence of better evidence, it is not possible for the Commission to say that he had in any manner instigated the mob or that he (Nath) was involved in the attack on the Gurudwara." "It has been 32 years," says Nath, "but nobody raised my name ever. Even the BJP-appointed Nanavati Commission exonerated me. In 2005, the Akalis moved a debate in Parliament but they did not mention my name." Though there is no credible evidence directly against Nath in connection with the 1984 riots, some Congress leaders had feared from the start that the Opposition would try to use his name to discredit the Congress with the Sikh community in a perception battle in the run-up to the elections. These internal misgivings notwithstanding, Nath had the firm backing of Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh, and poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been hired by the Congress to manage the election campaigns in both Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Kishor, in fact, was the first to suggest Nath's name to take charge of either of the two states. Nath, who was three batches junior to Amarinder at Doon School, shares a warm rapport with him. Kishor, too, had met Nath several times at his Delhi home before the latter was formally given charge of Punjab. On June 13, the two lengthy calls Nath received were from Amarinder and Kishor. advertisement If AICC sources are to be believed, the appointment of Nath along with Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been given charge of UP, was the first step in the direction of the "major surgery" general secretary Digvijaya Singh has advocated. The recent setbacks in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have forced the Congress high command to rethink the process of appointing general secretaries in charge of the states. Backed by Rahul, several backroom men were given charge of states, breeding resentment in the state leadership. They have no electoral experience and failed miserably to control dissidence in the states. "Leaders such as Mohan Prakash, Madhusudan Mistry and C.P. Joshi don't have the aura, stature and connect to discipline errant state leaders," says a general secretary of the party. General secretaries of several other states will also be changed, he adds. "They could be good at background research, but political management is not just paperwork." advertisement But the surgery seems to have gone wrong even before Rahul Gandhi could hold the scalpel. Of course, Nath's role and relevance as a backroom negotiator is important but politics is also a battle of perception. In the electoral arena, a clean chit from a commission may not be enough as rhetoric has the power to swing public mood. If the Congress vice-president had factored in history of perception before Nath's appointment, he could have saved the party this embarrassment. Follow the writer on Twitter @KDscribe --- ENDS --- There have been rumours that Kareena Kapoor Khan is pregnant and is expecting her first child. In a recent interview, Kareena has neither confirmed nor denied the rumours related to her pregnancy. By India Today Web Desk: There have been rumours that Kareena Kapoor Khan is pregnant and is expecting her first child. Some reports have also suggested that the Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor is three-and-half months pregnant. In a recent interview to Pinkvilla, Kareena has neither confirmed nor denied the rumours related to her pregnancy. ALSO READ: Kareena Kapoor Khan on pregnancy rumours - There is nothing to say about it advertisement Kareena said, "Everyone has to ask me if I am pregnant or not. It is amazing, everywhere I go, even normal people are asking me. I think it is fine you know, I honestly don't feel bad about it or I don't even judge people for making comments or saying things like may be, is she, is she not. Of course, I have never denied the fact that motherhood is a part of me. I don't want to be the PM or President of USA, I don't want to own the world but I definitely look forward to having a child." The Jab We Met actor added. "I am not giving a timeline. I am not saying yes or no, but you guys will know at the right time. I saw the video and I was like 'Was I? I was stiff, because I had been on a holiday'. Like I said, I look forward to it. I have always said, I will work after marriage. I got married and I am still working. Now I am saying I will still have a child and my work will never suffer." Rumours of Kareena's pregnancy started doing the rounds ever since she and Saif returned from their London vacation. Earlier, when Kareena's father Randhir Kapoor was asked about the same he seemed clueless but wished that the rumours were true. There were reports that she was spotted at a gynaecologist's clinic in Bandra last month and is planning to freeze her eggs. But Kareena laughed off all such reports and said if it's going to happen, it will be natural as she has no plans to freeze her eggs. On the work front, Kareena Kapoor Khan will next be seen in Rhea Kapoor's upcoming film. --- ENDS --- H S Mahadeva Prasad's son Ganesh Prasad is accused of carrying out granite quarry operations on government owned land in Chamarajanagara district and causing loss to state exchequer, while H C Mahadevappa's Sunil Bose has been served a notice by the court for abetting a government official to seek bribe. By Mail Today: Two powerful ministers in the Karnataka government and close aides of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah are in trouble because of their sons' transactions, and they are likely to snowball into major controversies for the Congress. Minister for Cooperation H S Mahadeva Prasad's son Ganesh Prasad is accused of carrying out granite quarry operations on government owned land in Chamarajanagara district and causing loss to state exchequer. Minister for Public Works H C Mahadevappa's Sunil Bose has been served a notice by the court for abetting a government official to seek bribe in connection with a mining contract in Mysuru district. advertisement CLOSE AIDES OF SIDDARAMAIAH Both ministers are close friends of Siddaramaiah and had joined the Congress after quitting the Janata Dal (Secular). Mahadeva Prasad and Mahadevappa were part of the deal that Siddaramaiah struck to join the Congress in 2006. The two ministers enjoy tremendous clout within the party and hold powerful portfolios. "It is clear that the Congress is protecting the ministers and their sons. Siddaramaiah should seek their resignation for the involvement of their sons in illegal activities," alleged BJP leader Niranjan Kumar. THE CASE Former minister Ganesh Prasad is accused of operating a quarry by encroaching upon on 14 acres of government land. Prasad's partnership company has acquired a quarry lease for 4 acres adjoining the government land near Belachawadi in Chamarajanagar district. Mahadeva Prasad however denied any wrongdoing by his son, "These charges are politically motivated. Anybody can cross check documents with the government. Quarrying is going on in the said area for the last 30 years. My son is not involved in any kind of illegal quarrying," he maintained. In H C Mahadevappa's case, the 3rd Additional District Court of Mysuru has issued a notice to his son Sunil Bose for abetting an official (Alphonso) of the Department of Mines & Geology to collect bribe (Rs 1 lakh) from a mine owner in Mysuru district. The official was caught by the anti-corruption agency sleuths of the Lokayukta while accepting the bribe. In his statement to the Lokayukta, Alphonso has invoked the name of Sunil Bose. In their chargesheet, the Lokayukta police have named Sunil Bose as the second accused in the case. The court has sought an explanation from Sunil Bose on his involvement in the case. The transactions of the sons of both the ministers have come in handy for the BJP, which is trying to corner Siddaramaiah. In the past, Sunil Bose's name prominently featured in illegal sand mining case in Mysuru district. --- ENDS --- The local police said that Sadashiv Naik wrote an apology letter for uploading the picture of the CM. Subsequently, he deleted the picture on the advice of the police. By Aravind Gowda: The police have arrested a youth in Koppa in central Karnataka for allegedly uploading and circulating on his Facebook account an objectionable picture of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The picture depicts a dog urinating on Siddaramaiah and the youth has posted some comments on the same. Last month, the police had arrested another person for circulating the same picture on Whatsapp messenger. advertisement This time, Sadashiv T Naik, who had uploaded the picture on Facebook, was arrested on Wednesday on the basis of a complaint filed by Koppa Town Congress Committee President K N Ramesh Shetty. The local police said that Sadashiv Naik wrote an apology letter for uploading the picture of the CM. Subsequently, he deleted the picture on the advice of the police. Also read: Karnataka: Siddaramaiah heads to Delhi over Cabinet reshuffle --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) A Kashmiri girl coming from Bangladesh was today detained at Indira Gandhi International Airport here after security agencies received inputs that she had a paper slip with "carrying bomb" written on it in her bag. Officials said the incident took place when the girl and her three friends, bound for Srinagar, landed at the airport from Dhaka via Kolkata about 11:00 AM. advertisement They said security agencies at the airport were alerted by some staff that a paper slip stating "carrying bomb" was in the baggage of the girl. She was later detained and questioned by Delhi Police officials and central security agencies and the other three girls decided to stay put till their friend is cleared. Nothing untoward was detected during her questioning and it is suspected that someone attempted a mischief on her. "Delhi Police released her after few hours of questioning. However, between all this, the girls missed their connecting flight to Srinagar from Delhi and will now take a flight tomorrow," an official said. Officials said all the girls are MBBS students of a college in Dhaka and residents of Rajbagh area of Srinagar. PTI SKL GVS ZMN GVS --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) Return journey for a Kashmiri girl, a medical student in Bangladesh, turned horrible as she was detained at the Indira Gandhi Airport here today after security staff saw "carrying bomb" written on her check-in luggage. The girl, a resident of Rajbagh in Srinagar city, was taken for questioning after the security staff at the airport informed the police. She was travelling from Dhaka to Delhi via Kolkata. advertisement Officials said the incident took place when the girl and her three friends, bound for Srinagar, landed at the airport from Dhaka via Kolkata about 11:00 AM. She was questioned while security agencies carried out background check at Bangladesh and Srinagar. The girl was released after everything was found in order by the police, the officials said. The incident was flagged by former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who took to Twitter and sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh in this regard. "@HMOIndia @PMOIndia kindly look into the matter of the detention of two Kashmiri girls at Delhi airport. Their parents are very concerned. "@HMOIndia @PMOIndia Any assistance and information will be greatly appreciated by their families & loved ones. Thank you in anticipation," Omar tweeted. "@HMOIndia @PMOIndia The grounds, as explained to me seem rather flimsy given that they flew from Dhaka to Delhi via Kolkata & then detained," he said in another tweet. The Home Minister promptly responded with the tweet "@abdullah_omar please send the details to pstohm@nic.in." Bilal Ahmad, the father of one of the girls, said that he attempted to seek the help of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti but was refused an audience with her. "There were four girls who were returning from Bangladesh. They flew from Dhaka to Kolkata and then to Delhi. Their luggage was checked and cleared at all the airports," Ahmad said in Srinagar. "After they were detained, the airport authorities or the police did not inform their families. We fear for their safety. We have only talked to them once so far," he said. The three other girls decided to stay put with their friend and did not board the flight to Srinagar and waited till she was released. "Delhi Police released her after a few hours of questioning. However, between all this, the girls missed their connecting flight to Srinagar from Delhi and will now take a flight tomorrow," the official said. PTI SKL NES SSB SMN SMN --- ENDS --- advertisement The 11th edition of Poland's FilmAT saw Kerala Tourism bagging four awards for its campaigns. By India Today Web Desk: Most of us would agree with the fact that the state of Kerala is home to some of the most beautiful destinations in India. This southern state is known for picturesque beaches, lush green landscapes and the ever-charming backwaters. But who knew that Kerala Tourism would bag as many as four awards at the 11th edition of FilmAT, one of the biggest international film festivals dedicated to tourism, art and ecology, held in Poland every year. advertisement Kerala Tourism's Responsible Tourism initiative won three words under the Best Promotional Social Campaign, Protection of Nature, and Eco-Food categories respectively. The fourth award came across as a pleasant surprise. The tourism board's ad film titled, The Great Backwaters of Kerala won the award for Best Editing. This film portrays the life in and around the backwaters in a beautiful manner. Also watch: This new video showcases the best of Kerala in the most beautiful way "Winning four awards at such a prestigious festival is a significant achievement for Kerala. It speaks of our commitment towards utilising the state's potential for international tourism in a responsible manner--always with the best interests of the people and the environment at heart," said A.C. Moideen, Kerala Tourism Minister. The film was conceived and scripted by Stark Communications, Kerala Tourism's creative and brand management agency, and was directed by reputed Malayalam filmmaker Anwar Rasheed. The FilmAT festival is associated with the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals (CIFFT) and its juries include Oscar winning filmmakers, international film award winners as well as specialists from Tourism, Arts and Culture and Ecology. Watch the film The Great Backwaters of Kerala here: --- ENDS --- By PTI: Mumbai, Jun 17 (PTI) Shares of Max Financial Services surged over 10 per cent today after HDFC Standard Life proposed to merge Max Life and the company with itself to create an entity with assets worth over Rs 1 lakh crore. After surging 19.99 per cent to Rs 514.40 -- its upper circuit limit -- on BSE, shares of the company finally ended at Rs 472.80, up 10.29 per cent. advertisement At NSE, shares of the company jumped 10.51 per cent to close at Rs 473.85. Following the sharp rally, the companys market valuation rose by Rs 1,179.84 crore to Rs 12,624.84 crore. On volume front, 9.09 lakh shares of the company were traded at BSE and over 82 lakh shares changed hands at NSE during the day. In what could be the biggest consolidation in the Indian insurance sector, HDFC Standard Life today proposed to merge Max Life and Max Financial Services with itself to create an entity with assets worth over Rs 1 lakh crore. Boards of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Co, Max Life Insurance Company Ltd and Max Financial Services Ltd at their respective meetings held today, approved entering into a confidentiality, exclusivity and standstill agreement to evaluate a potential merger. They will explore "a merger of Max Life and Max Financial Services into HDFC Life by way of a scheme of arrangement", HDFC Ltd said in a statement. The total premium of the merged entity would be nearly Rs 26,000 crore and assets under management will top Rs 1 lakh crore. In the private life insurance space, only ICICI Prudential Life Insurance had reported AUM of Rs 1 lakh crore. Edinburgh-based Standard Life Plc holds 35 per cent stake in HDFC Life, in which HDFC owns 61.63 per cent. Max Life is a joint venture with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co. Max Financial owns 68 per cent stake in Max Life, while Mitsui Sumitomo owns 26 per cent. PTI SUM ABK --- ENDS --- The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) has pointed out several "weaknesses" in the submitted dossier, on the arguments put forward for its identification as an outstanding "university." The International Council on Monuments and Sites has deferred the awarding of the World Heritage Site title on Nalanda Mahavihara pointing out several weaknesses in its submitted dossier. By Baishali Adak: In a potential embarrassment for India, an agency of the UNESCO that evaluates nominated 'World Heritage Sites' globally, has recommended the "deferring" of awarding the coveted title to Nalanda University. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) has pointed out several "weaknesses" in the submitted dossier, on the arguments put forward for its identification as an outstanding "university." advertisement It, in fact, says that the 'state party' "needs to deepen its study of the (ancient site in Bihar)?in order to explicitly establish its importance?and authenticity." ICOMOS also seems to be uncomfortable with the project label, recommending it to be changed from the 'Excavated Remains of Nalanda Mahavihara' to 'The Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara.' The Ministry of Culture has not given up hope yet. Spokesperson of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Dr RS Fonia, told Mail Today, "We will convince the World Heritage Committee (WHC) of UNESCO during its final decision-making session at Istanbul (Turkey) around July 15. The 'Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO,' who is based in Paris, will travel to the venue and present our case." "We are supplying suitable literature and films on the merits of Nalanda Mahavihara to the Permanent Representative, so that he/she can suitably advocate for its inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site," Dr Fonia added. The 'Hill Forts of Rajasthan' also got through in this manner, he said. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and that of Culture are closely coordinating on this issue. NALANDA ENTERS THE LIST OF 'NOMINATED' WORLD HERITAGE SITES Nalanda became India's official entry on the list of 'World Heritage List Nominations' in 2015. This was under the category of 'Cultural Properties.' A 200-page dossier was handed over to UNESCO on January 28, 2015. An ICOMOS team led by Japanese expert Masaya Masui visited the ruins in Bargaon district of Bihar from August 25-30. It submitted its 'evaluation report' earlier this year. DOSSIER PROVIDES WEAK ARGUMENTS The report has expressed its 'dissatisfaction' on several counts. It says the dossier provides a 'weak' argument on Nalanda's superiority as a 'university' in its comparative analysis with old varsities in Paris and Bologna, Italy. It considers that "the condition of integrity of the nominated property has not been met." Boundaries should be drawn to include all areas and attributes which are direct tangible expressions of its 'Outstanding Universal Value.' Covering an area of 23 hectares, it includes the remains of the principle stupa, four chaityas, 11 viharas and a large number of shrines. The report also highlights that "development pressure is leading to densification of Nalanda's immediate surroundings." A 'buffer' strip, 30-400 meters wide, surrounds ancient Nalanda University, mostly consisting of agricultural fields and water bodies. advertisement Also Read This fort in Maharashtra might soon be a world heritage site Maha govt to seek UNESCO heritage site tag for forts --- ENDS --- By PTI: From Abhishek Shukla Windhoek, Jun 17 (PTI) Resource-rich Namibia has assured India that it will look into "legal ways" for supplying uranium for peaceful use of nuclear energy. Speaking at the banquet hosted in the honour of President Pranab Mukherjee, Namibian President Hage Geingob said the country commends Indias commitment towards peaceful use of nuclear energy. advertisement "We will look into legal ways wherein our uranium can be used by India," he said. Geingob said his country had resources but cannot use them as it does not possess any nuclear weapons. "We have resources but we cannot use it, we do not have nuclear weapons. But there are those who can use it. We will look into legal ways," he said. Citing a conversation with a former diplomat of India, he said it was a "nuclear apartheid" that a handful of countries wanted to dictate terms of nuclear technology. In an impassioned speech on reforms in United Nations, IMF and World Bank, the President said how can a country with 1.2 billion people and a continent with one billion people do not get representation in the United Nations Security Council. "How can it be democratic?" Geingob asked. Inviting Indian companies to invest in Namibia, Geingob lauded Indias proposal of International Solar Alliance, saying he appreciated the countrys role in combating climate change. "In Namibia, we see ourselves as gateway to Africa. We are also in close proximity to South America which is an important partner in South South cooperation but we are ready to be gateway to Indian companies into Africa and South America," he said. Mukherjee said, "India attaches high importance to enhancing her bilateral relations with Namibia. Our two countries have been cooperating closely while making sustained efforts to realise the developmental goals of our two nations." "We share the view that reform of the United Nations and its principle organs -- created in the wake of the Second World War -- is an imperative. We agree that they need to be made more reflective of todays changed world -- so that they can respond more effectively to the complex challenges confronting the world today," he said in his speech. Mukherjee said Africa and India, as centres of gravity in todays globalised world, have a responsibility to work together for peace, security and sustainable development in the two continents. advertisement "Namibia is blessed with rich natural resources and an abundance of mineral wealth. Their efficient extraction and value addition using environment-friendly methods will contribute to the sustainable development of this sector of your economy. India has always been -- and will continue to be -- a reliable partner in your endeavors in this direction," he said. PTI ABS MRJ CPS ASK AKJ ASK --- ENDS --- By PTI: From Abhishek Shukla Windhoek, Jun 17 (PTI) Resource-rich Nambia today assured that it will look into "legal ways" through which its uranium can be supplied to India for peaceful nuclear use. Speaking at the State Banquet hosted in the honour of President Pranab Mukherjee, Namibian President Hage Geingob said Namibia commends Indias commitment towards peaceful use of nuclear energy. advertisement "We will look into legal ways wherein our uranium can be used by India," he said. Geingob said his country had resources but cannot use them as it does not posses any nuclear weapons. "We have resources but we cannot use it we do not have nuclear weapons. But there are those who can use it. We will look into legal ways," he said. Citing a conversation with a former diplomat of India, he said it was a "nuclear apartheid" that a handful of countries wanted to dictate terms of nuclear technology. In an impassioned speech on reforms in United Nations, IMF and World Bank, the President said how can a country with 1.2 billion people and a continent with one billion people do not get representation in the United Nations Security Council. "How can it be democratic?" Geingob asked. Inviting Indian companies to invest in Namibia, Geingob lauded Indias proposal of International Solar Alliance, saying he appreciated the countrys role in combating climate change. "In Namibia, we see ourselves as gateway to Africa. We are also in close proximity to South America which is an important partner in South South cooperation but we are ready to be gateway to Indian companies into Africa and South America," he said. "India attaches high importance to enhancing her bilateral relations with Namibia. Our two countries have been cooperating closely while making sustained efforts to realise the developmental goals of our two nations," Mukherjee said. "We share the view that reform of the United Nations and its principle organs - created in the wake of the Second World War - is an imperative. We agree that they need to be made more reflective of todays changed world - so that they can respond more effectively to the complex challenges confronting the world today," he said in his speech. Mukherjee said Africa and India, as centres of gravity in todays globalised world, have a responsibility to work together for peace, security and sustainable development in the two continents. advertisement "Namibia is blessed with rich natural resources and an abundance of mineral wealth. Their efficient extraction and value addition using environment-friendly methods will contribute to the sustainable development of this sector of your economy. India has always been - and will continue to be - a reliable partner in your endeavours in this direction," he said. PTI ABS MRJ --- ENDS --- By PTI: Washington, Jun 16 (PTI) News stories on Twitter that are recommended by friends trigger more clicks, according to the first independent study of news consumption on social media. Researchers at Columbia University in the US and the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA) have found that reader referrals drove 61 per cent of the nearly 10 million clicks in a random sample of news stories posted on Twitter. advertisement Social media in 2014 overtook organic search as the top way people accessed content on the web, driving 30 per cent of all traffic. However, despite the social webs growing influence, relatively little is known about how people consume news on these proprietary platforms. Facebook and Twitter filter and personalise news for users and closely track the results, but because this data is fundamental to their advertising business very little is made public. The researchers collected all the open data they could find - the number of Twitters 280 million followers who potentially viewed and shared a news link shortened by the web app, Bit.ly, and how many clicks those links received. From the one per cent of tweets made public by Twitter, the researchers picked all URLs linked to five news outlets during a one-month period last year. The goal was to find out which stories in their sample of tweets would be shared and clicked on more: the less than 2 per cent of headlines news editors picked to promote from their official Twitter feed, or the headlines readers found on Twitter and shared themselves. Though far more readers viewed the links news outlets promoted directly on Twitter, the study found that most of what readers shared and read was crowd-curated. Eighty-two per cent of shares, and 61 per cent of clicks, of the tweets in the study sample referred to content readers found on their own. The findings suggest that people are quicker to share, than read, news discovered on Twitter. Though social networks commonly measure a storys popularity in shares, researchers found that 59 per cent of all links shared in their sample went unclicked, and presumably unread. "People are more willing to share an article than read it. This is typical of modern information consumption," said Arnaud Legout, a research scientist at INRIA. For those willing to read, the study finds that stories on Twitter have a relatively long shelf life. While more than 90 per cent of links in the study were shared within a few hours, most links were clicked on, and presumably read, much later; 70 per cent of clicks happened after the first hour, and a full 18 per cent happened in the second week, the study found. PTI MHN ABH --- ENDS --- advertisement The Micra CVT Automatic XL variant which was priced at Rs 6,53,252 will now be available at Rs 5,99,000, a reduction of Rs 54,252. The company claimed that the Micra CVT gives a mileage of 19.34 kmpl as per ARAI tests. By India Today Web Desk: Nissan on Friday slashed the prices of automatic transmission variant of its premium hatchback Micra in India by up to Rs 54,252 on the back of increased parts localisation. The Micra CVT Automatic XL variant which was priced at Rs 6,53,252 will now be available at Rs 5,99,000, a reduction of Rs 54,252. ALSO READ: Nissan bets on Datsun rediGO to crack small car market in India advertisement Similarly, the Micra Automatic CVT XV will now cost Rs 6,73,500 as against its earlier price of Rs 7,19,213 lakh, a drop of Rs 45,713 (all prices ex-showroom, New Delhi). Arun Malhotra, Managing Director, Nissan Motor India said, "As Micra is produced right here in India, we are able to better serve the market in terms of faster, more efficient delivery and improved localization levels. This allows us to pass on these benefits to our customers in the form of a revised, even more competitive price for our popular premium hatchback." ALSO READ: Nissan displays concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo in London The company claimed that the Micra CVT gives a mileage of 19.34 kmpl as per ARAI tests. Micra was the first locally produced Nissan model in India with production starting in 2010 at the Renault-Nissan Alliance plant in Chennai. ALSO READ: Nissan GTR: King of the Monsters Apart from the Micra, the company sells models, including mid-sized sedan Sunny and SUV Terrano, among others under the Nissan brand while it sells three models GO, GO Plus and redi-GO under the Datsun brand. --- ENDS --- By PTI: From Lalit K Jha Washington, Jun 17 (PTI) US President Barack Obama today hosted Saudi Arabias powerful Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman at the White House and discussed situation in the Middle East. During the meeting, Obama expressed appreciation for Saudi Arabias contributions to the campaign against ISIL, the White House said in a readout of the meeting. advertisement "Reviewing recent Iraqi gains against ISIL, the President and Deputy Crown Prince discussed steps to support the Iraqi people, including increased Gulf support to fund urgent humanitarian and stabilisation needs," the White House said. "On Syria, they reaffirmed the importance of supporting the cessation of hostilities and a political transition away from Asad," it said. According to the White House, Obama and Mohammed agreed to build support for Libya?s Government of National Accord. With regard to Yemen, Obama welcomed Saudi Arabia?s commitment to concluding a political settlement of the conflict, the White House said. "More broadly, the President and Deputy Crown Prince discussed Iran?s destabilising activities and agreed to explore avenues that could lead to a de-escalation of tensions. They also discussed the important role Saudi Arabia can play in addressing extremist ideology," the White House said. In Washington DC for almost a week, the 30-year-old Deputy Crown Prince, who is considered by many as the future leader of Saudi Arabia, met almost the entire top leadership of the Obama administration including Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Ashton Carter. The White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said the visit serves to underscore the deep strategic partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia. "Mostly, its going to give us an opportunity to further discuss issues of mutual concern and cooperation, including the situations in Yemen and Syria, our campaign against ISIL, Saudi Arabias national transformation programme of reforming its economy -- so all of the issues that were discussed at the GCC Summit in April," he told reporters. On Monday, Kerry hosted an Iftar for the visiting leader. Prince Mohammed also met the leaders in the intelligence community. The Saudi Ambassador to the United States Abdullah Al-Saud said the visit will have a significant impact on the development of the joint interests of the two countries. He said that the timing of the visit was significant because it follows the announcement of Saudi Vision 2030, an economic roadmap built around three primary themes: a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation. PTI LKJ NSA --- ENDS --- advertisement By PTI: From Lalit K Jha Washington, Jun 17 (PTI) US President Barack Obama has nominated an Indian-origin diplomat as the next American ambassador to Malaysia. If confirmed by the Senate, Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir would replace Joseph Y Yun as the next US ambassador to Malaysia. Nomination of Lakhdhir, a career member of the Foreign Service Class of Counselor who was Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2011 to 2015, was announced by the White House along with several other key administration appointments. advertisement "I am confident that these experienced and hardworking individuals will help us tackle the important challenges facing America, and I am grateful for their service. I look forward to working with them," Obama said. Lakhdhir served as the US Consul General in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom from 2009 to 2011. She previously worked in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs as the Director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia from 2007 to 2009 and as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2005 to 2006. From 2001 to 2005, she was a Political Officer at the US embassy in Beijing. From 2000 to 2001, she served as a Pearson Fellow in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee and the House Financial Services Committee, Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1991, Lakhdhir has also served as a Political Officer in Indonesia and as a Consular Officer in Saudi Arabia. She received a BA from Harvard College and an MS from the National War College. Kamlas father Noor Lakhdhir was born in Mumbai in mid 1920s. He received a scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley from where he graduated in 1952. He later moved to New York City. PTI LKJ MRJ --- ENDS --- BJP MP from Kairana - Hukum Singh has claimed that 346 families have deserted the village since 2014 By India Today Web Desk: Notwithstanding denials of any exodus of Hindus from Kairana town by the Uttar Pradesh government, BJP MLA Sangeet Som today gave a 15-day 'ultimatum' to the state for the return of those who migrated from the town. Meanwhile, his party has demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged Kairana migration. "We are giving an ultimatum to the state administration to bring back the people who left Kairana within 15 days, otherwise no one will be able to stop us," Som told reporters at Sardhana village near Kairana town in Shamli district. advertisement "If in 15 days they do not return we're warning that no one will be able to stop BJP workers from going to Kairana or to any other place," Som, who is an accused in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case, said. BJP HAD MADE A U-TURN ON KAIRANA BJP MP Hukum Singh had earlier claimed mass exodus of Hindu families from Kairana. On June 14, he stressed that the exodus was not a communal issue but of law and order. The BJP leader had told a TV channel that the people fled due to "threats and extortion by criminal elements belonging to a particular community". Meanwhile, the local administration prevented Som from entering Kairana for holding a protest march in the area. Prohibitory orders have been enforced across Shamli district and borders of Kairana sealed even as Som suspended his march to the restive town. "We are BJP workers and respect law and order. We are not moving ahead as Section 144 has been imposed by the administration but they will not be able to stop us if they fail to bring back the families which have migrated," Som asserted. SANGEET SOM'S NIRBHAY RALLY Som had started his 'Nirbhay' rally to Kairana from his house in Sardhana with thousands of followers but was stopped at the border of the town keeping in mind the situation. A rally by Samawadi Party, led by party leader Atul Pradhan, was also stopped some distance from Sardhana town limits. All entrances to Kairana have been sealed with the deployment of paramilitary forces with security officials keeping a watch on the situation. CBI PROBE INTO KAIRANA Meanwhile, a BJP delegation also met Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and gave him a memorandum demanding a CBI inquiry on the Kairana issue. With less than a year to go for the crucial Uttar Pradesh election, the explosive issue of Kairana is likely to be kept on slow boil by the BJP and other parties in the state. Also Read In Akhilesh Yadav's Uttar Pradesh, mobster forces Hindu exodus --- ENDS --- Marine Corps Times said he had been awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal during his service. By India Today Web Desk: A former US Marine sergeant of Indian origin, Imran Yousuf, has been hailed as a hero for saving scores of lives at a Florida night club when a terrorist went on a rampage killing 49 people. Yousuf posted on his Facebook page, "There are a lot of people naming me a hero and as a former Marine and Afghan veteran I honestly believe I reacted by instinct.... While it might seem that my actions are heroic I decided that the others around me needed to be saved as well and so I just reacted." advertisement HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED When Yousuf, who was working as a bouncer at the Pulse night club, catering to the gay community in Orlando, Florida, heard the first gunshots, his military experience fighting in Afghanistan kicked in. As everyone in the packed night club froze in fear, he jumped up and at personal risk opened a back door allowing many people to escape. As panicked people streamed to the back of the hall, "I'm screaming 'Open the door! Open the door!' And no one is moving because they are scared," he told CBS News television. "There was only one choice...Either we all stay there and we all die, or I could take the chance, and I jumped over to open that latch and we got everyone that we can out of there." Yousuf said his quick action saved 60 to 70 lives. He cried as he said, "I wish I could have saved more to be honest. There are a lot of people that are dead" And Yousuf has been modest, brushing off praises or being hailed as a hero. According to the Marine Corps Times newspaper, Yousuf had left the Marine Corps just last month. His family emigrated from Guyana, where his ancestors had gone from India. He grew up in the town of Niskayuna and joined the Marine Corps soon after he finished high school at the age of 17 and served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. His brother, Ameer Yousuf, said, "This was so unexpected but because of my brother's training in the Marine Corps, he was prepared and used strategies from that to do everything he did." Marine Corps Times said he had been awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal during his service. With Agency Inputs --- ENDS --- In a letter to the Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Senator Johnson said it is his understanding that Omar Mateen used Facebook before and during the attack to search for and post terrorism-related content. By Press Trust of India: The gunman who killed 49 people at a gay club in the US this week wrote a series of Facebook posts about the "filthy ways of the West" before and during the shooting rampage, a top US Senator has said and asked the founder of the social networking site to assist in the probe. Such an assertion by Senator Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs came amidst reports that Mateen, 29, made as many as 16 phone calls, including three to 911 and one to a local television stations during the several hours of early Sunday morning when he carried out the deadliest shooting in American history. advertisement SENATOR WANTS ZUCKERBERG'S HELP In a letter to the Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Johnson said it is his understanding that Mateen used Facebook before and during the attack to search for and post terrorism-related content. "I appreciate Facebook s support of the law-enforcement investigation into this attack and previous attacks. While Facebook is not a target of the Committee's inquiry, I respectfully request your assistance with the Committee s inquiry," he said. Johnson said according to information obtained by his staff, five Facebook accounts were apparently associated with Omar Mateen. OMAR USED FACEBOOK SEARCH WHILE KILLING PEOPLE On June 12, 2016, Mateen apparently searched for 'Pulse Orlando' and 'Shooting'. Mateen also apparently posted "America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic State...I pledge my alliance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi...may Allah accept me." He then posted "The real Muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the West" and "You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes..now taste the Islamic State vengeance." In a final post, Mateen apparently wrote, "In the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic State in the USA." In his letter on Wednesday, a copy of which was obtained and posted by Fox News, Johnson said his staff learned that in May 2016, Mateen used Facebook to search for information on the San Bernardino terrorists. On June 4, 2016, Mateen apparently searched 'Baghdadi Speech'. "My staff has also learned that Mateen apparently used Facebook to conduct frequent local law enforcement and FBI searches, including searching for specific law enforcement offices," Johnson said asking full support of Zuckerberg in its investigations. "I ask that you please provide all Facebook data on Mr Mateen's activities on his account and any affiliated Facebook accounts, including but not limited to activity logs, Facebook timeline information, Facebook messages, photos, and posts,"he said. Also read: Orlando gay club shooting: What we know so far Orlando shooter's wife knew of nightclub attack, could soon be charged Orlando shooting: Snapchat video captures the moment when gunman opened fire --- ENDS --- advertisement It was Admiral William McRaven's, the man who oversaw the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, personal "Wanted" Osama poster that was auctioned at a dinner in Houston. Osama Bin Laden poster signed by US Navy SEAL team auctioned for $100,000 in Houston (Pic: PTI) By PTI: US Navy SEAL Team 6 which carried out a raid in Pakistan to kill Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden auctioned a poster of him for $100,000 in Houston on Tuesday. Admiral William McRaven, who oversaw the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, took over the chancellor's office at the University of Texas. It was his personal "Wanted" Osama poster that was auctioned at a dinner in Houston. advertisement "(The photo was a) reminder to all of us that we were looking for him from 2004," McRaven told the Houston Chronicle. "It is a $10 poster in a seemingly priceless frame," he said. Admiral McRaven had insisted on a proper burial for Laden. "As evil as he was, its all the more important to do the right thing," McRaven replied to thunderous applause. The event raised more than $840,000 for Texas Children's Cancer Center. Osama was killed in the US Navy SEALs raid on May 2, 2011. (With inputs from PTI) --- ENDS --- Pakistan's nuclear arsenal which is widely regarded as designed to dissuade India from taking military action against it, consists of approximately 110-130 nuclear warheads. The report comes in the wake of Pakistan lobbying at the Capitol Hill and before the US government in support of its membership to the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. (Picture for representation purpose. Wikipedia creative commons) By Press Trust of India: Pakistan's "full spectrum deterrence" nuclear doctrine and increasing fissile production capability have increased the risk of a nuclear conflict with India, a Congressional report has said amid Pakistan's efforts to drum up support for its NSG membership bid. "Islamabad's expansion of its nuclear arsenal, development of new types of nuclear weapons, and adoption of a doctrine called full spectrum deterrence have led some observers to express concern about an increased risk of nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India, which also continues to expand its nuclear arsenal," the bipartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in its latest report. advertisement NUCLEAR WARHEADS Pakistan's nuclear arsenal probably consists of approximately 110-130 nuclear warheads, although it could have more, said the report Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons, authored by Paul K Kerr, analyst in non-proliferation, and Mary Beth Nikitin, specialist in non-proliferation. According to the copy of the report dated June 14, which was obtained by PTI, Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is widely regarded as designed to dissuade India from taking military action against it. CRS is the independent research wing of the US Congress, which periodically prepares reports on issues of interest to American lawmakers for information purpose only and does not represent the official position of the US Congress. US SUPPORT TO PAKISTAN Running into 30 pages, the report comes in the wake of Pakistan lobbying at the Capitol Hill and before the US government in support of its membership to the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group. Though noting that Pakistan in recent years has taken a number of steps to increase international confidence in the security of its nuclear arsenal, the CRS report observed that instability in Pakistan has called the extent and durability of these reforms into question. "Some observers fear radical takeover of the Pakistani government or diversion of material or technology by personnel within Pakistan's nuclear complex. While US and Pakistani officials continue to express confidence in controls over Pakistan's nuclear weapons, continued instability in the country could impact these safeguards," CRS said in its report meant for the lawmakers to take an informed decision. CRS said the current status of Pakistan's nuclear export network is unclear, although most official US reports indicate that, at the least, it has been damaged considerably. NSG MEMBERSHIP Referring to Pakistan's NSG membership application, the CRS said according to US law, the Obama Administration could apparently back Islamabad's NSG membership without congressional approval. In the past few weeks, top Pakistani leadership including its Ambassador to the US has been writing letters to lawmakers and meeting Government officials to push for its NSG bid. India's entry into NSG will break India-Pak nuclear balance Pakistan's new nuke threat: Why India has to worry --- ENDS --- advertisement Robert P George told American lawmakers during a Congressional hearing that Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs, have experienced numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment and violence during the past year, largely at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups. Prime Minster Narendra Modi has been targeted over the Dadri lynching case. By Press Trust of India: Religious tolerance in India is "deteriorating" while religious freedom violations are "increasing", a rights expert has told American lawmakers. "A pluralistic democracy, in India today religious tolerance is deteriorating and religious freedom violations are increasing," Robert P George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at the Princeton University and a former chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing. advertisement MINORITY COMMUNITIES HARASSED "Minority communities, especially Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs, have experienced numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment and violence during the past year, largely at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups," George alleged in his testimony before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organisations of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Members of the ruling BJP tacitly supported these groups and used religiously-divisive language to inflame tensions further," he alleged. These issues, combined with longstanding problems of police bias and judicial inadequacies have created a pervasive climate of impunity in which religious minority communities increasingly feel insecure with no recourse when religiously- motivated crimes occur, George told lawmakers yesterday. SCS, STs BARRED FROM ENTERING TEMPLE In his testimony, George said in the last year, "higher caste" individuals and local political leaders also prevented Hindus considered part of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Dalits) from entering religious temples. The national government or state governments also applied several laws to restrict religious conversion, cow slaughter, and foreign funding of NGOs, he said. Moreover, an Indian constitutional provision deeming Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains to be Hindus contradicts international standards of freedom of religion or belief, George argued. India has been on USCIRF's Tier 2 since 2009. Given its negative trajectory, USCIRF will continue to monitor the situation closely during the year ahead to determine if India should be recommended to the State Department for designation as a Country of Particular Concern, George said. NO FOREIGN FUNDS FOR NGOs In his testimony, George alleged that civil society in particular non-governmental organisations receiving funds from overseas are facing difficulties. In April 2015, the Ministry of Home Affairs revoked the licenses of nearly 9,000 charitable organisations, he noted. "For example, two NGOs, the Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), which run conflict-resolution programmes and fight court cases stemming from the 2002 Gujarat riots, had their registrations revoked," he told lawmakers. Additionally, the US-based Ford Foundation, which partially funds the Sabrang Trust and CJP, was put on a "watch list" when the Ministry of Home Affairs accused it of "abetting communal disharmony", he said. advertisement ALSO READ: Why Gujarat riots victims, activists are calling the Gulberg massacre verdict dispappointing Only the rich and famous talk of intolerance, says Anupam Kher --- ENDS --- Seven diplomats, each with their own passionately driven mission, came together to discuss the trails and landmark revelations of LGBTI community over the period of time in India and outside, in a meeting in New Delhi. By Smita Sharma: As the Delhi skyline was painted in different shades of blue on Friday afternoon, diplomats from seven different missions came together to discuss the various shades of humanity. In the wake of the recent Orlando attack , where 49 people paid a price with their lives, simply for being gay, these diplomats discussed the history of LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender And/ Or Intersex) struggles and rights in their respective countries. advertisement They deliberated upon the chicken and egg situation- if culture and society should change first to accept the LGBT community or should laws be framed to pave the way for mindsets to be changed. They also hoped that the Indian Parliament would decriminalise gay sex and repeal section 377. Diplomats from Norway, UK, Spain, US, EU, Germany and Sweden emphasized that changes in Indian law on homosexuality must be brought about from inside and not outside. A Swedish Documentary that led to Debate First Secretary Industrial Affairs at the German Embassy, Bjrn Grzinger recalled that it was an influential documentary on gay life that first sparked the public debate in Germany in 1971. TV stations refused to carry the documentary, but it started discussions on gays rights. And in 1987 the first gay kiss was broadcasted in a German soap . He reminded that till 1994, homosexual sex was defined as a criminal offence by law, but things changed drastically in 2001." In 2001 with the passage of same sex civil union, mayor of Berlin came out and said 'I am gay'. That Became the catchphrase and opened up an opportunity for politicians as well as gays in other spheres to come out in the public, " Bjrn added. Germany introduced the same sex Union law in 2001 which grants almost same set of rights to same sex couples except joint adoption of a child. Public debate is ongoing in Germany and constitutional court is looking into lawsuits to allow homosexual couples the right to adopt a kid. La Movida liberalised gay rights in Spain Beatrix Lorenzo Didic, Counsellor at the Spanish Embassy spoke of her country's long battle for LGBT rights. Several arrests were made at the first gay pride march in Barcelona in 1977. And it was the La Movida or Movement of Liberalisation after the Franco regime in 1980's, when societal and legal transformation began for the erstwhile banned community . Eventually, in 2005, Spain was the third country in the world to accept same sex marriage . But Beatrix cautioned that gays and lesbians are still subjected to bullying in schools. Citing a study, she added that at least 34 percent of suicides in the country below the age of 17 was either because homosexuals couldn't accept reality or were subjected to bullying in school. The Spanish diplomat added that a landmark judgement was delivered by a higher court in Madrid when a lesbian couple were denied the public right to state funded medical insemination. advertisement The court ruled in favour of the couple and the hospital had to compensate for the discrimination. Though transphobia and hate crimes towards the LGBT community remains a challenge for its society . Harassed by first boss for being gay-EU diplomat Speaking to the young and old crowd assembled at the American Centre, some diplomats also cited their personal experiences of being discriminated against for coming out of the closet. Thibault Devanlay ,a French citizen and Counsellor Political affairs at the EU mission was harassed by his boss as he started his career at the environment ministry. There were charges fabricated against Thibault for having declared his open sexuality. But it were his 'straight' colleagues and the administration that fought for him much to his surprise. This even though LGBT rights were decriminalised in France 225 years ago in the 17th century. Thibault advocated against gender stereotypes of painting young boys in shades of blue with cars, and young girls in shades of pink with dogs. He cited Malta, a tiny island European nation , as one with one of the best same sex marriage law including rights to adoption. advertisement He hoped that things would change in India soon for the European delegation to fly rainbow flags here, like they do in some missions in other countries. Thibault is today encouraged by his Ambassador to make public appearance at seminars, conferences with his partner, except for where sentiments run otherwise. Showing the way-Norway Expressing his deepest condolence at the Orlando killings, Baard Hjelde, Head of Political Affairs at the Norwegian Embassy stressed that LGBT rights are human rights which apply to all and guides the country's national and international policy. Till 45 years ago, homosexuality was a crime in Norway. But changes to the legal framework and societal attitude were made in 1972 with the repealing of the criminal act that defined gay sex as offence. In 1981, Norway was the first country to legislate to prevent discrimination against the LGBT community. advertisement Norwegian Churches too, starting this year have begun blessing same sex couples. Another historic milestone was achieved on June 6 as the country legislated to allow self determination of gender identity. A Norwegian citizen can now change legal gender without any psychological counseling or medical checkup with just an email sent to concerned authorities. Churches blessing gay couples in Sweden Questions were raised about the role of faith and theology in homophobia and how to deal with religious institutions. Deputy Head of Mission at the Swedish Embassy Daniel Wolvn cited an example from his country where the church took unprecedented step and said we are all for love . However, it was not imposed upon Individual priests to comply with. Churches themselves would help gay couples find a willing priest to solemnise their wedding. "Swedish society today is more clairvoyant and liberal, especially with the church liberalising its approach," Daniel added. From Eye Machine Horror to an Inclusive Canada At a time when Republican Presidential Front runner Donald Trump has chosen to whip up anti-Islamic sentiments with divisive rhetoric following the Orlando killings, Canada is spreading the message of the strength of diversity for social, economic well being. Jess Dutton, Canadian Deputy High Commissioner called the Pulse nightclub shootout an "attack on all of us, attack on our way of life and friends in LGBT community". It was in 2005 that Canada gave the green signal to same sex marriage. In the decades preceding that, hatred was so deeply rooted that National police would gauge suspected homosexuals through the interpretation of their pictures shown in an eye machine and if one were gay, they would be kicked out of public service. Jess recalled the 1965 case where a man called Everett George Clippert came out in public and accepted he had been indulging in gay sex for more than two decades. He was arrested, prosecuted and declared as a sexual offender in 1967, a ruling upheld by the Supreme Court. It was then that erstwhile Prime Minister , father of current PM Justin Trudeau, formulated the law to decriminalise homosexuality. The law was eventually passed in 1969 and Edward Clippert walked out of prison later in 1971. Transformation begins at home-UK For the United Kingdom though, till the early 90's, the LGBT community was barred from diplomatic service as there would be no security clearance provided to them. But as things turned around in 1994 with the change in laws, diplomacy changed too . Today, the UK boasts of openly gay and lesbian ambassadors, and even having had an entirely homosexual mission some years back. Deputy High Commissioner,Dr Alexander Evans said the UK today has 35 LGBTI member of parliaments - the highest in the world, with 14 conservatives, 14 Labour Party MPs, and 7 Scottish National Party members out of closet. "Being Bisexual in London in 1920's or 30's, was better than in 50's or 60's. So what goes forward can go backward," cautioned Alexander asking for the movement to be not taken for granted. Orlando drives home need for Dialogue In December of 2010 with the abolishment of 'don't ask-don't tell', the doors to military service were finally opened for LGBT community in the world's oldest democracy. DCM at the American Embassy, Michael Pelletier emphasised that the horrific Orlando killings drove home the significance of open dialogue on homosexuality, specially in a country like India. The United States legalised same sex marriage in 2015 . " Every country advances in its own way based on different priorities. For change to be resilient and long lasting, the change has to come out of society and be rooted in society ," he added. Repeal 377, No special rights, only human rights for LGBTI Earlier in the day, 28 foreign missions in the country released a joint statement to celebrate the Commitment of their Country to Full Equality for all Human Beings Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity. The joint communique noted the Indian supreme court's landmark judgement of April 2014 granting transgender people legal recognition and access to "all rights under the law". However at the American Centre deliberations, diplomats emphasised that transgender rights and section 377 rulings are not coherent and co-existent. And they hoped that section 377 would be repealed soon. Diplomats of these various missions are in touch with parties including the BJP and its lawmakers and other discreet contacts to understand the ground situation and take up issues in bilateral dialogues on transforming LGBT rights in India. They stressed that LGBTI community is not demanding special rights, they are only seeking human rights that everyone deserves and hoped that rainbow flags would soon dot the Indian skies. Also read:Tracing the history of Section 377, SC's final call to cast aside the punitive law --- ENDS --- In its application Bilal has asked for NIA chargsheet to be discarded saying that there is enough evidence against Sadhvi and others to be prosecuted. By Mustafa Shaikh: Special NIA court allowed Nisar Bilal, victim in 2008 Malegaon blast case, to become an intervener in the bail pleas filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Pravin Takkalki. Though the demand to make Maharashtra ATS a party in the case was rejected by the court. Questions have been raised by Bilal about the veracity of supplementary chargesheet filled by NIA. In its application Bilal has asked for NIA chargsheet to be discarded saying that there is enough evidence against Sadhvi and others to be prosecuted. advertisement "We will make are submissions to oppose the bail of accused no 1 Sandhvi Pragyasinh," said Bilal's lawyer, Abdul Wahad Khan. "It's premature to reveal on what grounds we will oppose the bail, but we can assure that there is enough material to prosecute the accused. Bail and discharge are farfetched things." According to Khan, their application was allowed, given the willingness of the prosecution to discharge the accused. "During the arguments SPP was asked whether they feel the accused should get bail and he replied in affirmative after which I think court gave us consideration to make submission during the bail plea," added Khan. "ATS investigation is termed to be fabricated by the accused. So as natural principal of justice we felt that ATS should be given a hearing on the matter. The court was of the opinion that all ATS documents are in court so there is no need to grant them a say," said Khan. --- ENDS --- It's hard, if not impossible, to grow and flourish under a banyan tree. The Kapoor brothers, Shashi and Shammi, had two gigantic figures looming over them. Father Prithviraj Kapoor had dominated the theatre scene for decades before his two boys grew up, having shone in silent cinema equally, before starring in India's first talkie, Alam Ara. Then there was sibling Raj Kapoor-older than Shammi by seven years and Shashi by 14-who had perched himself at the top, with his much-loved star persona of the tramp, and as a solid boss of RK Studio. Not surprisingly, Shammi, when he started out, was written off by audiences and the film industry alike as a boring, goody two shoes "Raj Kapoor clone", with 18 box-office flops in a row. advertisement Much as the Bombay film industry is reviled for being nepotistic, it is actually replete with stories of famous star-sons and star-siblings failing to make it. The Kapoor brothers are notable exceptions simply because each of them grew sideways as smaller plants from under the banyan, coming out of the shadows to find their place under the sun. As far as family trees go, Shammi's stylised urban hero was more a natural extension of Dev Anand's. It is not a coincidence that his breakthrough hits- Tumsa Nahin Dekha and Junglee- were movies Dev had first turned down. The movie projection of Shammi as a mirror image of his off-screen persona-goofy, funny, full of restless energy and an unabashed Casanova-was something his new wife Geeta Bali helped him draw out, both in the choice of films and roles. Was Shammi merely an actor? No. Rauf Ahmed's biography calls him Bollywood's 'Game Changer' and through this painstakingly detailed biography, you can adequately sense why. The term Bollywood, with its connotations of the romantic musical genre, owes its origins to Shammi from the swinging '60s. As do some of the typically 'Bollywood' films-starring Amitabh Bachchan (in the '70s), Aamir/Salman/Shah Rukh Khan (in the '90s) to Ranbir Kapoor (post-millennial)-thereafter. What did Shammi get so right? The script, as he admits, was roughly the same-boy likes girl, who doesn't respond to him first but eventually gives in, which is when the villain steps in. It was really about the music. Shammi collaborated closely with his friend Jai (of the composer duo Shankar-Jaikishen); and Mohammed Rafi, his playback voice. And man, he knew his music. Most don't know, for instance, that Shammi had composed the lilting Amitabh song Neela aasman so gaya from Silsila (1981) a decade before. That's not all. Shammi took a personal interest in song visuals and choreographed his own tracks. He saw dance as an uninhibited physical expression of music rather than a series of well-planned steps. There is a wonderful episode in the book of the cast and crew of Junglee trooping from Bombay to Pahalgam (in Kashmir) and Kufri (near Shimla) looking for 12 inches of snow to shoot a song. When they reached the final location, no one knew what Shammi was going to do. Neither did Shammi. The next morning he slid down the snow-peak screaming "Yahoo", a moment frozen in movie history. advertisement Shashi, in contrast, seems to be the understated sibling. If being third in a line of hugely popular brothers wasn't hard enough, he was also the less aggressive, genteel half of 'Shashitabh'-the 'angry young man' Amitabh Bachchan's foil in the '70s (in Trishul, Deewar, Kaala Patthar, Shaan?). Shashi (inarguably the handsomest Kapoor) was a major star in his own right. But more significantly, he pursued an alternative career in relatively minimalist movies aimed at both international and locally more discerning audiences. Aseem Chhabra's account neatly divides Shashi's career into three phases. His Merchant Ivory and other international productions, which even picked up top gongs, at Berlin (Heat and Dust) or Venice (Siddhartha). As the overworked mainstream superstar in cookie-cutter mode, often doing "really bad movies", he would show up at multiple shoots the same day, remembering neither his own lines nor the film's inconsequential storylines, a trait that prompted Raj Kapoor to label him "taxi". But, the book also looks closely at Shashi's work as filmmaker, where he persistently strived to break free from the mainstream clutter, producing Junoon, Kalyug, 36 Chowringhee Lane, Vijeta-gems, all of them. advertisement Shammi, we learn from Rauf's biography, was a hunter (literally and figuratively), an inveterate traveller and an impulsive man, prone to occasional bouts of arrogance. Shashi used to call him "Santa Claus", in an obvious reference to his generosity as brother. Shashi, we gauge from Chhabra's monograph, was very much a Santa figure too-a benevolent businessman or producer, who'd throw open 5-star hotel rooms, passing on his hard-earned money to pamper his 'art-house' cast and crew, making losses all through. Both come across as very Punjabi, 'dildar', larger-than-life figures, which is a big part of their charm, making you want to meet and know them better. Sometimes (and this is a lament as a Mumbai journalist), before you know it, people turn into books. Sadly, Shammi is no more, and Shashi is not keeping well. If journalism is its first draft, then history, you can tell through these two accounts, is going to remember them very fondly, alongside their towering brother Raj Kapoor, for their distinctly unique contribution to films. Chhabra's severely slim volume, in that sense, is a marvellously produced/packaged/edited tribute. But Rauf's is a better book. For one, because it is almost wholly in the voice of the subject. The author spends hours talking to Shammi-"first in the family after Papaji (Prithviraj) to pass matric and enter college"-reminiscing about his glory days. advertisement Shammi is devastatingly candid about his emotional highs and lows, relationships and breakups. The book goes deeper to examine his rollickingly promiscuous rock-star life. Many of these anecdotes, at least ones relating to film shoots and professional collaborations, could hugely enliven Annu Kapoor's radio pravachans on Bollywood. In fact, there is even a germ of a script in there that can only be titled 'Rockstar'. That was ironically the movie where we saw grand old man Shammi on screen for the last time. --- ENDS --- The new poster of Shivaay looks similar to the first look poster of the film in which Ajay was seen hanging down a cliff. By India Today Web Desk: Ajay Devgn, who is donning the director's hat for the upcoming film Shivaay, introduced the lead lady of the film. He took to Twitter to share a poster of the debutant actor from the film. Here's presenting the ravishing @sayyeshaa Welcome her as she joins the journey of Shivaay. pic.twitter.com/a9okxhlhoX Shivaay (@ShivaayTheFilm) June 16, 2016 advertisement Though making her debut in Hindi, Sayyeeshaa, the grand niece of veteran actor Saira Banu, is not new to acting. She has already acted in a Telugu film alongside Nagarjuna's son Akhil Akkineni. In the poster, Sayyeeshaa face is creatively placed between two hills. Ajay is standing on one of the cliffs, and Sayyeesha is on the other. The new poster also looks similar to the first look poster of the film in which Ajay was seen hanging down a cliff. Produced by Ajay Devgn, the film has been shot in various places including Bulgaria, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. Shivaaya will hit the screens on October 28 (Diwali). --- ENDS --- Officials explained that the farmhouses if put to commercial use attract four times of the property tax and if rented out the property tax levied is twice. By Sneha Agrawal: The farmhouses in South Delhi will soon face penalty for evading the payment of property tax. The civic agency surveyed 1,900 farmhouses of which 1,400 have not paid the property tax. These farmhouses owe amount varying from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 3 crore. NOTICES ISSUED Around 1,140 farmhouses in the jurisdiction of South Delhi Municipal Corporation have been issued notices and the process of auctioning 100 of the attached farmhouses has been initiated. The survey was carried out in Chhattarpur, Ghitorni, Western Green, Rajokri, Mahabalipuram Greens, Asola, Aya Nagar, Kapashera, Pushpanjali, Sohlapur, Bhatal, Chhawla, Dera Mandi, Bhatti, Gadaipur. advertisement MORE FARMHOUSES EVADING TAXES TO FACE THE WRATH "We are forming more teams to unearth the evasion of property tax by the farmhouse owners in all the areas where they have been constructed. The property tax is also applied on the vacant land belonging to the farmhouses and would not be considered as the agricultural land. During the survey, our officials unearthed the false claims of the farmhouse owners about the land being put to agricultural use. These lands are bought for investments and left as it is," Ram Mohan Singh, Additional Commissioner, SDMC said. HOW MUCH OF TAX ARE THESE FARMHOUSE OWNERS AVOIDING? The official explained that the farmhouses if put to commercial use attract four times of the property tax and if rented out the property tax levied is twice. The properties attached are valued approximately Rs 5 crore each. Many of the farmhouse owners have constructed huge structures and spend substantial amount in their maintenance but do not pay the property tax. "Around 40-45 farmhouses as per the survey have been rented out to the diplomats and the owners have paid less than the required amount. We get around six percent of the revenue from the farmhouses," said Singh. Also read: 1,140 farmhouse owners issued notice for tax evasion: SDMC --- ENDS --- You'd probably hate us for this, but the colour that is an absolute NO for your own good might just be the one you're obsessed with. By India Today Web Desk: Do you feel dull and cranky without the presence of a significant, unpleasant stimuli? Well, the reason could be "down there". No, we're not talking about anything we're not 'supposed' to be talking about--this, in fact, is about your whole being. According to colour-response analyst Anjel OBryant, the hue of your underwear plays a significant role in the way you feel. advertisement Daily Mail UK quotes OBryant saying, "Every colour vibrates, all at different levels. It doesn't matter if you can seen them or not, it goes through your skin, over your whole body and into your brain." Also Read: This Indian has created an underwear for women on their period There is no denying the fact that a new, fresh and sexy pair of underwear has the power to make you feel really, really good about yourself, but according to OBryant, these seemingly inconsequential things have more to them than just being an essential piece of clothing. Throwing light on why exactly the colour of your underwear is important, OBryant says that a person's "base chakra is around your lower stomach area, near the line where your underwear would sit." Reiterating on the importance of colour vibrations, let us also tell you the particular coloured underwear that you should absolutely not wear if you want the colour vibrations to be positive. Also Read: Why the advertising world is obsessed with 'perfect' women, thigh gaps, and Kylie Jenner's lips You'd probably hate us for this, but the colour that faces a strict no-no by OBryant is--black. Yes, the same colour that dominates your bedroom lingerie shopping. "Black isn't the sexiest colour underwear, it cancels the energy. It was just a thing people told us to sell underwear, but from a scientific point of view, it's not the case; it's not good for your energy levels," OBryant tells Daily Mail UK. But don't worry, we also have a shade card of the underwear that are actually going to keep your mood rather nice. The best colour for women is reportedly, ultra-marine blue, whereas for men, it is navy blue. Happy underwear shopping! --- ENDS --- By India Today Web Desk: Sushant Singh Rajput has been in news more for his personal life than his professional choices. After his break-up with longtime girlfriend Ankita Lokhande, there were rumours of him dating his Raabta co-star Kriti Sanon. While the two remained tight-lipped about their relationship status, their pictures from the film sets in Budapest had a different story to tell. advertisement ALSO READ: Sushant Singh Rajput returns to Instagram, shares a wrap-up selfie with Kriti Sanon ALSO READ: There is a spark in our chemistry, says Kriti Sanon In fact, the PK actor's recent selfie with Kriti on Instagram set many tongues wagging. For the uninitiated, a few weeks ago, Sushant had deleted his Instagram account post his split with Ankita to keep away from the prying eyes of media and fans. And his comeback selfie on Insatgram with his Raabta co-star only added fuel to the fire. If BollywoodLife is to be believed, these are not just rumours. According to the website, there is more than just friendship between Sushant and Kriti. And the rumoured lovebirds would soon make their relationship official. In fact, a source close to Raabta was quoted as telling the website, "Kriti has also been going around telling everyone how she is in her happiest phase right now." Sushant and Kriti met on the sets of Dinesh Vijan's Raabta and the two instantly connected. The Dilwale actor in an earlier interview with PTI had revealed that there is some spark in their chemistry. "There was something special, something you can't describe in words. There was a connect, a spark, some chemistry between me and Sushant even though that was the first time we met," she said. Sushant and Kriti have wrapped up the Budapest schedule of Raabta and are back in Mumbai. --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) Ambassador of the Syrian Arab Republic Riad Kamel Abbas today called on Union minister Kiren Rijiju and discussed the prevailing situation in the Gulf country and how to fight ISIS and "Islamic radicalisation". During the 20-minute meeting, Abbas briefed Rijiju about the present situation in Syria where ISIS has been holding a large area. advertisement "The Ambassador called for a joint effort of major nations to eradicate ISIS and Islamic radicalisation," Rijiju told PTI. The Ambassador has sought Indias greater participation in fight against the terror group, the Minister of State for Home said. PTI ACB SMN --- ENDS --- By PTI: From Sajjad Hussain Islamabad, Jun 17 (PTI) The conversion to Islam of a 14- year-old girl from Kalasha community, Pakistans smallest religious minority, has sparked clashes between majority Muslims and a few thousand remaining members of the animist tribe. Nestled in the picturesque Chitral valley, the Kalasha people, who follow an ancient animistic religion and number only around 3,000, had claimed that the teenage girl was lured to convert to Islam. advertisement However, a district official today said that the girl has recorded her statement before the court that she converted out of her own free will. Yesterday, clashes were reported between Muslims and the Kalasha people after the girl returned back to her family amid reports that she was lured and coerced to convert to Islam. According to eye witnesses, a mob of few hundred Muslim men attacked a house in the Kalash tribes valley of Bumburate in the northern district of Chitral after the girl returned and police had to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd. Chitral Deputy Commissioner Usama Waraich said that the situation was now under control and the issue has been resolved as both local Muslims and Kalasha people have agreed to respect the girls decision. However, some elders of the Kalasha community still claim that the girl was forcefully converted and demand an impartial probe into the matter. Kalasha people mostly live in Bamburate, Birir and Rambur regions of Chitral, a northern district in the troubled Khyber-Pukhtunkwa province. The closely-knit community with its distinctive language, colourful dresses, songs and dances and elaborate rituals, has long been an anomaly in the Muslim-majority Pakistan and are under increased threat from militants who want to convert them to Islam. Local legends also connect Kalasha people to the descendants of the soldiers of Alexander the Great, who passed this area in 326 BC during Alexanders India campaign. Some of the soldiers settled in the cold climes of the scenic Chitral valley after Alexander abruptly ended his India campaign and decided to return back to Greece, local folk-lore say. PTI SH SUA AKJ SUA --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 17 (PTI) Thailand today called for speeding up negotiations for conclusion of a free trade agreement with India by focussing on simpler things, saying the pact should be a "win-win situation" for both. "We are currently negotiating an FTA. We need to work faster on this. I would like this to be a win-win situation for both sides," Thailand Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said while addressing an industry event. advertisement According to him, the two countries must move ahead on the FTA by focussing on simpler things and sorting them out. He also said there are almost 30 agreements that have been signed between India and Thailand, but there is a need to implement this with vigour and added that focus should be on taking action. At a meeting of joint forum here, business leaders from both sides set a target of USD 16 billion bilateral trade by 2021. The Thailand Prime Minister expressed his willingness to give Indian private sector incentives and waive obstacles, adding that the country would like India to invest in sectors like auto parts, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, among others. Chan-o-cha has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the two leaders discussed issues of "mutual interest and concern" along with Thai-Indian and Thai-Asean issues. It was agreed that Thailand and India would begin talks and establish a free trade agreement (FTA) by 2010. Both the countries initially agreed to enact an early harvest scheme (EHS), meaning agreements on one or more topics must be concluded before the scheduled completion of a multi-issue round. The agreement specified tariff reductions under the EHS for 82 items, including fruits, processed food products, gems and jewellery, iron and steel products, auto parts, electronic goods and electric appliances. Tariffs on these products were eliminated on September 1 of 2006. India and Thailand have also agreed to support the ASEAN-India FTA and the negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership by this year. MORE PTI RSN ARD --- ENDS --- Dhaval Gori, once a sea cadet, admits that there was a time when he felt pretty hateful towards Pakistan. "It wasn't until later that I realised that soldiers were losing lives on both the sides and that the actual solution was peace. And I began thinking of how I could contribute to this," reveals Gori. Curiosity about opinions from the other side led the 25-year-old to begin connecting with Pakistani youth online. Bhavesh Hagwane (left) and Dhaval Gori. Soon he had friends from Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi who he is still in touch with through WhatsApp or Facebook. "I realised how different the reality was from what we had been imagining," says Gori, who currently works as a project manager at a logistics company. The young man and his friend Bhavesh Hagwane connected with poets, journalists, and fellow travel junkies from Pakistan, who helped change their perspective. advertisement "It occurred to us that since we loved travelling, why not make the trip and meet our counterparts across the border, face to face," says Gori. That was how their project Ride for Peace was initiated, but it soon grew into a much more ambitious plan to cover 22,000 km in seven months. Hagwane, Gori and their friend Arun Bhat intend to leave in August and over the first five months, ride across the country and interview a thousand people in the hinterlands to discuss their views on Pakistan. If all goes well, they will cross the border to Pakistan and do the same over two months. Doing the epic journey on a bike is an essential part of their plan. "Biking symbolises freedom, independence. Riding a bike allows you to stay connected with nature as well as the people you encounter on the way," explains Gori. The boys plan to document their journey and produce a film on their return. But he lays emphasis on how their project is different from other such initiatives. "Usually it is the people of the metropolises that are asked about their opinion. We want to find out what rural India and Pakistan think of each other. We want to talk to those who have absolutely no political connections with Pakistan." he adds. From Mumbai the trio plans to visit Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Jammu, Himachal-the Seven Sisters. The challenge will be to replicate this all-encompassing journey in Pakistan. "We have asked the Pakistani embassy for an easy passage through the cities we're planning to cover. They have been very supportive and we have reasons to remain positive," says Gori. --- ENDS --- Pakistan authorities claim that Afghanistan security forces open fired indiscriminately, injuring civilians in the attack on Sunday. The Pakistan-Afghanistan border has been closed for all types of traffic since Sunday after the clashes. Hundreds of cargo trucks and loading vans are still stranded. By Kaswar Klasra: Four days after skirmishes between armed forces of Pakistan and Afghanistan at Torkham border killed two people - including a major of the Pakistan army and an Afghan soldier - the two sides agreed to solve dispute through dialogue. WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED? Clashes started on Sunday at the Torkham border following Pakistan's attempt to erect a huge gate on Pakistan-Afghanistan border. According to Pakistani authorities, Afghan security forces opened indiscriminate firing at the Pakistani side, which resulted into the death of a major of the Pakistan army. advertisement This charge, however, has been denied by Afghanistan. Some civilians also received bullet injuries. Pakistan army retaliated with full force and killed an Afghan soldier and injured many. The skirmishes continued till Tuesday afternoon, which prompted two sides to deploy more troops at the border, backed with heavy weapons. Late in the evening on Tuesday, the two sides decided to end dispute through dialogue. The meeting lasted for several hours. It was attended by the military and civilian officials of Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to eye-witnesses, the firing stopped on Wednesday but the situation is still tense at the border. On Thursday, spokesperson of foreign office told reporters that firing has stopped at the border. "Pakistan and Afghanistan are engaged in talks to defuse tension along Torkham border," Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria, told reporters in Islamabad. He added that Pakistan's border management efforts are part of counter-terrorism actions. EFFECTIVE BORDER MANAGEMENT REQUIRED, SAYS SARTAJ AZIZ Later on Thursday, advisor on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, said that Pakistan believes that effective border management is the key to enhancing security and checking infiltration of terrorists along Pakistan-Afghanistan border. In a policy statement in the National Assembly on Thursday, he said it is vital for combating terrorism. The advisor reaffirmed the government's commitment to complete construction work at Torkham as this is part of the plan to strengthen border controls and regulate movements across border. Sartaj Aziz told members of Pakistan's lower house that effective border management is vital for enhancing security of both Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is also important for combating threat of terrorism as unregulated movement provides opportunity for infiltration of terrorists and smugglers across the border, which is not in the interest of the two countries. Also read: US appeals Afghanistan and Pakistan to calm tensions How terrorists posing as Afghan medical tourists almost hit Delhi --- ENDS --- Known for heritage sites and a beautiful coastline, this country has been named as the best tourism destination this year. The Angkor Wat is popular among tourists from all parts of the world. Picture courtesy: Flickr/Guyon Moree/Creative Commons By India Today Web Desk: At times, choosing a destination for your holiday becomes a difficult task. You have got your leaves approved, got your budget in place, but simply not able to pick one from so many places to go. After all, the world is there in front of you. But what if somebody told you about a country that has been named the best destination in the world this year? Makes things easy for you, doesn't it? advertisement Also read: Top 10 international destinations Indians are flocking to this summer Cambodia has been as the World Best Tourism Destination for 2016. Home of the famous Angkor Wat, the title has been conferred by The European Council on Tourism and Trade (ECTT). 30 countries participated in this prestigious annual competition, wherein Cambodia presented its report for the competition under the title 'Cambodia: The Land of Magic-The Place Where Gods And Kings Build the World!'. Cambodia took the top spot in awards owing to its rich cultural and historical legacy and outstanding natural beauty. "Cambodia is a perfectly safe and outstanding destination that will forever mark your heart," said Professor Anton Caragea, president of the Bucharest-headquartered ECTT, which consists of 28 European countries as members. Although Cambodia is a place full of surprises, the country is known among travellers for two UNESCO World Heritage Sites--the 12th century Angkor Wat in Siem Reap province and the other is the 11th century Preah Vihear Temple in Preah Vihear province. Besides, the country is gifted with a 450-km long pristine coastline stretching across four provinces in the country's southwestern part. The country attracted some 4.8 million foreign tourists in 2015, earning gross revenue of more than $3 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism. (With inputs from IANS) --- ENDS --- A copy of the movie that makers of Udta Punjab submitted to the CBFC was leaked online. To download or not to download is the question. We tell you why not to! By Vivek Surendran: Piracy, in simplest terms, refers to the act of duplicating copyrighted content without the permission/authorisation from the rights holder. A Censor Board copy of Director Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab, starring Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh, and produced by director Anurag Kashyap and Phantom Films, was leaked online two days ago, and the movie released nationwide today. All those who worked hard to make this movie, and then fought against the ruthless cuts suggested by the Central Board of Film Certification, pleaded with people to not download the movie from torrent sites. advertisement Anurag Kashyap, in a Facebook post, said he has never downloaded a movie illegally from the internet. He confessed that he occasionally watched downloaded movies borrowed from friends but ensured that he found a way to pay for them later. You can read his post here: Anurag's claim that he never downloaded a movie from torrents irked some on social media, with some even calling him a hypocrite, like this guy (to which Kashyap replied)... ...and some had good things to say about Kashyap's movies, even reassuring the filmmaker that they will watch it only from the theatres. This is not the first time a movie's Censor Board copy got leaked. Last year, a Malayalam movie - Premam - starring Nivin Pauly and directed by Alphone Puthren, suffered the same fate. People watched the leaked copy on their laptops and phones before the film got released. It's altogether a different matter that the movie went on to become one of the most commercially successful movies in the history of Malayalam cinema. Is borrowing and watching a pirated film legal? The whole debate on piracy and downloading movies, music, software and games from the internet has one major argument - "we didn't download it ourselves, just borrowed it from a friend who did" - and there's a general misconception from where this stems. The misconception that "downloading" copyrighted content without authorisation of the rights holder is the crime and not consuming it. Wrong! You can be booked for being complicit. From helping someone commit a crime, to not informing authorities despite being aware of a possible 'crime', to profiting from a crime committed by someone else - is all illegal and punishable. What does Indian law say? Section 65A (J) of the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 20l2, says "Any person who circumvents an effective technological measure applied for the purpose of protecting any of the rights conferred by this Act, with the intention of infringing on such rights, shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend up to two years and shall also be liable to fine." Yes, imprisonment up to two years and a fine on top of it. Why are torrents illegal? Torrents are not very different from FTP (File Transfer Protocol) where users upload data on to a server and others can download it from them. Problem arises only when commercial copyrighted content is redistributed through this channel without proper authorisation. advertisement Anurag Kashyap said, "I have found a way to pay for them later, by buying them on DVD" in his Facebook post. Many mocked this as well. In another instance in the Malayalam film industry, director/producer Aashiq Abu got a message in his Facebook inbox where a fan, who saw his latest production - Maheshinte Prathikaram - by downloading it from a Torrent website, wanted to pay for the movie. The message said he had paid $20 dollars to watch another Malayalam movie - Leela - that was released online and that he was forced to download a copy of Maheshinte Prathikaram as it wasn't releasing in Canada where he lived and asked for Abu's bank account details. Abu shared this on his Facebook wall, thanking the fan. What this essentially means is that when we download films illegally, we take out a chunk of money that the filmmaker was going to earn if you had gone to watch it in a hall. advertisement Do the right thing. --- ENDS --- By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 16 (PTI) The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved new regulations for Deemed Universities as per which there will be no bar on the number of off-campus centres such institutions may set up, though quality has to be assured. The new guidelines also gives a time bar of seven months for the UGC and HRD ministry to take for processing applications for setting up new centres. advertisement According to the new guidelines for Deemed Universities which was announced today by HRD minister Smriti Irani at a Press Conference, it has also been decided that Universities will not be able to charge more than Rs 10,000 at the time of counselling. "Capitation fee will not be allowed," she added. There have been complaints of students being asked to pay full fees which they had to struggle to recover in case they did not want to join. The new guidelines, Irani said, encourages transparency and focus on quality. She said there is no cap on the number of off-campus centres an institution may set up but quality has to be of the highest order. She added that to encourage transparency, it has been decided that the visits of expert committees for inspection to such institutions will be videotaped and put on the website within 24 hours. In another departure from the previous guidelines, the new guidelines allow the persons who establish a Deemed University to occupy the post of Chancellor or Pro Chancellor. Deemed Universities have also been given more freedom in opening new departments related to core areas, for which they now dont have to immediately seek the permission of the regulator. The new regulations also allow setting up of off-campus centres abroad but for that additional permission of the MHA and MEA would be needed. When asked about the existing cases of unpermitted off-campus centres by some institutions, Irani said they may be looked at in the light of the new guidelines. A statement released today said that after receiving them from the UGC, the HRD ministry has concurred with the recommendations for notification. According to the timelines assigned for different stages for processing of applications - information seeking by UGC (2 months), submission of reports by the Expert committee (3 months) and approval and advice of UGC (1.5 months) and Government decision (2 months). PTI ADS RG RG --- ENDS --- British Premier David Cameron confirmed Britains backing for India's membership of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in a telephone call to Modi on Thursday. By PTI: British Premier David Cameron has assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the UK's "firm support" for Indias NSG membership bid, a boost to the country ahead of the nuclear trading clubs crucial meeting next week. Cameron confirmed Britains backing for India's membership of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in a telephone call to Modi on Thursday. advertisement UK TO SUPPORT INDIA'S APPLICATION A Downing Street spokesperson said, "The Prime Minister spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about India's application for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a group of nuclear supplier countries that works together to prevent nuclear proliferation by controlling the export of materials, equipment and technology that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons." "The Prime Minister confirmed that the UK would firmly support India's application. They agreed that in order for the bid to be successful it would be important for India to continue to strengthen its non-proliferation credentials, including by reinforcing the separation between civil and military nuclear activity," the spokesperson said. The two leaders also took stock of UK-India ties in their telephonic conversation. "They agreed that the UK-India relationship was going from strength to strength, including through the recent visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William and wife Kate)," the spokesperson said. US ASKS NSG MEMBERS TO SUPPORT INDIA India's case for NSG membership is also being strongly pushed by the US, which has written to other members to support India's bid at the plenary meeting of the group expected to be held in Seoul on June 24. While majority of the elite group backed India's membership, China along with New Zealand, Ireland, Turkey, South Africa and Austria were opposed to India's admission. CHINA OPPOSES INDIA'S NSG BID China maintains opposition to India's entry, arguing that it has not signed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). China wants NSG membership for its close ally Pakistan if NSG extends any exemption for India. India has asserted that being a signatory to the NPT was not essential for joining the NSG as there has been a precedent in this regard, citing the case of France. The NSG looks after critical issues relating to nuclear sector and its members are allowed to trade in and export nuclear technology. Membership of the grouping will help India significantly expand its atomic energy sector. India has been reaching out to NSG member countries seeking support for its entry. The NSG works under the principle of consensus and even one country's vote against India will scuttle its bid. advertisement ALSO READ: India 'inching closer' to NSG membership: Chinese state media --- ENDS --- The pope, who has come under fire before for making spontaneous comments about doctrinal matters, was speaking at a question-and-answer session with priests, nuns and parish workers on Thursday night in a Rome basilica. By Reuters: Pope Francis has said the "great majority" of Catholic marriages being celebrated today are invalid because couples do not fully realise it is a lifetime commitment, drawing sharp criticism from Church conservatives. The pope, who has come under fire before for making spontaneous comments about doctrinal matters, was speaking at a question-and-answer session with priests, nuns and parish workers on Thursday night in a Rome basilica. advertisement "We are living in a provisional culture," Francis said in response to a man who spoke of "the crisis of marriage" and asked how the Church could better prepare young couples. "Because of this, a great majority of our sacramental marriages are null because they (the couple) say 'yes, for the rest of my life' but they don't know what they are saying because they have a different culture," Francis said. In the Vatican's transcript issued on Friday morning his words were changed to read "some" instead of "a great majority". A Vatican spokesman said the pope's off-the-cuff remarks are sometimes edited after consulting with him or among aides. Critics appeared to take the pope's words as a suggestion that most Catholics do not take their marriage vows seriously. Ross Douthat, the conservative Catholic writer and New York Times columnist, said in one of his some 20 tweets on the subject that Francis had made "an extraordinary, irresponsible and ridiculous claim". "PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT SACRAMENT IS" Matthew Schmitz, editor at the conservative First Things Catholic magazine, called the pope "wrong and irresponsible". Edward Peters, a U.S. canon lawyer who has been an adviser to the Vatican, wrote that the pope's words were "very bad" because they could spur couples in difficult marriages to "give up now" instead of trying to overcome problems. The Catholic Church teaches that a marriage can be ended only by death or an annulment -- a Church ruling it was not valid in the first place because it lacked prerequisites such as free will and psychological maturity. "The crisis of marriage is due to the fact that people don't know what the sacrament is, the beauty of the sacrament, they don't know that it is indissoluble, that it is for your entire life," the pope said. "There are girls and boys who have purity and a great love, but they are few," he said, adding that many young people had a materialistic and superficial approach to their wedding day, such as an obsession with choosing the right gown, the right church and the right restaurant. He said the Church needed better marriage preparation programmes. advertisement Conservatives also chided Francis for saying at the same meeting that priests should not pressure couples who were co-habitating if they were not ready to get married. He said the priests should "let fidelity ripen". Francis has been taken to task for unscripted comments before. Last year, he had to clarify remarks in which he said Catholics should not feel they have to breed "like rabbits" because of the Church's birth control ban. Also read: Pope washes feet of Muslim, Hindu migrants, says 'we are brothers' --- ENDS --- Military strikes against the Assad government would represent a major change in the Obama administration's longstanding policy of not taking sides in the Syrian civil war. By Reuters: More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of US policy in Syria, calling for military strikes against President Bashar al-Assad's government to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country's civil war. The "dissent channel cable" was signed by 51 mid- to high-level State Department officers involved with advising on Syria policy. It was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. advertisement WHAT DOES THE "DISSENT CHANNEL CABLE" SAY The cable calls for "targeted military strikes" against the Syrian government in light of the near-collapse of the cease-fire brokered earlier this year, the Journal reported, citing copies of the cable it had seen. OBAMA'S POLICY ON SYRIA Military strikes against the Assad government would represent a major change in the Obama administration's longstanding policy of not taking sides in the Syrian civil war. One US official, who did not sign the cable but has read it, told Reuters the White House remained opposed to deeper American military involvement in the Syrian conflict. The official said the cable was unlikely to alter that, or shift Obama's focus from the battle against the persistent and spreading threat posed by the Islamic State militant group. WHY 50 DIPLOMATS WANT AN AIRSTRIKE A second source who has read the cable said it reflected the views of US officials who have worked on Syria, some of them for years, and who believe the Obama administration's policy is ineffective. "In a nutshell, the group would like to see a military option put forward to put some pressure ... on the regime," said the second source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The cable discussed the possibility of air strikes but made no mention of adding US ground troops to Syria. The United States is believed to have roughly 300 US special operations forces in Syria carrying out a counter-terrorism mission against Islamic State militants but not targeting the Assad government. Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan told a congressional hearing on Thursday that Assad was in a stronger position than he was a year ago, bolstered by Russian air strikes against moderate opposition. Brennan also said Islamic State's "terrorism capacity and global reach" have not been reduced. DISSENT CHANNEL AND THE NEXT STEP The names on the memo are almost all mid-level officials - many of them career diplomats - who have been involved in the administration's Syria policy over the past five years, at home or abroad, the New York Times said. advertisement While dissent cables are not unusual, the number of signatures on this document is extremely large, if not unprecedented, according to the Times. "We are aware of a dissent channel cable written by a group of State Department employees regarding the situation in Syria," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in an email. "We are reviewing the cable now, which came up very recently, and I am not going to comment on the contents." Kirby said the "Dissent Channel" was an official forum that allows State Department employees to express alternative views. --- ENDS --- By PTI: From Lalit K Jha Washington, Jun 17 (PTI) The US has ruled out mediation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and asked the two countries to work together to deescalate tensions at the Torkham border crossing where deadly clashes this week have killed two Afghan and one Pakistani border guard and wounded 20 on both sides. "We are obviously very concerned by the border clashes, particularly around the Torkham crossing. We want both sides to ratchet down the violence and begin a dialogue to try to reduce the tensions, keep the crossing open, and have it done peaceably," the State Department Spokesman, John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference. advertisement Underlining that the US believes that the right approach is an Afghan-led reconciliation process, he said, "We continue to support (Afghan) President (Ashraf) Ghani as he continues to try to get that process back on track. Now what effect the border clashes are having on reconciliation, I dont know." "I havent seen any practical effect of it to date. These clashes have only just popped up in recent days. But that aside, we still want to see the reconciliation process move forward," Kirby said as he ruled out the US jumping in as a mediator between the two countries. "We have not taken a mediation role, and we have talked about this before. This is an Afghan-led process. We obviously support it and we want to see it succeed.We have expressed that support privately and publicly. But this is President Ghanis initiative; he?s taking it on. We know he wants to get it back on track and we fully support him in that effort, but this is not for the United States mediating between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said. The US, he said, wants Afghanistan and Pakistan to work through these differences bilaterally, which they can do because they have done it in the past. "This isn?t the first time that we have seen clashes even at that crossing, and they have been able to work through it in the past and we are absolutely confident that, with moral courage on both sides, they can continue to work through it," he said. Observing that the US does not want to see this kind of violence between the two sides, Kirby said there are plenty of shared threats and common challenges between Afghanistan and Pakistan and plenty of reasons for them to look for ways to work together. "They have made some progress in terms of cooperation across that border and communication and in counterterrorism efforts," he said. "So nobody likes to see the clashes and the violence that we have seen to date, but its too soon to say, well, just because theres been some of this, that the whole reconciliation process should be just thrown out the window, or that the differences between Afghanistan and Pakistan are irreconcilable and therefore not worth continuing to pursue dialogue and cooperation. We are just not there yet," Kirby said. advertisement Torkham, a usually busy crossing, has remained closed because of continuing tensions. Pakistan alleged that "unprovoked" firing was started by Afghanistans security forces when construction work began on a new gate on the Pakistani side. Last month, the border crossing was sealed for several days over the construction of the gate, causing hardships to thousands of people who cross it every day. Afghan government does not recognise the border, which is also known as Durand Line, and it opposes permanent structure. PTI LKJ PMS --- ENDS --- The US which has been pusing for India's NSG membership has now urged members of the group to help in the same. By Press Trust of India: The US has urged members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to support India's membership into the elite grouping. "The United States calls on Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) participating governments to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG plenary, which I think is next week," State Department Spokesman John Kirby told reporters. "I'm not going to get ahead of how that's going to go or hypothesise and speculate about where it's going to go, but we've made clear that we support the application," Kirby said in response to a question. advertisement US IN FAVOUR OF INDIA'S NSG MEMBERSHIP During the US visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, US President Barack Obama welcomed India's application to the 48-member grouping. The US has been pushing for India's NSG membership. Earlier, ahead of a meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry had written a letter to the NSG member countries which are not supportive of India's bid, saying they should "agree not to block consensus on Indian admission". A joint statement issued after talks between Modi and Obama said the US called on NSG participating governments to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month. India, though not a member, enjoys the benefits of membership under a 2008 exemption to NSG rules for its atomic cooperation deal with the US.ALSO READ | India 'inching closer' to NSG membership: Chinese state media --- ENDS --- Speaking exclusively to India Today, Sheila Dikshit hit out at the AAP government, asking who AAP minister Kapil Mishra is and questioned the timing of his allegations. By India Today Web Desk: Former Delhi chief minister and Congress Sheila Dikshit is suddenly back in the headlines after recent meetings with the Gandhi's and the AAP government in Delhi accusing her of the Rs 400-crore tanker scam that happened when she was in power in the capital. Yesterday, Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung cleared a probe against Dikshit in the alleged tanker scam after a complaint was sent to LG's office by Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra. advertisement Speaking exclusively to India Today, Dikshit today hit out at the AAP government, asking who AAP minister Kapil Mishra is and questioned the timing of his allegations. "What are the allegations? There were no allegations earlier. Now who is this Mishra, I do not know," she said. My Report exposing corrpution by Shiela Dixit has been forwarded to ACB; Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishraAAP) June 16, 2016 Shiela Dixit should be behind the bars now for corruption. The only barrier between Shiela and Tihar is her agents in BJP. 1/2; Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishraAAP) June 16, 2016 POLITICAL MOTIVATION "Why is this 'scam' coming out now? It is politically motivated (According to reports, she could be given Congress' top post in Punjab or be made CM candidate for Uttar Pradesh )," Dikshit said. She then spoke about the process regarding purchase of the tankers. "I didn't make the decision alone. IAS officers, MCD members, even some BJP memebers were part of the decision making." "The tankers they are accusing me of choosing are still going strong," she added. --- ENDS --- Wand Labs, which builds messaging technology for apps, was brought to life by an IIT-Delhi alumnus Vishal Sharma in 2013. By Indo-Asian News Service: With an aim to strengthen its position in the emerging era of conversational intelligence using artificial intelligence (AI), software giant Microsoft has acquired a California-based messaging app founded by an Indian. Wand Labs, which builds messaging technology for apps, was brought to life by an IIT-Delhi alumnus Vishal Sharma in 2013. With Sharma, an experienced leader and entrepreneur in the field of search and knowledge, Wand Labs has already been developing in areas specific to "Conversation as a Platform". advertisement "This acquisition accelerates our vision and strategy for Conversation as a Platform, which Satya Nadella introduced at our 'Build 2016' conference in March," said David Ku, Corporate Vice President, Information Platform Group (Microsoft) in a blog post. "Wand Labs' technology and talent will strengthen our position in the emerging era of conversational intelligence, where we bring together the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence, connecting people to knowledge, information, services and other people in more relevant and natural ways," he added. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Also Read: Microsoft enters legal weed business The move builds on and extends the power of the Bing, Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Windows platforms to empower developers everywhere. The Wand team's expertise around semantic ontologies, services mapping, third-party developer integration and conversational interfaces make them a great fit to join the Bing engineering and platform team, especially with the work we're doing in the area of intelligent agents and chat bots, Ku noted. According to Microsoft, Vishal is a unique talent and a well-respected thought leader in this area. "We are confident that he and his team can make significant contributions to our innovation of Bing intelligence in this new era of Conversation as a Platform. I am excited to welcome Vishal and the Wand Labs team to Microsoft," Ku added. --- ENDS --- The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC led a $24 million Series B funding in Andela, a startup that trains and recruits software developers in Africa. By Reuters: Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropy venture has made its first major investment, leading a funding round in a startup that trains and recruits software developers in Africa. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, created by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, led a $24 million Series B funding in Andela, the startup said on Thursday. Alphabet Inc's GV, previously known as Google Ventures, was also part of the funding round. advertisement Andela selects the top 1 per cent of tech talent from Africa, trains them and places them in engineering organizations. The startup, which has nearly 200 engineers currently employed by its Nigeria and Kenya offices, will use the funds to expand to a third African country by the end of 2016. "We live in a world where talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. Andela's mission is to close that gap," Zuckerberg said in a statement. When the philanthropy initiative was launched in late 2015, Zuckerberg said he would put in 99 per cent of his Facebook shares. The initiative is structured as a limited liability company. This means, unlike a traditional charitable or philanthropic foundation, the venture can make political donations, lobby lawmakers, invest in businesses and recoup any profits from those investments. Zuckerberg has also signed the Giving Pledge, which invites the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes over their lifetime or in their will. --- ENDS --- * PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award * PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020. * PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018. * IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014. * Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013. * Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011. 2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100. * Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010. * Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010. * Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010. * Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll. Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008. But the Iranian officials comments were delivered around the same time that 270 members of the European Parliament released a statement urging Germany and all other European Union countries to take the opposite course and avoid expanded relations with the Islamic Republic at least until certain conditions are met. The statement, whose lead author Gerard Deprez is the chairman of the Friend of a Free Iran parliamentary committee, emphasized the situation of human rights, which some say have deteriorated even further since the election of President Hassan Rouhani, regarded by certain Western policymakers as a moderate. As reported by the International Business Times, it pointed out that since he took office in 2013, the rate of executions has risen to a 27-year high, and the Islamic Republic has continued to execute juvenile offenders and hold numerous political prisoners, including journalists. The statement went on to urge Western powers to make any expanded political or trade relations conditional upon the improvement of Irans overall human rights record and the immediate halt of executions. Other Western lawmakers have criticized recent trade agreements on the basis of their potential to material contribute to Irans ongoing abuses, not just in its domestic environment but also in the broader Middle East. That is to say that many of Irans critics explicitly reject Zarifs notion that investment in Iran will contribute to peace and stability in the region. Rather, they tend to blame Iranian Shiite influence for the increasingly sectarian nature of various regional conflicts, thereby contributing to recruitment for groups like ISIS. These perceived dangers can be expected to continue holding back European companies and banks from investing in the Islamic Republic. Some concerns in this regard are purely practical, as the persistence of Iran-sponsored regional conflicts makes for a notably less stable business environment. But other reports on investor wariness have indicated that some relevant concerns deal solely with the reputational consequences of investing in the worlds foremost sponsor of terrorism. There is certainly a great deal of overlap between these two factors, as well. Irans traditional sponsorship of terrorism is a major part of the reason why the US State Department considers the entire Iranian financial system to be of primary money laundering concern. And on Thursday, The Tower reported that an executive with HSBC had declared that the international banking institution would not invest in Iran as long as there remained a pronounced risk of financial crime. And this disincentive is made greater by the fact that in spite of relief from nuclear-related sanctions, Iran remains subject to US sanctions on its terrorist financing and human rights abuses. Furthermore, there are indications that the Islamic Republic and its state-affiliated businesses have no intention of making it more difficult for would-be Western investors to avoid the targets of these sanctions. A thorough assessment of the current prospects for investment in Iran was published by Oil Price on Wednesday and it indicated that forthcoming Iranian rules for foreign investors may still require at least one domestic proxy, and that any such institution is very likely to be connected to the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Divisions of the IRGC are involved both in the repression of dissent within the Islamic Republic and the financing of terrorism or prosecution of military interventions in foreign territory. These practical and reputation constraints on European investor interest have helped to prevent the Islamic Republic from restoring its pre-sanctions levels of oil exports and general trading volume with European countries. And Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Zarif and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have complained bitterly about the US preventing Iran from receiving the full scope of its expected financial benefits under the nuclear agreement. Yet in spite of existing US sanctions and persistent wariness among European investors, Irans post-sanctions recovery has actually been significantly faster than many analysts anticipated, according to a number of recent reports. The Tower indicates that Irans economic growth was estimated at three percent during the 2014 to 2015 fiscal year. And that growth has continued since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was implemented in January. A CNN Money report that was also published on Thursday specified that the International Energy Agency had estimated Irans May oil output at 3.64 million barrels per day, putting it remarkably close to the roughly four million barrel peak prior to the imposition of sanctions. Meanwhile, waterborne exports have risen to 2.6 million barrels per day. Bloomberg declares outright that the latest statistics have defied expectations. Yet all of these sources also agree that the long-term sustainability of Irans recovery will be a much more difficult proposition, especially if Iran continues to avoid the compromises that are probably necessary for it to encourage investor interest. The Tower indicates that analysts believe Irans growth will stabilize around four or four and a half percent in about five years, but only if the Islamic Republic makes relevant economic reforms. These reforms will be necessary for Irans stated goals, which CNN gives as the attraction of at least 70 billion dollars in foreign investment and the expansion of oil exports to about 4.8 million barrels per day by 2021. In the short term, the Iranians anticipate that at least 200 million dollars of investment will be necessary just to reach pre-sanctions levels. The CNN report adds that the prospects for such investment are diminishing as Iran drags its feet over new contracts, likely signaling that the IRGC is anxious over the prospect of losing part of the Iranian market to foreign infiltrators. Perhaps because of the resulting sluggish pace of investment, the International Energy Agency doesnt foresee Iran exceeding even four million barrels per day of oil output before 2021. Wednesdays Oil Price analysis seems to not only happily embrace this conclusion, but also to recommend that European governments and businesses retain their wariness about reentering the Iranian market. Anticipating Zarifs urging for closer cooperation between Iran and Germany, the article accuses the Rouhani administration of trying to attract investment in order to perpetuate the Iranian systems inherent corruption, which both contributes to human rights abuses and undermines the transparency in business with foreign investors. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has said that the human rights situation is only getting worse with nearly 1,000 executions last year. Irans situation not only affects the country itself but the wider middle eastern region and indeed the world. They are a major source for terrorist activity, sending spies to Saudi Arabia and propping up the Bashar Assad in the Syrian Civil War. They have also continued to test ballistic missiles in violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231. The economic and social situation has also deteriorated in the three years since Rouhani took office with rising levels of unemployment, especially among women. The rally is an annual event attended by Iranians, their supporters, senior politicians, human rights activists, religious leaders and womens rights activists from Europe, the United States and Islamic countries. [June 16, 2016] Harland Clarke Digital Named a Top Trusted Website in OTA's 2016 Online Trust Honor Roll for Fifth Straight Year Harland Clarke Digital today announced it has been named to the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) 2016 Online Trust Honor Roll for demonstrating commitment to leadership in best practices in security, privacy and consumer protection. This is the fifth consecutive year Harland Clarke Digital has received this designation. "Harland Clarke has a strong history serving as a valued provider and source of strategic online expertise, helping clients successfully navigate the changing digital landscape," said Dan Singleton, President and CEO, Harland Clarke. "It's an honor to be recognized by the OTA for our work in ensuring the security, privacy and integrity of our clients' data. This recognition demonstrates the importance Harland Clarke places on ensuring the trustworthiness of online information." According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 781 data breaches in 2015, compromising 169,068,505 records containing personally identifiable information. A study by IBM found the average cost of a data breach is $3.8 million, representing a 23 percent increase since 2013. OTA, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with industry leaders t enhance online trust, completed comprehensive audits analyzing nearly 1,000 domains and privacy policies, including approximately 100,000 web pages and more than 500 million emails for this report. The composite analysis included nearly 50 metrics focusing on 1) site & server security, 2) domain, brand, email and consumer protection and 3) privacy policy and practices. In addition to the in-depth analysis of their web sites, Domain Name Systems (DNS), outbound emails, and public records were analyzed for recent data breach incidents and FTC (News - Alert) settlements. Key sectors audited include the Internet Retailer Top 500, FDIC 100, Top 100 Consumer Services, Top 100 Media / Content sites, as well as OTA members and consumer-facing U.S. government sites. "For the Internet to thrive, users must trust their information will be secure and their privacy will be respected," said Craig Spiezle, CEO and Executive Director of OTA. "Businesses have a responsibility to take a holistic view of security and privacy through continuous monitoring of processes, practices and policies, so users feel confident trust is well placed. Harland Clarke's leadership with their clients and industry in these areas are critical to the prosperity and innovation of online services." Now in its eighth year, the Online Trust Audit and Honor Roll is a comprehensive, independent online trust benchmark study. Started in 2008 as an effort to drive adoption of best practices, its objectives are to 1) recognize leadership and commitment to best practices which aid in the protection of online trust and confidence in online services, 2) enable businesses to enhance their security, data protection and privacy practices, 3) move from compliance to stewardship, demonstrating support of meaningful self-regulation, and 4) promote security & privacy as part of a company's brand promise and value proposition. To review the full 2016 Honor Roll report, please download a free copy at: https://otalliance.org/HonorRoll. A live webinar briefing is being held on June 28: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/2197260013273562371. ABOUT The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) is a non-profit with the mission to enhance online trust and user empowerment while promoting innovation and the vitality of the Internet. Its goal is to help educate businesses, policy makers and stakeholders while developing and advancing best practices and tools to enhance the protection of users' security, privacy and identity. OTA supports collaborative public-private partnerships, benchmark reporting, and meaningful self-regulation and data stewardship. Its members and supporters include leaders spanning the public policy, technology, ecommerce, social networking, mobile, email and interactive marketing, financial, service provider, government agency and industry organization sectors. https://otalliance.org About Harland Clarke Harland Clarke (www.harlandclarke.com) is a leading provider of integrated payment solutions, multi-channel marketing services, operational support and retail products. By delivering data-driven solutions through its superior analytical capabilities, it empowers nearly 12,500 financial and commercial clients and 3.5 million SMB customers to cultivate, retain and acquire new business. Harland Clarke is a catalyst for growth and has earned the trust of clients ranging in size from major financial institutions and corporate brands to small businesses and individual consumers. Client focus has earned the company a reputation for exceptional quality, performance excellence and superior customer service. Harland Clarke is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harland Clarke Holdings Corp. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160616006197/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [June 16, 2016] Technavio Announces Top Seven Vendors in the Global Keyboard Market Until 2020 Technavio has announced the top seven leading vendors for the global keyboard market in their latest research report. To calculate the market size, the report considers revenues generated from sales [both original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and aftermarket] of keyboards (both wired and wireless). Request sample report: http://bit.ly/24BU4vu "OEMs in the global keyboard market are continually adding new features to their products, resulting in regular launches of innovative products in the market. The performance and applications of keyboards are constantly increasing with these advances. With advances in technologies, computing keyboards are becoming stronger, more powerful, and appealing than before," said Sunil Kumar Singh, one of Technavio's lead analysts for computing devices. "The futuristic TransluSense keyboard has cameras and infrared light that are projected on an object like glass to help the user give input to the PC. Luminae, the manufacturer of TransluSense keyboard, is still working on some bugs and will get it released during the forecast period. Tobii REX is a gaze interaction device that is used to map eye-movement on the screen cursor positioning. This device can eliminate the need to scroll down while reading. This device is attached to the monitor and connected via a USB," added Sunil. Top seven leading vendors in the global keyboard market: Dell (News - Alert) Dell manufactures and provides a wide range of computers and related products to its customers worldwide. It is involved in sale of personal computers, servers and networking products, storage systems, mobility products, software and peripherals, and services. The company serves consumers and businesses in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. HP HP is the world's second largest PC provider. The major offerings of the company include PCs, imaging and printing devices, enterprise IT infrastructure solutions, and related services. It also provides outsourcing services, technology support and maintenance, and consulting services. The company designs solutions for Security, Mobile and Big Data sectors by leveraging diversity of its offerings, and strength and capabilities of its individual business units. The company conducts its business operationsthrough seven segments: personal systems, printing, enterprise group, enterprise services, software, HP financial services, and corporate investments. Logitech (News - Alert) The company holds 47% of the market share. The company has the following listed strategies in the pipeline to compete in the market: Reducing complexity in existing products by developing new innovative products Focusing on the markets in China, South America, and some parts of Europe to generate revenue Providing products and services to video and audio solutions and enterprise markets Generating demand for complimentary peripherals in emerging markets and increasing the use of these peripherals with tablets and mobile devices Pursuing a multi-architecture and multi-operating system strategy with the Android (News - Alert) and Chrome OS in tablets and notebooks Microsoft Microsoft was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, US. Microsoft (News - Alert) develops, licenses, and supports software products and services; and designs and sells hardware worldwide. The company's Windows & Windows Live division provides PC operating systems that comprises Windows 7 operating system, Windows Live suite of applications and Web services, and PC hardware products. Its Server and Tools division delivers Windows Server operating systems, Windows Azure; Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Azure, Windows Intune, Windows Embedded, Visual Studio, Silverlight, system center products, Microsoft consulting services, and product support services. ASUSTeK Computer The company is headquartered in Taipei City, Taiwan and was founded in 1990. It is involved in developing, designing, manufacturing, sale, and repair of computers, consumer electronics, and communication products. It has operations in Taiwan, China, Singapore, the US, Europe, and internationally. Kinesis The company was founded in 1991, and it is based in Bothell, Washington. It produces and markets keyboards and computer-related ergonomic office products. It provides laptop ergonomics, ergonomic office chairs, keyboards, ergonomic pointing devices, foot switches, low-force numeric keypads, workstation accessories, and connectivity devices. It also offers office seating products and keyboard trays. Targus The company was founded in 1987 and is based in Anaheim, California, US. The company offers mobile computing cases and accessories. It provides laptop backpacks, laptop messenger bags, laptop sleeves, mice, PDA or handheld accessories, camera bags, CD or DVD albums, and laptop backpacks and bags. It also offers accessories such as cables, cooling, docking stations, drives, hubs, keyboards, keypads, power inverters and accessories, locks, power adapters and connectors, presenters, privacy screens, replacement parts, and stands. The company provides its products to the corporate, government, and education sectors. Browse related reports: Global PC Peripherals Market 2015-2019 Market Research Global Digital Keyboard Market 2016-2020 Global Gaming Peripheral Market 2015-2019 Purchase these three reports from our library for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact [email protected] with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160616005046/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [June 17, 2016] Industrial IoT Market Worth 151.01 Billion USD by 2020 PUNE, India, June 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report " Industrial IoT Market by Technology (Sensors, RFID, Industrial Robotics, 3D Printing, DCS, Condition Monitoring, Smart Meter, Autonomous Haulage System, Yield Monitors, Guidance & Steering, GPS/GNSS), Software, & Geography - Global Forecast to 2020", published by MarketsandMarkets, the IIoT market is expected to reach USD 151.01 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 8.03% between 2015 and 2020. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 71 market data Tables and 62 Figures spread through 164 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Industrial IoT Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/industrial-internet-of-things-market-129733727.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization On this report. Factors which are driving the IIoT market include technological advancements in semiconductor and electronics, evolution of cloud computing technologies, standardization of IPv6, and support from governments all over the world. Manufacturing sector held the largest share of the IIoT market The manufacturing sector is witnessing a transformation through the implementation of the smart factory concept and factory automation technologies. Government initiatives such as Industrie 4.0 in Germany and Plan Industriel in France are expected to drive the IIoT solutions in Europe. Moreover, leading manufacturing countries such as the U.S., China, and India are expected to further expand their manufacturing industries and deploy smart manufacturing technologies to increase this sector's contribution to their national GDPs. The market for the networking technology is expected to grow at a high CAGR Machine-to-machine connectivity through wireless or wired networks forms the base for IIoT. The rising adoption of IIoT is expected to boost the market for networking technologies, especially wireless networks. These networks not only provide mobility to the equipment but also offer greater scalability and ease of integration to the network. APAC expected to hld the largest market share and witness rapid growth during the forecast period APAC is a leading manufacturing hub and held the largest market share for Industrial IoT Market in 2014. It is also expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period owing to the growing adoption of IIoT solutions across the manufacturing, mining, healthcare, and energy & power sectors. Within APAC, China held the largest market share for IIoT, whereas India is expected to grow at the highest CAGR among all the major markets. The major companies in the IIoT market include General Electric (U.S.), Cisco Inc. (U.S.), Intel Corporation (U.S.), Rockwell Automation (U.S.), ARM Holdings plc. (U.K.), ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), Siemens AG (Germany), Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), Dassault Systemes SA (France), Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. (China), Zebra Technologies (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), and Robert Bosch GmbH (Germany) among others. Ask For PDF Brochure: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=129733727 This research report categorizes the global IIoT market on the basis of industry vertical, technology, software, and region. This report describes the drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges with respect to the IIoT market. The Porter's five forces analysis has been included in the report with a description of each of its forces and their respective impact on the IIoT market. Browse Related Reports Smart Factory Market By Technology (PLM, MES, Industrial Automation), Applications (Automotive, Electrical and Electronics, Materials and Mining, Food And Beverages, Pharmaceuticals, & Others), & Geography - Global Forecast to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/smart-factory-market-1227.html Industrial Control and Factory Automation Market by Technology (SCADA, PLC & RTU, DCS, MES, HMI, and Safety), Component (Industrial Robot, MACHINE Vision, Valve, Control Device, and Field Instrument), Industry, & Geography - Global Forecast to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/factory-industrial-automation-sme-smb-market-541.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is world's No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical info graphics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact: Mr. Rohan Markets and Markets UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ Magarpatta city, Hadapsar Pune, Maharashtra 411013, India Tel: + 1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Visit MarketsandMarkets [email protected] http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/electronics-and-semiconductors Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets SOURCE MarketsandMarkets [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] MATTOON -- Angie and Ben Goebel still struggle with the loss of their 3-month-old daughter Maggie five years ago. The couple never imagined tragedy would strike when the childs baby sitter laid her down for a nap one morning. We received a frantic call saying she wasnt breathing and they had called 911, Mrs. Goebel said. By the time the family reached the hospital emergency department, their baby girl was gone. Maggie had rolled over into some soft bedding while napping in a PackN Play and suffocated, Goebel explained. It was a horrible accident. In the years that have followed this tragedy, the Newton mother has made it one of her life missions to educate others on safe infant sleep practices. I just want to educate everybody so theres not another family that has to go through what weve gone through, she said. The Goebel family recently donated more than 100 HALO Sleep Sacks to be given to parents enrolled in Oh! Baby childbirth classes at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center. Since 2005, the American Academy of Pediatrics and First Candle/SIDS Alliance suggest the use of a wearable blanket, like the HALO Sleep Sack, instead of a loose blanket to help keep a baby warm. Loose blankets in the crib can pose a significant risk as they can cover a babys face and interfere with breathing. Goebel will also be on hand to talk with expectant parents about safe infant sleep practices at the 2016 Bumps, Burps and Giggles Baby Fair on June 26 at Sarah Bush Lincoln. The event is being held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Lumpkin Family Center for Health Education. It is free and open to the public. While the Goebels had two other children, ages 7 and 4 at the time of Maggies death, they had never used sleep sacks before. Many parents are unaware that having a blanket in the crib poses a significant risk, SBL Perinatal Educator & Lactation Consultant Pam Hood, RN, said. Infant sleep sacks are closed, zipped, blanket-like sleepers, which allow the baby to have a warmer and safer sleep environment. We are extremely grateful to Angie and her family for providing these sleep sacks to new parents. The couple was extremely cautious when their son, Grant, was born in 2013 and used sleep sacks until he was a year and a half old. In addition to the Sarah Bush Lincoln donation, the Goebels have donated hundreds of sleep sacks to hospitals, health departments and individual families in Effingham, Jasper and Richland counties in the past four years. My goal is to make sure that everyone is well educated, Goebel said. The family also has donated funds for Safe Sitter classes at the Jasper County Health Department; conducted safe sleep seminars for SIDS training for daycare providers, parents, grandparents, etc.; and provided Angel Care monitors to local families, along with contributions to other agencies. The Goebels raise funds to support their safe sleep initiative by hosting the Footprints in Memory of Maggie 5K Run/Walk & Toddler Trot at Sam Parr State Park in Newton each year. The fifth annual event will take place on Aug. 27. The race begins at 8 a.m., with registration starting at 7 a.m. For more information about the race or for a registration form, email Goebel at bnagoebel@gmail.com. The mission they wanted to accomplish was clear from the beginning: to raise awareness and support of SIDS by educating families, providing resources for new parents and promoting dialogue about SIDS and safe sleep practices. It has helped us heal and allowed us to help spread the word about safe infant sleep practices, Goebel said. The couple has been overwhelmed by the support, raising from $4,000 to $5,000 each year. We are open to suggestions on how to reach more people with education and resources, she said. WASHINGTON, D.C. (JG-TC) -- Charleston resident and local Jefferson Award winner Skyler James was honored during the national ceremony for the awards Thursday night. James, who received a local Jefferson Award for her work on baby abandonment, was one of five recipients of the organization's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award. On her Facebook page, James expressed gratitude to several people, including those who nominated her and supported her selection for the local Jefferson Award. "This experience has been so humbling for me to see how many amazing people there are out in our country that are serving and helping others," she said. "Everyone that I have met has motivated me to do more to honor them." James was abandoned in a cemetery in Champaign shortly after she was born but was found and rescued by a firefighter. Her personal experience led her to take part in a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to preventing baby abandonment. She's also served as an advocate for Safe Haven laws, which allow parents to leave a new baby with a staff member at any hospital, fire station, police station or emergency medical service provider. James is currently a communication major studying at Concordia University in Chicago. The Onassis Award is named in honor of the former first lady who was one of the Jefferson Awards' founders. CHARLESTON (JG-TC) -- A sewage problem at the Charleston Wal-Mart store has been remedied and the store is again selling food items, a Coles County Health Department official said Thursday. The department received a report Wednesday morning that sewage was coming out of the floor drain in one of the store's restrooms, according to Gloria Spear, the department's environmental health director. A health department inspector went to the store and verified the situation, Spear said. The department then suspended the store's permit to sell some food items, mostly those that require refrigeration, she explained. However, store managers opted to stop sales of all food items, including those not covered by the health department permit, Spear said. The sewage problem was fixed and the department reinstated the store's permit Wednesday afternoon, she said. Health department officials couldn't be reached when the situation first became known on Wednesday. At that time, a Wal-Mart representative said only that the problem had been addressed. MATTOON -- Two local Rotarians recently traveled through the soaring Carpathian Mountains, sailed down the Danube River, and visited "Dracula's Castle" in Transylvania. Ken Hutchens and Kelly Pierce visited these sites during a Rotary International Group Study Exchange to Romania. Their group also got to go behind the scenes at a bakery, a university and other workplaces in Romania, plus social service projects supported by Rotary. "You definitely get to see a different side of the country," said Piece, who is a financial aid officer at Lake Land College. Team members of this group that toured Romania from May 6 to 30 are scheduled to give a presentation about their experiences during the Mattoon Rotary Club meeting at noon Monday at Pagliacci's. Hutchens, who was team leader for the trip, said Rotary clubs were banned in Romania during World War II and subsequent Communist rule, but returned to this Eastern European nation in 1993. He said there are now about 120 clubs with 3,200 members in Romania, which is the size of Illinois and Indiana together. "They are really very young. Some of the clubs are less than 10 years old," Hutchens said. "We were very impressed by how active their groups are, how many things they are doing in their communities." Hutchens, who is a Mattoon minister, said Romania has lagged behind other former Communist countries in Eastern Europe in developing, but is catching up through its membership in the European Union and Western investment. Still, Hutchens said farmers cutting hay with hand tools, carts pulled by horses, and sheep tended by shepherds remain common sights in the countryside. He said their small convoy of vehicles with the Rotary group had to stop and wait on few occasions for goats and other livestock to cross the road. "It is kind of like stepping back in history in some ways," Hutchens said. Romania's long history is visible throughout this country. Hutchens said their Rotary group saw pre-Roman and Roman ruins, castles and monasteries, and Communist-era architecture. Pierce said she particularly enjoyed visiting Bran Castle, commonly called "Dracula's Castle." This site is one of a few castles associated with Vlad Tepes, the historical figure who served as the inspiration for the fictional Dracula. She noted that it was a "dark and stormy day" when their group stopped at "Dracula's Castle." The Rotary group saw Romania's natural history, as well. Pierce said the Carpathian Mountains are beautiful. Hutchens added that they cruised on the Danube River and through its narrowest point -- the Iron Gate. He said they also saw Romania's forests, which are home to bears, wolves and recently reintroduced European bison. While in Romania, the group's itinerary also include visits to social service projects supported by Rotary. They toured an orphanage that is funded with the help of proceeds from a nearby farm, and a site that provides housing for unwed mothers and abused wives. "We were amazed by how active those groups are and what they do on a shoe string. They really do a lot," Hutchens said. Their Rotary group also included Champaign area residents Sandra Calderon, John Decker, and Shandra Summerville. Pierce said she encourages other community members who are interested in international travel and learning about other cultures to consider going on a Rotary International Group Student Exchange trip if the opportunity is available to them. "They should definitely apply because it's a once in a lifetime experience," Pierce said. Your digital subscription includes access to all content on our agricultural websites across the nation. Access unlimited content and the digital versions of our print editions - This Week's Paper. MATTOON (JG-TC) -- Investigators are seeking the public's help in identifying a man who is suspected of allegedly passing counterfeit $100 bills at several Mattoon businesses Thursday evening. A Mattoon Police Department press release described the suspect as a black male who is approximately 20 years of age and has a smaller, thin build. He wore a black T-shirt, jeans, and a Chicago White Sox ball cap. The suspect was driving a white Chrysler 200 or 300M, with Indiana plates. Anyone with information regarding this suspect is asked to contact Coles County Crimestoppers at Colescountycrimestoppers.org, text crime leads to 274637, or contact the Mattoon Police Department at 217-235-5451 or via Facebook. Callers never have to provide their name and can qualify for cash rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those whom commit crimes in Coles County. Dheepan opens with bodies of those killed in Sri Lankas civil war being burned, then moves to a woman in a refugee camp trying to find an orphaned child. Teamed with a Tamil Tiger fighter, who throws his uniform on the flaming pyre, the woman and the girl become part of a family escaping Sri Lanka for France using passports of the dead. So begins director Jacques Audiards tense immigrant story that finds the family plunged into a confusing new world, where they struggle to communicate, take any available job and, eventually, find themselves caught up in an environment as dangerous as the one they fled. Dheepan, the name on his passport, is played by Antonythasan Jesuthasan, a former Tamil soldier in real life who is now a poet and activist. A powerful natural actor, Jesuthasan conveys Dheepans determination to build a new life in Paris, his growing affection for Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and 9-year-old Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby) and his war-honed survival skills rooted in the trauma of seeing his family killed. Moving into public housing on the outskirts of the city, Dheepan becomes the caretaker for one of the two rundown apartment buildings, trying to sort mail in a language he cant read and to avoid a section of the building when its occupants are there. Yalini, who wants to go to England to join her family, takes a job in the building across the way, cooking and caring for an elderly man, while Illayaal enrolls in school, initially struggling but soon learning the language, assimilating far faster than the adults. Audiard tells that portion of the story with acute observation, showing the European immigrant life in particularly timely fashion, given the wave of refugees flooding the continent. Then, the nature of those who have taken over the forbidden part of the building becomes clear to Dheepan -- theyre part of a drug gang -- and a relative of the the old man turns up at his place. That sends the picture into a crime drama/revenge thriller realm. The critical consensus about Dheepan is that the turn to crime wasnt necessary, the film having accomplished much in depicting the immigrant story. But it is, in fact, key to Audiards tale, reflecting not only how Dheepans past determines his future but the reality of the insecurity and often violence in underclass/immigrant life. Another fine depiction of outsiders from Audiard, who made The Prophet and Rust and Bone, Dheepan" won the Palme d'Or at last years Cannes Film Festival, evidence of the films powerful, resonant story of immigrants that couldnt be more relevant here or in Europe. . Stephen Ragga Marley learned a lifetime lesson when he was just a little boy. The teacher -- his father, the legendary Bob Marley. Ive been on stage with my dad, Marley said. Ive been on stage with him in Zimbabwe. We used to run on stage, me and Ziggy, during Exodus. He said If youre going to be on my stage, youre going to have to do it seriously. You guys have to choreograph a little dance. We learned performing is an art. You have to take it serious. It is going up there and having fun. But youre presenting this music, this movement. It has to be presented with the highest quality. Ziggy Marley clearly learned the same lesson. He demonstrated that Saturday at the Bourbon Theatre, delivering a superb show with his nine-member ensemble. Stephen Marley will be on that stage Tuesday, the brothers bringing their versions of reggae to Lincoln within two weeks of each other. Saturday, Ziggy performed about half the songs on his just-released, self-titled sixth solo album. Stephen will bring in new material as well, songs from Revelation Part II: The Fruit of Life, his follow-up to his 2011 Grammy winner Revelation Part I: The Root of Life. Part II is set to be released in July. The three songs available before the album release feature Jamaican dancehall stars and rapper Waka Flocka Flame, directly making the connection between reggae and hip-hop, an observation with which Marley concurs. Of course, most definitely it is -- how the two musics come together comfortably is another testimony of that as well, he said. That connection is also a way for Marley to keep the music he grew up playing contemporary and relevant. Im a servant of the music, yes, Marley said. Part of what I do is definitely pushing the music forward -- in whatever way. Im happy to push the music forward. One of the new pieces is the powerful Ghetto Boy. Featuring Jamaican dancehall stars Bounty Killer and COBRA, the song addresses gun violence, telling the story of the titles ghetto boy given a pistol when he was young -- my gun became my toy, Marley sings. Thats just a part of me, he said of Ghetto Boy. Its just another song. Its not like I sat down and said 'I want to write a song about Im depicting whats going on, subconsciously as well as consciously, if you understand what I mean. Subconsciously, things Im seeing are coming out in the lyrics. Integrity and morals ... It comes out in our music. As he talked, Marley repeatedly referred to reggae as music and as a movement. Asked what that movement was, he replied: God is at the heart of what were trying to present. God, love, equality, justice. We are servants of the most high. That is why, then, there are positives messages of unity and social uplift throughout the music? Yes, my brother, very much so, Marley said. We need the social message of uplift for people. We the people are the only ones who can do it. We need to uplift, to go through the struggle, so we can exist together as one. Its hard. But very much so, its needed at this time because of the social consciousness melded into this. That message, of course, has been present since Bob Marley broke into worldwide consciousness in 1973. It resonated again last week at the Bourbon with Ziggys onstage comments, his new song We Are The People, and, most notably, during the performance of Bobs One Love that had the sold-out crowd singing with Ziggy and the band on the chorus -- One love, one heart / Let's get together and feel all right." Stephen Marley was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1972, but by a couple of months old, I was in Jamaica, he said. He cant remember not having an instrument in his hands. By 7 years old, I definitely was jamming, he said. Instruments were always around us. Both sides of our family were definitely musical. My mothers father was a great saxophonist. He had his little piano and instruments around. And my dad and his crew, they had the bass, drums, guitars all set up ... I was a born musician. We play everything. I play saxophone, I play flute, I play every little thing. At 7, Stephen, whose Ragga nickname comes from ragamuffin, joined Ziggy, whose real name is David, and his older sisters Sharon and Cedella in The Melody Makers. The family group took its name from the British pop newspaper, debuting with Children Playing in the Streets, a song Bob wrote for his children and the children of the world. In 1981, 9-year-old Stephen and 12-year-old Ziggy performed at their fathers funeral. Four years later, the renamed Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers released their debut album. In 1988, came Conscious Party, the hit Tomorrows People and the first of three best reggae album Grammys for the group. The next year came One Bright Day, the hit Look Whos Dancin (which Ziggy performed last week) and another Grammy. The last Grammy for the Melody Makers came for 1997s Fallen is Babylon. Stephens released his solo debut Mind Control in 2007, taking the best reggae album Grammy, the same award hed win for 2009s Mind Control (Acoustic)" and 2011s Revelation Part 1. He also produced a pair of albums for Damien Jr. Gong Marley, the youngest of Bob Marleys sons, Halfway Tree and Welcome to Jamrock that took best reggae album Grammys, bringing Stephens total to eight, by far the most in the history of the category. Producing, Stephen said, is little different than writing and recording songs. Its creating music, man, he said. We love to create music. We love that new inspiration. You get the new inspiration and fall in line with it. We love that part of it. What you call producing, its creating music. We love that. And we love coming to the cities and towns and playing the music, taking it from the inspiration to life. Tuesday Marley will do just that, bringing a show thats made up of songs from not my whole career, but definitely, my solo career from Mind Control on. He promises the show will be Magic ... Come and get a good vibe. These shows are magic. Velma (Stroh) Schroeder, 94, of Lincoln passed away on June 15, 2016. She was born on a farm near Blue Hill on May 20, 1922, to Harvey and Katherine (Benker) Stroh. She graduated from Blue Hill High School and attended the Nebraska State Teachers College in Kearney. She taught rural school in Webster County for six years. She married Elmer Schroeder on Dec. 30, 1945, upon his return from World War II service, at which time they moved to Lincoln. Velma was employed at the American Bus Lines regional office for five years. She then worked as a secretary at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, retiring after 22 years of service. She was a longtime member of Trinity Lutheran Church of Lincoln, where she was active in many areas. She also was a volunteer at Lincoln General Hospital. She enjoyed her family, reading, sewing and card games. In later years, she enjoyed activities at The Legacy retirement community, 5600 Pioneers Blvd., where she made her home. Velma was a devoted mother and grandmother. She is survived by her daughter, Susan Seacrest (husband Gary); grandchildren, Logan Seacrest (friend Elizabeth Hertzler), Tyler Seacrest (wife Debbie) and Kelly Seacrest (husband Peter Stegen); sister, Arvie Doerr (husband Howard); sister-in-law, Lorraine Stroh; and nieces and nephews. Velma was preceded in death by her parents, husband Elmer and three brothers, Vernon, Alvin and Leonard Stroh. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 18 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 724 S. 12th St., Lincoln. Prior private interment. Memorials: Tabitha Foundation (hospice), 4720 Randolph St., Lincoln, NE 68506. Condolences online at Roperandsons.com. A former Hastings police officer was arrested Thursday on suspicion of soliciting more than $20,000 in donations for medical bills he didn't have. Jerry Esch created a GoFundMe account for himself in November, saying he had cancer. It was deleted Friday. This is the hardest thing for me to do, he wrote. I would rather help someone else but in this time I need yours. In his 2,000-word plea for help, Esch said he found a wart on his right toe in April 2009 and tried to remove it, then went to a doctor and was told it was melanoma. After a long battle, he wrote, his right leg had to be amputated. He also said he'd gotten divorced and put medical expenses and medication on credit cards he needed to pay. In seven months, Esch raised $21,000 of his $27,000 goal. Between November and December, he deposited $17,691.57 of that into his personal checking account, according to court documents. Hastings Police Chief Pete Kortum said the department learned about the request and asked the Nebraska State Patrol to investigate. He said statements Esch made were inconsistent with the city's insurance plan. Patrol Trooper Ryan Phinney wrote in an arrest warrant that Esch's insurance records indicated he had no out-of-network services and no denied claims in 2015. Records also said all fees for $18,000 in medication were paid except for Eschs $50 copay, Phinney wrote. The trooper examined Eschs credit card records and said a maximum $3,286.45 in potential medical expenses was charged between January 2013 and December 2015. Each of the cards had a balance of $27,000, but only $653 in expenses went to medical bills, Phinney wrote. The arrest warrant says Esch used the money raised through the online account to pay off personal loans, his divorce attorney and credit card debt not related to medical expenses. Kortum said Esch worked for the police department from December 2005 to February. Beyond that, he said, the issue is a personnel matter and he could not comment further. Esch is out of jail on a $5,000 bond. Lincoln police are looking for a man who robbed a Taco John's just before 8:30 Friday morning. The man went to the restaurant at 3301 N. 27th St. with a stun gun and demanded money, Officer Katie Flood said. He left with some cash and got into a red pickup with Nebraska plate TZZ828, Flood said. Police are investigating whether the robbery is connected to a similar incident at a Kwik Shop on Thursday, when a man went into the store at 5900 Fremont St. just after 1 p.m., grabbed the clerk and demanded she open the register, then took cash and ran out of the building. The clerk told police the robber acted as if he had a weapon but did not display one. No one was injured in either robbery. Hong Kong Market, 1228 N. 27th St. Raw personal food stored with customer ready-to-eat foods. Lychees fruit stored directly in contact of surface where raw meat being prepared, discarded. Work surface not cleaned/sanitized after preparing raw meat. Reheating pork rolls from processor in warming box for less than one hour, removed and reheated to safe temp. Items in warmer at unsafe temp for four hours, discarded. Rice cakes at unsafe temp for one hour, adjust cooler temps. Numerous items lacking date labels in coolers, repeat. "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." -- Frank Sinatra, as Maj. Bennett Marco "His brain has not only been washed, as they say ... It has been dry-cleaned." -- Khigh Dhiegh, as Dr. Yen Lo These lines from the 1962 classic film "The Manchurian Candidate" came to mind after I listened to President Obama's endorsement of Hillary Clinton. The president said, "I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office." Really? She would be equal to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and himself? Notice President Obama didn't say she is "more qualified," because that would diminish him and when it comes to narcissism, Obama and the Clintons make Donald Trump look like a shrinking violet. In his effusive praise of Hillary Clinton, the president did not mention any specific accomplishments that might qualify her for the office. That is because there are none. There is a lot of symbolism, of course, but no substantive results as secretary of state, an unremarkable single term as a senator from New York, and eight years as first lady when, in 1993, she couldn't get the Clintons' health reform legislation through a majority Democratic Congress. There is, however, a long list of dubious and possibly criminal "achievements." Besides the questions surrounding Clinton's use of a private server and whether secret government documents were compromised and possibly hacked by America's adversaries, there is another issue the major media have completely ignored. It involves an institution known as Laureate Education, the parent company of Walden University, an online, for-profit school, which in its practices, critics of Trump University might say sounds like the allegations made against that school. Several students at Walden claimed to have been repeatedly delayed and given added costs as they tried to obtain their degrees, leaving them in considerable debt. A lawsuit was filed by the students, but a spokesperson for Walden told me the suits were "resolved" and the students have re-enrolled. Bill Clinton was paid an obscene $16.5 million between 2010 and 2014 to serve as an honorary chancellor for Laureate International Universities. With the Clintons, the money tree never ceases bearing fruit. Are people seeking to buy influence with this amount of cash, or do they just like Bill and Hillary? The major media mainly ignore such things because they function largely as an auxiliary to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. This and many other things from what conservative critics call "the Clinton crime foundation" ought to be red meat for Donald Trump. He should ask why the media are engaging in a near total blackout of Laureate Education and the enormous flow of money to the Clintons and their foundation from governments, institutions and individuals. Speaking of qualifications, perhaps no president, or presidential candidate, has been bought and paid for more than Hillary Clinton. She comes to this contest not with a long list of accomplishments, but with a trail of "receipts" and IOUs. If she becomes president, donors might reasonably be expected to collect on their investment. Speaking in 2013, a few weeks after children were slaughtered in their classrooms in Newtown, Connecticut, and just after President Barack Obama's second inauguration, National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre laid out the frightening challenge that Obama's presidency posed to gun owners. "He wants to put every private, personal transaction under the thumb of the federal government, and he wants to keep all those names in a massive federal registry," LaPierre said. "There are only two reasons for that federal list of gun owners -- to tax them or take them." Just seven months away from the end of his second term, Obama still has not proposed, much less implemented, a federal gun registry. But LaPierre is in the gun business, not the honesty business. A diabolical slippery slope that begins with criminal background checks and snowballs from there into gun registration, confiscation and, finally, totalitarian tyranny is one of LaPierre's favorite tropes. And in honor of the election calendar, the dangerous peaks of Mount Obama are rapidly transforming into the slippery slopes of Mount Hillary. LaPierre relies on his formidable imagination to summon pictures of a gun-registration dystopia. Yet he needn't. A real-world example exists -- in a remote, godforsaken Pacific atoll where every glint of human spirit is crushed. The natives call it "Hawaii." Basically every functioning, non-antique firearm in Hawaii is required to be registered with local police. The registration requires the names of the manufacturer and importer, model, type of action, caliber or gauge, serial number and the source from which the firearm was obtained, including the name and address of the prior owner. According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence: "All registration data that would identify the individual registering the firearm by name or address are confidential and shall not be disclosed to anyone, except if required by a law enforcement agency for the lawful performance of its duties or as may be required by order of a court." In other words, the information is confidential until, maybe, it's not. Awaiting Hawaii Gov. David Ige's, D, signature are two bills passed by the legislature that would further strengthen the state's gun laws. One adds "harassment by stalking and sexual assault" to the list of offenses that disqualify one from gun possession, based on research linking domestic violence and gun violence. The other "authorizes county police departments to enroll firearms applicants and individuals who are registering their firearms into a criminal record monitoring service used to alert police when an owner of a firearm is arrested for a criminal offense anywhere in the country." Presuming the second bill becomes law (Ige has a few weeks yet to act), Hawaii gun owners will have their names added to a federal data base in addition to their state data base. Here's a bold prediction: If the bill is signed, life in Hawaii will go on pretty much as it has. Indeed, life will go on in a slightly safer, healthier fashion than it does elsewhere in the U.S. In 2015 Hawaii had the fewest gun deaths per capita of the 50 states. Is gun registration the cause of Hawaii's safer society? Gun violence is too complex to depend on a single factor. But there is an encouraging correlation between stronger gun laws and lower rates of gun death. And unlike other states with relatively strong laws, such as California and New York, Hawaii is far removed from neighbors with slipshod laws written by NRA lobbyists. It's easy to run guns from Arizona to California, or from Florida to New York. It's a lot less easy to send them to Hawaii (although similarly remote Alaska, with weak laws, turns out to be a surprisingly robust source of guns used in crimes in other states). As the Orlando shootings inspire a renewed, and painfully familiar, debate over gun laws, Americans will no doubt be treated to much rhetoric about the slippery slope that sends rudimentary regulation skidding perilously down into totalitarianism. Unless Hawaii is your idea of hell on Earth, you can very safely ignore the hysteria. WASHINGTON -- From Shanghai to Paris to Moscow, the world has been watching to see how the U.S. election is affected by the latest terrorist bloodbath on our soil, this time in the shadow of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Newspapers in those cities and in many others focused attention on the mass murder of 49 revelers in a gay, Orlando nightclub and what might be expected from either a President Donald Trump or a President Hillary Clinton. It escaped no one that the latest horror would become a factor in the campaign. Nothing, not even the sorrows of the bereaved, takes a backseat to political opportunity. While Clinton spoke against anti-Muslim rhetoric, Trump leapt into the darkness with all four feet, snarling at President Obama's lack of passion in addressing the Orlando slaughter and condemning him for refusing to use the words "radical Islamic terrorism" in identifying the enemy. These charges are familiar enough, but this time Trump went a step further, suggesting that Obama resign from office and, conspiratorially, that there's more going on than we know. Defaulting to his customary template, Trump shifted responsibility for these thoughts to "people." "Look, we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind," Trump said Monday on Fox News. "And the something else in mind -- you know, people can't believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on." And who are these people who can't believe "it"? Trump's Twitter followers? The tiny voices in his head? For certain, they're not The Washington Post journalists whom Trump now has barred from his campaign events. Why? Because the Post accurately reported Trump's words, noting the obvious implication that the president of the United States was somehow in league with the terrorists. Maybe it's only the "people" thinking this, but Trump's modus operandi is well known by now. His book, tedious even to Dick and Jane, is wide open. In a normal world, Trump would be booed off the stage. Instead, he is applauded (by some) for adding the Post to his list of journalistic organs denied access to his campaign. The applause is disheartening, and is evidence that newspapers are little understood or appreciated. This is owing in part to a few notorious fabricators, who were duly punished, as well as a vast array of alternative news sources. But mostly to blame for the demonization of the media broadly are faux news media outlets, Republicans and their cohorts. For decades now, conservative news sources, many of which are aggregators dependent upon the mainstream media for their bread and butter, have joined radio hosts in blasting traditional news sources. Kill the messenger is their operating principle. Republicans who benefit from this portrayal of the media tender their silence in errant gratitude. The fact is, Trump hasn't needed any help in exposing his prevarications, exaggerations and just plain awful behavior. His words and deeds speak for themselves. Thus, the idea that there's some sort of anti-Trump cabal in the Post newsroom is nonsense. And picking a side between a bombastic fabulist like Trump and one of the most-respected editors in the country, Marty Baron, shouldn't cut any fresh furrows in anyone's brow. That is, not if one values the First Amendment, because you can be sure that Trump does not. Already, he has said he wants to "open up" libel laws so that people like him can more easily sue newspapers. This isn't only unlikely to happen but would prove otherwise problematic for Trump. Among other criteria, libel law requires evidence of defamation of character, the implicit presumption of which would seem to inoculate the accused in Trump's case. More troubling in the long term is Trump's apparent assumption that he can block a free press -- much as tyrants, potentates and dictators throughout history have done. Undoubtedly, a state news agency would suit him fine -- all the news Good Citizens are fit to read. Our allies and enemies, meanwhile, will have noted that a possible president Trump, who used the deaths of innocents to essentially indict President Obama of colluding with terrorists, would do all in his power to undermine the oldest democracy in the world. It is hard to sell freedom when at least a sizable portion of the country promoting it seems no longer to understand what it means. The citys plan to hire a consultant to plan a new central library is a puzzler. Has a new groundswell of support for the project, which has an estimated cost of $40 million to $50 million, somehow escaped public attention? The library project has been in the citys capital improvement program since 2006-07. This spring the project showed up as a project planned for 2017-18, with a funding plan that assumes $8 million in donations and a $42 million general obligation bond that would require voter approval. The size of the proposed bond is enough to get anyones attention. For comparison, the bond issue placed before voters for the Pinnacle Bank Arena was a mere $25 million. And now the city has asked prospective developers to indicate if they are interested in planning the library and providing information on their experience, staffing and costs. The firm that is selected will come up with a plan for a new library and an estimate of costs. Lincoln residents have been talking about building a new central library for years. A 2003 study said the city had outgrown the Bennett Martin building at 14th and N Streets. A 2012 study recommended that the city either renovate Pershing Center for use as a library or raze Pershing and build a new library on the site. But when Mayor Chris Beutler asked for proposals to redevelop the Pershing Center site, he ultimately rejected them because they were too expensive. One of those proposals, at a cost of $33 million, came from the Lincoln Library Board. Another developer also included a new library in its proposal, which called for the city to commit to a 30-year lease at $2.5 million a year. Last year the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities proposed a Pershing Market with booths for Nebraska-grown food, restaurants, a greenhouse and loft apartments. The idea failed to get traction. The Lincoln Independent Business Association wants the Pershing block sold to private developers so it can go on the tax rolls. But the city would have lost money on a proposal from a developer in 2012, which required the city to cover the costs of tearing down Pershing. In short, history offers little reason for optimism that Pershing Center is a prime redevelopment opportunity. Admittedly, the alternative of leaving Pershing Center dark and empty for years may be the worst plan of all. But if the library board and the Beutler administration expect to convince voters to approve a $42 million bond, theyve got a big job on their hands. Maybe they could start by explaining why its a good idea to hire a consultant now to draw up new plans. Nebraska Corrections Director Scott Frakes was breathing a sigh of relief Thursday morning when he addressed the Legislature's Department of Correctional Services Investigative Committee. He was relieved that both escapees from Lincoln Correctional Center were in custody in Tecumseh in what he called the state prison system's most secure cells. "That makes this a much better day for me," he said. "It's not a perfect day, but it's a much better day." A critical incident review of how Timothy Clausen, 52, and Armon Dixon, 37, escaped Friday morning in a laundry truck will be led by two experts from the Virginia Department of Corrections who were to arrive in Lincoln Thursday afternoon. Warden Rodney Younce and Assistant Warden Anthony Scott were loaned to Nebraska by Virginia Corrections Director Harold Clarke, who led Nebraska's department from 1990 to 2005. Younce and Scott and six Nebraska staff members will look at the factors leading up to the escape, response by staff and overall security practices at Lincoln Correctional Center. Clarke worked in Nebraska with Lincoln Correctional Center Warden Mario Peart, who has been reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation into the Friday escapes. The review by Clarke's two men from Virginia, along with a review by Nebraska Inspector General for Corrections Doug Koebernick, should get to all the facts, Frakes said Thursday. Commenting on the emergency count system used Friday to figure out who had escaped, Frakes said there's potential to tighten it up. "But just think about what we accomplished in accounting for 2,600, minus two individuals, on a Friday afternoon when there were people all across the community in work release and other settings," he said. The breakdown in security at the prison started with Clausen and Dixon getting into a part of the prison where they were not supposed to be, and then more failures followed. "If any of those pieces worked, likely we would not have had an escape," he said. In addition to Peart, two LCC employees have been moved into alternate positions while the escapes are investigated. "We have addressed those issues at this point to make sure that they're not in a position where they could repeat that action," Frakes said. The 2016-2017 Lincoln Southwest Emeralds Dance Team earned a number of awards at a Universal Dance Alliance (UDA) summer camp in Panama City, Florida, June 6-9. Seniors Natalie Hillman, Kelsey Ronspies, Chloe Ubben, Devony Votava and Claire Wolford, and junior Bailey Nelson were honored as All-Americans. The Emeralds earned a superior trophy and scored 2nd place overall for their home routine, "Rhythm is a Dancer." The Emeralds were awarded superior ribbons and earned the Full Out award for creativity and effort in their team routine. Emeralds co-captain Natalie Hillman and Emeralds performance captain Claire Wolford received the "Pin It Forward" award for their hard work, class, and positive attitude. Natalie and Claire were also asked to join UDA staff. The Emeralds were awarded a Spirit Stick each day of camp and were chosen by the UDA staff for the Super Spirit Stick the first night of camp. The Emeralds finished camp with a bid to nationals. Hildegard Center for the Arts (HCFA) has been awarded a grant of $4,356 by the Nebraska Arts Council to support the project Triumph of a Man Called Standing Bear, for a 12-month period beginning July 1. Nebraska Arts Council Executive Director Suzanne Wise said: Hildegard Center for the Arts does an outstanding job of providing arts activities in Lincoln and the surrounding area. It is through fine organizations like this that Nebraskas children receive a better education in the arts, and the quality of life is improved for all Nebraskans. With the help of sponsoring partner Southeast Community College Division of Humanities, HCFAs project Triumph of a Man Called Standing Bear will bring to the stage the compelling commissioned work by Emmy award-winning Chickasaw classical composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate to share with the world the timeless story of Ponca Chief Standing Bear. In the landmark Omaha trial of 1879, the famous Ponca Chief issued a stirring plea on behalf of the nations first residents. Titled Standing Bear: A Ponca Indian Cantata, the commissioned work (25-minute cantata) will include many of Standing Bears own words in English as well as the Ponca language, a combination rarely found in traditional classical vocal literature. The world premier of the cantata is Nov. 4, 7 p.m., at the Lied Centers Carson Theater. The premiere performance will feature the Rangbrook Ensemble, a professional string sextet, critically acclaimed pianist Dr. Ken Hoppmann and Native American opera baritone Grant Youngblood. Guest presenters will be announced soon. A pre-reception with composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate, will be held at 5 p.m. that evening at the Great Plains Art Museum, UNL, in conjunction with the museums Contemporary Indigeneity Art Exhibition. In additional to the Nebraska Arts Council, other project sponsors include the Southeast Community College Division of Humanities, the Great Plains Art Museum University of Nebraska and The Ethel S. Abbott Charitable Foundation. RACINE The Racine City Attorneys Office requested more time Thursday to make absolutely certain the city wont be able to collect on an $800,000 loan from the 1990s. My office is looking at it a little bit further and we would request deferral until the next regular loan board meeting to give us an opportunity to get some additional information and present it to the committee and the council, ultimately, Assistant City Attorney Nicole Larsen said. Larsen submitted her request for deferral at a special meeting of the Loan Board of Review Thursday. The city announced Wednesday in a release that outside counsel had advised that the loan would not be collectible because the debtor, Main-Lake LLC., former owner of 419-425 Main St., had dissolved. According to Larsen, the deferral will give the city attorneys office a chance to closely examine the parties involved in the loan. We wanted to get a little bit more detail on the corporate entities involved and their structures and just make sure that there is nothing to go after, she said. Larsen affirmed the recommendation of the citys consulting attorney Elaine Ekes, but said the city wanted to make absolutely sure before writing off an amount of money city staff found concerning. We just want to look into that a little bit further, she said. Im sure its fine. Im sure were good to go on that. A possible target for additional review could be Main-Lake, LLCs parent company, The Alexander Company, Inc., Larsen said. According to the release, no parent agreement with Alexander was in place at the time of the loan, and the city did not take out a second mortgage on the property, which is standard practice today but wasnt back then. Were just going to do a whole analysis, Larsen said. See who was all involved, look at all of the member parties of the LLC. and corporations and go from there. The Loan Board is scheduled to meet next on July 14 at 10 a.m. at City Hall, 730 Washington Ave., Room 307. If the Loan Board moves the write-off forward at its next meeting, the issue will come up for discussion at the July 19 City Council meeting. RACINE The Racine Public Library Board continued to move its redesign project forward Thursday. The Library Board unanimously voted to approve the Ad-Hoc Building and Grounds Committees June 6 recommendation to explore pricing options and feasibility for a third floor and curved outdoor patio. The board now awaits price estimates from Product Architecture + Design, the firm designing the renovations, which should come back sometime in early July. They said 30 days, Library Board President Melissa Kaprelian-Becker said. Thats why we gave them the design so that they knew what to come back with. The library is also working with Library Strategies, a consulting group based out of Saint Paul, Minnesota, to conduct a feasibility study within Racine. The consulting group, along with a 7-10 person feasibility committee that will include Library Board member, will determine the level of financial support in the community, according to Library Director Jessica MacPhail. MacPhail added that Library Strategies will present their findings to the Foundation Board, whose members will advise the Libary Board whether to move forward with a capital campaign. Kaprelian-Becker is pleased that the board is thinking about the librarys future. As board members, we cant just be in the moment, she said. We have to be visionaries for the future. And that future vision, which Kaprelian-Becker says extends for decades, is bolstered by the redesign plans. Im excited because I think its going in the right direction for our vision of the far out future, she said. WATERFORD Kayaks paddled down the Fox River running through the Village of Waterford Thursday evening as Village President Tom Roanhouse announced the development of the approximately 220-mile Fox River Water Trail. The announcement came during the dedication, ribbon cutting and official opening of four new canoe/kayak boat launches designed to allow for safe and easy access to and from the river. According to Roanhouse the water trail will be approximately 220 miles in length, starting in Waukesha County and ending in Ottawa, Illinois, where the Fox River meets the Illinois River. Angie Tornes from the Rivers and Trails Program with the National Park Service will be working with and advising the Fox River Ecosystem Partnership as they work to develop the trail. Tornes describes a water trail as a series of sites to access the water. She said they aim to make the sites and waterways safe, legal and sustainable and ultimately provide a continuous trip for the paddler. Tornes said an important aspect of water trails is they are community-driven and sustainable. Kenosha and Illinois both have water trails they have developed, but Tornes said the goal of the Fox River Water Trail is to take existing water trails, add new trails and combine them to form one large continuous water trail. As the Village of Waterford and other communities along the Fox River work to develop the water trail, they will also be working towards federal recognition from the National Park Service as a national water trail. If the Fox River Water Trail meets all the required criteria it would become the 20th water trail in the U.S. and would only be the fourth trail to cross state lines. For kayakers like Waterford resident Jim Schneider, the development of a 220-mile water trail is exciting. Schneider said part of the water trail benefit is that distances between enter and exit point are measured, allowing him and other kayakers to plan trips in advance. All information regarding the water trail, including maps, distances and points of interest, will be available online. Its like a GPS, said Schneider. It allows you to plan a road trip, a water trip. MADISON Wisconsins wolf population has reached a record high of nearly 900 animals, state wildlife officials announced Thursday. Figures from the Department of Natural Resources over-winter monitoring show between 866 and 897 wolves are roaming the state, up 16 percent from last years count of 746 to 771 animals. The current population could be even higher; volunteer trackers counted wolves during the winter, when the population reaches its lowest point before pups are born. Most of the wolves between 838 and 869 animals belong to 222 packs concentrated mostly across the northern third of the state. About 30 packs were located in a swath of west-central Wisconsin running roughly from Chippewa to Marquette counties. Monitoring efforts last year detected 208 packs. Dave MacFarland, a DNR large carnivore specialist, said the agency doesnt have a good idea of how many wolves the state can sustain. Thousands of wolves once roamed Wisconsin before the state was settled in the 1830s. By 1960, hunters had wiped out the entire wolf population. In the 1970s, wolves from Minnesota began moving into the state and the population grew rapidly in the 1990s. As of 2011, as many as 824 wolves roamed the state, creating concerns among farmers that the animals were destroying their livestock. The DNR created a management plan calling for 350 animals statewide but could do nothing since the wolves were under federal regulation. President Barack Obamas administration removed Great Lakes wolves from the endangered species list in 2012, allowing Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota to take over management. Republican legislators moved quickly to establish a hunting season, and three were held, much to the chagrin of animal rights advocates who insisted the population was still too fragile to support hunting. The DNR was considering raising its population goal before a federal judge placed Great Lakes wolves back on the endangered species list in 2014, ending wolf trapping and hunting and preventing farmers from killing wolves that attack their animals. Since then, deer hunters have complained that wolves are thinning the northern herd, leading to anemic deer hunts in that region. So far this year, the DNR has counted 23 confirmed or probable wolf attacks on livestock, hunting dogs and pets. There were 78 confirmed or probable wolf attacks on livestock, hunting dogs and pets in 2015, and 53 in 2014. Karen Gefvert, governmental relations director for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, said the growing wolf population presents a graver threat to livestock, especially since farmers cant legally kill problem wolves while theyre on the federal endangered list. Its going to be dangerous, she said. We have a really big problem. A spokesman for the Conservation Congress, an influential group of sportsmen who advise the DNR on policy, didnt immediately return an email seeking comment. Melissa Smith, executive director of Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf, said the new population numbers show wolves can thrive in Wisconsin. Fewer than 100 depredations last year is hardly cause for alarm, she said. We should commend the state management efforts the DNR and wildlife services are making in absence of lethal control, she said. The farm bureaus Gefvert countered that the depredation numbers dont account for wolf attacks that leave behind no evidence. Former President George W. Bush is emerging from the political wilderness to help Republican senators facing tough re-elections this fall, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Oshkosh, The New York Times reports. The report suggests Donald Trumps role as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee may be influencing Bush, who has stayed far from the limelight since leaving office in January 2009. Bush is moving to aid vulnerable (GOP) senators, including several whose re-election campaigns have been made more difficult by Donald J. Trumps presence at the top of the ticket, the report says. It says Bush is deeply bothered by Mr. Trumps campaign message, especially his derogatory remarks about Muslims and immigrants. Bush already has held fundraisers for GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, the report said. In addition to Johnson who faces whats widely viewed as a stiff re-election challenge from Democrat Russ Feingold of Middleton Bush is expected to aid Republican Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Rob Portman of Ohio. The report does not say when and where the fundraising events will be held. Johnsons campaign declined to comment on the report. At the event with McCain, Bush reportedly stressed the importance of preserving the Republican-held Senate as a check and balance on the White House, suggesting that such a check was needed regardless of whether the next president is Trump or presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The Times also reported that Johnson said he was looking forward to his reception with Mr. Bush. All the Bushes are people of integrity, Johnson said, according to the Times. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. A bundle of questions Poet Sarita Tiwaris poetry collection Prashna haru ko Karkhana (The Factory of Questions) was discussed amid a programme in Ghorahi. A pipe dream Recent amendment to the law allowing the use of kidneys from a clinically dead patient is a step in the right direction Advocate arrested on fraud charge The Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) on Thursday arrested an advocate on charge of fraud. Boko Haram shoot dead 18 women at funeral in northern Nigeria Boko Haram militants have shot dead 18 women at a funeral in Nigeria's northeast, rampaging through a village, setting houses on fire and shooting at random, witnesses and local government officials said on Friday. Constitution Implementation: Cabinet approves roadmap to hold 3 elections in 18 months The Cabinet on Thursday approved a roadmap for the implementation of the constitution, aiming to hold three electionslocal, state assembly and federal parliamentin the next 18 months. Customs extend opening hours Nepali and Indian customs offices on the either side of the Birgunj-Raxaul border point have extended opening hours by an hour a day in a bid to ease traffic congestion on the border. Driven to despair Forty-seven-year-old Rani Jom Tamang was walking in front of her makeshift shelter like a lost soul. She is still struggling to come to terms with the double tragedies she suffered last year. Education bill to help resolve issues in school education: Minister Pokharel Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel on Friday said that the education bill, made to amend the Education Act-2028 that is awaiting authentication by the President, after its approval from the Legislature-Parliament would help resolve problems in school education. Europe migrant crisis: Charity rejects EU funds over migration policy Medical aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says it will no longer take funds from the European Union in protest at its migration policy. Giant crab horde gathers in Australia A horde of giant spider crabs has amassed in waters near the Australian city of Melbourne. Girl kills self after getting low grades in SLC An 18-year-old girl committed suicide after getting low grades in School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations in Bajhang district on Thursday. Anup Ojha is a reporter for The Kathmandu Post primarily covering social issues and human interest stories. Before moving to the social beat, Ojha covered arts and culture for the Post for four years. Govt to complete three responsibilities: Minister Rai Minister for Information and Communications Sherdhan Rai has said that the incumbent government will accomplish major three responsibilities: election of local, federal and central bodies, implementation of the constitution and completion of the reconstruction projects. Gujarat riots: India court jails 11 for life over Gulbarg massacre A court in India has sentenced 11 people to life in prison for their roles in a notorious massacre during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat. IS conflict: Iraqi forces 'retake Falluja city hall' Iraqi government forces have retaken the main government compound in the city of Falluja from Islamic State (IS) militants, a top commander has said. Jo Cox death: Tributes paid in memory of killed Labour MP Tributes have been paid around the world to Labour MP Jo Cox, who died after being shot and stabbed. LPG bottlers warn of halting supply Bottlers have warned of halting the supply of cooking gas if the government implements its decision to ban Himalayan Petrochemicals (HP Gas) from importing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). Microsoft to help track legalised marijuana sales Microsoft has teamed up with California-based technology start-up Kind Financial, which helps businesses and government agencies track sales of legalised marijuana "from seed to sale". Nepal-India officials discuss border pillars Nepal and India border security officials held discussion regarding the achievements made so far by the border pillars field survey team and discussed the bilateral border management issues, said Chitwan Chief District Officer Binod Prakash Singh. NHRC probes into gang-rape The National Human Rights Commission has started probe into the gang-rape of a speech-impaired woman allegedly by security personnel at Shivaraj Municipality in Kapilvastu district. One dead, six injured in truck collision A person died on the spot and six others were injured when two trucks collided at Naya Belahani stretch of the East-West Highway in Nawalparasi. Orlando shooting: Obama condemns LGBT discrimination Discrimination against LGBT people must be tackled at home and abroad, President Obama has said after meeting relatives of Orlando attack victims. Pakistan woman arrested over 'acid attack' on man A woman in Pakistan has been arrested after allegedly throwing acid on a man who had refused to marry her. Petroleum is passe Those who insist that fossil fuels are required for development are living in the past Pilgrims jam road to Kailash despite weather warnings Hotels on the Nepalgunj-Simikot-Hilsa road are packed with Indian tourists bound for Kailash Manasarovar in China despite a travel advisory issued by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu to avoid the route due to weather conditions. Punish them The security agencies must take rape cases seriously, more so when accused are within Rapist sent to jail for nine years The District Court Ilam has sentenced a jail-term of nine years and six months to Suman Rai, 25, of Shantidanda-5 who was on remand for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl. Salman Khan is original bodybuilder of the industry: Aamir Khan Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who surprised his fans by unveiling his muscular look for Dangal earlier this week, on Thursday said he is a fan of his "Andaz Apna Apna" co-star Salman Khan's physique, and considers him as the "original bodybuilder of the industry". Sanghiya Gathabandhans relay hunger strike enters 11th day The relay hunger strike being staged by agitating Sanghiya Gathabandhanan alliance of 29 Madhesi and Janajati partiesentered 11th day on Friday. Syria conflict: US diplomats press for strikes against Assad Dozens of US State Department officials have signed an internal memo protesting against US policy in Syria and calling for targeted military strikes against President Bashar al-Assad's government. Team works to harness wind power A Spanish team is in Mustang district to materialise Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis dream to generate electricity from the wind. The rejected brides of Rupandehi Sima Harijan was only twelve when she got married eight years ago. She belongs to one of many communities, in Rupandehi district, that still practice child marriage. Transitional Justice: TRC extends deadline for filing complaints The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has extended the deadline by one month to register complaints related to conflict-era cases. Two arrested for intimidation and extortion Two persons were arrested from Bhadrapur of Jhapa for their alleged involvement in threatening medical operators and taking money from them. Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits Yes, they will make the city more inviting Maybe ... does it really matter? No, the signs in place are fine No, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars Vote View Results Kenya: A volunteer teacher has been jailed for 90 years after he was found guilty of sodomising nine pupils at a school in Gathiru village, Muranga County. 23 year old John Gichia Mugi, has been charged with nine counts of sodomy and will serve 10 years for each. He was found guilty by Resident Magistrate Jesse Masiga of sexually assaulting nine pupils at the school where he taught on diverse dates between January and May 2014. The scandal rocked the school in Muranga after one of the learners reported sodomy cases to a parent. During the trial, pupils aged between 13 and 16 testified how the teacher had been regaling them with love stories and touching their private parts when they went to bed. He had been accommodated in a room next to the pupils dormitories and had more access to the learners. When the sodomy incidents were revealed in 2014, the Teachers Service Commission demoted the schools headmaster for failure to report the matter and attempt to shield the teacher from prosecution. G2 Research has a new .308 Trident round designed for fast, humane kills without total destruction of meat. The Trident features a precision CNC 150-grain solid copper bullet that opens up to an inch in diameter without the meat-destroying hydrostatic (gelatinous) shock you get from an over-done magnum through and through bullet, according to a press release. With tested penetration of 17 to 20+ inches, the .308 Trident will easily get to the vitals of any big game in North America, and the killing power is enhanced by the incredible expansion it delivers with its three cutting copper petals. The Trident retails for $56.99 for a box of 20. A private U.S. intelligence firm has released a report looking into a military strike scenario against North Korea's nuclear facilities, inviting angry reaction from the communist nation. In a five-part report titled, "Removing the Nuclear Threat," the information firm Stratfor detailed possible military means for a strike and possible responses from the North. Pyongyang has bristled at the report, saying Wednesday that it shows a surprise preemptive attack and armed invasion are in "the full-dress process of examination and preparation." The North also warned it will further bolster its nuclear capabilities. The Stratfor report said B-2 bombers and F-22 fighters would "form the backbone of any anti-nuclear operations." "The North Koreans have a dense and interlocked air defense network, but the force is obsolete and largely incapable of adequately defending against or even detecting full-spectrum stealth aircraft such as the U.S. B-2 bomber and F-22 tactical fighter," the report said. Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Rain showers this morning with some sunshine during the afternoon hours. High 49F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low 32F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. AUBURN Jim Pepple began serving on the DeKalb County Plan Commission in October 1967 and never stopped until Wednesday evening. Pepple, 82, of rural Waterloo, cast his last votes for the commission on two routine, noncontroversial petitions. Then, to his surprise, a retirement party began in the meeting room on the second floor of the courthouse in Auburn. Colleagues honored Pepple for his 48-plus years of service with an inscribed watch and a cake. Several of his relatives, including his wife, Judy, looked on from the gallery. Pepple recalled that former county Surveyor Arnold Milks recruited him to serve on the Plan Commission. As if that werent enough, Pepple joined the county Board of Zoning Appeals six years later and served 42 years in that capacity. Pepple said he had seen a lot of things happen in those years. The biggest controversy, he recalled, involved a proposed television transmission tower that ultimately was rejected. The Plan Commission moved its meeting to the DeKalb High School gymnasium to accommodate the crowd that came to debate the TV tower. SDI was big. That was a big showdown, Pepple said about the decision to allow Steel Dynamics Inc. to build a steel mini-mill southwest of Butler. A proposed fox farm also stirred emotions before it was turned down. We tried to please everybody and be fair, Pepple said, adding, I hold no grudges. He had said he enjoyed working alongside his colleagues on the Plan Commission over the years. I have never yet seen anybody say anything snide about anybody in here, he said. We just have a lot of fun. Longtime Plan Commission attorney David Kruse makes it easy for us, Pepple added. DeKalb County commissioners will read a resolution honoring Pepples long service Monday at 9 a.m. in the courthouse rotunda. American Family Mutual Insurance Co. is seeking to broaden its corporate footprint on paths that may lead to expansion into non-insurance products and services, the company announced Thursday. To do that, the Madison-based American Family, the nations 13th-largest mutual property/casualty insurance group meaning it belongs to its customers wants to convert to a mutual holding company, a move that the company says will provide more flexibility to pursue customer-driven initiatives. The plan has been filed with the states Office of the Commissioner of Insurance for review and approval. It also requires the approval of American Family Mutual Insurance Co.s 4 million policyholders. The proposed change would allow the company to meet customer needs in an age of automated cars, smart homes and other advanced technologies, Chairman Jack Salzwedel said in a statement. Policyholders of American Family Mutual Insurance Co. would exchange their membership rights for similar membership rights in the mutual holding company, American Family said. Some membership rights would also be extended to policyholders of other American Family group subsidiaries, preserving what the company called the concept of mutuality. Any such change would not affect existing insurance policies, the company said. The board of directors and officers of a holding company would be the same as the current board and officers of American Family Mutual Insurance Co., and they would not get additional compensation, stock or benefits from the change. In addition, this would allow some subsidiaries to be formally re-domiciled in Wisconsin, for regulatory purposes, said Ken Muth, company spokesman. Promising no change in traditional, existing insurance policies, the company in a statement said the insurance company would become a stock subsidiary of the holding company. Dave Holman, American Familys chief strategy officer, said we are not selling stock, which would in any case require regulatory and policyholder approval. Holman said a tentative timeline would put the proposal up for policyholder approval by late November, following review and back-and-forth with the OCI. We provide a proposed plan, they can review and make suggestions on how to modify. We have had some preliminary discussion with (OCI) and have filed most of what they are looking for, Holman said. He said the idea for the change came via discussions within the board of directors, not as a reaction to a particular event or prospective purchase, for example. We looked at it as a possibility as early as 2012, he said, with the primary impetus being we wanted to enhance our status and preserve a strong mutual member base. If the company changes to a mutual holding company, American Family Mutual Insurance Co. becomes a subsidiary of that company, he explained. American Family today has a number of stock subsidiaries that underwrite other property and casualty products. The move to a holding company would expand the companys ability to acquire consumer products adjacent to insurance, such as smoke alarms for houses, for example, he said. Already American Family has made investments in what Holman described as strategic reconnaissance, or small investments in a variety of small technology companies, start-ups. They might include a way to connect auto-owners with mechanics, Wi-Fi opportunities, noise monitors and the like. American Family-brand products are sold in 19 states. Moving to a mutual holding company does not historically come without potential for disagreement. One UW-Madison insurance expert was willing to point out positives and negatives of the strategy in general, not specifically to the American Family plan. Peter Carstensen, emeritus professor of law, said forming a holding company makes diversifying the company easier and allows the mutual to make acquisitions, he said. The question, he said, is how good are they at figuring out what other product lines they may want to be in? The risk to the individual insured is that the company makes some bad investment decisions and jeopardizes the value of the company. On the good side, currently the industry is getting moderately strong supervision from insurance commissioners. They have been bitten enough by bad investments, and even though they are acting as good administrators, they tend to be very industry-supportive. Another risk of setting up a holding company, he said, is that you create a self-perpetuating oligarchy ... with little chance of an inside check on decisions. The point is, except for the (regulators) looking over their shoulders, nobody is there to question what is going on. Muth, of American Family, noted that there will be many opportunities for policyholders and others to examine the companys proposal. American Family in 2015 had assets of $21.5 billion, equity of $7.4 billion and revenue of $8.1 billion. It had $93.6 billion in life insurance in force. The company contracts with 3,100 independent agents and employs about 7,900 people. Traditional Chinese medicine is welcomed after a practitioner joins medical team sent to South Sudan A visit to a Chinese acupuncturist has opened a whole new world of medicine for Issa Justin, a young South Sudanese man who is both a patient and medical student in Juba, capital of the world's newest nation. Justin, 28, a second-year student in clinical medicine at Juba Teaching Hospital, sought treatment for a severe case of facial pain and paralysis, first trying more conventional therapies, but without success. Ding Xiangming trains locals and imparts knowledge and skills about acupuncture. He says that in South Sudan it is not easy to disseminate TCM knowledge. Gong Yidong / For China Daily Then he went to see Ding Xiangming at the hospital's Physiotherapy Department. Ding is from China's Anhui province and specializes in Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion, the burning of a small amount of mugwort herb on the skin to stimulate an acupuncture point. Together with 12 other doctors, Ding arrived in Juba in late February to replace the third Chinese medical team sent to the country. Beijing began to send medical teams to the country after South Sudan won independence from Sudan in a referendum in 2011 after years of fighting. It was the first time that a traditional Chinese medicine doctor was added to the team, with an aim to diversify medical services to the patients. In December, Justin says he developed facial paralysis as he was brushing his teeth on a Sunday morning. All of a sudden, he had trouble rinsing his mouth with water. Pain started to shoot through the right side of his face, extending to the ear and the mouth. His eyes became swollen so much that he had trouble closing them, he says, and he had trouble eating. Tears ran down his eyes as he chewed his food. Even the way he talked changed. "The pain lingered. I felt like my face was being burned by fire," Justin says. Justin sought conventional physiotherapy at the department, including faradic stimulation - applying a small amount of electric current - and facial massage. The treatment lasted for four months, but there was no substantial improvement. In April, he decided to see Ding and started undergoing a daily, 30-minute therapeutic session every morning. "Before then, I had heard of the word 'acupuncture', but I had no idea how it works." He says that to his surprise, the "magic Chinese needles" took effect in a week's time. Needles were applied to a few major points on his face. "I was feeling the flow of blood around the facial areas where the needles entered, as if water were running along the channels," he says. By the end of the first week, Justin was able to fully close his eyes. After a month's treatment, he was once again able to laugh and talk with ease. He was pleased with the results, and advised one of his friends to take her daughter Sarah to be treated by Ding. The 8-year-old girl had symptoms similar to Justin's. Acupuncture and moxibustion are not only applicable to facial paralysis or acute pain. Ding says most of the chronic pain cases seen at the physiotherapy department are treatable with the most common therapeutic methods he uses on a daily basis. These methods include needles, moxibustion and cupping, which is using cups to create suction on the skin for the purpose of mobilizing blood flow to promote healing. Lower back pain is one type of chronic pain that is common among many South Sudanese. Instead of firm mattresses, many South Sudanese use nylon string beds that do not provide good support for the spine, says Jimmy Onge Owun, a South Sudanese physiotherapist at the department. The extended rainy season, from April to November, also contributes to many pain symptoms, Ding says. Trauma and accident cases that require rehabilitation also are common at this, the largest public hospital in South Sudan, where civil war continued after independence. "Acupuncture and moxibustion can play a significant role in one's physical recovery," Ding says. Every day, Ding sees nearly 30 patients with a wide range of illnesses, including back pain, knee pain and strokes. Justin Lukudu, a 52-year-old agricultural specialist from the Central Equatoria State Ministry of Agriculture, had a stroke last year that affected his right side. His brother recommended he see Ding. "I feel that the blood in my body is opened every time the needles are inserted into my body." Aside from regular acupuncture and moxibustion, Ding says he treats him with "fire needles," or heated needles, to enhance the therapeutic effect. Lukudu says it is still difficult for him to raise his right arm as high as he'd like, but he is feeling better after a couple of sessions. It is not, however, easy to disseminate TCM knowledge to South Sudanese patients, Ding says. Although South Sudan is rich in traditional medicinal plants, conventional biomedical treatment still dominates at hospitals and clinics, leaving limited space for alternative treatments. For many, TCM or acupuncture is something unheard of or associated with pain. Even for those who have attended medical school, acupuncture is not considered a primary medical approach by physicians. Onge recalls his days at Makerere University Medical School in Kampala, when Chinese acupuncture was briefly mentioned by a Swedish lecturer in class. Onge was trained as an occupational therapist with six years' professional experience in physiotherapy. But after having witnessed with his own eyes the improvement of patients treated by Ding, Onge says he is convinced of the effectiveness of acupuncture, especially its pain-relieving effects. Acupuncture and moxibustion are also cost-effective and resource-friendly, Onge says. Like all the governmental organizations and businesses affected by South Sudan's power shortages, Juba Teaching Hospital experiences repeated power outrages day and night, making it barely possible to use electronic physiotherapy equipment like infrared rays. In these cases, moxibustion can effectively serve as a source of heat. "This is a way of critical thinking," Onge says. In March, Onge started to observe and assist in Ding's clinical practice. Under the system of apprenticeship in traditional Chinese medicine, Ding became Onge's shifu (teacher) and imparted knowledge and skills. Later, a couple of interns from St. Mary's Medical School also joined in. Under Ding, they studied the basic theory behind acupuncture and moxibustion, such as jingluo (channels and collaterals) and yinyang (positive energy/negative energy). They also learned how to apply needles to specific sites where qi (vital energy) and blood are transported to the body's surface. "It resembles running water. If you stimulate the nerves, qi and blood will travel smoothly in the channel systems of the body, reaching a state where yin is balanced and yang is firm, and a coordinated spirit is guaranteed," Ding says. The efforts have paid off. Onge has successfully treated a patient with severe back pain by integrating muscle exercise with Chinese acupuncture. The pain had disappeared by the time the patient completed nine sessions. Still, more work and time is needed before acupuncture is widely accepted by South Sudanese patients. Su Guiping, head of the Chinese medical team, says he hopes to secure an independent treatment room on the premises of Juba Teaching Hospital so that more needy patients can have access to acupuncture and moxibustion. Ding also notes that physical treatment also involves mental care. Ding says he observes Hippocrates' oath "to cure sometimes, to treat often and to comfort always" as part of his medical ethics. "South Sudan has been ravaged by civil wars for too long. You need to go beyond diseases and treat the patients with dignity, care and respect. This is an invaluable lesson of traditional Chinese medicine." For China Daily A bill introduced in Congress this week would offer tax incentives for farmers to invest in technology that turns manure into energy. The measure would extend the use of energy tax credits to anaerobic digesters and other systems that convert manure into methane gas. The 30 percent credit would be on par with what is now offered for solar energy systems. Bill sponsor Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, said its a commonsense way to help farmers reduce their energy costs and manage waste. Kind noted Wisconsins dairy industry generates more than $88 billion in economic activity and 413,500 jobs. There are eight Republicans among the bills 13 co-sponsors, including Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin. Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota has also signed on. A judge Friday sentenced a Holmen woman who ranked high in a drug trafficking enterprise to five years in prison. Melissa Ozleplebici, 25, is one of 17 tied to the methamphetamine ring that operated between the Twin Cities and the La Crosse region for a decade before authorities interrupted it in October. Authorities estimate those involved moved hundreds of pounds of meth manufactured by Mexican drug cartels throughout the area. Ozleplebici, who already is serving a prison sentence for possessing meth, also will serve three years on extended supervision under the sentence imposed by La Crosse County Circuit Judge Scott Horne. Until you make a decision to separate from the drug community, you will remain a danger to the public, he said. Ozleplebici, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit delivery of meth, sold $400 worth of meth at a time, said Tom Johnson, coordinator of the West Central Metropolitan Enforcement Group. She had a high level position in this enterprise, he said. Since 2014, Ozleplebici relished the role of a drug dealer, said La Crosse County Deputy District Attorney Brian Barton, who argued for a four-year prison sentence. She stated in text messages that it was nice to support other peoples habits and was on supervision at the time of her arrest. If Ms. Ozleplebici was not stopped at the time that she was, I think she would have been one of the main players, he said. Ozleplebici was an addict ingesting 3.5 grams of meth daily and used by higher-level players in the conspiracy to push drugs into the community, said her attorney, Sean ONeill, who argued for probation to allow her access to treatment in the community. She was a part of this but she wasnt a part of the top tier, the inner circle, he said. She was a major step down. Ozleplebici apologized for victimizing her community and asked the judge to consider that shes a mother missing her daughter grow up. I dont think more prison time will do anything but hinder my progress, she said. At its beginning, Christianity was an illegal religion hiding in secret gatherings. Today, it has legal status with grand houses of worship and uninhibited public marketing for membership. Recently, due to the rise of a more secular culture, some Christian congregations are complaining that they are under siege by the government. The history of Christianity is filled with examples of persecution, not only by various governments, but also by other religions. Instead of suffering in silence, as was once the norm, some Christians are hoping to gain public sympathy by portraying themselves as victims of bullying. The charge of being under siege should take into account that most politicians curry the favor of these claimants for personal advantage. For instance, the former presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee came to the public defense of Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who refused to grant marriage licenses to gay couples after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages in 2015. A claim was made that she even met with the Pope. Keep in mind that public schools are not an extension of the church, where prayer is the norm. The Ten Commandments are a religious document. Christian marriage is described by the Apostles. While it would be nice if non-Christians would be guided by Christian doctrine, the answer is in evangelism rather than congressional interference. Christians need to understand that they will always be a minority and will win the culture war" by sharing the gospel, not by forced legislation. Exact Sciences stock may be on the rise after a federal panel upgraded the status of its colon cancer screening test, but some say it may be premature to bet the farm on the company. This week the U.S. Prevention Services Task Force put the Madison-based tech company's colon cancer screening test, Cologuard, on par with other tests, and the company enjoyed a surge as investors bet that more doctors will recommend the test in the future, and that more insurers will reimburse for it. "We expect this will have material impact on reimbursement discussions as the Affordable Care Act requires all 'A' rated screening tests to be covered without co-pay," noted Brian Weinstein, an analyst at investment bank William Blair, according to the science news site Genomeweb. The stock leaped nearly 60 percent in three days of trading this week, closing at $11.24 a share on Thursday. It was only eight months ago that Exact Sciences saw its fortunes, and stock value, plunge on news that the Prevention Services Task Force omitted the test from its list of recommended screening methods. That cut the companys stock price nearly in half the day the report was issued. So does the task force's new assessment mean a change in Exact Science's fortunes? Some suggest that investors have reason to pause. Overall, new guidelines offer investors a reason why they can consider owning Exact Sciences, but before investors hit the buy button, they should remember that the company is losing a lot of money, Todd Campbell, owner of E.B. Capital Markets,writes in The Motley Fool. Exiting the first quarter, expenses were running at an annualized $216 million pace, so even with sales more than doubling this year, there's still no telling when Exact Sciences will turn a profit. Jan Walk and Erica Layon of Benchmark write that the task force may have removed language referring to Cologuard as an alternative to more established screening methods, but they dont think the change is meaningful. To us, the recommendation has not changed, though the way it is formatted in the report has, they write. They add, As we have said in the past if the current recommendation stands (and it seems to us that it has more than it has changed), we do not expect to see an uptick in adoption that might be expected if it had. Campbell does note, however, that demand for colon cancer screening is increasing, and that bodes well for the market for the test. Since baby boomers are turning 65 at a pace of 10,000 people per day, there's clearly a significant addressable market opportunity for Cologuard. Exact Sciences was slated last fall to anchor the Judge Doyle Square project, an endeavor that involved substantial public money. After the nosedive, which came only a week after the deal was announced, the company pulled out, leaving the massive long-awaited downtown development project once again in limbo. But even at $18.35 the price of Exact Science stock before Octobers meltdown the stock was already in decline. Three months earlier it had been at $32.85. But in February, when Exact Sciences was seeing its stock prices hit bottom, financial planner Kirk Spano sung its praises in Market Watch. Cologuard, Spano wrote, is poised capture the market from its main competitor, the fecal immunochemical test, which has to be administered every year, as opposed to every three years for Cologuard. "The test will also be available in Europe later this year or next, as well as in Canada," Spano wrote. "Ultimately, a next-generation test will be available for Asia with a genetic detection marker for stomach cancer due to that disease being a problem there. The company also has multiple other products in development which could be brought to market by Exact, sold, licensed for royalties or partnered on." Tomah Memorial Hospital is looking for public input regarding the planned construction of a new hospital on the citys south side. CEO Phil Stuart said a public survey is available for area residents to share input on services and features for the estimated $72 million project planned for construction on a 40-acre site located on Tomahs south side adjacent to Interstate 90 along Gopher Avenue. The hospital board has already selected BWBR of Saint Paul, Minnesota, as the projects architectural firm, and Market & Johnson, headquartered in Eau Claire, as the general contractor. Stuart said plans still call for a proposed groundbreaking of the new facility in August 2017, but hinted the date could be moved up earlier in the year. The input from the public will be helpful as we continue on this journey, said Stuart. The six-question survey will allow the public to list services they currently use while sharing insights on future health care needs. He said questions also ask the public to list some services and features they would like to see in the new facility. Stuart said the survey will be available on the hospitals website at tomahhospital.org through July 5. In May 2014, Tomah Memorial purchased the 40-acre parcel of land from Norman and Evelyn Randall. Since that time, Stuart said officials have been working through the project, including meetings with construction and engineering representatives, stakeholders, health care providers, local city and school officials. Stuart said hospital officials continue to have discussions with representatives from Gundersen Health System and Mayo Health System regarding joint use of a medical office building and with YMCA of La Crosse officials pertaining to a proposed community / wellness facility planned for the campus. The hospitals foundation has already begun work with a firm looking into fundraising for the community/wellness facility. A proposed site design calls for a 130,000 square-foot hospital, 80,000 square-foot medical office building and 50,000 square-foot community/wellness facility. Stuart said designs also include room for future expansion for all three facilities on the site including a possible assisted living facility. There still are a lot of moving parts in this project with time frames built into the planning that would allow us to put it on hold at any time, Stuart said. Stuart said construction of the project could take up to two years. He added that no future plans have been made for the existing hospital at 321 Butts Ave. Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier The board earmarked $1.54 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for the dredge, designed to keep channels open and supply sand to nourish eroding beaches up and down the York County coast and beyond. Today we are visiting a vast and remote park in the state of Alaska. The park is bigger than the country of Switzerland. It is six times the size of Yellowstone. In fact, it is the largest national park in America. Its name is Wrangell-St. Elias. Do not worry if you have not heard of Americas biggest national park. Most Americans do not know its name. But Wrangell-St. Elias contains some of North Americas largest glaciers and volcanoes. It also is home to nine of the highest mountains in America. The park extends more than 5.3 million hectares. Four mountain ranges come together here, including the Wrangell Mountains and the St. Elias Mountains. The Wrangell Mountains cover much of the park. They were formed over the last 5 million years from volcanic activity. The St. Elias Mountains stretch into Canadas Yukon Territory. The Chugach Mountains cover the southern part of the park. The Alaskan Mountain Range forms some of the huge parks northern boundary. The mountain landscape is wild. Much of it is also difficult to reach. Private companies offer flightseeing tours on planes and helicopters. From high above, visitors witness Wrangell-St. Eliass beauty. A world of water Rivers and glaciers help tell the story of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. These rivers, with names like Copper, Chitina, Chisana, and Chitistone, come from the parks many glaciers. They wind through land carved out by other huge glaciers long ago. The Copper, the largest river of them all, flows into the Gulf of Alaska. Other rivers take a more dramatic path. The Chitistone River becomes Chitistone Falls, a 91-meter-tall waterfall that drops over a steep wall. Glaciers cover almost 13,000 square kilometers of the park. In summer months the parks rivers carry their meltwater. It is filled with tiny pieces of sand, stone and other materials. A buildup of this sediment forces the rivers to flow through new channels. This causes the riverbeds to twist and turn. From up above, these rivers can look like braided hair. One of the parks most striking places is the Hubbard Glacier. It is the longest tidewater glacier in North America. A tidewater glacier is one that begins in a mountain valley and flows all the way to a body of water. The Hubbard Glacier is 120 kilometers long and nearly 10 kilometers wide. It begins on the 6,000-meter-tall Mount Logan in Canadas Yukon Territory. It ends in the waters of a place called Disenchantment Bay. Hubbard was named in 1890 after Gardiner Hubbard, the first president of the National Geographic Society. The massive glacier is only getting bigger. Unlike most glaciers, Hubbard is thickening and extending. Other glaciers face melting caused by increasing temperatures. But experts say Hubbard reacts in an opposite way to climate change. As the Earths temperature rises, the area around Wrangell-St. Elias gets more snow and rain. Scientists say this snow and rain is what permits the glacier to grow. Sometimes, very fast growth causes huge pieces of ice to break apart from the glacier. Scientists call this calving. The ice creates a thunderous sound as it breaks and falls into the water. Hubbard Glaciers size, beauty, and calving activity have made it popular with park visitors. Large boats travel through Disenchantment Bay, taking passengers close to the glacier. Wrangell-St. Elias system of glaciers and rivers help support animal life in the park. The parks Dall sheep may be the most famous animal residents. Alaskas Dall sheep are the worlds northernmost wild sheep population. About 13,000 Dall sheep live within the parks borders. Visitors can look for their white bodies and huge brown horns near rocky mountainsides. Visitors might also see black bears, brown bears, moose and caribou. Caribou are large North American reindeer with huge, wide antlers. Along the coast seals and sea lions lie in the ice and splash in the water. Visiting the park Wrangell-St. Elias became a national park in 1980. The parks main visitors center is about 300 kilometers east of Anchorage. The long drive to get to the park is an adventure itself. The trip includes roadside views of mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and lakes. Its distant location makes it one of America's least-visited national parks. About 75,000 people visit Wrangell-St. Elias each year. By comparison, parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone get about 3 million visitors each year. Visitors can experience the parks pristine nature as well as its historical areas. The Athabascan people lived in the area thousands of years ago. The park includes sites of their villages and hunting areas. The park also has many historical structures and buildings. The National Park Service says the structures represent periods of exploration, mining and transportation. One historical place is called Kennecott Mill Town. The picturesque town tells a story of westward expansion and discovery. Miners processed nearly $200 million worth of copper at Kennecott Mines between 1911 and 1938. Many of the buildings that remain in the town have been empty for 60 years. Some are in disrepair. The National Park Service works with the local community to restore and preserve them. Some visitors stay at Kennecott during their trip to Wrangell-St. Elias. The family-owned Kennecott Glacier Lodge provides beautiful views of the surrounding glacial mountains. It also gives visitors a chance to try exciting outdoor activities like glacier hiking or ice climbing. Some visitors choose to sleep in the wild outdoors. Private campsites are located in many areas of the park. Some visitors set out on long hikes in the parks backcountry area. Whatever way you visit, the immense and untouched beauty of Wrangell St. Elias National Park is guaranteed to awe. I'm Caty Weaver. And I'm Ashley Thompson. Ashley Thompson wrote this report, with materials from the National Park Service. Caty Weaver was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story vast -adj. very great in size, amount, or extent remote - adj. far away from other people, houses, cities, etc. range - n. a series of mountains or hills in a line boundary - n. something (such as a river or fence) that shows where an area ends and another area begins landscape -n. an area of land that has a certain quality or appearance dramatic - adj. sudden and extreme twist - v. to bend or turn (something) in order to change its shape braided - adj. formed with three or more parts woven together thunderous -adj. making a loud noise like the sound of thun antlers -n. the horn of a deer or similar animal pristine -adj. not changed by people : left in its natural state picturesque -adj. very pretty or charming preserve -v. to keep (something) in its original state or in good condition awe -v. to fill someone with a strong feeling of wonder or respect Some victims of the mass shooting in the United States are being buried this weekend. Forty-nine people were shot to death Sunday at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The gunman, Omar Mateen, also was killed. More than 50 other people were wounded. About 300 people were inside the Pulse nightclub at the time of the attack. Mateen exchanged gunfire with a security guard, entered the building and then took hostages, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said. About three hours later, law enforcement officials sent in a special police team to rescue the hostages. Officers shot and killed Mateen. Police say he had an assault rifle and a handgun. During the early morning hours, Mateen used Facebook to search the terms Pulse Orlando and shooting from inside the nightclub. In earlier Facebook posts, he expressed support for Islamic State (IS) group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and called for an end to U.S. and Russian bombings of IS positions. Mateen was born in New York and was a U.S. citizen. His parents are from Afghanistan. The gunman had worked as a security guard since 2007. A federal agent said he bought at least two guns legally in the week before the attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation questioned him earlier after reports that he had made comments in support for the Islamic State. FBI Director James Comey told reporters on Monday federal agents had questioned Mateen in 2013 and 2014. Investigators also followed him and had studied his communications and contacts. But officials took no action against him because the FBI did not find any evidence of criminal activity. Comey said Mateen had strong indications of radicalization and may have been inspired by foreign terrorist organizations. But he added that the FBI has so far found no evidence the Orlando gunman was assisted or supported by any foreign terror groups. FBI officials say Mateens wife had some knowledge of his plans to attack the nightclub. One investigator said Noor Zahi Salman went with her husband on a reconnaissance mission to the nightclub between June 5th and 9th. Law enforcement officials told reporters that Salman warned her husband not to carry out the attack as he left for Orlando last Saturday. Salman was born in the United States to Palestinian parents. She was Mateens second wife and the mother of their 3-year-old son. On Monday, the Islamic State called Omar Mateen one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America. However, the group did not make any claim of responsibility for the nightclub attack. Mateens father, Seddique Mateen, told NBC News that he did not believe the attack was connected to religion. He suggested it was more likely an act of homophobia. He said his son had expressed deep anger when he saw two men kissing recently. President Barack Obama went to Orlando Thursday and met with some of the wounded and with the families of those who were killed. He also spoke with some of the police officers who helped end the shooting, emergency medical workers and doctors who treated the wounded. Obama repeated his earlier statements that the attack was both an act of terrorism and an act of hate. This was an attack on the LGBT community. Americans were targeted because were a country that has learned to welcome everyone -- no matter who you are or who you love. Obama added that that the government would be relentless against terrorist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida. We are going to destroy them. We are going to disrupt their networks and their financing and the flow of fighters in and out of war theaters. Were going to disrupt their propaganda that poisons so many minds around the world. I'm Christopher Jones-Cruise. VOANews.com reported on the events in Orlando. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted their reporting for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story gay adj. sexually attracted to someone who is the same sex nightclub n. a place that is open at night, has music, dancing, or a show and usually serves food and alcoholic drinks reconnaissance adj. activity in which information is gathered about people or a place mission n. a task or job that someone is given to do caliphate n. the area ruled by a caliph, a religious leader homophobia n. hatred or abuse of homosexuals kiss v. to touch (someone) with your lips as a greeting or as a way of showing love or sexual attraction LGBT expression/acronym Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender relentless adj. continuing without becoming weaker, less severe, etc.; remaining determined U.S. President Barack Obama visited Orlando Thursday to meet with survivors and family members affected by the worst mass shooting in American history. Obama met privately with relatives at Amway Center, a stadium not far from the gay nightclub where a lone gunman opened fire early Sunday, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others. Vice President Joe Biden also traveled to Orlando. In remarks after the meetings, Obama said the families are feeling grief beyond description. Today the Vice President and I told them on behalf of the American people, that our hearts are broken, too, and that we stand with you and that we are here for you. Obama said it was difficult for him to console family members after a violent tragedy. So today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents. And they asked Why does this keep happening? And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage. They dont care about the politics, neither do I. Obama repeated his earlier statements that the Orlando attack was both an act of terrorism, and an act of hate. This was an attack on the LGBT community. Americans were targeted because were a country that has learned to welcome everyone no matter who you are or who you love. Obama also pledged that the government would be relentless against terrorist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida. We are going to destroy them. We are going to disrupt their networks and their financing, and the flow of fighters in and out of war theaters. Were going to disrupt their propaganda that poisons so many minds around the world. But he noted that both the Orlando attack and the San Bernardino shooting that killed 14 people were lone wolf attacks without direct involvement from foreign terror groups. He added that these kinds of attacks will take more than good military tactics and intelligence to prevent. Obama and Biden also visited survivors of the attack. Officials said Thursday that 23 people remain hospitalized six of them in critical condition. They also met with and thanked local law enforcement, first-responders and medical teams who treated the victims. The two men laid flowers at a memorial for victims outside the citys Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The area - filled with flowers, balloons, photos and tributes - was the site of a candlelight vigil Monday attended by thousands. Gunman posted on Facebook during attack As authorities continue to investigate the gunman, Omar Mateen, new information was released about his social media activity before and during the attack. Mateen used Facebook to search the terms Pulse Orlando and shooting from inside the nightclub, according to Chairman Ron Johnson of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Apparently he searched to see how much publicity the attack was generating. In Facebook posts, the killer also pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and called for an end to U.S. and Russian bombings of the militants. You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes now taste the Islamic state vengeance, Mateen wrote, according to the letter. In a final post, he also warned of more U.S. attacks in coming days. The information is contained in a letter Johnson sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in which his committee requests all available data on the gunman. Johnson said at least five Facebook accounts were associated with Mateen. The letter said the committee found Mateen also used Facebook in May to search for information on the killers in the San Bernardino mass shooting. In addition, committee staff members found information that he used Facebook to conduct frequent local law enforcement and FBI searches, including searching for specific law enforcement offices. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for Learning English based on reporting from Chris Hannas of VOA with additional reports from the Associated Press and Reuters. Hai Do was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story grief n. deep sorrow carnage n. the killing of a large number of people relentless adj. constant, unending first responders n. people designated to respond quickly to emergency situations lone wolf n. a person who acts alone, such as a terrorist allegiance n. have loyalty to a person, country or group solidarity n. unity in feeling or actions vengeance n. act of doing something hurtful to someone in response to some harm or injury We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page We present the short story "The Count and the Wedding Guest," by O. Henry. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State. Andy Donovan had his dinner each evening in the house on Second Avenue where he lived in a furnished room. One evening at dinner he met a new guest, a young lady, Miss Conway. Miss Conway was small and quiet. She was wearing a plain brown dress. She seemed interested in very little except her dinner, and her dinner did not interest her very much. She looked up at Mr. Donovan and spoke his name, and then began to eat again. Mr. Donovan had a smile that everyone liked. He smiled at her and then thought no more about her. Two weeks later, Andy was sitting outside the house enjoying the cool evening. He heard a movement behind him. He turned his head, and-and could not turn it back again. Coming out of the door was Miss Conway. She was wearing a night-black dress of soft, thin cloth. Her hat was black. She was putting black gloves on her hand. There was no white and no color anywhere about her. All black. Someone in her family had died. Mr. Donovan was certain about that. Her rich golden hair lay soft and thick at the back of her neck. Her face was not really pretty, but her large gray eyes made it almost beautiful. She looked up into the sky with an expression of sadness. All black, readers. Think of her. All black, and that golden hair, and looking sadly far away. Mr. Donovan suddenly decided to think about Miss Conway. He stood up. Its a fine, clear evening, Miss Conway, he said. It is to them with the heart to enjoy it, Mr. Donovan, said Miss Conway. She took a deep slow breath. I hope no oneno one of your familyhas died? Death has taken, said Miss Conway, not one of my family, but one whoI must not speak of my troubles to you, Mr. Donovan. Why not, Miss Conway? Perhaps I could understand. Miss Conway smiled a little. And oh, her face was sadder than when she was not smiling. Laugh and the world laughs with you, she said. But the world is not interested in sadness. I have learned that, Mr. Donovan. I have no friends in this city. But you have been kind to me. Thank you for it. He had done nothing except offer her the salt at dinner. Its not easy to be alone in New York, said Mr. Donovan. But when New York is friendly, its very friendly. Shall we take a little walk in the park? It might be good for you. Thanks, Mr. Donovan. I would enjoy it. But I dont want my sadness to make you sad. They went through the open gates of the park and found a quiet seat. We were going to be married soon, said Miss Conway. He was a real Count. He had land and a big house in Italy. Count Fernando Mazzini was his name. My father didnt want me to marry him. Once we ran away to get married, and my father followed and took me home. I was afraid they were going to fight. But then my father agreed. Fernando went to Italy to make everything ready for me. My fathers very proud. Fernando wanted to give me several thousand dollars for new clothes, and my father said no. When Fernando went away, I came to the city. I work in a shop. Three days ago I had a letter from Italy. It said that Fernando had been killed. Thats why Im wearing black. My heart has died, Mr. Donovan, with Fernando. I cannot take interest in anyone. I should not keep you from your friends who can smile and enjoy things with you. Shall we walk back to the house? Now, readers, if a girl tells a man her heart has died, he wants to make it live again. Im very sorry, said Mr. Donovan. No, we wont walk back to the house yet. And dont say you have no friends in this city, Miss Conway. Im your friend, and I want you to believe that. I have his picture here, said Miss Conway. I wear it on a chain around my neck. I never showed it to anyone, but I will show it to you, Mr. Donovan. I believe you to be a true friend. Mr. Donovan looked for a long time and with much interest at the picture. The face of Count Mazzini commanded interest. It was wise, brightthe face of a strong, happy man who could be a leader of other men. I have a larger picture in my room, said Miss Conway. When we return, I will show you that. I have nothing more to help me remember Fernando. But he will always live in my heart. I am sure of that. Mr. Donovan decided that he wanted to take the Counts place in Miss Conways heart. He did not seem to think he could fail. He would be friendly. He would keep smiling. When they returned to the house, she ran to her room and brought down the larger picture of the Count. Mr. Donovan looked at it. No one could have guessed what he was thinking. He gave me this on the night he left for Italy, said Miss Conway. A fine-looking man, said Mr. Donovan warmly. Miss Conway, will you go to Coney Island with me next Sunday afternoon? A month later they told the other guests in the house on Second Avenue that they were going to be married. Miss Conway continued to wear black. A week later the two sat on the same seat in the park. Donovan had had a sad face all day. He was so quiet tonight that Miss Conway had to ask him why. Whats wrong tonight, Andy? Nothing, Maggie. You never were like this before. What is it? Its nothing much, Maggie. Yes, it is; and I want to know. Is it some other girl? Why dont you go to her, if you want her? Take your arm away. I will tell you then, said Andy, wisely. But you will not understand. Have you heard about Mike Sullivan? Everyone calls him Big Mike Sullivan. Ive never heard about him, said Maggie. Who is he? He is the most important man in New York. He is a mile high and as broad as the East River. If you say anything bad about Big Mike, a million men will be ready to fight you. Big Mike is a friend of mine. I am only a little man. But Mike is as good a friend to a little man as he is to a big man. I met him today by chance, and what do you think he did? He came up to me to shake my hand. I told him I was going to be married in two weeks. Andy, says he, I will come to the wedding. That is what he said to me, and he always does what he says. You dont understand it, Maggie, but I want to have Big Mike Sullivan at our wedding. It would make me very proud. Then why dont you ask him to come? said Maggie. Theres a reason why I cant, said Andy, sadly. Dont ask me the reason, for I cant tell you. But cant you smile at me? said Maggie. Maggie, said Andy, after a few minutes, do you love me as much as you loved Count Mazzini? He waited a long time, but Maggie did not reply. And then, suddenly, she put her head against his shoulder and began to cry. She held his arm, and her tears wet the black dress. Maggie, Maggie, said Andy, forgetting his own trouble. Tell me about it. Andy, said Maggie. What I told you was not true, and there never was any Count. There never was a man in love with me. All the other girls had men in love with them. And Andy, I look good in blackyou know I do. So I went to a shop where I could buy that picture. And that story about the Countnone of it was true. I said he had died because I wanted to wear black. And no one can love me, because I didnt tell the truth. I never liked anyone but you. And thats all. But Andy did not move away. Instead, his arm pulled her nearer to him. She looked up and saw that he was smiling. Do youdo you still love me, Andy? Sure, said Andy. You have made everything fine, Maggie. I hoped you would do it, before the wedding day. Good girl! Andy, said Maggie, after a little time, did you believe all that story about the Count? No, not very much, said Andy. Because that is Big Mike Sullivans picture that you are wearing on the chain around your neck. Download activities to help you understand this story here. Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. Is it always best to be honest with the people you care about? Do innocent lies exits? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story avenue n. a wide street glove(s) n. a covering for the hand that has separate parts for each finger neck n. the part of the body between the head and the shoulders park n. a piece of public land in or near a city that is kept free of houses and other buildings and can be used for pleasure and exercise count n. a nobleman in some European countries who has a high rank similar to a British earl shop n. a building or room where goods and services are sold chain n. a series of usually metal links or rings that are connected to each other in a line and used for supporting heavy things, for holding things together or for decoration guess(ed) v. to form an opinion or give an answer about something when you do not know much or anything about it wedding n. a ceremony at which two people are married to each other A group of State Department diplomats has criticized U.S. policy in Syria and called for urgent action to end the countrys civil war. The criticism came in a memo signed by 51 mid- to high-level diplomats involved in U.S. Syria policy. It calls for targeted airstrikes against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. A draft of the memo was obtained by The New York Times. State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed the memo is real and said the State Department is reviewing it. It came from a State Department Dissent Channel that allows employees and officials to express disagreements with U.S. policies. The channel is a way for individuals to give their opinions without fear of retaliation from superiors. Robert Ford served as U.S. Ambassador to Syria until 2014. He said, In my experience dating back to 1985 in the Department of State, I have never heard of a dissent channel message that had 10 signatures much less one that had 50. Ford, now working as an analyst at the Middle East Institute, added that President Barack Obama is unlikely to change his Syria policy. The memo says Syrian government forces have consistently violated ceasefire agreements. Such violations will keep making it difficult to reach a political settlement to end the war, it adds. Syrias civil war began five years ago when rebel groups were formed to battle government forces. More than 500,000 people have been killed in the fighting and six million Syrians were displaced. The memo asks the Obama administration to begin a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons to directly fight against the Syrian army. The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable, the memo reads. The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges. Until now, the Obama administrations policy in Syria has mainly been limited to aiding rebels fighting against Russian-backed forces loyal to Assad. U.S. airstrikes have also targeted Islamic State fighters. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he had not yet seen the memo. But he said he agrees with the process of giving employees a chance to openly express their views. Im Bryan Lynn. Joshua Fatzick reported this story for VOANews.com. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story memo n. a written message retaliation n. striking back against someone for a harmful action superior n. a person presiding over someone else judicious adj. having or showing good judgement rationale n. the reason or explanation for something status quo n. the current situation or the way things are now KEARNEY City planners are set to review the most recent revision of the 2016 Comprehensive Development Plan at their regular meeting Friday morning. The plan should cover vital issues such as housing, transportation and land appropriation, Stan Dart, Kearney Planning Commission vice-chairperson, said. A good plan looks to the future and says, What do we anticipate? Dart said. During the review which was tabled in April Dart explained that city planners are looking to see major elements of the community receive fair and comprehensive coverage. Housing is a major issue the city faces. Theres not enough housing to meet the demand of growth, Dart said. Though advancements are being made such as with the large apartment complexes being built near 56th Street, there still are too few lower-priced homes and many higher-priced homes. How land will be appropriated for that is important. Dart said movement through the community and industrial, manufacturing and commercial activity are other important factors to plan for. A good plan provides an adequate resource for future industrial and manufacturing activities without a conflict with residential, public use and commercial (areas). He named the development of the new Kearney High School and Central Community College along west 11th Street and the area near the upcoming Central Nebraska Veterans Home at 56th Street and Antelope Avenue as examples. What will Kearney look like in 10 to 15 years? How do we maintain transportation? Our boundaries are expanding, commission Chair Jim Ganz Jr. said. As the city limits expands, what goes into those expansion areas? Ganz explained that the now-227-page document is required by state law and analyzes current land use in terms of where the city should go. If youre going to have zoning and land-use planning, you need to have a plan. Its required by law so cities cant go about doing things in a random, unorganized fashion. There needs to be a plan that is accepted by the community, Dart said. The plan goes through revisions every 10 to 15 years. The last plan was approved in 2003. Dart said people should take part in the sessions and provide input for the plan. Meetings are open to the public. If people want the opportunity to discuss the plan and see what is intended ... all we can do is recommend and the public is welcome to comment, he said. The commission meets at 9 a.m. the third Friday of every month in the council chambers at city hall at 18 E. 22nd St. Copies of the 2016 Comprehensive Development Plan draft are available at the Development Services Department and Kearney Public Library or on the city website. Also on the agenda: n The commission will review city code amendments recommended by staff. Seven codes are up for scrutiny and requiring clarification, according to city documents. n City planners will consider requests for rezoning and preliminary and final platting from Stephen and Amy Schweitzer at 5205 Bison Road. The owners are requesting to rezone the Schweitzer Subdivision from agricultural district to rural residential district. The requests are for an existing rural residence located outside of city lim Phishing, skimming and surfing have one thing in common: identity theft. Ryan Sothan, outreach coordinator with the attorney general's Consumer Protection and Anti-Trust Division, spoke about these dangers to about 15 people Tuesday at the Hamilton County Senior Center. Sothan said identity theft is currently, and has been for 16 years, the nation's No. 1 consumer complaint. "Identity theft has moved itself into the mainstream," he said about more people being at risk. "It's no longer a question of if, but when." Sothan said people ages 50 to 59 are the most targeted group of people for identity theft because they usually have more disposable income. "What they're going after is that Social Security number," he said about thieves. Sothan said if they have that, they basically have all of your information. Identity thieves will try to get W-2 information to file a person's tax return before the person can. This would result in the person getting an error letter when filing their taxes because the thief already was falsely paid the tax refund. He said tax identity theft is very common, but not the only way thieves benefit. Phishing, which can be someone calling and impersonating a company, such as the Internal Revenue Service, is another way identities can be stolen. He said the IRS will never call someone. Everything is done on paper. So if someone calls from the IRS, it is a scam. "If you don't originate the call, be on guard," Sothan said. Skimming, which is using a device to swipe credit cards to steal information, is another method of identity theft that people should look out for. He said skimming is common in restaurants. Servers can hold a small device in their hand and swipe the card as they take it to pay your food bill. "These are professional criminals now," Sothan said. Surfing, which involves people peeking over shoulders while others are online banking or shopping, is another method Sothan mentioned. He said identity theives are often people we know or have crossed paths with before. Andrea Allen of Aurora had her identity stolen twice, once by someone she knew. The woman who stole her information opened up utility accounts in her name because she was trying to get an apartment. "It was a mess," Allen said of her identity theft case. She said she had to re-do everything, including closing and opening up new utility and checking accounts. Allen learned new things to look out for by going to the workshop Thursday. "I didn't realize they could get so much information," she said about the thieves and the different methods with which they steal identities. The other time Allen was a victim of identity theft was when her purse was stolen at a restaurant. She said she called her credit card company right away to cancel the cards. But within the 20 minutes of driving home from the restaurant and calling the police, the thief had already made a plethora of purchases. Since then, she has carried her purse tightly and is always vigilant. "I think everyone needs to wake up and pay attention," Allen said about identity theft. Though Sothan talked about identity theft dangers, such as using unsecured Wi-Fi for online banking, he said people shouldn't constantly worry. He just wants Nebraskans to be skeptical and stand up for themselves when they sense something suspicious. "You have to live your life," he said. Sothan said preventive measures, such as shredding important documents and blocking telemarketers from calling, can be taken. But if someone is a victim of identity theft, he or she should tell someone. "Identity theft is not a crime at all until you report it," he said. The fast-draw and bull riding were ready to go as Dustys Wild West Town opened Thursday. The saloon girl, RaLynn Starr, was ready to serve up some cold sarsaparilla. Lisa Harness of Hershey brought her grandchildren, Joseph Brown and Xacha Pano, out to see what was going on. We just came out to see what was here, Harness said. We didnt know what would be here and they said they were going to have a lot of things for kids to do. [Joseph] is disappointed because he cant shoot a gun. The fast-draw booth has an age requirement of 10, and Joseph was just a tad under. We watched them getting the horses ready and they told Joseph he was going to be able to ride a horse, Harness said. Were looking forward to that and were going on the carriage ride. Dwane and Linda Johson of North Platte came out to see the town with their granddaughters, Heather and Rachel. Heather liked the corn crib as she climbed in and played among the kernels. The Wild West Town was such a popular event last year that they expanded its schedule this year, said David Fudge, executive director of NEBRASKAland Days. We decided to have the town both weekends, Fudge said. In order to do that, we moved it over to the Scouts Rest Ranch. The entrance is next to the Dusty Trails riding stables. A Native American tepee welcomes the visitors to the town. This is the second year and its basically set up to be kind of a rendition of an old western town with some of the activities, said Allison ONeill, volunteer. We have the sharpshooter, the saloon where theyre selling a sarsaparilla and stuff like that. There is also a petting zoo, short and long wagon rides, the Sheriffs Office and horseback riding. Also appearing is the Rhinestone Roper, Dan Mink. He will perform a 45-minute show tonight at 6 and 8 p.m. and Saturday at 5, 6:30 and 8 p.m. The town is open at 5 p.m. tonight and Saturday, and also Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 23-25. New federal regulations concerning overtime pay were the subject of a seminar Thursday sponsored by the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce and Central Nebraska Human Resource Management Association. The seminar addressed recent changes to the Department of Labor's Fair Labor Standards Act. These changes will update overtime regulations and extend overtime pay protection to hourly workers. More than 50 people attended the seminar led by Tanya Hansen, a partner with Leininger, Smith, Johnson, Baack, Placzek, and Allen Law Firm, where she specializes in employment litigation. Jessica Hendricks, director of workforce and community development for the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce, said the seminar was a topic that their members "were really concerned about." "It is going to have a huge impact on our chamber partners, so we thought we needed to do something for them with an educational seminar so they can get ready for Dec. 1, when all of this goes into effect," Hendricks said. On May 18, the Obama administration announced the publication of the Department of Labor's final rule updating overtime regulations, which will automatically extend overtime pay protections to more than 4 million workers within the first year of implementation. After Obama directed the department in 2014 to update the regulations, defining which white collar workers are protected by the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime standards, it received more than 270,000 comments from a variety of interested stakeholders that were used to shape the final rule. Hansen said 2004 was the last time the federal government set a standard for the level of salary at which workers are exempt from overtime protection. "Now, not only are they increasing it, but they are going to index it so that in every three years we are going to see a salary increase as a minimum salary, which is one of the tests to see if someone is an exempt employee," she said. Two separate provisions There are two different provisions, Hansen said. First is the salary standard for full-time salary workers. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Hansen said, there is a "multitude of different types of job that have an exemption." For example, there's an exemption for truck drivers. But that exemption is not included with the new salary increases. "This is only for the white collar workers," she said. "That is your executive, administrative and professional." That standard salary level is at the 40th percentile of earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region, currently the South ($913 per week; $47,476 annually for a full-year worker). The second provision is for highly compensated employees. The new rule sets the total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees (HCE) subject to a minimal duties test to the annual equivalent of the 90th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally ($134,004). Also, the new rule establishes a mechanism for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels every three years to maintain the levels at these percentiles and to ensure that they continue to provide useful and effective tests for exemption. The final rule also amends the salary basis test to allow employers to use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) to satisfy up to 10 percent of the new standard salary level. "You have to look at what is the salary," Hansen said. "If you pay someone daily, they are not going to fall within this exemption." She said the other thing to look at is "whether or not you are even a covered entity or the employee is a covered employee." Hansen said what didn't change in the new set of rules is the provision involving the needs test. "What people really need to focus on is, does that employee fall within the exemption based upon what they do and not their job title or job description," she said. Hansen said she wanted the people attending the seminar to understand that "you can't just look at the salary and say, I pay somebody enough,' but you really have to look at whether they fit within one of the exemptions." "A lot of businesses will say, This person is a manager and they are automatically exempted and I don't have to pay them overtime,'" she said. "That is not the test. There are very specific rules." The other thing that Hansen emphasized is that if someone is salaried, that doesn't mean that person is an exempted employee. "You can pay someone a salary and they can still be a non-exempted employee," she said. "You will still have to pay them overtime and follow other provisions of the Fair Labor Standard Act." A big change Across the nation, Hansen said, the government is estimating that 4.2 million workers who were previously exempted are now going to be non-exempt. "You are going to see a real change in how businesses are looking at their employees. whether they are exempted or non-exempted, which is a conversation that businesses needed to have anyway because they were using that because they were paying a salary they were automatically exempted and they were not really looking at the job the person was doing," she said. But Hansen said employers have a lot of options concerning the new rules. "There is really a lot of leeway within the regulations on how you can handle this," she said. For example, an office manager who works 40 hours a week and who has never worked more than 40 hours a week in that job but now falls under the salary test, "you can probably pay her the same salary and probably not pay overtime because she is working 40 hours a week. There is no change you are going to have to make, assuming she falls within the exemption." Hansen said the new rules will force employers "to take a more critical look at their employees." The initial increase to the standard salary level, from $455 to $913 per week, and HCE total annual compensation requirement, from $100,000 to $134,004 per year, will be effective on Dec. 1. Future automatic updates to those thresholds will occur every three years, beginning on Jan. 1, 2020. Brenda Sutherland, human resources director for Bosselman Administrative Services, said there are many things to consider when choosing the path of exempt or non-exempt. "HR (human resources) professionals will need to assist their employers in analyzing the big picture, which focuses on the different facets of the financial impact such as potential turnover, managing overtime, what the competition in the marketplace is doing and so on," Sutherland said. "Now is the time to evaluate all options in order to make a decision that is in the best interest of the organization. We're fortunate to have the opportunity to further our education on this topic so that we are prepared for the changes to come." On Thursday evening, a 147-square-foot chunk of American journalism history a piece of art that is at once global, quintessentially New York City and oh-so-Omaha began its second life inside the lobby of our public library. OK, you ready? asked Bruce Frasier as he glanced at two women and a man, the daughters and grandson of famed Nebraska artist Eugene Kingman, who stood holding cords connected to a sheet covering the mural. A crowd of 150 people crammed into the W.?Dale Clark library lobby counted down from 10. Pull it down! Frasier yelled. Pull it down they did, exposing a mural Kingman began painting in the basement of the Joslyn Art Museum nearly 70 years ago, a mural that hung in the lobby of the most powerful newspaper in the world for four decades before it went to storage, and a mural that will now call Omahas main library home for decades more. I hope we can agree that this is the right place for it, said Maureen McCann Waldron, the driving force behind the murals return to Omaha. The public unveiling Thursday marks the end of a two-year effort to return the mural to its former glory, an effort that took $65,000 in donations and months of work from Nebraskas top art conservator. Its also the end of a much longer story, the story of Eugene Kingman painting a mural in the basement of the Joslyn Art Museum and then taking it to Manhattan, where for four decades in hung in the lobby of the New York Times. The rich and famous and powerful passed this mural on their way to see the Times editorial board. Maybe Eisenhower. Maybe Kennedy. Maybe Reagan. Iconic journalists, grammar-loving copy editors and countless thousands of other ink-stained wretches looked up at this mural every workday. Judging by the murals condition before it was restored, these wretches smoked a whole lot of cigarettes right beneath it, too. Now, 68 years after it left, the mural is back. Its back mostly because Maureen McCann Waldron, who just happens to reside in Eugene Kingmans old Omaha home, decided that Omaha is where it needed to be. I thought, Thats going to take a lot of mojo, said Elizabeth Kingman, Eugenes daughter, at the Thursday unveiling ceremony. And it turns out that Mojo is Maureens nickname. So I took that as a sign. The twisting, turning story of Kingmans mural began in 1948, when he was commissioned by then-New York Times publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger to paint the piece. Kingman had already achieved some fame, having painted national parks for the federal government, exhibited work in Paris and painted large murals in several U.S. post offices before being named the director of the Joslyn, a position he held for 22 years. Today, pieces of Kingmans work hang in the U.S. Department of the Interior. But this mural would be one of his most high-profile works, because when it was done in November of 48 they hung it the Times lobby for presidents and lowly reporters alike to see. The mural, signed by both Kingman and friend Richard Edes Harrison, one of the nations most famed cartographers, is an insight into a different time in American journalism. Its a globe, a view of the Earth from space, an image meant to show the Times worldwide influence and signify postwar optimism. It is hopeful. Its muscular. Its a tad cocky. The two lines of poetry the Times publisher chose for the mural appear in retrospect like an homage to daily journalism, to a time before the Internet and the 24/7 news cycle, when news was delivered to your front door exactly one time per day. Every day is a fresh beginning, it says. Every morn is the world made new. I was there on the day in 2014 when the mural returned to Omaha in the back of a cherry-red Ford pickup truck, and so I can tell you: It no longer looked fresh or new. The New York Times had taken it down in the late 1980s, and it had sat rolled in storage for a quarter-century, creasing and cracking in the dark. It was the Kingman daughters who got the piece out of storage and convinced current Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. to give it to them. But it was Waldron who got it to Omaha. She first suggested doing so to Elizabeth Kingman during a chance phone conversation years ago Waldron originally phoned Kingman because she wanted to learn more about the mural Eugene Kingman painted down the staircase in the house where she now lives. She convinced the Joslyn Castle Trust to accept the artwork. She formed a committee she dubbed W.O.M. thats Women of the Mural. And then they set about raising the funds to get the mural restored. It came from more than 100 donors, including Sulzberger, the Times current publisher. As the donations came in, Kenneth Be, head of paintings conservation at the Nebraska Historical Societys Gerald Ford Conservation Center, got to work. He cleaned off the decades of cigarette smoke, exposing the murals vibrant blue and emerald colors underneath the dirty yellows and murky greens. He retouched the cracked areas. He and Vonnda Shaw, a fellow Ford conservator, relined the mural and put it on a new, custom-built canvas and stretcher so it can be easily moved in the future. And they covered it with a Plexiglas shield to protect it from grubby kid fingers at the library. As the restoration neared completion, the Women of the Mural had settled on the W. Dale Clark Library as its new home. They liked the library because its free and because thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds walk through the lobby every year. They extracted a promise from Omaha Library Director Laura Marlane, a promise Marlane repeated Thursday night: The library will take the mural along if and when it moves. On Tuesday morning, Be and his team installed the mural so it faces west in the librarys main lobby. After several nervous minutes, and much fretting about whether it was too big, the mural was up on the wall, with roughly a half-inch to spare on each side. It couldnt have fit any more perfectly than it does, Be says. It fits in another way, library employees say, pointing to those lines of poetry: Every day is a fresh beginning. Every morn is the world made new. Maybe those lines were meant to describe a journalistic behemoth in the mid-20th century. But they also perfectly describe the mission of the Omaha Public Library in the 21st a belief that free access to a nearly unlimited amount of information can open up any Omahans world. These two lines encompass everything we stand for, says Emily Getzschman, the librarys marketing manager. When they put it up, I got chills. For the foreseeable future, when you enter the W. Dale Clark Library from the west, you will see a mural of the globe, a view from space painted a decade before the first satellite actually entered orbit. Maybe JFK saw this mural. Undoubtedly the Times night cops reporter smoked a Marlboro underneath it. And now you can look up at it, too. Just dont try to light up or anything. LINCOLN Investigators working to solve the cold-case homicide of a 68-year old Beatrice woman had three people under arrest and one big problem. None of the suspects in custody by March 1989 matched the Type B blood the killer had left on Helen Wilsons bedsheets and nightgown. It was the elephant in the room, according to Richard Smith, who was the Gage County attorney in 1989. So the prosecutor wrote a memo directing the sheriff to cast wider nets and conduct more interviews. On the county attorneys list was an informant with so little credibility that Smith acknowledged he would not have called him to testify in court. But that source gave investigators a name that led to three more arrests. The prosecutors actions prompted tough questions Thursday from an attorney representing Joseph White and five other wrongfully convicted people the Beatrice Six who are trying to win a federal civil rights lawsuit against Gage County and its investigators. You arrest before you inves tigate is that what youre saying? asked attorney Jeff Patterson. No, thats not what Im saying, Smith said. You presumed Joe White was guilty? Patterson asked. You and I both know, counselor, theres no presumption of guilt, Smith said. Even though Smith played a central role in the Beatrice Six case, he is not a defendant in the trial underway in U.S. District Court in Lincoln. The law provides prosecutors with absolute immunity in their official capacities, so the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has previously ruled that Smith is not liable for damages. Nonetheless, the plaintiffs put Smith on the stand in an effort to support their argument that authorities conducted a shockingly reckless investigation, manufactured evidence or engaged in a conspiracy. Those allegations have been denied by the defendants: Gage County, deputies Burt Searcey and Wayne Price, and the estate of the late Sheriff Jerry DeWitt. The trial is focused on what investigators did in 1989. Nearly 20 years later, DNA testing of crime scene blood and semen failed to match any of the six people whod collectively served more than 70 years in prison. Instead, the results matched Bruce Allen Smith, an Oklahoma man whod once lived in Beatrice and had passed through town on the night of Wilsons death. He died in 1992. Smith is expected to return to the witness stand today as the trial enters its 10th day. The informant the county attorney wanted interviewed in 1989 was Clifford Shelden. The name Shelden gave up as a participant in the Wilson rape and homicide was his own wife, Debra Shelden. When sheriffs deputies interviewed Debra Shelden, she initially told them she was in the Wilson apartment along with White, Ada JoAnn Taylor and Thomas Winslow. It seemed to matter little to investigators that her description of how the assault and rape of Wilson occurred conflicted with the crime scene evidence. I think thats pretty good investigating, Smith said Thursday. You pick something up and you go run it down. But the investigators still had a problem, because Sheldens blood type was AB. She also had a history of mental illness and was vulnerable to suggestion. After meeting with a sheriffs psychologist, who tried to help her recover repressed memories, Shelden said a man by the name of James Dean also participated in the crime. Hours later, deputies arrested Dean, although his name had not surfaced as a suspect in four years of previous investigation. Still no Type B blood. Was there any effort at all to investigate Debbies statement before James Dean was arrested? Patterson asked. The arrest warrant was prepared, and the judge said, Go get him,? Smith responded. In the meantime, Shelden gave authorities yet another name: Kathy Gonzalez finally, someone with a potentially matching blood type. Patterson asked Smith whether he ever tried to corroborate information the lead sheriffs investigator put in his arrest warrant affidavits. I dont do investigations of my investigators, said Smith, now a private attorney in Beatrice. Patterson also questioned Smith about the belief among some Beatrice police that the sheriffs investigators had arrested the wrong people. Smith acknowledged that the police chief had shared that opinion with him sometime after the first three arrests. Smith said he tried to stay out of the conflict between the two departments but told the investigators on both sides to put it in writing. I want to know if we have something that shows these people didnt do it, Smith said. In the end, Smith obtained six felony convictions and a life prison sentence for White. Whites conviction has since been overturned and the five others were officially pardoned by the State of Nebraska. The Huawei Matebook is a 2-in-1 tablet with a 12 inch, 2160 x 1440 pixel display, an Intel Core M Skylake processor, and a starting price of $699 although that price doesnt include the optional keyboard cover and digital pen accessories Huawei will offer. Huawei unveiled the tablet in February, and now the company is getting ready to launch it in North America. Huawei is holding a press event on June 20th, but I got a chance to spend a few minutes with the tablet a little early at an event in New York City. Update: Huawei has announced that the tablet will be available starting July 11th. Its already up for pre-order from the Microsoft Store. While I didnt have time to give the tablet a thorough test (it didnt even have an internet connection), it certainly has a very nice looking display which looks pretty good from all angles (although the lighting at this event made it hard to get a really good photo of the glossy screen that wasnt shrouded in glare). The Huawei Matebook has a fanless design, measures 0.27 inches thick and weighs 1.4 pounds. Its light enough to hold comfortably in one hand, although the 12 inch screen is large enough to make me think Id be most likely to put the Matebook on my lap when using it to surf the web, play games, or watch videos. The optional magnetic keyboard cover is also pretty thin and doesnt add much bulk to the tablet. You can fold the back of the cover into a triangle and use it as a stand for the tablet, allowing you to use the Matebook like a laptop assuming your definition of a laptop is something that you use on a desk or table. Itd probably flop around a bit if you tried to place it on your lap. The keyboard is spillproof and features full-sized keys that have just (barely) enough travel to make me think I could get used to typing on it after a while. Huawei will also offer an optional Mate Pen with 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity for writing or drawing. The pen can also be used as a presentation clicker or laser pointer. Unfortunately I didnt have a chance to see the pen. The tablet has stereo speakers on the top, a USB Type-C port on the side (which is used for charging or for connecting peripherals), and a fingerprint scanner located between the volume buttons. Theres also a headset jack. The $699 entry-level model has an Intel Core m3 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Huawei will also offer models with up to a Core m7 chip, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. Prices are expected to range from $699 to $1599, depending on the configuration. The notification light on your smartphone can probably flash to let you know when youve received a message. But Samsung seems to be working on a new notification light that takes things to another level. Its called Smart Glow, and its ring that circles the rear camera that can glow in different colors for different circumstances. Samsung hasnt officially announced Smart Glow yet, but leaked documents for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy J2 smartphone explain how it will work. In addition to letting you know about calls, messages, and other notifications, the Smart Glow light can alert you when the battery is low or when youre running out of storage space on your phone. You can also use a Selfie Assist option to snap self portraits with your phones rear camera: the phone will beep and the Smart Glow light will turn blue to let you know that your face is detected and then Samsungs camera app will automatically snap a photo two second later. Samsung lets users choose which alerts will be displayed on the Smart Glow ring and select which colors to associate with each event. via SamMobile Udta Punjab is best watched with the family. Oh, wait, this is meant to be a joke. The film has so many cuss words that you would be tempted to believe you are sitting through a recital of the rants of sanskari Indian trolls. I started counting at the beginning and then quickly realised counting stars on a clear night would be easier! There is every variety of them in the film, giving us a glimpse of the lingua franca of Indian streets. There are the inevitable ones about mothers, sisters, delivered in trademark Punjabi style where the ''d" becomes silent. Almost every part of human anatomy gets an honourable mention, especially when Satish Kaushik, who comes up with a lively, colorful performance, is talking. If you can tolerate the film's language and I see no reason why you can't, since it is an honest replication of how India talks these days Udta Punjab will grow on you. And you would come out thinking, what the hell was Pahlaj Nihalani smoking when he wanted it mercilessly butchered. It is the job of professional critics to dissect the film. But, I can tell you two things about Udta Punjab that put it at the vanguard of brave new cinema. One, it takes creative liberties with almost every filmy stereotype characters, the use of music, language and idiom of the narrative. And two, it mixes the dark and the comical with effortless ease. Even in tense, violent situations where blood and vomit are splattered all across the screen, the film's director and writer come up with something so absurd and comical that you can't help applauding their genius. So, was Nihalani justified in blocking the film's release with his insistence on cuts? Does it show Punjab in bad light? It is beyond understanding why Punjab's image should have become the censor board's concern, why a film portraying an endemic social menace should have been subjected to so much scrutiny, its path lined with so many roadblocks? In the past, we have had series of films showing Bihar's ugly underbelly--its Apaharan (kidnapping) industry, malign polity (Shool) and corrupt cops (Gangajal). Most of them were released without too much brouhaha. Udta Punjab is a grim portrayal of how Punjab's life, politics and policing have come to revolve around drugs. The film's director doesn't mince words in pointing out how a cartel of politicians, peddlers and police is inundating Punjab with cheap poison. It chronicles the journey of Punjab's youth from the famed gabru, a word that once conjured images of barrel-chested men toiling for hours in the fields after polishing off piles of paranthas with butter and lassi, to a 'fuddu' (Idiot that is what Shahid Kapoor calls himself) sold on drugs and a vacuous life. Udta Punjab says it the way it sees it: fields littered with syringes, amlis (addicts) lying around stoned in dilapidated structures, a mafia that has cops and politicians on its payrolls, a society that has almost every household battling with the menace and hospital beds lined with patients choking on their own blood and vomit. But isn't that the purpose of cinema--to reveal a problem in its full monstrosity, shock the viewer and provoke a reaction and corrective response? Like Trainspotting, which is the benchmark for almost dope-crime films, Udta Punjab too doesn't glorify addiction. It is a journey into the dark, wild, dangerous lowlife in the labyrinths of Punjab and adequately warns and scares the viewer against the dreadful denouement that awaits every addict. Several years ago, when Oliver Stone had made an eponymous film on the life of popular rock band The Doors, its biggest criticism was that it made Jim Morrison's life look like an unending party from hell. "He wanders out of the suns glare, a curly haired Southern California beach boy with a cute pout and a notebook full of poetry. He picks up a beer, he smokes a joint, and then life goes on fast-forward as he gobbles up drugs and booze with both hands, while betraying his friends and making life miserable for anyone who loves him. By the age of 27 he is dead. Watching the movie is like being stuck in a bar with an obnoxious drunk, when youre not drinking," critic Roger Ebert wrote. Udta Punjab doesn't have that problem. When you walk out of the theatre, you leave with a revulsion for drugs, love for its characters, a growing concern for Punjab, and, counting the cuss words. It's a sort of cat and mouse game that Amazon is playing with Flipkart. In May, the global giant's Indian arm had increased the referral rates it charges on sellers on its platform to 9 percent, prompting Flipkart too to announced similar steps. Until then, Flipkart, the largest e-commerce platform in India was not charging any payment fees to its seller. However, when it announced payment fees, it was reported to be slightly higher than its competitors at Rs 15-Rs 30 per order depending on price of goods of sellers, reported Times of India. The increase in sellers charges on Flipkart, after Amazon's move earlier, was to be effective three days from now. Snapdeal, the other major e-commerce player, had then in fact cut its commission to sellers in a bid to buoy up its sales. Amazon, however, has now gone ahead and slashed its sellers fees on smartphones and software by up to 7 percent. This would be effective from today (June 17) and would be applicable to a few categories such as electronics, personal computers, mobile devices, tablets, video games, video games consoles, music, musical instruments, educational and non-educational software, personal appliances, music. This was conveyed in an email to its sellers, reported the Economic Times. What this reduction in sellers fees means is that sellers will now be able to pass on the reduced fees to consumers, thus benefiting the latter. Amazon has not reduced the commission on lifestyle, apparel, fashion, home improvement and a few other categories. Feeling the heat of the dominance of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and US-based eBay on small items such as phone acccessories, Amazon had reduced its shipping costs on these items in the US, reported Business Standard. What will happen next? Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon are the largest players in the e-commerce space and compete closely with each other though Amazon leads the pack. In 2014-15, all three players had reported a combined loss of Rs 7,000 crore. Amazon is rapidly extending its scope and usurping rapidly the space that the other two had. Flipkart and Snapdeal, though numero unos as home-grown players in the e-commerce market are not at all profitable. Also, with the investors tightening their purse strings and funding narrowing down, they are on a tight leash. Meanwhile, Amazon India is getting funds from its US parent, with its chief Jeff Bezos announcing this month he has earmarked $3 billion more for operations here. Including the incremental amount, the company's total investment in the country will be $5 billion. "...The investment will go towards enhancing our customer and seller experience, as we have done over the past three years," Amazon India managing director Amit Agarwal had said in an interview. With this latest move, Amazon expects its business in India to be its leading market overtaking its other foreign markets like Japan, Germany and UK. Where will that leave Flipkart and Snapdeal? More importantly, will Flipkart be forced to roll back its intended payment fees on sellers due three days from now? Interesting times indeed in the Indian e-commerce. New Delhi: Indian auto component industry is expected to grow in the range of 10-12 percent in the current fiscal on hopes of above-normal monsoon and recovery in the domestic automobile market, according to industry body ACMA. In the last fiscal, the auto component industry's turnover grew by 8.8 percent to Rs 2.55 lakh crore as against Rs 2.34 lakh crore in 2014-15. "In the first two months of this fiscal trends have been positive. With prospects of a good monsoon, we expect the growth during this fiscal to be better then the previous one. "Last year, we grew by 8-9 percent and we expect to grow in the range of 10-12 percent this fiscal," Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) President Arvind Balaji told reporters here. The global markets continue to be slow but the domestic industry is showing signs of recovery, he added. Commenting on the last fiscal, Balaji said: "Despite a challenging year, the auto component industry has registered a satisfactory growth of 8.8 percent. Further, while overall exports from India witnessed a decline of 9.58 percent, the Indian auto component exports grew by 3.5 percent." Exports grew to Rs 70,900 crore last fiscal from Rs 68,500 crore in 2014-15. Europe accounted for 36 percent of the total exports followed by Asia and North America, 25 percent each. Shipments to Central America and North America increased by 30 percent and 3 percent, respectively, over the 2014-15 fiscal. The key export items included engine parts, transmission parts, brake system, body parts, exhaust systems and turbochargers. On imports, Balaji said China continued to be major country from where components are imported to India. "Yes, it is a challenge. There (in China), the government supports exports and we are also talking to our government to provide us a level playing field in terms of trade policy," he added. Last fiscal, the component industry invested in the range of Rs 2,700-Rs 4,000 crore compared with Rs 2,000-Rs 2,800 crore in 2014-15. "The enhancement in investment can be attributed to better business prospects owing to improving market sentiments," ACMA Director General Vinnie Mehta said. New Delhi: It has been almost 48 hours since the New Civil Aviation Policy was cleared by the Cabinet but the incumbent airlines have maintained a deafening silence over its pronouncements. The dilution of the 5/20 rule, which now allows any new airline to begin international operations as soon as it has a fleet of 20 aircraft without waiting for five years, is surely a key irritant for IndiGo, SpiceJet, Jet Airways and GoAir. These airlines have never kept their vehement opposition to any change in the 5/20 rule a secret and have, in fact, lobbied hard against any change under the aegis of the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA). The 5/20 rule was brought in allegedly at the insistence of one powerful full service airline years ago, so that this airline got immunity from competition from desi competitors on lucrative international routes. Now, when all airlines except GoAir fly abroad after having suffered the five-year domestic operations' condition, they are wary of the might of respected international players like Singapore Airlines, which is a 49% partner in Vistara, and would surely help the new airline's international spread. International operations are lucrative for airlines since they enable better sweating of assets (utilisation of aircraft) and enable airlines to pick up cheaper jet fuel from abroad. Take the case of Jet Airways, which earns over half its revenues from international operations and may face the maximum impact from 5/20 dilution a few years down the line. Anyway, Indian carriers only account for a third of international passenger traffic from India, it is the foreign carriers which rule this segment. The 5/20 dilution may not change this immediately but will surely impact overseas plans and earnings of Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet some months hence. It is perhaps a blessing in disguise for the government that the incumbents have maintained a determined silence over the policy instead of criticising it outright. It is clear that Civil Aviation Secretary R N Coubey met chiefs of all airlines early on Wednesday, apprising them about contents of the policy and seeking their cooperation in interactions with the media about the provisions, hours before it was to be taken up by the Union Cabinet. During the press briefing the same evening on the policy, all these people were duly invited to attend but except the top honchos of Vistara and AirAsia India, no airline chief was sighted at the briefing. While it would have been prudent for the government to do away with the regressive 5/20 provision entirely, it has chosen the middle path, trying to please all. Not only are the incumbents miffed, even the two Tata airlines, Vistara and AirAsia India, have been lukewarm in their response. Global aviation consultancy CAPA and several sector experts have criticised this middle-of-the-path approach to 5/20. CAPA says 5/20 rule moving to 0/20 is an "unfortunate compromise. It will not help new carriers like Vistara and Air Asia significantly and India will continue to be a foreign airline driven international traffic regime. Fast tracking expansion by Air Asia and Vistara will not be feasible since the initial capitalisation has been exhausted, operations continue to be loss-making and fast tracking will mean more cash burn." A source corroborated this saying Vistara will ramp up fleet from 11 to 20 in probably another 18 months so it will be close to three years from inception when the airline actually becomes eligible for overseas flights. AirAsia India, which has only six aircraft now and has been facing funding issues in the past, could well take longer to reach the 20-fleet mark. It is widely expected that the incumbent airlines are currently evaluating options and could well drag the policy to the courts. Not just with the partial removal of 5/20, this middle path approach is also evident in several other provisions of the policy like a gradual opening up of the Indian skies and confining this to countries beyond 5000 km radius. This is actually a non-starter, since India already has an open skies policy with the United States and the UK (with the exception of Heathrow and EU airlines have not been using much of the flights' quota available. What would have been a game changer? Open skies with countries like Singapore, Turkey, Gulf nations which fall within the 5000 km radius. This is where the demand lies. On another important issue too, the government developed cold feet: raising the FDI cap in airlines from 49% at present. The draft policy had mentioned that 49% could well become above 50% in some years but the final policy document skirts the issue completely as there has been vehement opposition to this clause too from some airlines. Remember, the FIA also exercised about the alleged violation of 'substantial ownership and effective control' clause by AirAsia India and has raised the matter in the courts. The bottomilne is, India's incumbent airlines do not want competition either on international routes or on domestic ones through new airlines springing up. Last but not the least, the Regional Connectivity Policy (RCS) has also not gone down well with the industry. Except for Air India, which is government owned and has to toe the official line, and perhaps SpiceJet, no other scheduled airline may be keen to add a new type of aircraft to its fleet - RCS needs small aircraft. Choubey said after unveiling the policy that many manufacturers of small aircraft have been in touch about the RCS scheme and that states will surely partner the centre in getting more flights into smaller cities, the practicality of these measures remains to be seen. Another point of view is the new non-scheduled operators with smaller aircraft may be attracted to the unserved airports which are the fulcrum of RCS. Already, CAPA has frowned upon the Rs 2,500 fare cap per hour of flying, saying the cost of operations could be over Rs 8,000 for airlines, taking overheads into account. This business of capping fares to enable the aam aadmi to fly may also need some tweaking for RCS operations to become viable. In the end, the flyer on trunk routes will have to bear the brunt of government's socialist ideas since some sort of cess on domestic tickets (on flights not on RCS routes) is being worked out. This means flying becomes somewhat more expensive for you and me. Given the unhappiness of the industry and even the flyer on major domestic routes over provisions of the Civil Aviation Policy, one wonders if the please-all approach of the government is the right one. India is the fastest growing aviation market in the world but still, only a minuscule proportion of its population flies. Proposals like RCS are thoughtful but lack practical clarity, other aspects of the policy also need some tweaking. The government should have taken a bold first step towards correcting the imbalances plaguing India's civil aviation sector. It has already thrown up its hands on rationalising taxation on ATF - which is highly taxed and makes the operating environment in India high cost. Through a series of investigative reports, Firstpost told you the story of how Bank of Baroda (BoB) reckoned three of its regular account holders as guarantors to a loan to Vijay Mallyas now defaulted airline, Kingfisher. One of the guarantors was a farmer in Uttar Pradesh, the second a security guard and the third a vegetable vendor (both from Mumbai). The efforts seem to have paid off, at least partially. After days of stony silence, BoB has said its senior officers have met the aggrieved customer and apologised for the inconvenience. The bank also said it would compensate the customer if need be. Heres the full text of their brief email response: The accounts under reference were erroneously lien marked by the Bank, owing to similarity of personal details and select credentials with the guarantors of Kingfisher Airlines. However, on realizing this, the Bank initiated prompt action to rectify the error. "The Bank also wishes to clarify that the customers under reference were not the guarantors for the loans provided to Kingfisher Airlines. "The Senior Officials of the Bank have called on the aggrieved customer and have regretted for the inconvenience caused on account of this unintentional error. The Bank will also compensate him for the monetary loss, if any. For those who arent familiar with the story, here is the gist. BoB is one of the banks in the 17-lender consortium which gave loans worth Rs 7000 crore to the now defunct airline of Vijay Mallya when the bird was still in the skies (it was grounded in October, 2012). But in December last year, BoB froze the accounts of three of its regular retail customers Manmohan Singh and two other persons named Subhash R Gupta in Mumbai, mistaking them as Mallyas guarantors to BoBs Rs 550 crore loan. This, the bank said, happened due to the similarity in their names with two gentlemen (Manmohan Singh Kapur and Subhash R Gupte) who used to be on the board of Kingfisher till two years ago. You can read the earlier stories here: Part 1 - BoB mistook farmer, security guard for Kingfisher directors! Part 2 - BoB freezes a/c with Rs 93 in quest for Rs 550 crore! Part 3 - Bank of Baroda freezes a/c of vegetable vendor! Part 4 - BoB doesn't even know who guaranteed Vijay Mallya's loan of Rs 550 crore! Welcome though it is, the banks response does not address the issues fully. Firstly, from the emailed statement it appears that BoB is referring only to one customer, the Pilibhit farmer Manmohan Singh, who suffered monetary loss after his account was frozen. Firstpost visited Singh at his Pilibhit home to ascertain if this was indeed true. The bank has informed us through their lawyer that the extra interest we had to pay on the loan because the account was frozen would be waived, he said. But at the same time we have been requested to take withdraw the defamation case which we filed against the bank. Singh served a legal notice to the bank's Mumbai branch and the branch in Pilibhit, charging them with defamation and demanded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh within 30 days. Singh added: While the bank has agreed to waive off the loan they should also give us monetary compensation for all the problems that we had to face because of their irresponsible behavior Rampal Gangwar, lawyer of Manmohan Singh told Firstpost: While bank authorities have woken up after six months, all they want to do is to waive off the loan. But my client had to sell his crop (sugarcane) at a much lower price as his accounts were frozen and he needed money. He suffered much of financial loss and mental agony and he should be compensated for this. Bank of Baroda is silent on the other two customers who did not suffer any apparent monetary loss. It did not also specify whether it would reach out to these two customers Subhash Ramdulare Gupta, vegetable vendor in Khar Mumbai and Subhash R Gupta, security guard, Vile Parle, Mumbai. When Firstpost called the two Guptas, they were unwilling to pursue the matter, insisting that the absence of monetary loss gave them little cause to take it up with the bank. However, the fact that these two customers did not suffer monetary loss does not mitigate the banks culpability in freezing their accounts without their knowledge. For this stealth attack on the rights and privileges of a customer the bank has needs to not just to apologise to them as well but make a demonstrable good will gesture to win their trust back. Secondly, and more importantly, BoB has maintained that what happened in this particular case was an office goof up or technical error by some of their officials who handled the recovery process and action on the guarantors accounts. But the brunt of the Firstpost investigative series is not to magnify an office error by a bank, but to highlight the larger systemic problems it symptomises. Two key questions come up here: One, how foolproof are the systems and processes in place for a large, reputed bank like BoB , to handle the sanction and recovery process of a high value loan (Rs 550 crore in this case). We all know how the 17-bank consortium has pathetically failed to take early action on Mallya. The Rs 9,000 crore Kingfisher loan (with accrued interest amount) became NPA (non-performing asset) on 2012, not in last December. But, sadly, that was when banks woke up to the problem (mind you, after four years of the loan turning NPA) with the seriousness the issue warrants. And when they did, this is what happened if we take BoB as an example. How could the bank get the names of its guarantors to such a large loan wrong in the first place? Both Kapur and Gupte (the original directors on the Kingfisher board), confirmed to Firstpost over phone they were never guarantors to the Kingfisher loan and do not even have accounts with the bank. Then how did these names figure in BoBs radar in the first place? Two, this is the worse part. Even in identifying the wrong guarantors, the bank failed miserably. Before freezing the accounts of three of its regular customers, the bank didnt bother to inform them or at least verify they are indeed the right people. The due diligence process failed at all levels, straight from the head office to the branch offices. This raises a serious question of how safe are the bank accounts of millions of customers. Remember, these three accounts had vey low balances (in one case Rs 93). One of the Guptas, the security guard, operated this account only to avail Prime Ministers Suraksha Bima Yojana, the mass insurance scheme with Rs 12 premium. Just one look at their account history or their KYC details would have revealed that these customers are no way linked to Vijay Mallya or Kingfisher. The good part is that, after we highlighted this issue, BoB at least agreed to apologise to the customer and even compensate for monetary losses. (We are trying to ascertain from the three persons if the bank officials indeed visited them expressed regrets.) But, the story doesnt end here. So, the larger question still remains. How was such a large loan given without even knowing the KYC details of the guarantors. Firstposts enquiries in this respect will continue to question the basic systemic issues in how banks lend public money to corporates. New Delhi: Government has imposed 20 percent customs duty on sugar exports to boost domestic supply and check prices which are ruling high at Rs 40/kg. The move comes at a time when prices have surged sharply in various commodities including tomato, wheat and pulses. "To keep the domestic prices of sugar under check, the government has decided to impose export duty of 20 percent on the export of raw sugar, white or refined sugar," the Finance Ministry said in a release. A decision has been notified by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), it said. The duty has been imposed to restrict exports following sharp rise in global prices. The duty is, however, lower than 25 percent proposed by the Food Ministry. India, the world's second largest sugar producer after Brazil, has exported 1.6 million tonnes of sugar so far in the 2015-16 marketing year (October-September). Further exports are unlikely to take place with this decision. With retail sugar prices soaring to around Rs 40/kg from Rs 30/kg six months ago, the government has taken various steps to contain prices including withdrawal of export-linked production subsidy and imposition of stock limits on traders. Last week, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan had announced that his ministry has proposed to "levy 25 percent custom duty on export of sugar" to keep exports under control. "Global sugar prices are rising and therefore traders may increase the export of sugar to make profit," he had said. Industry body Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) did not offer any comments immediately. However, a senior industry official welcomed the decision in view of tight demand-supply situation expected in the next 2016-17 marketing year starting October. With imposition of export duty, the official said that exports have become unviable. An increase of 50 percent in global sugar prices in last three months due to disruption in supply from Brazil had made exports viable. The country's sugar production is estimated to decline to 25 million tonnes in 2015-16, as against 28.3 million tonnes last year. The annual domestic demand is pegged at 26 million tonnes. Moreover, the government has forecast further decline in output in next year at 23-24 million tonnes. However, it has maintained that there would be no shortage as the country would have the opening stock of 7 million tonnes at the start of the next marketing year, taking total availability to 30-31 million tonnes. New Delhi: US-based Amazon said it has witnessed a 250 percent year-on-year growth in bringing new sellers on board as it looks to tap into the booming ecommerce market in India. The company, which is making multi-billion dollar investments in India, has over 85,000 sellers on board. "We started with 100 sellers three years ago and now we have over 85,000 sellers growing at 250 percent year-on-year and adding over 90,000 products a day," an Amazon India spokesperson said in an emailed statement. Amazon, which competes with the likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal, has cut its commissions by 25-30 percent across categories like mobile phones, PCs, electronic devices and personal care appliances. "We think these revised rates can significantly help sellers to perform even better and succeed in their business. In addition, we continue to innovate and offer best in class services such as Fulfilment by Amazon, Easy Ship, Seller Flex, etc to help them with fulfilment/logistics so that they can focus on their business," the Amazon spokesperson said. Flipkart, on the contrary, had recently increased its commissions across key segments and asked sellers to bear the costs of logistics in case of returns. Recently, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had said the company will invest $3 billion in India. This is in addition to the American e-commerce giant's $2 billion infusion in 2014, taking its total investments here to over $5 billion. The funds will be channelled towards enhancing customer and seller experience, Amazon India managing director Amit Agarwal said. "India is a key market for Amazon and we will work towards continuing to reduce operating costs for sellers backed by good logistics and fulfilment capabilities," he had added. India ranks highest among a few Asian countries in cyber bullying with 53 percent currently utilizing the internet between the ages of 8 to 17 and have faced some form of online bullying more than once. This is in contrast to a sizeable 49 percent children who face cyber bullying in Bangladesh, 33 percent in Thailand and only one in 4 children in Malaysia, according to the Norton Cyber security Insights Report by Norton by Symantec. Cyberbullying refers to electronic communication used for the purpose of bullying. In the latter half of 2015, Intel Security released its Teens, Tweens and Technology Study 2015, which revealed that 81 percent of Indian children between the age of 8 and 16 were active on social media networks and of these 22 percent reported being bullied online. This was the highest when compared to Australia, USA and Singapore being part of the survey. What children will post today on social media networks will come to haunt them in the future is a fear that most Indian parents share. They fear cyber bullying is more evident than physical bullying. According to the Norton Cyber Security Insights Report by Symantec, close to one in two parents believe their children are safer from bullies on a playground than online. By 2017, 134 million children in India will be online, giving them access to a information and knowledge. Compared to the global average, Indian parents are 20 percent more likely to limit their childs online activities. A sizeable 49 percent of school students in Bangladesh have experienced either being bullied or disturbed online, by the same person both online and offline or have actually engaged in bullying others online. The same percentage said they submitted to at least one form of peer pressure. Bangladesh has a lower percentage than India with regard to cyber bullying simply because less than half of school students choose to confide in parents and teachers when faced with online issues. Internet usage by schoolchildren in all states in Malaysia is more than 90 percent on average. Though one in four report have experienced cyber bullying, a 2015 study revealed that the majority of Malaysian schoolchildren are aware that such behaviours can be identified and reported. In the face of online threats by peers, most Malaysian children are likely to adopt a privacy setting or blocking strategies, and are aware of the channels to report to teachers or relevant authorities. Nonetheless, there is a high likelihood that many youngsters will keep quiet and hope the cyber bullying will stop, rather than consult a trusted adult. Malaysian students also ranked highly in terms of being aware of what constitutes socially acceptable behaviors on the internet and are open to following online rules set by parents. Overall, 67 percent said they felt able to improve or solve any cyberbullying problems themselves or with adult help. This higher percentage could be attributed to consistent efforts to increase internet safety awareness among Malaysian school students, including DiGis CyberSAFE programme. Overall, 33 percent of Thai school students have experienced either being bullied or disturbed online, being bullied by the same person both online and offline or they have actually engaged in the act of bullying others online. Additionally, 35 percent of Thai students have said they succumbed to at least one form of peer pressure such as being encouraged to visit unsuitable websites or use bad language online. Of the Thai students encountering cyberbullying and online peer pressure, 59 percent responded said that they felt capable of resolving such issues by themselves or with adult guidance. Notable was the level of students in Thailand who said when faced with online issues that they do not know how to solve alone: 55 percent said they were likely to approach their parents, far higher than Bangladesh at 38 percent saying they would consult their guardians. By frequently consulting with parents, children can better navigate the challenges of interactions online. Telenor India has come out with safety norms for parents so as to be able to protect children from cyber bullying. These include limiting the time children spend online, to keep talking to children and learn new technology from and with them, getting children to share their favorite websites with them. Set rules, critique content and openly communicate with kids. Keeping kids safe means setting guidelines and having critical and non judgmental discussions about internet behavior, a company press release said. Kochi: Cochin Shipyard on Friday delivered the Fast Patrol Vessel ICGS Aryaman, to Indian Coast Guard 95 days ahead of the contractual schedule. It is the 18th vessel in the series of twenty Fast Patrol Vessels under construction for the Indian Coast Guard. The Protocol of Delivery and Acceptance was signed between Suresh Babu NV, Director (Operations), CSL and Commanding Officer (Designate) of the vessel Cmdt Neeraj Singh in the presence of senior officials of ICG and CSL. The vessel will be operated from the Coast Guard Station at Kochi, a CSL release said in Kochi. "These vessels help in securing the Nation's Coasts by patrolling within the Exclusive Economic Zone and Coastal Patrol, carrying out anti-smuggling, anti-piracy and search and rescue operations, and for fisheries protection and monitoring," it said. They also have a secondary role of providing a communication link, and escort coastal convoys, in times of hostilities and war, it said. The CSL said this financial year, it has delivered seven Fast patrol Vessels to the Indian Coast Guard and a Buoy Tender Vessel to Department of Lighthouses and Lightships. PTI A Long March 4B rocket carrying a new civilian high-resolution mapping satellite "Ziyuan III 02" and two NewSat satellites from Uruguay blasts off at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, May 30, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] BEIJING - After six decades of aerospace development, it is high time for China to embrace the new era of space economy, participants at a forum agreed Thursday. During the first China Space Economic Forum, in Beijing on Thursday, government officials, aerospace scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs exchanged views on China's space economy developments. While addressing the forum, Tian Yulong, chief engineer of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, noted that much of China's space technology and infrastructure achievements were ready for commercial use-oriented development. Official data shows that, currently, more than 2,000 kinds of aerospace technology in China are being used in various industries, and 880 kinds of new materials have been developed based on aerospace technology in recent years. The government is accelerating cooperation with the military, discussing plans to share military space resources with enterprises to ensure government investment better benefits the public, said Tian, who is also general-secretary of China National Space Administration. Concurring with Tian, Yu Dengyun from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation added that China must push ahead with further development of aerospace technology. China has announced it will complete aerospace projects currently underway by around 2020, including manned space programs, lunar probes, the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and the Gaofen observation satellite program. A Mars exploration program is scheduled to begin around 2020. Satellite applications should be central to space economic development in China at present, and the country must strengthen its commercial use of domestic remote sensing satellites and provide better services to the public, said Yu. Attendees of the forum agreed that China initiatives including "Internet Plus," "China Manufacturing 2025" and the "Belt and Road" initiative have driven development of China's space economy. Moreover, a law on aerospace has been listed in China's legislation plan, and the central government has signed over 100 aerospace cooperation agreements with more than 30 countries, which will provide a favorable environment for space economic development in the country, Tian said. Mathura: A local court on Thursday refused to accept the police's claim that Jawahar Bagh encroachers leader Ram Vriksha Yadav is dead and ordered a DNA test of his viscera and to match it with his family members' DNA sample. "Find out the whereabouts of the family of Ram Vriksha and ensure DNA test of his viscera in the presence of Chief Medical Officer Mathura," Ninth Additional District Judge V S Tripathi ordered Highway Police Station SHO Subodh Yadav. Tripathi did not accept the SHO's contention that Ram Vriksha Yadav is dead as his body has been identified by one Har Nath. "Identification by only family members or relatives can be accepted. Find out the whereabout of family members of Ram Vriksha and then ensure DNA test," he said. The Magistrate passed the order during a hearing in a 2011 case in which Ram Vriksha was an accused and a non-bailable warrant was issued against him. The prosecution of the case Suresh Chandra Dubey said that on 10 March, 2011, Ram Vriksha and his associates had a scuffle with employees at Baba Jai Gurudeo petrol Pump since they were not selling him petrol at 40 litres per rupee. An FIR was registered against Ram Vriksha and his associates at Highway police station in the case. Since Ram Vriksha and his associates did not turn up in the court in the case, non bailable warrant was issued against them. The SHO on Thursday submitted in the court that since Ram Vriksha is no more, the case may be dropped. However, the magistrate refused to accept it and ordered DNA sample matching. Delhis cabinet minister Gopal Rai resigned from his post as transport minister citing health reasons on 14 June. On the same day late evening, the Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) MLA and parliamentary secretary Alka Lamba was sacked from the post of partys spokesperson for her statement on Rai, which was considered as a deviation from party line. These back-to-back incidents brought the AAP-led Delhi government in the spotlight; especially on the issue of the premium bus service. The entire attention got focussed on Rai because it was he as the transport minister commissioned the controversial project. Whats the controversy all about? The controversy is about the premium bus service. The Delhi government during the second phase of the odd-even scheme in April had announced that the premium bus service would be made operational from mid-June. Registrations for the same were to be started on 1 June. But the scheme could not be launched because Delhis Lt Governor Najeeb Jung did not give his assent to the service and asked the transport minister to review it. It is alleged that Rai gave the green signal to the scheme, bypassing the L-G office. Reportedly, several violations have taken place in the process. Resultantly, the ambitious scheme of AAP-government has taken the shape of a scam. Premium bus service scheme: Its an App-based premium bus scheme similar to cab services like Ola and Uber. The Delhi government worked on an app linked to an aggregator, whose job was to link people with buses and ensure a safe passage. The buses would run on a fixed schedule, the seats would be numbered, no extra passengers would be taken on board, the bus would have to run even if there wasnt a minimum number on a route and fines were to be imposed if the conditions werent met. Its similar to a chartered bus and the booking for it could be on phone. Why did Rai step down? Gopal Rai stepped down citing health reasons, as he has recently had a surgery. But, as per the sources (including Alka Lamba), he resigned from the post of transport minister as he had been at the focal point of the project. Lamba had told the media that Gopal Rai had been relieved of his portfolio so that the AAP governments premium bus scheme could be investigated by the Anti-Corruption Branch in a free and fair manner. She came under fire for this statement of hers. AAP supporters may disagree, but its true that Rai didnt resign from transport department only on health grounds. He continues to be the minister for employment, development, labour, general administration and, irrigation and flood control. Hes also on the radar of Delhis anti-corruption branch, which is investigating the case. What went wrong? -There are allegations against Rai that he allegedly bypassed the Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jungs office by giving the AAP governments ambitious app-based premium bus service scheme a green signal. No prior approval was sought before the launch of the scheme. The scheme was notified by the AAP-government on 20 May. -After stepping down, Rai had voluntarily presented himself before ACB Chief MK Meena. Later he claimed that the probe agency was "totally clueless" with respect to substantiating the graft charges in the scheme. -According to sources, the ACB in its initial report has mentioned that the AAP governments notification is based on deliberate misinterpretation of certain clauses of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (Clauses M & N of Section 66 refer to exceptions under the Act in the case of emergency-like situation). There was no emergency situation when the notification was issued. -Contrary to government norms, where the secretary of a department (in this case the Transport department) presents a Cabinet note, in this case it was Rai who had prepared the note. -As per the norm, the draft proposal for a scheme (like this premium bus scheme project) is supposed to be put on the public domain for public feedback; but in this case it wasnt done. -Sources said that transport department officials raised concerns over the proposed implementation of the scheme, but they remained unheard. -In the notification, the government statedthe L-G of the NCR is pleased to notify, but the fact is that it had no approval of L-G. It was incorrect, a source said. Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) investigation A complaint was filed with the ACB by BJP legislator Vijender Gupta, alleging that the Delhi government has favoured an aggregator and no norms had been followed. Following it, the agency started probing on the alleged scam and has prepared an initial report which is related to the contract awarded for the premium bus service project. It is looking into the allegations of favouritism underlying the notification of a policy to enable app-based premium buses in the national capital to extend benefits to a Gurugram -based private operator. The ACB has questioned Rai on the issue and its expected that it would go for a second round. The agency will also question others related to the implementation of the project. There are charges of corruption and it is a fact that Lieutenant Governors permission was not taken, but the notification claims that permission was takenAAP governments transport policy allegedly was tailor-made to benefit one operator, all stakeholders were not consulted, ACB chief, MK Meena had reportedly said. In limbo As the scheme has now got embroiled into a controversy and ACB investigating the case, this ambitious project of Kejriwal government, which could have been beneficial for Delhi public, is in limbo. A special court on Friday convicted 11 perpetrators to life imprisonment, 12 others to seven years and one more to ten years in jail, in the 14 year old Gulbarg society massacre case. 69 people along with Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed in the communal violence, that took place on 28 February, 2002 in Gujarat post the Godhra riots. As the court ruled out death sentence for the convicts, wife of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, Zakia Jafri, who has been actively fighting for justice for the last 14 years, says she is not satisfied with the SIT verdict. They brutally killed Ehsan Jafri, stripped him, chopped off his limbs and burnt him alive in the street...this is the punishment? Why this selective sentencing? They should have all got life imprisonment," said Zakia Jafri, as reported by NDTV. I am not satisfied, I am not happy. I will have to consult my lawyers again, this is not justice: Zakia Jafri #GulbargVerdict ANI (@ANI_news) June 17, 2016 Zakia Jafri: After so many people died, that's all the court could decide? just 12 guilty? I will have to fight this pic.twitter.com/Jr4VDp3fCh ANI (@ANI_news) June 17, 2016 They brutally killd Ehsan Jafri, this is quantum of sentence?They should have all got life imprisonment: Zakia Jafri pic.twitter.com/QrvcBRnAEy ANI (@ANI_news) June 17, 2016 When on 2 June 2016, the SIT court had acquitted 36 and convicted 24 out of all the 66 accused, Zakia Jafri had said that all those accused should have been given punishment for what they did and what they did not. "I know it all and as I have seen the massacre. I expected all to be convicted...how they killed people, how they made them homeless, I saw it myself. I can't dare to ask for capital punishment but maximum punishment should be given. They should be given life imprisonment so they could know the pain of staying away from their family and children," Zakia had said after the verdict was pronounced on 2 June, 2016. Back in 2013, Zakia had filed a petition, challenging SIT's clean chit to Modi, alleging that SIT had covered up the crimes and misled the court. In her long fight for justice, Zakia was joined by social activist Teesta Setalvad, who had been fighting for victims of the Gulbarg massacre and was fighting cases for them. New Delhi: India and Thailand on Friday decided to ramp up cooperation in the fields of economy, counter terrorism, cyber security and human trafficking besides forging closer ties in defence and maritime security. The announcement was made here after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held extensive talks with his visiting Thai counterpart General Prayut Chan-o-cha. The leaders said early conclusion of a balanced Comprehensive Economic and Partnership Agreement is a shared priority. Modi said both the countries have prioritised completion of India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral highway and early signing of the Motor Vehicles Agreement between India, Thailand and Myanmar. Following the delegation-level talks, in which also Army Chief Dalbir Singh Suhag was also present, two agreements Executive Programme of Cultural Exchange (Extension of CEP) for 2016-2019 and an MoU between Nagaland University and Chiang Mai University, Thailand were signed. In a bid to attract tourists from Thailand, especially to the Buddhist sites in the country, Modi announced that India will soon facilitate double entry e-tourist visas for Thai citizens. Talking about the issue of terror, the Prime Minister said both countries were aware that rapid spread of terrorism and radical ideology pose a common challenge. In our shared objective to combat these challenges, Indiais particularly grateful to Thailand for its assistance and cooperation, he said. "Beyond terrorism, we have agreed to further deepen our security engagement in the fields of cyber security, narcotics, transnational economic offences and human trafficking," Modi said while addressing the media. Noting that India and Thailand were also maritime neighbours, he said both the countries have agreed to forge a closer partnership in the fields of defence and maritime cooperation. "A partnership to meet our bilateral interests and to respond to our shared regional goals," he said. On trade and commerce, Modi said a more "diversified commercial engagement" between both countries would not only benefit the respective economies but also enable greater regional economic prosperity. He welcomed the first meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Business Forum to be held later on Friday. He said that besides trade, there are also ample avenues or greater manufacturing and investment linkages. "We see a particular synergy between Thai strengths in infrastructure, particularly tourism infrastructure, and India's priorities in this field. "Information Technology, pharmaceuticals, auto components and machinery are some other areas of promising collaboration. We also see early conclusion of a balanced Comprehensive Economic and Partnership Agreement as our shared priority," he said. The Thai Prime Minister said when it comes to comprehensive economic and partnership agreement, both countries should focus on what can be done first. Modi said both the leaders are fully aware that smooth flow of goods, services, capital and human resources between the economies needs a strong network of air, land and sea links. "Connectivity is also an area of priority for India's development. Improving access to Southeast Asia from our north-eastern states benefits both our peoples," he said. Stronger connectivity is essential not just for expanding bilateral trade ties, it also brings people closer and facilitates enhanced science, education, culture and tourism cooperation, he said. Modi also announced that the Indian Constitution will soon be translated into Thai language. A joint statement released later said that in addition to the wide range of cooperation, Thailand and India have compatible strategies of Look West and Act East respectively, that has been now evolved into a comprehensive partnership. The two Prime Ministers held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues, with a common goal to work closely towards the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relations and beyond, it said. Both the countries recognised the importance of bilateral trade and noted that the economic relations are deep rooted in the existing framework, including bilateral Free Trade Agreement, ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement and Early Harvest Scheme, the release said. Modi welcomed Thai investments in India in the potential areas under the 'Make in India' initiative, especially in the manufacturing sector, infrastructure development, tourism and hospitality facilities. He said Thai companies will invest in the development of the Buddhist Circuit and construction of five high-end hotels. "The Prime Minister of Thailand invited Indian investments to Thailand under the cluster development policy, which is a newly initiated program aimed at enhancing investment in focused areas," a joint statement said. The policy will help expand the investment network between the two countries in various mutually beneficial sectors, including information technology, pharmaceutical, automotive parts, chemical products, machinery and parts, bio-technology, and R&D, it said. Chandigarh: On 13th day of their fresh pro-quota stir, some Jat leaders, accompanied by Khap representatives, held talks with the Haryana government on Friday and demanded withdrawal of "false cases" registered against youths in connection with the February stir and adequate compensation for the relatives of those who had died. Among the participants in the talks at Panchkula were Sube Singh Samain, Sarv Khap Jat Panchayat spokesperson, its senior leader Nafe Singh Nain, Tek Chand Kandela of the Kandela Khap and Jat leader Hawa Singh Sangwan. State Agriculture Minister OP Dhankar and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's political advisor Jagdish Chopra, talked to them from the government side. The main demand raised in the meeting was release of "innocent youths" arrested during February stir and adequate compensation and job to next of kin of those who lost their lives in the recent stir. Dhankar told the leaders the government is fighting against the High Court stay on reservation granted by it and assured their other demands would be considered in a "sympathetic manner". All India Jat Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti (AIJASS), which is spearheading the stir, has been invited for talks with state government representatives in Delhi on Saturday. "We are meeting them in Delhi Saturday," AIJASS president Yashpal Malik said. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said this is a "social issue and it should not be politicised". Khattar, who was in Rohtak on Friday, said as the reservation issue is under the consideration of the court, all would have to unitedly plea to make it reach the desired conclusion. However, it is the responsibility of the government to get it resolved, he added. The state on Friday remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported, officials said. In 2010, Inaam Hussain, a 19-year-old boy, was standing outside his fathers shop in Srinagars uptown when a police vehicle whizzed through the dusty road and abruptly stopped, while the cops jumped out to catch the boys who threw stones on the police during the months-long protests against the series of killings in Kashmir. The stone pelters, who had assembled in the main market area, gave the slip. Enraged over missing the catch, the cops chased the other bystanders, including Inaam. In a hurry, Inaam entered the compound of a nearby mosque to save himself from possibly being thrashed and arrested by the angry cops, but failed as he tried to climb over a wall to the other side of the mosque. Inaam was caught and booked under the black law called Public Safety Act (PSA), within hours of his arrest. Inaam spent the next few months in Kot Balwal Jail in the Udhampur district of Jammu region. It took his family months to get his PSA quashed and subsequently release him from jail. Since then, he attends court regularly in relation to the other charges he was booked for. Years later, Inaam was offered a job in compensation for the land taken by the Indian Railways, which required him to obtain an NOC from the police, before he could join the service. Since there was a case pending against him in the police station, he had to pay a hefty amount as bribe to get the clearance certificate from the police for his job. All thanks to the draconian Public Safety Act. Like Inaam, hundreds of boys in Kashmir share a similar story. The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday revealed that it had arrested a total of 133 people under the provisions of PSA in the last one year, out of which 53 people are still languishing in different jails in the state. A total of 133 persons were arrested under the provisions of PSA and other Acts in 2015. Out of these, 80 people have been released or deported while 53 are still in jails. Three of the PSA detainees have been taken to the jails outside the state, the government said in the state Assembly, on Friday. The figures reveal how the state deals with the dissenters with an iron hand, according to a human rights activist. The government also said it has arrested around 800 people in Kashmir in 2015; Srinagar topped the list with 337 arrests. Since January 2015 and January 2016, a total of 799 people across Kashmir were arrested. All except one person have been released, the government said. The government said that 337 people were arrested in Srinagar, 122 in Shopian, 15 in Budgam, 22 in Ganderbal, 70 in Baramulla, 34 in Kupwara, 13 in Kulgam, 10 in Bandipora, and 86 in Pulwama, in the last one year. Earlier in the month, the government said 199 youngsters were arrested in north Kashmirs Palhallan village in the last nine years. Jammu and Kashmir spends an amount of Rs 18.34 crore annually on prisoners in different jails. It is pertinent to mention that Hurriyat leader Masarat Alam has been slapped with 32 PSAs over the years. Similarly, hundreds of youngsters have been arrested under PSA, since the mass uprising in Kashmir in 2008. The human rights group, Amnesty International, has termed the Public Safety Act as a lawless law and has advocated for its scrapping. In a recent report, Amnesty said that an estimated 8,000-20,000 people have been detained under the PSA since 1991 in Kashmir. Amnesty in its report said: Research has showed that the implementation of the PSA is often arbitrary and abusive, with many of those being held having committed no recognisably criminal acts. The PSAs vague and over-broad provisions facilitate a range of human rights violations in practice. The Vice-President Hamid Ansari has, in November 2014, said that the use of laws such as PSA to commit human rights violations, reflect poorly on the state and its agents. The human rights organisations and civil society groups have been calling for the scrapping of this law under which a person can be detained for up to two years in jail without any trial. Despite facing harsh criticism, the Jammu and Kashmir government continues to put hundreds of people in jail under PSA. Ahmedabad: Rejecting the theory of a conspiracy behind the Gulbarg Society massacre here during the 2002 Gujarat riots, the special SIT court on said there was no evidence to support it. "There was absolutely no pre-planned conspiracy to butcher or kill members of the minority community, more particularly at Gulbarg society," special judge PB Desai said in the order. "The evidence...with regard to the elements of criminal conspiracy is extremely flimsy," it said. The court sentenced 11 convicts to life imprisonment in the case related to the massacre where 69 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were burnt alive on 28 February, 2002. The court awarded a 10-year jail term to one accused while 12 others were given a seven-year sentence. Testimony of one of the witnesses that Kapil Munna, an accused, told him that he was going to attend a meeting where the murder of Muslims would be planned was "uninspiring and downright ridiculous," the judge said. According to this witness, Munna told him this between 9 and 10 a.m on 28 February, while other witnesses had said the violence had begun at around 9 a.m itself, the court noted. The prosecution had also referred to a visit by the senior police officers including the then police commissioner P C Pandey and joint commissioner of police M K Tandon to the Gulbarg Society before the incident to assure the residents that there would be proper police security. The police officers stayed away when the carnage began, which supported the theory of criminal conspiracy involving high- ranking government officials, political leaders and police, said the prosecution. Chennai: A 68-year-old man died while watching the Hollywood horror movie The Conjuring 2 at a cinema hall in Tamil Nadu, late on Thursday, police said. The incident occurred during the night show at Sri Balasubramaniar Cinemas in Tiruvannamalai town. G Ram Mohan, a native of Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh, suffered chest pain and fainted towards the climax of the movie. H Prasad, who was accompanying Mohan, took him to a nearby hospital but he died even before reaching the hospital. The doctors asked Prasad to take the body to Tiruvannamalai Government Medical College Hospital for autopsy, but he did not reach there. He was believed to have left for Kadapa along with the body. Police launched an investigation and approached their counterparts in Andhra to trace the body. The duo had reportedly gone to Tiruvannamalai on a business trip. Mumbai: In an apparent snub to BJP ahead of the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls, Shiv Sena has not invited its ally for its 50th anniversary celebrations on Sunday. "We have not invited the BJP because it is an internal celebration of our party which is aimed at gearing up our party workers. Recently, BJP held its National Executive meet in Allahabad for which none of its allies were invited. Similarly, every party has its own celebrations, meetings which is only for its members," Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande told PTI. When asked if the move is an indication to the BJP that the party may decide to go solo in the upcoming BMC polls, she said, "Our mission for the BMC election is 100 per cent Sena. Every party would want to win an election. The Sena has always been at the helm of affairs in the state and has never required anybody's support to grow which has not been the case with the BJP." Reacting to the development, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, "It is their internal programme thus their choice on who has to be invited. We only wish them good luck." Opposition parties, meanwhile, have taken an opportunity to take a dig at the saffron allies, saying their internal bickering will only add to their misfortunes in the upcoming BMC polls. "Both the BJP and the Sena know their chances of retaining power in BMC are negligible owing to the massive corruption that has taken place in their tenure. The slugfest between both parties will be an added advantage for the Opposition parties," NCP legislator Kiran Pawaskar said. Congress spokesperson Al-Nasser Zakaria said, "from the time of formation of government, both parties' postures have been that of one-upmanship. Alliance has to be followed in letter and spirit. People of the state should have the confidence in them. Bickering on petty issues is irrelevant to the people. However, if Sena wants to sit on opposition benches they are most welcome." The Sena will be staging a grand mega event on 19 June at Goregaon East's NSE grounds showcasing its 50 years of political journey that has been shaped by the contribution of late party chief Balasaheb Thackeray and family. New Delhi: A 92-year-old 'bed ridden' man, convicted in a 1980 honour killing case, will finally have to go to jail with the Supreme Court on Friday refusing to grant him any exemption from surrendering before the police to undergo the life term awarded to him. The vacation bench of justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and L Nageswara Rao dismissed his application seeking exemption from surrendering on health grounds before the police as directed by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court. The High Court had on 24 February upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded to Putti, a Uttar Pradesh resident, and had directed him to surrender before the police. The convict has also appealed against the High Court order through advocate Deepesh Dwivedi and termed the verdict as "unreasoned" and "erroneous" given without considering his plight of old age. Putti is the cousin brother of co-accused Phekka and Sanehi, the co-accused in the case who had expired during the pendency of appeal before the High Court. They had murdered one Nanhakku on 22 August, 1980. According to prosecution, about nine months before the incident Sohan, brother of Nanhakku had eloped with the married daughter of Phekka, due to which Snehi and Putti had nursed a grudge against Nanhakku and others. The trial court on 28 May, 1982 had convicted Phekka, Snehi and Putti for offences under section 302 (murder)/34 (common intention) of IPC and awarded life term to them. All the three convicts had appealed against the trial court order in the High Court, during which Phekka and Snehi expired. After nearly 34 years, the High Court on 24 February, 2016, upheld the conviction and sentence and dismissed the appeals. In a bid to discredit former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, dozens of myths are being propagated to make him look like a half-wit, whose policies and ideology somehow deprived India of its deserved status of a global superpower and pegged the country back by several years. Add to this list another fantastic claim: John F Kennedy offered India nukes on a platter but Nehru rejected it. And that Nehru spurned offers for India's permanent inclusion in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Writing for Firstpost, Prakash Nanda argues: "... a majority of Indians do not know that but for Nehru, India would have been a permanent member of the UNSC, a legitimate nuclear power and a leading global power in the 1950s." Nehru and UNSC That Nehru deprived India of a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council is standard spiel of the anti-Nehru camp. But, it ignores several key facts. The UNSC was formed in 1945 and its composition has not altered even once since then. In 1945, when seats on UNSC were being allotted, India was not even an Independent country. To add to Indian woes, whatever claims India made for seeking entry into the elite council were opposed by British PM Winston Churchill. Was India offered a membership after that? In September 1955, Nehru categorically denied getting any offer in Parliament. He made this statement, in reply to a short notice question in the Lok Sabha on 27 September by Dr JN Parekh whether India had refused a seat informally offered to her in the Security Council. The prime minister said: "There has been no offer, formal or informal, of this kind. Some vague references have appeared in the press about it, which have no foundation in fact. The composition of the Security Council is prescribed by the UN Charter, according to which certain specified nations have permanent seats. No change or addition can be made to this without an amendment of the Charter. There is, therefore, no question of a seat being offered and India declining it. Our declared policy is to support the admission of all nations qualified for UN membership.'' It has been almost 50 years since Nehru died. If, as his critics argue, Nehru was not keen on the UNSC membership, what have his successors, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, achieved in these years? The problem with the UNSC is that altering its composition takes a lot. First, it entails an amendment in the UN Charter, which can be done only with the support of two-third of its general members and the support of the big five in the UNSC. And second, India is not the only country with a strong claim. Germany, Japan, Brazil and many other developing countries have also been lobbying for a seat on the UNSC table. To assume that all these impediments could have been swept aside if Nehru would have said yes is wishful simplification of the complex problem. Nehru, Kennedy and Nukes Nanda claims India could have become a nuclear power if he had accepted Kennedy's offer to handhold our way into the elite club. His argument is based on former foreign secretary MK Rasgotra's assertion that Kennedy offered India help in developing nuclear bombs, but the Indian PM turned down a handwritten letter in which the offer was made. Rasgotra was the Indian foreign secretary in the Rajiv Gandhi government, a good 20 years after Nehru's death. Facts. Though Nehru was a vocal proponent of non-alignment and a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi's ahimsa doctrine, India always kept the nuclear option. In April 1948, within a year of Independence, India passed the Atomic Energy Act that led to the creation of Indian Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC). At that time Nehru said: "We must develop this atomic energy quite apart from war indeed I think we must develop it for the purpose of using it for peaceful purposes. Of course, if we are compelled as a nation to use it for other purposes, possibly no pious sentiments of any of us will stop the nation from using it that way." (Weapons of Peace, Raj Chengappa, HarperCollins Publishers India, pg 79) It is clear that Nehru was keen that India pursue nuclear research and keep its options open for future deployment in war. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that Homi Bhabha was once just a year from testing a nuclear device during Nehru's tenure. But, it is also true that he asked Bhabha to keep the programme in abeyance. The key question here is this: Did the US under Kennedy try to help India fastrack the bomb to counter China? Several experts argue that Kennedy's secretary of state Dean Rusk toyed with the idea of helping India develop nukes to keep China under control. But, in his book, India's Nuclear Bomb, The Impact on Global Proliferation, strategic affairs expert George Perkovitch writes the idea was never implemented. The US home department found seven problems with the strategy of extending covert support to India's nuclear programme and ultimately rejected it saying it was not convinced that the US should depart from its stated policy of opposition to extension of nuclear capabilities. The truth is, during Kennedy's tenure, the US was tilting more towards Pakistan than India. George Perkovitch writes in India's Nuclear Bomb, in 1961, when US Vice-President Lyndon Johnson visited the two countries, he preferred the Pakistani dictator Ayub Khan. On several occasions, the US tried to leverage its position to force India to accept a settlement on Kashmir to appease Pakistan. But, Nehru maintained a measured distance from the US, much to the chagrin of the superpower. Apart from assuming, without proffering credible evidence, that nukes were offered on a platter to Nehru, the former PM's critics, of course, make the mistake of arguing that an entry into the club would have been the shortest route to super powerdom and global hegemony. For sobering thoughts, they need only to look at Pakistan, an ally of the US much before the Kennedy era. New Delhi: Former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday rubbished as "politically motivated" allegations linking her to the Rs 400-crore water tanker scam, a day after Lt Governor Najeeb Jung ordered a probe into it by Delhi government's Anti Corruption Branch. The Congress veteran also questioned the timing of the probe saying it was ordered when preparations for crucial polls in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh were picking up momentum. She also suggested that Jung may have been under political pressure to order a probe into the case pointing out that he was sitting on so many other recommendations of the AAP government. "The allegations are politically motivated. It was not my decision to procure the water tankers. It was a collective decision by a board comprising DJB CEO, engineers and experts. A BJP MLA and two municipal councillors were also part of the decision making process," Dikshit said. Questioning timing of the probe, she told PTI, "it makes it clear that a motivated campaign is being launched against me". There was speculation that Dikshit may be made the Congress' chief ministerial face for next year's assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh or may be given a major role in the party's campaign for assembly polls in Punjab. "I do not remember the details of the procurement process. But I can confidently say that a transparent process was followed. The allegations were totally baseless," she said. A report of a fact-finding panel on the alleged 400-crore water tanker scam linking Dikshit was Thursday forwarded to anti-graft agency ACB by Jung for further investigation. The report by a committee of the Delhi Jal Board was sent to Jung by the AAP government for probe by either CBI or Delhi's Anti Corruption Branch following persistent demand by the city BJP leader Vijender Gupta. Water Minister Kapil Mishra Friday said BJP was trying protect the former Delhi CM and that he has given "all evidences" against her in the scam to Jung. "I have given all the evidences against her. Now, it is up to the BJP government to take action and put her into jail," said Mishra. ACB chief MK Meena said all aspects of the case including whether the AAP government was sitting over the file relating to the case will be probed. Mishra on 12 June had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jung recommending either CBI or ACB probe against Dikshit in connection with alleged water tanker scam. "LG has forwarded the committee's report to the ACB for appropriate action in the matter. He has also forwarded Gupta's complaint that the Delhi chief minister suppressed the report of the fact-finding committee for 11 months," a government source said. Last week, the AAP government had made the committee's report public after Gupta demanded from Kejriwal in Delhi Assembly to do the same. The position of a woman spokesperson in Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is highly precarious despite the strong national visibility it provides. It may look coincidental, but the incident of MLA Alka Lamba losing her job as party spokesperson is not the first of its kind in AAP. Prior to this, there were two others Shazia Ilmi and Atishi Marlena who were media favourties and had a similar fate. The reasons might be different, but the final result is same for all the spokespersons, especially the women members who face the wrath of AAP's top leadership. Lamba faced the music for apparently goofing up a statement on Gopal Rai's stepping down from the post of transport minister. Much before Lamba, it was Shazia Ilmi AAP's former national executive member, now with the BJP who was the first spokesperson of the party. It was in the formative days of the party and she was the only woman voice of the party on prime time panel discussions of news channels. Ilmi became the second best known face of AAP after Kejriwal with whom she had worked closely since the Jan Lokpal agitation days. But she gradually disappeared too, only to be replaced by her male counterparts. Finally, she resigned in May 2014 alleging 'absence of internal democracy'. "There is no space for women at the top level of the decision-making process within the party, which is in fact controlled by a select few male members," Ilmi had told this correspondent after her resignation in an exclusive interview with Firstpost. After throwing out Yogendra Yadav as the chief spokesperson, the party constituted a team of 21 spokespersons in April 2015. A conspicuous absence from the new team was Marlena, the partys best known female spokesperson on television after Shazia Ilmi. Marlena had replaced Ilmi after the latters exit from AAP. She had to lose her job as party spokesperson in 2015. Her sacking from the post was linked to her closeness to the Yadav-Bhushan camp, which somehow got revealed through a letter. Those who claim to be closely related to the party, including its former members, claim that there's no space for women in any important position in the organisation at the top. During its formative period, the AAP had emphasised on giving power to women members in the party in a democratic manner. But later-on during elections, the party witnessed a major discontent amongst the latter, leading to the exit of prominent faces like Ilmi and Madhu Bhaduri among others. After her exit from the party, former National Executive member of AAP and a retired diplomat, Madhu Bhaduri had told this correspondent, "About how the AAP treats its women members, and as far as I am concerned the Party made sure that I was denied the right of a member of the National Council of AAP to move a resolution in the meeting of the council and was actually heckled and forced out of the hall." Bhaduri had objected to former minister Somnath Bharti's midnight raid against Ugandan women at Khirki extension in New Delhi and tried to raise the issue in party's meeting. The space that was occupied by Shazia, Arishi and Alka is again vacant. So who's next? Bengaluru: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said the increased number of terrorist encounters show that the country's intelligence has "increased" and counter terrorist network is "tightening". "More encounters means - we are neutralising more, our intelligence has increased, our counter terrorist network is now tightening up," he told reporters in Bengaluru. He said, "If you see the ratio of security forces martyrdom... To terrorists deaths (it) is now in the favour of the security forces at the rate of 1:4.3/4.4." The number of terrorists' neutralised was more than 50 now, whereas only 12 security forces personnel had lost their lives. Stating that the loss of security forces should further reduce, he said "our efforts are towards it." Parrikar was responding to a question on whether the increased number of terror encounters was because of increased vigil or more attempts of infiltration. The defence minister was in Bengaluru to witness the inaugural flight of India's indigenous basic trainer aircraft, Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) designed and developed by HAL. A militant was killed was on Friday in an ongoing encounter with security forces in Sopore in north Kashmir's Baramulla district. Pointing out that most incidents of terror infiltration and encounters take place before winter, Parrikar said either they were not noted earlier or probably they were not taken "very seriously". Claiming that the country used to lose almost a soldier for a terrorist, Parrikar said "now you see yesterday's report. Four terrorists on the border trying to infiltrate were killed. In three days, two attempts have been neutralised." Four militants and a soldier were killed as the Army on Friday foiled an infiltration bid, the second such attempt in three days, in Tangdhar sector near the Line of Control in Kashmir. Calling incidents of Chinese incursion on the Indian side of the border as "transgression", Parrikar said "these things happen because of some historical problem between countries on perceived Line of Control." He said, "Whenever they have transgressed we have either stopped them and asked them to go back or raised the issue with them. But I can tell you the overall transgression that means violation of our line of control perception has reduced a lot compared to earlier." "This is mainly because we have increased the number of interaction points at the border at senior and local commander level," the defence minister said. "They interact with each other to clarify and the issues are sorted out. So the number has come down," he said. Parrikar said even in the latest incident, we "pushed" them back and had a meeting with them and clarified the issue. "It is almost an annual ritual that happens, but we push them back every time such attempts are made," he said. In another incident of Chinese incursion, about 250 China's Peoples Liberation Army soldiers had entered Arunachal Pradesh's east district of Kameng last week. The "temporary transgression" by the Chinese patrolling party took place in Yangste, East Kameng district on June 9. However the Chinese soldiers went back within hours. PTI Lucknow: The BJP on Friday demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged Hindu migration in Kairana and charged the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh with giving protection to criminals from a "particular community" inciting terror there. BJP UP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya, who led a delegation to Governor Ram Naik, later told reporters that he has apprised the Governor of the "real situation" in Kairana in Shamli district of western UP. "The party has submitted a memorandum to the Governor apprising him of the real situation there and demanding a CBI inquiry," Maurya said. "The report of our (BJP's) probe team which visited Kairana was also submitted to the Governor," he added. The convenor of the probe team, Suresh Khanna, and Kairana MP Hukum Singh, who had first raised the issue of migration, were also present. They described the situation in Kairana as "much more serious than being projected", adding that a CBI probe is the need of the hour. The Governor has assured the BJP delegation of taking up the matter with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. He has also assured to send a copy of the memorandum to the President, they said. The BJP leaders alleged that criminals like Mukim Lala and Furkan enjoyed the patronage of the SP and thus, were running their extortion network from jail. These criminals have been accused of unleashing a reign of terror in Kairana that led to the Hindu migration, they added. Claiming that the list of migrants submitted by him was a correct account, Hukum Singh maintained that the migration was linked to crime and patronage to criminals from a "particular community". "There are large number of Muslims in Kairana and hence, some political parties are out to give it a communal colour," Singh, who has been elected to the Assembly seven times from Kairana, said. Citing incidents related to murder of traders for 'rangdari' and families migrating from there due to terror, the BJP leaders demanded adequate compensation, rehabilitation and full security for the migrants. A 33-year-old man ended up dead when a fight over an "objectional" caricature of Congress president Sonia Gandhi turned into a fullblown battle in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur. Reports said one group was led by Congress municipal councillor Jatin Raj and another by advocate Prashant Naik. Naik was injured in the clashes, as well. Six others got injured, five of them seriously, in the clash between two camps in the early hours of Thursday over the photo which was allegedly circulated in a WhatsApp group, police told PTI. Prashant Naik allegedly posted a photo in the WhatsApp group, which showed Sonia "washing utensils" with a satirical caption saying (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi has reduced Congress President to such a position, CSP Balsavar told PTI. Area city superintendent of police Inderjeet Balsavar told the media that Umesh Verma alias Guddu, who sustained injuries in the clash, succumbed to his wounds at a hospital. he was undergoing treatment. According to Jatin Raj's group, knives were freely used by the rival group inside the Vijay Nagar Police station where they went to lodge a complaint a charge denied by the policemen on site, who had to call their colleagues from other police stations to discipline the two groups after they turned violent. Raj has created a group named 'Vijay Nagar Friends' on WhatsApp for people to stay connected in his locality. The two groups gathered at Ahimsa Chowk little after 12 pm on Tuesday and a heated argument took place between them over the caricature of Sonia. In the meantime, acting on a tip-off the police reached the spot and asked them to come to police station to sort out their differences, the CSP said. When the two groups reached police station, an alleged altercation took place between them and one Umesh Verma was stabbed, who was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, alleged Animesh, a member of the Congress corporator group. He demanded police should make public the footage of CCTV camera at the police station to bring out the truth. CSP Balsavar said to bring situation under control, police resorted to cane charge but denied that violence took place inside the police station. The violence took place when the groups were en route to the police station, the CSP said. Advocate Naik said people of both the groups have been booked and further investigations are on. With inputs from PTI Lucknow: Newly-appointed Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday exhorted party leaders and workers to go "all-out" in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly elections in the state. Addressing party workers and leaders at the UPCC headquarters, the former Union Minister urged them for all-out preparations as "very little time" is left for the elections, vice-chairman of the communications department of UPCC Maroof Khan said. Azad also asked those eyeing party candidature in the polls to work "full time" among the people and stay in constant touch with them, Khan added. Azad said his first priority is to ensure that the party's ground-level workers get acceptance among the people as also to ensure representation to all in the elections by striking a "caste balance". The senior Congress leader told workers that the upcoming elections will be "most vital" for the party as it will contest the polls to form the government, Khan said. Besides the party's office-bearers, in-charges of various departments, cells and frontal organisations, Azad also met the office-bearers of Lucknow division and discussed the prevailing political scenario in the state with them. He will meet the office-bearers of the western districts in New Delhi on Saturday, Khan added. New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has fielded its full official machinery to "defame" Aam Aadmi Party, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday alleged. Kejriwal, who has been on a tweeting spree since the President's refusal to sign the bill on Parliamentary Secretaries, mocked the BJP government saying its output is zero while people are appreciating AAP. "People are comparing the Modi government to AAP government. Modi government's output is zero while AAP's work is superhit. "Modiji has put full official machinery behind the AAP government to defame it. He is doing it to defame people who are doing good work to hide his failure in bringing good days," Kejriwal tweeted. AAP has said Congress and BJP have "no moral right" to question it on the issue of parliamentary secretaries going by their own antecedents. Panama City: The law firm at the center of the "Panama Papers" scandal said Thursday it expected the prosecution of a worker from its Geneva office detained on suspicion of stealing company documents. Mossack Fonseca said in a statement from its Panama headquarters that it had lodged complaints in several jurisdictions against people believed to be "involved in the theft of information that occurred in our company." That referred to the leak last year of a massive number of documents covering nearly four decades of business by the law firm, which specializes in setting up and managing offshore companies. Reports based on the purloined documents resulted in the "Panama Papers": revelations of how many leaders, politicians, celebrities and a few criminals around the world used entities started by Mossack Fonseca to stash assets. Though offshore companies are not in themselves illegal, they can be used to engage in illegal activities such as tax evasion or money laundering. Mossack Fonseca said in its statement it was "fully confident" that authorities in the various countries would "see through the corresponding (legal) processes in a transparent and effective manner." On Wednesday, Swiss authorities announced that an information technology employee for the law firm working in its Geneva office had been placed in provisional detention on suspicion of stealing confidential documents. The spokesman for the Geneva's prosecutor's office, Henri Della Casa, told AFP that "a criminal case has been opened... following a complaint by Mossack Fonseca." He declined to comment on whether an arrest had been made. News of the detention was first given by the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, which said it had no information on whether the arrested individual was the so-called "John Doe" who has claimed credit for the unprecedented "Panama Papers" leak. Mossack Fonseca said in April that the leak was the result of a hack that came from foreign servers. Burlington: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Thursday in an address to his supporters that he will work with Hillary Clinton to transform the Democratic Party, adding that his "political revolution" must continue and ensure the defeat of Republican Donald Trump. Sanders said in a capstone livestream address to his political followers that the major task they face is to "make certain" Trump is defeated. The Vermont senator said he plans to begin his role in that process "in a very short period of time." "But defeating Donald Trump cannot be our only goal. We must continue our grassroots efforts to create the America that we know we can become," Sanders said, pointing to his 1,900 delegates at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Sanders spoke from his Vermont hometown a week after Clinton secured enough pledged delegates and superdelegates to become the presumptive nominee. He did not concede the race, nor did he refer to Clinton as the likely nominee, instead offering a lengthy list of policy proposals he hopes to see approved by the party. The two rivals met Tuesday night at a Washington, DC, hotel to discuss policy goals and future plans. Sanders said that while it is "no secret" that he and Clinton have "strong disagreements on some very important issues," it was "also true that our views are quite close on others." He said he looked forward to additional talks between the two campaigns to ensure that his supporters' voices are heard and the convention adopts "the most progressive platform" in the party's history. Sanders said he anticipated working with Clinton "to transform the Democratic Party so that it becomes a party of working people and young people, and not just wealthy campaign contributors." The speech which could be Sanders' final address before the summer convention was viewed by more than 200,000 people, according to the campaign. It sought to shape his legacy as a one-time "fringe" candidate who generated a massive following through sprawling rallies and threatened Clinton for the nomination. Looking ahead to the convention, Sanders said the party must support a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage, pay equity for women, a ban on the sale and distribution of assault weapons and a defeat of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Sanders thanked his supporters for providing more than $200 million in donations, most in increments of $27, and rattled off what they had accomplished: 1.5 million people who attended his rallies and town meetings and more than 75 million phone calls from volunteers "urging their fellow citizens into action." He encouraged his followers to consider running for political office up and down the ballot as a way to prevent Republicans from controlling state and local government. And he made clear that he intends to leave his imprint on the fall campaign and beyond. "We have begun the long and arduous process of transforming America, a fight that will continue tomorrow, next week, next year and into the future," he said. Kano, Nigeria: Twenty-four people were killed when Boko Haram fighters opened fire on mourners, a local community leader said Friday, in the second attack in northeast Nigeria this week after a relative lull. The attack happened at about 8 pm local time in Kuda village near the town of Gulak, in Adamawa state, according to Maina Ularamu, a former local government chairman in nearby Madagali. Adamawa police spokesman Othman Abubakar, based in the state capital Yola, 255 kilometres away, confirmed the attack. But he gave a lower death toll of 18 and said "many others were injured". Ularamu said the attack occurred during a "mourning celebration" to mark the death of a local community leader. "They came on motorcycles and opened fire on the crowd, killing 24. Most of the victims were women. They looted food supplies and burnt homes and they left almost an hour later," he told AFP. "Gulak has been liberated from Boko Haram but the gunmen still live in villages nearby. They attack mostly to loot food supplies. Our people who fled their homes to escape Boko Haram attacks have been returning because they can't live in the camps. But now they are facing threats from Boko Haram who launch nocturnal attacks." Boko Haram threatened to overrun Adamawa state in 2014, sweeping down from their Sambisa Forest stronghold which lies just across the border in Borno state to Mubi, 80 kilometres south of Gulak. The rampage, which left bridges and homes destroyed on the only road south to Yola, forced tens of thousands of people from their homes to flee into camps and host communities in the state capital. Boko Haram was driven out of the state by a military counter-offensive that began in January 2015 and since there has been a relative calm despite sporadic attacks in the north of the state. The last attack in Adamawa was on January 9, when seven people were killed and two others injured in a raid on Madagali. Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up at a market in Madagali on 28 December, killing 30, just days after President Muhammadu Buhari declared the Islamists "technically" defeated. There has been a noticeable fall in attacks since the turn of the year and the military claims the Islamic State affiliate is severely weakened and pushed into border areas around Lake Chad. But yesterday's attack is an indication that the rebels, who want to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, are not routed, and still have the capacity to strike. The army in late April began an assault on Sambisa Forest, which is believed to have pushed out remaining fighters. Tokyo: An association of Japanese atomic bomb survivors has criticised US President Barack Obama's speech last month during a historic visit to Hiroshima, saying he failed to mention US responsibility for the bombing. Obama, as the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, paid moving tribute to victims in the western city, where the first ever atomic bomb was dropped on 6 August 1945. The bombing claimed the lives of 140,000 people, some of whom died immediately in a ball of searing heat, while others succumbed to injuries or radiation-related illnesses in the weeks, months and years afterwards. A second nuclear bomb destroyed the city of Nagasaki in southern Japan three days later. Obama offered no apology for the bombings, having insisted he would not revisit decisions made by then president Harry Truman at the close of the brutal war. The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations said in a resolution adopted on Thursday at its general meeting that Obama described the bombing in his speech as if it had been "a natural phenomenon", according to Jiji Press. The phrase "death fell from the sky" that he used to evoke the horror was an expression to avoid the responsibility of the United States in having dropped the bomb, said the resolution. Terumi Tanaka, secretary general of the group and a survivor of the Nagasaki bombing, also said Obama's conversations with survivors during his trip were very short. "You cannot fully understand their experience by listening to them for five minutes," he said. "We hope he can make a visit again." Obama's brief conversations included an unexpected embrace with a survivor in one of the visit's most memorable moments. According to the Asahi newspaper, Tanaka criticised the president's visit to an accompanying museum at the memorial site as also being too short. New Delhi: India has taken up with Bangladeshi authorities the death threat to a priest of the Ramakrishna Mission in Dhaka by suspected militants claiming to be from the Islamic State even as security at the complex has been beefed up. The Ramakrishna Mission received a threat letter on Wednesday which said the priest will be killed if he continues to preach his religion, amid a string of targeted murders across the country by suspected militants in the recent months. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Friday that the Indian High Commission has taken up the issue with Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry and police. "High Commission of India, Dhaka, has contacted both Bangladesh Police and MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and have been assured of full support and protection. We are also in direct contact with the RK Mission in Dhaka," Swarup said. He said police presence at the complex has been strengthened. Swarup said the First Secretary (Consular) in the High Commission visited the RK Mission this morning to review the security. The Dhaka Ramakrishna Mission is a branch of the Belur Math in Kolkata. A police official in Dhaka yesterday had said the priest received the letter on Wednesday evening on a computer-composed IS letterhead with the perpetrator identifying himself as one AB Siddiqui. "Bangladesh is an Islamic state. You can't preach your religion here. If you continue preaching, you'll be hacked to death with machetes between the 20th and 30th," the officer quoted the letter as saying. The letter, he said, did not mention any month. Suspected Islamists have killed a number of secular activists, Hindus and other minorities across Bangladesh in recent months prompting authorities to launch a nationwide anti-militant clampdown since Friday. Bangladesh authorities have detained nearly 12,000 people in a nationwide crackdown to halt a spate of deadly attacks. Some of those arrested were linked with outlawed Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh. Though most of the attacks were claimed by the Islamic State or its affiliates and other similar extremist groups, the Bangladesh government has repeatedly dismissed the claims and said the attacks were carried out by homegrown outfits linked to the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. A pro-European Union British lawmaker was killed in a shock daylight street attack on Thursday, halting campaigning for the referendum on Britain's membership in the bloc just a week before the crucial vote. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old mother-of-two from the opposition Labour Party, was shot in the face while lying on the ground by a lone attacker in the village of Birstall in northern England, according to witnesses quoted by local media. Cafe owner Clarke Rothwell told the Press Association the gunman was shouting "put Britain first". "He shouted it about two or three times. He said it before he shot her and after he shot her," he said. Cox, who was also reportedly stabbed, is the first British MP to be killed in office since Ian Gow was killed by a car bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army in 1990. "He shot this lady once and then he shot her again... leant over shot her once more in the face area," Rothwell told the BBC, referring to the attacker. Police said a 52-year-old man had been arrested and a firearm had been recovered from the scene. Cox, a former aid worker, was only elected to parliament last year but had already made her name campaigning for the government to do more to help Syrian refugees and for Britain to stay in the EU. 'Great, campaigning MP' The attacker was named by British media as local man Tommy Mair, with neighbours quoted as saying he was a "loner" who kept to himself. The Southern Poverty Law Center said he was a supporter of a neo-Nazi group based in the United States and had what it called a long history with white nationalism. "According to records obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center Mair was a dedicated supporter of the National Alliance (NA), the once premier neo-Nazi organization in the United States, for decades," the US-based legal advocacy group said on its website. The group said he had spent more than $620 on reading material from the National Alliance, a group which called for the creation of an all-white homeland and eradication of Jewish people. The accused gunman's brother, Scott Mair, told the Daily Telegraph that Tommy had suffered from mental illness but received treatment. "I am struggling to believe what has happened. My brother is not violent and is not all that political," Scott Mair said. "He has a history of mental illness, but he has had help." In the wake of the attack, commentators questioned whether the tone of the EU referendum campaign had been too divisive, pointing in particular to the focus on immigration. Alex Massie, writing in the Spectator magazine, blamed the "Leave" campaign for raising tensions, saying: "When you encourage rage you cannot then feign surprise when people become enraged". "When you present politics as a matter of life and death, as a question of national survival, don't be surprised if someone takes you at your word," he wrote. 'Hatred' is no solution After the attack, pro- and anti-Brexit groups said they were suspending all campaigning for Thursday and Friday ahead of the June 23 EU membership referendum. Prime Minister David Cameron cancelled a planned rally during a historic but controversial visit to Gibraltar as part of his campaign for Britain to remain in the EU. Over parliament, the British flag flew at half-mast, while nearby Cox's Labour party colleagues gathered in a vigil for the MP. "Hatred will never solve problems," party leader Jeremy Corbyn said at the commemoration. In Birstall, local residents laid flowers near the scene of the attack as police forensic officers were seen examining a shoe and a handbag in a cordoned-off area. The attack halted a frantic day of campaigning, as two new opinion polls indicated that more Britons now want to leave the EU than want to stay. If they prove correct, Britain would become the first state in the nearly six-decade history of the bloc to leave. A new survey by Ipsos Mori showed support for leaving the EU now stands at 53 percent compared to 47 percent for those who want to stay in, excluding undecided voters. Another new poll by Survation put "Leave" ahead by 52-48, excluding undecided voters. Polling expert John Curtice said the race was now too close to call, telling the BBC: "I think we no longer have a favourite in this referendum." VIENNA Cheered on by thousands of flag-waving Austrians, the leaders of Europe's biggest far-right parties railed on Friday against the European Union and Islam and urged Britons to free themselves from what they called heartless EU technocrats. The rally on the outskirts of Vienna brought together an array of anti-immigration, anti-EU parties that have unsettled a European political establishment still struggling to get a grip on a historic refugee crisis and years of economic weakness. The parties had earlier pledged more cooperation at a meeting hosted by Heinz-Christian Strache, whose Freedom Party (FPO) came within a whisker of winning the Austrian presidency last month and is now challenging the result. Attendees included Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's National Front, and politicians from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Northern League of Italy. "The fear-mongering of people like (Jean-Claude) Juncker and (Martin) Schulz cannot sway us," Le Pen told a crowd of about 2,000 at the pyramid-shaped convention centre, referring to the heads of the European Commission and European Parliament. "They are worried that Britain might win back its freedom," she added, to cheers. "We want Britons to set themselves free." Speaking after her, Strache accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of causing "irreparable damage" to Europe by opening German borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in the Middle East. "We are not against Europe as our opponents are always saying. We want another Europe, a better Europe, one of nations, values, culture and identity," Strache said. "The new fascism comes from the left and from radical Islam." EUROPE A LA CARTE Held under the slogan "Patriotic Spring -- Cooperation for Peace, Security and Prosperity in Europe", the gathering aimed to strengthen ties between like-minded parties whose nationalist tendencies have hampered close collaboration in the past. At a morning news conference in the Austrian parliament Strache and Le Pen expressed hope that Britain's June 23 vote on whether to remain a member of the European Union would give their cause new momentum. "I support the referendum in the United Kingdom because I want all the countries in the EU to have this choice," Le Pen said. "But even if we don't get Brexit, it will present a huge new problem for the European Union which has pledged to give Britain special rights if it stays that other countries won't have. So this could be the beginning of Europe a la carte." Populist, anti-immigration parties are on the rise across Europe as high unemployment and austerity, the arrival of record numbers of refugees, and recent militant attacks in France and Belgium deepen voter disillusionment with traditional parties. The mood is mirrored in the United States, where Donald Trump has confounded the political establishment by crushing rivals for the Republican presidential nomination with rhetoric that has been widely denounced as racist and divisive. Le Pen is expected to make it into a second-round run-off for the French presidency next year. In neighbouring Germany, where far-right parties have struggled to gain traction in the post-war era, the AfD has won double-digit support in a string of state elections and seems poised to enter the Bundestag in Berlin next year. AfD leader Frauke Petry joined Strache last week for a symbolic trip to the top of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain, and her partner, AfD politician Marcus Pretzell, joined the gathering in Vienna. "Patriots love what Germany once was, what Germany could be. But they cry when they look at the current state of their country," Pretzell told the crowd. (Editing by Catherine Evans) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Washington: US President Barack Obama has warned that horrific mass shooting incidents like the recent one in Orlando will continue to occur unless tougher gun control laws are adopted. "We can't anticipate or catch every single deranged person that may wish to do harm to his neighbours, or his friends, or his coworkers, or strangers. But we can do something about the amount of damage that they do," Obama told reporters. "Unfortunately, our politics have conspired to make it as easy as possible for a terrorist or just a disturbed individual like those in Aurora and Newtown to buy extraordinarily powerful weapons - and they can do so legally," Obama said. Obama along with Vice President Joe Biden met yesterday victims and families of the weekend's mass shooting in which a self-radicalised Afghan-origin youth pledging allegiance to the Islamic State killed 49 people in a gay club in Orlando, Florida. Another 53 were injured during the shooting that took place in the wee hours of Sunday. "This debate needs to change. It's outgrown the old political stalemates. The notion that the answer to this tragedy would be to make sure that more people in a nightclub are similarly armed to the killer defies common sense. Those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families and explain why that makes sense," Obama said. "And if we don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this - because we'll be choosing to allow them to happen. We will have said, we don't care enough to do something about it," Obama added. Republican presidential presumptive nominee Donald Trump has said that the casualties could have been far less if people were allowed to carry guns. Obama has been seeking tougher gun control laws that make its difficult for people to purchase such weapons of mass casualties. The strong gun lobby assisted by a Republican-controlled Congress is preventing Obama to accomplish his goal of a tough gun control laws. "Today, once again, as has been true too many times before, I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, why does this keep happening? And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage," he said. In his presidency Obama has made seven such trips to meet families and victims of a mass shooting. Hoping that Senators would "rise to the moment and do the right thing", Obama said he is pleased that the Senate will hold votes on preventing individuals with possible terrorist ties from buying guns, including assault weapons. "I've said this before - we will not be able to stop every tragedy. We can't wipe away hatred and evil from every heart in this world. But we can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. We can reduce the impact of a terrorist attack if we're smart," Obama said. Republican Senator from Florida Marco Rubio also accompanied Obama and Biden in their meeting. "They don't care about the politics. Neither do I. Neither does Joe. And neither should any parent out there who's thinking about their kids being not in the wrong place, but in places where kids are supposed to be," Obama said. The gunman has been identified by Omar Mateen, 29. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the mass shooting as an act of terror. In a 911 call during the attack, Mateen pledged allegiance to Islamic State and its leader. Obama said the US-led coalition is determined to defeat Islamic State. "We will continue to be relentless against terrorist groups like ISIL and al Qaeda. We are going to destroy them. We are going to disrupt their networks, and their financing, and the flow of fighters in and out of war theaters. We're going to disrupt their propaganda that poisons so many minds around the world," he said. "We're going to do all that. Our resolve is clear. But given the fact that the last two terrorist attacks on our soil - Orlando and San Bernardino - were homegrown, carried out it appears not by external plotters, not by vast networks or sophisticated cells, but by deranged individuals warped by the hateful propaganda that they had seen over the Internet, then we're going to have to do more to prevent these kinds of events from occurring," Obama said. It's going to take more than just our military, Obama asserted. "It's going to require more than just our intelligence teams. As good as they are, as dedicated as they are, as focused as they are, if you have lone wolf attacks like this, hatched in the minds of a disturbed person, then we're going to have to take different kinds of steps in order to prevent something like this from happening," he said. CHARLESTON, S.C. The city of Charleston came together on Friday for a memorial and other events to mark the first anniversary of the murders of nine members of a Bible study group in what prosecutors called a racially motivated hate crime. The events were made even more poignant coming less than a week after a gunman slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, marking the largest of many mass shootings in modern U.S. history. A stage at Charleston's TD Arena was fronted by banner portraits of each of the nine victims from the rampage at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, including its slain minister and state Senator Clementa Pinckney. Hymns were led by a 100-member choir and a minister prayed for the Charleston and Orlando victims, as well as for the soul of the accused church shooter, Dylann Roof. Roof, 22, could face the death penalty on state murder charges and federal hate crime charges. Roof is white, while his victims were African-American and the federal indictment against him said he acted out of racism. Wilhelmina Jones, 74, a retired hospital worker who helped out as an usher at Friday's service, said the massacre had united the local community. "When this tragedy happened to us last year, we came together as one," Jones said. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley showed the programs from nine funerals she has kept since last summer, and spoke about faith and each victim. She recalled how they welcomed Roof and prayed with him for an hour before they were killed. "Tywanza Sanders stood in front of his 87-year-old aunt and looked the murderer in the eye and said, 'You don't have to do this. We mean you no harm,'" Haley told the congregation. "I will always talk about these people who changed my life." As well as the memorial, events including Bible study sessions, a prayer breakfast, a "unity walk" and tree plantings will take place around Charleston. The church also will open its doors to religious leaders and elected officials from around the nation on Friday afternoon. The church has had many visitors in the past year, Emanuel's new pastor, the Reverend Dr. Betty Deas Clark, told Reuters during a recent Bible study meeting in the room where the massacre took place. "I believe we're moving forward ... Forgiveness is the message of the hour," Clark said. (Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Bill Trott and Bernard Orr) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Washington: Republican Sen John McCain said on Thursday that President Barack Obama is "directly responsible" for the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, because of the rise of the Islamic State group on the president's watch. McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, made the comment Thursday while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday's attack and some of the survivors. "Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaida went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq," a visibly angry McCain told reporters in the Capitol as the Senate debated a spending bill. "So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies," McCain said. The gunman, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured more than 50 in the attack at a gay nightclub. The 29-year-old Muslim born in New York made calls during the attack saying he was a supporter of the Islamic State. But he also spoke about an affiliate of al-Qaida and Hezbollah, both of which are Islamic State enemies. In the aftermath of the shooting, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused Obama of putting US enemies ahead of Americans. Trump also has suggested that Obama himself might sympathize with radical elements. Democrats criticised Trump and some Republicans tried to distance themselves from his remarks. McCain is seeking a sixth Senate term from Arizona and is locked in a tight race. Questioned on his startling assertion, McCain repeated it: "Directly responsible. Because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It's a matter of record, so he is directly responsible." However, McCain later sought to clarify his comments, saying over Twitter: "To clarify, I was referring to Pres Obama's national security decisions that have led to rise of #ISIL, not to the President himself." Democrats quickly pounced on McCain's criticism. Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said McCain's "unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump." Washington: US President Barack Obama hosts youthful Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on Friday, underscoring his guest's meteoric rise and increasingly pivotal role in strained US-Saudi ties. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Obama would meet the 30-year-old deputy crown prince, who has become the driving force behind economic reform and a more activist Saudi foreign policy. King Salman's son, who is his country's defense minister, has met the very biggest of Washington's big hitters during a week-long visit. He held talks with the CIA director, the secretaries of state, defence and treasury, as well as leading members of Congress. The White House said Prince Mohammed's meeting with Obama will take place in the Oval Office a rare honour for a non-head of state, one not afforded to the Dalai Lama earlier in the week. Little is certain about the inner workings of the House of Saud, but the prince's high public profile has led many to speculate that he could be the next on the throne, rather than designated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. "He is notionally number three in the hierarchy, but effectively he's number one," said Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute, a think tank focused on the Middle East. "The King prefers his son and wants his son to be king," said Henderson. For the White House, Mohammed bin Salman is a relative unknown, while Mohammed bin Nayef as interior minister has been the go-to royal on counter-terrorism for years. Prince Mohammed "wants to be known on the US side," said Gregory Gause, head of the international affairs department at Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Service. "It's an effort by him to be recognised." The meeting comes as ties between the US and Saudi Arabia have been strained over how to approach Riyadh's arch-enemy Iran, the war in Yemen and the seemingly imminent release of a dossier about Saudi Arabian links to the 11 September, 2001 attacks. High on the agenda will be Prince Mohammed's efforts to overhaul Saudi Arabia's state-dominated and oil-dependent economy, bringing in the private sector and creating jobs for the country's young population. "Given their huge investment in education over the last decade, if they are not able to move away from a state-run economy and develop a private sector, you are not going to have the jobs that young people need to have hope," said former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Smith. Amid disagreements over the US nuclear deal with Iran, economic reform appears to be a much-needed issue that could bring Riyadh and Washington together. Obama's White House has repeatedly argued that Saudi Arabia's most pressing security task is internal reform to put the autocratic state on a more stable and sustainable footing. Effectively reforming the economy is likely to require the easing of tough rules on female participation in the workplace. After Prince Mohammed met top US economic policymakers on Wednesday, including Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the White House "underscored the United States' desire to be a key partner in helping Saudi Arabia implement its ambitious economic reform program." WASHINGTON President Barack Obama and the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia on Friday discussed ways to support Iraqis in their fight against Islamic State militants and the importance of a political transition in war-torn Syria, the White House said. Obama met with Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman, in the Oval office for about an hour. The deputy crown prince is visiting the United States to restore frayed relations and to promote a plan, known as Vision 2030, to slash the kingdom's dependence on oil exports. "The President expressed appreciation for Saudi Arabia's contributions to the campaign against ISIL," the White House said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. The two talked about steps to support Iraqis "including increased Gulf support to fund urgent humanitarian and stabilization needs," the White House said. U.S. officials have expressed unease about the Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, which according to the United Nations and human rights groups has resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties. Obama welcomed Saudi Arabia's commitment to a political settlement of the conflict and support by the Gulf Cooperation Council, of which the kingdom is a member, to address humanitarian needs and rebuild Yemen, the White House said. On Syria, Obama and the prince talked about the importance of supporting a political transition away from President Bashar al-Assad, the White House said. The United States is working with international partners on what it calls a Syrian-led transition process facilitated by the United Nations, but so far there has been little progress. More than 50 diplomats at the U.S. State Department signed a memo, leaked on Thursday, that was critical of the Obama administration's Syria policy and called for targeted military strikes against Assad's government. Asked about the memo, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, who was also in Washington on Friday, told reporters the kingdom had been arguing for a "more robust intervention" including airstrikes, a no-fly zone, and a no-drive zone, from the beginning of the five-year civil war. Jubeir said the deputy crown prince had briefed U.S. officials on his plan to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and to move to cleaner forms of energy. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Roberta Rampton aboard Air Force One; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Toni Reinhold) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Vatican City: Pope Francis has welcomed nine more Syrian asylum-seekers to Rome, two months after he flew another group back from Greece aboard his personal plane, the Vatican said Thursday. The latest group had also been living in a transit camp on the Greek island of Lesbos after making the perilous sea crossing from Turkey. "A second group of nine refugees arrived in Rome yesterday (Wednesday)," a Vatican statement said. "The refugees, six adults and three children, are all Syrian citizens who were in the Kara Tepe refugee camp," it added. The pope in April brushed off criticism over the earlier group saying, "I didn't make a choice between Christians and Muslims. All refugees are children of God." They were selected by officials on the grounds that their paperwork was sufficiently in order to secure rapid agreement on their transfer from the Greek and Italian governments. The three families have since settled into life in Rome and started to learn Italian. Over 1.1 million people have crossed clandestinely from Turkey to Greece since the start of 2015, with hundreds drowning en route. Many of them are Syrians, fleeing the horrors of the country's war. Arrivals in Greece have drastically fallen over the past weeks after Turkey agreed to take back anyone denied asylum in return for billions in EU cash and other concessions. Human rights groups have criticised the arrangement. Pope Francis has previously condemned Western society for its indifference to refugees, making the cause of migrants trying to reach Europe one of the defining themes of his papacy. Windhoek: Describing Namibia a beacon of hope and motivation, President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said India will provide "any assistance" that the country may require in improving its socio-economic objectives. Addressing the Joint Session Parliament of Namibia on Thursday, Mukherjee, who is first Indian Head of State to visit the country since 1995, said India would also be happy to partner with Namibia in the implementation of "Vision 2030" through inclusive development and capacity building. "Both our nations seek to address complex governance issues in our own ways. But it will be through empowerment of the disempowered - and by ensuring that in the 'Harambee house', no section is excluded, that we will succeed," he said. Recalling strong ties between Namibia and India, Mukherjee said his visit takes place at a time of excellent bilateral relations between the two countries. "India believed that her own independence was incomplete so long as her brethren in Africa continued to suffer oppression by foreign masters. India was proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the leaders and people of Namibia in their liberation struggle," he said. Mukherjee said India-Namibia relationship has been built on the firm foundation of mutual trust and understanding. "Our two nations are bound by our common experience of colonial rule and the struggle of our people for freedom," he said. The President said the first-ever SWAPO (South-West Africa People's Organisation) Embassy abroad was established in New Delhi in 1986 and it was this move by India that started the chain of diplomatic recognition by other countries and the inevitability of Namibia's independence. Mukherjee said it is the people of Namibia, their unity and their efforts that have made Namibia what it is today: a beacon of hope and motivation, not only in the African continent but in the world. "It is a bright spot in the realm of democracy and rule of law; a nation progressing rapidly on the path of development and contributing to peace and stability in Africa and beyond," he said. "We appreciate the vision of President (Hage) Geingob in introducing the 'Harambee Prosperity Plan'. India stands ready to extend any assistance that Namibia may require for achieving the 'Harambee Prosperity Plan's socio-economic objectives. India would also be happy to partner with Namibia in the implementation of 'Vision 2030' through inclusive development and capacity building," he said. The President said founding President and Father of the Namibian Nation, Sam Nujoma, and a respected Leader of the SWAPO Party is greatly admired in India as a world leader and friend of the Indians. "India had conferred upon him the prestigious Indira Gandhi Peace Prize for Disarmament and Development for the year 1990 in recognition of his outstanding contribution in leading the people of Namibia to freedom," he said. The President said true to his legacy, Namibia is, today, a shining example of a nation that has repeatedly ensured a trouble-free and peaceful transfer of power from one elected Government to another. "Namibia has, once again, proven that a vibrant democratic system offers the best possible ecosystem for inclusive development and growth. Namibia's commitment to democracy and the success of her national reconciliation programme has made her a role model for Africa. We, in India, admire Namibia's transformation into a vibrant, peaceful and fast progressing nation," he said. Mukherjee said India, admires the contribution of the Namibian Parliament in promoting inclusive political dialogue and spearheading Namibia's developmental agenda. Namibia is one of the few societies in the world that has realised the goal of an equitable gender balance. "India firmly believes that it is through investing in its youth that a nation can enhance its capacity to forge ahead towards progress and growth," he said. The President said India remains committed to a strong development partnership with Namibia in the South-South framework. "We will continue to extend all possible assistance in human resource development and capacity building in Namibia. India's expertise in IT and digital technologies, agriculture and dairy development can be utilized to further cement our economic partnership," he said. Mukherjee said India looks forward to more students and officials from Namibia coming to India, availing the scholarships and training programmes offered by the Indian Government. "As Africa rises again to reclaim its rightful place in the comity of nations, India welcomes the growing role of Namibia in driving the prosperity of this region and the continent," he said. For the world and the United Kingdom, in particular, he is Prince William, the second in line to the British throne. But that does not spare him from being scolded by grandmom Queen Elizabeth. According to the Daily Mail, the Queen reportedly scolded her grandson for not standing up while the airforce jets were flying past during a military parade. He was seen crouching to tend to his son George. The hilarious moment took place during the Trooping the Colour ceremony which was held to mark the 90th birthday of the Queen on 2 June. Trooping the Colour is an old military tradition in Britain to mark the sovereign's birthday. In pictures, she is seen tapping William's arms, indicating her displeasure. When just tapping his arm did not seem to work, she is reported to have said, " Stand up, William". He is then seen standing up quickly to avoid any embarrassment, TIME noted. A GIF capturing the moment has gone viral. It clearly shows that no matter who William may be or become in future the Queen is the ultimate boss! Canberra: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday expressed regret that an Islamic cleric, who once said AIDS was a fitting punishment for being a homosexual, was invited to a government-hosted dinner. Speaking on Australian radio on Friday, Turnbull condemned divisive remarks made by Sheikh Shady Al-Suleiman, national president of the Australian National Imams Council, who was invited to the dinner which signified the beginning of Ramadan, Xinhua news agency reported. The cleric has previously been on record to say that homosexuality is an "evil act" which brings with it "evil disease", and Turnbull said that if he had known of such remarks, Suleiman would have been taken off the invite list. "If I had been aware he had made those remarks about homosexuals and gay people, he would not have been invited," Turnbull said. Government spokesman, Mathias Cormann echoed the prime minister's views, saying that Turnbull did not personally invite Suleiman, rather, he would have been part of a broader invite to the Imam Council. "As soon as (Turnbull) did become aware, he absolutely condemned the (comments)," Cormann told Sky News on Friday. Following the revelations, Suleiman released a statement regretting his choice of words in the past, and revoked his views that gays should be punished for their sexuality. "I have previously noted passages in the holy Quran which do not support homosexuality," he said. "However I always follow such statements with a personal commitment to tolerance and encouragement that all Muslims and all people approach all individuals, no matter their faith, race or sexuality, in a considerate and respectful way." The Iftar dinner hosted by Turnbull is thought to be the first by an Australian prime minister, while Turnbull also took the opportunity to praise the contribution of Australian Muslims for promoting unity in the community. Washington: Russia has bombed US-backed fighters in southern Syria, according to a US official in Washington, who said the aggressive action by Moscow raises "serious concern." "Today, Russian aircraft conducted a series of air strikes near al-Tanf against Syrian Counter-ISIL forces that included individuals who have received US support," said the senior defence official on Thursday, who requested anonymity. "Russian aircraft have not been active in this area of southern Syria for some time, and there were no Syrian regime or Russian ground forces in the vicinity," the official said. It was not known how many fighters were struck and the extent of casualties or which group they belonged to. The US military launched a $500 million program in early 2015 to train entire units of "moderate" Syrians to fight ISIS jihadists. But the program drew heavy fire last fall after admitting the efforts had floundered, with numbers of trainees falling massively short of the planned 5,000. One group even handed over ammunition and other gear to a local Al-Qaeda affiliate, known as the Al-Nusra Front. Since then, the Pentagon's new strategy is to work with just a handful of members from each fighting group, instead of an entire unit. Much of the attention is being focused on the Syrian Democratic Forces, a largely Kurdish coalition that has scored some significant gains against IS jihadists. The CIA has also been involved in training Syrian rebels, though the secretive agency has not officially provided any details of its efforts. The bombing would likely further strain already testy ties between Moscow and Washington on the Syrian issue. "Russia's latest actions raise serious concern about Russian intentions. We will seek an explanation from Russia on why it took this action and assurances this will not happen again," the defence official said. Russia and the United States co-chair a 22-nation group that supports a UN-led process to end Syria's five-year civil war through a negotiated deal. On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry told Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to respect a fragile ceasefire, warning that Washington's patience was running out. World powers have failed to turn the cessation of hostilities, in effect since 27 February, into a durable truce and Damascus has stepped up its military campaign against the Islamic State group and rebels, especially in the city of Aleppo. The US has accused Russia of working to consolidate the regime of Assad, its ally, and continuing to attack the opposition. WASHINGTON Republican lawmakers should follow their conscience on whether to support Donald Trump in November's presidential election, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said in an interview, reflecting the party's unease over its White House candidate. "The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that's contrary to their conscience. Of course I wouldn't do that," the Republicans' most senior elected official said in excerpts released on Friday of an NBC interview set to air on Sunday. Some Republican leaders and lawmakers in the House of Representatives are struggling to get behind the New York businessman, who last month became the party's presumptive nominee for the Nov. 8 election. After an initial delay, Ryan has said he will back Trump but he has also acknowledged deep differences with him. He denounced as textbook racism Trump's criticism of a Mexican-American judge and has also criticized Trump's proposal - reiterated after the massacre of 49 people in a gay bar in Orlando on Sunday - to temporarily bar Muslims from the United States. As Republicans seek to keep control of both chambers of Congress, Trump's comments on such issues have also worried some lawmakers concerned about their own election prospects, particularly in close races. All 247 House Republican seats are up for grabs in the election. Trump, who has welcomed support from Ryan, this week fired back at Republican leaders, telling them to stop speaking out against him or else risk him potentially running "by myself." Ryan said earlier this week at his weekly press conference that he does not plan to withdraw his support of Trump, although they disagree on some key issues. "I feel as a responsibility institutionally as the speaker of the House that I should not be leading some chasm in the middle of our party. Because you know what I know that'll do? That'll definitely knock us out of the White House," Ryan said in the interview for NBC's "Meet the Press" program. Trump's embrace this week of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and potential gun control measures, in contrast to general Republican orthodoxy have also thrown conservative lawmakers. Still, Republican leaders have to reconcile their unease with the fact that primary Republican voters opted for Trump. He has never held elected office before but won more than enough delegates to secure the party's nomination at the Republican convention in July. (Writing by Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Meg Garner; Editing by Frances Kerry) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Birstall: Campaigning for Britain's EU referendum next week was suspended on Friday for a second day as the nation reeled from the murder of a popular pro-Europe MP at the height of a bitterly divisive debate. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old former aid worker and pro-EU campaigner known for her advocacy for Syrian refugees, was killed on Thursday outside a library where she regularly met constituents in her home village of Birstall in northern England. Witnesses told local media the petite mother of two had been repeatedly shot and stabbed. A 52-year-old man, named by media as local Thomas Mair, was arrested. Described by neighbours as a loner, there were indications that he had extreme right leanings. With just six days left before the historic vote, rival groups campaigning for Britain to leave or remain in the European Union ceased campaigning and politicians joined as one to condemn the killing. But some commentators questioned whether the murder could be linked to a campaign that has stoked high tension by touching on issues of national identity and immigration. The Times newspaper reported Friday that Cox, who became the first British MP to be murdered since 1990, had "had been harassed in a stream of messages over three months". Police were considering putting in place additional security, it said, adding there was no known link between the messages and Thursday's attack. Before Cox's murder, opinion polls were pointing to the likelihood that Britain would vote to leave the EU in the June 23 referendum, a prospect that weighed on financial markets and sent the pound tumbling. The pound rose with Asian stocks Friday after the previous day's selloff, as investors judged the tragedy increased the likelihood of the "Remain" side prevailing. 'White nationalism' US advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that Mair, who had lived in the area for decades, was a "dedicated supporter" of National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organisation in the United States. It said he had spent over $620 on reading material from the group, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people. "Neighbours called him a 'loner' but he also has a long history with white nationalism," the Southern Poverty Law Center said. It added that Mair had purchased a handbook with instructions on how to make a gun, noting that witnesses told British media the assailant used a gun of "old-fashioned" or "homemade" appearance. One witness of the attack, cafe owner Clarke Rothwell, told the Press Association that the gunman had shouted "put Britain first" repeatedly during the attack. "Britain First" is the name of a far-right anti-immigration group, but it denied any involvement. Dozens gathered outside the Houses of Parliament in a vigil to remember Cox attended by Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, flanked by tearful party colleagues. "What's happened is beyond appalling. We are here in silent memory of her loss," Corbyn said as rain began to fall. "She was a fearless campaigner, and a voice for the voiceless. We feel shaken," said Fatima Ibrahim, 23, an activist with Avaaz. In the streets of Birstall, the scene of the attack was cordoned off and police could be seen examining a shoe and a handbag. Mourners left flowers nearby in tribute. 'Fight the hatred' In the wake of the attack, commentators questioned whether the tone of the EU referendum campaign had stirred up ugly currents. In the conservative magazine The Spectator, writer Alex Massie noted that the day had begun with the unveiling of a poster by the anti-EU UK Independent Party (UKIP) featuring a queue of migrants and refugees and the words "Breaking point". "The message was not very subtle: Vote Leave, Britain, or be overrun by brown people," Massie wrote. "When you present politics as a matter of life and death, as a question of national survival, don't be surprised if someone takes you at your word." US Secretary of State John Kerry describd the killing as "an assault on everybody who cares about and has faith in democracy". In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Cox's death was "frightful (and) dramatic" and said her thoughts were with the victim's family. Cox, whose first speech in parliament defended immigration and diversity, lived with her husband Brendan and their two children aged three and five, on a houseboat on the Thames. As the news of her death broke, Brendan issued a an impassioned appeal for unity against hatred. "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now," he wrote. "One, that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her." Washington: The US has ruled out mediation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and asked the two countries to work together to deescalate tensions at the Torkham border crossing where deadly clashes this week have killed two Afghan and one Pakistani border guard and wounded 20 on both sides. "We are obviously very concerned by the border clashes, particularly around the Torkham crossing. We want both sides to ratchet down the violence and begin a dialogue to try to reduce the tensions, keep the crossing open, and have it done peaceably," the State Department Spokesman, John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference. Underlining that the US believes that the right approach is an Afghan-led reconciliation process, he said, "We continue to support (Afghan) President (Ashraf) Ghani as he continues to try to get that process back on track. Now what effect the border clashes are having on reconciliation, I don't know." "I haven't seen any practical effect of it to date. These clashes have only just popped up in recent days. But that aside, we still want to see the reconciliation process move forward," Kirby said as he ruled out the US jumping in as a mediator between the two countries. "We have not taken a mediation role, and we have talked about this before. This is an Afghan-led process. We obviously support it and we want to see it succeed. We have expressed that support privately and publicly. But this is President Ghani's initiative; hes taking it on. We know he wants to get it back on track and we fully support him in that effort, but this is not for the United States mediating between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said. The US, he said, wants Afghanistan and Pakistan to work through these differences bilaterally, which they can do because they have done it in the past. "This isnt the first time that we have seen clashes even at that crossing, and they have been able to work through it in the past and we are absolutely confident that, with moral courage on both sides, they can continue to work through it," he said. Observing that the US does not want to see this kind of violence between the two sides, Kirby said there are plenty of shared threats and common challenges between Afghanistan and Pakistan and plenty of reasons for them to look for ways to work together. "They have made some progress in terms of cooperation across that border and communication and in counterterrorism efforts," he said. "So nobody likes to see the clashes and the violence that we have seen to date, but it's too soon to say, well, just because there's been some of this, that the whole reconciliation process should be just thrown out the window, or that the differences between Afghanistan and Pakistan are irreconcilable and therefore not worth continuing to pursue dialogue and cooperation. We are just not there yet," Kirby said. Torkham, a usually busy crossing, has remained closed because of continuing tensions. Pakistan alleged that "unprovoked" firing was started by Afghanistan's security forces when construction work began on a new gate on the Pakistani side. Last month, the border crossing was sealed for several days over the construction of the gate, causing hardships to thousands of people who cross it every day. Afghan government does not recognise the border, which is also known as Durand Line, and it opposes permanent structure. Washington: The US has urged members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to support India's membership into the elite grouping. "The United States calls on Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) participating governments to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG plenary, which I think is next week," State Department Spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference yesterday. "I'm not going to get ahead of how that's going to go or hypothesise and speculate about where it's going to go, but we've made clear that we support the application," Kirby said in response to a question. During the US visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, US President Barack Obama welcomed India's application to the 48-member grouping. The US has been pushing for India's NSG membership. Earlier, ahead of a meeting here US Secretary of State John Kerry had written a letter to the NSG member countries which are not supportive of India's bid, saying they should "agree not to block consensus on Indian admission". A joint statement issued after talks between Modi and Obama said the US called on NSG participating governments to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month. India, though not a member, enjoys the benefits of membership under a 2008 exemption to NSG rules for its atomic cooperation deal with the US. The NSG looks after critical issues relating to nuclear sector and its members are allowed to trade in and export nuclear technology. The NSG works under the principle of unanimity and even one country's vote against India will scuttle its bid. The US support has come a day after China's official media expressed concern about India's entry, saying it will "shake" the strategic balance in South Asia and make India a "legitimate" nuclear power. Washington: A group of US diplomats have used a State Department channel for dissident views to criticise President Barack Obama's Syria policy, a spokesman confirmed Thursday. The official would not discuss the contents of the cable, but the New York Times and Wall Street Journal said the dissenters call for US strikes against the Syrian regime. "We are aware of a dissent channel cable written by a group of State Department employees regarding the situation in Syria," State Department spokesman John Kirby told AFP. "We are reviewing the cable now, which came up very recently," he added. The department's "Dissent Channel" allows diplomats who disagree with an official policy line to register their concerns with senior staff without fear of retribution. Kirby said US Secretary of State John Kerry "values and respects" the device, but would not be drawn on whether he believes this specific complaint has merit. According to the New York Times, which said it had seen a draft of the memo, the diplomats call for the US military to directly target Bashar al-Assad's regime. US forces are engaged in Syria but are assisting local militias to fight the Islamic State jihadist group, not confronting Assad's Russian and Iranian-backed forces. The memo, according to the Times, calls for "a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons" in other words cruise missiles, drones and perhaps direct US air strikes. With only seven months left in office and a clear aversion to getting bogged down in Middle East conflicts, Obama has shown little appetite for such action. But the administration's alternative policy to work with Russia to secure a ceasefire in Syria's civil war and talks on a political transition has made little headway. The Journal report said the memo was signed by 51 mid- to high-level senior State Department officials. Windhoek: Resource-rich Namibia on Friday assured that it will look into "legal ways" through which its uranium can be supplied to India for peaceful nuclear use. Speaking at the State Banquet hosted in the honour of President Pranab Mukherjee, Namibian President Hage Geingob said Namibia commends India's commitment towards peaceful use of nuclear energy. "We will look into legal ways wherein our uranium can be used by India," he said. Geingob said his country had resources but cannot use them as it does not posses any nuclear weapons. "We have resources but we cannot use it we do not have nuclear weapons. But there are those who can use it. We will look into legal ways," he said. Citing a conversation with a former diplomat of India, he said it was a "nuclear apartheid" that a handful of countries wanted to dictate terms of nuclear technology. In an impassioned speech on reforms in United Nations, IMF and World Bank, the President said how can a country with 1.2 billion people and a continent with one billion people do not get representation in the United Nations Security Council. "How can it be democratic?" Geingob asked. Inviting Indian companies to invest in Namibia, Geingob lauded India's proposal of International Solar Alliance, saying he appreciated the country's role in combating climate change. "In Namibia, we see ourselves as gateway to Africa. We are also in close proximity to South America which is an important partner in South South cooperation but we are ready to be gateway to Indian companies into Africa and South America," he said. "India attaches high importance to enhancing her bilateral relations with Namibia. Our two countries have been cooperating closely while making sustained efforts to realise the developmental goals of our two nations," Mukherjee said. "We share the view that reform of the United Nations and its principle organs created in the wake of the Second World War is an imperative. We agree that they need to be made more reflective of today's changed world - so that they can respond more effectively to the complex challenges confronting the world today," he said in his speech. Mukherjee said Africa and India, as centres of gravity in today's globalised world, have a responsibility to work together for peace, security and sustainable development in the two continents. "Namibia is blessed with rich natural resources and an abundance of mineral wealth. Their efficient extraction and value addition using environment-friendly methods will contribute to the sustainable development of this sector of your economy. India has always been and will continue to be a reliable partner in your endeavours in this direction," he said. The number of migrants arriving in Italy from North Africa more than doubled from April to May, according to the latest figures from the European Union. EU officials say the sharp rise was not caused by the closure of the route further east through Greece and the Balkans, but rather by an increase in migrants traveling from across Africa. Henry Ridgwell reports. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday visited Norways extreme north, viewing areas where climate change has melted ice and opened new sea lanes. Trailed by staff and journalists in small Zodiac-type inflatable boats, Kerry and Norways foreign minister motored in an Arctic research vessel from a research station in Ny-Alesund, the worlds northernmost civilian settlement, across the iceberg strewn Kongsifjorden (Kings Bay Fjord) to the Blomstrand Glacier. The glacier has receded significantly in the past 25 years to 30 years, with summer temperatures now 8 degrees and 11 degrees higher than they were, according to Jan-Gunnar Winther, the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, who guided Kerry and Foreign Minister Borge Brende. Its stunning, Kerry said. This is the center of change within the center of change. As Americas top diplomat, Kerry has made the health of oceans and combating the effects of climate change a priority, and he will host an international conference on oceans in September. Were not on the pace we need to be to reverse the effects of climate change, Kerry said. He called for renewed efforts to move away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. Even where there is awareness, the steps that people are taking are not big enough fast enough, Kerry said. We have a huge distance to travel. Kerry was to travel to Denmark today and stop at icecaps in Greenland the next day. AP HAILEY | Blaine County school trustee Carole Freund submitted her resignation Wednesday, citing health problems. In a letter to school board chairman Shawn Bennion, she wrote: It is with deep regret that I announce my resignation from the Blaine County School District Board of Trustees. The health issues I am currently experiencing make it impossible for me to continue. The zone 3 declaration of vacancy will be announced at the regularly scheduled board meeting July 12. At that time, trustees will review the process and timeline outlined in Idaho Code to appoint a new trustee. Zone three boundaries include the areas south of Deer Creek Road, west of the Big Wood River and north of Colorado Gulch Road/Croy Creek Road/Camp Creek Road (including Northridge, Northstar, Old Cutters, Curtis subdivision, Deerfield, Broadford Highlands and Della View). TWIN FALLS Guns are no longer allowed in one of Twin Falls best-known restaurants. Signs have recently gone up at the Depot Grill telling patrons not to bring firearms or other weapons inside. The owner and general manager of the Depot Grill both say they own guns, hunt and support the Second Amendment, and have no problem with concealed carry. But they also say theres no reason to display a weapon in a family restaurant. The issue illustrates how businesses shift their policies on guns as laws and societal norms are rapidly changing. Most chain stores in Twin Falls bar shoppers from carrying weapons in their stores, but its unusual to find a locally owned shop with a no-gun policy. Especially one as widely known and storied as the Depot Grill, which for generations has captured the ethos of Twin Falls. Steve Sorans family has owned the Depot since 1917, and as he spoke Thursday morning, he was pretty sure several customers had concealed carry permits. Its no big issue, he said. The restaurant is adopting an out-of-sight, out-of-mind policy. Employees wont ask if youre carrying, so long as customers keep their guns concealed. What Soran takes issue with, however, is people carrying guns openly in their eatery. We just dont want to see them parading around in a family-style restaurant, said General Manager Don Olson. Openly carrying a handgun is legal in Idaho for anyone who can legally own a gun. Concealed carry within city limits still requires a permit for the next two weeks, but this requirement goes away when a law passed this year takes effect on July 1. Business owners, however, have the right to forbid guns on their property. For years, the Depot has attracted an eclectic mix of customers. Its not unusual to see grizzled cowboys eating breakfast at the bar near young professionals, local clubs meeting for lunch or families finishing supper ahead of the late-night bar crowd. So why the signs now? Soran and Olson didnt go into details Thursday, but according to Lance Earl, a conservative political activist and firearms instructor from the Pocatello area who is starting a chapter of his pro-gun rights and gun training group AmendTwo in the Magic Valley, the policy stems from a recent confrontation between two Depot patrons who were legally and quietly open carrying sidearms and two cowboys who began to taunt these men until things got a bit heated. Earl had planned to hold the AmendTwo meetings at the Depot, which he no longer will. He made clear in his blog entry on his Dally Post website about the dust-up that while he respects Sorans right to do what he wants on his own property, he disagrees with the decision. It was the cowboys that were out of line, Earl wrote. It is those who legally and peacefully exercised a God-given right who are now asked to leave or surrender that right. Someone who carries a gun and refuses to leave when told by the management or owner could be charged with trespassing, although confrontations over this that rise to the level of police involvement seem to be rare here. City spokesman Joshua Palmer said he looked up police calls of this nature last fall, due to a rally supporting permitless carry at which some people carried handguns openly, and found only three complaints over the preceding year, two of which were cases where a customer at a business, not the owner, called police about someone carrying a gun. And Twin Falls County Sheriffs spokeswoman Lori Stewart said none of the gun-related calls her office has handled so far this year involved someone carrying a gun at a business where it was forbidden. Soran and Olson said they have gotten both positive and negative feedback from customers on the policy. The comments on Earls blog are similarly a mix, with some lauding the Depot and others saying they wont eat there anymore due to the policy. Olson wrote in a comment on Earls blog that the Depot, which is open 24 hours a day, is a popular stop after the bars close, and one thing we were taught growing up with guns is, alcohol and guns dont mix! Olson wrote they had never had a problem with people with a concealed carry permit, but that the new law allows every 19-year-old Billy the Kid wannabe the legal right to pack a gun anywhere he wishes and in a family restaurant we didnt feel it necessary. As a business owner we feel it our responsibility to protect our staff and our patrons, he wrote. Our philosophy is still out-of-sight, out-of-mind, dont ask dont tell, but dont flaunt it! TWIN FALLS Noxious weeds like thistle, dandelion and puncture vine begin to grow and reseed themselves around this time of year, and the city of Twin Falls is asking for the publics help to prevent the spread of invasive weeds. Property owners and renters are responsible for controlling weeds from their property line to the center of the street or alley, and this includes parking or curbing areas adjacent to their property as well as any trees or overhanging vegetation that encroaches on public or private property, city officials said Thursday. City code requires owners, tenants or occupants of private property to cut and remove the weeds and grass and clean and remove rubbish as often as needed to keep the property neat, and to prevent weeds from seeding. Invasive weeds are not only an eyesore and a burden to neighbors, but they also threaten the health and safety of the community, said code-enforcement officer Sean Standley. Most weeds will choke out native and even non- native landscaping, and some are toxic to people and pets. City officials said their first priority is to educate and assist property owners, but if property owners refuse to correct the issue, the city will fine them $100 for the first violation, $200 for the second and $300 for all violations thereafter. Most of the people we speak with are simply unaware that they have an issue with invasive weeds until a neighbor or other resident reports it to us, Standley said. When we respond to the report, the property owner is usually quick to address the problem. Ways property owners and tenants can control invasive weeds include: removing all weeds, including the roots, and disposing of them in garbage bags on trash pickup days; mowing lawns and fields regularly; using an herbicide to kill and prevent the growth of noxious weeds (there are organic ones that are safe and effective); and removing weeds in cracks or seams in sidewalks, curbs and alleys. Also, rental property owners should monitor their properties frequently. Residents with questions can call the Code Enforcement Department at 208-735-7278 or email sstandley@tfid.org. TWIN FALLS New concerns about Islam and refugees are being raised in Twin Falls in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in the nations history. Less than two days after an American-born son of Afghan immigrants murdered 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, four of the five people who spoke at a City Council meeting this week characterized refugees as a problem or called for more information to be released about a sexual assault that is alleged to have been committed by underage refugees. The comments, some of which called for religious or racial profiling by city police, were met with unusually strong condemnation by some city leaders. To be honest, as an American I hope thats not happening, because I think that infringes on everyones freedoms, Mayor Shawn Barigar said. Criticism of refugees is nothing new in Twin Falls, especially since last spring when reports said Syrians could be among about 300 refugees to be resettled in Twin Falls this year. But the local anti-refugee movement lost considerable momentum in April when a ballot proposal to close the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center failed to gain even a quarter of the signatures required to put it before voters. On Monday, a small group of residents opposed to refugee resettlement and Islam turned its attention to the City Council, which allows an open-comment period where anyone can speak. Much of their time was spent disparaging Muslims and asking for more information about an alleged sexual assault, the details of which havent confirmed by authorities. I think that theres a method of cover-up here in the community, said Terrence Edwards of Jerome. I think it starts with the police department. I think they have their mouth zipped closed. The medias not getting in on it. Edwards said there would be blowback from the community if the Council doesnt do something. ISIS is here, he said. The Muslim Brotherhood is here. Theres been violations already occurred by Muslims here. Authorities say there is no evidence of an Islamic State presence in Twin Falls, or radical extremism. Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said Wednesday that the rape case in question is under investigation and may involve juveniles. No one has been charged. Police Chief Craig Kingsbury wouldnt provide any information about the case. These types of cases we just cant comment on, he said. The Twin Falls refugee resettlement program is run by the federal government and administered locally through CSI; the city has no authority over the program. Critics of it have focused heavily on the risk of Islamic terrorists coming in, especially among those fleeing the Syrian civil war. No Syrian refugees have been resettled in Twin Falls this year, Refugee Center Director Zeze Rwasama said recently. Nolan Stroup asked what the City Council has been doing to make people who are worried about refugees feel safer. They should be profiling, he said. It works. If the last two mass shootings have been committed by Muslims, why arent we profiling Muslims? Those questions echo statements by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has continued to call for a ban on non-citizen Muslims entering the United States and profiling of American mosques, even as other Republican leaders have repudiated Trump over his comments. Julie Ruf is with the local chapter of Act for America, a conservative national security-focused organization involved in promoting anti-Shariah law bills in some states. The group has been accused by critics of being anti-Muslim. She read the Council a list of refugee-related questions and called for some sort of public forum or dialogue where people could express their views and get their questions answered. Councilman Don Hall and Barigar both said they were unaware of the alleged rape in question. Barigar said he would reply to peoples questions but was cool to the idea of scheduling a public forum. If you all would like to request time on the agenda to have a discussion about specific factual items, Im happy to schedule that, he said. If you want to come to this meeting and talk about your beliefs about Islam and have it be a rehash of the conversation we had in here several months ago, I dont know that theres any productive part of that discussion. The refugee issue came before the Council in February, when it voted to appoint a city liaison to a pro-refugee group. Several people, including ones who testified Monday, spoke against the program then. In September, the Times-News hosted a public forum that included panelists who oversee refugee resettlement for the U.S. State Department, as well as local city and college officials who answered questions posed by the audience of 700. On Monday, before the Council moved on to its regular business, Councilman Chris Talkington said were all children of refugees, immigrants, in some form or fashion. The despicable scum in Orlando that killed 50 people was an American citizen, Talkington said. He was a sick American, OK? Yes, his parents were refugees, but you know what? My parents were refugees from Ireland after the potato famine. Im sure glad you guys werent around testifying against my relatives for that time, OK? WENDELL | The driver of a sedan was taken to a Boise hospital by air ambulance Friday after he ran a stop sign in Gooding County and crashed with two semitrailers on Idaho Highway 46, police said. The crash, first reported at 12:05 p.m., was called in as a possible fatality crash, according to police scanner traffic, though when emergency responders arrived they reported no deaths but said one man was severely injured. A Ford Taurus driving east on 3600 South caused the crash when it ran a stop sign at the highway intersection, ISP said. A northbound semi struck the Taurus first, then a southbound semi hit the car before it came to a rest in the southbound lanes. Air St. Lukes was dispatched to the scene and flew the Tauruss driver to St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise. Investigators are still trying to confirm his identity. Both semi drivers Jess Skoglund, 40, of Landers, Calif., and Robert Riese, 66, of Twin Falls were wearing their seat belts and were not injured. Its unknown if the driver of the Taurus was wearing a seat belt. Sheriffs deputies from Gooding and Twin Falls counties and police from Buhl responded to the crash along with fire crews and paramedics from Gooding Ambulance, Wendell Fire and the Wendell Quick Response Unit. All lanes were blocked for about four hours, and ISP is still investigating. KIMBERLY Despite losing its tax levy election in the May, the Rock Creek Rural Fire Protection District will, in November, take a third shot at what amounts to a $512,000 increase. The district says it needs the funds to hire more firefighters to keep up with the growing number of calls and homes in the district. The districts levy rate has remained unchanged since its 1992 inception. If approved, the levy would increase from .00115 to .002, which works out to another $5 per month on a $150,000 home with a homeowners exemption. Idaho caps fire district levies at .0024. The district first put the levy increase on the ballot last November and it failed 611 to 634. In May, the vote was much closer to passing 1115 to 636 but failed by 3 percent. The measure needs a 67 percent super majority for approval. Chief Jason Keller said he was encouraged by the near miss at the polls. Even though it didnt pass, we got the message out and people understand the need, Keller said. The district has three fire stations: a manned station at Kimberly and unmanned stations at Hansen and Murtaugh. With a shrinking volunteer pool, Keller wants to increase the workforce over time from four full-time firefighters/emergency medical technicians and 22 volunteers to 21 firefighters total, which would let them cover the district full time in three shifts. The fire district spans roughly from 3300 East, just east of Chobani, to 5000 East, between Murtaugh and Milner, and north to south from the Snake River to Magic Mountain. The crews, which include EMTs, responded to 800 calls in 2015. And, Keller said, We are well on track to hit 900 this year. TWIN FALLS Local schoolchildren were motivated to get moving, a food pantry will be able to refrigerate perishable items, and a wife learned how to care for her dying husband so he could stay at home. These are just a few of the things St. Lukes Magic Valley supported through its Community Health Improvement Fund grant. The hospital donated $267,000 among 30 organizations between October 2015 and April of this year. Recipients were recognized at a luncheon on Thursday. The grant money is being used to help further St. Lukes Magic Valleys mission of improving community health. We know we cant do that alone, said Mike Fenello, administrator for St. Lukes Magic Valley. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Magic Valley will use the $4,000 it received in April toward its Triple Play program in Buhl. Fitness and health is something thats always been a pillar of what we do, said Executive Director Lindsey Westburg. The club also received money last fall for its Twin Falls programs. Carol Hill, a physical education teacher at I.B. Perrine Elementary, said she used the grant money to start a walking program for schoolchildren. We only have P.E. once a week for our kids, she said. To get them involved in a regular fitness program at recess, Hill knew shed need incentives. She was thankful for receiving grant money to get the program up and running. The school was one of six first-time recipients. John Shine with Jerome Food Ministry said the nonprofit has been struggling with a need for refrigeration, since much of its donated food is perishable. The money the ministry received will be used to build a walk-in cooler. Jeanette Roe, site-financial director for the Twin Falls Senior Center, said the Twin Falls Senior Citizens Federation received money to assist with providing meals for people who barely dont meet the eligibility requirements for whatever reason. We are just absolutely bursting at the seams, she said, adding that the center is serving about 185 meals a day. Hospice Visions told the stories of some patients who were helped by the program, including a wife who received education to care for her husband. Community Council of Idaho Migrant and Seasonal Head Start used its funds to purchase a vision-screening system. It screens both eyes in about 30 seconds, said Amanda Flores, health services specialist. Other programs that received funding included those that will provide sex education for young adults, and assistance for mental and behavioral health, grieving children, refugees, the poor and the disabled. The total grant amount given increases a little each year, Fenello said. Organizations submit requests for the amount of money they would like to receive, and a grant committee reviews and awards the requests twice yearly. Each program must be in line with the hospitals mission, within various focus areas. People expressed a lot of gratitude for us being there, Fenello said. The Community Health Improvement Fund was created by Magic Valley Regional Medical Center in 1998. St. Lukes Magic Valley agreed to continue the community benefit program, and has distributed more than $2.2 million since 2006. The first round of applications for 2017 will be sent out in August. Updated June 20 with a corrected grant recipient name. Tuesday, in a remarkable display of arrogance and tone-deaf rhetoric, President Obama, in an angry rant about why he doesn't use the phrase "radical Islam," asked the question, "What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change?" And although he called the whole issue a "political distraction," his question deserves a serious answer. Frankly, at this stage, it is alarming that the answer is not obvious to the president and those around him. The difference is that calling these terrorists what they are -- radical Islamists -- would be reassuring to those Americans who have doubts about Obama's proficiency as commander in chief. By using the phrase, it would help build confidence that he actually understands the problem and therefore has a viable plan to defeat the enemy. After all, he is the one who used the term "jayvee team" to describe the Islamic State. He is the one who declared Iraq "sovereign, stable and self-reliant." He is the one who announced an absurd withdrawal date from Afghanistan. He is the one who took six years to declare the Ft. Hood shooting a terrorist attack and not an incident of "workplace violence." So to be clear, using the phrase "radical Islam" isn't about trying to make the Islamic State "less committed to trying to kill Americans." Mr. President, it is not about the Islamic State, it's about you. Your specific refusal to use the term rattles Americans and increases doubts about your grasp of the threat that the Islamic State presents. Islam has a problem, and Obama needs to say so. He needs to help the world come together and work this out -- and admitting the problem out loud is an essential step. Obama's enablers like to boast that our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president ended two wars. The fact is, this president has neither won nor ended any wars. At the end of his eight years in office, the United States will be facing more grinding conflicts than existed when he won the presidency. Donald Trump, for all his faults, has forced Hillary Clinton to cross the threshold and acknowledge the obvious, that "radical Islam" is a dangerous threat to our country. Trump-speak has become an infection in the political discourse, but he should not be used as a straw man for Obama to hide behind. Somehow pretending that this is about Trump, or that he is the only one who cares about using clear labels to describe our national security threats, is disingenuous. Again, this is not about Trump, or Republicans, or about a military strategy to defeat the Islamic State. This is about the president being honest with the American people and assuring them that he understands the threats against us. The massacre of partygoers at Pulse, a gay club in Orlando, took me back to the late summer of 2005, when an African American woman, wearing a tight headscarf over her staff uniform, stormed out of the kitchen and into a conference room at an Atlanta Holiday Inn, shouting: Youre all going to burn in hell! I froze. Around me were about 50 brave souls from Al-Fatiha, a gay American Muslim organization, many of them young men secretly at the organizations annual conference while their parents attended a meeting of the conservative Islamic Society of North America. That weekend, I prayed shoulder to shoulder with thema gay man leading us in prayer, a transgender Muslim beside me. Im a straight Muslim feminist, but, like my friends at Al-Fatiha, Im a criminal, too, in the view of many Islamic clerics today. My crime under conservative sharia law: giving birth to a baby boy 13 years ago while single. A strict strand of Islamic law metes out an unforgiving approach to straight sex outside of marriage, called zina, and gay sex, called liwat when it involves men, from the Biblical and Koranic story of Lot. As leaders of American Muslim groups rush to condemn the carnage in Orlando, it is important to note the persistence of these sex laws in Islam and to support Muslim reformers trying to repeal them. We are never going to see a real cultural shift in the Muslim mind-set about sex and homosexuality until we call out and repeal these scarlet-letter sex laws, and instead choose an interpretation of Islam that values compassion, privacy, acceptance and love over judgment and bigotry. Just one day after the Orlando, Florida, massacre, a Dutch woman in Qatar was convicted of the crime of illicit sexfor coming forward with the complaint that she had been raped. Several years ago, a Norwegian woman faced similar charges in the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, the Islamic State is throwing men accused of homosexuality off rooftops, and the governments of Iran and Saudi Arabia have executed gay men. Of the 57 states that belong to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a quasi-United Nations for countries with large Muslim populations, at least 23 have zina laws and 38 criminalize consensual adult same-sex, according to data from human rights groups and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. These governments are promoting an interpretation of political Islam, or Islamism, that feeds this culture of punishment for even consensual sex. Puritanical Islamic sex laws feature a hierarchy of punishment, based on the Koran and the sunnah, or sayings and traditions of the prophet Muhammad, of stoning to death for those who are married and have sex outside of their marriages and 100 stripes, or lashes, for premarital sex. The punishments are even worse for gays. Influential Saudi cleric Muhammad Saalih Al-Munajjid, following the rigid interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism or Salafism, condemns zina as a crime and calls homosexuality the most abhorrent of deeds, calling for execution of homosexuals, from having them burned with fire, stoned to death and thrown down from a high place then have stones thrown at them. As in the West, cultural attitudes are closely intertwined with legislation. Babies born out of wedlock, gay sex, transgender relationships and other forms of allegedly illegal sex are shamed, stigmatized or punishedwhether by court of law or by vigilante justice, as we saw in Orlando last weekend. As I see pictures of the fresh-faced partygoers at Pulse, their lives cut short by the homophobia that reflects Islamic scarlet-letter laws, I remember nights at gay clubs everywhere from Manhattan to my hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia. Early last year, at Vice Versa, on an alley off High Street in downtown Morgantown, I sat off-stage with my niece and my mother, Sajida Nomani, who had to wear a full face veil growing up in India in a conservative Muslim family, to protect her from the threat of zina. Strobe lights flashing around us, we cheered the transgender beauty queens competing in the Miss Vice Versa Large and Lovely contest. It was my mothers first time in a gay club. In a symbol of our efforts to take back our Muslim religion from the apostles of intolerance, it wont be our last. Twin Falls Police Chief Craig Kingsbury is on a mission to clean up Twin Falls, literally. Hes asked the City Council to pass an ordinance that would allow city staff to remove graffiti on private property if the property owner doesnt paint over it. The request was put on hold at this weeks Council meeting when representatives balked at a line in the ordinance that would require homeowners to pay for the cleanup. The Council seems split over the punitive part of the ordinance. Don Hall worried asking homeowners to pay to remove the graffiti amounted to punishing someone whod already been victimized. Chris Talkington, though, asked Kingsbury not to remove the fine from the ordinance as the police chief works to redraft the proposal this week. The ordinance, he said, must have some teeth. Kingsbury says the focus of the ordinance isnt about the fines; its about curbing gang activity in Twin Falls. The graffiti is being used to advertise for the gangs and recruit new members, he said. Not to mention it makes the city look terrible. The chief, who took over the department after a long stint as Nampas police chief, says hes modeled his ordinance on one already in place in his former city. If it worked in Nampa, surely it can work in Twin Falls. While we have concerns about government interfering on private property, its worth noting that the city already does when it comes to the weed ordinance. Under that rule, the city can cut someones overgrown lawn and bill the person for the trouble. City officials would be wise to consider that ordinance as a model for a graffiti rule as they work toward a solution. The city simply must have more tools available to help fight gang activity, and a graffiti ordinance makes good sense. Gang-related graffiti, after all, poses a much more serious threat than weeds. Dont think gangs are a problem in southern Idaho? Think again. Gangs here often dont fit the stereotypical mold. Gang-related homicides are rare, and gangs rarely stake out territory that leads to turf wars. Instead, police say, gangs control drug activity and organize burglaries to help finance their organizations. Prison gangs, in particular, are a problem in southern Idaho. On the outside, gangs use graffiti to establish their presence. While we support the effort to combat gang activity, we also caution the city to hold up its end of the bargain. If the city plans to ask residents to pay for graffiti cleanup on private property, it must make darn sure its doing its part to remove graffiti quickly from public property, especially city-owned parks. A worker adjusts Chinese and Serbian flags for the upcoming visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in Belgrade, Serbia, June 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] President Xi Jinping has started an eight-day trip to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan on Friday, and the visit is expected to boost cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiatives proposed by China. The delegation's flight took off at 10 am from Beijing. It is scheduled to arrive in Belgrade in the afternoon. The president will pay state visits to the three countries and attend a meeting. In an article published on Thursday by Politika, a daily Serbian newspaper, Xi proposed more cooperation on major projects with Serbia, saying that China wants to share development opportunities and achievements with Serbia. The two countries should increase bilateral trade and investment to benefit people in both nations, Xi said. Describing Serbia as an "eternal friend and sincere partner" of China, he highlighted the bilateral friendship that dates to the 1950s when China established diplomatic ties with Yugoslavia. During the trip, Xi will attend signing ceremonies for cooperation documents in the three countries, all of which are along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative, according to China's foreign ministers. Liu Zuokui, an expert at the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that promoting bilateral cooperation with Serbia and Poland will play a positive role in propelling China-Central and East Europe (CEE) relations. Denis Depoux, deputy president of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants for Asia, said that the growth of CEE has provided lots of business opportunities for Chinese companies, and the Chinese investments into CEE will enhance the overall relationship between Beijing and Europe. "Central and East Europe play a crucial role within Europe as it is an integral part of the continent and also for its stability. CEE is experiencing higher growth than the rest of Europe," he said. The Islamic State terror group is committing genocide against Yazidis that amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes, a United Nations-mandated human rights inquiry reported Thursday. The report titled They Came to Destroy: ISIS Crimes against the Yazidis focuses on violations committed against Yazidis inside Syria, where the investigation commission found that thousands of women and girls are still being held captive and abused, often as slaves. Genocide has occurred and is ongoing, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, emphasized. ISIS has subjected every Yazidi woman, child or man that it has captured to the most horrific of atrocities, he said in a press statement issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR.) The Commission also examined how the terrorist group forcibly transferred Yazidis into Syria after launching its attacks on northern Iraqs Sinjar region on 3 August 2014. The information that was collected documents evidence of intent and criminal liability of ISISs military commanders, fighters, religious and ideological leaders, wherever they are located, the Commission said. ISIS has sought to erase the Yazidis through killings; sexual slavery, enslavement, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and forcible transfer causing serious bodily and mental harm, the report says. The document also notes the infliction of conditions of life that bring about a slow death; the imposition of measures to prevent Yazidi children from being born, including forced conversion of adults, the separation of Yazidi men and women, and mental trauma. The report also denounces the transfer of Yazidi children from their own families and placing them with ISIS fighters, thereby cutting them off from beliefs and practices of their own religious community, the report states. The United Arab Emirates announced that its forces have done their job in Yemen and that Yemen now needs a political solution to reach a lasting peace. The UAE military has played its part to the fullest and Yemen now needs a political solution to find a lasting peace, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Wednesday, reported e-journal the National. The official who was giving a lecture in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, discussed the difficult choice the UAE made to become involved in the war in Yemen. And in a tweet summarizing Anwar Gargashs remarks, Sheikh Mohammed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, said: Our standpoint is clear: war is over for our troops. We are monitoring political arrangements, empowering Yemenis in liberated areas. In his lecture on The Coalition and the Yemen Crisis: The Necessary Decision, Gargash expressed disappointment at the results of peace talks, saying after 50 discouraging days of Yemeni peace talks in Kuwait, there is no unified vision for the future. There are alarming signs that the south wants to defect and that radicalism is on the rise. Other obstacles Yemen faces include the rise of Al Qaeda with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood, the minister was quoted by the National as saying. The lecturer who criticized Iranian influence for fueling sectarian divisions in the region and exporting chaos, said war was never the choice but it was the only solution after exhausting all other outcomes. After he applauded the efforts and accomplishments of the UAE Armed Forces in Yemen, part of the Saudi-led coalition, he said the coalition had clear goals that resulted in more achievable victories when compared with other conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The majority of Yemeni land is now under the control of the legitimate government, he said adding that although the UAE would help to rebuild Yemen, and ultimately, building Yemen is the role of the Yemenis. Washington has underscored its desire to be a key partner in helping Saudi Arabia implement its economic reform program that it deemed ambitious. This came in the meeting Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, who currently on a visit to the United States, held with the U.S. National Economic Council. The U.S. officials attending the meeting welcomed Saudi Arabias commitment to economic reform and underscored the United States desire to be a key partner in helping Saudi Arabia implement its ambitious economic reform program, says a statement posted on the White House web page. Both sides agreed on the importance of economic diversification, expanding private sector employment opportunities, renewable and natural gas development, and the beneficial role U.S. companies could play in implementing Saudi reform objectives, the statement says. The United States and Saudi Arabia intend to build on these conversations in the coming months, consistent with the strong partnership between our countries and the mutual benefit in further deepening our economic ties, it adds. The Deputy Crown Prince, who started his visit to Washington on Monday, met with several other U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Talks with Kerry reviewed the strong and enduring relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia and discussed a broad range of regional issues, including Yemen, Syria, Libya, and countering terrorism. They also discussed the Kingdoms plans to transform its economy through its National Transformation Program. The two men expressed their shared commitment to continue their cooperation in combatting the spread of violent extremism, both regionally and internationally. The meeting with Ashton Carter discussed means to promote the military relations and cooperation existing between the two countries. It also reviewed latest regional developments, mainly in the Middle East, and endeavors exerted to combat terrorism and other issues of common interest. In a person with Alzheimer's, harmful amyloid beta clusters (red) build up among neurons (green) in a memory-related area of the brain. Credit: Photo/Strittmatter Laboratory, Yale University USC researchers announced Tuesday they will test a promising drug aimed at preventing or delaying the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The international study, jointly managed by the USC Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) and Janssen Research & Development, will test Janssen's BACE inhibitors in people who are currently showing no symptoms. The investigational drug aims to block an enzyme involved in the generation of the amyloid peptide, a toxic molecule believed to play an essential role in causing Alzheimer's. "We are now looking at the stage of Alzheimer's that precedes even mild symptoms," said Paul Aisen, founding director of USC ATRI and professor of neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. "It is our view that drugs such as BACE inhibitors may be most effective at the earliest stages of the disease." USC ATRI's role in the study is funded by a new contract with Janssen. USC ATRI, located in San Diego, and Janssen will provide joint oversight for the study; in addition, ATRI will manage study activities at sites in the United States and Canada. Study sites in other countries will be managed by Quintiles. "There is a lot of optimism that research may be ushering in a new era in Alzheimer's drug development," said Gary Romano, head of Alzheimer's clinical development at Janssen. "We may be able to treat the disease using interventions before it becomes advanced, much like you treat high cholesterol to mitigate the risk of heart attacks." Trial details This is a phase 2/3 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group, multicenter study in people across North America, Europe, Japan and Australia who have evidence of brain amyloid accumulation but are asymptomatic. The trial will recruit individuals who show no outward symptoms and are 60 or older. They will then be tested for amyloid accumulation in the brain and, if positive, will be invited to participate in the study. The study will assess cognitive performance, along with other measures related to Alzheimer's, over time. The study will employ a framework created by USC ATRI investigators for testing drugs at the earliest stages of the disease when treatment would be most effective by attacking the driving molecules before substantial damage to the brain has occurred. It will enroll more than 1,600 people worldwide, including 660 participants at 75 sites in North America who have not experienced any clinical signs of Alzheimer's. Aisen and Reisa Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer's Research and Treatment at Harvard Medical School, will be the co-principal investigators of the research. Explore further Diabetes drug could influence brain activity in Alzheimer's More information: More details about the study can be found at the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Trials website. More details about the study can be found at the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Trials website. clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/study/NCT02569398 In this Feb. 24, 2016 file photo, workers from the Puerto Rico Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention review Zika-related data collected by the island's health department and the CDC in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On Friday, June 17, 2016, Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC, is warning that dozens or hundreds of babies in Puerto Rico could develop severe birth defects because of the virus, based on how an outbreak is playing out there. (AP Photo/Danica Coto) Dozens or hundreds of babies in Puerto Rico could develop severe birth defects because of Zika, based on how an outbreak is playing out there, a top U.S. health official said Friday. The island territory has been screening blood donations for the virus since April. Last month's results suggest there's been a rapid increase in infections, and officials expect cases to increase through the summer. "In the coming months, it's possible that thousands of pregnant women in Puerto Rico could become infected," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to a CDC calculation, that could lead to dozens or hundreds of infants being born in the coming years with microcephaly, a severe birth defect in which a baby's skull is much smaller than expected because the brain hasn't developed properly. Other infants may develop other, more subtle birth defects as well, Frieden said. The Zika virusspread mainly by a tropical mosquitocauses only a mild illness, at worst, in most people. But infection during pregnancy can cause fetal deaths and potentially devastating birth defects. Puerto Rico is part of a Zika epidemic that has been sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean. The U.S. territory has more than 1,700 cases, including 191 in pregnant women. Last month, Puerto Rican health officials reported their first case of Zika-linked microcephaly. Since April, blood donations in Puerto Rico have been checked for the Zika virus. Donations that test positive are pulled from the blood supply and there have been no reports of Zika infection in U.S. states or territories through blood transfusion. The same mosquito spreading the virus in Puerto Rico is found in the southern part of the U.S. There's no evidence bugs have been spreading the virus in the mainland yet. All the cases reported in the U.S. have been connected to travel to outbreak areas. More information: CDC report: CDC report: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/index.html 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. (HealthDay)Laparoscopic nephrectomy can be safely performed as outpatient surgery in select patients, according to a study published in the June issue of The Journal of Urology. Nessn H. Azawi, from the University of Southern in Odense, Denmark, and colleagues conducted a prospective, multicenter descriptive study involving 50 patients (70 percent males) with renal cancer. The authors examined the feasibility and safety of laparoscopic nephrectomy as outpatient surgery, with postoperative follow-up at 30 days. The researchers found that 92 percent of the patients (46 patients) were discharged home within the first six hours after surgery. Four of the patients could not be discharged as a result of wrong medication, fatigue, and intestinal injury in two, one, and one patient, respectively. There was no readmission among the 46 patients discharged early. Antibiotic treatment achieved good results without rehospitalization for two patients with wound infection. "Laparoscopic nephrectomy may be performed as outpatient surgery in carefully selected patients who meet inclusion criteria, representing greater than 40 percent of candidates for the surgery," the authors write. "Our study demonstrates that outpatient nephrectomy may be done safely and does not require hospital readmission." Explore further Continued aspirin treatment safe with partial nephrectomy Copyright 2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved. A Nicaraguan sugar cane worker stays hydrated with a portable water pack. Credit: Courtesy Anthony Nardone On the sugar cane plantations of Central America, young men are dying in alarming numbers from a kidney condition whose causes are not fully understood. In some Nicaraguan towns, as many of 70 percent of men are afflicted with a form of chronic kidney disease (CKD) that is relatively uncommon worldwide but prevalent among industrial agricultural workers. The only known treatment options are dialysis or kidney transplants which few farmworkers can access or afford. Researchers are looking for the root cause of the disease a leading cause of death among young men in Nicaragua's agricultural lowlands but UC San Francisco graduate student Anthony Nardone isn't waiting for answers. Earlier this year, Nardone launched a program to help sugar cane workers protect their kidneys by staying hydrated during long hours spent toiling in the fields. Nardone, who will graduate this summer with a master's degree in global health, was doing research and volunteer work in Nicaragua, and was moved by the plight of the sugar cane workers. Men labor in the sun 12 hours, six days a week, for up to six months at a time. They are paid based on how much they cut. "There's no incentive to take water breaks because you don't get paid for it," Nardone said. "Workers get dehydrated working in the field and over time that damages their kidneys." Anthony Nardone presented his portable water project as part of the 2016 Clinton Global Initiative. Credit: Anthony Nardone He hit upon the idea of distributing a simple, portable device that could help men stay hydrated while working. While drinking more water alone may not solve the illness, it can reduce stress on the kidneys both for those suffering and those at risk. Nardone solicited CamelBak, manufacturer of a drinking water backpack, for donations, and set up a pilot program to distribute the water packs to Nicaraguan fieldworkers. He is now working to expand the program with help from the La Isla Foundation, an organization named after a small Nicaraguan municipality where a majority of deaths in men between 20 and 50 years old are due to this unusual form of CKD. The foundation is looking to create a device similar to the CamelBak, but which will be cheaper to produce and can keep water and the wearer cool during a full day in the sun. Promoting infant and maternal health The water pack project isn't the first heath hack Nardone has come up with. He began working in global health as a volunteer and clinic manager with Project Limon, an effort to provide infant and women's health services to a small town in Nicaragua, a three-hour bus ride from regular medical care. Clinic staff launched a campaign to promote breastfeeding, which was viewed by many local women as low-status compared to using formula. Many women who gave up breastfeeding would water formula down to save money, which could cause infants to become malnourished. At a health clinic in Limon, Nicaragua, Nardone helped women access basic care. Credit: Anthony Nardone As part of a drive to increase breastfeeding, Nardone solicited donations of breast pumps from friends and acquaintances in the U.S., and gave them out as a way to enable women to continue to nurse their babies after they returned to work. Working short- and long-term to advance public health For his global health research, Nardone is looking at adults in Northern Chile to see if obesity together with exposure to high levels of arsenic in the drinking water increase the risk of lung damage. After receiving his master's degree this summer, he plans to go on to medical school. Ultimately, he hopes his work will help him address the broader health, economic and environmental disparities that contribute to the high incidence of CKD and other diseases. But for now, he is eager to promote interventions that can improve people's health in the near term. "What's special about this is that it's simple," he said. "These men are not going to stop working, and they're not going to be able to quickly negotiate for better conditions. I just want to help them in some way." Explore further Mysterious disease may be tied to climate change, researcher says The World Health Organization said Friday that $122 million (108 million euros) is needed to fund an 18-month anti-Zika battle plan that will focus on women of child-bearing age. The mosquito-borne virus has recently been linked to serious birth defects including shrunken heads in newborns and neurological disorders having previously been thought to cause just flu-like symptoms. The ongoing outbreak has affected more than 60 countries. Brazil remains the hardest-hit country, with Rio de Janeiro set to host the Olympics in less than two months. WHO director general Margaret Chan said that the organisation's new Zika Strategic Response Plan reflects the rapidly growing amount of new information available about the virus. "The response now requires a unique and integrated strategy that places support for women and girls of child-bearing age at its core," Chan said in a statement. Funding needs have risen significantly since the first $56 million plan was announced in February, when only 23 countries and health organisations needed Zika-related support, Chan said. Since then the virus has spread while near conclusive evidence has emerged linking it to the congenital defect microcephalyan abnormally small headand neurological problems such as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which can cause paralysis and death. Priorities for the new response include contingency planning in case Zika spreads further as well as sexual and reproductive counselling for people who may want to delay pregnancy. WHO has urged pregnant women to avoid travel to Zika-affected areas. Explore further Zika linked to birth defects in six US cases 2016 AFP (HealthDay)Among the 54 million Hispanic adults living in the United States, Puerto Ricans fare the worst when it comes to physical and mental ills, a new review finds. Not only were Puerto Ricans more likely to be in worse health than non-Hispanic Americans, but they "were also generally more likely to have poorer health compared with other Hispanic subgroups," concluded a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new report is based on 2010-2014 data from a major federal government survey of Americans' health. A team led by Jacqueline Lucas, of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), looked at the health of four Hispanic subgroups: Puerto Ricans, and Americans of Cuban, Mexican or Central or South American descent. Overall, Hispanic adults as a group tended to report "fair or poor health" more often than their non-Hispanic American peers, at about 17 percent and 12 percent, respectively. But significant differences emerged when the CDC team looked at specific subgroups of Hispanic Americans. Puerto Ricans appeared to have the worst health. Just over 19 percent of Puerto Ricans surveyed said they were in fair-to-poor health. That number dropped to 17 percent of Mexican-Americans, 15 percent of Cuban-Americans, and 12 percent of those of Central and South American descent, the study found. The percentage of Puerto Ricans who had battled multiple chronic conditions ailments such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma or arthritiswas also much higher. For example, while about 17 percent of survey respondents of Central or South American descent said they had multiple conditions, that figure rose to more than 27 percent for Puerto Ricans, the findings showed. Puerto Ricans were also more likely to say that health issues had curtailed their ability to work, compared with people from other Hispanic subgroups. Mental health issues were also higher for Puerto Ricans: 6 percent said they had experienced some form of "serious psychological distress" over the past month, compared to 3 percent of Central or South American adults. According to Lucas and her colleagues, the findings underline the fact that U.S. Hispanics aren't just one groupespecially when it comes to health. "Although the Hispanic population in the United States may share a common language, there is considerable variation among subgroups" when it comes to culture, economics and even their attitudes toward seeking out health care, the researchers wrote. The findings were reported June 16 in an NCHS Data Brief. Explore further Stark Medicare Advantage disparities present in Puerto Rico More information: Find out more at the Find out more at the National Alliance for Hispanic Health Copyright 2016 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Annette Taddeo filed the paperwork today to qualify for Congressional District 26 in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties her campaign announced today. Taddeo will face former U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia who lost reelection to Carlos Curbelo, a Republican, in 2014. It's possible that Curbelo will face a primary challenger too. Taddeo paid the $10,440 fee to qualify. In May, internal polls on the Democratic side showed Garcia in the lead but a sizable chunk of the voters were undecided in the swing district. Taddeo overhauled her campaign staff last month -- her new spokesman Omer Farooque started today. Taddeo has the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Emily's List. The five-day qualifying period starts Monday. The primary is Aug. 30th but voters will start casting ballots by absentee in July. This post has been updated to reflect that Taddeo qualified by paying the fee. @JeremySWallace Even with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio weighing getting back into the U.S. Senate campaign, Carlos Beruff continues to press ahead, releasing a new television ad set to air next week. Beruff's campaign has already said publicly if Rubio gets into the race, Beruff is staying in and prepared to run against him in the Aug. 30 primary contest. "Carlos Beruff has travelled to all 67 counties in Florida, and the people of Florida have made one thing abundantly clear: they value real world experience more than political experience," said Chris Hartline, a spokesman for Beruff. "Theyre sick of career politicians and power-brokers in Washington who care about one thing: holding on to power. But the voters of Florida will not obey them. They dont get to pick our candidates." @alextdaugherty South Florida reps Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Republicans, issued a statement opposing an amendment that would prohibit defense funds for being used on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) individuals in the military. The amendment, sponsored by Paul Gosar (R-AZ), would keep undocumented individuals who arrived in the United States during childhood from serving in the military. "These DACA individuals often possess critical language, medical, and technical skills needed by our military to accomplish their mission," Curbelo and Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement. "These young men and women are making a sacrifice for our country - the only country many of them have ever known." The amendment failed by one vote and 30 Republicans joined the Democrats in voting against it for a 210-211 final tally. Its time that we stop playing politics with the Defense Authorization and ensure that a provision meant to allow military readiness isnt hijacked in order to provide backdoor amnesty to DACA aliens," Gosar said in a statement. "Sadly, open border advocates have once again put politics ahead of the needs of our men and women in uniform in attempting to enact President Obamas lawless immigration agenda." The full text of Curbelo's and Ros-Lehtinen's statement is below: Dear Colleague: Today the House will vote on an amendment offered by Rep. Gosar (AZ) to H.R. 5293, Department of Defense Appropriations Act, FY17. The Gosar Amendment #26 prohibits funds from being used by H.R. 5293 to enlist DACA individuals in the military through the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MANVI) program. We believe that this amendment does nothing to make our country safer. Its important to note that the Department of Defense is already allowing a small number of immigrants under the Presidents DACA executive orders to serve our country through the MANVI program. The Defense Secretary has the authority to fill critical needs in our military, regardless of how the individual may have arrived in the U.S. These DACA individuals often possess critical language, medical, and technical skills needed by our military to accomplish their mission. These young men and women are making a sacrifice for our country - the only country many of them have ever known. The FY17 Defense Appropriations bill being debated this week should be used to address the programs supporting the brave men and women who keep our country safe; not to take tools away from the Defense Secretary. The young men and women targeted by the Gosar Amendment were brought to our great country very early in life, often by no choice of their own. They have grown up in our neighborhoods and attended the same schools as our own children. For most of these young people, the United States is the only country they have ever called home. They love our country and many of them are serving it honorably. We emphatically urge a NO vote on this amendment in order to continue providing the Defense Secretary the authority to make our armed forces as strong as possible. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (FL-26) Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27) State Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, says he is staying put to run in District 40 and won't switch to run for the district where Sen. Gwen Margolis recently dropped out. Margolis dropped out last week after she dismissed some of her Democratic opponents as "Haitians." That set off a flurry of speculation about who else would jump in to the race although there were already five other Democratic candidates competing when Margolis was in the race. Former North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns announced Wednesday that he is running for the District 38 seat. The other candidates are small business owner Anis Blemur, former state Rep. Philip Brutus, teacher Don Festge, lawyer Jason Pizzo and state Rep. Daphne Campbell. From Bullard's press release: While there has been much speculation about my future Senate seat plans, I wanted to take this opportunity to reiterate my commitment to the South Dade community (in the newly drawn District 40). I have had the pleasure of serving as both Representative and Senator in this District for many years and could not think of a more rewarding area to have the privilege of continuing to serve. While I greatly appreciate those who have reached out to encourage me to move to a different District, the people here know that I have always been and will continue to be a fighter who has always stood up and stood for them." "Unlike other candidates and/or potential candidates, my level of commitment to District 40 spans more than 30 years. I've gone to elementary school in this District, graduated high school in this District, and I continue to work in this District. The people of District 40 have a clear choice in August and November as to who they choose to represent District 40. It is my hope they would choose someone who has always been here and not someone who merely shows up tomorrow. Home is where my heart is and home is where my heart has always been." Following the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump delivered a forceful but rambling speech on terrorism and immigration. In the speech, Trump repeated his call for banning Muslims from entering the United States, rebuked President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for their perceived weaknesses, and emphasized his foresight. The speech was panned on the left and right . While the lasting impact of Trumps comments on the election remains to be seen, they provide insight into the basis of Trumps controversial and racially charged proposals. While some of his points were accurate, many were off base, some wildly so. Heres PolitiFacts guide to 23 claims in Trumps pivotal terrorism speech, which he delivered June 13 in New Hampshire. Both U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her primary challenger Tim Canova will be at the Florida Leadership Blue Gala Saturday in Hollywood. Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chair, will speak at the event where New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is the keynote speaker. The event is a chance for Canova, a Hollywood resident and Nova Southeastern University law professor, to spread his message among party activists. This is the first time Wasserman Schultz of Weston has faced a primary challenge since she first won the seat since 2004. They are competing in a liberal district that largely lies in Broward and dips into northern Miami-Dade County. Here are four key things we dont know about the Debbie Wasserman Schultz vs Tim Canova primary: 1. What the polls show There have been no public polls or internal polls released so far. A poll in the district would answer questions about Canovas name recognition and if Wasserman Schultz is vulnerable on any particular issues -- such as her position in favor of the Iran deal -- or with any segment of the Democratic primary electorate. 2. How much local voters care about Wasserman Schultzs woes as DNC chair The main thing that Wasserman Schultz has taken hits for in the media for months is her leadership of the Democratic National Committee. Bernie Sanders and his supporters have slammed her for months, calling for her ouster and accusing her of favoring Hillary Clinton, which she denies. But district voters may care more about her positions on issues such as favoring abortion and gay rights, equal pay for women and her record fighting Republicans than they do about her party leadership. Plus, her district voted for Clinton over Sanders 68-31 percent in the March 15th primary so the criticism by the Sanders folks may not mean much. 3. What Wasserman Schultzs stance on medical marijuana will mean for the race Wasserman Schultz opposed the medical marijuana amendment in 2014 which was supported by 58 percent of Florida voters, two points shy of the threshold to amend the state constitution. Her opposition angered Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan who funded the amendment last time and again for this year. Morgan has threatened to form a PAC in an effort to defeat Wasserman Schultz but he told the Herald he is waiting for a poll to emerge before making a decision about investing in the race (see no. 1 above). Wasserman Schultz has said she is evaluating the 2016 amendment but she could avoid taking a stance until after the Aug. 30th primary since the amendment is on the November ballot. Although many Broward voters disagree with her opposition to the 2014 amendment, will they punish her for that? 4. How many of Canovas donors live in the district Canovas $2 million fundraising haul between January and mid-June is impressive for a first-time candidate. A good portion of that was fueled by Sanders saying on national TV in May that he is backing Canova. But its unclear how much of that money comes from voters who live in the district. A Center for Responsive Politics analysis of Canovas donations through March -- so based on about one-quarter of his haul now -- showed that the majority of his donations over $200 came from outside of Florida. But the vast majority of his donations come from small donations and campaigns dont have to report where those donors live. Theres nothing wrong or unusual about out of district donations and money is money when it comes to funding ads on TV, print, radio and mailers. But it means we dont know how many of these donors can vote for Canova Aug. 30. U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio will be mulling his future this weekend as he decides whether or not to run for reelection. While campaigning for president, he repeatedly said he would either be in the White House or a private citizen in January 2017. When he dropped out in March, he initially stuck to his line about becoming a private citizen however there were signs in recent weeks that he was leaving open the possibility of running again. When the Miami Herald asked Rubio in May if he would run if his friend Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera didn't ultimately run, Rubio dismissed that as a hypothetical and wouldn't elaborate. Now the Democrats are pouncing with video clips showing multiple times that Rubio said he wouldn't run for reelection. Here is one from American Bridge: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a video attack Rubio for missed votes and claiming he wouldn't run for reelection while running for president: I got to hold a human brain, 17-year-old Shaelyn Townsend said. Its not as gruesome as it seems. Townsend, of Thompson Falls, is one of 24 high school juniors and seniors from around Montana who participated in the MedStart Camp in Missoula this week. MedStart, which gives high school juniors and seniors hands-on experiences in health care, ran Sunday through Thursday. The camp targets rural, minority, low-income and first-generation college-bound students. Camps are also held in Montana, Billings, Miles City, Great Falls and Helena. Students write and essay and provide a teacher recommendation to get into the program, said Martha Robertson, the program coordinator with the Western Montana Area Health Education Center. On Wednesday, students spent the day shadowing two jobs, one in the field they are considering pursuing and one they wouldnt expect. Introducing the students to other parts of the medical field helps them find things they never knew they wanted to do, Robertson said. Robertson said 94 percent of the students who participate in the program go to college. After job shadowing, the group joined med student Sren Estvold on a scavenger in downtown Missoula to answer the question What is public health? Estvold, who also works for the Health Promotion Division of the Missoula County Health Department, helped them identify no-smoking signs, bicycle lanes and a person doing yoga in the park. Other activities include practicing using syringes, earning CPR and AED certifications, exploring other fields of science, and learning about financial aid and money management. The students at Missoulas camp come from all over the state, including Libby, Frazer, Havre and Thompson Falls. Jess Knoll, a student at Pacific University and a second-year resident assistant with MedStart, was part of the program when she was a junior in high school. MedStart helped her decide she wanted to pursue public health. Its helping the kids and answering questions about careers they want to go into, Knoll said. Campers' fees are paid for by GEAR-Up, a federal program that awards financial assistance to students, Madison Shennum, 15, of Havre, said. The GEAR-Up scholarship pays for the full tuition of MedStart and travel stipend for the students. We dont have to pay for any of it, Shennum said. This is the seventh year that MedStart has been in Missoula. The Dennis Washington Foundation and the Charlotte Martin Foundation funds the camp, including its activities. Huckleberries to Weyerhauser to renewing an agreement with Montana to allow continued public access on the timber companys lands in this state, which it purchased from Plum Creek last year. The one-year agreement continues a decades-long tradition of public access to some 880,000 privately owned acres in Montana. Chokecherries to the Chinese tourist who left a boardwalk in Yellowstone National Park to collect water from Mammoth Hot Springs little more than a week after another man left a boardwalk at Norris Geyser Basin, fell into a hot spring and died. That incident occurred just days after a teenager fell into an Upper Geyser Basin pool and was badly burned. And lets not forget three Canadian men who recently trampled the fragile thermal features around the Grand Prismatic Spring after leaving the boardwalk. The Chinese man has been given a $1,000 fine a small price to pay compared to the damage he could have caused to himself and to the unique geothermal features of Yellowstone National Park. Huckleberries to Boeing for recognizing the engineering and technical expertise at S&K Global Solutions, a company headquartered in Polson on the Flathead Indian Reservation and owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The company counts about 160 people in six locations, and recently learned that it has been awarded a subcontract worth at least $50 million. Boeing awarded a total $200 million in subcontracts to small business to complete work for NASA and the International Space Station. Chokecherries to the person or persons who left a French bulldog in a hot car in the parking lot at Sams Club in Billings. The dog died on June 3, a day when temperatures reached 80 degrees. Billings Animal Control is investigating, and companion animal advocates across Montana are reminding pet owners to make other arrangements for their dogs rather than leave them in a vehicle on a hot day. Huckleberries to U.S. Sen. Steve Daines for seeing the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act of 2016 passed by Congress and headed for the presidents desk. Daines was one of five cosponsors of the bill, which reauthorizes the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration through fiscal year 2019, and allows the administration to hire much-needed pipeline inspectors and analysts, among other important safety measures. The bill combines provisions of bills from the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with aspects of the SAFE PIPES Act, which Daines introduced last November. I had to read this Associated Press article a number of times to understand the perspective given on the issue of bringing refugees to Missoula. I saw little perspective of both sides. There was ample negative information given about the segment of people who want cautious consideration given to a process of bringing people to a new place. Here is my assessment: 1. All opponents of swift absorption of Syrian refugees are unsympathetic and racist; 2. All opponents of swift absorption of Syrian refugees are rude; 3. All opponents of swift absorption of Syrian refugees are fear-driven haters. I want to say these things are untrue of 99 percent of us opponents. Remember, these horrible opponents are your neighbors. The fact that this article painted such an ugly, untrue picture of many of your neighbors should infuriate you as much as it did me. I was finishing writing this response Sunday morning when I turned on the TV and heard the horrible news of the misguided Muslim American who thought gunning down innocent people was a way to find glory for ISIS. Yes, we opponents are fear-driven. And for good reason: Fort Hood, Chattanooga, Oklahoma, San Bernardino and Orlando. We are against hate. Hate is bad, but we are not stupid. There are other ways our government and the very generous people of the United States can help these people flee their countries. The article did get one thing right. We feel we have no way to be heard and it is frustrating. Kelly Maier, Missoula Among other places, Shia LaBeouf was spotted at Five Guys in Missoula last night. He arrived last night after spending time in Helena on a hitchhiking performance art project in conjunction with Vice magazine. More background from the Independent Record here: *** HELENA - Most hitchhikers passing through Helena probably dont get much notice, but actor Shia LaBeouf was different. Perhaps best known for his role in Transformers, the former Disney Channel child star stopped at Bad Bettys Barbecue Thursday as part of his Take Me Anywhere hitchhiking project held in the name of art. The first thing he said was, I heard this was the best barbecue in the state. And I didnt argue with him, said Bad Bettys Barbecue owner Calvin Richards, who learned the celebrity planned to stop in just moments before his arrival. During LaBeoufs visit, staff members gave him a tour of the restaurant and explained plans for the indoor seating area thats currently under construction. They also took him into the kitchen, where he put on an apron for a photo, and they gave him a Bad Bettys shirt that he graciously accepted even though it was several sizes too large. He was super genuine with everything, Richards said, adding that the actor was happy to take photos with people in the restaurant. And while Richards says he was able to keep his cool during LaBeoufs visit, he admitted some of his employees were certainly a little star struck. Its not every day that you have something like that happen, he said. It was definitely surreal. Richards said LaBeouf ordered the three-meat sampler with brisket, tri-tip, smoked bratwurst, beans and coleslaw. And he seemed to be happy with his choice. He was raving about all of it, Richards said. The first thing he said was, Oh man, those beans. Along with artists Nastja Sade Ronkko and Luke Turner, LaBeouf has partnered with Vice News, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art in Colorado and the Finnish Institute in London for the hitchhiking project. The three have been Tweeting their coordinates and inviting people to take them anywhere as part of their road trip, which the Boulder Museum says is symbolic of a collective yearning to seek out beauty and truth within a corrupt nation. Their journey can be tracked in real time at takemeanywhere.vice.com. KALISPELL A Kalispell man whose body was found in a creek near Creston was stabbed to death after reportedly taking drugs and money from a woman with whom he had been staying, prosecutors said. Melisa Crone, 29, reportedly wanted revenge against Wade Allen Rautio, 35, for the theft. Co-defendant Robert Matthew Wittal also was angry at him and sought Crone's approval to "commit an act of violence" against Rautio, Flathead County prosecutors said. On the day of the murder, Crone called Wittal to tell him that Rautio had arrived at her house, court records said. According to prosecutors, David Toman drove Rautio, Wittal and Christopher Hansen to an area off Foothills Road near Creston where Wittal stabbed Rautio multiple times. Hansen reportedly punched Rautio and provided a second knife after Wittal lost the first one. Wittal then stabbed Rautio in the neck, court records said. Authorities received a report Monday that a homicide took place over Memorial Day weekend near Creston. They found Rautio's body that day under a log in Brown Creek. Wittal was charged Wednesday with deliberate homicide during an appearance in Justice Court. His bail was set at $500,000. Crone, Hansen and Toman were charged Friday with accountability to deliberate homicide. Bail was set at $100,000 each. None have entered pleas. All four are scheduled to be arraigned June 30 in District Court. Wittal has requested a public defender. Justice Court officials did not immediately return a phone call seeking to learn whether the others had attorneys who might wish to comment on the case. Aaberg writes music that connects a global audience to the sweeping landscape of the West. By translating Montanas farms, ranches and native cultures into musical concepts, hes forged a unique keyboard style that paints an audible portrait of our home state. Held in one of southwest Montanas most intimate concert settings high above Georgetown Lake, St. Timothys is located at 2285 Southern Cross Road in Georgetown. Tickets purchased at the door will be $25. Tickets purchased online or through our outlets are $20 for adults and $15 for 18 and younger. When purchasing tickets online, your PayPal receipt is your ticket. Please print the receipt and bring it with you to the concert to gain entrance. There is a perceived right to protest and thereby a perceived right to subvert the friendly, open process of democracy that gives everybody a chance. Recent violence at the Nevada Democratic Convention finds party officials saying that this misbehavior could easily go on to the national convention. No matter who you are, you need the Democratic Party to function at its best. Our unique nation requires both parties in order to survive. Violence could happen among Republicans as easily as it has among Democrats. Political activism south of the U.S. border sometimes turns into guerrilla warfare with wholesale murder. This is one of hundreds of reasons why Americans need the freedom to discuss. If we like our political system with its earnest attempts to hear and to satisfy the wishes of every citizen, then caution about any immigration seems justified. A Montana group recently began asking unresponsive officials for particulars on allowing Middle Eastern refugees into the U.S. Inquiry was going nowhere and ugly activism emerged trying to prevent any discussion of refugee issues. Inquiring citizens were called anti-refugee, haters and racists. At this point people wanting information stood up as graciously as they knew how and asked for a stand-down. On the other side, one of the pro-immigration leaders, Jameel Chaudhry, a peacemaker of high order, promptly honored that request and asked activists to stop protesting, to be honest and to stop calling names. The confrontations halted immediately and dialog is opening. Thanks, Jameel. You made it safe to ask questions again. In order to preserve that reopening dialog with its friendly atmosphere and to keep America considerate of all its citizens, we need to listen carefully to every side of every argument. More than that, we must convince others that we really are listening and that we are doing so with respect. Friendly discussion has served Americans well for some 240 years. Ours is not a perfect system but seems superior to any other. If you know of something better, be sure to discuss it on the Opinion page of this newspaper. Here are some questions that want discussion: Why was refugee immigration from the Middle East established without citizen input? The original prediction was 10,000 refugees to Montana every year. How was the number lowered to 100 and what keeps it from going back to 10,000 per year? Are the proposed hosts long-term citizens or are they recent refugees from the same Middle Eastern sadness? As long as we are getting 100 refugees per year how can we (graciously) help them assimilate? Secretary of State John Kerry claimed that the U.S. accepts more than twice as many refugees as all other nations combined. Then, without notice, the figure was changed to more immigrants than all other nations combined Then that statement disappeared entirely and was only available as a quote from a lesser officer. Is there one government officer who will give stable answers that are trustworthy? How can we maintain friendly dialog on this tough issue and get needed answers? Is there an effective way to ask members of Congress Jon Tester, Steve Daines and Ryan Zinke to establish precise, long-term numbers on refugees and/or immigrants to be admitted? In the meantime, thanks for taking part in this top-notch nation. -- John H. "Jack" Wiegman of Missoula is a retired broadcaster, engineer and industrialist. Wiegman's voice has been heard worldwide on ABC and CNN, and he has been honored by United Press International, the Idaho Press Club and Montana's Midland Empire Advertising Club. Flag Day provided us the opportunity to reflect upon many positive things in our nation. But it also gave us the chance to reflect upon how much our democracy has been going downhill on a slide greased by political money. Much of the polarization and dysfunction of the federal government comes from money in politics and elections. The pernicious influence of excessive money has also begun to invade Montanas electoral processes. The root cause of big moneys dominance of politics was the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision that enshrined corporations as people/citizens and guaranteed them the right to spend their funds to unduly influence American elections. That Supreme Court decision was used to eviscerate Montanas firewall against such excesses -- The Corrupt Practices Act of 1912. That Act was an initiative placed on the ballot and passed by the people of Montana, designed to curb the corruption of the infamous Montana Copper Kings, who had been buying elections and power. The Corrupt Practices Act declared that corporations may not make an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political committee that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party. For 100 years, the Corrupt Practices Act protected our elections. Then in 2012, Montana reaffirmed the essence of the Corrupt Practices prohibitions in another initiative passed by 75% of the voters. It provided that: Rights under the U.S. Constitution are the rights of human beings, not corporations, Money is property, not speech, and There should be a level playing field in campaign spending that allows all individuals, regardless of wealth, to express their views to one another and their government. For over 100 years, though often rough and tumble, our elections have had been essentially free of corruption. Big, outside money did not, by and large, play a role in here. However, since Citizens United, advocates of big money power both inside and outside of Montana are using Citizens United to rip apart any constraints and big money is starting to taint our elections. Citizens United may well be the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case in 1857, which affirmed slavery in the US, seeing those human beings as chattel to be used, abused, traded or sold. Interestingly, Dred Scott ruled that enslaved black humans were not legally people, while Citizens United ruled that corporations were people. The Dred Scott decision was overturned by addition of the 13th and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution, which took until 1865 and 1868 respectively. Short of a Supreme Court reversal, the legal and political path to getting rid of Citizens United may also have to be a Constitutional Amendment. Thats a tough row to hoe (passage by 2/3 of each house of Congress and ratification by of the states), but it may well be the only way to insure for the long-haul that people who participate in our elections are real human beings, not faceless corporate entities. On Thursday, June 23rd at 7:00 PM at the UM Law School in Missoula folks will gather together to address how we can get started. A forum called Building to Overturn Citizens United How We Pass the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution will feature two prominent leaders: Jeff Clements (of American Promise and Free Speech for People) and Montanas own retired Supreme Court Justice Jim Nelson, (Board member of Free Speech for People and Advisory Board member for American Promise) who has become a national leader on this important issue. Fair elections are not a partisan issue. Montanans of all stripes independents, Libertarians, Republicans and Democrats - want fair elections, free of the corrupting influence of big money and campaign money from corporations. As a well-known Democratic leader and a long-time Republican elected official, we are helping host this event. Join the effort, so that what Montanans have passed into law can become the law across the entire country. Lets pass a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution to reverse Citizens United and remove the pernicious influence of excessive money in our election processes. -- Evan Barrett, Democrat of Butte, has spent the last 46 years at the top level of Montana economic development, government, politics and education. -- Bob Brown, Republican of Whitefish, is a former Montana Secretary of State, State Senate President and 28-year legislator. Montanas top political regulator on Thursday found the embattled Cascade County Republican Central Committee violated state campaign finance law when it filed late reports and failed to disclose all of its expenditures. A 14-page decision issued by Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl found the committee now embroiled in a trio of pre-primary lawsuits and campaign finance complaints neglected to report the cost of state fair campaign booths and advertisements it provided to some GOP candidates as well as the value of tickets handed out to a statewide fundraising dinner. The Montana legislature has declared the importance of transparency through electronic filing whereby campaign finance information and data is easily and promptly made available to the public, Motl wrote in the decision. There is no legitimate reason for the Central Committee to fail to file electronically when so many other candidates and committees have cooperated and complied with Montana law. The first-term commissioner, appointed by Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock, took no action on other allegations raised in separate March and May complaints against the committee, including charges that it made false statements on a campaign filing and, by apparently favoring some Great Falls-area Republican candidates over others, failed to function as a political committee under state law. The committee has been locked in a much-publicized leadership dispute between hardline Republican statehouse hopefuls and a more moderate faction of office seekers, a feud that culminated in state Senate candidate J.C. Kantorowiczs widely-reported remark that a bullet might prevent his primary opponent from attending the Montana GOP delegate convention. Kantorowicz lost by a wide margin in his June 7 primary fight against Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls. Great Falls Rep. Wendy McKamey, one of those candidates the complaint alleged was opposed by the committee, also prevailed in her race against Rep. Randy Pinocci, R-Sun River. Thursdays administrative ruling found the committee engaged in selective actions in supporting Cascade County Republicans but that such actions were protected by the partys association interest or speech rights. Motl has used similar reasoning to defend a so-called "loophole" that allows candidates to benefit from unlimited, potentially special interest-funded "personal services" provided by party committees. He expects the committee will negotiate and pay a fine to settle the matter out of court. Most rulings issued by Motl are resolved through a settlement, though his office has litigated a handful of high-profile campaign finance cases against a host of conservative politicians and dark money groups. A Montana District Court judge on Friday is expected to settle the penalty phase of one such case against state Rep. Art Wittich, who could be removed from office after a jury in April determined he underpaid for campaign services. WAPELLO, Iowa A Burlington man was killed Thursday morning after striking a deer about two miles south of Wapello. According to a press release from the Louisa County Sheriff's Department, Jason M. Robinson, 28, Burlington, was northbound on Highway 61 just south of the J Avenue intersection when a deer entered the roadway. The impact caused him to lose control of his 2006 Chevrolet Impala. Robinson's car left the road, rolled coming to rest on its top in a ditch adjacent to J Avenue near Highway 61. Authorities were notified about a vehicle on its top at approximately 10:50 a.m. Thursday. Robinson sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the press release. The sheriff's department and Iowa State Patrol conducted the investigation. the Wapello Fire department, Wapello Ambulance Service and Wapello Police Department assisted at the scene. MUSCATINE, Iowa The city uses 15 percent recycled material for asphalt overlay projects, and the Muscatine City Council accepted a bid for the 2016 project at the City Council meeting Thursday. Illowa Investment, Inc., was awarded the bid at $630,803.64. The city had $845,790.69 budgeted for the project. Randy Howell, the street maintenance supervisor for Muscatine, said he prefers to use the recycled material for the lower tier, with pure asphalt for the top inch and a half. "We've been doing this for about the last eight years," Howell said. As outlined in the budget sessions held earlier in the year, the project will span over a mile and a half of city roads. Howell said the price reduction was due to the cost of asphalt going down $10 per ton, and a reduction in cost of the modification of manholes. "We're very fortunate," he said. A professional services agreement for an Iowa Department of Natural Resources mandated wastewater treatment nutrient study was also approved. Stanley Consultants will handle the project, which will examine what can be done about the nitrogen and phosphorus discharge from the Water Pollution Control Plant. Jon Koch, the director of the Water Pollution Control Plant, said the DNR will negotiate with the city to decide the best method to reduce the phosphorus and nitrogen. "We have a really open dialogue with that," Koch said. The Council also approved a public hearing to be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 7, on proposed zoning changes for the property that was formerly Garfield School. The property owners are requesting to rezone the 7.41 acre parcel from R-3 Single Family Residential to S-2 Institutional Office and M-1 Light Industrial. The property was purchased by Muscatine Downtown Investors, owned by Tom and Ann Meeker, and after property renovations are completed, Optimae Life Services is expected to move into the building. In other business, Council approved: An amendment to an option and lease agreement with Castle Towers 05 LLC for the cell tower at Greenwood Cemetery. The amendment will provide six new five year extensions with the final extension expiring Oct. 14, 2055. An ambulance fee schedule, which will become effective July 1. Hazmat agreements with the Muscatine Fire Department, which covers Muscatine, Louisa, Keokuk, Henry, and Washington Counties for hazmat services. The compensation will change to $.25 per capita, increasing total revenue to $26,623, a more than $15,000 increase. The bid for a new dump truck for Public works from Truck Country of Davenport. The bid for the 2016 street striping contract from Weikert Contracting of Ackley. JACKSONVILLE, Florida Swisher International, Inc. has announced the promotion of Cherie Boruff Lee to the position of Vice President of Creative and Consumer Engagement. Swisher International is a leader in the tobacco business, accounting for one-third of the nations cigar sales and is famous for their flagship brand, Swisher Sweets, the number one selling cigarillo in the US. After graduating from Westmer High School in Joy, Illinois, Cherie completed undergraduate and graduate degrees from Illinois State University. Previous to her employment at Swisher International, Lee taught at the university level and held the position of Executive Director for Cy DeCosse, Inc. in Minneapolis, developing creative and brand strategies for numerous consumer products companies. Cherie Boruff Lee is the daughter of Ann Moffitt Boruff and Merle Boruff (deceased) of Buffalo Prairie, Illinois. Cherie often says she inherited much of her ambition and motivation from her Mother and is grateful for her guidance and mentorship over the years. She married Dr. Michael Lee in 1978 and they spend their time in Jacksonville and at their Koi fish farm and retreat near the Suwannee River in Florida. MUSCATINE, Iowa Each term, Muscatine Community College recognizes students who have achieved outstanding academic success. If they have completed six or more credit hours during a term with a 4.0 GPA, they are named to the Presidents List. The administration, faculty and staff of MCC congratulate these hard working students. MUSCATINE, Iowa Exploration of other cultures means fun abounds for Muscatine middle school students. Jill Goldesberry, the camp director with the Stanley Foundation, said Investigation U., a nine day, free camp open to West and Central middle school students, was begun in 2010 to provide students with new experiences and cultural knowledge. Students investigated the community and the world through activities, and heard from Muscatine residents from Italy, Brazil, South Africa, and India. "We want to teach them not just to tolerate, but to appreciate other cultures," Goldesberry said. On Friday, Ajay Sreekanth, who works at HNI, introduced the students to different aspects of Indian culture with the assistance of his mom, Slevarani, and sister, Ashika, who were visiting from India. He said he hoped the presentations would help the students expand their world view, especially because the world is becoming more globalized as many people travel and interact with other cultures on social media. "It's very important for the students, from an early age, to understand different cultures," he said. Ashika Sreekanth said that her world view was expanded and became more complex when she moved to India, and said she wanted to help her brother teach the students, and maybe inspire them to explore in the future. "It's very important that people are open minded, have different views, everyone comes from different walks of life so it's important for people to learn about different experiences and what's going on in the world," she said. The students went to a roller skating rink, cleaned up the path RAGBRAI riders will take in Muscatine, and visited the Science Center in Des Moines during this year's exploration at Investigation U. Goldesberry said the program targets middle school students because they can sometimes be left out of summer programming. "And people are starting to ask them, and they are starting to ask, where they fit into the world, they're very inquisitive," she said. Caylie McConnaha, an eighth-grader at Central Middle School, said this was her second year in the program, and she loves all the new experiences the program has given her. "It's super cool, we do a little bit of everything," she said. Students said they enjoyed making friends from other middle schools, and Kate Eads, an eighth-grader at West Middle School, said listening to speakers from other countries taught her that even if music or food is different, people are not. "They're just like you," Eads said. The free program had 38 students this year, and although Goldesberry said the goal of the program is to have 35 students to maintain a good teacher to student ratio, turning students away has never been easy. While students learn about other cultures, they are also learning about the community they live in, because, Goldesberry said, those cultures are already in Muscatine. "The world is here," she said. MUSCATINE, Iowa The next public engagement meeting for the Mississippi Drive Corridor Project will be 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 21 at the Riverview Center, 110 Harbor Drive. The meeting will serve as the introduction of preliminary plans for the project that were created by the engineering team based on community input and polling at the last two meetings. The public is encouraged to attend. MUSCATINE, Iowa A vacant lumberyard is getting new life and returning to business with new ownership. A crew of managers who tout years of expertise plan to make the operation successful by offering better service and quality than any lumberyard in the area. Their mission is to be the first source for the community and contractors. Muscatine Lumber will open Monday, June 20, at 1700 Grandview Ave., the former home of Builders World Lumber and Home Care. The building has been empty about four years. We bought it around the first of the year and spent three months getting the place back into shape. It was in bad repair, said Norm Nicol, Letts, president and C.E.O., who introduced himself as the window washer and check signer. A new roof, interior remodeling and lots of clean up took place before the nearly three-acre property could be stocked with inventory. Some work is still underway and the future will include showrooms, a contractor conference room and in-house engineering. Nicol said he hand-picked the Fab 5 group of vice presidents of the company who will one day be the owners and operators. Vice Presidents Jesse Register, Josh Gingerich, Sergio Patino, Tom Barker and Danny Goodale all have backgrounds that can benefit the operations of the business. Their single most important aspect to me is their people skills, said Nicol. Secondly, they have the work history and work ethic to be successful. The crew has taken to each other and become close friends and have matching values and ambitions for the success of Muscatine Lumber. We are here to be the best. We will offer quick turnaround, exactly what they need, fast delivery and quality products, said Goodale, 30, Atalissa, who has 12 years experience in construction and retail. Patino, 39, Muscatine, worked for 15 years at Menards and was a top sales representative. We want to make things as easy as possible for the customer. Time is money and we dont want to waste time, Patino said. Register, 42, Grandview, brings years of construction, maintenance and technical skills while Barker, 34, also from Grandview, has 12 years of heavy equipment experience and six years in construction. Gingerich, 31, West Liberty, poured lots of concrete before and during college, but his more than eight years of banking experience will be valuable to the companys office. According to the Muscatine Area Geographic Information Consortium (MAGIC) online parcel report, the retail building and most of the storage structures were built in 1962. In May of 2014, MidAmerica National Bank took over the deed from Builders World, which had purchased the property for $800,0000 in 2004. In December 2015 the building was purchased by PAL Holding LLC for $210,000. Nicol said Muscatine Lumber will operate from 6:30 a.m. 5 p.m. Monday Friday, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday and be closed on Sunday. Muscatine Lumber will offer a full line of lumber and hardware including nuts and bolts, power tools, drywall, siding, windows and kitchens. They also have a boom truck to deliver shingles and can set the stacks on the customers roof. We plan to win business by being the best. You will be able to come in and ask for help, and you will get it, Nicol said. This is one of a series of essays on contemporary environmental controversies. These issues may well define how or whether we can continue to live and improve our well being on this cosmic speck called Earth. Prior to the Civil War, prior to the industrial revolution, prior to climate change debate, slave labor provided much of the energy for the production of food, fiber, and goods throughout the southern half of the nation. Enslaved human beings were seen as absolutely essential to drive the economy and maintain a comfortable standard of living for everyone else. Moreover, balance sheets of those engaged in commerce were totally dominated by two assets; land and slaves. Economic historian Gavin Wright estimated slaves represented nearly half of the wealth of the South just prior to the Civil War. It is no wonder that abolition became the lightening rod that it was. Some 400,000 slaveholders would be required to give up a major portion of their wealth with little, if any, financial recourse. It took a devastating conflict and the death of 620,000 Americans to settle the issue. The country is, to this day, feeling the effects of that terrible war. The end of the Civil War also signaled the rise of the fossil fuel energy economy. The subsequent one hundred fifty years have seen unprecedented economic prosperity. We have all benefitted from the widespread availability and the phenomenally low cost of coal, oil and natural gas. We have replaced dependence on slave labor energy with our current dependence on fossil fuel resources. Today, coal, oil and natural gas make up the wealth of many individuals, corporations, and nations. Investors, pension funds, the likes of ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia and similar entities around the world all calculate part of their asset value in terms of the fossil fuel resources on their books. The total value of world fuel reserves is difficult, if not impossible to calculate with specificity. Fluctuating energy prices, new discoveries, and the truthfulness of reported reserves all contribute to the uncertainty of a finite number. However, estimates as high as $20 trillion are common. We cannot consume anywhere close to this amount of carbon fuels and maintain a habitable planet. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to rise and contribute to the climate change impacts. The Carbon Tracker, a group of economic and environmental analysts, has looked at the amount of carbon-based fuels we can burn. To keep worldwide temperatures from rising more than two degrees Celsius, some eighty percent of known, provable, extractable reserves must be left in the ground. Thus the dilemma and the parallel to pre-Civil War slavery. How can the ExxonMobils, Saudi Arabias and others be persuaded to forfeit up to eighty percent of their wealth with no compensatory mechanism in place? The problem will only worsen as entities continue to put billions of dollars each year into exploration for more reserves to place on their books. This is not to suggest that war is on the horizon or required to keep climate change in check. A moral imperative comparable to slavery does not yet exist in the climate change debate. However, enormous real, complex economic issues are present. Thoughtful analysis and targeted actions are required to loosen the shackles and allow us to move toward a carbon free future. Larry Koehrsen is a long-time resident of Muscatine. He brings his engineering background to current studies of environmental issues and especially all things related to climate change. Comments to koehrsenl@gmail.com. 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 [] Actress Sun Li and Donald Duck. [Photo/Xinhua] Opening ceremony of Shanghai Disney Resort kicked off on the evening of June 15. Sun Li, the ambassador for the theme park, said she was very excited that the park is finally opening. "My favorite Disney character is Donald Duck. I was so excited when I saw him dressed in a Chinese silk jacket on the red carpet that I asked him to pose for a photo with me." When asked about how she felt about the Resort, Sun said it was magnificent. "Some rides are adventurous, others adorable. I never get enough of Winnie the Pooh and merry-go-round." But one day is too short to have a blast. "I haven't tried other fun rides or watched the musical The Lion King. Maybe next time," Sun added. Sun said she exchanged views on Disney with her two kids at home, also devoted Disney fans. "We love all characters Disney created, even the villains. They are not scary-looking, quite the contrary, they are kinda endearing," Sun said. Actress Sun Li and Donald Duck. [Photo/Xinhua] "I live in Shanghai so it's convenient for me to go to Disney Resort. Both my kids are old enough to eat adult food. If your kids are babies, here are nursery rooms and strollers for rent. Kiosks are everywhere for you to buy water and snacks. Healthy food and free water are also available. Rest assured. Everything is taken care of." Clearly, Sun thought highly of the service in the park. Regarding the differences between Shanghai Disney Resort and Disney parks elsewhere, Sun said Shanghai Disney is big enough to be a resort and not just an amusement park. "One of my friends said food here was served in a large portion, covering almost all Shanghai delicacies. Coupled with those shopping malls, it is practically an integrated resort." As a celebrity mom, she has spent some quality time with her kids in the park. "Kids don't sleep in Disneyland," She said. "My son took no nap at a Disneyland abroad. This took me by surprise because he once slept two hours in a noisy outlet in New York. He is a different man in the park. My daughter is also the case, alive and kicking. Disneyland seems to resonate with kids in a magic way." Related: Disney's Shanghai park poised to lure millions Angel Colon was saying his goodbyes around 2 a.m. Sunday, June 12, inside Pulse nightclub. A great night of "smiles and laughter" was about to end, but not in the way anyone inside the club could have ever imagined. Pulse survivor Angel Colon met the police officer who dragged him to safety Officer Omar Delgado to Colon: "I'm so glad you're alive, man." Colon was shot several times in the left leg, the hand and the hip WEEKEND VIGIL: Downtown Orlando memorial, candlelight procession to Lake Eola FULL COVERAGE: Victim profiles, interactive timeline in our special section on the Pulse shooting Fast forward a few days, and Colon was saying hello. This time from inside his room at Orlando Regional Medical Center. Colon, the 26-year-old from Polk County who was shot several times in his left leg, hand and hip, was saying hi to the Eatonville Police officer who dragged him to safety during the horrific early morning hours as bullets flew inside Pulse in the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history. Colon, as well as surgeons and nurses, spoke Tuesday from inside Orlando Regional Medical Center. Colon described the night in great detail: "I fell down. I got trampled over," he said. "I tried to get back up, but everyone started running everywhere. I got trampled over and I shattered and broke my bones on my left leg. By this time, I couldn't walk at all. All I could do is just lay down there while everyone was just running on top of me trying to get to where they had to be." Colon said he then looked up and saw a police officer, who dragged him across Orange Avenue to a nearby Wendy's. Colon said Tuesday he wished he could remember the police officer's name. Well, the police officer remembered Colon. "My name is Officer Omar Delgado. I'm one of the ones that helped you get out of harm's way, man. I need a big hug from you, man," the Eatonville Police officer said as he walked around the corner and saw Colon for the first time since Sunday. "I'm so glad you're alive, man." It was a moment Colon said he wasn't sure he would ever experience, especially in the early mornings hours Sunday. "When I first saw him, I was face down, laying down on the floor," Colon said. "I could only move my arms and my head, so I just saw him and his glasses and I was like, 'Help me, please.'" Delgado said he heard about Colon from a coworker. He said he hadn't watched any of the coverage after the shooting until the coworker called him to tell him the guy he dragged out of the club was on TV. Surrounded by Colon's family inside the hospital room, Delgado said it was a moment that will stay with him forever. "It was amazing," Delgado said. "It was a feeling you just can't describe, can't put into words knowing that you helped save someone. People try to help save people all the time, but in that situation, it was unreal." HONOLULU Researchers in Hawaii have discovered three probable new species of fish while on an expedition in the protected waters of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. In a statement released Wednesday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials said divers collected two previously unknown species of fish and filmed a third. NOAA's Randall Kosaki, the expedition's chief scientist, said the team collected the first specimens of male Hawaiian pigfish about 300 feet below the surface. The scientists also observed significant coral mortality in the region that was the result of a mass bleaching event in 2014. Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology researcher John Burns said a 2015 trip found about 90 percent of the coral around Lisianski Island had died. This year, the team found that dead coral was covered in a green algae bloom. WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton on Thursday won the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, the nations largest labor federation, in another sign of her consolidation of the Democratic party heading into next months convention. The AFL-CIOs general board voted to endorse Clinton over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a move that some had expected after Clinton secured enough support among delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. Hillary Clinton is a proven leader who shares our values, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement. Throughout the campaign, she has demonstrated a strong commitment to the issues that matter to working people, and our members have taken notice. Clinton won the endorsements of many of the AFL-CIOs largest members in the past year, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the American Federation of Teachers, paving the way for the AFL-CIO to back her campaign. While Sanders list of union endorsements is shorter, he had the support of a vocal group of rank-and-file union members who were drawn to his opposition to past trade deals and calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage. Sanders support within labor circles contributed in part to the AFL-CIOs decision to withhold its endorsement during the primaries. But labor leaders have been coalescing around Clinton. In a speech this week to his members, the president of the Communications Workers of America, which endorsed Sanders, said it was time to get behind Clinton. Bernie is not going to be the nominee. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be, said Chris Shelton, CWAs president, adding and whatever you think of Secretary Clinton ... she is the candidate who is running against Donald Trump. The labor federation represents 12.5 million members and is a potent force in Democratic politics and voter turnout. Union leaders have been gearing up for a general election showdown against Republican Donald Trump, whom they portray as a threat to working families but fared well among blue-collar voters during the GOP primaries. This election offers a stark choice between an unstoppable champion for working families and an unstable charlatan who made his fortune scamming them, said Lee Saunders, the president of AFSCME and the chair of the AFL-CIO political committee. Labors role in the debate over foreign trade could be crucial in the fall campaign. Trump has denounced stupid trade deals that hurt U.S. workers, a message that could have resonance in labor-heavy Rust Belt states that have been in the Democratic column in past elections such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. A San Diego environmental advocate who mired the city of Calistoga in years of expensive litigation over water issues is now turning his attention to St. Helena. Water Audit California, which lists Grant Reynolds as a director, filed a claim with the city of St. Helena on May 19 alleging that the city has failed to meet its bypass requirements to protect fish habitat downstream of Bell Canyon Reservoir, which the city operates under a state permit. The claim threatens legal action unless the city agrees to the following demands within 50 days: comply with the bypass requirements identified in the claim, stop diverting water to the reservoir between April 16 and Nov. 14, post online the dams daily operational data and water flows, pledge to install flow monitoring equipment by November, and undertake a stream and fish study to determine bypass levels that would be adequate to protect fish downstream. (Water Audit) is looking for reservoirs that stand out as not being operated in accordance with the law, Reynolds said Wednesday in a phone interview. And St. Helenas reservoir appears to be one of those. The St. Helena City Council will discuss the claim in closed session at 9 a.m. Thursday, June 16, at City Hall. The city is carefully evaluating the claim asserted by Water Audit California, and will respond appropriately in due course, Mayor Alan Galbraith said Tuesday in a statement. The claim alleges that the city failed to install monitoring equipment that it was directed to install nearly 40 years ago at Bell Canyon dam, which was built on Bell Creek in the late 1950s. According to the claim, the State Water Resources Control Board determined in 2001 that the city was violating its bypass requirements, and admonished the city in the early 2010s for exceeding its diversion limits at the dam. Although the claimant has made specific and repeated inquiry, the City has produced no documents that indicate that the City has any present intension to perform the necessary monitoring improvements, perform a stream and fish study, or reform its dam operations to the needs of the public trust and the 1989 Orders of the trustee agency, the claim states. The claim accuses the city of routinely violating its minimum bypass requirements, which dictate how much water must be diverted into the creek during each rainy season and prohibit any water from being diverted into the reservoir between April 16 and Nov. 14. The claim points to stream surveys conducted by the Department of Fish and Wildlife showing that a species of rainbow trout that the state and federal governments consider threatened used to spawn downstream. But after the dam was built, the downstream population of that fish dwindled over the years, until a 1990 survey found none at all. Reynolds is well-known in Calistoga, where city officials have accused him of entangling the city in prolonged, expensive and unfounded litigation. In February the Calistoga City Council lamented the roughly $1.5 million the city had spent defending itself from water-related litigation filed by Reynolds, his attorney William McKinnon of Grass Valley, and Debbie OGorman of Calistoga. Reynolds said one of those cases, involving OGormans water rights, is still pending in Napa Superior Court. On Wednesday, Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning said he and Calistoga City Manager Dylan Feik are reaching out to their counterparts in St. Helena to offer first our condolences and second our assistance. What I can say from our experience is be prepared for a very long and very expensive process, and dont expect it to be always based in logic or reason, Canning said. A 2011 profile in The Weekly Calistogan recounted Reynolds colorful life story, which he said included stints in surfboard manufacturing and international marijuana smuggling. Reynolds financial mentor in the surfboard business was Frank Hickerson, whose son Matt lives in Calistoga. Matt Hickerson and Debbie OGorman engaged in a legal dispute with the city of Calistoga, alleging that a 1939 water agreement with OGormans family gave them the rights to the water at Calistogas Kimball Dam. As a fly fisherman, Reynolds said he was moved by old photos of steelhead that used to be found downstream of the dam. He got involved in the couples lawsuit in 2009, and the allegations grew in scope, claiming that Calistoga had failed to bypass enough water into Kimball Creek toward spawning grounds for salmon and trout. My primary focus was to do something for the fish, he said. In a separate lawsuit, Reynolds accused Calistoga of improperly spending Measure A flood control funds on a water storage tank. Calistoga eventually did agree to bypass more water into Kimball Creek, but claimed it was in response to pressure from the state, not Reynolds litigation. However, a judge ruled that there was a causal relationship between the citys actions and Reynolds litigation, and ordered the city to pay $575,203 in legal fees to McKinnon, who had represented Reynolds in some of his cases. McKinnon had originally asked for up to $2.8 million. The same judge later scolded McKinnon for trying to collect on the judgment last June by illegally filing a writ of execution on the citys checking account at WestAmerica Bank at Calistoga, resulting in a fund transfer that left the city with only 1 cent in its account. The funds were transferred back to the city, which ultimately paid McKinnon $555,767, the amount of the original judgment minus almost $20,000 the city had spent on legal fees related to the bank transfer. Reynolds claim against St. Helena states that Water Audit will seek reasonable attorney fees and costs if litigation becomes necessary. Reynolds said McKinnon represents Water Audit. According to the California secretary of states website, Water Audit California was incorporated in March, with a Sacramento address. Reynolds and the claim describe Water Audit as a public benefit corporation. According to Reynolds, Water Audit has just gotten off the ground in the last few months, but has already made inquiries with probably a couple hundred dam operators throughout the state. What we want to do is protect the environment, and one of the ways to do that is to make people, including municipal corporations, obey the law as it pertains to the environment, Reynolds said. A protracted lawsuit would present another financial challenge for St. Helena, which is already struggling to pay for everyday city operations and has a long list of unfunded capital projects. The 2016-2017 budget approved by the City Council on Tuesday sets aside $247,037 for litigation. A Napa couple took advantage of a new city law in hopes of putting up vacationers inside their home. But homeowner association rules governing their house have stepped in their way as have city planners. In the latest neighbor dispute over in-home innkeeping, the Planning Commission on Thursday supported an appeal to block Ricardo and Angela Graf from hosting tourists at their two-story house in north Napa. The couple had applied for one of 54 licenses to legally offer rooms for 30 days or fewer under a program created in December, and gained city approval in April. But their homes location on Serendipity Way within the Riva Reserve a development where homeowner rules prohibit short-term rentals opened the Grafs to an appeal filed May 5 by two other Napans, Doris Pick and Laurie Tobias. The conflict exposed an apparent blind spot in Napas new in-home hosting ordinance, which is meant to capture some of the room-tax revenue that is collected by hotels and bed-and-breakfast inns, but rarely by residents hosting tourists through Airbnb and similar home-sharing websites. While the law requires prospect hosts to receive home inspections and collect room taxes, it is silent on whether the city will approve permits over a homeowner groups objections. Though planning staff saw no obligation for the city to enforce a private contract, three of the commissioners chose to defer to the Riva Reserves rules and pull back the Grafs hosting license. (Michael Murray dissented and Gordon Huether was absent.) Paul Kelley discounted fears of increased traffic, noise and crime risks shared by Tobias and Pick in letters to the city, but also sought to avoid a clash between homeowner rules and city law. (Neither the Grafs nor their opponents attended the meeting.) Everyone signed the same set of documents when they moved into that development, he said. I didnt think traffic and crime were really issues here, but its a real glitch (in the law) that didnt really get thought through. Maybe this case will help fix that glitch. More troubling to Commissioner Beth Painter was vagueness in the business plan the Grafs shared with the city, stating they hoped to make rooms available to tourists for at least 31 days at a stretch the minimum lease required to avoid permits but have different guests stay only two to three days at a time. Its not fair to the community or the homeowners to send such mixed messages about regulating short-term stays, she said. Its like (the Grafs) are trying to have their cake and eat it, too. Later Thursday, planners had to cope with another neighbor conflict over vacation stays this one a dispute over offering an entire Elm Street house, not just a bedroom, to tourists. Commissioners allowed the prospective buyer of the 1,600-square-foot Old Town home to also inherit the vacation rental license of its previous owner, one of 41 whole-house permits the city granted in 2009. The transfer was at least the fourth granted by Napa since a rule change last year tied such rental rights to a property rather than its resident, allowing buyers to rent out the same homes. But the sale by Nancy Bender to Chris Young, a local developer, triggered an appeal by neighbor Nancy Caffo, who complained of noise, drinking, cursing and other misbehavior by visitors to the heavily residential neighborhood south of Fuller Park. This mini-motel has no desk clerk, no monitor to check on the deportment of its guests, Caffo said of the home, whose permit allows up to eight paying visitors at a time two for each of its three bedrooms plus two other customers. How many of you folks would want to live next to a non-hosted vacation property, depriving you of the enjoyment of your own home? she asked commissioners. Despite Caffos worries, the commission denied her appeal on a 3-1 vote (with Paul Kelley dissenting). But the decision to let vacation rentals continue was less an endorsement than a reluctance to block hosting rights without a long trail of city violations. Despite agreeing that the Elm Street home has operated, in my view, successfully as a vacation rental, Painter suggested lowering the allowed number of guests from eight due to its small size. But Peter Spoerl, deputy city attorney, cautioned such a move would not likely survive a challenge from the homeowner. Before a barrel of beer can be brewed, before the first visitors step inside, the Borreo Buildings transformation into Napas next gastropub is beginning with details as subtle as the grout that knits its aged stone blocks together. Despite nearly 140 years of wear and tear, 15 years of vacancy and damage from the 2014 earthquake, Stone Brewing of San Diego considered the Borreos bones strong enough to house a restaurant and tasting room. But first, architects, engineers and construction workers have come to the work site at Soscol Avenue and Third Street to begin restoring and shoring up the 1877 structure, a process expected to last through the end of the year. Stone, one of the countrys most popular producers of microbrewed beer, plans to open its taproom and eatery in the first quarter of 2017. Workers shrouded the 9,600-square-foot building with steel-and-web scaffolding early last week, then started the first phase of renovation, said the project manager, George Nielson of G.D. Nielson Construction Inc. Early tasks include seismic strengthening and exterior work such as the cleaning, painting and sealing of the stone finish. The second stage will include installation of utilities, replacement of existing windows and doors, and the cutting of additional west-facing doors overlooking the Napa River and a new patio along the water, according to architect Sarah Marshall of Napa Design Partners. Afterward, workers will use the third phase to install the brewery, commercial kitchen and a tasting bar, Marshall said Wednesday. First-stage repairs should cost about $340,000, according to Nielson, who had no immediate cost estimates for the remainder of the project. Although the Napa quake dislodged some stone blocks and required the re-grouting of others, steel reinforcement beams the city added in the 2000s appear to have helped the Borreo endure relatively unscathed, the architect said during a brief tour of the building. Unlike other downtown venues such as the former Merrills drug store building which will keep only its terracotta facade in its transformation into the Archer hotel the Borreo will emerge from its revival substantially close to its historic form with the exception of the west-facing patio, according to Marshall. The great thing is, we heard that Stone likes to keep it industrial and simple with simple materials and letting the historic parts of the building shine through, she said of the renovation. According to Marshall, bringing the Borreo back to its older form will include details like reproducing the original windows strengthened by steel lintels and reshaping outer archways that had been widened to let vehicles enter during the buildings earlier life as a car dealership. Stones brewing equipment will be installed at the north end of the ground floor, with the restaurant kitchen at the opposite end. Overhead-opening glass doors on the west will lead guests toward the new patio, occupying a side of the Borreo that originally was concealed by adjoining buildings that have since been torn down. The restaurants dining room will take up two-thirds of the upper floor, and a mechanical platform will be added to the roof to support a new climate-control system. Stone, which opened in 1996 and maintains its main brewery in Escondido, is the nations 10th-largest craft brewer by volume and ranks 15th when mainstream giants such as Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors are taken into account, according to the Brewers Association trade group. It is one of the handful of craft beer makers mounting major expansions across the U.S. and into overseas markets, with a brewery under construction in Richmond, Virginia and another planned for Berlin, Germany. The Borreo Building is owned by West Pueblo Partners, which bought the Italian Renaissance-style edifice from the city after gaining approval in January for its brewery and restaurant plans. The purchase was sealed after years of false starts, including abortive plans to create offices for the city Community Resources Department and the Land Trust of Napa County. A tiny parking lot beside the Borreo will be converted into a drop-off zone for customers and delivery trucks, leaving visitors either to park at downtown garages, or walk or take taxis from nearby hotels. New pavement, seating and flagpoles may become some of the ingredients for a more inviting park at the southern tip of Yountville. But the mayor finds one element wanting in the recipe an easily visible tribute to the service members for whom Veterans Memorial Park is named. Staff and council members in the Upvalley town are nearing an agreement to overhaul the green space at California Drive and Washington Street, which once formed a corner of the Veterans Home of California. Budgeted at $350,000, the makeover would include a landscaped entryway with the U.S., California and POW/MIA flags on display, as well as amphitheater-style seating for musical performances and the replacement of deteriorated pavement. In a Town Council discussion about the parks future, however, Mayor John Dunbar asked for assurances the site can be a shrine and not just a convenience, urging the town to come up with sculpture or other public art to match the parks name. When (this plan) was originally brought to us, we saw a picture of a granite slab that represented the military branches, he told council members earlier this month. Id like to see our version of that somewhere, because this is Veterans Memorial Park. This is not just a park at the south end of town. Located south of the belt of fine restaurants and wine tasting rooms along Washington Street, Veterans Memorial Park is the first landmark seen by thousands of vacationers as they enter the tourist enclave from Highway 29. The property originally belonged to the state-run Veterans Home to the west, but was isolated from the rest of the campus by the construction of Highway 29 starting in the late 1950s, according to Joe Tagliaboschi, town public works director. In recent years, the town has added bocce courts, benches, restrooms and drinking fountains and improved pathways at the site, which each summer hosts about a half-dozen small-scale music concerts. Town plans call for a new surface to replace existing pavers at the parks north end to improve safety and wheelchair access. To more comfortably host audiences for the town Music in the Park program, officials also seek to create bench-like seating rows for about 120 spectators in addition to standing room, said Samantha Holland, Yountville parks and recreation director. Closest to the California-Washington crossing, and only yards from the Highway 29 interchange, will be a new entry area adorned with ornamental plants. Two flagpoles would flank the entrance, with the Stars and Stripes and black POW/MIA standard on one pole and the California bear flag on the other. Earlier proposals for the park included the medallions of the various service agencies, but Yountville dropped the idea because the use of those symbols would require Department of Defense approval and add delays to the project, Tagliaboschi said. Im really disappointed to see the loss of the representation of the branches of service, said Dunbar at the Town Councils June 7 meeting. Id like to see that returned in some capacity. Instead, tributes to the military could take the form of town commissions to sculptors and artists. Holland said the veterans park should have room to display at least two, and possibly three, public artworks, for which the town can specify military themes. The mayor also suggested a park concept weaving the theme of service more intimately with the grounds akin to the Roots of Peace Grove at the nearby Veterans Home, which includes redwoods symbolizing the wars in which U.S. troops have fought from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan. I know you can be creative, said Dunbar. Were going to significant effort and expense for this. After a 30-day recruiting period, Yountville is slated to choose a bidder and have the parks renovation begin in late September or early October, with a completion target of Jan. 1, Tagliaboschi said. Napa Valley may produce only a small percent of Americas wine, but it has a huge reputation. That was demonstrated when Matthias Fekl, the French Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Tourism, and Promotion of French Nationals Abroad, visited Napa Valley on June 8 to discuss topics in the field of globalization and free trade. The trade minister, who had never been to California, stopped here with his staff on his way to Washington, D.C. for talks about the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade agreement between the European Union and the U.S. Fekl initiated the visit to see firsthand who we are, what we are about and what we are fighting for. At Silverado Vineyards, he met with members of the Napa Valley Vintners including President/CEO Linda Reiff and government relations director Rex Stults plus board members including Susan Boswell of Chateau Boswell Winery, Pat Stotesbery of Ladera Vineyards and Russ Weis, general manager of Silverado Vineyards. Reiff outlined how Napa Valley has earned the reputation for producing wines of the highest quality, which inspired copycats who exploited the Napa Valley name on bottles of wine that are not from here. Aside from being unfair to Napa Valley wineries and growers, its obviously misleading to consumers. She outlined Broncos misuse of the Napa Valley name as well as parts of the valley like Rutherford, which was finally solved with a state law, as well as Chinese and even European deception. As a result, the Napa Valley Vintners group spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year just to protect the name from misuse. This has included initiating geographic indication status from the E.U., the first non-European region to be recognized, and agreements with many other countries. She also emphasized that the Vintners want us to be fair, too. She noted that no Napa Valley sparkling wine producers call their wines California champagne anymore, though some are grandfathered in and other California producers do. Interestingly, some California producers who do, like Korbel, Gallos Barefoot Bubbly and Constellation Brands Cooks, market their wines in Canada successfully without the false nomenclature. Reiff admitted that some Napa producers still call their sweet dessert wines Port but she says theyre trying to find an alternative and get them to stop that practice. She also said that it is time for the U.S. government to respect and protect all wine-making place names, whether it is Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley or Chablis, by ending the misuse of these famous geographic names, such as Champagne, Chablis, Burgundy, Port, etc., perhaps phasing them out over a five- or 10-year period. The French are also trying to outlaw use of many French terms traditionally used in the wine business such as chateau and clos. But, of course, English speakers have borrowed French words at least since William of Normandy beat English King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. However, the French representatives noted something few here seemed to know, that some of these terms, like chateau have specific meanings, especially in Bordeaux, somewhat like estate, or made from owned vines, here. They did suggest that it might be reasonable to expand the term to wines made from nearby vines or a region, though thats not likely to satisfy the many wineries with chateau in their names and no geographic sense. After the formal talks, the French and Napa Valley representatives enjoyed an elegant lunch prepared by chef Sarah Scott with Silverado wines on the patio overlooking Napa Valley. One wine was an excellent 2012 Solo cabernet leading one French official to ask whether Napa wines can age like those in Bordeaux. This motivated Silverado general manager Russ Weis to pull out a 1997 cabernet. It was refined and elegant, a bit surprising in a hot year when many winemakers made highly extracted high alcohol wines that havent aged so well. Just as the group had agreed not to discuss Donald Trump, however, no one put the French on the spot by asking them how they liked the wines. Many did have seconds, however. Armenian News-NEWS.am spoke with Greek Ambassador Ioannis Taghis, who is completing his diplomatic mission in Armenia next month. Mr. Ambassador, what is the current state of the Greek economy, particularly in the tourism sector? Is the [economic] crisis behind? What development dynamics is being observed today? Tourism became a stimulus so that the Greek economy develops after the years of the crisis. The crisis created a very difficult situation for the countrys economy, but tourism contributed so that the economy fills in some gaps and restores quite quickly and effectively. The tourism appeal of Greece is growing every year, and the country's economy is directly dependent on investments in the tourism sector. In this sense, the year 2015 was unprecedented in terms of tourism business income, plus the opening of new jobs. In which domains does Greece cooperate with Armenia? Will there be new cooperation platforms and domains in the future? Cooperation is carried out in the tourism sector itself. There are several Armenian travel agencies that organize trips to Greece. They mostly travel to Greece, but through various [travel] agencies, tourists also come from Greece to Armenia. The flow of tourists from Armenia to Greece is growing every year. The number of Armenian citizens applying to the embassy of this country to get a visa is also increasing. It is noteworthy that Armenia likewise has started to enjoy popularity among Greek tourists, as an ancient Christian country. I should add that there is collaboration on other domains, too. For example, aluminum is imported from Greece to Armenia. Since we mentioned tourism, which sights have you visited in Armenia? I was in Erebuni Museum, which I liked very much. I think that the ancient temples here can attract not only me, but Greek tourists visiting Armenia. Given that the two peoples are very close to each other with history, spirit, it will be very interesting for the Greeks to interact with Armenians, along with sightseeing. Can some works of art from Greece, lets say from the new museum in Acropolis, be brought to Armenia for display? The works of art are not limited to the Acropolis Museum alone; many works are in other museums. But it is difficult to relocate such works of art, which have great historical value; this is connected with quite expensive insurance services. But I can say that an archaeologist-lecturer from Greece is scheduled to visit Armenia soon, for two-day lectures at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. I should also note that Armenia likewise has a lot of things to display from the viewpoint of arts, which are of great historical value. The term of your diplomatic mission [in Armenia] will end next month. What will you remember from Armenia? What will you take with you? And will you come back later, at least as a tourist? I will remember that my work here went very smoothly. We have implemented numerous cooperation projects with Armenians. I will come back, if I can, to cooperate again. And if there is no such opportunity, [I will return] also as a tourist. It is easy to work with Armenians because they have a lot in common with Greeks. First of all, we have a similar history. We are also alike in the way of living, some traditions. The upcoming meeting of Armenia , Azerbaijan, and Russia is directed against the OSCE Minsk Group 's efforts. Those are the consequences of Russias, one of the Minsk Group co-chairing countries, recent active policy, said an MP of Karabakh Armen Sargsyan to NEWS.am. The MP has no expectations from the meeting for several reasons. "First, it is difficult to achieve results immediately after the events of April. Second, one of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, Russia, began to act more actively. It is natural, since Russia has more claims to the Caucasus as opposed to France and the United States. That is why Russia has become more active, but I do not think that the meeting will have much success , "said Armen Sargsyan. According to the MP, a success will be registered only in case of installing equipment that will show what party first fires a shot. He reminded that that statement was made by the Armenian President, who expected the negotiations to be resumed afterwards . "But in the last 23 years the Azerbaijani side says one thing, but does the opposite. Azerbaijan speaks about a peaceful settlement, but the Azerbaijani President states that even Yerevan is a land of Azerbaijan. In other words, their approach is not serious. Today Azerbaijan has no will to solve the issue of Karabakh, "said Armen Sargsyan. The Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg on June 20 will hold separate meetings on Karabakh with the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, followed by a trilateral meeting. Commander of Lithuanian Armed Forces against transfer of howitzers and air defense systems to Ukraine Armenian Finance Ministry gives outlook on economic activity and debt ratio Minister: Rehabilitation works after Azerbaijani Armed Forces' invasion continue About 230 kilometers of roads are being built and repaired in Syunik Bloomberg: Europe has more gas than it can use Pashinyan says he would like to sign Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal before end of year 168.am: President of Artsakh leaves for Russian capital Armenia's Pashinyan: I will attend trilateral meeting in Sochi Bloomberg: China's budget deficit since beginning of year approached record trillion dollars PM: There is expectation that CSTO will adopt roadmap to restore Armenias territorial integrity Pope receives Armenian FM Armenia ruling party convention to be closed to media Dollar falls, euro rises in Armenia Kremlin: Russia has information that Ukraine is preparing terrorist attack using 'dirty bomb' Governor underscores EU envoy to Armenias efforts in returning of Shirak Province POWs (PHOTOS) Putin: US is using Ukraine as battering ram against Russia, CSTO, and CIS Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak leaves Russia Russian military practices massive nuclear strike in response to nuclear attack of adversary Germany restricts visas for Iranian passport holders Belarus Foreign Minister visits Iran Iran expands sanctions against EU Zatulin says it is necessary to discuss relations between Russia and Armenia at different levels Ardshinbank is the only company from Armenia with assigned ratings from the big three credit rating agencies Armenia Security Council chief receives OSCE needs assessment mission members Kremlin comments on deployment of American division in Romania Iltalehti: draft bill on Finland's membership in NATO allows deployment of nuclear weapons Kremlin informs about preparation for Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan leaders meeting Armenia envoy briefs Costa Rica president on South Caucasus situation Legislature head on chances of Armenia leaving CSTO: There is very little time left for us to make decision Mercedes confirms intention to leave Russia Armenia parliament speaker: No document on table Air-raid alarm sirens to be installed in Estonia Armenia legislature head: PM will go to Sochi on October 31, meet with Russia, Azerbaijan presidents US State Department: Armenia, Azerbaijan should decide whether Putin's invitation would be useful to them US transfers to Ukraine first 2 NASAMS complexes Armenia National Assembly speaker: Phrase about signing peace treaty by years end is tacit deadline Armenia parliament speaker: We have 240 casualties as result of Azerbaijan attack Armenia FM in Vatican, meets with Substitute for Holy See Secretariat of State for General Affairs Israel president gives US intel on Iran UAVs in Ukraine Copper prices are rising World oil prices falling Armenia MPs approve several changes to laws FM: Armenia has never lost its belief in humanity despite facing many challenges, calamities Canada embassy to soon be opened in Armenia Biden: Russia would be making serious mistake to use tactical nuclear weapon Margarita Simonyan says she is banned from entering Armenia Newspaper: Artsakh Public Council establishment causes concern in political arena First sneakers for horses created in US India fines Google for $113 million Mass dedicated to peace in Armenia is celebrated at Vatican Saudi Arabia decides to be more mature guy in its quarrel with US Biden says Russia would make 'serious mistake' if it deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine Ukrainian media report on Dnipro rocket attack Romania plans to intensify talks on Black Sea and military purchases Karekin II and Aram I refuse to participate in World Armenian Forum IMF Director: Ukraine's need for external financing could reach $5 billion month Turkey continues to beat out gas discount from Russia and payment deferral from Gazprom Alen Simonyan refuses to participate in fifth meeting of Russian-Armenian Lazarev Club New Serbian government plans to invest 12 billion euros in energy projects UN Security Council to meet at Russia's request over accusations that Iran is supplying drones to Russia Leading Wall Street bankers warn of recession in US and Europe Armenian FM tells Vatican secretary of state about Azerbaijani aggression Secretary of Armenian Security Council holds telephone conversation with Biden's aide IEA head: World still needs Russian oil to flow into the market Norwegian police arrest man on suspicion of spying for Russia Ambassador-at-Large meets with Personal Representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office EU to offer banks to offer mandatory instant payments in euros Ambassador: Active efforts of Armenian authorities are registering regress in Armenian-Russian relations Saudi minister: Saudi Arabia and US will overcome unjustified spat Zatulin: My ban on entering Armenia coincides with trilateral meeting planned in Russia Rishi Sunak vows to fix 'mistakes' of Liz Truss MFA comments on information about meeting of special envoys of Armenia and Turkey Daily Sabah: Armenian, Turkish special representatives next meeting planned in Turkey The Telegraph: US President Biden mispronounces Rishi Sunak's name Zelenskyy proposes creating platforms for the 'de-occupation' of Transnistria and Abkhazia 'Armenia' bloc deputy: Nikol Pashinyan and Suren Papikyan are lying Dollar falls, euro rises Stanislav Zass discusses with Lavrov situation in CSTO zone of responsibility New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife are richer than royalty Klaar: EU actively engaged in Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process at all levels A Levada-Centera Russian independent, non-governmental polling and sociological research organizationsurvey shows that 70 percent of Russians know about the first major clashes that occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh in early April, ever since 1994. As per the Russian respondents of this survey, the initiator of these hostilities in Karabakh is first of all the US and NATO countries (23%), Azerbaijan (19%), Turkey (15%), and Armenia (4%), according to Kommersant newspaper of Russia. According to polls, however, solely 11 percent of the Russians follow the respective events. A total of 67 percent of the respondents favor none of the sides, 15 percent supports the Armenian side, whereas 4 percentthe Azerbaijani. In addition, the Russians are not ready to engage in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. To the question on whom should Russia support in this conflict, 66 percent responded no one, 11 percent believes that it would be right to support the Armenian side, whereas 3 percentthe Azerbaijani side. A total of 29 percent of the respondents have a rather positive view toward deploying Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, whereas 12 percent has a very negative opinion in this regard. In addition, 40 percent of the Russian citizens find it difficult to answer as to which countrys part Nagorno-Karabakh should be. A total of 6 percent believes it should be a part of Azerbaijan, 11 percentof Armenia, but 44 percent believes that Nagorno-Karabakh should be independent. Azerbaijan is once again violating the human rights and fundamental freedoms at a state level by impeding European journalists right to free movement and freedom of speech, the statement disseminated by the European Friend of Armenia (EuFoA) reads. According to the statement, this has not only become a usual practice for Azerbaijan, but has also turned into a subject of boasting in media. This time the spokesperson for the Azerbaijani MFA announced that the Moldavian TV7 channel journalist Lyuba Maksim was sacked this May for visiting Karabakh and preparing a story about the country. The European Friend of Armenia (EuFoA) Brussels-based NGO expresses deep concern in connection with the incident, urging the international human rights organizations to take respective measures, EuFoA statement reads. The representatives of the organization also provided certain explanations on the incident. In their words, the Moldavian Tv7 journalist Lyuba Maksim arrived in Karabakh together with the operator at the invitation of EuFoA, this having been agreed with the TV company administration. But now EuFoA is concerned about the fact that the TV7 administration, which knew about the place and purpose of the journalists visit, sacked their worker, entering into bargain with the criminal regime of Azerbaijan, and thereby calling into question the level of freedom of press in Moldavia. By this step the Azerbaijani side is once again trying to limit the attempts to present information on Karabakh in the international platform, seeking to sow fear among Moldavian and foreign journalists, thereby excluding their future visits to Karabakh, the statement reads. EuFoA is going to present this incident in high international platforms and human rights organization in order to restore the violated rights of the journalist and impose sanctions on the criminal regime of Azerbaijan. YEREVAN. - Officers of the Border Service (BS) of the Federal Security Service (FSS) of the Russian Federation in Armenia have detained an Angola citizen, who illegally crossed the Armenian-Turkish border. On June 15, the trespasser sailed over the border Araks river, crossed the alarm complex using special knowledge, and moved several dozens of meters along the border, trying to cover up traces, FSS BS press-service reports. Soon the trespasser attempted to go deeper into the territory of Armenia. Upon seeing the stranger, the locals operatively informed the border guard station about him. Consequently, the man was detained and handed over to the Russian border guards in Yervandahsat village. The preliminary questioning revealed that the detainee is a Angola citizen born in 1982, and that he wanted to reach Angola via Armenia. On the same day, the border trespasser was handed over to the officers of the National Security Service of Armenia, who will check out his identity and look into the circumstances behind this offense The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is launching a negotiation process on developing trade and economic relations with China. Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), Tigran Sargsyan, said the aforementioned at a round-table discussion entitled EAEU and Trade Partners: Single Economic Space in the framework of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), EAEU press-service reports. Upon the initiative of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the presidents of EAEU member-states announced 2016 as a year of deepening relations with third countries and economic unions. During the discussion, Sargsyan informed the discussion participants about the signing of a memorandum with Singapore and launch of dialogue with that country this May. The round-table discussion was attended by Member of the Board - Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the EEC Tatyana Valovaya, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Christian Friis Bach, President of the Eurasian Development Bank Dmitry Pankin, President of the European Business Association, etc. Cal State Fullerton will join a statewide effort led by San Francisco State University to expand college access for formerly incarcerated individuals. CSUF is one of seven California State University campuses including Bakersfield, Fresno, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino and San Diego that will establish programs modeled after SF States Project Rebound. Established in 1967 by the late John Irwin, a formerly incarcerated individual who became a SF State sociology professor and internationally recognized advocate for prisoners rights, the program helps those who have spent time in jail or prison earn college degrees, drastically reducing the likelihood they will return to incarceration. The expansion is funded through a $500,000 Renewing Communities grant from The Opportunity Institute. As an institution that embraces academic excellence and respects and supports diverse scholars and students from all backgrounds, California State University, Fullerton looks forward to welcoming students who are seeking a second chance through higher education, said Mildred Garcia, president of Cal State Fullerton. I am proud to partner with San Francisco State and our other CSU sister campuses in supporting this historically underserved population, and confident Project Rebound adds to our legacy of purveying equitable access to higher education for all those who seek it. Supported by several University departments, Project Rebound offers special admissions for men and women who may not normally qualify for acceptance. Cal State Fullertons three-year pilot program will include a staff of formerly incarcerated individuals who have achieved academic success; and offer financial support for Project Rebound students in the form of textbook stipends, transportation and meal vouchers; and offer financial aid, academic advising, and assistance with housing, employment and legal aid. CSUF plans to enroll its first Project Rebound students in spring 2017. However, prospective students can contact the program office in Room 230 of the Humanities-Social Sciences Building as early as July and begin the application process in August, said Brady Heiner, assistant professor of philosophy, who is overseeing the programs launch on campus. The search for CSUFs program coordinator begins this summer, with the hope of finding formerly incarcerated candidates. The coordinator will start in the fall, Heiner said. Many currently and formerly incarcerated Californians have the interest, aptitude, and ambition for university education, but have in recent history had no access or support to actualize that ambition, he said. CSU Project Rebound aims to create that access and support to make higher education a reality for these individuals. And by supporting such students, Rebound will play a part in building stronger, safer communities. The data bears out the dramatic impact a college education can have on the formerly incarcerated. California has historically suffered from one of the highest recidivism rates in the nation, with up to two-thirds of those released from prison returning within a few years. But for those who participate in college programs, the odds of doing so are reduced by 51 percent, according to a RAND study on correction education. In 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, the number of Project Rebound students who returned to prison was just 3 percent. At SF State, more than 90 percent of Project Rebound students eventually graduate, and at a faster rate than the overall student population, according to Jason Bell, the programs director. Bell spent nine years in prison and earned his bachelors and masters degrees at SF State through the program. When a person leaves prison, theyre often told, Just go out there and do the right thing, Bell said. But how do you accomplish that if you dont have places to help you do whats considered the right thing? Education is definitely one of those places, and Project Rebound has been a pioneer in making sure those leaving the criminal justice system have access. According to Project Rebound Data Specialist and program alum Airto Morales, expanding that access is critical because many of those just released from prison cannot travel outside a specified area and therefore cannot come to San Francisco to study without violating their parole. Morales himself spent 10 years in prison before earning both his bachelors and masters degrees from SF State with the help of Project Rebound. When you come to a university, which is a huge place, after living on a prison yard for so many years, to be able to walk into an office and know that there is someone who understands what youre going through helps a lot, Morales said. Bell will spend the next year getting Project Rebound programs at each of the other CSU campuses off the ground, establishing program leaders at each site and setting up a pipeline of students to be enrolled the following year. Im really excited, and I just want to get to work, Bell said. I want to prove to people how important this is, to the state and to the nation. The Renewing Communities initiative is also funding six other pilot programs. The initiative is supported by nine state and national foundations, including The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, Roy & Patricia Disney Family Foundation, ECMC Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Rosenberg Foundation. Media Contacts: Cerise Valenzuela Metzger, 657-278-3708 Chi-Chung Keung, 657-278-8487 Jonathan Morales, San Francisco State University, 415-338-1743 23:23 Delhi University's prestigious St Stephen's College on Saturday announced the first cut-off list for the 2016-17 academic session with the highest requirement being for English honours at 99 per cent even as the institution saw a dip in the number of applications this year. The cut-off for admission to the college remained almost similar to that of the previous year. The college had last year received a record 32,100 applications but this year only 23,500 have been received for the 400 seats. The cut-off for a seat in the Stephen's English Honours class works out to 99 per cent for Commerce, 98 per cent for Science and 97.50 per cent for humanities, the highest for the subjects on offer at the college. For Economics, the cut-off is 98.25 per cent for commerce students, 97.25 per cent for science and 96.75 per cent for humanities. For History, BA Programme, Mathematics, Sanskrit and Philosophy, the cut-offs are 98, 97, 96.50, 80 and 97 per cent respectively. Last year too, the highest cut-off was for English at 99 per cent. However, the cut-offs for BA programme, Economics and Maths have actually dropped for certain streams this year. Stephen's being a minority institution follows a schedule and procedure for admission which is different from other Delhi University colleges. But for the first time, the college was asked to join the centralised registration process and hence those applying to St Stephen's had to register on DU's admission portal first. HYDERABAD: India's biggest data centre will come up in Hyderabad, Telangana Information Technology Minister K. T. Rama Rao announced on Wednesday. He told reporters that the state government is trying to find an anchor for the data centre campus. The state will also unveil in next three months four supportive sectoral policies - cyber security, data analytics, data centre and open data. KTR, as the minister is popularly known, said the centre was planned in view of the global trend of countries keeping data generated in their respective territories with themselves. The minister said he already held talks with few companies in the US. A meeting will be held soon in Delhi. "We are hopeful of finding an anchor soon," he added. He said if the data centre comes up, vertical and horizontal integration will throw up many opportunities. "The centre will require hardware manufacturing like servers. It will also contribute to sectors cyber security and data analytics," he said. KTR also announced that VLSI design centre would also be set up in Hyderabad this year. This will be first such facility in the country. AMD has agreed to be a partner in VLSI design centre. He said they were holding talks with various companies. All major companies are expected to be part of this unique centre. Read Also: Working on IoT Platform: Tata Teleservices Reliance Jio Takes 6th Spot On Data Usage SIU honored for its support of international students by Christi Mathis CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University Carbondale has earned national recognition for the care and support it provides to international students. SIU is a recipient of the 2016 LASPAU University Award, presented by the Harvard University-affiliated organization for the assistance SIU has given to LASPAU-administered scholarship grantees. Cheryl Barnett, international recruitment coordinator for SIUs Center for International Education, accepted the award on behalf of the university on June 2 during the annual conference of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, in Denver, Colo. The Latin American Scholarship Program of American Universities (LASPAU) is an education networking organization that awards and administers Fulbright Program grants and other prestigious scholarships to individuals form Latin America and the Caribbean who are pursuing graduate study in the United States. The organization works with more than 1,000 institutions and thousands of individuals in 34 countries. We value your commitment in supporting exceptional educational opportunities to our grantees and for going above and beyond our expectations, Angelica Natera, executive director of LASPAU, wrote when announcing SIU is a 2016 award recipient. SIU has worked with LASPAU for at least 35 years, according to Elaine Conrad, community and educational programs coordinator for the Center for International Education, and Ratna Sinha, assistant dean of the Graduate School. Through LASPAU, numerous Fulbright students and prestigious scholarship students pursued their graduate degrees at SIU, including seven who attended SIU in the spring, Barnett said. SIU welcomed 37 LASPAU students between 2011 and 2015. My own department has benefited from a long series of outstanding LASPAU graduate students for decades, noted Susan Ford, interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs and professor of anthropology. The mutual benefits for the students, SIU and their home countries are manifest and it is a wonderful honor for all at SIU who work with LASPAU students to receive this award. The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the State Departments Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is an international educational exchange program created to facilitate cultural exchanges and encourage mutual understanding between people from the United States and other countries. The program awards grants for students, scholars, teachers and professionals to participate in graduate studies, advanced research or teaching within universities and elementary and secondary schools. Working with LASPAU and Fulbright grantees has greatly impacted my own research and teaching program here at SIU Carbondale, Andrew Carver, interim director of the Center for International Education and professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences, said. Like many faculty and graduate students at SIU, I have developed life-long collaborations with LASPAU and Fulbright Program grantees from around the world. These opportunities for academic and cultural exchange make SIU a unique resource for the entire region. SIUs Graduate School, Center for International Education and International Friends Club work together with LASPAU and LASPAU students. The International Friends Club (IFC), which is affiliated with the Center for International Education, was created in 1981 to provide activities and support for the universitys international students and scholars. The clubs members are faculty, staff, students and dedicated community members from around the region who volunteer their time and energy. The group has more than a dozen programs including the Host Family Program, English in Action and Language Exchange, the Loan Closet, the weekly International Coffee Hour and the International Womens Support Group. LASPAU noted ongoing and recent actions of the university and its International Friends Group as reasons SIU was chosen for the honor. One example of the support for international students took place this spring when a LASPAU student at SIU suffered a stroke. The Emergency Response Team is an IFC program created to assist international students in emergency situations such as that. A club member spent many hours at the hospital with the student as well as staying in contact with family members, transporting them to and from the hospital and keeping SIU officials informed of the students progress. Conrad visited with the student as well and acted as a liaison with LASPAU during the recovery period. Conrad said the club member went above and beyond to assist the student and his family and LASPAU recognized the university and its affiliated organizations and their members for providing such support and care for international students. We are very honored to receive this prestigious award and we look forward to continuing our support for these bright and beautiful minds, Sinha said. From farmer to feminist, hacker, judge, surfer, scientist, geologist, and community organizermeet the people who dared to think and act differently in the Division of Social Sciences Second Annual Summer Reading List. Rebels and Visionaries is the theme for 2016, inspired from the divisions Dream is Still Alive video. We asked students, faculty, staff, and alumni from the social sciences to share a book about an inspiring person or a provocative idea, a social movement or an influential leader. Who questioned authority? Who pioneered a bold concept? Who sought social, political, economic, or environmental change? The suggestions form a rich collection that crosses disciplines and spans decades. Chancellor George Blumenthal recommended Go East Young Man (Random House, 1974), the memoir of U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas pre-judicial life. Sheldon Kamieniecki, dean of the Division of Social Sciences and a professor in the environmental studies department suggests Rachel Carsons Silent Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1962), one of the first books to raise awareness about environmental problems to a wider public. Others recommendations include recent Pulitzer prize winner Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by alum and now New Yorker writer, William Finnegan (Cowell, '74, English literature) and Saving Capitalism by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich,who spoke to the UC Santa Cruz community earlier this year about politics and capitalism. Distinguished UC Santa Cruz professor Bettina Apthekers memoir, Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech and Became A Feminist Rebel was also suggested for its relevance today. Additional suggestions acknowledge the previous generation that helped inspire the next. "When I was a graduate student, I didnt have any female scientist role models, so I have always enjoyed reading accounts of the different paths women have taken to succeed in science, says Karen Holl, professor of environmental studies about her recommendation, Lab Girl (Penguin Random House, 2016) by Hope Jahren. Other notable figures on the list include grassroots community organizer Fred Ross, internet activist Aaron Swartz, and critical pedagogy advocate Paulo Freire. You can see all the recommendations on the Division of Social Sciences website:http://socialsciences.ucsc.edu/reading/2016.html UF alum shows $10 million worth of appreciation Joseph Hernandez's investment creates an endowment to support the chemistry department A son of Cuban immigrants who has three University of Florida degrees has invested $10 million in his alma mater to enhance UFs chemistry department so future chemists and other alumni will be better positioned to explore solutions to societys greatest challenges. New York entrepreneur Joseph Hernandezs gift creates an endowment that will forever provide funds for classroom, research and student support. Hernandez, 43, is the youngest donor in UFs history to make a gift this large. A new campus chemistry building is under construction and will be named Joseph Hernandez Hall in recognition of his generosity. The 110,000-square-foot building is expected to open within a year. The University of Florida changed my life. Im grateful for the knowledge I obtained there and for the great memories that have shaped my life, Hernandez said. Im forever indebted to this great institution and hope my minor gesture helps future students and the faculty who will change those students lives. UFs chemistry department is one of the nations leaders in granting doctoral and bachelors degrees. The new chemistry building, along with Hernandezs gift, will further enable the university to provide students with a world-class educational experience so they are better prepared for careers in health, the sciences and other fields. Joes investment in UFs chemistry department will touch the lives of thousands of students each year, UF President Kent Fuchs said. It will also enable faculty to be more effective educators while achieving even greater excellence in research. David Richardson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which is home to UFs chemistry department, said Hernandezs gift is transformational. Joe's gift will seed innovation and accelerate the entrepreneurial spirit within the department of chemistry, Richardson said. Joe is a model for the application of broad scientific knowledge in business, and he is the kind of UF graduate students can emulate as they look to their futures. This endowment will vastly increase the departments momentum as it seeks to build national leadership in research and teaching. Joes generous support will be pivotal in helping UF achieve its aspiration and its goals. Hernandez earned a UF bachelors degree in interdisciplinary studies in 1996 and a pair of masters degrees two years later, one in business administration and the other in medical sciences. He is a serial biotech entrepreneur whose lifes work is improving medical care. His expertise is in diagnostic and therapeutic industries, and he is founder of numerous health-related companies, among them Microlin Bio and Sydys Corp. to treat cancer, Ember Therapeutics for regenerative medicines and Prolias Technologies for genetic cytology. The key task for Russia's recently restructured state development bank, Vnesheconombank VEB, will be supporting long-term projects in the high-tech sector, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.Putin also told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russia links its future with openness to the world.REUTERS RSD PR1745 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-790977.Xml Actor Jesse Eisenberg is all praise for his "Now You See Me 2" co-star Daniel Radcliffe, saying he is "wonderful" in the film. Directed by Jon M. Chu, "Now You See Me 2", a sequel to the 2013 film "Now You See Me", also stars Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Lizzy Caplan and Morgan Freeman among others. "I think people are going to be really surprised by how wonderful Daniel is in the movie -- not because they don't know that he is wonderful, but because the character is so different," Eisenberg said in a statement. "He really plays that guy who is this kind of conniving and also a charming villain. He is a guy who seems to love himself, but in private is insecure and angry," he added. Distributed in India by PVR Pictures, "Now You See Me 2" will release on Friday. --IANS ank/rb ( 158 Words) 2016-06-17-04:20:03 (IANS) Police said here today sleuths of Government Railway Police (GRP), on the basis of a tip-off, conducted a raid in a bogey of Balia -Sealdah express at Barauni station, leading to seizure of liquor and firearms. "A total of 18 bottles of IMFL, three pistols and one rifle were recovered from the bogey during the search operation," police said, adding that no one travelling in the bogey claimed to be the owner of the seized consignment." Raids were being carried out to nab the criminals involved in smuggling of firearms and liquor, police stated. UNI XC KKS AD PY AS1548 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-788709.Xml Soon after the House assembled for the day, Speaker P Dhanapal read out a condolence motion mourning the death of Seenivel, who was elected from Tiruparankundram constituency in Madurai in the May 16 Assembly elections. He won the polls by more than 20,000 votes defeating his DMK rival M Maniramaran. However, Seenivel suffered a stroke and was admitted to a private hospital in Madurai. He died on May 25, a couple of hours before the newly elected members took oath as MLAs in the State Assembly. After adopting the condolence resolution, the members of the House observed a two minutes silence as a mark of respect to the departed soul. The House also made obituary references in respect of five former members, who died recently. Later, the Speaker adjourned the House to June 20, when the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address would be taken up for discussions. The first session of the 15th Legislative Assembly would conclude on June 23.UNI GV CNR Rss1050 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-790145.Xml A militant was killed in an encounter with security forces at Sopore in Baramulla district today, official sources said. They said that on a tip-off, security forces and Special Operation Group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police launched a joint search operation at Bomai in Sopore. However, when the security forces were sealing the area, militants hiding there opened fire which was returned ensuing a fierce encounter. So far, one militant has been killed, they said, adding that the operation was on as there could be more militants in the area.UNI BAS SB 1000 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-790097.Xml Pronouncing the quantum of sentence for the 24 convicts in the Gulberg society massacre, a special SIT court in Ahmadabad on Friday awarded life-imprisonment to 11 accused, seven-year jail term to 12 others and a 10-year prison term for another guilty in this case. The case pertains to the massacre of 69 people, including former Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, during communal riots in Gujarat on February 28, 2002. During the hearing earlier, the defence said the eight witnesses have not been able to recognize the convicts, adding minimum punishment should be given on this basis. Appearing for the accused, Rajkot-based senior lawyer Abhay Bharadwaj had earlier said that they should be given a chance to reform themselves as they don't have past criminal records. The prosecution had sought nothing less than death sentence or jail term till death for all convicts while the defence lawyers contested that the incident was spontaneous and there were enough provocations for it. Six accused had died during the trial. Of the 24 convicted today, 11 have been charged with murder, while 13 others have been convicted for lesser offences. VHP leader Atul Vaidya is among the 24 convicted in this case. Gulberg society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT. (ANI) The Uttar Pradesh Government has sent its report to the Centre over Kairana exodus row late last night. According to official sources, the two page report, by the Shamli district administration gives details of 346 families, which have allegedly been moved out owing to 'bad law and order' situation'. Sources here said today that the report was made after going thorough verification and the statusof these families. As per the report 67 families left Kairana more than 10 years ago while 179 families left thetown 4-5 years ago. Likewise, 73 families have left Kairana during the past three years owing to personal reasons like education, business or health care. Altogether 16 people mentioned on the list are dead and families of three of deceased still resides in Kairana while 7 names were found to be repeated (duplicated), the sources said. The report said 5 families were not native of Kairana but they were in fact government employees who were posted there. 27 families still live in Kairana and three families left the town because of extortion demands by criminals. However strict action was taken by police in these cases, the government stated in thereport. Remaining families enlisted in the report are said to have moved out owning reasons ofeducation, health and business related needs. On the other hand, the 9-member BJP probe team led by legislature party leader Suresh Khanna that had visited the town was scheduled to meet Governor Ram Naik here later in the day to submit its report. The team toured four villages of Kairana and Kandhla and the adjoining urban areas. Theother members of the team are party's chief whip in the assembly Dr Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, BJP MPs Satypal Singh, Raghav Lakhanpal, Dr Bhola Singh, Satish Gautam, Dharamendra Kashyap and former UP DGP Brij Lal. Meanwhile, Meerut and Shamli district authorities have banned padyatras to be takenout by BJP and SP leaders to protest 'exodus' and press for their demands. While BJP MLA Sangeet Som had announced to bring out a Nirbhaya padyatra from Meerut to Sardhana, the SP leaders had planned to counter it by holding Sadhbhavanayatra in the region. Authorities said, prohibition order under section 144 of the CrPC have been clamped in the area and all the political yatras have been banned.UNI MB SS -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0089-790303.Xml The Academy informed that the rich cultural heritage of India, specially Manipur, will be presented during the three days in different places of Congo. The troupe had performed in January at the Surien International Folklore Festival,Thailand, which was highly appreciated by the audience. The tour will be sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). UNI NS AD SB RK1159 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-790138.Xml Criminals shot dead an engineer when he resisted their robbery bid in Bhojipura area of the district here. Superintendent of Police (City) Sameer Saurabh said here today that Civil Engineer Rajeev Gangwar alias Raju(25) was coming along with his sister Vidya and her husband on two motorcycles after consulting at doctor at Sriram Murti Medical College last night. They were stopped by some criminals at Bilva roundabout and tried to snatch of Vidya's purse. When Rajeev opposed, the criminals fired on him and fled. He died on the spot. The deceased had recently left the job in Noida and was preparing for Civil Sevices.UNI MB SB RK1215 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-790200.Xml The scheme will provide financial assurance and technical knowhow to the sick distribution companies and make them come of out of inherent financial losses. According to official sources here, the MOUs were signed in presence of Union Energy Minister Piyush Goyal, Karnataka Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and Union Energy Secretary Upendra Thripathiand attended by Jawed Akthar, MD KPTCL, G V Balaram, MD KREDL, Chikkanajappa MD MESCOM, Mahadeva MD GESCOM, Kumar MD MESCOM and Ms Khubhoo Goyal Choudhury MD HESCOM. The MoUs were signed during the ongoing State Power Ministers Conference at Goa.UNI MSP CNR 1347 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0287-790324.Xml India and Thailand today agreed to deepen their Defence cooperation, including the maritime engagements after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide raging bilateral talks with his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-O-Cha. The two sides also inked two agreements, including the one to promote cultural exchanges. In a joint media briefing, Mr Modi announced the introduction of double entry e-visa for Thai nationals to facilitate their visit to Buddhist Circuit in both India and the neighbouring Nepal. Talking about the cultural connect between the two countries, Mr Modi said, "From the Legend of Rama to the Wisdom of Buddha, our ties are founded on a shared cultural heritage." Under the closer Defence partnership, the two sides agreed to share expertise and experiences; greater staff exchanges and more exercises; Cooperation on counter-piracy on seas; deeper engagement in naval patrolling; and building linkages in the field of Defence research and development and production.More UNI MK SW RJ 1436 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-790445.Xml In order to ensure adequate availability of water in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh government had ordered reconstruction of 100 extinct ponds under the scheme 'Samajwadi Jal Sanchay Yojana', PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav said here today.The state government has made a record by completing task of digging of 100 ponds in 40 days in Bundelkhand region. It will have storage power of 60 mcm of water, Mr Yadav claimed.This will improvise the situation of entire Bundelkhand, which is undergoing a severe drought situation. Both the Chief Minister and the Irrigation Minister were concerned about water scarcity in Bundelkhand, he added.Rajendra Singh, a well-known water conservationist from Alwar district, Rajasthan praised the state government's work, the Minister claimed. Mr Singh, also known as "waterman of India," had won the Stockholm Water Prize, known as "the Nobel Prize for water", in 2015, he added.UNI XC-MB JW RJ 1511 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-790472.Xml The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the eviction of more than 700 Khasis from their ancestral land at Nahar Punji of Srimangal Upazila in Moulvi Bazar in Bangladesh. The notice issued by the Dhaka district administration on June 2 directed the Khasi people to leave Nahar Punji village within June 12 alleging that they have occupied government land illegally. The notice read that the authorities will launch a special drive along with law enforcers if the residents failed to move from the village within the deadline. "All these Khasi people are in great fear, and are passing each moment with distress and worries of eviction after learning about the notice," the KHNAM said in a letter to the Prime Minister, urging him to take up the matter at the earliest with the Bangladesh government. The KHNAM said these people have been living in their ancestral land for over 75 years and have been paying taxes. It added that for safety and security of the Khasi people it is necessary to negotiate for the transfer of these land occupied by the Khasi people to India, through the Land Boundary Agreement.UNI RRK AD SW RJ NS1511 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-790374.Xml Electronic company Centum Electronics today announced its acquisition of Adetel Group of France. Adetel specializes in design, development and industrialization of embedded electronic systems fordefence, aerospace, industrial, transportation, medical and energy sectors. The company will hold 51 per cent controlling stake in Adetel Group. Apparao Mallavarapu, Chairman and Managing Director, Centum Electronics, said "We are pleased to announce an agreement to acquire majority stake in Adetel. The acquisition now makes the company one of the forerunners in the market, enhancing its already expanding growth and performance.'' ''Adetel brings in excellent services and an established customer base. This would be a pioneer step into entering new markets, giving us enormous opportunities since we have a very unique proposition of design and hightech manufacturing capabilities. This is also in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Make in India initiative," he added. Francois Sebes, CEO, Adetel, said, "I firmly believe that the strengthening of the capital base with a recognized Indian group such as centum is a great opportunity for the development and growth of Adetel Group. I can see several major industrial interests, first of all the presentation of an integrated vertical offer in our company's core business markets including Aeronautics, Defence, Medical, Transport and Industrial.''The new partnership translates to greater international presence for the group, both in terms of operations and scale for its products, technologies and competencies. The group can leverage on the high technology capabilities and creativity of Adetel along with the cost competitiveness of India and Centum in particular to increase their market share in global markets.Mr Apparao added, "This acquisition is a result of perfect synergies between two companies, ensuring greater value creation for our customers. We can now accelerate growth, fill product portfolio gaps, improve our market position, benefit from the use of even more advanced technology and of course, establish a wider, more international presence in operations and sales with facilities in France, Canada, US and Morocco." UNI RN SW RJ 1705 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0311-790765.Xml : Seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiaite immediate efforts tofind a ''permanent and pragmatic workable'' solution to the livelihood of Tamil Nadu fisher-folkthe State Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa sought his intervention to secure the release of 24fishermen and 93 fishing boats in the custody of Island nation. Bringing to the notice of the Prime Minister about the latest detention of three fishermen along with a mechanised fishing boat from Kottaiopattinam fishing-base in Pudukottai districtat Kanakesanthurai in Sri Lanka on June 15, Ms Jayalalithaa in a letter to Mr Modi said the root-cause of the menace is the ''ill-advised Indo-Sri Lankan agreements of 1974 and 1976, which unconstitutionally ceded Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka''. The Chief Minister said she had challenged the legal validity of the agreements beforethe Supreme Court on her personal capacity and subsequently the Tamil Nadu Government hadto implead itself. The case was still pending before the Apex Court, she reasoned. The AIADMK general-secretary also said in her letter that the Lankan authorities are wantonly shunning aside the traditional and historic rights of Tamil Nadu fishermen to eke out their livelihood from fishing in the traditional waters of Palk Bay. It smacks of sheer arrogance on their part, she alleged. Ms Jayalalithaa said it was indeed painful to note that the Lankan Government was nowadopting a strategy of detaining boats for a pretty long time. The prolonged detention and idling of fishing-craft without care, makes them unworthy for further sailing, thus causing immense loss and untold misery to the already beleagured fishermen, whose pathetic plights are compounding, as the day progresses gradually, she rued. The Chief Minister urged the Centre to initiate measures soon to find a permanent and pragmatic workable solution to the survival of fishermen. Ms Jayalalithaa also averred that in her letter to Mr Modi, she had requested his personal intervention in the matter and had also earnestly appealed to him to ensure that the Ministry of External Affairs renders more than adequate justice to the already maligned fishermen with aplomb at the earliest.UNI CNR KVV ADB 1655 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-790791.Xml Chairman of moderate Hurriyat Conference (HC) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq led the peaceful protests from the Jamia masjid, where he addressed the Friday congregation. However, immediately after he left for home, youths tried to march towards the main chowk, raising pro freedom slogans. Security forces and state police personnel deployed in strength stopped the demonstrators at Khawaja Chowk and did not allowed them to move forward. The protestors pelted stones on security forces, disrupting traffic movement and vehicles were diverted through other routes. Security forces later burst teargas shells to disperse the agitators, who were pelting stones from narrow lanes and bylanes. Stone pelting incidents were reported from other area of the down town and SeK.UNI BAS ASM RJ RK1620 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-790659.Xml Dindayal Meena was going to his field to inspect his crops on the bank of Parvati river when a group of miscreants opened fire at him injuring him critically this morning. Meena was admitted to primary health centre in Baroda bus and as his condition was deteriorating, he was referred to Rajasthan's Kota for further treatment. Meena's kin lodged a complaint against five people of the village for committing the crime.UNI XC-BDG SDR RJ AS1732 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0044-790871.Xml News Story not available This story has been published on: 2022-10-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. State Councilor Yang Jiechi meets with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Secretary-General Dmitry Fedorovich Mezentsev in Beijing on Dec 29. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/CHINA DAILY] China's Belt and Road Initiative has prompted broad interest not only at the official level but also among analysts and experts. The central question that many are discussing about this initiative is: "What does it mean in economic, cultural and especially geopolitical terms?" Indeed, is it just a declaration of intent or an actual, concrete and practical project? The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on June 23 and 24 will probably be an important opportunity for Chinese President Xi Jinping to re-articulate the Belt and Road Initiative and give it a more realistic shape, especially because the SCO summit will take place in the context of increasing geopolitical contradictions on the one hand and the active reformatting and accommodation of Central Asian and Eurasian spaces on the other. The Belt and Road Initiative is a long-term and ambitious strategy so is the Russian strategy of creating the Eurasian Economic Union. And the two projects are supposed to be conjugated. Those who analyze Russian and Chinese thrust for pivotal role in Central Asia often consider if Russia can provide security arrangements for the region and China can support economic development. Such a perception, however, looks quite simplistic and superficial. According to widespread and stereotypical perceptions Russia-led arrangements imply Eurasian Economic Union and Collective Security Treaty Organization and China-led arrangements imply SCO and the Belt and Road Initiative. That's why the statements about the possibility of conjugation of these two sets of arrangements look, so far, vague. The SCO's agenda, hitherto primarily focused on Central Asia, will obviously become broader with the inclusion of India and Pakistan. This would complicate the situation of the SCO's existing Central Asian members and could become an excessive burden both for these states and the organization itself. Uzbekistan's president has said the SCO is likely to be joined by two nuclear powers that are in permanent conflict. Besides, not all SCO conventions and agreements adopted within the organization are implemented in full, especially in the realm of confidence measures and military activity in the border areas. New entrants to the SCO are even more sensitive to such issues. Puducherry administration will get 283 seats as its quota of MBBS seats from the private medical colleges here this year.This is ten seats more compared to the 273 last year, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told a press conference here tonight. Mr Rao said the issue was settled at the fourth round of talks between the government and medical college representatives. Previously, the seats allotted were 263 and 264 and it was 273 in 2015-16. He said the issue of allotment of PG seats were also discussed. However, this year the PG classes were already started and the colleges agreed to consider from next year, he added. To a question,the minister said the demand was 50 per cent seats.But no deemed university is giving any seats to the government anywhere in the country and it was in Puducherry only that seats were being allotted for the government.Of the seven private medical colleges here, four are deemed universities,he added.The Lt Governor and health minister had expressed satisfaction on getting 283 seats, Mr Rao said, adding that the 273 last year was out of 1050 seats and this year it is out of 1000 seats since 50 seats were reduced at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences here. He also said that the fishermen of the four regions were sanctioned grants for the ban on fishing period besides old age pension for April and May.The money will be transferred to their accounts on Monday and Tuesday and the exchequer will incur an expenses of Rs 13.2 crore, he said. He said while the ban period in Puducherry and Karaikal regions was for 47 days, it was for 61 days in Yanam region and hence Puducherry and Karaikal fishermen will get Rs 4,000 and those in Yanam will get Rs.5500.The dredging work of the estuary here would commence before August,he said adding that the tender process is on.UNI PAB CJ RSA 2309 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-791610.Xml State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), a responsible Corporate Organisation for the growth and needs of the society, has involved a wide range of Social Service activities both in rural and urban areas to serve the community at large. As part of Corporate Social Responsibility, State Bank of Hyderabad here today donated 500 Free Parking Boards for Four wheeler, Two Wheeler and Auto Parking to Hyderabad Traffic Police for installing the same at various locations in Hyderabad to reduce the traffic congestion to the great extent. The inaugural event of donation of free parking boards to Hyderabad Traffic Police by SBH held at Traffic Police Training Institute here. Speaking on the occasion, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Jitender stated that the Traffic Police has come up with the proposal of free parking places in Hyderabad and SBH has come forward to support the initiative of Hyderabad Traffic Police by donating 500 free parking boards to Traffic Police in twin cities ( Hyderabad and Secunderabad ) to make the Hyderabad city a better place in the country to live in and also to bring awareness among the public. UNI KNR CJ RSA 2320 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-791616.Xml The Head Constable Annadurai and police constable Muthupandi, attached to Mamsapuram police station waylaid the advocate M.Rakkappan under the guise of investigating him in connection with a case on the Srivilliputhur-Mamsapuram road, this evening. An altercation erupted between the cops and the advocate. At one stage, the cops assaulted the advocate and fled. Rakkappan immediately went to Mamsapuram police station to lodge a complaint, but however it was alleged that the police refused to accept his complaint. A group of lawyers rushed to the police station and staged a dharna demanding the police to register case against the two erring police men for assaulting Rakkappan. On the intervention of senior police officials, the advocates withdraw their protest. Police have filed a FIR against two police men and are searching them. UNI GSM CJ RSA 2310 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-791655.Xml Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today said his government would design "model projects" to encourage local entrepreneurs to promote investment in the state. Briefing reporters after chairing a Single Window Agency (SWA) meeting, Dr Sangma said there would be a model of projects prepared by the department, who will be assigning the responsibility to Meghalaya Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and make the projects available in different scales. "Agro-forestry, food processing, hospitality and manufacturing sectors have been identified as priority sectors not only from viability aspect but also from capability of generating more employment for local people," he said. "We will also provide support through MIDC for a simpler credit flow and develop business summits exclusively to promote local entrepreneurs and create platform for them to have interface with potential investors from outside" the Chief Minister added. Dr Sangma said that the State government has been participating in a number of business summits and a number of proposals have been received by the Department of Commerce & Industries for investment in different parts of the State. "The trend of these investment proposals have been indicative of preferred destination and all the proposals received so far indicate Ri Bhoi district as a preferred destination, followed by East Khasi Hills and both Jaintia and West Garo Hills districts being third preferred destinations," he informed. Dr Sangma said that the Single Window Agency meeting culminated with a suggestion to the Department to encourage the State's own potential entrepreneurs. "Over the years local entrepreneurs and businessmen have been trying to diversify their investment and there is a need to reach out to those potential businessmen and entrepreneurs who are residents of the State and encourage them to look at diverse areas for investment", he said. As such the Department along with Meghalaya Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has been directed to create an enabling environment to our potential entrepreneurs to look at industrial sector in diverse fields, starting from small and medium enterprises and eventually large-scale industries by partnering with various other potential investors from outside the State, he added. As per its evaluation, the main challenge identified was that the local potential entrepreneurs need to have various options available before them for investment as new start up model projects which will give complete reflection of viability, attractiveness of such available opportunities, based on which they can decide on their investment options. The Single Window Agency examined all the proposals that were placed before it by the Department of Commerce & Industries and based on their recommendation all the proposals have been approved for providing Single Window clearance, accept two proposals that the department was asked to study further on how it would have impact on existing investment that has been approved or which are already in the pipeline. Out of the 15 proposals for investment, eight proposals were for Ri Bhoi district, three for East Khasi Hills, two for East Jaintia Hills and only one each for West Garo Hills and West Jaintia Hills. Some of the proposals approved for Single Window clearance in Ri Bhoi districts include M/S Sriram Fasteners, for manufacturing of bolts and nuts, barbed wires, etc, M/S Meghalaya Polymers, an existing plant for manufacture of plastic water tanks "Meghatex" and M/S Megha Cashew Pvt. Ltd in Byrnihat. UNI RRK CJ RSA 2327 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-791685.Xml A 22 year old girl, who was travelling by the Gorakhpur Express towards Mumbai, was pushed out of the express train by a man who forcibly entered the ladies bogie the railway police said today. The badly injured girl has been admitted to a hospital at Kalyan the police said and added that the alleged accused has been arrested and remanded to police custody upto June 20. PI Datta Vable of the Dombivili police station told this correspondent that the victim and her mother yesterday boarded the train at Nashik and were coming towards Thane. Another lady with her children was also travelling in the same bogie. At Kalyan station, her husband Dinesh Yadav tried to enter the ladies compartment which was opposed by the ladies who were in the bogie. Upon this he got annoyed and when the train started and was between Thakurli and Dombivili he pushed out the victim Rekha Navle who fell down from the running train and received injuries. As the train was not very fast she was not very seriously and was rushed to the Kalyan hospital by those in the train. The accused was nabbed by the others ladies in compartment and was handed over to the Dombivili police who arrested him and presented him in the court today for a remand. Meanwhile the Thane Guardian minister Eknath Shinde and Kalyan Dombivili Mayor Rajendra Devlekar enquired about the victim and assured all possible medical assistance to her.UNI XR CJ RSA RAI2305 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-791692.Xml The NATO alliance agreed to hold onto its broad geographic layout of bases in Afghanistan, a move that could make it easier for the United States to keep more troops there as Kabul struggles with a resurgent Taliban threat.President Barack Obama has planned to slash the number of US forces in Afghanistan from about 9,800 to 5,500 before he leaves office in 2017, despite calls from former commanders and envoys to halt the drawdown.NATO defence ministers gathered in Brussels signaled a willingness to stay, with Britain's Michael Fallon yesterday saying flatly at a news conference: "This is the wrong time to walk away from Afghanistan."He warned that any collapse of the country would send thousands more migrants heading to Europe at a time when the continent already faces uncontrolled migration flows.Fallon said US Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the ministers during closed-door talks that US troop levels were again being reviewed.Carter declined to confirm that at a news conference, saying it was "not a topic of discussion." He said Obama would be willing to consider security conditions in Afghanistan and their impact on force levels later in the year."I expect he will do that again as the year goes on," Carter said.A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Carter did not tell NATO allies during the closed-door discussions that troop levels were being reexamined.Obama has shown a willingness in the past to alter his plans in Afghanistan and last week approved giving the US military greater ability to accompany and enable Afghan forces in offensive operations, including carrying out air strikes.NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said several nations on Wednesday committed to a troop presence next year in Afghanistan, underscoring a theme likely to figure prominently at next month's NATO summit in Warsaw."With a regional presence, we will continue to advise, train and assist the Afghan national forces because we are very committed to continuing to support Afghans," Stoltenberg said.The United States contributes 6,800 troops to NATO's training mission in Afghanistan, which will fall to 3,400 under the current plan, a senior NATO diplomat told a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity. Washington also carries out a unilateral counter-terrorism mission in Afghanistan.NATO's so-called hub-and-spoke model for troops training and advising Afghan forces extends well beyond the capital Kabul to allow an international military presence at regional hubs. But NATO policymakers had been examining whether it was possible to keep those posts open, even as force levels fall."I believe we'll have sufficient resources, and our military commanders have told us we'll have sufficient resources, to stay in the basic posture," the NATO diplomat said.The diplomat also said NATO leaders are expected to agree to some 5 billion dollars in funding to sustain Afghan security forces at the current levels through 2020.The current NATO commitment to fund the Afghan security forces extends through 2017.The funding is based on maintaining a goal of 352,000 Afghan soldiers and police. The official roster includes about 320,000 members of the security forces, a US military commander said earlier this week. REUTERS PS 0528 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-788088.Xml Mr Karzai said "Islamabad wants no bilateral trade and no access to Central Asia for India which is unacceptable to Afghanistan", Mr Karzai said. ''India wants to truly befriend Afghanistan and we want Pakistan to do the same'', a report in daily Dawn based on Mr Karzai's interview to BBC Urdu service, quoted the former premier as saying. Mr Karzai claimed that India is helping Afghanistan build its infrastructure and health facilities and has "filled Afghanistan with money despite being a poor country". He said, Pakistan should also become a part of the regional coalition that comprises Afghanistan, India and Iran, but "Pakistan's condition is that Afghanistan should not have contacts with India". "If this issue is resolved, our relations with Pakistan will improve rapidly," he said. On terrorism, Mr Karzai reiterated this is a menace which has affected people of both Pakistan and Afghanistan but "we (Afghans) think they have found safe havens and are getting aid from Pakistan". "When this will stop, Pakistan too will see peace," said Mr Karzai, who ruled Afghanistan from 2004 to 2014.UNI XC SV SS 1354 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0103-790201.Xml President Pranab Mukherjee is today wrapping up his three-day first state visit to Namibia. Mr Mukherjee got strong assurance from President Hage Geingob for honouring the 2009 agreement for supply of uranium to India, stuck due to reservation from the African Union and requirements of a regional nuclear non-proliferation regime. During the visit, India also announced a generous assistance package for the West African country, which it was the first to recognise as an independent country after having supported its anti-aparthied movement and struggle for independence for decades. President Geingob said he will look into the legal ways to exempt India from Uranium trade restriction imposed on it by the Pelindaba treaty. The two leaders made a strong call for urgent reform of the United Nations Security Council(UNSC) by inclusion of India and Africa, saying that these regions with over 2 billion people could no more remain unrepresented in the world body. They also underscored the need of the collective global efforts to fight terrorism. The results of the visit, which were prominently taken note of by the national media here, also included a boost in the defence cooperation and economic cooperation. Both the leaders said that the visit had put Indo-Namibian ties on a new trajectory. An MoU for training of Namibian defence personnel by the Indian Army's Signals department was also signed. India has offered to Namibia, assistance in the acquisition of defence equipment. Besides, Nambia has invited Indian industries for mining uranium and other mineral resources. The country has announced doubling of scholarship to Namibians under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation(ITEC) programme from 100 to 200. Besides, it has also announced 1,000 tonnes of rice for Namibia's drought-hit areas and 100 tonnes of medicines, including the much-needed f Anti-Retro Virals(ARVs). The package also includes 20,000 dollars for the Indira Gandhi Clinic. India also told Namibia that it was ready to help it in its sustainable development mission by assisting in setting up solar power projects. Meanwhile, India will soon be sending its technical team to Namibia to explain to its government how the nuclear fuel supply trade still could take place with India, as it had happened in case of several other treaties without any compromise on concern over nuclear proliferation. It will explain to Namibian authorities the technical and economic details arrangements with other countries which could be replicated with Namibia too. President Mukherjee during his visit also conveyed to Namibian leadership that India was looking forward to working closely with them in their common effort to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change and in addressing other important global issues. In an interview to national Namibian daily New Era, he said,''I am confident the future will bring an upward growth trajectory in our ties. Many complementaries clearly exist. I am certain we can generate a win-win partnership in several new areas.'' The President in his banquet speech last night said India had focused on human resource development, capacity building, cultural exchanges and closer cooperation in the education and defence sectors,and it believed that its flagship programmes like Skill India, Make in India, Digital India and 100 Smart Cities could be workable models in Namibia. During the visit, during which he spoke at various for a, including a joint session of Namibian Parliament, university and business association, the President made frequent reference to India's support to the Namibian struggle for Independence. ''Our two nations, though separated by the Indian Ocean, are united by our common experience of colonial rule and struggle for freedom. India believed that her own independence in 1947 remained incomplete so long as her brethren in Africa continued to be oppressed by foreign masters. India stood shoulder to shoulder with the people of this country in their freedom movement, '' he said. He said India shared Namibia's suffering in the past and it will be an equal partner in its quest for new aspirations. He told the Namibian newspaper 'New Era' editor that India and Africa were at present among the world's fastest growing regions and were considered the two bright spots in the current global economic scenario. ''Our development partnership goes beyond the strategic concerns. This partnership does not look at the African region from the narrow lens of Africa's abundant mineral wealth,'' he said.UNI NAZ JW RJ 1443 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0364-790434.Xml A Russian serviceman has died after his convoy in Syria was attacked, the Russian Defence Ministry told local media today, saying he was the tenth Russian soldier to lose his life in the Kremlin's campaign there.The ministry was cited as saying that Mikhail Shirokopoyas, who had been sent to Russia's Hmeymim air base in Syria for three months in April, had been wounded in Aleppo province last month when a column of vehicles he was escorting was shot at.He had been flown to a military hospital in Moscow for treatment, but had died on June 7, it was quoted as saying.The total official death toll among Russia's military is now ten, but only nine of those were combat deaths. One serviceman committed suicide at the Hmeymim air base in October, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.Shirokopoyas was reported to have been posthumously given an award and to have already been buried in his native Amur region in Russia's Far East.In mid-March, President Vladimir Putin ordered the bulk of Russia's contingent in Syria to withdraw, but Moscow has continued its active support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and, according to some analysts, honed its military capabilities to better help the Syrian army.REUTERS RSD NS1503 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-790502.Xml US health regulators are under increasing pressure to remove restrictions keeping most gay and bisexual men from donating blood, but experts say any change would require years of research to guarantee the safety of the blood supply.The US Food and Drug Administration enacted a lifetime ban for gay and bisexual men in the 1980s to protect against transmitting the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.The agency reduced the ban in December to a 12-month wait since a man's last sexual encounter with another man.Following Sunday's mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, more than a dozen Democratic Party lawmakers called on the FDA to move toward lifting the ban altogether. They argued that it wrongly discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation, rather than determining whether a donor's actual behavior puts them at risk of HIV.Their call came after members of the gay community tried to donate blood in the aftermath of the Orlando attack but were turned away based on their recent sexual history."We're still in an inherently contradictory posture of straight men who are having unsafe sex with multiple partners being allowed to give blood. A gay man in a 30-year monogamous relationship, who practices safe sex, is not," Representative Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat who serves as vice chair of the congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, told Reuters.The FDA maintains there is not enough scientific evidence to remove the restrictions."We empathize with those who might wish to donate, but reiterate that at this time no one who needs blood is doing without it," spokeswoman Tara Goodin said in a statement. "That being said, the FDA is committed to continuing to reevaluate its blood donor deferral policies as new scientific information becomes available."Blood supply experts say the FDA will need to determine whether the move to a one-year waiting period for gay and bisexual men made the blood supply less, more or just as safe.That effort will take several years, and only then would the agency be able to consider relaxing its restrictions further, said Brian Custer, who has led a number of studies on the nation's blood supply and is associate director of the Blood Systems Research Institute BSRI in San Francisco.Removing the waiting period altogether would also likely require a large-scale study that tested blood samples of people who would be banned under current criteria, said Dr. Michael Busch, a co-director of BSRI. Busch helped discover in the 1980s that HIV could be transmitted through blood transfusions."Those are difficult to design and execute," he said.EXISTING RISKHIV disproportionately affects gay and bisexual men. While only about 4 percent of US men have sex with other men, they represent about two-thirds of the country's new infections, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.All blood donated in the United States is screened for HIV, as well as other transmissible diseases such as Hepatitis C and syphilis. Blood supply experts note that such testing cannot detect HIV within the earliest window of exposure, nine to 14 days.In the past 12 years, as many as six people have been infected with HIV through blood transfusion in the United States, according to Dr. Richard Benjamin, a former chief medical officer of the American Red Cross."That risk is always going to be there. People who donate blood within two weeks of exposure always will be missed by testing," said Benjamin, now an executive at Cerus Corp, whose technology kills pathogens in blood plasma and blood platelets.One study by FDA researchers published in January suggested that dropping all donor restrictions on men who have sex with men would result in 31 more units of HIV-infected blood being missed by screening tests and entering the blood supply each year. Nearly 16 million blood donations are collected in the United States each year, according to the American Red Cross.Groups representing the nation's largest blood centers, including the American Red Cross and America's Blood Centers, said they support the FDA's current rules, which are in line with policies in the UK, France, Australia and the Netherlands."Policy at this level moves at a slower pace than people would prefer, but it is years, not decades away," said Custer, one of the blood supply experts, referring to the FDA.REUTERS RSD NS1543 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-790611.Xml Britain mourned lawmaker Jo Cox today after a man wielding a gun and knife killed the 41-year-old in an attack that has thrown a June 23 referendum on European Union membership into limbo.Cox, a supporter of Britain staying in the EU, was shot and stabbed in her own constituency near Leeds in northern England by a man who witnesses said had shouted "Britain first".She was pronounced dead just over 48 minutes later by a doctor working with a paramedic crew trying to save her life. A 52-year-old man was arrested by officers nearby and weapons including a firearm were recovered.The killing prompted campaigning to be suspended in the EU referendum, the tone of which has become increasingly angry and bitter and included personal recriminations as well as furious debate of issues such as immigration and the economy.Though the motives of the killer were not immediately clear, some suggested sympathy for Cox could boost the Remain campaign which opinion polls indicate had fallen behind Leave.Police said they were not in a position to discuss the motive of the attack."Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people," Cox's husband, Brendan, said."She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now, one that our precious children are bathed in love and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her."A US civil rights group the Southern Poverty Law Center SPLC, based in Alabama, said on its website that it had obtained records showing a Thomas Mair had links with the neo-Nazi organisation National Alliance NA dating back to 1999.The SPLC posted images showing what it said were purchase orders for books bought by Mair, whose address is given as Batley, from the NA's publishing arm National Vanguard Books in May of that year. The orders included a manual on how to build a pistol, it said.FLAGS AT HALF-MASTBritain's Union flag was flying at half-mast over the Houses of Parliament, Queen Elizabeth's London residence Buckingham Palace and Downing Street, where Prime Minister David Cameron has his official residence.In Birstall hundreds of people attended a vigil at a local church.Some people, many weeping, laid flowers outside the Houses of Parliament. Beside a picture of Cox smiling, dozens of white candles lay beside bunches of flowers and a message board upon which people had written their condolences."You can't kill democracy," read one message on Parliament Square. Another said: "We will unite against hatred."Others put flowers on the houseboat on the River Thames where Cox had lived with her husband and two young children aged three and five.Beside flowers at the murder scene in Birstall, a message read: "Fascists feed on fear."British politicians paid tribute to Cox and expressed shock at the killing, as did leaders across Europe and the world.Cameron said the killing of Cox, who had worked on US President Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign, was a tragedy."We have lost a great star," said Cameron, who called the referendum. "She was a great campaigning MP with huge compassion, with a big heart. It is dreadful, dreadful news."Hillary Clinton said she was horrified. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the attack "terrible" but added that she didn't want to link it to the EU referendum.WHO KILLED COXMedia reports, citing witnesses, said the attacker had shouted out "Britain first", the name of a right-wing nationalist group that describes itself on its website as "a patriotic political party and street defence organisation".The deputy leader of the group, Jayda Fransen, distanced it from the attack, which she described as "absolutely disgusting".West Yorkshire's elected Police and Crime Commissioner said "our information is that this is a localised incident, albeit one that has a much wider impact".The killer was named by media as Thomas Mair.Family members, including his brother, said that Mair had not expressed strong political views, the Guardian newspaper reported."He has a history of mental illness but he has had help," the Guardian quoted his brother, Scott Mair, as saying."I am struggling to believe what has happened. My brother is not violent and is not all that political. I don't even know who he votes for."Neighbours were quoted by media as describing a man who had lived in the same house for at least 40 years and helped locals weed their flowerbeds.Gun ownership is highly restricted in Britain, and attacks of any nature on public figures are rare. The last British lawmaker to have been killed in an attack was Ian Gow, who died after a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army IRA exploded under his car at his home in southern England in 1990.Colleagues expressed shock and disbelief at the death of Cox, a Cambridge University graduate who spent a decade working for aid agency Oxfam and promoted women's issues."We've lost a wonderful woman, we've lost a wonderful member of parliament, but our democracy will go on," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a televised statement. "As we mourn her memory, we'll work in her memory to achieve that better world she spent her life trying to achieve."REUTERS RSD NS1552 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-790638.Xml The Human Rights Watch has urged Bangladesh government to stop arbitrarily arresting people without proper evidence of a crime, after authorities launched countrywide mass crackdown in the wake of rising attacks in the region. The HRW suggested that the Bangladesh authorities should investigate attacks on secular writers, gay rights activists, and religious minorities, and identify and prosecute the perpetrators. Security forces between June 10 -16, have reportedly arrested over 11,000 in connection with a spate of murders of bloggers with secular or atheist leanings, non-Muslims, members of the LGBT community, and other progressive or liberal thinkers. "After a slow and complacent response to these horrific attacks, Bangladesh's security forces are falling back on old habits and rounding up the 'usual suspects' instead of doing the hard work of carrying out proper investigations," the daily star quoted Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch as saying. "The government has an obligation to put an end to these murders and hold the perpetrators to account, but it must do so through proper procedures set out in its own criminal code as well as in international law," he added. The human rights group said the detained should either be charged on the basis of credible evidence of criminal activities and brought immediately before a judge, or be immediately released. More than 50 people have been killed in the country, often through machete attacks and these killings were subsequently claimed by IS or Ansar al-Islam, a Bangladeshi militant group linked to Al-Qaeda, but their involvement has not been established. The government, however, denies the presence of both groups in the country. (ANI) "It's what we do. May it never change," Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon said today, describing how lawmakers across Britain will go ahead and hold local "surgeries" the day after a colleague was killed just before hers.Holding a surgery, a one-to-one meeting much like when a patient consults a doctor, is the bedrock of British politics - a chance for lawmakers to meet, listen to and advise the people who elected them, in an informal atmosphere.But with informality comes vulnerability.In Westminster, where lawmakers do much of their work in parliament, armed police patrol the entrances, corridors and halls. In their home electoral districts, or constituencies, more often than not, there is no security.Sturgeon, first minister of Scotland's devolved government, said on Twitter that she, like dozens of others, would go ahead and hold a surgery today, "with heavy hearts", after Jo Cox, a lawmaker from Britain's main opposition Labour Party, was shot and stabbed in her northern English electoral district.But several lawmakers cancelled their meetings, giving only phone numbers for people to call.Cox's killing - in daylight on a street just as she arrived at a local library where she was due to hold a surgery - has sent shockwaves through Britain.The last British lawmaker to have been killed in an attack was Ian Gow, who died after a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) exploded under his car at his home in southern England in 1990.But while murders are rare, attacks and threats at surgeries and offices are, if not commonplace, increasing. Just last week, Conservative lawmaker Gavin Barwell, told local media he had been threatened by a man with a knife at his office.VIRTUE OF DEMOCRACYTalking about the circumstances of Cox's death to an audience of businessmen, Conservative finance minister George Osborne called the "everyday accessibility" of lawmakers "one of the virtues of our parliamentary democracy"."It's what makes the way we govern ourselves very different from many others," Osborne said late on Thursday after tearing up a speech in which he was expected to press his warnings of a hit to the economy if Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum next week."To be an effective representative, all of us who are MPs engage with their communities, talk to everyone and anyone, hold constituency surgeries and must be prepared to stand up and argue publicly for what we believe."But those arguments can see tempers flare, especially when they pit lawmakers against the voters who elected them.Cox had complained to police after receiving "malicious communications" and a man was arrested and later released with a caution in connection with the investigation in March.Last month, Labour lawmaker Jess Phillips said she may quit Twitter after she was sent more than 600 messages in one night about raping her after she had taken part in a campaign to end sexist bullying on line. Other female lawmakers have complained of abuse on social media.Today, Britain's Labour Party said police had questioned a man over an abusive phone call to Ben Bradshaw, a lawmaker in southwestern England. It did not say what the call was about.A report published earlier this year in the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology recommended more protection for lawmakers after finding nearly one in five of the 239 lawmakers who responded said they had been attacked or experienced an attempted attack.Fifty-three per cent said they had been stalked or harassed.Some lawmakers, in the report, described their constituents getting frustrated when they could not solve their problems, cases when locals developed fixations on them and also times when people tried to influence voting by issuing threats."One MP (member of parliament) described how she had to get her husband to go out and look down the street before she could go out of the front door," it said after experiencing "intrusive behaviour"."She had panic attacks several times a day, even in the House of Commons, leading to a 'mad way of life'."But while there are calls for better security for lawmakers, many said they had little option but to stick by their commitment to meet their electorates."I plan to keep to all my engagements today, including my surgery," Labour lawmaker Jonathan Reynolds said on Twitter. "I will ensure there is security present however."REUTERS RSD PR1815 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-791059.Xml Britain's parliament will be recalled on Monday to allow lawmakers to pay tribute to slain legislator Jo Cox, the leader of her party Jeremy Corbyn said.He was speaking today alongside Prime Minister David Cameron near the spot in northern England where the 41-year-old Cox was shot dead yesterday.Parliament has not been sitting since yesterday, to allow lawmakers to campaign ahead of a referendum on EU membership on June 23. REUTERS SDR BL1850 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-791192.Xml Ten people with Turkish and Kurdish backgrounds went on trial in Germany today accused of belonging to a left-wing militant group in Turkey, a case defence lawyers say is politically motivated.The nine men and one woman face charges of organising propaganda events, raising funds and recruiting for the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML), founded in 1972 and listed among a dozen active militant groups in Turkey.Defence lawyers say the trial panders to President Tayyip Erdogan, whose relations with Germany are under strain after the German parliament labelled the 1915 mass killings of Armenians an act of genocide. The lawyers have told German media that a large part of the files presented in court were supplied by Turkish authorities."It looks like a job on orders from Erdogan," Peer Stolle, who is representing two of the defendants, told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper of Munich, where the trial was being held.Left-wing activists chanted "Long live international solidarity" and held up colourful banners outside the court building as the defendants arrived.Turkey has said it is discussing countermeasures since the ruling on the Armenian killings and that it threatens the friendship between them just as Chancellor Angela Merkel is relying on Ankara to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.Germany's federal prosecutor says the main defendant, known as Muslum E., was the leader of the foreign branch of TKP/ML from 2004 and helped raise about 560,000 dollars in funds annually for the group.Muslum E. shouted political slogans and pumped his fist in the air as he entered the courtroom. Spectators in the public gallery cheered and applauded the defendants.The other nine are accused of being members of the leadership committee and procuring money, as well as organising propaganda events. They are also accused of recruiting new members and organising a military training camp in Iraq.A spokeswoman for the higher regional court in Munich said the defendants were not charged with committing acts of terror directly but rather with being members of the TKP/ML."So they are alleged to have voted on organisational matters as well as the execution of said attacks," she told Reuters TV.The group were arrested between April and November 2015, in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland.Describing the TKP/ML's activities, the prosecutor said in a January indictment: "The group has carried out numerous attacks with firearms and explosives and committed arson which caused many people to be killed or injured."The trial is due to run until October 28. REUTERS RSD PR1915 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-791346.Xml Russian President Vladimir Putin said today he agreed with US proposals to incorporate parts of the opposition into the current Syrian government, saying President Bashar al-Assad accepted there was a need for a political process.The comments advance Russia's position on Syria and follow a statement by UN Envoy Staffan de Mistura, who warned earlier this month there would not be another round of peace talks until officials on all sides agreed on the parameters for a political transition deal ahead of an August 1 deadline."The US proposal is absolutely acceptable. We must think about the possibilities of incorporating representatives of the opposition into the active ruling structure," Putin told the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum."For example into the government. We must think what rights that government will have. But here we shouldn't go too far, we must act based on today's realities."Putin said the most important thing for Syria was not for Assad to retake every inch of territory as he has pledged (though Putin said territorial gains were also important) but for overall faith in the authorities to be restored.Putin said it was inevitable Syria would collapse if things continued as they were, saying that would be the worst-case scenario. REUTERS RSD BL1949 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-791435.Xml BRUSSELS, Feb. 19, 2016 (Xinhua) -- British Prime MinisterDavid Cameronaddresses a press conference at the end of an extraordinary two-day EU summit at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, Feb.19, 2016. European leaders on Friday night reached a deal on British Prime Minister David Cameron's reforms after marathon talks, President of the European Council Donald Tusk tweeted. (Xinhua file photo/Ye Pingfan) HELSINKI, June 16 (Xinhua) -- European Council President Donald Tusk said here Thursday the European Union (EU) would no doubt survive if Britain were to exit from the 28-member bloc, but the price would be high. Tusk said preparations had been made for the alternative, but he was unwilling to provide any concrete details as to what actions the EU would take. Tusk talked to journalists at a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila. Later on Thursday he also met with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. Referring to the recent opinion polls carried out in the UK, Tusk said it was "not easy to be optimistic" the vote would be to remain in the EU, but the view of the UK people must be respected. Tusk said that besides the economic impact, political and geopolitical repercussions would be unpredictable at a time when there is a major need for unity. Tusk said European history had shown that unity means strength. He defined an exit of the UK as a danger for both Britain and the whole western community. Related: Britain should stay in Europe for prosperity and security: Bill Clinton by Larry Neild LONDON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton intervened Thursday in the British referendum debate on separation from the European Union, urging Britons to vote June 23 to remain within the EU. He made his call in Thursday edition of the London-based weekly current affairs publication, the New Statesman. Full story Britain could hand NHS extra 145 mln USD a week if it quits EU: UK Justice Secretary by Larry Neild LONDON, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Britain's cash-strapped National Health Service (NHS) could be handed an extra 100 million pounds (145.15 million U.S. dollars) every week, if the June 23 referendum decides the country should quit the EU, leading Brexit campaigner and Justice Secretary Michael Gove claimed Saturday. LONDON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- British Labor MP Jo Cox has died after she was shot and stabbed in Birstall, West Yorkshire, Sky News reported on Thursday. The 41-year-old politician was also kicked and left lying bleeding on the pavement in Birstall following the attack, an eyewitness was quoted by the broadcaster as saying. A 52-year-old man has been arrested in the area following the attack, and he has been named locally as Tommy Mair, according to Sky News. West Yorkshire Police said they were notified of an incident on Market Street, Birstall, where a woman in her 40s had suffered serious injuries. The shooting is believed to have taken place as Cox came out of the town's library where she had been meeting constituents. Eyewitness Hichem Ben Abdallah was quoted by Sky News as saying that a "very brave" bystander tried to stop a man who pulled out a gun and shot her twice and also assaulted her. Police presence in the area has been increased as a reassurance to the community, the police added. WINDHOEK, June 16 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 youth signed a petition Thursday against the proposed construction of a new parliament in Namibia. The youth drawn from all the 14 regions of the country marched from into Windhoek central business district in the morning from the high density suburb of Katutura. Although the demonstration was peaceful, the youth leaders from the Affirmative Repositioning movement refused to hand over the petition to the clerk of parliament and demanded that the Speaker Peter Katjavivi should come instead. One of the youth leaders Job Amupanda declared the march a success. The issue of the new parliament whose cost is estimated to be about 2.2 billion Namibian dollars (142 million U.S dollars) has been criticized by various people with the National Planning Commission saying that the cost appears to have been inflated. In 2013 when the government announced plans to build the new parliament, the cost was estimated at 700 million Namibian dollars (45 million U.S. dollars) but three years later, it is 2.2 billion Namibian dollars(142 million U.S dollars). President Hage Geingob in May 2016 also ordered his vice president, prime minister and the Speaker of Parliament to look into the cost. It is not clear at the present whether the three have done assessing how the cost sprung from 700 million Namibian dollars (45 million U.S. dollars) to 2.2 billion(142 million U.S dollars). Enditem ZAGREB, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Croatian parliament on Thursday passed a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic and his government. Deputies cast 125 votes in favor of no-confidence, and 15 votes against, while two abstained. The no-confidence motion was put forward by the biggest party in the ruling coalition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) last week and received support from the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which wanted to topple the government and hold an early election. The HDZ said it would start working on a government reshuffle after the vote. On Wednesday, HDZ's president and First Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko announced his resignation after being embroiled in conflict-of-interest charges vis-a-vis Croatian oil firm INA. The HDZ has named Zdravko Maric, the current finance minister from the party, as the candidate for the prime minister-designate. According to Croatian laws, if the government is voted out and no one wins support from 76 parliament members of the 151-seat parliament to form a new one within 30 days, the president must call an early election. Related: Croatian main ruling party files no-confidence motion against PM ZAGREB, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Croatian main ruling party Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) on Tuesday filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic. The motion listed six reasons for the attempted impeachment, such as not keeping his promises of dealing with the economy, social issues and creating jobs. Full story Croatian former PM Sanader on trial again on alleged corruption ZAGREB, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Croatian Zagreb county court on Monday started to retry corruption charge against former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader over Fimi Media case. TRIPOLI, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Ten Libyan presidential guards were killed on Thursday when an IS suicide bomb attack hit a police station located in the outskirts of Sirte, media office of the presidential guards announced. The attack took place at dawn in the nearby town of Abo-Gren, the office said on its official Facebook page. The government forces also announced that the IS launched two car bomb attacks on Thursday, but the two bombs exploded before hitting the troops. The government forces have been engaged in a violent war in the city of Sirte, some 450 km east the capital Tripoli, since May, which have killed and injured hundreds of the government forces. The presidential guards are formed by the UN-backed unity government to fight against the IS. The media office of the presidential guards said that they have controlled most of the city. The terrorist group has launched seven suicide bomb attacks on the government forces since Sunday. Sirte, the hometown of the late leader Muammar Gaddafi, was dominated by the IS for over a year. Enditem BEIJING, May 4, 2015 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun (R) meets with South African Police Minister Nathi Nhleko in Beijing, capital of China, May 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) ADDIS ABABA, June 16 (Xinhua) -- A tripartite meeting involving the African Union (AU), China and the U.S. has deliberated on the cooperation towards the operationalization of the African Center for Disease Control (CDC). The tripartite meeting was held on Thursday at the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, whereby it emphasized on the need to further strengthen cooperation to early operationalization of the Africa CDC. Zhang Xiangchen, deputy international trade representative with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), has exchanged views with Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, AU Commissioner of Social Affairs, and Kary Hintz-Tate, Deputy Chief of U.S Mission to AU, on ways of strengthening cooperation to jointly establishing the Africa CDC. The meeting was to implement the consensus reached between China and U.S. during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to U.S. in September, 2015, whereby the two sides plan to cooperate with AU and its members in establishing Africa CDC. It was also set to implement the concrete outcomes of the 2016 China-U.S. Annual Development Cooperation Meeting to jointly support the establishment of Africa CDC. The meeting emphasized that the establishment of Africa CDC should be dominated by Africa, and China and U.S. would provide support of infrastructure and capacity building. They provide assistance to Africa CDC in infrastructure construction, equipment, information system, expertise, and professional training while sharing also their experiences in CDC establishment and operation management. The meeting also underlined that China and U.S. should strengthen coordination and consultation to finalize the detailed cooperation plan on Africa CDC to earlier realization of the initiative, and which in turn will have significant contribution to Africa's public health activities. In his remarks on the occasion, the AU Commissioner has commended China and the U.S. for their continued support to the realization of Africa CDC. "Allow me to seize this single opportunity to express the gratitude of the Commission to the People's Republic of China and to the United States of America for their permanent support for the operationalization of the Africa CDC following your unprecedented valuable assistance in the fight against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa in 2014 - 2015. The African Union commission continues to be proud of this collaboration," said the commissioner. "As China and the U.S. are aware of Africa's pains, struggles and trials in lifting the continent's people from the quagmire of infectious and other diseases, the AU Commission welcomes this partnership and hopes that this will enable us to accelerate our efforts of building and rebuilding health systems and enhanced disease surveillance and response," he noted. Both the Chinese and the U.S. officials have expressed the commitment of their respective countries to continued support towards the operationalization of Africa CDC. China and U.S. have signed their respective bilateral cooperation MoUs on Africa CDC with AU, and have sent their expert teams for such preparatory work as the site selection for Africa CDC and its regional collaboration centers. From February to April this year, public health experts from China and U.S. conducted joint professional training in Ethiopia for nine trainees from the Africa CDC. It was in January 2015 that the AU Assembly officially passed the decision for the establishment of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Related: Ethiopia, China ink partnership MoU for Africa Information Super Highway project ADDIS ABABA, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia and China on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for their partnership on a project dubbed Africa Information Super Highway, a project for cooperation between China and Africa in information and communication technology (ICT). The MoU will enable the two countries to carry out joint activities under the framework of the Africa Information Super Highway for the East African region and beyond. Full story China, South Africa pledge law enforcement cooperation BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Guo Shengkun met with South African Police Minister Nathi Nhleko on Wednesday, with both parties pledging more law enforcement cooperation. Calling for more cooperation in fighting transnational crime, Guo said he hoped that China and South Africa will continue to take measures to protect the security and legal interests of their citizens and institutes. Full story China keen to support Africa's capacity building in geoinformation ADDIS ABABA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- China is keen to bolster its cooperation with Africa in the area of surveying, mapping and geo-information technology, Li Pendge, Deputy Head of China's National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation said. DUBAI, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led Arab coalition is on the way to "deliver its core goals," and up to the Yemenis to reach an inclusive political deal between the disputing parties, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said Thursday in Abu Dhabi. In a series of tweets on his Twitter account quoted by the UAE state news agency WAM, Anwar Al-Gargash said the UAE will continue to play its role with Saudi Arabia "until the end of the war," without hinting at a time horizon. The UAE is part of a Saudi-led military coalition comprising nine Arab states to support Yemen's "legitimate" government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Iran-backed Shiite Houthi militia and forces controlled by former president Ali Abduallah Saleh. The coalition has been bombing on a daily basis the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi group across Yemen since March 26, when President Hadi fled to the Saudi capital Riyadh to take refuge. Gargash said goals of the operations in Yemen were "crystal clear and well-defined which contributed to its success: to bring the Yemen crisis back on the political track, to restore the legitimate government of Yemen, and to counter the Iranian interference in the region." He added "now it is the responsibility of the Yemeni people and factions to build channels of communication and agree on a political solution regarding the state and its institutions." Enditem HONG KONG, June 17, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Daniel R. Fung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Institute of International Law (APIIL), speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Hong Kong, south China, June 16, 2016. Hong Kong legal organization Asia Pacific Institute of International Law has queried the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague to deal with an arbitration initiated unilaterally by the Philippines against China over the South China Sea disputes, citing the factual and legal errors of the case. Daniel R. Fung told Xinhua on Thursday that such an arbitration involving sovereignty issues should not be handled by PCA under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). On June 6, 2016, the APIIL submitted an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on the arbitration initiated by the Philippines to the tribunal. The brief was endorsed by several solicitors and legal experts from China's Hong Kong, Britain and Australia. (Xinhua/Provided by APIIL) HONG KONG, June 16 (Xinhua) -- A Hong Kong legal organization has queried the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague to deal with an arbitration initiated unilaterally by the Philippines against China over the South China Sea disputes, citing the factual and legal errors of the case. Daniel R. Fung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Institute of International Law (APIIL), told Xinhua on Thursday that such an arbitration involving sovereignty issues should not be handled by PCA under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). On June 6, 2016, the APIIL submitted an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on the arbitration initiated by the Philippines to the tribunal. The brief was endorsed by several solicitors and legal experts from China's Hong Kong, Britain and Australia. Citing a lot of international cases, the legal document addresses two key issues: jurisdiction of PCA to determine the Philippines' 15 submissions of the arbitration and justiciability of the issues raised in the submissions. Fung, a renowned senior counsel in China's Hong Kong, said in an interview with Xinhua on Thursday that PCA has obviously overlooked the two issues. Fung said the South China Sea disputes should be handled through diplomatic and political negotiations rather than an arbitration, especially they should not be handled under the UNCLOS. "As friend of the court, our motivation to intervene is to maintain the perfection of the International Law system and the perfection of the arbitration tribunal which is one of the instruments of the system," Fung said. "We are unwilling to see the international law system being jeopardized or its reputation being damaged," he said. According to Fung, PCA has the responsibility to respond to the amicus curiae brief and the APIIL has requested an oral argument at PCA. However, PCA has not responded to the brief. The Philippines unilaterally initiated arbitration proceedings to the Hague-based PCA against China over the South China Sea disputes in 2013. PCA ruled in 2015 that it has the jurisdiction over the case, taking up seven of the 15 submissions made by Manila. The Chinese government has reiterated its non-acceptance and non-participation stance in the case. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its statement issued on June 8 that China has all along stood for peacefully settling territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiations with states directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with the International law. On issues concerning territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, China never accepts any recourse to third party settlement, or any means of dispute settlement that is imposed on it, the statement said. An amicus curiae (literally, friend of the court) is someone as a third party to a case and offers information that bears on the case but who has not been solicited by any of the parties to assist a court. This may take the form of legal opinion or testimony and is a way to introduce concerns ensuring that the possibly broad legal effects of a court decision will not depend solely on the parties directly involved in the case. GENEVA, June 16 (Xinhua) -- A latest report by a UN commission warned that the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is committing genocide against Yazidis, an ethnically Kurdish religious community or an ethno-religious group indigenous to northern Mesopotamia. The report, "They Came to Destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis", was issued Thursday by the independent international Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic in Geneva. "Genocide has occurred and is ongoing", emphasised Paulo Pinheiro, chairperson of the commission, adding that "ISIS has subjected every Yazidi woman, child or man that it has captured to the most horrific of atrocities." As per the Commission's mandate, the report focuses on violations committed against Yazidis inside Syria, where thousands of women and girls are still being held captive and abused, often as slaves. "ISIS has sought to erase the Yazidis through killings, sexual slavery, enslavement, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and forcible transfer causing serious bodily and mental harm," the report warned. It added that ISIS also has taken measures to prevent Yazidi children from being born, including forced conversion of adults, the separation of Yazidi men and women, and the transfer of Yazidi children from their own families and placing them with ISIS fighters so as to cut them off from beliefs and practices of their own religious community. "ISIS separated Yazidi men and boys over 12 from the rest of their families, and killed those who refused to convert, in order to destroy their identity as Yazidis," the report noted. According to the report, women and children often witnessed these killings before being forcibly transferred to locations in Iraq, and thereafter to Syria, where the majority of captives remain. Thousands of women and girls, some as young as nine, have been sold in slave markets in the Syrian governorates of Raqqah, Aleppo, Homs, Hasakah and Dayr Az-Zawr, the report said, adding that ISIS and its fighters usually hold them both in sexual slavery and in slavery, with Yazidi women and girls being constantly sold or gifted between fighters. One woman, who estimated she had been sold 15 times, was cited by the Commission that "It is hard to remember all those who bought me". The report noted that ISIS, which considers the Yazidis to be infidels, has publicly cited the Yazidis' faith as the basis for an attack in August of 2014 and its subsequent abuse of them. Saying that its findings are based on interviews with survivors, religious leaders, smugglers, activists, lawyers, medical personnel, and journalists, as well as extensive documentary material, the UN Commission urged that more must be done to assure the protection of this religious minority in the Middle East, and the funding of care, including psycho-social and financial support, for victims of this genocide. Enditem COPENHAGEN, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Three amateur archaeologists have made an unique finding of the largest ever treasure of Viking gold in Denmark, it was reported here Thursday. A total of seven bangles, six gold and one silver, dating back to around the year 900, have been found in a field in Vejen Municipality on the Danish island of Jutland, the National Museum of Denmark said in a press statement released on Thursday. With a combined weight of around 900 grams, the finding is the largest ever discovery of Viking gold in Denmark. "We really felt that we had found the gold at the end of the rainbow when we found the first bangle, but as there appeared more, it was almost unreal," said Marie Aagaard Larsen, who together with her husband Christian Nedergaard Dreioee and their friend Poul Noergaard Pedersen made the discovery. Peter Pentz, a Viking expert at the National Museum, believed that it is a unique treasure as "to find one of these bangles is major, so it is very special to find seven." "The Viking Age is actually silver age' when it comes to the discovery of a treasure. The vast majority of treasure contained only silver. If there was gold, it was always a small part, not like here, the majority," Pentz said. He added that the bangles could have been used by a Viking leader to form alliances or to reward his faithful followers. According to Lars Grundvad, curator of Soenderskov Museum, the seven new-found bangles are associated with a 67-gram gold chain which was found in the same area back in 1911. "One of the gold bangles was made in the so-called Jelling style, so was the gold chain from 1911. And when they are found in the same field, I think they may well be part of the same treasure trove," said Grundvad. Soenderskov Museum plans to display the finding before it is sent to the National Museum in Copenhagen for further study. Enditem by Mahmoud Fouly CAIRO, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Every morning on working days in Egypt, streets, bus stations, passenger microbuses, female carriages of the underground metro and others are full of women setting out to work in a male-dominant community that ironically prefers housewives to working women. According to an official survey, made by the Egyptian Cabinet's Public Opinion Poll Center in 2010 and re-released in 2016, 87 percent of males and 78 percent of females in the most populous Arab country prefer a housewife to a working woman provided the family's economic condition is good. "I prefer my wife to stay at home and not to work outside. Generally, for a wife to stay at home is way better due to the degrading manners nowadays and the disrespect among people, which make a husband worried about his wife's work place," said Ashraf Ibrahim, a 36-year-old married man with kids, in a bus station in Giza province near the capital Cairo. Ibrahim still believes that woman's work is useful provided she works in a safe environment "such as a school teacher, a nurse at a hospital, etc." However, Hany Victor, a pharmacist, has a completely different point of view, as he believes a woman has the right to work and not only be a housewife. "Why did she have education? If a woman is educated, cultured and civilized, why does she have to stay at home?" The survey says that 95 percent of males and 98 percent of females see that it is important for a woman to complete high school education, yet the percentage goes down when it comes to university education as 80 percent of males and 88 percent of females believe a woman should be highly educated. "My mother was an employee and she raised us all as educated children. A woman's duty is not restricted to kitchen and bed. This is humiliating! A woman has equal rights with a man and she has the right to establish herself," the pharmacist in his 30s told Xinhua. According to the polls, the majority of Egyptian males reject hiring a woman in a male-oriented job such as a mayor or a marriage official. Also 71 percent of males and 43 percent of females refuse a woman to be a head of state. "This reflects a state of schizophrenia in a country where women constitute to 30 percent of the official workforce and 70 percent in the non-official sector. Almost every home in Egypt has a working woman," Nehad Abol-Komsan, head of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR), told Xinhua. The top Egyptian feminist argued that Egyptians are theoretically against working women but the reality on the ground is different, adding the schizophrenia is represented in a pressuring reality that pushes the society forward and at the same time groups of factors pulls it backward, including old, inherited perception of women. "Women would not mind relaxing at home, but there are no guarantees for a jobless woman's financial rights if she is divorced. What would a woman do if her husband died in a society that does not provide any rights or guarantees?" said Abol-Komsan. The ECWR chief added she will not blame this on a "male-dominant" society because there are women who fiercely fight against women's rights, reminding that 78 percent of females prefer a housewife to a working woman. Clara, a 20-year-old student, was standing with her college mates at the entrance gate of Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, near Qasr Aini Hospital in downtown Cairo, when she talked about her future wishes businesswise. "I have future ambitions and I wish one day I would work at a renowned advertising company," Clara told Xinhua, arguing there should be no difference between men and women since a woman gets her education and that the survey reflects "backwardness and the narrow-mindedness of the Egyptian male-dominant society." However, Hala Yassin, a female teacher in her late 40s, said that if a married woman's work will affect her home duties, staying at home is better for her. "I have been working as a teacher for 22 year, during which I made some balance between work and home to fulfill my duties on both sides," Yassin told Xinhua, pointing out that the law helped her as when the kids were young she worked half the time and got half the salary, taking care of home and still maintaining her position at work. An old taxi driver at one of the busy main streets in downtown Cairo said that his generation learned from their grandparents that it's best to marry a woman who stays at home rather than a working woman. "A working wife deals with male colleagues and her husband's mind is always concerned about her. She also works for long hours in return for little money," Ali Abdullah, the 60-year-old taxi driver told Xinhua. Academically, sociology professor Ali Hassan of Ain Shams University believes that the survey is accurate and its interpretation is simple, as work conditions for women in developing countries are so difficult. "In poor societies, those children who did not have the chance of their mothers' sacrifices by staying at home are mostly the street children, the drug addicts, the visitors of psychiatric clinics, those leading miserable lives, etc.," the professor told Xinhua. He explained that poverty, ignorance and other aspects of backward society pressure a family to face life by letting part of the family out to bring life necessities and keep another part at home. "If the financial return is weak, staying at home is better," Professor Hassan argued, "A woman at home is a kind of security for her children as children of a working woman are socially more subjected to deviation, drug addiction and vagrancy." Enditem ORLANDO, June 14, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken with mobile phone on June 13, 2016 shows customers selecting gun at a shop in Orlando, the United States. The American society has been buzzing with measures to prevent further gun-related violence in the United States, after a shooting spree in an Orlando nightclub left 49 dead and 53 wounded on Sunday. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) ORLANDO, the United States, June 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday again urged Republican-controlled Congress to pass stricter gun control laws during his visit to Orlando in the wake of the country's deadliest mass shooting incident. "Those who were killed and injured here were gunned down by a single killer with a powerful assault weapon," Obama told reporters. "The motives of this killer may have been different than the mass killers in Aurora, or Newtown. But the instruments of death were so similar. Now another 49 innocent people are dead. Another 53 are injured. Some are still fighting for their lives." At least 49 people were killed and 53 others wounded, including a police officer, early Sunday morning in a shooting spree at a popular LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was the deadliest terror attack in the U.S. history since 9/11 in 2001. The gunman, identified by authorities as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, was found dead inside the nightclub after a shootout with the police. "I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing. We can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. If we don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this," said Obama. Following the 2012 school mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed 26 lives, including 20 children, the Obama administration initiated but failed to push stronger gun control laws. The laws, whose sections included expanded background checks and bans on assault weapons, were stymied in Congress after staunch opposition from Republican lawmakers and gun-rights lobby groups. During his presidency, Obama presided over more than a dozen of high-profile mass shootings, and in an interview last year he called the failure to reform U.S. gun laws "one of the greatest frustrations" of his presidency. "If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense gun safety laws, even in the face of repeated mass killings," Obama told BBC in an interview in July, 2015. Related: Obama to mourn victims of Orlando shooting Thursday WASHINGTON, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Monday announced that President Barack Obama will visit Orlando, Florida on Thursday to mourn the victims killed in the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. "On Thursday, the president will travel to Orlando, Florida to pay his respects to victims' families, and stand in solidarity with the community as they embark on their recovery," said a White House statement. Full story U.S. loose gun control policy slammed on social media after Orlando attack WASHINGTON, June 12 (Xinhua) -- An outpour of anger toward the lax U.S. gun control policy was witnessed on social media after a shooting spree in an Orlando nightclub left 50 dead and 53 wounded on Sunday. "When will the USA learn & introduce tighter gun control? How many more have to needlessly die?" A twitter user named Dave Nelson lashed out. Full story Los Angeles Mayor appeals to gun control LOS ANGELES, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Thursday urged to make legislation on gun control to prevent gun violence, adding that the deadly shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) should serve as a reminder. MILAN, Italy, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Eight people were injured in an explosion probably caused by gas leak at an Asian restaurant in northern Italy on Thursday, local media reported. The explosion occurred in the late afternoon at restaurant "Zuma", located in center of the city of Bologna, according to Rai state television. The first floor of the building collapsed, smashing three windows and injuring seven restaurant employees, of them one in serious condition, Rai reported. A firefighter who rushed to the spot was also slightly injured, according to ANSA news agency. A local website run by Chinese residents in Italy said the restaurant was run by Chinese nationals. The explosion was probably caused by a gas leak, according to local prosecutor Valter Giovannini. He underlined, however, that "every hypothesis was premature." According to ANSA sources, around 15 people from the Philippines were working inside the restaurant when the blast occurred around half an hour before its opening. Several residents told the local press they were impressed by the blast which sounded like an earthquake. Some of them added there had been smelling gas in the area hours before the blast occurred. Investigators were reportedly working to ascertain possible responsibilities. Enditem ORLANDO, the United States, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The shooting massacre at a nightclub on Sunday in Orlando, Florida was the 176th mass shooting which happened in the United States in the past 168 days so far in 2016, according to the group Mass Shooting Tracker. Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which defines the "mass shooting" as an incident where four or more people are killed in one case, the Tracker broadens the definition of the "mass shooting" to include all incidents involving four or more people being shot but not necessarily killed. By that criteria, the Tracker reports after collecting data from news reports around the nation that the shooting carnage at Pulse, a popular LGBT nightclub, which left 50 dead, including the gunman, was the 176th mass shooting so far this year. According to the Tracker, as of Tuesday, six more mass shootings occurred in the wake of Orlando nightclub massacre. At least 49 people were killed and 53 others wounded, including a police officer, early Sunday morning in a shooting spree at a popular LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was the deadliest terror attack in the history since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. The gunman, identified by authorities as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, was found dead inside the nightclub after a shootout with the police. So far, federal investigators had found no clear evidence that Mateen had been in touch with any terrorist groups before the attack. However, according to Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey, the authorities were "highly confident" that Mateen had been radicalized online. Just like his previous reactions after similar mass shooting incidents in the past, U.S. President Barack Obama this time again stressed the importance of passing stricter gun control laws on every public appearances in the wake of the incident. His latest response came on Thursday during his visit to families of victims and survivors in Orlando, Florida. "Those who were killed and injured here were gunned down by a single killer with a powerful assault weapon," Obama told reporters. "The motives of this killer may have been different than the mass killers in Aurora, or Newtown. But the instruments of death were so similar. Now another 49 innocent people are dead. Another 53 are injured. Some are still fighting for their lives." "I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing. We can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. If we don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this," he added. According to federal investigators, Mateen earlier this month legally purchased an assault rifle and a handgun, with which he appeared to launch his mass killing without external instruction. Though assault-style weapons were banned in 1994, the U.S. Congress refused to renew the ban when the prohibition expired in 2004. Gun-rights advocates argued that rifles of any type were scarcely used in homicides in the country. Following the 2012 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed 28 lives, including 20 children, the Obama administration initiated but failed to push stronger gun control laws. The laws, whose sections included expanded background checks and bans on assault weapons, were stymied in Congress after staunch opposition from Republican lawmakers and gun-rights lobby groups. During his presidency, Obama has been confronted with more than a dozen of high-profile mass shootings, and in an interview last year he called the failure to reform U.S. gun laws "one of the greatest frustrations" of his presidency. "If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on Earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense gun safety laws, even in the face of repeated mass killings," Obama told BBC in July, 2015. Photo taken with mobile phone on June 13, 2016 shows a customer looking on an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at a shop in Orlando, the United States. (Xinhua/file photo) ORLANDO, the United States, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The shooting massacre at a nightclub on Sunday in Orlando, Florida was the 176th mass shooting which happened in the United States in the past 168 days so far in 2016, according to the group Mass Shooting Tracker. Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which defines the "mass shooting" as an incident where four or more people are killed in one case, the Tracker broadens the definition of the "mass shooting" to include all incidents involving four or more people being shot but not necessarily killed. By that criteria, the Tracker reports after collecting data from news reports around the nation that the shooting carnage at Pulse, a popular LGBT nightclub, which left 50 dead, including the gunman, was the 176th mass shooting so far this year. According to the Tracker, as of Tuesday, six more mass shootings occurred in the wake of Orlando nightclub massacre. At least 49 people were killed and 53 others wounded, including a police officer, early Sunday morning in a shooting spree at a popular LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was the deadliest terror attack in the history since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. The gunman, identified by authorities as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, was found dead inside the nightclub after a shootout with the police. So far, federal investigators had found no clear evidence that Mateen had been in touch with any terrorist groups before the attack. However, according to Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey, the authorities were "highly confident" that Mateen had been radicalized online. Just like his previous reactions after similar mass shooting incidents in the past, U.S. President Barack Obama this time again stressed the importance of passing stricter gun control laws on every public appearances in the wake of the incident. His latest response came on Thursday during his visit to families of victims and survivors in Orlando, Florida. "Those who were killed and injured here were gunned down by a single killer with a powerful assault weapon," Obama told reporters. "The motives of this killer may have been different than the mass killers in Aurora, or Newtown. But the instruments of death were so similar. Now another 49 innocent people are dead. Another 53 are injured. Some are still fighting for their lives." "I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing. We can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. If we don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this," he added. According to federal investigators, Mateen earlier this month legally purchased an assault rifle and a handgun, with which he appeared to launch his mass killing without external instruction. Though assault-style weapons were banned in 1994, the U.S. Congress refused to renew the ban when the prohibition expired in 2004. Gun-rights advocates argued that rifles of any type were scarcely used in homicides in the country. Following the 2012 school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed 28 lives, including 20 children, the Obama administration initiated but failed to push stronger gun control laws. The laws, whose sections included expanded background checks and bans on assault weapons, were stymied in Congress after staunch opposition from Republican lawmakers and gun-rights lobby groups. During his presidency, Obama has been confronted with more than a dozen of high-profile mass shootings, and in an interview last year he called the failure to reform U.S. gun laws "one of the greatest frustrations" of his presidency. ORLANDO, the United States, June 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday again urged Republican-controlled Congress to pass stricter gun control laws during his visit to Orlando in the wake of the country's deadliest mass shooting incident. "Those who were killed and injured here were gunned down by a single killer with a powerful assault weapon," Obama told reporters. "The motives of this killer may have been different than the mass killers in Aurora, or Newtown. But the instruments of death were so similar. Now another 49 innocent people are dead. Another 53 are injured. Some are still fighting for their lives." At least 49 people were killed and 53 others wounded, including a police officer, early Sunday morning in a shooting spree at a popular LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was the deadliest terror attack in the U.S. history since 9/11 in 2001. The gunman, identified by authorities as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, was found dead inside the nightclub after a shootout with the police. "I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing. We can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. If we don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this," said Obama. Following the 2012 school mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed 26 lives, including 20 children, the Obama administration initiated but failed to push stronger gun control laws. The laws, whose sections included expanded background checks and bans on assault weapons, were stymied in Congress after staunch opposition from Republican lawmakers and gun-rights lobby groups. During his presidency, Obama presided over more than a dozen of high-profile mass shootings, and in an interview last year he called the failure to reform U.S. gun laws "one of the greatest frustrations" of his presidency. The shooting massacre was the 176th mass shooting which happened in the United States in the past 168 days so far in 2016, according to the group Mass Shooting Tracker. Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which defines the "mass shooting" as an incident where four or more people are killed in one case, the Tracker broadens the definition of the "mass shooting" to include all incidents involving four or more people being shot but not necessarily killed. By that criteria, the Tracker reports after collecting data from news reports around the nation that the shooting carnage at Pulse, a popular LGBT nightclub, which left 50 dead, including the gunman, was the 176th mass shooting so far this year. According to the Tracker, as of Tuesday, six more mass shootings occurred in the wake of Orlando nightclub massacre. So far, federal investigators had found no clear evidence that Mateen had been in touch with any terrorist groups before the attack. However, according to Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey, the authorities were "highly confident" that Mateen had been radicalized online. Just like his previous reactions after similar mass shooting incidents in the past, U.S. President Barack Obama this time again stressed the importance of passing stricter gun control laws on every public appearance in the wake of the incident. by Luis Alberto Sierra G. PANAMA, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The president of the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino), Gabriela Rivadeneira, said Thursday that countries in the region needed to share legislative experiences in order to strike a balance between economic growth and human development. In an interview with Xinhua, Rivadeneira said such proposals already existed in the region to allow parliaments to collaborate on preventing poverty, but that the Parlatino would begin a two-month campaign to study how such exchanges could work. The lawmaker, who was attending a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) forum on Latin America and the Caribbean this week in Panama City, said this would allow countries to choose between models espousing accumulation or redistribution of wealth. Furthermore, she added, such collaboration would allow countries to address critical issues, such as women's needs and gender equality. Rivadeneira said the Parlatino helped the Organization of American States (OAS) craft a series of gender-focused policies that it encouraged member states to codify into law. The Parlatino has also made a commitment to UN Women that all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will adopt laws, promoting gender equality and the entry of more women into the workforce. Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador are currently leaders in this area, with around 40 percent of their parliaments being made up of women, for example. Rivadeneira also highlighted recent UNDP recommendations for the region, with the UN body calling for action on child education and nutrition, to promote social justice and reduce inequality. If countries pass public policies benefiting women, children and the elderly, she said, the region should be able to improve its reputation as the continent with the second largest inequality rate. "However, state policies must be backed up by the population...so that the government can never retreat on its social commitments, the people must demand the same," Rivadeneira noted. UNITED NATIONS, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The UN envoy in Mali on Thursday urged the relevant Malian parties to make peace and reconciliation "a reality" in the West African country as key challenges to implement Mali's peace and reconciliation agreement remained. In his briefing to the UN Security Council, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, special representative of the UN secretary-general and head of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), made the statement one year after the Malian government and armed groups signed the accord. "Quite clearly, neither the signatories nor the national mediation team are satisfied with the slow pace of implementation," he said. "This slow pace is difficult to understand and it is undermining the whole process, particularly the setting up of joint patrols." Since 2012, Mali had sunk into a instability, with crisis hitting its northern region. Presenting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's report on major developments in Mali since the end of March, the UN envoy said that although the peace agreement was a package, for some time now, the process had been reduced to discussions about the establishment of an interim administration, which had been slow to occur. But he said that he was pleased with the compromise reached earlier this week, on the sidelines of the ninth session of the Agreement Monitoring Committee. MINUSMA remained fully engaged and was ready to use its good offices to help support immediate implementation of the interim authorities. "However, it is obviously clear that it is incumbent upon the parties (to) honor their commitments. It is for them to make the Peace Agreement and reconciliation a reality," the envoy said. Since the 15-nation Security Council's visit to Mali in early March, the situation on the ground had been troubling, with security having deteriorated in the past weeks. "Since its deployment in 2013, MINUSMA has faced the deadliest threats of any United Nations mission ever deployed," he said, recalling that 19 peacekeepers had died following terrorist attacks between February and May 2016, 12 of them in May. The Mission had lost a total of 26, plus a United Nations contractor, when counting deaths due to accidents and disease. The numbers were even more distressing when one added losses resulting from the Barkhane operation and those among Mali's security, defence and civil forces. "Enough is enough," he said. "We cannot continue to accept the unacceptable." Most of the deaths could have been avoided if the peacekeeping contingents involved had been better equipped, particularly with armoured vehicles. The May 29 attack on a MINUSMA convoy illustrated the terrorist threat in central and southern Mali, the envoy said, warning that the trend could spread and should not be forgotten. Despite scepticism, however, there are signs of hope that the situation had improved since 2012, Annadif said. Since the signing of the peace accord, all signatories to the ceasefire had demonstrated unwavering compliance and made dialogue a priority. Moreover, efforts are under way to establish a sound juridical and institutional framework, he said, describing the May 18 draft agreement to create a council on security-sector reform, under the prime minister's office, and the adoption of a decree establishing a disarmament, demobilization and reintegration commission as significant steps forward. Meanwhile, he also told the Security Council that eight cantonment sites had been set up to allow the disarmament process to begin, noting that the integration of former combatants and the management of violent extremism were also positive steps. Annadif stressed the importance of reinforcing trust and confidence among the signatory parties, pointing out that the lack of effective control on the ground by other parties in the north had led to a spike in terrorism, organized crime, banditry and intercommunal tensions. The slower the peace accord's implementation, the more likely the peace process would capsize, he said, underlining that MINUSMA's future mandate should take those challenges into account. In light of the deadly attacks, the recommendations of the strategic review called for strengthening MINUSMA's personnel and air capacity in order to save lives, he said, adding that authorizing proactive operations would ensure that the Mission could fulfil its responsibilities and protect its staff. It could not do so alone, however. The situation in Mali impacted the whole West Africa, he said, adding that recent attacks in Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso demonstrated the fluidity of terrorist groups and the interdependence of states in the struggle against terrorism. "I remain an optimist, a moderate one though," he said, while emphasizing that the status quo played into the hands of the enemies of peace. "The worst is behind us, but we must not forget that time is against us," he said. WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West, CIA Director John Brennan told Congress on Thursday, while confirming the Orlando "lone wolf" shooter had no direct links to the extreme group. "ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West," Brennan told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, warning the group may infiltrate refugees into western nations. ISIL is another acronym for the group. "Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach," said the spy chief. According to Brennan, the IS has lost "large stretches" of territory in Iraq and Syria but still has about 18,000 to 22,00 fighters there and its branch in Libya is "probably the most developed and the most dangerous," echoing concerns that Libya's close proximity to Europe is a problem. He testified to the Congress that the IS has between 5,000 and 8,000 fighters in Libya, plus some 7,000 in Nigeria and hundreds more in Egypt, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, "as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda," said Brennan. As for the Orlando shooting which left 50 dead including the shooter Omar Mateen on Sunday, Brennan said the current investigation has not been able to uncover any direct link between Mateen and a foreign terrorist organization. However, "lone wolf" attackers who are inspired by but not under the direct control of terror groups represent "an exceptionally challenging issue for the intelligence community," he noted. The CIA is sharing intelligence with the FBI to help identify potential lone-wolf attackers, but the CIA's responsibility is to gather information about operations overseas, he added. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are expected to receive classified briefings from intelligence agencies once they officially become the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, as expected, in July. This file photo taken on February 9, 2016 shows CIADirector John Brennan testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats to America and its allies, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AFP/File PHOTO) WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West, CIA Director John Brennan told Congress on Thursday, while confirming the Orlando "lone wolf" shooter had no direct links to the extreme group. "ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West," Brennan told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, warning the group may infiltrate refugees into western nations. ISIL is another acronym for the group. "Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach," said the spy chief. According to Brennan, the IS has lost "large stretches" of territory in Iraq and Syria but still has about 18,000 to 22,00 fighters there and its branch in Libya is "probably the most developed and the most dangerous," echoing concerns that Libya's close proximity to Europe is a problem. He testified to the Congress that the IS has between 5,000 and 8,000 fighters in Libya, plus some 7,000 in Nigeria and hundreds more in Egypt, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Moreover, "as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda," said Brennan. As for the Orlando shooting which left 50 dead including the shooter Omar Mateen on Sunday, Brennan said the current investigation has not been able to uncover any direct link between Mateen and a foreign terrorist organization. However, "lone wolf" attackers who are inspired by but not under the direct control of terror groups represent "an exceptionally challenging issue for the intelligence community," he noted. The CIA is sharing intelligence with the FBI to help identify potential lone-wolf attackers, but the CIA's responsibility is to gather information about operations overseas, he added. CANBERRA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government on Friday launched an investigation into the "abhorrent" treatment of Australian cattle in Vietnam, while live exports are set to be suspended after shocking footage has emerged of cattle being cruelly and slowly clubbed to death. A report which aired on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) 19:30 program on Thursday night revealed footage of Australian cows being inhumanely treated and killed in Vietnamese abattoirs, with many being struck with sledgehammers several times before they are finally killed. On Friday, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull labeled the footage "deeply disturbing," while Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said Australia will suspend cattle trade with Vietnam while an investigation was being carried out. "Immediately when we found out about this we went straight into action," Joyce said on Friday. "The Department of Agriculture has been working closely with the industry, the abattoir has been suspended from receiving cattle, we are investigating this process but further action needs to take place and will take place." Meanwhile Alison Penfold, Chief Executive of the Australian Livestock Exporters' Council (ALEC), said the footage aired on the ABC was some of the "most sickening" she had ever seen. "Australian livestock exporters agree sledgehammering is an abhorrent inhumane practice that has no place in a modern society and must be stamped out." The Department of Agriculture released a statement following the 19:30 report which confirmed that Australia would be reviewing its Vietnamese supply chains to ensure all animals were treated and killed humanely. "The department's first priority is to ensure the humane handling of all animals exported from Australia," the statement said. "The department is requiring exporters to review all systems, processes and facilities in their Vietnam supply chains. "To date, four exporters have notified the department that they are suspending exports to some of their facilities in Vietnam while they review their arrangements." CANBERRA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday expressed regret that an Islamic preacher, who once said AIDS was a fitting punishment for being a homosexual, was invited to a government-hosted dinner overnight. Speaking on Australian radio on Friday, Turnbull condemned divisive remarks made by Sheikh Shady Al-Suleiman, national president of the Australian National Imams Council, who was invited to the dinner which signified the beginning of Ramadan. The sheikh has previously been on record to say that homosexuality is an "evil act" which brings with it "evil disease," and Turnbull said that if he had known of such remarks, Al-Suleiman would have been taken off the invite list. "If I had been aware he had made those remarks about homosexuals and gay people, he would not have been invited," Turnbull said. Spokesperson for the government, Mathias Cormann echoed the prime minister's views, saying that Turnbull did not personally invited the sheikh, rather, he would have been part of a broader invite to the Imam Council. "As soon as (Turnbull) did become aware, he absolutely condemned the (comments)," Cormann told Sky News on Friday. Following the revelations, the sheikh released a statement regretting his choice of words in the past, and revoked his views that gays should be punished for their sexuality. "I have previously noted passages in the holy Quran which do not support homosexuality," Al-Suleiman said. "However I always follow such statements with a personal commitment to tolerance and encouragement that all Muslims and all people approach all individuals, no matter their faith, race or sexuality, in a considerate and respectful way." The Iftar dinner hosted by Turnbull is thought to be the first by an Australian prime minister, while Turnbull also took the opportunity to praise the contribution of Australian Muslims for promoting unity in the community. Turnbull labeled Australia as the "most successful multicultural society in the world" while he was "honored" by the attendance of the 75 guests. Leaders participating in the 2015 G7 summit take a group photo at the Elmau Castle near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, on June 7, 2015. (Xinhua/Zhu Sheng) BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- In the wake of the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, widespread doubt has reemerged over whether the exclusive club of industrialized countries remains relevant in today's world. Here's a selection of pointed comments on the septipartite grouping. Alexey Pushkov, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, on April 12, 2016 "Why do we have to go to the G7, where the United States is in charge and other countries assent? There is a united front against Russia there. We should think how to transform the group. I think, it is necessary to invite China to 'Big Seven' because without China the group doesn't look very convincing. ... In current position Russia doesn't need to be part of the G7." Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German foreign minister, on April 10, 2016 "It turns out that none of the major international conflicts can be solved without Russia. We will see in a year if Russia maintains this constructive role and then there will certainly be a debate within the G7, when Russia's return is possible and which conditions must be met." Lu Kang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, on April 11, 2016 "If the G7 wants to continue playing a major role in the world, it should take an attitude of seeking truth from facts to handle the issues the international community is most concerned with at the moment. If the G7 is taken hostage by the selfish interests of certain countries, then this probably won't be beneficial to the G7's influence, role and future development." Lorenzo Fioramonti, professor of political economy at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, on June 30, 2015 "Forget the G7, the world needs a new alliance to lead it in the 21st century." Larry Elliott, economics editor at British newspaper The Guardian, on June 7, 2015. "The G7 is a moribund institution and has been for the past decade. As an instrument of the internationalism it was set up to pursue, it is hopeless. It should be scrapped. " QUITO, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador is speeding up rebuilding work in the areas affected by the magnitude-7.8 earthquake on April 16, while the state of emergency has been renewed. Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa announced Thursday through an executive decree that his government has renewed the state of emergency for another 30 days in the states of Esmeraldas, Manabi, Santa Elena, Los Rios, Guayas and Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas. The decree grants emergency powers to authorities, especially the army and police, to coordinate efforts in preventing risks and improving the conditions caused by the earthquake. Sixty days have passed since the fatal earthquake, the worst in the South American country in 70 years that has killed 668 people, injured 4,859 and displaced around 80,000. Correa said that 398 machines and 419 dumper trucks are currently working in the affected areas. "The process being carried out is gigantic," said the president. Rebuilding the affected areas will cost some 3.344 billion U.S. dollars, according to the National Secretariat for Planning and Development. The Ecuadoran government will cover three quarters of the costs, and the rest will come from the private sector. The April earthquake has demolished around 29,000 houses and public buildings, destroyed 875 schools and 51 medical centers, and damaged 83 km of roads. Vice President Jorge Glas, head of the Reconstruction and Recovery Committee, said "rebuilding is a challenge that demands all our effort." While rebuilding is going on, thousands of earthquake victims are spending their daily lives in the official shelters of tents donated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and China. These shelters have basic facilities, including sleeping mats, kitchen sets and some security services. However, there are hundreds of victims still living in improvised, unofficial shelters which are just primitive plastic tents. MACAO, June 17 (Xinhua) -- About 134 more items originated from Macao will be exported to China's mainland with zero-tariff from July 1 this year, Macao Economic Services said in a press release Friday. Under the framework of the Mainland and Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) implemented in 2004, the new varieties of goods with Macao origin to be on zero-tariff list include foods, textiles, printing materials, horologe and pens. It is noted that the products made of raw materials provided by the Portuguese-speaking countries will be regarded as Macao origin. Analysis believed that more foreign investment will start manufacturing business here and take advantage of tariff-free policy to exploit the mainland market. Statistic showed that the value of Macao's zero-tariff exports to the mainland reached 707 million Macanese patacas (88.47 million U.S. dollars) since 2004, with tax abatement amounting to 53.43 million patacas. WASHINGTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Americans' confidence in banks remains low, at 27 percent, eight years after the U.S. economy took a nosedive, found a Gallup poll released Thursday. The current percentage of adults who say they have confidence in banks is just half of what it was in 2004, when 53 percent expressed confidence in the institution. The record high was 60 percent in 1979. About half of Americans expressed confidence in banks in most polls in the 1980s, but confidence suffered in the early 1990s after the Savings and Loan crisis, a major financial crisis, with confidence ranging from 30 percent to 37 percent. But by the late '90s, confidence improved, ranging from 40 percent to 44 percent. Confidence in banks gained in the early 2000s, reaching a majority level by 2004. It then fell to 32 percent in June 2008 after the recession began but before the October 2008 financial crisis. By June 2009, just 22 percent of Americans had confidence in banks, Gallup found. The June 1-5 poll comes at a time when the fallout of the 2008 economic calamity, in which Americans lost trillions of dollars in household wealth, still dogs the economy, and millions of Americans continue to struggle to make ends meet. The fallout from the 2008 financial crisis continues to affect Americans' views of the banking industry. Despite some signs of economic recovery, views of the economy's overall health remain negative, and most Americans are not willing to express confidence in banks, Gallup found. Regaining Americans' trust in recent years appears to be difficult for the banking industry, and it is unclear when, or if, Americans' confidence in banks will be restored to what it was a decade ago, Gallup said. HAVANA, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Cuba and the United States will strengthen cooperation in the areas of hydrography and geodesy, the Cuban Foreign Ministry said Thursday. After four days of talks, representatives from the two countries identified specific actions to improve coordination in making nautical charts, monitoring and forecasting tides and streams, as well as modernizing geodetic networks and spatial frameworks, the ministry said in a statement. This was the third meeting between Cuban and American specialists in the field of hydrography and geodesy. In November 2015 and March 2016, the two countries signed two memorandums of understanding for protecting marine, coastal resources and improving the safety of maritime navigation. The rescue team shows the steel bar removed from the man's body after emergency treatment. JINAN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A man has miraculously escaped death after a 1.5-meter-long steel bar pierced through his body two days ago in east China's Shandong Province. The emergency treatment lasted seven hours and he woke up on Thursday, according to doctors at the Qilu Hospital of Shandong University in Jinan, the provincial capital. The 46-year-old construction worker, surnamed Zhang, fell off a five-meter high place in an under-construction building in Jinan around 3:00 pm on Tuesday and landed right on top of a steel bar. The bar, 15 millimeters in diameter, went through his privates and came out through his head. The steel bar goes through his privates and comes out through his head. After firefighters cut the bar, the man was sent to the hospital conscious but in critical condition. Examination showed the steel bar was near many critical parts, including his skull, trachea, heart, carotid artery and liver. "The case is very rare, and the rescue process was indescribable," said Sang Xiguang, head of emergency surgery department, who was in charge of the rescue mission. Doctors operate on the man. Doctors from nine departments worked together with firefighters to try saving the man's life. The surgeons opened the man's skull, chest and abdomen at the same time, and removed the bar slowly. It took more than seven hours to finish the removal. At 1:00 am on Wednesday, the man was wheeled out of the operating room and transferred to intensive care unit. "Luckily the bar barely touched his critical organs," said Zhang Yuan, attending doctor of neurosurgery department, "But the wound was so large that he might not have made it if he was in poor health." "It was emergent and we had to decide what to do first," he said, "One wrong move, and we would fail." "We were all soaked in sweat when we walked out of the operating room," Sang said, "We have stood for more than seven hours. We were all exhausted." Doctors operate on the man. The man is in stable condition, doctors said, but whether the miracle would last depends on the coming two weeks as postoperative infection may pose a big threat. The crisis may last for half a month as it takes three to five days for symptoms of abdominal infection and two weeks for intracranial infection to appear. "We would try our best to help him recover," said Sang. (All photos are from the hospital.) HANOI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Wreckage of a CASA aircraft of Vietnam with nine people aboard which lost contact Thursday while carrying out rescue mission in waters off northern Vietnam has been recovered on Friday. The wreckage, including debris of tire, seat, bag and personal belongings, among others, has been retrieved around Bach Long Vi water area in Vietnam's northern Hai Phong city (some 90 km east of capital Hanoi), the country's Ministry of Defense said on its website on Friday. Competent authorities have confirmed that these items are from the missing CASA aircraft, which was carrying out searching mission for the SU-30 fighter jet which went missing Tuesday morning. The CASA aircraft lost contact when it was flying over Bach Long Vi water area, according to Vietnam's National Committee for Search and Rescue. Earlier on Tuesday morning, a Russian-made SU-30 fighter jet of Vietnam air forces with two pilots aboard disappeared from radar screen while carrying out a training mission offshore Vietnam's central Nghe An province, some 260 km south of capital Hanoi. One of the SU-30's two pilots was rescued by local fishermen on Wednesday while the other pilot remains missing. WELLINGTON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand military personnel are to join a major cyber attack exercise for countries of the "Five Eyes" intelligence-gathering network, the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said Friday. Sixteen NZDF personnel would join about 2,000 personnel from the Five Eyes nations -- New Zealand, the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia -- in fending off simulated cyber attacks as part of a training exercise hosted by the U.S. from June 17 to 30. Major General Tim Gall, Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, said Exercise Cyber Flag 16, being held at a U.S. Department of Defense facility in Suffolk, Virginia, would involve systems that simulated the allied information networks and adversary networks. The teams would respond to the cyber attacks as a coalition, allowing participants to practice interoperability and defence, Gall said in a statement. "Although we are all using the same tools to defend our respective networks, it will be great to learn how other countries are using those tools to defend their systems," he said. Earlier this month, the New Zealand government released a Defence White Paper outlining military spending valued at 20 billion NZ dollars (14.08 billion U.S. dollars) over the next 15 years. The investment in new capabilities included cyber support capabilities to improve protection of NZDF information networks. WELLINGTON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Three Romanian men have been arrested in New Zealand in connection with a scam involving European credit cards, the New Zealand Police said Friday. The men, aged from their late 20s to early 40s, were allegedly involved in a sophisticated scam to fraudulently withdraw cash using skimmed credit cards from automatic teller machines in Auckland. The men, who would appear in Auckland District Court over the weekend, arrived in New Zealand in April, Detective Senior Sergeant Iain Chapman said in a statement. "It appears the men have allegedly been operating as an organized crime group," said Chapman. "We were alerted to the scam when banks noticed a significant amount of money being withdrawn," he said. "Once it was realized that fraud was occurring, some quick work and cooperation between the banks and Police led to the quick apprehension of three males allegedly involved." Daniel R. Fung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Institute of International Law (APIIL), speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Hong Kong, south China, June 16, 2016. (Xinhua Photo Provided by APIIL) HONG KONG, June 16 (Xinhua) -- A Hong Kong legal organization has queried the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague to deal with an arbitration initiated unilaterally by the Philippines against China over the South China Sea disputes, citing the factual and legal errors of the case. Daniel R. Fung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Institute of International Law (APIIL), told Xinhua on Thursday that such an arbitration involving sovereignty issues should not be handled by PCA under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). On June 6, 2016, the APIIL submitted an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on the arbitration initiated by the Philippines to the tribunal. The brief was endorsed by several solicitors and legal experts from China's Hong Kong, Britain and Australia. Citing a lot of international cases, the legal document addresses two key issues: jurisdiction of PCA to determine the Philippines' 15 submissions of the arbitration and justiciability of the issues raised in the submissions. Fung, a renowned senior counsel in China's Hong Kong, said in an interview with Xinhua on Thursday that PCA has obviously overlooked the two issues. Fung said the South China Sea disputes should be handled through diplomatic and political negotiations rather than an arbitration, especially they should not be handled under the UNCLOS. "As friend of the court, our motivation to intervene is to maintain the perfection of the International Law system and the perfection of the arbitration tribunal which is one of the instruments of the system," Fung said. "We are unwilling to see the international law system being jeopardized or its reputation being damaged," he said. According to Fung, PCA has the responsibility to respond to the amicus curiae brief and the APIIL has requested an oral argument at PCA. However, PCA has not responded to the brief. The Philippines unilaterally initiated arbitration proceedings to the Hague-based PCA against China over the South China Sea disputes in 2013. PCA ruled in 2015 that it has the jurisdiction over the case, taking up seven of the 15 submissions made by Manila. The Chinese government has reiterated its non-acceptance and non-participation stance in the case. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its statement issued on June 8 that China has all along stood for peacefully settling territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiations with states directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with the International law. On issues concerning territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, China never accepts any recourse to third party settlement, or any means of dispute settlement that is imposed on it, the statement said. An amicus curiae (literally, friend of the court) is someone as a third party to a case and offers information that bears on the case but who has not been solicited by any of the parties to assist a court. This may take the form of legal opinion or testimony and is a way to introduce concerns ensuring that the possibly broad legal effects of a court decision will not depend solely on the parties directly involved in the case. File photo taken on April 29, 2016 shows a boat moves on the sea near Zhaoshu Island of Qilianyu Islands in Sansha City, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua Photo by Yang Guanyu) WELLINGTON, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A government-led delegation of New Zealand's Maori businesses will be seeking to drum up trade in South Korea and Japan next week. It would be New Zealand's first trade mission to South Korea since a free trade agreement between the two countries entered into force in December last year, mission leader Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell said Friday. The Maori economy, valued at 42 billion NZ dollars (29.58 billion U.S. dollars), had huge potential to boost New Zealand's prosperity, Flavell said in a statement. "We led a similar trip to China last year, which was very successful, so it's good to be extending the initiative to South Korea and Japan," Flavell said. "These countries offer large markets with sophisticated consumers who want the sort of products Maori excel at delivering. This includes high-value seafood, honey and bee products, as well as tourism opportunities," he said. "While Maori businesses already have trading links with these countries, this cultural and trade mission is focused on strengthening those ties and initiating new links that put relationships first, before getting down to business." The delegation included 12 Maori business leaders from tourism, fishing, forestry, food and beverage, and nutraceuticals sectors. SYDNEY, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Australia's consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), will launch a study into the car retail industry, following a rise in complaints. ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement on Friday that agencies continued to receive a high volume of complaints from consumers about defects with vehicles from a range of manufacturers. "These complaints reveal that many consumers are having difficulty enforcing their consumer guarantee rights, which are in addition to the warranties provided by manufacturers," Sims said. "A new car is a significant purchase for consumers and more than 1 million new cars are sold in Australia each year." Consumer group CHOICE welcomed the announcement. "We particularly welcome the focus on misleading and deceptive conduct at the point of sale, including when it comes to claims about performance and fuel efficiency," Sarah Agar from CHOICE said. "Fuel costs are consistently reported as one of the biggest cost-of-living concerns for Australian households." A draft report by the ACCC is expected to be released in March 2017. COLOMBO, June 17 (Xinhua) - The European Union ban imposed on Sri Lankan fish exports has been lifted, the Sri Lankan Government Information Department said on Friday. Director Government Information Dr. Ranga Kalanssoriya said that the ban has been lifted after a recent high-level discussion held to decide on the lifting of the EU fish ban imposed on Sri Lanka. EU announced the ban in October 2014, due to Sri Lanka's failure to prevent local fishermen from violating international fisheries laws and human rights issues. Sri Lanka's seafood exports were severely hit and continued to decline since the ban took effect. Sri Lanka is one of the largest exporters to the EU of high value fishery products such as swordfish and tuna. According to the EU Commission, Sri Lanka exported 7,400 tones of fish worth 74 million euros (94 million U.S. dollars) in 2013 and over 5,000 tones of fisheries products earning 9,103 million Sri Lankan rupees (62.99 million dollars) in 2014 to the EU countries respectively. by Xinhua Writers Han Jianjun, Wang Huijuan SMEDEREVO, Serbia, June 17 (Xinhua) -- "After the Chinese group bought our Smederevo steel mill, the factory regained life. Now we are not afraid of losing jobs and hopeful of the future," Novica Jovanovic, a 51-year old veteran told Xinhua. In the Smederevo steel mill, which was founded in 1913 and once labeled "the pride of Serbia" for its outstanding profit, Xinhua journalists witnessed a busy and orderly scene. In the reception hall, the national flags of Serbia and China are hung side by side on the wall while further inside the factory, machines are growling, various technical vehicles are running and workers are busy operating. The present of the steel mill is quite a contrast to the past. It went bankrupt in 2003 before it was sold to U.S. Steel for 23 million U.S. dollars. Serbia bought it back in 2012 when the U.S. investor withdrew, but since then the company's 5,000 workers had been sent on paid leave until April 2013 when the furnaces of the steel mill started operating again with limited capacity. Then Chinese HeSteel Group (HBIS) bought the factory for 46 million euros (51.6 million dollars). The natives called the smoke produced by the furnaces "the smoke of hope" because it meant the normality of production, and regular work and payment for the workers, said Nikola, a safety mechanic. HBIS has promised to employ all workers in the factory and invest in technical improvement and market expansion. According to data provided by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, export of steel last year from Serbia was worth 325 million dollars, but Ljubisa Obradovic, an official of the Chamber of Commerce, believed this to improve significantly with the arrival of HeSteel. "The arrival of HeSteel to Serbia opens huge potentials in metal-electro industry and mining in the sense that the level of production will double in comparison to the current state," Obradovic said. Slobodanka Susa, director of the Serbian Association of the Steel Industry, echoed by saying that HeSteel's purchase of Smederevo steel mill is a win-win deal. "It is very important for Serbia's economic development that Smederevo steel mill can continue production. Meanwhile the deal makes the steel production go to the European market more easily," Susa explained. For regional development, this purchase is a good example within the frame of China's Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Central and Eastern European (CEE) cooperation, which integrates Chinese capital, technology and Serbian work force and steel producing experience, Susa added. "Chinese people are old friends of Serbian people," said Jovanovic. The veteran with 30 years of working experience in Smederevo steel mill said he believes that the factory's future will be as bright as the cooperative relations between Serbia and China. BISHKEK, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Kyrgyzstan fully supports China's initiative on building the Silk Road Economic Belt, Prime Minister Sooronbai Zheenbekov said. Cooperation with China is a priority of Kyrgyz foreign policy and the Kyrgyz side fully supports the initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping on building the Silk Road Economic Belt and hopes to expand cooperation within the framework of the initiative, the prime minister said while meeting with Chinese Ambassador Qi Dayu on Thursday. Zheenbekov also stressed the importance of resuming the work of an expert group on implementing a series of connectivity projects between Kyrgyzstan and China, including a railway project. "The country's leadership attaches great importance to the development of bilateral relations with China. The two countries have active interaction on the development of trade and economic cooperation," he said. Kyrgyzstan is ready to make all efforts to deepen relations with China, said Zheenbekov. Zheenbekov will visit China in late June to meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and to attend the World Economic Forum in Tianjin, north China. PHNOM PENH, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A China-Cambodia joint venture has announced a plan to build a 230-million-U.S. dollar cement factory in northwestern Cambodia's Battambang province next month, the Phnom Penh Post reported on Friday. Battambang Conch Cement Company - a joint venture between Chinese firm Conch International Holdings (HK) and local cement company Battambang KT Cement Company - will break ground next month in Rattanak Mondul district, said Vinh Hour, director of Battambang Conch Cement. He said the new cement plant is expected to begin operation in December 2017 and will have a capacity of 1.8 million tonnes per year. "We will be the fourth cement company to supply the market," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "And when the supply increases in the market, the price of cement will decrease." According to Hour, Cambodia's annual demand for cement has reached 8 million tonnes, while the existing three cement plants in Kampot province can only supply about half of this amount. The remainder is imported from Asian suppliers. Battambang Conch Cement has applied for an industrial mining licence to use limestone from a nearby mountain in the district for its production, he said. Hort Pheng, director of industrial affairs at the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft, said the ministry has approved five cement factories to date - three of which are in southwestern Kampot province and already supply the market. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Commerce Ministry said Friday that the rapid increase in outbound investment was normal, dismissing concerns that such gains would intensify capital outflows. Concerns have been raised that increased foreign exchange demand along with surges in outbound investment added pressure to foreign exchange reserves and international payments. "We are studying whether this will pose any risk and if we need to take targeted measures," spokesperson Shen Danyang said at a news briefing. China's outbound investment would exceed foreign direct investment in the country this year, Shen said. In the first five months of this year, outbound direct investment surged 61.9 percent year on year to 479.3 billion yuan (74 billion U.S. dollars), while foreign direct investment into the country rose only 3.8 percent to 343.6 billion yuan. Related: China's outbound direct investment surges in Jan.- May BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese companies continued to invest big in the overseas market in the first five months of the year, official data showed on Wednesday. China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) rose 61.9 percent from a year earlier to 479 billion yuan (74 billion U.S. dollars) in January-May period, the Ministry of Commerce said on its website. Full story SYDNEY, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Australia is optimistic negotiations for a bilateral trade treaty with India will be concluded within the next few months despite going over a self imposed conclusion deadline. Australia and India missed the January 2016 deadline set by the two nations leaders in 2014 as Australia looks to gain tariff reductions for agriculture and services exports, while India seeks better access for auto parts, textiles and fresh fruit. Australian former trade minister, now Special Envoy for Trade, Andrew Robb, said on Friday that the Australia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement could be concluded within two months following the Australian election on July 2 "It is very close, we have done most of the work," Robb told a conference marking the anniversary of the China-Australia FTA signing at the University of New South Wales. Robb said the delay was from resourcing issues at "the right level" on India's side due to competing priorities as it undergoes enormous social and economic change. "India is heading in the same direction as China, but 10 to 15 years behind," Robb said. "If we could sit down with the list of 25 areas, which are generally political decisions ... we could clean (the FTA negotiations) up in two months," he added. "After the (Australian) election, we'll have a discussion with the Indian government and put that proposition to them." The ninth round of negotiations took place in New Delhi in mid-September last year, addressing key issues of market access for goods and services, technical barriers to trade, legal and institutional matters and dispute settlement. BELGRADE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off a historic visit to Serbia on Friday, in a trip that Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said "sends a strong signal that China values its friendship with Serbia." The visit, a testimony to the time-tested and trusted friendship between the two sides, shows that "China seriously considers Serbia as its great partner," said Nikolic. Serbia was the first Central and Eastern European (CEE) country to forge a strategic partnership with China. In September last year, Nikolic, along with a group of Serbian troops, came to China for the commemoration activities for the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, also known as World War II (WWII). It was the first time that foreign troops had been invited to participate in China's military parade. Hosting Nikolic in Beijing, Xi recalled that China and Serbia made tremendous sacrifices in WWII and made great contributions to the eventual defeat of the Fascist forces in Asia and Europe. In the future, it is still their common objective and sacred mission to jointly safeguard the hard-won world peace, Xi said. Speaking highly of China's role in promoting world peace and development, Nikolic said China's rise is a blessing for the world, and hailed the Chinese people's pursuit of freedom and equality. "Grudges in the past should not hinder international cooperation at present, thus all participants of WWII, including Japan and Germany, should attend China's commemorative activities to prevent historical tragedies from happening again," the president said. The two countries' firm support for each other on issues concerning their core interests demonstrates the nature of their strategic partnership, said China's ambassador to Serbia, Li Manchang. "China and Serbia have built such a relationship on the basis of equality and mutual trust, which has helped safeguard global equality and justice and is a model for China-CEE cooperation," Li said. Xi's ongoing trip to Serbia and later Poland, which follows his first visit to the region in March this year, highlights the importance of the CEE countries in China's foreign policy. "This kind of family visit-style tours to traditionally friendly countries will further enhance mutual trust between China and its destination countries," said Chen Yurong, a scholar with the China Institute of International Studies. Serbia was one of the first nations to embrace China's Belt and Road Initiative. Working on reindustrialization of the nation, Serbia will benefit from increased Chinese investment and the expanding connectivity across the continent. "The arrival of the Chinese president is a signal to Chinese investors and business people, as well as Serbian businessmen, that new and wider opportunities are about to be created for various kinds of economic cooperation," said Jurij Bajec, a professor at the Faculty of Economics of Belgrade University and a special adviser at the Economics Institute. Investors from other countries will "also see in the visit some kind of a guarantee that new, big business ventures will start in Serbia, and will consider coming to Serbia too for their own interest," Bajec said. Serbia is the European chair of infrastructure construction within the China-CEE cooperation framework, also known as the 16+1 mechanism. With an abundant manufacturing capacity, China can support local production in CEE countries in win-win cooperation between the two sides, said Wang Yiwei, head of the European Union Research Center at China's Renmin University. China and Serbia have been working on transportation and energy projects, and are mulling major projects involving industrial parks, highways, ports and power stations. Their cooperation has been designed from a structural and long-term point of view, and complements each other's economic strengths. China's HeSteel Group (HBIS) inked a 51.8-million-U.S.-dollar deal to buy Serbia's sole steel mill in April, guaranteeing the 5,000 jobs for the current employees in the Smederevo steel mill. "We are confident that we will turn the steel mill in Smederevo into a modern complex, with advanced technology, equipment, a raised level of environmental protection and good working conditions. Our aim will be to turn Smederevo into one of the most competitive steel mills in Europe," said HBIS President Yu Yong. The Serbian part of the Serbia-Hungary railway, a flagship project between China and the two countries, was started in December last year. Addressing a ceremony for the start of the project, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic thanked both the Chinese and Serbian teams for their arduous efforts to push ahead the Hungary-Serbia railway, calling it "another breakthrough in pragmatic cooperation between Serbia and China." The Serbia-Hungary railway brings Serbia closer to the central regions of Europe, and will help transform Serbia into a regional pivot of transportation and logistics, Vucic said, adding that his country is ready to work with China to ensure the opening of the Serbia-Hungary railway in 2018. Successful cooperation as such includes the Belgrade bridge over the Danube and the Kostolac power station. Construction on a Chinese car parts factory with joint investment from both countries and a projected employment of 1,400 people also began in Belgrade's suburbs in April. Joint projects by China and Serbia over recent years have been expanding from transportation to various fields such as energy, steel, communication and finance, with cooperation models upgraded from loans to investment and joint ventures, said the Chinese ambassador. The China-Serbia friendship, marked by common memories like the 1972 movie "Walter Defends Sarajevo," has become -- in the Serbian president's words -- "as strong as the Great Wall." Related: Full text of Chinese president's signed article on Serbian newspaper BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping published a signed article on leading Serbian newspaper Politika under the title of "Enduring Friendship and True Partnership" on Thursday ahead of his state visit to the Balkan country. The full text of the article, also carried by the Tanjug news agency, is as follows. Full Story Spotlight: Xi's upcoming trip to CEE countries, Central Asia to boost Belt & Road Initiative BEIJING, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming trip to Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) and Central Asia from June 17 to 24 is expected to significantly boost the Belt and Road Initiative. One of the exhibition halls of the 60th Consumer Goods Forum Annual Global Summit in Cape Town, South Africa, June 16,2016. (Xinhua/Gaoyuan) CAPE TOWN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The 60th Consumer Goods Forum Annual Global Summit kicked off on Wednesday in Cape Town, with a call to end forced labour and modern day slavery by promoting human rights and decent working conditions throughout the world. The three-day summit is meant to discuss and agree on steps and actions that need to be taken to develop, sustain and grow the consumer goods industry in the era of a digital revolution that is compelling all of role players to rethink the choices that consumers continue to make. The summit brings manufacturers and retailers together to realise that they have a critical role to play in improving the health and wellness of consumers, employees, their families and the communities they serve. Members of the Forum employ nearly 10 million people worldwide with an estimated 90 million roles along the value chain. In his opening speech, South African Deputy President Cyril Ramophosa said this is an ethical and values-driven organization that is pioneering ground-breaking programs to reduce food wastage. "We certainly cannot afford, as I have come to learn, to live in a world where approximately one-third of all food is lost or wasted while more than 800 million people are undernourished," Ramaphosa said. This global summit, he said, offers an excellent platform for industry leaders and entrepreneurs to share experiences on the modern consumer and how his or her needs can better be attended to. "It is an opportunity for collaboration and refining of digital strategies to take advantage of the opportunities brought about by a world that is more connected, dynamic and fluctuating," he said. At a time of persistent difficulty in the global economy, consumer-focused businesses must be responsive to the financial pressures under which consumers find themselves, said Ramaphosa. He said there is growing consensus on the continent that Africa must replace the current system of exporting commodities and raw materials with a continental legislative and policy architecture and infrastructure. "This must be premised on interdependence, interconnectivity and intra-trade across our continent," said Ramaphosa. CANBERRA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China has been consistent in seeking a peaceful and negotiated solution to the South China Sea disputes, Chinese Ambassador Cheng Jingye said in an article published Friday in one of Australia's top newspapers. In the article carried by The West Australian, Cheng wrote the issue of the South China Sea has attracted a lot of recent attention. "Though this is a complicated issue concerning territorial sovereignty, China remains committed to a negotiated solution." "China's indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters has long been established," the article said. "As the first to discover the islands, China has exercised sovereign jurisdiction over them through various means." "During World War II, Japan illegally seized some parts of the islands. After the war, China recovered those islands in accordance with the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. For several decades afterwards, it was widely acknowledged by the international community that the South China Sea islands belong to China." The ambassador explained in the article the root cause of South China Sea disputes, which originated in the 1970s when some countries around the South China Sea began to occupy illegally part of China's Nansha islands and reefs. "In the interests of peace and stability in the region, China has exercised the utmost restraint," he said. While adhering to its position of upholding sovereignty over the islands, China put forward the proposal of "shelving differences and engaging in common development." China has had active discussions with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries for an effective way to manage the disputes. With concerted efforts, China and the 10 ASEAN countries signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in 2002. In the DOC, all relevant parties undertook to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means through friendly consultations and negotiations by countries directly concerned. In September 2013, China and ASEAN countries launched consultations for a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC), and they have made significant progress. "During the recent Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting, China and ASEAN countries, by reaffirming their commitment to a full, effective and comprehensive implementation of the DOC, agreed to advance the process of COC consultations with a view to reaching an early conclusion based on consensus." "It is China's consistent policy to settle territorial and maritime entitlement disputes through negotiations and consultations. In this spirit, China has solved boundary issues with 12 out of its 14 land neighbors in the past decades, with about 20,000 km of borderlines delineated." In addition, China and Vietnam have set the maritime boundary in the Beibu Gulf. "These remarkable achievements fully demonstrate that bilateral negotiations and consultations are an effective means to solve territorial disputes. The Chinese government will continue to adopt this approach," he said in the article. Cheng said in the mid-1990s, China and the Philippines reached a clear agreement on settling their disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation. This has been reaffirmed in many other bilateral documents since then, including the joint statement the two countries issued in September 2011. However, "in total disregard of this agreement," the Philippines unilaterally initiated arbitration against China on the South China Sea dispute in early 2013. "Such a move again goes against the provisions of the DOC. China has every right not to accept or participate in the arbitration. In spite of all this, the door of dialogue is always open. China is committed to resolving the disputes through negotiation with the Philippines." "The South China Sea is an important shipping lane. As the largest country around the South China Sea and the world's biggest trading nation in goods, China has a high stake in the South China Sea with 80 percent of its total trade traversing the area. Peace and stability in the South China Sea are critical to China." "It stands ready to work with other parties concerned to safeguard freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea which all countries are entitled to in accordance with international law." "On the other hand, China remains firmly opposed to any provocative acts to ratchet up tension under the cover of navigation freedom," Cheng said in the article. MOSCOW, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Russia's position on the possible exit of Britain from the European Union (EU) depends on whether it will weaken the EU or not, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said. "We need a strong partner, and Europe is our key partner in the world," Dvorkovich said in an interview with TV network Bloomberg aired on Friday. If Brexit will weaken the EU, then Russia is "not in favor of it," he said. "Weak partners are not usually good partners, not safe partners.Therefore, Russia needs Europe to remain strong." However, it is a choice eventually up to the British people and nobody should intervene, added the deputy prime minister. Dvorkovich also said that Russian's position on Brexit has nothing to do with the sanctions imposed on Russia by Western powers led by the United States. The sanctions are counterproductive for everyone. The sooner the sanctions are revoked, the better it is for both Russia and the Western economies, he said. XIAMEN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- After Wu Zhanbang, a young Chinese mainland entrepreneur finishes pitching his startup to the Taiwanese audience, David Chia, head of the visiting delegation, asks him how old he is. Wu's answer "22" is met by a huge round of applause. A group of 20 Taiwanese youngsters are visiting the First Maker, a startup incubator in Jimei Software Park in the southeastern city of Xiamen from Wednesday to Friday. Here, many entrepreneurs, like Wu, are fresh college graduates. The visit is part of many exchange activities linked to the Straits Forum, the largest annual event across the Taiwan Strait highlighting people-to-people exchanges, which ends Friday. Each delegate is paired with a startup based at First Maker. Alan Yeh, 40, from Taiwan's southern city Tainan, is working with Zheng Yang, CEO of e-commerce firm Quality Youth. Alan, who works in marketing, is impressed that Zheng is also 22 years old. "I had a very clear objective back in college, so I prepared myself throughout my studies," says Zheng, a graduate from Jimei University just miles away from the software park. Zheng tells Alan that his company exports mainland goods through foreign e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, and Lazada, an online shopping platform in Southeast Asia. "The mainland has a lot of good products, hence, huge business opportunities," Zheng tells Alan, unwrapping a box of goods to be shipped abroad, and handing Alan a diving mask that can be hooked up to a GoPro camera. Most of Zheng's orders are from the United States, and his company, which only launched last year, began to turn a profit this year, according to him. Alan says he has heard about the fast growth of the Internet industry on the mainland, and he wants to see it with his own eyes. He is impressed with the support startups on the mainland receive. David says the support offered to young entrepreneurs is very important, because startups can hardly break even in the first few years, but when rent is factored out, aspirant entrepreneurs are more likely to explore their ideas. Mina Yi, 33, another visitor from Taiwan, photographs every wall hanging at the First Maker office during the guided tour. The hangings feature mainland business icons including Jack Ma of Alibaba and Pony Ma of qq.com, as well as Steve Jobs of Apple. "The visit has been very helpful, because I also want to start up my own e-commerce business, and seeing how it is done on the mainland is inspiring," Mina said. "I have heard a mainland friend talking about the situation on the mainland. Seeing it myself makes me anxious that given the speed of progress here, we may not be able to catch up," Mina says with a chuckle. Alan says experiencing the mainland firsthand is much better than learning from the media. BAGHDAD, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Friday took control of the government compound in the Islamic State (IS)-held city of Fallujah in the country's western province of Anbar, after days of battles against IS militants inside the southern part of the city, security sources said. "The troops managed in the morning to free the government compound and raised the Iraqi flag on its main building in the central part of Fallujah," Raid Shakir Jawdat, the Commander of the Federal Police, said in a press release. The recapture of the government compound came after the troops freed the districts of Nazal, Jubail and Resala, in addition to the industrial area in the southern part of the city, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The latest advance is the result of fierce clashes during the past few days, which forced many of the extremist militants to flee the city, the source said. The battles continued in the day to free northern district of the city with some IS militants still fighting in some areas, the source added. The liberation of the southern part of the city enabled more than 30,000 people who were trapped by the battles to leave their homes to safer areas outside the city, he said. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on May 23 the launch of a major offensive to claim Fallujah and surrounding towns and areas. Government troops and allied militias have currently been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns in Anbar from IS militants, who attempted to advance toward Baghdad after seizing most of Anbar province. Iraq has been witnessing a wave of violence since the IS controlled parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014. A member of Iraqi government forces walks next to an armoured vehicle during an operation, backed by air support from the US-led coalition, in Fallujah's southern Shuhada neighbourhood to retake the area from the Islamic State (IS) group on June 15, 2016. (Xinhua/AFP) BAGHDAD, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Friday took control of the government compound in the Islamic State (IS)-held city of Fallujah in the country's western province of Anbar, after days of battles against IS militants inside the southern part of the city, security sources said. "The troops managed in the morning to free the government compound and raised the Iraqi flag on its main building in the central part of Fallujah," Raid Shakir Jawdat, the Commander of the Federal Police, said in a press release. The recapture of the government compound came after the troops freed the districts of Nazal, Jubail and Resala, in addition to the industrial area in the southern part of the city, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The latest advance is the result of fierce clashes during the past few days, which forced many of the extremist militants to flee the city, the source said. The battles continued in the day to free northern district of the city with some IS militants still fighting in some areas, the source added. The liberation of the southern part of the city enabled more than 30,000 people who were trapped by the battles to leave their homes to safer areas outside the city, he said. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on May 23 the launch of a major offensive to claim Fallujah and surrounding towns and areas. Government troops and allied militias have currently been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns in Anbar from IS militants, who attempted to advance toward Baghdad after seizing most of Anbar province. Iraq has been witnessing a wave of violence since the IS controlled parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014. JINAN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The so-called teapot refineries of east China's Shandong Province imported 7.488 million tonnes of crude oil in the first quarter of this year, Xinhua learned exclusively from local authorities. Of China's 91.1 million tonnes of imported crude in the first quarter, 8.2 percent went to Shandong's teapots. Statistics of the teapots' crude imports are compiled quarterly, so numbers since March are not yet available, according to an official with Shandong Economic and Information Technology Committee (ETIC), who declined to be named. The coastal province boasts more than 70 percent of Chinese teapots' refining capacity and revenue, according to exclusive data shared with Xinhua. Their international impact only began to be felt toward the end of last year, however, when the central government issued them with import quotas. Last year, 18 Shandong teapots applied for permission to import 64.42 million tonnes of crude annually, ETIC said. As of May this year, 11 have secured 41.43 million tonnes, with the remaining applications, for 22.99 million tonnes, awaiting approval. Eleven additional Shandong teapots are preparing to apply, too, ETIC said. Should all the applications be approved, Shandong teapots' potential crude imports could account for almost a fifth of that of the whole country, as customs data showed China imported 335.5 million tonnes last year. OUT OF HINTERLAND It was not long ago that these same teapots were struggling with crude shortages, as China's oil market is dominated by state-owned giants such as CNPC and Sinopec. The giants, whose businesses span from extraction, refining to retailing, have been for years reluctant to "feed" smaller, independent rivals with crude. "The biggest difference between us and a state-owned refinery is that we never know when or from whom our next 'meal' will come," said Li Bo, a former Sinopec Qilu Petrochemical Corp. employee who is now general manager of Shandong Wonfull Petrochemical Group Co., both in Zibo City. As a result, Shandong teapots' capacity utilization rate for 2013 was 36.4 percent, whereas state-owned refineries were running at over 80 percent, according to ETIC numbers. Breakthrough has been made to narrow the gap as local teapots gained import quotas, which ETIC officials described as an effective step in China's ongoing supply-side reforms. Wonfull Petrochemical was granted an import quota of over 4 million tonnes earlier this year, and the news was significant, Li said. "Tears poured down employees' faces. We used to think we were second-class citizens, but now we are on equal footings," Li said. Shandong teapots were granted quotas in late 2015, and rushed to import crude, but last year's total imports -- 7.37 million tonnes -- were "below expectations," according to the ETIC, because of "highly fluctuating prices and the teapots' lack of buying experience." EXPLORING WONDERLAND With steady, quality imports, the teapots are already reaping handsome rewards -- and profits. The eleven teapots that have been granted quotas, registered a 20.9 percent growth of revenue and 622 percent growth of profits in the January-March period. "We used to run at 30 to 40 percent capacity, but now we are near full production," said Wei Yudong, deputy general manager of Lihuayi Group Co. Ltd., which has been allowed to import 3.5 million tonnes a year. Leading the teapots' imports is Shandong Dongming Petrochemical Group, which imported 2.258 million tonnes in the first quarter, according to ETIC. As imports limits are poised to loosen, the province is championing a new platform -- the China Independent Oil Refiners Purchasing Alliance -- to seek lower prices from the international market. Fourteen teapots, including 11 within Shandong, have joined the alliance, said ETIC, adding that, "We will actively support the alliance in unified negotiations and purchasing based upon uniform pricing, so as to bolster bargaining power and promote the interests of the teapots and the industry." Teapots, including Lihuayi, Dongying Qirun Chemical Co. Ltd., and Dongying Yatong Petrochemical Co. Ltd., will channel billions of yuan to improve their petrochemical processing capabilities, company executives told Xinhua. HOUSTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. must stop people with "hate in their hearts" from entering the country, in the wake of the deadly terror attack in Orlando of Florida. "We have to stop people with hate in their hearts from coming into our country," Trump said in front of a rally with about 3,500 supporters in the northern Texas city of Dallas, the first leg of his two-day Texas tour that will also bring him to Houston on Friday. According to the local English daily newspaper The Dallas Morning News, Trump said that he would protect the United States against terrorism by controlling the flow of immigrants into the country. Speaking of the June 12 terror attack in Orlando of Florida that left 49 people dead and 53 others injured, along with other similar incidents, Trump said the murders were born out of disrespect for America. "It is weakness on behalf of our leadership. People don't respect our country anymore," Trump said, "They are going to respect you, folks. Things are going to change." "You saw what one sleazebag can do. No more," he added. Trump also talked about building a wall along the country's southern border with neighboring Mexico and protecting gun rights. Attacking his rival, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump said he was so looking forward to the debate with what he called "crooked Hillary." Hillary would abolish the second amendment (of the Constitution that allows U.S. citizens to own a gun) and raise taxes, he warned. Meanwhile, Dallas police maintained a major presence while hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the rally to protest against Trump's visit. This is Trump's first campaign in Texas since he clinched the Republican Party's nomination one year ago. PHNOM PENH, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Siem Reap Provincial Court sentenced an elderly British man to 18 months in prison on Friday for sexually abusing three underage boys. Roy Sheppard, 77, was convicted of "Indecent Act" of Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation against three underage boys between 12 and 16 years old, said a statement issued by child protection NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE), which assisted the police in a probe leading to the arrest and conviction. The court also ordered his deportation from Cambodia after he served his jail term and fined him 1,000 U.S. dollars in compensation to each of the victims. Sheppard was arrested by Siem Reap Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile protection police in October last year after receiving complaints from the parents of the victims. Later, he was released on bail by the court for health reason. APLE's program director Vando Khoem applauded the verdict against Sheppard and urged the authorities to bring him to serve his sentence. Cambodia launched an anti-pedophile operation in 2003 in a bid to end its reputation as a haven for child sex offenders. Since then, dozens of foreigners have been imprisoned for child sex crimes. ATHENS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Greece's national broadcaster ERT and the Chinese Guangxi Television Station unveiled a cooperation project on Thursday evening to air a series of documentaries on Guangxi, an autonomous region in southwest China. Starting from June 20, ERT will broadcast on a daily basis a total of seven documentaries, produced by Guangxi Television and featuring the breath-taking landscape of the region, its people and rich cultural heritage. During a ceremony in Athens on Thursday evening, senior officials from both sides announced the cooperation project. "We hope this will be the first step in productive cooperation with Chinese television stations," said Panagiotis Tsolias, director of corporate communication at ERT. "We believe that Guangxi can have a pioneering role in China-Greece friendly exchanges and that it can become an important bridge and can play an active role in the Belt and Road Initiative," said Zou Xiaoli, Chinese Ambassador to Greece. The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by Chinese leaders, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt that links China with Europe through central and western Asia by inland routes, and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road connecting China with southeast Asia, Africa and Europe by sea routes. HANOI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) expected Vietnam's economic growth of 6.7 percent in 2016, staying unchanged compared to 2015, despite downside risk due to ongoing severe drought, said the ADB in a press release on Friday. The country's economic growth is projected to stand at 6.5 percent in 2017, said the press release issued during a two-day visit of ADB President Takehiko Nakao to Vietnam. Meanwhile, in late 2015, Vietnam's National Assembly targeted the country's economic growth to be 6.7 percent in 2016. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in early June said his country's economic growth is expected to hit around 6.8 percent in 2017. Concerning climate change, Vietnam has become increasingly vulnerable to climate change-related extreme events such as droughts and flooding that severely affect agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said the ADB. Recently, ADB has approved 3 million U.S. dollars in granting assistance to support relief efforts in the wake of the drought and salt water intrusion in Vietnam's South Central, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta regions. UNITED NATIONS, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Thursday concluded a three-day meeting on the disabled persons with determination to never leave them behind in the global drive for sustainable development. Bringing together hundreds of disability advocates and government delegates, the 9th Session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) constituted one of the largest and most diverse international meetings on disability in the world. The main focus of the Parties to the CRPD, which kicked off on Tuesday at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, is to implement the new Sustainable Development Goals for all persons with disabilities During the event, U.N. officials, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft highlighted the critical role which the disabilities play as invaluable partners to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. "Let us work together for a world of opportunity and dignity for all, a future of inclusion, one in which we all gain by leaving no one behind," the U.N. secretary general told the conference. The Chinese delegation to the three-day U.N. conference was headed by Wu Haitao, the deputy Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations. The Vice Chairman of the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDFP), Jia Yong, took the floor at the general debate of the U.N. event and shed light on how the Chinese government has taken great efforts to promote the rights and well-being of the people with disabilities in his country. The annual U.N. conference also examined the implementation of the binding agreement adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2006 to reaffirm that the one billion persons with disabilities -- 15 percent of the world's population -- must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Indian troops Friday killed two militants in a fierce gunfight in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. The gunfight broke out at Bomai village of Sopore area, around 56 km northwest of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir. "Today two militants were killed in a firefight at Bomai village near Sopore town," Col. N N Joshi told Xinhua. "The gunfight was triggered after joint contingents of Indian army and police cordoned off the area following specific intelligence inputs about the presence of militants." Indian army or police have not suffered any casualty in the standoff, police said. While the gunfight was going on, clashes broke out in the village. Local youth threw stones and brickbats at the government forces, who retaliated by firing tear smoke shells and warning shots. Joshi said the identity of slain militants was being ascertained. However, reports said the two have been identified as local cadres of Hizbul Mujahideen, the region's indigenous militant outfit. Locals said the house from where militants were firing on police and army positions has been severely damaged. On Thursday, four militants and an Indian military trooper were killed in a gunfight in Tangdhar area of the frontier Kupwara district. Indian military said the militants were gunned down while trying to infiltrate into Indian-controlled Kashmir. Militant groups are engaged in a guerrilla war with Indian troops in the region since 1989. Gunfight between the two sides takes place intermittently. Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir. KINGSTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Jamaican government has decided to use Chinese concessional loans to upgrade the road network on the island, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Thursday. The arrangement has been finalized with the Export-Import Bank of China (China EximBank), which will provide most of the funds, to construct a road network in the southeastern and southwestern parts of the country, the prime minister told a press conference in Jamaica House. Holness said that the projects will cost 384 million U.S. dollars. The Jamaican government will raise 57 million dollars while the rest will be provided by the China Eximbank as a loan. Works in the southeastern end of the island will cover construction of a toll-free four-lane highway and renovation of some old roads, Holness said. For the southwestern section, the prime minister said the toll road Highway 2000 will be extended from May Pen, Clarendon Parish in the south to Mandeville, Manchester Parish in the midwest of the country. "This plan makes access, gives a better road, reduces cost and still achieves the objectives that we want it to," he said. The prime minister said the national project to build out the road network is in keeping with the government's philosophy that all public expenditure must make economic sense and utilize a cost-effective strategy of implementation. Chinese Ambassador to Jamaica Niu Qingbao told Xinhua that the Chinese government is committed to providing concessional loans to fund the Caribbean countries' infrastructure and other development projects. "We hope assistance from China will help Jamaica and other Caribbean countries stick to their development agenda, boost the economic prosperity, and most importantly, benefit all people here," Niu said. COLOMBO, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka said on Friday that the local fisheries industry is to be modernized with lifting of a ban by the European Union (EU) on fisheries products from Sri Lanka. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a statement Norwegian assistance has been sought to modernize the fisheries industry. The prime minister appreciated the role played by the Foreign Ministry, Fisheries Ministry and others to lift the ban on fisheries products from Sri Lanka to the EU. The European Commission this week formally lifted the ban on fisheries products from Sri Lanka and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the fishermen can now begin exporting fisheries products to EU countries. In April the European Commission said after a lengthy dialogue process Sri Lanka has successfully reformed its fisheries governance system. Sri Lanka was issued with a yellow card in 2012 and banned by the Council in February 2015. This was the result of a long-standing failure to address serious shortcomings in the implementation of control measures, a lack of deterrent sanctions, as well as the failure to comply with international and regional fisheries rules. Sri Lanka has subsequently amended its legal framework, strengthened sanctions and improved its fleet control. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his first public appearance at a mosque in the centre of Iraq's second city, Mosul, in July, 2014. (SIPA File Photo) MOSCOW, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State (IS), was wounded in a recent anti-terror campaign, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Friday, citing Syria's ambassador to Moscow. "There is no exact information with regard to his (al-Baghdadi) death, but I do know for sure that he was wounded," ambassador Riyad Haddad was quoted as saying without elaboration. Earlier this week, there have been reports citing various sources that the IS leader was allegedly killed in a U.S.-led airstrike in Syria. CAIRO, June 17, 2016 (Xinhua) -- This undated photo provided by Egypt's Civil Aviation Ministry shows a black box of the crashed EgyptAir plane. The second black box of the crashed EgyptAir plane has been retrieved, Egyptian investigators said on Friday. (Xinhua) CAIRO, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Technical Investigation committee for EgyptAir's A320 crashed in the Mediterranean Sea last month has received the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) from Egypt's general prosecution, the committee said in a statement on Friday. The committee said the two data recorders will be handed over to the Central Department for Aircraft Accident at the Ministry of Civil Aviation to start analysing them in order to unload their data. Earlier in the day, the committee announced that the second black box of the crashed EgyptAir plane has been retrieved by Lethbridge John vessel which was rented by the Egyptian government to take part in the search operations. The aircraft's first black box, cockpit voice recorder, was recovered on Thursday. "The analysis of data may take several weeks; if the memory units at both recorders are in good condition, then the unloading process will start right away at the labs of the Central Department for Aircraft Investigation," the committee's press release said. Whereas, the committee explained, if there is a minor damage at both or either of them, the damage will be repaired locally. However, the committee said the repair process will be conducted abroad under the supervision of the Investigation Committee if the damage is major. The Airbus A320 crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board. Later, the Egyptian military announced it found personal belongings of the victims and small pieces of the plane's wreckage in the Mediterranean Sea 290 km north of the coastal city of Alexandria. This file photo taken on May 19, 2016 shows an Egyptair Airbus A330 from Cairo taxiing at the Roissy-Charles De Gaulle airport near Paris after its landing a few hours after the MS804 Egyptair flight crashed into the Mediterranean. (Xinhua/AFP) CAIRO, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The second black box of the crashed EgyptAir plane has been retrieved, Egyptian investigators said on Friday. "Lethbridge John vessel, rented by the Egyptian government to take part in the search, has retrieved the second black box, flight data recorder of the crashed EgyptAir flight A320," the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said in a statement. The Airbus A320 crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board. Later, the Egyptian military announced it found personal belongings of the victims and small pieces of the plane's wreckage in the Mediterranean Sea 290 km north of the coastal city of Alexandria. The recorder, which gathers information about the speed, altitude and direction of the plane, was "retrieved in several pieces," the committee added. The aircraft's first black box, cockpit voice recorder, was recovered on Thursday. The Egyptian investigation committee said preparations were underway to transfer the two flight black boxes to Alexandria where they will be received by an official from the prosecutor general's office and investigators. A crew member takes part in a fire drill on China's largest and most advanced patrol vessel Haixun 01 on the South China Sea, April 4, 2016. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli) by Fei Liena, Hao Weiwei BEIJING, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The South China Sea proves to be a tranquil sea with inherent freedom of navigation, but some countries, with ulterior motives, have launched publicity campaigns to deliberately play up the South China Sea issue in support of their hegemonist military moves. Let's first take a look at an example. In February, Western media started to hype up China's missile deployment in South China Sea's Xisha area. On Feb. 16, the U.S. Fox News network reported that China deployed HQ-9 anti-aircraft missiles on Xisha's Yongxing Island. On Feb 17, U.S. secretary of state, White House spokesman and commander of the Pacific Command all criticized China for what they called "militarization" in the South China Sea. On the same day, the Japanese government also expressed "grave concern" over China's action. Afterwards, the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies released a set of satellite photos, claiming China was setting up high frequency radar facilities on the South China Sea, echoing the so-called "China threat" claim. In Western media's reports on the South China Sea issue, China has often been described as a restless empire "bullying" smaller countries, "militarizing" in the South China Sea, sabotaging "freedom of navigation", challenging international law, and seeking hegemony in the Asia Pacific region. The farce, led by the U.S. and supported by its allies, was intentioned to make China the scapegoat for the tense situation in the South China Sea region. Uncle Sam and its friends are good at staging biased media publicity campaigns, confusing different concepts and applying double standards. They often choose to ignore the fact that the Philippines and other countries have illegally occupied Chinese islands in the South China Sea and deployed radar facilities, planes, artillery pieces and missiles there. Yet, they tag "militarization" on China for doing lawful construction work on its own islands. When asked whether sending large U.S. naval ships and military planes to the region means militarization at a press briefing, U.S. State Department spokesperson Mark Toner gave a funny answer by saying the practice was "basically freedom of navigation." Western media publicity campaigns' prejudice against China on the South China Sea issue originates from their presumption of guilt on China -- Everything China does in the South China Sea must have been wrong. This logic reminds people of the so-called "power's original sin". Concluding from their own history of expansion, Western countries take it for granted that once China becomes powerful, it will surely dominate. According to Zheng Yongnian, director of East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore, the U.S. has misjudged China's intention and role in the Asia Pacific region on the basis of its own history of expansion and power politics rather than China's diplomatic performance in the region. The increasingly obvious trend is that the U.S. has been mobilizing political, economic, military and diplomatic resources to "come back to the Asia Pacific", and to contain China. Among the U.S. manoeuvres, staging a biased publicity campaign on the South China Sea issue is a clever trick with low input and substantial returns. By employing the South China Sea issue, U.S. politicians intended to humiliate and attack China and force China to make some "difficult choices" to concede. However, their wishful thinking of using publicity campaigns to press China to compromise and concede on fundamental issues such as territorial integrity is nothing but a pipe dream. A straight foot is not afraid of a crooked shoe. Time will reveal China's goodwill and endeavor to promote peaceful development of the Asia Pacific region. Meanwhile, some countries' ulterior motive will also be brought to light in time. Related: Executive Summary: The Tribunal's Award in the "South China Sea Arbitration" Initiated by the Philippines Is Null and Void BEIJING, June 10 (Xinhua) -- On 10 June 2016, the Chinese Society of International Law (CSIL) released a paper entitled The Tribunal's Award in the "South China Sea Arbitration" Initiated by the Philippines Is Null and Void. The executive summary of the paper is as follows: On 22 January 2013, the Philippines unilaterally initiated arbitration with respect to certain issues in the South China Sea ( "Arbitration" ). China has maintained its solemn position that it would neither accept nor participate in the Arbitration, having stated that the tribunal constituted at the unilateral request of the Philippines ( "Arbitral Tribunal" or "Tribunal" ) manifestly has no jurisdiction. Full story Chinese Society of International Law releases paper on South China Sea arbitration initiated by the Philippines BEIJING, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Society of International Law (CSIL) on Friday releases a paper under the title the Tribunal's Award in the "South China Sea Arbitration" Initiated by the Philippines is Null and Void, supporting the Chinese Government's position of neither accepting nor participating in the arbitration initiated by the Philippines. From a legal point of view, the CSIL criticizes on errors the Arbitral Tribunal makes in its award on jurisdiction, and demonstrates that both this award and the pending award on merits are null and void. Full story Spotlight: Experts say China's stance on South China Sea arbitration fully justified BEIJING, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' unilateral move to bring a maritime dispute with China to an international tribunal won't help resolve the problem and the right way forward is to seek settlement through bilateral talks, several foreign experts told Xinhua in recent interviews. While expressing support for China's position of non-acceptance of and non-participation in the arbitration of the China-Philippine dispute over islands in the South China Sea, they said that Manila's arbitration act runs against the spirit of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and reneges on its previous promises. Full story Interview: Manila intensifies tension in South China Sea -- former diplomat MANILA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government has been behind the intensifying tensions in the South China Sea, a former diplomat of the country told Xinhua on Wednesday. Alberto Encomienda, former secretary-general of Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center of the Philippine Foreign Affairs Department, said: "China has been for the negotiations all along, but from the beginning we are not." Full story How to Bridge the Divide Over the South China Sea The differences between China and the U.S. over the South China Sea issue have become a matter of concern and even anxiety. But some of the perceptions in the U.S. and elsewhere about Chinas policy and intentions in the area are misplaced. A pressing task is to understand the facts and Chinas intentions correctly so as to avoid real danger and consequences as a result of misinterpretation and miscalculation. Full Story China urges Philippines to immediately cease arbitral proceedings BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday again urged the Philippines to stop its arbitral proceedings and return to the right track of settling relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China. KATHMANDU, June 17, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli (R) and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Wu Chuntai hold the book entitled "Sixty Years of Dynamic Partnership" during its launching ceremony in Kathmandu, Nepal, June 17, 2016. The book documents all major developments in Nepal-China relations since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1955. (Xinhua) KATHMANDU, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said Friday that Nepal-China relations have been moving ahead on the basis of mutual respect and understanding. Oli made the remarks here at the launch ceremony of a book entitled Sixty Years of Dynamic Partnership. The book documents all major developments in Nepal-China relations since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1955. The Nepali prime minister said Nepal-China relations have always been cordial and trouble-free over the past 60 years. Recalling his visit to China in March this year, Oli said his visit has lifted the bilateral relationship to a new height. "Reaching our bilateral relationship to a new height means that the status of Nepal has also been enhanced in the international arena following this visit," he added. Oli expressed confidence that the relations between Nepal and China will be further enhanced in the days to come. Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Wu Chuntai said on the occasion that China-Nepal relations have always remained cordial and friendly based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. "We saw a new chapter in our dynamic partnership when Prime Minister Oli paid a successful and historic visit to China in March this year," the ambassador said. President of Nepal-China Society, Prem Kumari Pant, said the book will help readers understand more about Nepal-China relations and help consolidate friendly ties between the two countries. Hiranya Lal Shrestha, a former Nepali diplomat and author of the book, stressed the importance of enhancing connectivity between the two countries to further promote age-old cordial ties. NAY PYI TAW, June 17 (Xinhua) -- French Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Friday France will provide 200 million euros (266 million U.S. dollars) in development aid to Myanmar. Ayrault told a joint press conference with his Myanmar counterpart Aung San Suu Kyi that France's assistance has already been in place in Myanmar with its aid doubled for the youths of the country. The French Development Agency (AFD) is also involved in Myanmar's development process, especially in urban planning, energy and health sectors, he said, adding that the number of French companies investing in Myanmar is also increasing. The French minister stressed that the Mayor Office of Paris is ready to help Myanmar concerning with urban planning. Ayrault arrived in the Myanmar capital on a three-day visit on Thursday. His trip is the first by a French government representative since the new government took office in April. The French minister also met with President U Htin Kyaw. NAY PYI TAW, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar and Germany vowed Friday to cooperate for Myanmar's economic growth, sources with the President office said. The pledge came as Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw met with visiting German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Muller in Nay Pyi Taw. The pair also discussed vocational training, provision of technology and financing for local small- and medium-sized enterprises, and transfer of modern technology for agriculture, among others. The German minister extended an invitation to U Htin Kyaw to visit Germany. Germany stood at 28th in Myanmar's investors line-up with 21.1 million U.S. dollars. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's trips to central and eastern Europe (CEE) this month will elevate ties between the 16 CEE countries and China, paving the way for successful projects under the "Belt and Road" framework. Xi is scheduled to visit Serbia and Poland from June 17 to 21. He will then travel to Uzbekistan and attend the 16th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tashkent. This is the Chinese president's second trip to the CEE in less than three months. Even for Xi, whose globetrotting has already taken him to five continents in a little more than three years, such frequent visits to one single region are rare. "This demonstrates the value China attaches to the '16+1' cooperation and to the collaboration between China and Europe in a more general sense," said Liu Zuokui, a CEE expert with the Institute of European Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Xi visited the Czech Republic in late March this year. It was Xi's first trip to the CEE as China's top leader, and the first by a Chinese president ever to that European country. Many saw the March trip as part of Xi's efforts to refine his new diplomacy push. Before March, Xi had already traveled to some 40 countries in the capacity of China's president, with CEE nations being an exception. Still more saw it as a sign of closer links between China and the CEE, and the Serbian and Polish tours are set to strengthen that bond, they say. "China and CEE countries share traditional friendship, which naturally draws the two sides closer and drives them forward in terms of cooperation," Liu said. Serbia was the first CEE country to establish a strategic partnership with China, while Poland is China's largest trading partner in the CEE region. Promoting bilateral cooperation with Serbia and Poland will "play an exemplary and positive role in propelling China-CEE relations," Liu said, adding that Xi's tours will bring China-CEE ties to a whole new level, he said. Chen Xin, head of the economics division under the CASS Institute of European Studies, meanwhile, put Xi's CEE visits in the broader context of the still-warming Sino-European ties. It has been 13 years since China and the European Union established a comprehensive strategic partnership. Despite some "recurring frictions", the two sides have successfully worked together in the face of the international financial crisis to advance global governance reform, stepped up communication and coordination on major international and regional issues, and contributed significantly to world peace, development and cooperation. Economic links between China and Europe are perhaps the strongest glue holding the two sides together. China is now the EU's second largest trading partner behind the United States, and the EU is China's biggest trading partner. According to Chinese customs figures, China's trade of goods with EU totaled 3.51 trillion yuan (533 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015. But zooming in on China-CEE trade, the picture is less appealing. Trade between China and CEE countries stood at 56.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2015. That figure is only about one tenth of the current China-EU trade. "We have not fully tapped into the huge market potentials China and CEE countries hold," Liu Zuokui said. Hopefully, CEE is catching up. Although two-way trade is relatively low at the moment, the growth rate is impressive. In 2010, China-CEE trade was only valued at 44 billion U.S. dollars. Earlier reports said China has plans to double its trade with the region by 2019. "It signals a shift toward a more balanced approach in China's engagement with Europe," Chen Xin said. Both Liu and Chen went on to note that Xi's visits will boost the China-proposed "Belt and Road" initiative. "Serbia and Poland have considerable regional influence. Their support to the initiative is thus crucial to the proposed Belt and Road projects," Chen said. This sentiment was echoed by Liu. According to Liu, Serbia plays a key role in projects such as the China-Europe land-sea express passage, designed to strengthen connectivity and scale up trade between China and Europe, whereas Poland could serve as an important hub along the Silk Road Economic Belt. So far, more than a dozen Chinese cities have launched regular freight train services linking them to Europe, and nearly all train rails pass through Poland, the eastern gateway to the European Union. "Serbia and Poland hold the key to the vision of interconnectivity between Asia and Europe," Liu said. BELGRADE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived here Friday for a state visit to Serbia as China seeks to carry forward traditional friendship and step up economic engagement with Serbia. It is the first visit by a Chinese head of state to Serbia in 32 years, and also Xi's second trip to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in less than three months. During his ongoing visit, Xi will meet his counterpart, Tomislav Nikolic, and other Serbian political leaders for discussions on bilateral relations, the Belt and Road Initiative and China-CEE cooperation, as well as global and regional hot-spot issues of common concern. A number of cooperation deals covering economy, trade, industrial capacity and finance are expected to be inked. Related: China, Serbia sign currency swap deal BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank signed a currency swap deal worth 1.5 billion yuan (228 million U.S. dollars) with its Serbian counterpart on Friday to boost bilateral economic cooperation. The pact, inked with the National Bank of Serbia, will last three years and can be extended if the two sides agree, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced. Full story Spotlight: Xi's visit to further lift Great Wall-like China-Serbia friendship BELGRADE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off a historic visit to Serbia on Friday, in a trip that Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said "sends a strong signal that China values its friendship with Serbia." The visit, a testimony to the time-tested and trusted friendship between the two sides, shows that "China seriously considers Serbia as its great partner," said Nikolic. Full story Xinhua Insight: Xi's successive CEE trips to usher in golden age for ties BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's trips to central and eastern Europe (CEE) this month will elevate ties between the 16 CEE countries and China, paving the way for successful projects under the "Belt and Road" framework. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Volkswagen China will recall 147,955 vehicles due to fuse defects, China's quality watchdog said on Friday. The recall involves 2004-2012 Touran produced between July 2, 2004 and Dec.28, 2012, according to a statement from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. The fuse of the front light of these vehicles may not function properly in high temperatures and pose safety risks, according to the statement. The recall will start from June 24 and the carmaker will fix the defective parts for free. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan met with a Japanese delegation led by Yoshifumi Hibako, former chief of staff of Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces on Friday afternoon. Chang said China-Japan relationships are complicated and fragile, and it will be a long and arduous task to bring bilateral ties back on track. He urged the Japanese side to learn lessons from history, stick to the path of peaceful development and do more to improve bilateral ties. Yoshifumi Hibako said improvement in Japan-China ties is important to both countries and regional stability, and the members of the delegation are willing to play a positive role. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislative body, on Friday voiced strong dissatisfaction after some U.S. lawmakers met with the Dalai Lama in Washington. "The meeting went against the U.S. commitment that Tibet is a part of Chinese territory and it does not support 'Tibet independence'," said a statement issued by the NPC's Foreign Affairs Committee. The meeting also breached basic norms of international relations and constituted a severe interference in China's internal affairs, the statement said. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and some lawmakers met with Dalai Lama in Washington on June 14. BEIJING, June 17, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli (R, front) shakes hands with staff members of Shenyang Machine Tool Co., Ltd. in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, June 16, 2016. During a visit to Liaoning Province from June 16 to 17, Zhang urged local governments in China's northeastern region to revitalize the old industrial base. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on Friday urged local governments in China's northeastern region to revitalize the old industrial base. Zhang made the remarks during a two-day visit to Liaoning Province. The northeast region plays a significant part in the country's overall development, the vice premier said at a meeting Friday with officials from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces. The region should pursue innovation-driven development and accelerate the development of new industries, he said. Local governments should transform their functions, streamline administration and delegate power to lower levels to create a sound business environment, Zhang said. Efforts should also be made to introduce, cultivate and retain talented people to provide sufficient intelligence during the revitalization, he said. Local governments should also build livable environment and improve people's lives to give all people access to the fruit of the country's development, Zhang said. In April, the State Council unveiled a guideline for rejuvenating the northeast rustbelt region through more reforms and economic restructuring. The northeast, including Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, was among the first regions in China to become industrialized. Its traditional industries include steel, automobile, shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing and petroleum refining. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A former judicial official faces charges relating to bribery taking and possession of ammunition, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said Friday. Liang Zhenlin, former deputy head of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region's department of justice, will stand trial on counts of dereliction of duty; accepting a large amount of money or goods in exchange for benefits for others; and possession of ammunition, according to the SPP. The SPP also revealed that prosecutors in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are investigating Zhang Yu, an official who was once in charge of the research of the history of the Communist Party of China in Inner Mongolia, over allegations of embezzlement. Hong Jianping, former deputy mayor of Wuhu City, Anhui Province, was arrested for suspected bribery taking, it said. LAGOS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents have killed 18 people in Kuda-Kaya village of Madagali area in restive northeast Nigeria's Adamawa State, local police authority said Friday. The attack occurred around 10 p.m. local time on Thursday night, Othman Abubakar, the state police spokesperson told Xinhua in Yola, the state capital. Abubakar also confirmed the arrest of a Boko Haram suspect by the Police in Gombi area of the state. "We are still investigating the suspect to ascertain whether he is among the wanted Boko Haram leaders," Abubakar said. BERLIN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- German economists said their country's economy in this year would grow faster than they initially thought, but a possible withdraw of UK from the European Union would risk the economy's future momentum. On Friday, RWI economic institute in Essen raised its forecast for German 2016 growth from 1.4 percent to 1.7 percent, citing strong private consumption, residential investment and government spending. "Domestic demand remains the driving force of the German economic growth," said RWI chief economist Roland Doehrn in a statement. According to the institute, employment would continue to rise and the German government was expected to spend more on accommodating and integrating refugees. RWI joined other leading economic think tanks in Germany which predicted the German economy to grow at a faster pace. Earlier this week, Berlin-based DIW and Munich-based Ifo institute also raised their growth forecast slightly. "The first quarter of 2016 was better than expected. The moderate upturn in the German economy that started in 2014 is entering the second half. It may even run into extra time," said Ifo economist Timo Wollmershaeuser. In the first quarter of 2016, the German gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.7 percent, more than twice the growth in the last quarter of 2015. Industrial production rose by 1.8 percent quarter on quarter. Sentiment of consumers and business both remained brightened. The German government also expect the economy to grow by 1.7 percent in the current year. However, many economists warned that the German economy would suffer significant loss if Britain chooses to leave the EU in a referendum next week. "The biggest risk at the moment is Brexit," said Ifo President Clemens Fuest on Thursday. According to Ifo's analysis, Brexit would cost the German economy up to 3 percent of GDP in the long term. Great Britain was Germany's fifth biggest trading partner in 2015 with a total foreign trade volume of 127.5 billion euros (about 143.5 billion U.S. dollars). "If the British people choose to leave the EU, that will cost the German economy in this year already," said DIW's chief economist Ferdinand Fichtner. According to the institute, Brexit will cost German exports about 15 billion euros in 2017, while other indirect effects, such as financial market turmoil, declining foreign investment and rising tariffs, are difficult to estimate. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Dongfeng Honda will recall more than one million vehicles due to defective airbags, China's quality watchdog said on Friday. The recall, set to begin on July 31, affects 533,350 CR-V models manufactured between April 12, 2006 and Jan. 12, 2012, 456,581 Civic sedans produced between Aug. 2, 2005 and Aug. 19, 2011, 48,309 Spirior vehicles made between Sept. 18, 2009 and Nov. 15, 2011, and 684 imported Civic Hybrid cars manufactured between March 19, 2007 and Oct. 5, 2010, according to a statement from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Fragments might fly out from airbags of the affected cars when airbags are deployed, posing safety risks, the statement said. Dongfeng Hongda promised to check all the affected vehicles and replace defective parts free of charge. BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday refuted the accusation that a Chinese vessel had intruded into Japan's territorial waters, saying the navigation was completely in line with international law. "The Chinese Navy vessel did not invade Japan's territorial waters," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular press briefing. Hua made the remarks in response to reports saying a Chinese warship sailed through the Tokara Strait, located between the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Japan's defense minister accused China of not informing Japan in advance that the military ship would enter Japanese waters. Hua said, according to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), vessels have the right to pass through a strait used for international navigation. The Tokara Strait is such a strait. Thus, the Chinese vessel's navigation was fully in line with the UNCLOS. Hua also reminded the Japanese side that the right of passage through a strait used for international navigation should not be confused with the right of innocent passage in territorial waters. "We hope that Japanese media or officials from the government would refer to international law before making some remarks," Hua said. Earlier on Friday, China's Defense Ministry said, "We have noticed relevant reports by Japanese media and we really can't understand why Japan repeatedly exaggerates the legitimate activities of Chinese warships recently." BEIJING/TANGSHAN, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday the Chinese government encourages the provinces and cities of China and the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries to synergize each other's advantage and participate in the 16+1 cooperation in areas including production capacity, trade and intercommunication. Li made the remarks in a letter congratulating a meeting in Tangshan of Hebei Province, where delegates from more than 15 Chinese provinces and 50 states of CEE countries gathered to discuss cooperation at local level. China supports the localities playing a bigger role in the further opening up of China, Li said, adding that he hopes discussion at the meeting will inject new vitality to the 16+1 cooperation. Leaders from the CEE countries, including Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Montenegro's Deputy Prime Minister Petar Ivanovic, echoed Li saying the 16+1 cooperation and the meeting of local leaders served as important platforms to promote the bilateral political mutual trust, corporate cooperation and regional exchanges. They also voiced willingness to continue to join in the 16+1 cooperation in areas including localities, energy, infrastructure, technology innovation, youth, higher education and tourism. JAKARTA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government on Friday hailed the European Union (EU)'s move to revoke its ban against three Indonesian airlines from serving flights to EU countries. "The decision to revoke the flight ban reflected the achievement of diplomacy coupled with Indonesia's efforts to address flight safety in the country's aviation service," a statement released by the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said, adding that the decision showed EU's trust in the Indonesian authorities and airlines. The EU on Thursday revoked its flight ban against three Indonesian airlines namely Citilink, Lion Air and Batik Air from serving flights to any EU countries. The EU had, in 2009 and 2011, lifted similar ban on several Indonesian airlines, namely Garuda Indonesia, Airfast Indonesia, Indonesia Air Asia and Ekspres Transportasi Antarbenua. GAZA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Ismail Haneya, the deputy chief of Islamic Hamas movement, warned on Friday of increasing and speeding up the Arabs' normalization with Israel. Haneya told prayers at one of Gaza mosques that all Arab and regional peace initiatives will fail due to "the impossible Israeli terms and having the Likud Party the ruling party of Israel." "Even Oslo peace accords (the transitional peace treaties reached between Israel and the PLO) had failed after 23 years. All these treaties and initiatives had failed to help gaining the Palestinian rights," said Haneya. Hamas movement, which opposes the peace process and refuses to recognize Israel, has been ruling the Gaza Strip since it had taken the coastal enclave by force in 2007 and routed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas security forces. "The Arabs have always been linking the normalization with the Israeli occupation with the success of the signed peace agreements, but unfortunately normalization became a priority without having successful deals," said Haneya. He insisted that the choice of achieving peaceful settlement with Israel "has failed," adding that "it is necessary to unify the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic positions and set up a strategy to confront the policy of concessions." Last direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians stopped in April 2014 after it went on for nine months and were sponsored by the United States due to deep differences on settlement, borders and security issues. Meanwhile, Hanan Ashrawi, the official in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a press statement that resolving the Palestinian cause can't be made by bilateral negotiations, but through a multi-international track. "This track has to be based on international laws and the principle of the two-state solution," said Ashrawi, who called for succeeding the French peace initiative and the idea of holding international conference for peace. BELGRADE, June 17, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan are greeted by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and his wife upon their arrival at the airport of Belgrade, Serbia, June 17, 2016. Xi started a state visit to Serbia Friday.(Xinhua/Rao Aimin) BELGRADE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived here Friday for a state visit to Serbia as China seeks to carry forward traditional friendship and step up economic engagement with Serbia. Serbia sent fighter jets to escort Xi's plane when it entered the country's airspace. Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan were greeted by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic and his wife, Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic at the airport. Serbian children presented bread and salt to Xi and Peng for them to taste, a Serbian tradition to show respect and friendship to distinguished guests. The couple also received flowers and watched the performance of traditional Serbian folk dance, Kolo. "The traditional friendship between our two countries and peoples has stood the historical test amid the changes of the international landscape and our respective national conditions, and become even stronger," the Chinese president said in a written speech delivered at the airport. Xi noted the accelerated progress in bilateral ties especially since the establishment of the strategic partnership between China and Serbia in 2009. The Chinese president also hailed the mutual political trust and the fruitful cooperation in such fields as energy, transportation infrastructure construction and agriculture over recent years. "China stands ready to work with Serbia to keep the momentum and push our relations and practical cooperation to a higher level, thus creating a new situation for our mutually beneficial cooperation and common development," he said. It is the first visit by a Chinese head of state to Serbia in 32 years, and Xi's second trip -- following one to the Czech Republic in March -- to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in less than three months. During his stay in Serbia, Xi will meet Nikolic and other Serbian political leaders for discussions on bilateral relations, the Belt and Road Initiative and China-CEE cooperation, as well as global and regional hot-spot issues of common concern. A number of cooperation deals covering economy, trade, industrial capacity and finance are expected to be inked. In a demonstration of China's willingness to consolidate political mutual trust and expand practical cooperation with CEE countries, Xi will travel from Serbia to Poland for a state visit. China and Serbia share a time-honored traditional friendship. In 2009, Serbia became the first CEE country to establish a strategic partnership with China. Nikolic paid a state visit to China in 2013. Last year, he went to Beijing again to attend the commemorative activities marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Serbia also dispatched a formation to participate in China's V-Day military parade on Sept. 3, 2015. Two-way trade grew by 2.3 percent year on year to 550 million U.S. dollars in 2015, according to Chinese customs. Also last year, Serbia signed a memorandum of understanding with China to jointly promote the connectivity-based Belt and Road Initiative during the fourth leaders' meeting of China and 16 CEE countries, which was held in Suzhou, China. The initiative, proposed by Xi in 2013, consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes. China and Serbia have strengthened cooperation on infrastructure construction and investment over recent years. Serbia's sole steel mill in the city of Smederevo, which had experienced difficulties in operation, was bought by China's HeSteel Group (HBIS) for 46 million euros (51.6 million U.S. dollars) in April this year. HBIS plans to invest at least 300 million euros (337.6 million dollars) in the steel mill and turn it into one of the most competitive in Europe. The Chinese company has promised to employ all 5,000 workers of the factory. On the cultural front, Yugoslavian films had a considerable influence among the Chinese people. Last month, a widespread nostalgia was sparked across China by the death of 83-year-old actor Velimir Bata Zivojinovic, who is popular among the older generation in China for his role of Walter from the 1972 movie "Walter Defends Sarajevo." "The Chinese president's visit is of historic significance for the two countries to cement traditional friendship, deepen political mutual trust and chart the course for practical cooperation," Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Haixing told reporters ahead of Xi's visit. After Serbia and Poland, the Chinese president will travel to Uzbekistan for a state visit as well as the 16th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State in Tashkent. Related: China, Serbia sign currency swap deal BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank signed a currency swap deal worth 1.5 billion yuan (228 million U.S. dollars) with its Serbian counterpart on Friday to boost bilateral economic cooperation. The pact, inked with the National Bank of Serbia, will last three years and can be extended if the two sides agree, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced. Full story Spotlight: Xi's visit to further lift Great Wall-like China-Serbia friendship BELGRADE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off a historic visit to Serbia on Friday, in a trip that Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said "sends a strong signal that China values its friendship with Serbia." The visit, a testimony to the time-tested and trusted friendship between the two sides, shows that "China seriously considers Serbia as its great partner," said Nikolic. Full story Xinhua Insight: Xi's successive CEE trips to usher in golden age for ties BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's trips to central and eastern Europe (CEE) this month will elevate ties between the 16 CEE countries and China, paving the way for successful projects under the "Belt and Road" framework. NAIROBI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Economic experts on Friday cautioned Kenya over its rising public debt levels. Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) National Chairman Fernandes Barasa told a budget forum in Nairobi that as at September 2015, the public debt stock stood at 29.4 billion U.S. dollars. "This means that Kenya's public debt is rapidly increasing given that it was 17.2 billion dollars in September 2012," Barasa said during the National Budget Review Seminar. Kenya's public debt comprises of 15.5 billion dollars as foreign debts and 13.9 billion dollars as domestic debts. Barasa said that the National Treasury should adhere to fiscal responsibility principles in the management of public resources. "This can be achieved by ensuring that over the medium term, the national government's borrowings shall be used only for the purpose of financing development expenditure and not for recurrent expenditure," he said. In addition, the institute recommends that all public debt and obligations should be maintained at a sustainable level as approved by the parliament. Barasa noted that Kenya should implement the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) proposed guidelines in order to strengthen the quality of the country's public debt management which will help to reduce vulnerability to domestic and external shocks. Last week, Kenya's National treasury proposed a 23 billion dollar budget for the 2016/2017 up from the previous year's 20 billion dollars budget. The accountancy body said that growth in the national budget requires a focused assessment for realism and the ability of the country to raise the commensurate revenue to fund the budget. The 2016 budget statement also outlined the government intention to raise revenues of 15 billion dollars which is equivalent to 20.3 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). "This projection was underpinned by policy interventions to broaden the tax base as well as enhance of the revenue administration," Barasa said. KOLKATA, India, June 17 (Xinhua) -- India recorded total tea production of 1.233 billion kg during fiscal year 2015-16, the highest ever recorded by the country so far, said officials Friday. As compared to 2014-15, the total tea production registered an increase of 35.96 million kg which is 3 percent more than last year. A Tea Board of India statement stated that Indian tea achieved another record during the fiscal year when it registered export of 232.92 million kg. Increase of tea exports were registered mainly to Russia, Iran, Germany, Pakistan, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates and Poland. The increase in production of tea was mainly attributable to north India plantations, while South India's production declined due to adverse climatic conditions and labor issues. KATHMANDU, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's currency notes have been printed by a Chinese company for the first time, a Nepalese central bank official said on Friday. The Chinese state-owned company, China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPM), has printed Nepal's new 100-rupee notes which have been brought into circulation from June 12. "Although we have had currency coins minted in China in the past, it is the first time that any Chinese company printed our currency notes," Chintamani Siwakoti, deputy governor at Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank of Nepal, told Xinhua. The Chinese company got a contract of printing 210 million pieces of Rs100 denominated notes. "We have got delivery of 30 million pieces of notes so far," said Siwakoti. "Our team is departing on Sunday to receive another lot of notes with quantity of 30 million pieces." Due to the limited storage capacity of Nepal's central bank, it takes delivery of currency notes in different installments and it usually takes around three to six months for complete delivery, according to NRB officials. "The new notes printed in China have higher quality compared to old ones and are brighter too," said Siwakoti. It was also less costly for Nepal's central bank to print notes in China with additional features, compared to the cost of printing of the same denominated notes in another country in 2012, the official said. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness delivers an inaugural speech during his swearing-in ceremony at King's House in Kingston March 3, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhu Qingxiang) KINGSTON, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Jamaican government has decided to use Chinese concessional loans to upgrade the road network on the island, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Thursday. The arrangement has been finalized with the Export-Import Bank of China (China EximBank), which will provide most of the funds, to construct a road network in the southeastern and southwestern parts of the country, the prime minister told a press conference in Jamaica House. Holness said that the projects will cost 384 million U.S. dollars. The Jamaican government will raise 57 million dollars while the rest will be provided by the China Eximbank as a loan. Works in the southeastern end of the island will cover construction of a toll-free four-lane highway and renovation of some old roads, Holness said. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness (2nd R) and Chinese Ambassador to Jamaica Niu Qingbao (2nd L) attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony as part of the opening ceremony of the North-South Highway in Caymanas, Jamaica, on March 23, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhu Qingxiang) For the southwestern section, the prime minister said the toll road Highway 2000 will be extended from May Pen, Clarendon Parish in the south to Mandeville, Manchester Parish in the midwest of the country. "This plan makes access, gives a better road, reduces cost and still achieves the objectives that we want it to," he said. The prime minister said the national project to build out the road network is in keeping with the government's philosophy that all public expenditure must make economic sense and utilize a cost-effective strategy of implementation. Chinese Ambassador to Jamaica Niu Qingbao told Xinhua that the Chinese government is committed to providing concessional loans to fund the Caribbean countries' infrastructure and other development projects. "We hope assistance from China will help Jamaica and other Caribbean countries stick to their development agenda, boost the economic prosperity, and most importantly, benefit all people here," Niu said. There have been no reports of casualties of Chinese citizens in the recent looting in Venezuela, China's Foreign Ministry revealed on Friday. The Chinese embassy in Venezuela has asked the Venezuelan government to protect the safety and property of the Chinese citizens, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a daily news conference. People in the Venezuelan city of Cumana looted supermarkets and shops including some owned by Chinese people on Tuesday, and the police arrived to restore order, said the Chinese Embassy in Venezuela on its website. The South American country is experiencing a severe economic crisis due to plunging oil prices. The Chinese embassy in Venezuela issued an alert on Tuesday, warning the Chinese people in Cumana to avoid going outdoors when it's not necessary, and avoid going to regions where there is unrest. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua said: "As a country friendly to Venezuela, China hopes the Venezuelan government and people can deal with the problem properly. We hope the lawful rights and interests of the Chinese citizens will be effectively safeguarded." "China attaches great importance to the development of the China-Venezuelan ties, and hopes to keep on exchanges and cooperation with Venezuela in various fields based on the principle of mutual benefit and win-win," she said. TIRANA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Minister of Urban Development Eglantina Gjermeni and her Czech counterpart Karla Slechtova on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding between the two ministries in the field of urban development and housing, the Albanian Telegraphic Agency reported. After the signing ceremony, Gjermeni thanked Slechtova for the support the Czech Republic has provided to Albania in the European Union accession process. "The support of Visegrad countries, and of Czech Republic in particular which holds the rotating presidency, enabled the establishment of the Western Balkans Investment Fund in Tirana. The Ministry of Urban Development has applied with this investment fund for implementation of a project in the field of social housing," stated Gjermeni. For her part, Slechtova appreciated the work by the Albanian Ministry of Urban Development in the field of planning and housing in Albania. She pledged increased assistance through provision of expertise. The staff will immediately start working on an agenda of activities to implement the memorandum. The project comprises construction of social housing in municipalities of the country such as Tirana, Kavaja, Kruja, Shkozet and Durres. This project will provide housing to as many as 1,000 families in need. The Albanian Ministry of Urban Development is working with the Council of Europe Development Bank to ensure co-financing for implementation of this project. By Nemanja Cabric and Han Jianjun CENEJ, Serbia, June XX (Xinhua) -- In the village of Cenej some 100 km from Belgrade, a team of one of the best artistic foundries in Serbia created a monumental sculpture of Confucius. The 1.65-meter-tall bronze sculpture, to be 3.2-meter tall when placed on a base, is the 20-year-old unrealized work of the late master of Serbian sculpting Jovan Soldatovic. Aleksandar Stanisic, owner of Stanisic Artistic Foundry, said the sculpture was cast from a negative created by the company from an original plaster model by Soldatovic. The model was not well preserved due to the fact that it was kept some 20 years in an inadequate space. In order to begin with production of this bronze statue, the foundry had to repair the model with the assistance of 70-year-old contemporary sculptor Andreja Vasiljevic, a student, assistant and a colleague of Soldatovic. "For the Stanisic artistic foundry, this is an important and significant project," Aleksandar Stanisic said. "China is a truly friendly country to Serbia." Miodrag Stanisic, father of Aleksandar Stanisic, recalled the Association of China-Serbia friendship back in the 1990s began the initiative with Soldatovic to create a sculpture of Confucius. In 1997 and 1998, a plaster model was made. Soldatovic died in 2005 and then President of the China-Serbia Nikola Radosevic also died, leaving the statue unfinished. The project was reactivated recently under the support of the Chinese Embassy to Serbia. It was a painstaking work for Vasiljevic who tried his best to imitate the work of his teacher Soldatovic as the plaster model was in a poor situation with missing parts and cracks. Vasiljevic said that he observed Soldatovic as he created first sketches for his Confucius statue back in 1997 so it was not a problem for him to achieve effects that Soldatovic would want. "This process needed to be done in short time, and knowing what the figure of Confucius means for philosophy, the main focus in this last phase was to stick to the original intention of Soldatovic, and that the sculpture would be cast in bronze in the way he imagined it," said Vasiljevic. Vasiljevic recalled that Soldatovic drew his inspiration about Confucius from a translated book of the master's thoughts from his friend Radosevic. Soldatovic also exchanged lots of ideas with Radosevic on China and Confucius philosophy. Vasiljevic said he was glad and released to finish the statue. "I am very proud that I can contribute the friendly relationship between China and Serbia," he said. EDINBURGH, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Friday that politicians have been "inspired to rededicate" themselves to public service following British Labour member of parliament (MP) Jo Cox's death. Speaking at a meeting of the British-Irish Council held in Glasgow, Sturgeon paid tribute to Cox who was gunned down and stabbed in broad daylight outside a public library in Birstall, Yorkshire on Thursday. "As politicians we all value and are deeply committed to the openness and accessibility of elected representatives to the people we serve," she noted at the meeting, which was also attended by British Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell, and Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny. Devolved administrations of Wales and Northern Ireland and the Governments of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man were also present at the meeting, with one of the main topics of discussion being social inclusion and approaches being taken by the eight member administrations. Both sides in Britain's referendum battle over European Union (EU) membership halted their campaign Thursday afternoon after the death of Cox, a supporter of the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU, and all campaigning were also cancelled on Friday. Flags were flying at half mast at the Scottish Parliament and on Scottish government buildings as a mark of respect to Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two. British Prime Minister David Cameron and British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday condemned the killing and laid flowers in tribute to Cox in her West Yorkshire constituency. A 52-year-old man named locally as Tommy Mair was arrested following the attack, said West Yorkshire Police. Britain will hold a referendum on June 23 to decide whether it should remain in the EU. A majority of Scots will back a vote for Britain to stay in the EU, poll results showed. ABUJA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The police in Nigeria's northeastern state of Adamawa on Friday confirmed the arrest of a man suspected to be a top member of Boko Haram and said investigation was underway to determine his atrocities with the militant group. The unnamed suspect was arrested in Gombi town, while trying to make some withdrawal at an Automated Teller Machine, the police said. Othman Mohammed, the Adamawa State police spokesman, told Xinhua investigation was being carried out to ascertain if the suspect was on the state list of wanted Boko Haram members. Boko Haram has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly in northeastern Nigeria, since it launched its campaign of violence in 2009. The Nigerian army and other local security agencies have made tremendous progress in the fight against the terror group in the past year, retaking most of the areas previously under insurgents' control. BRUSSELS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China and the EU should consider the year 2020 as a deadline to conclude China-EU FTA talks, Chi Fulin, president of the think tank China Institute for Reform and Development (CIRD), said in an interview with Xinhua. Chi said the next few years till 2020 is not only the window phase for China's economic transformation, but is also a key period for the EU's economic recovery and sustainable growth. "Taking the year of 2020 as the time node, China and EU can become a huge market for deepened economic cooperation," he said. Although China is currently faced with pressure from economic slowdown, new trends, new structures and new engines for economic transformation are emerging, which is creating important and historic opportunities for much wider and deeper economic and trade cooperation between China and EU, Chi said. He said with administrative and market monopoly in the service sector being eliminated, private capital may well become the major force for the development of the service sector. "Service markets such as education, medical care, healthcare and others will be opened up to the outside world in a manageable manager," said Chi. He believed that establishing an integrated huge market for China and EU to continuously deepen their cooperation will have great impacts not only on China's economic transformation, but also on EU's economic recovery and sustainable development. On one hand, China needs to learn EU's advanced technology and management expertise to develop its own modern service industries. While on the other, as EU has on the whole entered the post-industrial era, it possesses unique advantages with advanced technology and mature management expertise both in producer service sectors and in consumer service sectors, he explained. Regarding the challenges and difficulties ahead, Chi cited an old Chinese saying: "One cannot risk big things for the sake of small ones." It cannot be neglected that many technical issues are standing in the way of deepening cooperation between China and EU. To further deepen economic and trade cooperation, China and EU have to seize new opportunities and aim at a wider landscape, he added. CIRD in Hainan province and the Brussels-based Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), have both published their own research reports recently proposing that China and the EU take decisive actions in further realizing their trade potential. "CEPS and CIRD already share a number of same ideas, I strongly suggest that the leaders of both sides consider a timetable of talks at their upcoming meeting in Beijing next month and I propose that we should consider year 2020 as a deadline to conclude talks," Chi said. Chi's institute and the CEPS organized a one-day seminar in Brussels on Thursday. ACCRA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Military High Command in Ghana has denied reports that a soldier who escaped while being taken through disciplinary processes had ties with the Islamic State (ISIS). A release issued by Lt. Col. Eric Aggrey-Quarshie, Director of Public Relations for the Ghana Armed Forces, said here late Thursday that social media posts about the issue were not authentic and must be disregarded. "Private Bawa Abdul Rahman was scheduled to appear on an interview at the General Headquarters a few days ago in respect of a disciplinary matter which came up after a field exercise some months ago," it said. "He however absconded and remains Absent Without Leave (AWOL). His scheduled interview was not in relation to any possible links with ISIS but purely a disciplinary hearing," the statement emphasized. The outcome of background checks and fact finding after the social media posts, the statement said, could not establish any such links between the 26-year-old soldier with ISIS. "The Ghana Armed Forces therefore notified all media houses that the social media post, the source of which it is still investigating, is not authentic and therefore must desist from further publication and broadcast as the information therein is not correct," it said. Enditem DAR ES SALAAM, June 17 (Xinhua) -- At least 30,000 Tanzanian youth will benefit from a new World Bank supported skills improvement program, the bank said in a statement on Friday. The Education and Skills for Productive Jobs Program for Results was approved on Thursday by the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors, said the statement. The program was being financed by 120 million US dollars under the World Bank's International Development Association and aligns with Tanzania's new Five Year Development Plan (2016-2021) which centers on industrialization, and emphasizes addressing skills gaps as a critical lever to achieving its goals. The statement said the program will promote the expansion and the quality of skills development opportunities in key economic sectors in the east African country. The program was in line with Tanzania's new National Skills Development Strategy which seeks to increase the supply of skills for industries with high potential for growth and job creation in the country. The statement said 30,000 targeted beneficiaries of the program will include trainees enrolled in university, technical, vocational and alternative training programs in six key economic sectors. It mentioned the six economic sectors as tourism and hospitality; agriculture, agribusiness and agro-processing; transport and logistics; construction; information and communications technology and energy. "Employer participation and labor market relevance of skills development form key elements of the program," said the statement. "The improvement of human capital by helping address the skills gap is critical for the attainment of the country's goal to become an industrialized economy, create income opportunities and reduce poverty," said Bella Bird, World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Malawi, Burundi and Somalia. It is estimated that one million young people leave the education system and enter the Tanzanian labor market annually. With the country continuing on its current stable economic growth trajectory, it is expected that the bulk of employment opportunities for these youth will be generated by the private sector. Enditem BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China has sent several warships, coastguard vessels and rescue ships to help Vietnam search for the missing Vietnamese aircraft and crew in waters of the Beibu Gulf between Vietnam's northern coastline and China's Hainan Island. China Maritime Search and Rescue Center, at the request of Vietnam, sent two rescue vessels Thursday night to search for a missing fighter jet, a coastguard plane and their crews, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. On Friday, China Coast Guard and the Chinese navy sent three coastguard vessels and four warships to help in the search. According to media report, a Russian-made SU-30 fighter jet of the Vietnam Air Forces disappeared from radar screens Tuesday in waters of the Beibu Gulf. Contact with one pilot of the plane was lost. Later on Thursday afternoon, a Vietnamese coastguard plane with nine people aboard went missing while searching for the lost fighter. "The Chinese side attaches great importance to the request for help from Vietnam," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, adding China has mobilized forces of various kinds to conduct all-out search and rescue operations. "We hope the missing aircraft and crew members could be found as early as possible," said Hua. ARUSHA, Tanzania, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania is coming up with a new strategy to plug all loopholes that allow infiltration of illegal immigrants into the country, east Africa's second largest economy and the twelfth largest in Africa. The new strategy came in the wake of increasing crimes in the country. Tanzania's Home Affairs' deputy minister, Hamad Yusuf Masauni said in capital Dodoma that in the strategy a number of security organs will be involved instead of leaving the task of dealing with immigrants with the Immigration Department. He said that all security organs will be involved in the new move as the influx of illegal immigrants has increased the number of infiltration of weapons from outside Tanzania. "The increasing number of immigrants has been fueling criminal acts in the country. That's why we're determined to completely control this challenge," Masauni said. According to the minister, Tanzania has discovered nearly 300 entry points which are being used by illegal immigrants to get into the east African nation. "We're looking for financial resources to deploy security officials in those notorious areas for the illegal entry of migrants," he said. All Tanzania's security organs, the minister said were informed on the new strategy, which also will involve local communities. The country early this year started an operation to expel foreigners using illegal working permits, especially teachers, from neighbouring countries. Immigration office confirmed that at least 350 foreigners in Dar es Salaam alone were working without legal documents. Many private schools hire English teachers from neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Uganda. Enditem MADRID, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The regional government in the Spanish province of Valencia confirmed on Friday almost 3,000 hectares of woodland had been destroyed by four wildfires in the region over the past 48 hours. Over 130 firefighters have been combating the flames with the help of aircraft and helicopters. However, 1,535 hectares had been burned close to the town of Bolbaite, 1,224 near Carcaixent, 31.5 hectares at Beinfairo de las Valls and 18.5 in Terrateig, said vice-president of the regional government, Monica Oltra. Fires in Beinfairo de las Valls and Terrateig have been brought under control by emergency services. As many as 250 children were evacuated from a school in the town of Sagunto due to the fire in Beinfairo de las Valls, as a precaution against the smoke. The fires also led to the evacuation of a hospital in Carcaixent on Thursday night. Meanwhile, around 150 residents of two housing estates were also advised to leave their homes on account of the encroaching flames. Several houses were reported to have been destroyed by the flames, but there are no reports of injuries, although one person needed treatment for smoke inhalation. Ximo Puig, president of the Valencia regional government, commented on Friday he expected 2016 to be "complicated" in terms of wildfires, reminding people that it was totally prohibited to light either barbecues or to burn brush in forest regions for the duration of the summer. BEIJING, June 17, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka in Beijing, capital of China, June 17, 2016. Sobotka is here to attend the third meeting between local leaders of China and CEE and the second China-CEE health ministers' forum. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang Friday met here with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, pledging to further promote bilateral ties and cooperation between China and central and eastern Europe (CEE) countries. During the meeting at the Great Hall of the People, Li told Sobotka China is willing to cement political mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas with the Czech Republic in the principle of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits. China especially wants to accelerate bilateral cooperation in the areas of civilian nuclear power and high-speed rail as a way to boost mutual investment, Li said. He also called for enhanced financial, manufacturing and third-party market cooperation and discussion of issuing RMB bonds in the Czech Republic, and intensifying exchanges on health and tourism and between local areas. Sobotka, who is here to attend the third meeting between local leaders of China and CEE and the second China-CEE health ministers' forum, hailed the fast development and sound cooperation between the two countries. The prime minister, who has visited China twice in the past six months, said that bilateral ties have reached a new high during the period of time. China and the Czech Republic forged a strategic partnership in March during President Xi Jinping's state visit to the country. On the issue of the Surrogate Country approach, Li said China has fully honored its promises made when it entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) 15 years ago with enormous efforts. He called on the EU and other economies to carry out their obligations on Article 15 of the protocol on China's accession to the WTO as scheduled. In accordance with Article 15 of the accession protocol signed when China joined the WTO in 2001, the Surrogate Country approach expires on December 11, 2016. The China-EU trade disputes should be properly addressed via consultation and dialogue, said Li, adding that the issue of carrying out obligations should not be linked with other issues. He encouraged the Czech Republic to do more work on this as an EU member, help to liberalize and facilitate trade and investment, jointly oppose trade protectionism so as to benefit both peoples. Sobotka said the Czech Republic understands the importance of EU honoring its obligations on Article 15 of the protocol on China's accession to the WTO, supporting early settlement of the issue. On the 16+1 cooperation, Li spoke highly of the Czech Republic's active support and participation. Stressing that the China-CEE cooperation and China-EU cooperation supplement and promote each other, Li said he hopes that the Czech Republic, as an important partner of China in the EU and the CEE region, could work with China to consolidate and enhance China-EU ties and Chine-CEE cooperation and promote more outcomes from the China-EU summit and China-CEE summit later this year. Sobotka said his country is ready to enhance cooperation with China in the areas including aviation and finance, fully support 16+1 cooperation and development of ties between China and Europe and strive to build a financial and transportation hub between CEE countries and China. He also expressed the desire to host a China-CEE summit in the Czech Republic. BELGRADE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A signed article by Chinese President Xi Jinping elaborating on prospects for future relations between China and Serbia has aroused expectation for a new stage in cooperation between the two countries. Xi published a signed article on leading Serbian newspaper Politika under the title of "Enduring Friendship and True Partnership" on Thursday, ahead of his state visit to the Balkan country. The article, also carried by the Tanjug news agency, retrospected on the traditional friendship of more than six decades between China and Serbia and their ties marked by long-term mutual trust, support and win-win cooperation. Commenting on Xi's article, Dusan Janjic, a Serbian political expert with the Forum for Ethnic Relations, said China has been consistent in its policy on Serbia. "It is especially important when great ones respect small ones. This is also true for Serbia," he said. The reforms taking place in China in the past few decades show that China has always given priorities to economic development, he said, adding that this is quite enlightening for Serbia. "It is a great opportunity to cooperate with China," said the expert. Serbia is "located on a strategically important traffic junction," said Ivona Ladjevic, a researcher with the Institute for International Policy and Economy in Serbia. Ladjevic said investment from China is important for Serbia, adding she hopes that in the future more companies from China will invest in the Serbian industry. China and Serbia share a time-honored traditional friendship. In 2009, Serbia became the first CEE country to establish a strategic partnership with China. Two-way trade grew by 2.3 percent year on year to 550 million U.S. dollars in 2015, according to Chinese customs. Last year, Serbia signed a memorandum of understanding with China to jointly promote the connectivity-based Belt and Road Initiative during the fourth leaders' meeting of China and 16 CEE countries, which was held in Suzhou, China. The initiative, proposed by Xi in 2013, consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes. Upon his arrival in Belgrade on Friday, the Chinese president, in a written speech, hailed the mutual political trust and the fruitful cooperation in such fields as energy, transportation infrastructure construction and agriculture over recent years. Ladjevic appreciated that Xi comes with a big delegation that gathers a significant number of businessmen from both private and state owned companies. "I expect that we will discuss the issue of investment in agriculture, because Serbia is significant and is very interested in this area," she said. Ladjevic pointed out that Serbia provides China with an important connection with Europe. "Having in mind the connection that Serbia can offer in the capacity of a country that wishes to join EU -- China, through Serbia, can connect itself with the EU in another way," she said. Xi arrived in Belgrade Friday for a state visit to Serbia. He will also visit Poland and Uzbekistan, where he is expected to attend the 16th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of State. BEIJING, June 17, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the World Day to Combat Desertification Global Observance and the "Belt & Road" Joint Action High-level Dialogue in Beijing, capital of China, June 17, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo) BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Vice Premier Wang Yang said on Friday that combating desertification is a shared responsibility that requires efforts from all countries. As a nation confronted with severe challenges from desertification, China has taken effective measures to contain the spread of desertification, Wang said in his keynote speech when attending an activity featuring the fight against desertification. The country will strengthen its efforts to preserve the environment and strive to build a beautiful China, he continued. There is also a pressing need for countries along the Belt and Road to combat desertification, Wang said, while calling for deeper cooperation between related countries and international organizations. He said China will continue to increase its input to help developing nations cope with desertification, thereby safeguarding the world's ecological security and promoting sustainable development. Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) met with president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in St.Petersburg, on June 16, 2016. (Sputnik Photo) ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on the European Union (EU) to forget about political differences with Moscow and join the broader Eurasia partnership. "We bear no grudge, and we are ready to meet our European partners halfway," Putin said at a plenary session during the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. "This undoubtedly cannot be a one-way street," he said in a call for efforts from both sides for rapprochement. Relations between Russia and the EU soured after the latter joined the United States in imposing several rounds of sanctions on Russia over its takeover of Crimea and involvement in the Ukraine crisis since 2014. While reiterating Russia's long-held position that Moscow is not the initiator of the strained ties, Putin voiced his hope for the EU, one of Russia's key trade and economic partner, to join the project of the big Eurasian partnership, which he said would involve China, India, Pakistan, Iran and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent states of the former Soviet Union, as well as other interested states and organizations. Putin said one of the first steps for implementing this project would be the official start of negotiations on creating a comprehensive trade and economic partnership in Eurasia between the Eurasian Economic Union and China. "This project is undoubtedly open to Europe. And I believe such interaction can be mutually beneficial," he said. With regard to Moscow's ties with the West, which has been at its lowest point ever since the end of the Cold War, Putin said global confrontation should not be the basis for the development of international relations. "Neither Moscow or anybody else want a new Cold War," he said. The Russian leader urged Washington not to exert pressure on the EU in its cooperation with Russia, while vowing that the Kremlin is ready to work with any U.S. president to be elected. Facing a NATO that has been keeping up pressure on Russia and stepping up military build-up near its borders, Putin regretted that Moscow's stances that it is not threatening anyone around were "completely slighted." LUSAKA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's electoral body on Friday warned that it will be forced to suspend campaigns in the run up to the August polls if violence continues. The electoral body has also said it will disqualify any political party or candidate in breach of the electoral code of conduct. Clashes between supporters of incumbent President Edgar Lungu and main opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema has marred campaigns ahead of the August 11 polls. "The ECZ has noted with dismay the rising violence and intolerance that has characterized the campaigns. The ECZ is warning all parties to refrain from violence or it will suspend all campaigns," said Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Public Relations Manager Cris Akufuna. He told reporters during a press briefing that the country's electoral law gives the electoral body powers to suspend all political party campaigns if parties continued to engage in violence and that the electoral body was also empowered to suspend any political party which breaches the electoral code of conduct. Zambia will hold presidential, parliamentary and local government polls on August 11 amid concerns over rising violence, which has resulted in some deaths. Enditem KAMPALA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday donated medical supplies to Uganda in a bid to strengthen efforts in health service delivery. Chun Maoming, an official at the Chinese embassy here handed over the drugs, medical apparatus and instruments to the ministry of health through the Uganda-China Friendship Hospital in the capital Kampala. Chun said whenever China sends a medical team to Uganda, it has to donate medical supplies to Uganda annually. Jacinto Amandua, the Commissioner Clinical Services at the ministry of health, who received the supplies said they will help to treat the increasing numbers of patients at the 100-bed hospital that China donated in 2012. Over the last several decades China has been sending medical teams to Uganda in order to boost the country's health care. "China and Uganda have maintained a long-term cooperation in the medical field which greatly improved the medical and health condition of Uganda and strengthened the bilateral relations," said Chun. The first Chinese medical team arrived in Uganda in 1983 and since then, over 160 medical experts in different specialties ranging from Urologists, gynecologists, orthopedics among others have served in the country. The 17th team arrived in the country late last month. The 16th team treated more than 30,000 patients in the past two years, according to embassy figures. The team also carried out five free medical activities in different parts of the country. Enditem FALLUJAH, Iraq, June 16, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Two Iraqi army soldiers walk near a building destroyed in battles in Shuhada district in southern Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on June 16, 2016, after the army retakes the district from the Islamic State(IS). (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood) BAGHDAD, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced Friday substantial victory against the Islamic State (IS) militants in Fallujah in the western province of Anbar, the state-run Iraqiya TV reported. "Our troops have fulfilled their promise and freed the city of Fallujah," Abadi addressed the nation on the state-run Iraqiya television. "Fallujah has returned to the homeland and our forces took control of the heart of the city," Abadi said. Earlier in the day, the security forces managed to free the government compound and raised the Iraqi flag on its main building in the central part of Fallujah. The recapture of the government compound came after the troops freed the districts of Nazal, Jubail and Resala, in addition to the industrial area in the southern part of the city, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, according to Raid Shakir Jawdat, the Commander of the Federal Police. The latest advance in Fallujah was the result of fierce clashes during the past few days, which forced many of the extremist militants to flee the city, a provincial source said. The battles continued in the day to free the northern part of the city with some IS militants still fighting in some areas, the source added. Abadi also promised that the security forces will soon start their advance toward the northern city of Mosul to free it from the largest IS stronghold in Iraq. "We congratulate all Iraqis on this victory, and (another) victory is close, very close with God willing in Mosul to drive out the last IS militant from the land of Iraq," Abadi said in his address. In his address, Abadi promised thousands of displaced families from Fallujah and the surrounding towns and villages that they will come back to their homes soon after defeating IS militants by the Iraqi security forces. "This is your city and you will return to it with God willing," Abadi said. The Prime Minister announced on May 23 the launch of a major offensive to claim Fallujah and surrounding towns and areas. Government troops and allied militias have currently been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns in Anbar from IS militants, who attempted to advance toward Baghdad after seizing most of Anbar province. Iraq has been witnessing a wave of violence since the IS controlled parts of its northern and western regions in June 2014. LIVERPOOL, June 17 (Xinhua) -- British companies need to do more to build trading links with China and ASEAN countries in what is a "continent of opportunities", a seminar here Friday was told by an international trade expert. Clive Drinkwater, regional director of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), was speaking to Xinhua after a session at the International Festival of Business (IFB) in Liverpool. He was one of the moderators at a day-long session on the UK's Place in the Asian Century. Organised by the UK-ASEAN Business Council, China-Britain Business Council and UK India Business Council, the event brought together delegations from China and other parts of Asia as well as British companies eager to expand into ASEAN countries. MP Richard Graham, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group, opened the event which was also address by Lai Bo, China's deputy consul general in Manchester who described the current climate as the "golden era for China-UK relations". Drinkwater, who was based in China for 10 years, said the event in Liverpool was about the connectivity between ASEAN countries like China and Britain. He said: "It's a continent of opportunity. Are we missing a trick by not being in China and other parts of Asia? I lived there for 10 years in the 1990s and the constant problem for me is that I don't think British companies are there enough." "I see IFB as a good start, in the first week we have had 10,000 visitors and we are welcoming 100 overseas delegations, many of them from China," he added. Enditem UNITED NATIONS, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Top UN officials on Friday called for more world efforts to combat desertification and restore land resources as nearly 800 million people are chronically undernourished as a direct consequence of land degradation, declining soil, fertility, unsustainable water use, drought and biodiversity loss. The desertification requires solutions to helping communities increase resilience to climate change, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message to mark the World Day to Combat Desertification, whose theme this year is "Protect Earth. Restore land. Engage people." "The livelihoods and well-being of hundreds of millions of people are at stake," Ban said. Ranking among the greatest environmental challenges of the current times, desertification is a phenomenon that refers to the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by human activities - including unsustainable farming, mining, overgazing and clear-cutting of land, and by climate change. The World Day, observed annually on June 17, is intended to promote public awareness of the issues of desertification and drought, and the implementation of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification. "Over the next 25 years, land degradation could reduce global food productivity by as much as 12 percent, leading to a 30-percent increase in world food prices," he said. In his message, the UN chief noted more than 50 percent of agricultural land is moderately or severely degraded, with 12 million hectares lost to production each year. "Desertification, land degradation, drought and climate change are interconnected," he said. "As a result of land degradation and climate change, the severity and frequency of droughts have been increasing, along with floods and extreme temperatures." The secretary-general emphasized that without a long-term solution, desertification and land degradation will not only affect food supply but lead to increased migration and threaten the stability of many nations and regions. "This is why world leaders made land degradation neutrality one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," he said. "That means rehabilitating at least 12 million hectares of degraded land a year." One important approach towards achieving that goal is sustainable, climate-smart agriculture, Ban said. That will help communities build resilience to climate change, while also supporting mitigation by taking carbon from the atmosphere and putting it back in the soil. "The transition to sustainable agriculture will also alleviate poverty and generate employment, especially among the world's poorest. By 2050, it could create some 200 million jobs across the entire food production system," said the secretary-general. "On this Day, I urge cooperation among all actors to help achieve land degradation neutrality as part of a broader effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and build a future of dignity and opportunity for all," he said. In a separate message to mark the Day, Irina Bokova, the director-general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), underscored that desertification is a threat to both arid and non-arid regions, where land over-exploitation, including intensive farming, forest exploitation for fuel and timber and overgrazing have turned fertile soils into sterile land. "Extreme weather events -- like droughts, winds, floods and climate disruptions -- are amplifying the effects and adding new causes to the degradation cycle," said Bokova. "The stakes are high -- this is why the goal of achieving land degradation neutrality is so important," she said. "This is set out in Target 15.3 of the new Sustainable Development Goals, to maintain and even improve the amount of healthy and productive land resources." Bokova highlighted that the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme, International Hydrological Programme and Global Action Programme on Education for Sustainable Development are working to engage people in sustainable land management practices and agro-forestry, in developing green economies, in consuming responsibly, and in restoring ecosystems. "Desertification is not always irreversible. Land restoration is the ultimate tool, and UNESCO is determined to do everything to restore our ecosystems, as was featured during the World Congress of Biosphere Reserves, held in Lima, in March 2016," Bokova said. "Desertification is a global threat that requires global action -- this must start with each of us, with our deeper engagement to protecting our planet for all to share," she added. For her part, the executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Monique Barbut, said that land degradation neutrality should be a top policy goal for every nation that values freedom and choice. "Conserving land and restoring that which is degraded back to health is not a benefit that only flows to the billions of people who eke out a living directly from the land," Barbut said. "It is a vote to safeguard our own freedoms of choice, and those of our children. It is also a moral standard against which we may well be judged by history," she added. Meanwhile, she also noted that the inclination to degrade new land instead of fixing and re-using the land that is already degraded means that future generations cannot benefit from the same resources. "The rights we claim to enjoy these land resources come with a heavy moral obligation to manage them well. More so, as we may be, literally, the last generation that can significantly slow down the accelerated loss of the land resources left," Barbut said. "This generation -- our generation -- has the time, human, knowledge and financial means to reverse these trends, and restore a vast amount of the degraded lands," she said. "But we must work together." LA PAZ, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Bolivia's government-owned oil company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) and the Russian natural gas company Gazprom signed a framework agreement on Friday to evaluate the hydrocarbon potential of three potential oil reserves in the South American country. Guillermo Acha, the president of YPFB, said from Russia, via a telephone interview with Bolivian media, that the important agreement was signed during the International Economic Forum 2016 in Saint Petersburg. The agreement will allow the companies to evaluate the hydrocarbon potential in the Bolivian Amazonian regions of Vitiacua, La Ceiba and Madidi. According YPFB, Vitiacua is located between the eastern department of Santa Cruz and the southern department of Chuquisaca with an area of 73,875 hectares (738.75 square km) while La Ceiba covers 47,500 hectares (475 square km) and is located in the southern department of Tarija. Madidi has the largest area with 690,000 hectares (690 square km) and is located in the western department of La Paz. On Feb. 18, 2016, Gazprom, YPFB and Bolivia's Hydrocarbons and Energy Ministry signed an action plan in order to implement the cooperation agreements. The plan included a joint search to implement new projects in the field of exploring, producing and transporting hydrocarbons. It also includes signing the study agreements, which aim to evaluate hydrocarbon potential in areas with suspected oil reserves in favor of YPFB. These studies will be carried out under the conditions established in the study agreements specific to each of the mentioned areas. It is estimated that in the event of a commercial discovery, an additional 370 million U.S. dollars could be invested in order to develop the areas. According to Acha, these study agreements and the future contracts for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons make up a series of measures that YPFB is promoting in priority areas such as exploration. Enditem By Luan Xiang BEIJING, June 17 (Xinhuanet) It is a common mistake to judge a childs artwork based on its resemblance to whats real, simply because in the world of imagination, sky doesnt necessarily have to be blue, nor rose red. Inside the imaginary world of a child, the sky could totally be peachy-pink, and goldfish could be flying over the seven seas. Volcanoes would erupt but in colors and candies instead of lava and flames, and of course a snowman could sing and dance, and we could all have a picnic on the brightest ray of moonlight. All they need is a little guidance and advice on how to bring out the mad, mad, mad and fun -- world inside, using the proper instruments and the right tones. So believed Diandian, Daidai and the rest of the faculty at the Childrens Art Studio Yishu. Every child is unique. We are not here to force the children to imitate a model drawing, definitely not, said Diandian, who said to be wholeheartedly in opposition to such traditional methodology of art education. We are more like friends. The kids trust us to share their imagination and we help them concrete on the image on the canvas, she explained in laughter, struggling to escape from the tickling hands of some young pupils who had stayed to play after the class was over. And the joyous ticklers told me, Diandian was nothing like the stern-faced teachers at their kindergartens or schools who would tell them what to do and what not. Miss Diandian is my best friend! I like coming here to draw! Diandian is my favorite person of the world! screamed the young kids, oblivious of how comments like the last one could embarrass their mommy standing right by their side. The first few students of the studio Yishu came following Diandian from the big franchise where she used to teach, and more and more came following word of mouth. Some were brought by the parents ambitious for their children to become the next Picasso, and others came escaping from other torturing talent training courses their parents had paid for. And they all stayed because they loved doing the art they were allowed to do here. HOW TO DRAW A CLOWN When a young child is obligated by his or her parents to a class, usually against the kids will, you can expect a resisting attitude, said Diandian. So I would sit down with the child, to have a heart-to-heart chat like a peer, getting to know each other, his or her likes and dislikes, interests, curiosities, fears... As we chat away, the little one would feel relaxed and begin to share the fascinating things born in his or her imagination. By the end of the chitchat, the child would be eager to draw the fruits of imagination, and would most likely to cheer a hearty Yes yes yes! when the teacher asked, Would you like it if we made a drawing of that? Sometimes it could also be reading a book together, watching a cartoon film, or going out to see an art exhibition, etc. For example, one of the classes began with the kids watching a short film about a nice uncle who would dress up like a clown everyday to visit a childrens hospital, where he would perform magic tricks to entertain the hospitalized (probably very bored) little patients. Six-year-old Yaoyao loved the movie and was so psyched to watch the magic that he said he wanted to be a magician clown himself! But when asked to draw how he would look, the young artist hesitated and responded shyly: I dont know how to draw a clown just like the one we saw. Diandian told him it wouldnt matter whether the drawing looked similar or not to the real person, and together they watched the movie once again. Only this time Diandian guided him to observe what turned the nice uncle into a clown I know! I know! Its the red nose! And the paint on his face! Yaoyao said in an excitement no less than when Archimedes had the moment of Eureka. So happy was the kid that he began to paint his own face with red and white colors Dont worry, my dear readers, it was non poisonous paint and began to create magic tricks of his own with the brush. And without a second of doubt, he began to draw on the canvas the clown he had in his head: someone whose face was painted white, eyes and nose bright red, and with a painting brush in one of his hand! And he added a purple bow-tie under the clowns chin, because he was wearing the same one. As for the background, the young artist divided the blanket into different, fun-looking patterns and painted them in a varied hue of refreshing, lively colors. According to Yaoyao, that was how the hospital walls should be colored, so the patients who had to stay there would not feel too bored! Just like that, a beautiful piece was created, in the mind and hands of a child. And it was one and only in the whole wide world. DASHUAIS WORLD Dashuai is four years old. He was always a sweet, gentle, perfect boy of very few words. His mom discovered his love for drawing, and would love to provide the adequate assistance for the hobby to grow, but for a long time she found herself debating over the pros and the cons if she were to send the young boy to study arts. Especially after she heard a story about a coworkers talented, award-winning son giving up on drawing after spending one summer in an art camp where all he was asked to do was to imitate in sketch. One thing she would not want to see was to let the traditional method of imitation ruin the innocence of a young mind and the precious creativity of a child. I didnt expect him to become an artist, the young mother told me, I only had hoped that he could do something he seemed to enjoy and have a little bit of childhood. To her great surprise, the 4-year-old demonstrated an imagination so vivid and great confidence in presenting it in brave colors and bold strokes that had been unknown to her. More surprising were the ingenious stories taking place in the quiet young boys little head, where so many things were going on with so many strange and charming characters, in an imaginary land of wonders that Dashuai had not been able to share with the world outside. I had no idea that there were so many stories inside my sons little head, the mother admitted. It really surprised me. Honestly, I was impressed. And now we have found the bridge to bring out that powerful imagination, with painting, said Diandian. Dashuai used to doodle without using any color, or he would only use one color to draw. Diandian helped him find the right tone to tinge the ambiance, to express different feelings, to integrate colors into his world of imagination. Dashuais works have become more and more brilliant, with a generous application of colors, and he has become more and more extroverted, talkative and willing to share his stories. He seems very happy when he draws, the boys mom told me, smiling. ZHIDAO THE PRODIGY Okay, this might sound ridiculous, but when you look at these paintings, you probably would find it hard to believe that they were not done by some renowned modern masters. And it would probably be even harder to believe that these were works of a 3-year-old child. Zhidao, aged 3, first picked up a colored pen and doodled on the corners of his moms books, and he was already able to explain to her what were those lines, squares and triangles that he drew: A toothless crocodile (because he ate too many candies and did not floss), Mommys sewing machine (and she was apparently making clothes for a pet half-polar-bear-half-elephant), and a one-eyed space pirate on his super awesome inter-galactic boat. Despite the Daddys joking verdict on the baby boy being of his blood thus he would not possess many of those artist genes, Zhidao came to Yishu as the youngest disciple. The teachers patiently listened to the cute rambles of the young child, and shared with him their knowledge on the warm colors, which could make feel uplifted, excited, happy, and the cold tones that could calm us down, cool the heat and quiet the noises. No matter what Daddy joked about, Zhidaos amazing drawings probably spoke louder. TEACHERS NOTE As a business, so far the studio has not been making great profits, but Diandian and Daidai said, it was not all about the money. We would like to share our love for art with everybody else, and we are proud to protect the priceless creativity of the children, said Diandian on the last train homeward, exhausted after a whole days classes. We can share our experience and knowledge with the children, help them learn how to observe, strengthen their sensitivity to beauty, added Daidai. It will be a valuable gift from which they will benefit for a lifetime. Diandian, when you grow really, really old and cannot teach any more, I will take charge to run the studio for you, because I will be all grown up then, one of the young students once told his teacher and friend. For us, that was the best reward we could ever have expected, laughed the two girls. They told me that, whatever the future holds, they would work hard to realize their dream, and remain optimistic, playful and childlike. That was a promise! Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office, speaks at the China-Serbia Media Dialogue, hosted by China's State Council Information Office in Belgrade, June 17, 2016. (Xinhuanet/Qian Yi) Representatives from Chinese media organizations attend the China-Serbia Media Dialogue, hosted by China's State Council Information Office in Belgrade, June 17, 2016. (Xinhuanet/Qian Yi) A dozen leaders of Chinese and Serbian media organizations attend the China-Serbia Media Dialogue in Belgrade, June 17, 2016. (Photo source: chinadaily.com.cn) Serbian media organizations expressed their willingness to deepen cooperation with their Chinese counterparts, as relations between the two countries are being upgraded thanks to President Xi Jinping's first state visit to the country. Serbian news agency, newspaper, TV station and website representatives made the remarks on Friday at the China-Serbia Media Dialogue, hosted by China's State Council Information Office in Belgrade, the country's capital. A dozen Chinese and Serbian news bosses attended the event. Xi left Beijing on Friday for state visits to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan. Participants at the forum said Xi's visit will have a great impact on the social and economic development of both countries. Serbian news agency, newspaper, TV station and website representatives attend the China-Serbia Media Dialogue, hosted by China's State Council Information Office in Belgrade, June 17, 2016. (Xinhuanet/Qian Yi) Bojan Brkic Zamenik, deputy editor-in-chief at the Radio Television of Serbia news desk, said his organization planned to deploy several hundred journalists to cover President Xi's visit thoroughly. "I would love to see more exchanges and cooperation with Chinese news organizations," he said, adding that his organization would sign a cooperation agreement with China Radio International on Saturday. Ljiljana Smajlovic, editor-in-chief of Politika and the president of the Serbian Journalists' Association, said Serbian journalists harbored friendly feelings towards China, and that the Serbian people had a growing interest in the country. A dozen leaders of Chinese and Serbian media organizations attend the China-Serbia Media Dialogue, hosted by China's State Council Information Office in Belgrade, June 17, 2016. (Xinhuanet/Qian Yi) Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office, said news organizations had the responsibility of pushing forward the relations between the two countries. "I was delighted to see Serbian media covered many important issues including China's Belt and Road Initiative," he said. Guo said compared with the cooperation in other fields, the collaboration between media organizations from two countries had much room to be improved. "Participants proposed a lot of good ideas at this forum, including content exchange and joint interviews," he said. "I hope all good ideas could be realized." (Source: Chinadaily.com.cn) FCB CEO: Were ready to take up the slack They have all been saying that it is the private sector in all its variations which has to come forward to create products and services for the internal economy and with the possibilities of taking those products outside to the wider world. As another event this year promoted, we need to be globally competitive and we need to compete globally. Darbasie was speaking yesterday at the launch of the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerces 2016 Champions of Business. The actual induction ceremony will be held on Saturday, November 12 at Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain. Chairman of the Champions of Business Steering Committee and Chamber Director, Jean Pierre Du Coudray, said the call for nominations for the TT Chamber Business Hall of Fame and the First Citizens Internationally Known, TT Owned Company of the Year awards was issued last Wednesday (June 8) and continues until next Friday (June 24). Forms, along with criteria information, are available on the Chambers website, social media pages, and from the TT Chamber Secretariat. C hampions of Business, now in its 12th year, was initially called the Business Hall of Fame but was re-branded by the Chamber to encompass the expansion of the categories within which the nominees are adjudicated. Du Coudray said the Chamber was pleased yesterday to have First Citizens partner with us for 2016 on the First Citizens Internationally Known, TT Owned Company of the Year. He also noted that a critical dimension of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is the judging panels review of how nominees contribute to the general uplift of society and the people through their corporate social responsibility activities (CSR) and engagement. We believe that the concept of giving back is not only a noble one but one that ought not be undervalued in its potential to create positive change in our country, Du Coudray declared. WASA worker held for bomb threat Officers saw the suspect going to a nearby grocery in the company of colleagues. The man of was taken into custody and up to press time, was being quizzed yesterday by Sgt Pitt in connection with a phone call made to the E999 Command Centre on Corpus Christie in which a man told the E999 dispatcher that a bomb had been planted at the Trincity Mall. Another Arouca man was initially detained for the bomb threat but was released two days later after claiming he lent his phone to a man to make a call while they were all liming. Officers seized video footage from a bar where the phone call was made and also interviewed several persons Two held in tyre-slashing According to reports, Permanent Secretary Clint Ramcharan parked his vehicle in the car park on the ground floor of the Ministry of Works and Transport compound at the corner of London and Richmond streets in Port-of-Spain, at about 10 am on Wednesday. He returned at about 6 pm and discovered the left rear tyre slashed. Minister of Works and Transport Fitzgerald Hinds was alerted about the incident and the police were called in. A party of officers led by ASP Ajith Persad and including Cpl Anthony Williams and PC ONeil Lightbourne went to the ministry compound where they carried out enquiries. Newsday understands that CCTV footage was viewed and ministry employees interviewed. This led to the arrest of the two men, one said to be a foreman and the other a driver. They are due to appear before a Port-of-Spain magistrate today. Two murders in South Dead is Navin Ramdhan, 36 of Mohess Road, Debe. Ramdhan was beaten repeatedly to the head with a piece of iron. Up to late yesterday a 33-year-old suspect remained at large. According to police, at about 3.30 pm, Ramdhan was liming with friends a short distance from his home at Panoo Trace when he and a man began arguing. Reports are that the man walked away and later returned with a piece of iron which he used to beat Ramdhan. Investigators said Ramdhan collapsed and his attacker fled the scene. The bleeding man was rushed to the Siparia Health Facility where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy yesterday revealed Ramdhan died from blunt force trauma to the head consistent with injuries caused by multiple blows to the head. When Newsday visited the familys home at Mohess Road yesterday, family members were in tears. Ramdhans sister Alana, 51, said she could not understand why someone would want to kill her brother. They were friends, they always limed together so I am really confused as to why he would kill his friend. No one deserves to die in such manner. My brothers head was bashed in, the weeping sister explained. Alana told Newsday when she received a phone call that her brother was involved in an altercation with another man, she did not know he would have been killed. I thought it was a small fight, but when I reached the health facility, I was told by doctors that my brother was dead. I still cant believe it. She said that eyewitnesses claimed the suspect confronted her brother while he was returning home. They had an argument and then my brother was walking back home and this man went for a piece of iron and beat him to death. When we reached on the scene all we saw was the iron in a pool of blood. My brother was already in the ambulance, she said. Ramdhans tearful mother Chando,75, said she hopes to get justice for her son death. I just want justice and the man who did this horrible crime to pay for what he did. He killed my son, the emotional woman cried. In an unrelated incident, Southern Division Homicide police officers are investigating the murder of 27- year old Mark Richardson of La Romaine. Reports are that at about 6.45 am yesterday, residents were alerted to the sounds of gunshots along Coffee Street in San Fernando. Richardsons bullet-riddled body was found along the roadway. An autopsy was expected to be performed at the Forensic Science Centre yesterday. Reports are that Richardson was originally from La Romaine and recently moved to San Fernando. Spanish speaking women arrested in Chaguanas Police said some of those held were undocumented and were turned over to the immigration authorities as investigations continue. Among the 15 illegal immigrants, were women from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. There were also persons from Jamaica and St Vincent. During the exercise that ended around 10 am yesterday and stretched across the entire Central Division, police also recovered a 9 mm pistol in Caroni district. Other persons were arrested on outstanding warrants. The exercise was spearheaded by ASP Sokah and included Supt Paul, officers of the Chaguanas CID, Central Division Task Force, Guard and Emergency Branch and other agencies Prisons chief dismisses plot to kill inmate Speaking to reporters after the opening ceremony of the Inmates 7th Annual Art Exhibition at Long Circular Mall, Stewart said, anyone could get up one morning and make an allegation, do you know how many allegations we hear about Rajaee Ali? Do we have a big hurrah when there is a threat to officers lives? All of a sudden this is so important on the agenda, he said. He said prison officers remain committed to the protection of society and reduction of crime by all means necessary. We are here to care for all, we are committed to the protection of society and the reduction of crime by all means necessary and that is where our focus is, he said. Rajaee Ali is currently before the courts for the murder of Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal Officers recover firearms, ammunition and marijuana According to a media release from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) yesterday, a party of officers led by Acting Inspector Gokool, Sergeant Steel and Corporal Solomon, recovered the firearms and the marijuana while performing exercises, however no one was arrested. During the operation which lasted from 9.00 am to 11.15 pm, three persons were arrested for charges including possession of marijuana and loitering. The report also revealed that in an unrelated incident on Tuesday, officers of the Eastern Division Task Force and the Toco Police Station while conducting an exercise in the Toco area, seized 3.18 kilogrammes of marijuana with an estimated street value of $47,700. A 29-year-old Arima man was arrested and charged with possession of the narcotic. ESC to honour Noel at drum festival A special award will also be given to his family in recognition and appreciation of his contribution to keeping the tradition of drumming alive in the Yoruba Village and TT communities. The Keeper of the Tradition Award is presented annually to someone who has worked diligently to preserve and develop African art forms and traditions. The presentation will be part of the annual Yoruba Village Drum Festival being hosted by the ESC on June 18, from 2 pm to 8 pm at the Yoruba Village Square, Piccadilly Street and Old St Joseph Road, Port-of- Spain. The festival is one of the major events of the Pan African Festival in commemoration of Emancipation 2016, it is also a tribute to fathers and an opportunity to present awards to a young male and female of the community for his/her achievement of excellence, in commemoration of the United Nations International Day of the African Child. The tribute to Noel is based on his accomplishments and efforts to preserve African drumming and other art forms. He was a master drummer and percussionist who brought life to any instrument he played, making him one of the best musicians in TT , the release said. Noel started drumming at nine years in 1969 with the Jean Coggins- Simmons Dance Group. He went on to play with groups in the Prime Ministers Best Village Trophy Competition. He also played with dance groups, steel orchestras and worked with various calypsonians at the Revue and Kaiso House and performed throughout the Caribbean and in England, Canada and France. Noel was trained under the late Andrew Beddoe, Sam Phills (Baga) and Jeffrey Beddoe and he shared that knowledge with his group, Natural Expressions, based in New York and tutored many others groups. The festival has been held at the Yoruba Village for many years in recognition of the large Yoruba- speaking population which resided there since the 19th century. The Yoruba people came to Portof- Spain after being kidnapped by British, France and Spanish plunderers, following the abolition of the slave trade. They came mainly from Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Togo but today the only semblance of the towns history and existence is the Yoruba Village Square located opposite the old Besson Street Police Station. Among the traditions retained and passed on by the Yoruba was the gift of drumming. The drums were used as a call to prayer, for help and a call for celebration but the colonists felt threatened by the sound of the drum and laws were passed to ban the playing of the drum. Nevertheless, drum playing was retained and transferred from generation to generation and this year, the participants will show off their talents, calling for unity, brotherhood, peace and consciousness in the Yoruba Village, which we know today as the communities of Morvant, Laventille, Belmont and Gonzales. Among the drumming groups to perform at the festival are, Wasafoli, St James Police Youth Club, Frontline, Egbe Omo Oni Isese, Freeport Sea Scouts, St James Cultural Artisans, Belan Drummers, UWI Afrikan Society, Sogren Trace Laventille Enhancement Organisation, groups from Tobago and others. Performing acts also include Brother Book, Oba Dread, Wolde Dawit, Curious Ringo, Prince Cardinal, Mc Meo and Knocker and the Black Beat International Band. UWI Principal: Guilty students will pay As well, if they are found guilty of breaking the rules of the university and bringing it into disrepute, they will be subjected to the universitys disciplinary measures, he added. Asked whether students had made complaints to the administration about being blackmailed to give nude photos of themselves or would have expressed concerns about it, Sankat told Newsday yesterday, I know absolutely nothing about it, adding he only got wind of the incident by watching news on television on Wednesday evening . I have heard nothing about it formally, he said. Let the police do their job. If our students are guilty they will feel the brunt of the law. While at this time there are only allegations, Sankat said, I am really disappointed, shocked and disgusted that these images would bring our female students into disrepute. A number of female students in the Medical Sciences Faculty of the UWI St Augustine campus have had nude photos posted to an online pornography site. Some of the students allege that male students are involved in the sale of these photos, unlawfully sourced, to the porn site and circulation among friends and on social media without their (the female students) knowledge . Guild President condemns nude photos leak Peters urged students to think about their future before consenting to having such pictures taken of them. I strongly condemn anything that may tarnish a persons character or image. That is a breach of ones trust and it violates ones personal life and these actions have devastating consequences on students. I would encourage them to discontinue any sort of action relating to that because they have their whole lives ahead of them, and what you do now will have serious implications in the future. Peters added that he has not seen the photographs or the list of names attached and therefore could not be certain that any of the females who appeared in the leak were in fact current students of the university, however, he said the Guild is prepared to provide counselling and emotional support for any students affected by the incident. The Guild at any point in time stands ready to assist students in whatever way, whether through financial or emotional support, there is stuff in place to help students. Guild is prepared to assist any students who feel the need to do these things to obtain money. We encourage young women and even men to discontinue from such actions which may tarnish their reputation for years to come. . Imbert sends condolences on murder of UK MP I have never heard of such a thing, in my 24 years, of an elected MP being shot and stabbed, Imbert said. But at this stage the facts are not yet fully established. If this incident has to do with her work, then I think all MPs need to heighten their sense of awareness. But we should not jump to conclusions. Imbert is also a member of the House Committee which reviews matters such as security. A 2014 review of Parliament resulted in greater security measures at Constituency offices, but it is unclear if MPs are satisfied with these changes. According to a report tabled in Parliament in 2015, entitled Constituency Relations of the Parliament of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago An Assessment Report, MPs have in the past asked for, and received, more security for their offices. The report stated that in a survey, 26 out 41 MPs requested the provision of electronic doors, cameras, unarmed and armed security. Four MPs noted that they would not like to have any security measures implemented in their Constituency offices. Most of the remaining 22 MPs requested cameras and electronic doors at their Constituency offices, while 13 MPs requested unarmed security and 10 MPs called for armed security. As a result of the findings of the survey, the Office of the Parliament recommended and implemented immediate deployment of security staff in or in front of the critical constituency offices, the report discloses. UNC Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial yesterday called for greater security for MPs. It should be reviewed as MPs have a high-risk job, Ramdial said. Senators too, it is understood, do not have security. UNC Senator Khadijah Ameen said MPs are as much at risk as ordinary citizens and should, in her personal view, not be in any more favourable or worse position. Independent Senator David Small said of the UK murder, It was really shocking to hear and it will raise some level of discussion of the level of security. (See Page 27A) Carmona, Mustapha meet on Las Alturas It is understood the meeting took place at Presidents House and that it was held to discuss a request for an extension of time for the inquiry to finish its work. It is currently due to end on June 30. The evidence hearings ended in April but it is also understood the inquiry is yet to submit a final report. The inquiry was first due to come to an end since June 2015. This was later extended by Carmona to March, by way of a notice dated February, then to June. The other members of the inquiry are Dr Myron Wing-Sang Chin and Anthony Farrell. However, one party to the inquiry, China Jiangsu International Corporation, has launched legal action against the inquiry, arguing that it could not be made a party to the proceedings. On Wednesday, president of the Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Richie Sookhai, told a fraud awareness event, To date no one has been held accountable and recently we saw a commission of inquiry into the Las Alturas project ending. He added, Trinidad and Tobago should be awarded for having the most investigations and commissions of inquiry which amount to nothing in the end. A spokesman at Presidents House had no word yesterday on if the inquiry would be extended. It is understood the matter is for the Cabinet. Kumar agrees with Garcia on GATE wastage Its absolutely necessary, Kumar said yesterday. The Chambers been one of the voices, for a few years now, calling for the GATE programme to be reviewed... We cannot continue to fund 100 percent of education expenses. We fully support the need to give everyone an opportunity to an education but at the same time, we also believe that the individual has a responsibility for their education. Kumar was responding to Garcias comments two days ago (June 15) that a task force appointed to review the Government Assistance for Tertiary Education (GATE) has found that a large amount of wastage, due in part to many participating students choosing to engage in other activities such as liming. GATE was introduced by the Peoples National Movement (PNM) administration in 2004 to cover 100 percent of tuition fees at the undergraduate level and 50 percent at the post graduate level. This past March, a task force team was appointed and began reviewing the programme. Garcia on Wednesday reiterated that Government spent approximately $650 million to fund the GATE programme for 2016. Speaking with reporters yesterday following the media launch of the Chambers Champions of Business awards 2016, Kumar suggested GATE be modified so theres a 50-50 contribution by Government and students alike. Whether its a 50-50 (contribution) and you get a loan for the balance, just as you see in other countries. When everything is given freely, as we have tended to go within the last few administrations, then the individual doesnt feel that theyve put anything into it. Youve got to have, not just sweat from studying but youve got to invest with your funds also, Kumar argued. Ex Bwee employees urged to accept ex-gratia payment A source close to the issue explained that the offer of the ex-gratia payment has been reopened several times over the years with no greater success in having it accepted by minority shareholders or former BWIA employees. However,this final offer is being made as Government is seeking to wind up BWIA and is expected to complete the process within the coming year. Once the company is wound up, there will be no further opportunity for collection of the ex-gratia payment. Following the decision to shut down BWIA, the government had a valuation done which concluded that the airlines shares were worthless. However, the government decided to offer an ex-gratia payment of 20 cents per share to minority shareholders and employees who were shareholders through a pension plan holding just over 15 percent of the airlines shares in trust for the employees. BWIA workers would later make a case for compensation from the Government, complaining that the shares were never transferred to them and so they never had any opportunity to sell them while BWIA was listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange and its shares available for trading. BWIA was privatised in 1995 and the Government became a minority shareholder with 49 percent of the stock and 15 percent being put in trust in a pension plan for employees. Many of the shareholders rejected the 20 cents per share offer, believing that more was due to them. Former addicts testify before JSC Responding to a question by Parliamentary Secretary in the National Security Ministry, Glenda Jennings Smith, Dexter Cole said he was told by a peer in school that the illegal narcotic would bring up his grades and help him study better. Now 47 and employed as a chef at the Piparo Empowerment Centre, where he was rehabilitated, Cole said he has experienced a restoration which turned his life around for the better. He told JSC members he would not have gone down the road of substance abuse had he known about its evils. Cole urged young people not to bow to the influence of peer pressure and to educate themselves about making proper life choices. Caroline James, a counsellor with the Living Water Community, was moved to tears as she related her tale as a substance abuser to the JSC. Saying she adopted a criminal mentality to survive on the streets, James said she came from a broken home and never had anyone to warn her about the evils of drug addiction. She also said she was sexually abused and all she had to rely on to get better was her higher power. James said she was now 100 percent better and today in her new role she is giving back what she receives. She said a lot more needed to be done about women who are socially displaced and the first step was to talk about the problem. Santa Rosa residents against relocation of high risk prisoners Sources revealed that there are over ten high risk prisoners at the Centre. One of them is a witness in the Dana Seetahal murder trial. Also at the facility is a prisoner who recently escaped from St Anns hospital as well as prisoners serving life sentences. A prison officer who contacted Newsday said that he and his colleagues are fearful for their safety because the arrangements in place at the facility for these classification of prisoners are inadequate. He added that the facility is fenced with galvanised sheets and prisoners are housed in containers. According to reports, there are three sections in the facility and up until yesterday there was a manpower shortage at this prison. Officers also claimed that there is an infestation of rats, snakes and mosquitos. Residents said yesterday that they will be seeking a meeting with Minister of National Security Edmund Dillon and if there is no favourable response to their concerns, there will be protests. Some residents even asked to be relocated adding that the value of their homes has been devalued because of the close proximity to the prison facility. No one wants to live here especially with high risk prisoners being housed there and we want our concerns addressed immediately because we are fearful that at some point, if there is a prison break at that facility, our lives will be at risk, said the disgruntled residents yesterday. They added that they were not consulted before the area was transformed into a prison facility and pointed out that even after consultation, no mention was made to them that high risk prisoners would be housed there. Newsday understands that the high risk prisoners were placed at the Eastern Correctional Rehabilitation Centre due to security reasons. Newsday also understands that prison officers had complained to senior officers about alleged threats which resulted in the prisoners being moved to the ECRC. Efforts to reach Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart on the matter proved futile. Govt moving on cyber crime law Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General Stuart Young gave this assurance to reporters at yesterdays post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Portof- Spain. Youngs assurance came against the backdrop of nude photos of women and children reportedly being posted on the Internet. And on Tuesday, Hafeez Ali resigned as a government senator after being blackmailed by a woman from North America who posted nude videos of him on YouTube. Young said that on Wednesday Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi led the first round of public consultation by this Government with respect to cyber crime legislation. Explaining this is connected to data protection legislation, the minister said, This is something we are actively moving towards. We have the amendments being drafted. Indicating that Government will be bringing cyber crime legislation to Parliament as quickly as possible, Young said law enforcement agencies have indicated that the continued publication and exchange of these things are criminal acts. In this context, he said, we would expect the law enforcement agencies to act appropriately and in particular the Cyber Crime Unit of the TT Police Service. Kallco terminated from Maracas project The project will be restarted next week under the supervision of the National Infastructure Development Company (Nidco). Government will seek to recover any money overpaid to Kallco on this project and will carefully determine the legitimacy of debts to contractor incurred by its Peoples Partnership (PP) predecessor before any payment is made. Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe, Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Stuart Young and Finance Minister Colm Imbert made these pronouncements at yesterdays post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair. At the launch of the $120 million project last July, then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar boasted the PP reduced the cost of the project from an alleged $179 million cost under the Peoples National Movement (PNM) in 2007. Young indicated Kallco was terminated from the project a month and a half ago by CISL based on legal advice. Referring to Cudjoes earlier comment that the mobilisation fee paid to Kallco was to the tune of $20 million, Young observed, It was found in this instance that an abnormally large sum was paid for mobilisation. Indicating that a value for money audit is underway, Young stated, Parallel to this, the necessary movements forward are taking place. The Government is moving expeditiously to complete the project. He explained the $20 million paid to Kallco has now been ringfenced. Young added, The lawyers are looking at that now to see how we may recover, if in fact there has been any overpayment to the contractor has been terminated. He said the matter may go to arbitration but this does not mean Government would not necessarily incur any additional expenditure as a result. The Government will be making claims against any contractor that it terminates, Young said. Indicating that every contract is a separate contract, Young said the new contractual arrangements for the project, will have nothing to do with other contracts that Nidco will have ongoing with other entities. Cudjoe said Nidco will supervise the project, which will be split into three packages. She explained that the Works Ministrys PURE unit will deal with road and drainage works at Maracas Beach in one package. Nidco will deal with vending booths and buildings in the second package and the sewerage and water treatment plant at the beach in the third package. Cudjoe said these contracts wil be awarded within the next week so that immediate remedial work can be done at the beach. She stated in the meantime, PURE and the Water and Sewerage Authority have been treating with issues at Maracas Beach Govt scraps armoured vehicles acquisition The process of procuring six vehicles began in 2014 under the former Peoples Partnership government. On September 10, 2014, four firms were invited to submit tenders. On October 20, 2014, three of the four firms submitted tenders. In May of 2015, a Special Evaluation Committee visited one of these companies in Israel to evaluate its vehicles. However, the process was reviewed and the committee recommended that the ministry reopen the tender. Last October, the ministry, after a review of the matter, said, The ministry continues to treat with the acquisition ... but only in accordance with the proper tendering and procurement guidelines set out by Governments regulations. However, Dillon yesterday disclosed the procurement process had been stopped altogether for the time being and the issue would only be taken back up if a need arose. The minister said there had been problems with the initial procurement. He also noted changed economic conditions. Dillon said that armoured vehicles would not be appropriate in areas of this country where there are dense populations. There are other methods that can be used, he said. You do not need to get an armoured vehicle just to storm a building. While the minister said the vehicles would not be pursued at the current time, they were not altogether ruled out but would only be acquired if a need arises. Padarath: Rowleys address bizarre Rowleys language was nothing short of crass and disrespectful to high office holders in this country, Padarath said in a media statement. He said he was deeply concerned that the Prime Ministers behaviour can affect the international image of this country. Is the Prime Minister cracking under pressure? Padarath asked. Meanwhile, UNC chairman David Lee questioned once more the imposition of import duties on chemicals used for agricultural products. I call on Government to stop playing musical chairs with the lives and welfare of our nations citizens, Lee said. As a Government they have a constitutional responsibility to undertake all policies that protect, develop and better the lives of our citizens. In the same way they have found resources to complete the Brian Lara Stadium, Red House project and Soca on the Seas, I demand on behalf of our population, especially our nations children, that resources be allocated to the opening of the Childrens Hospital in Couva, the UWI campus in Debe, as well as the completion of all schools under construction. What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames news Somali man opens fire, takes hostages, in Texas Walmart Burying the lede the suspect, a current or former Walmart employee, was said to be a Somalian man wearing khaki pants, KFDA-TV reports. (Article by Pamela Geller, republished from https://pamelageller.com/2016/06/somali-muslim-opens-fire-takes-hostages-at-wal-mart-in-texas.html/) Police said in a press release at 12:25 local time that no victims had been found inside the building and there is no ongoing shooting at this moment. It is not known if anyone was wounded elsewhere. The initial call was for a suspect who was actively shooting inside the store, according to police radio dispatches. SWAT team shoots suspect who took hostages at Amarillo, Texas Walmart, FOX News, June 16,2015 Published June 14, 2016 FoxNews.com DEVELOPING: A SWAT team shot and apparently killed a suspect who took hostages at a Walmart in Amarillo, Texas Tuesday afternoon, police announced, adding that all hostages were safe. Nearly an hour after city officials reported an active shooter incident, police said they had entered the Walmart and there was no ongoing shooting. We do consider this a work-place violence situation at this point, the Randall County Sheriffs Office told Fox News. One store employee told KFDA the gunman earlier released a worker and the store manager but was still inside the Walmart. Witnesses told KVII an employee took another employee hostage. Police said they were looking for a Somali man wearing khaki pants, KFDA added. Officers reportedly were evacuating shoppers from the west side of the store in the Texas Panhandle. Jeff Nunn, the president of a nearby bank, told the Amarillo Globe-News that helicopters and roughly 20 police and emergency vehicles rushed to the store. His bank and a day care center reportedly went on lockdown. Police closed nearby streets off I-27. Please avoid the area so that officers can focus on the scene and not traffic, the Amarillo Police Dept. said in a statement. Read more at: https://pamelageller.com/2016/06/somali-muslim-opens-fire-takes-hostages-at-wal-mart-in-texas.html/ Submit a correction >> Speaker Ryan lays out national security agenda for GOP that differs in many areas from positions held by Trump (NationalSecurity.news) Did House Speaker Paul Ryan just pick another fight with his partys presumptive presidential nominee, just days after Senate Republicans urged him to go easier on Donald J. Trump, at least in public? On Friday, Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, laid out his partys national security vision for the fall elections, and in many ways it differs from Trumps policy positions. As reported by The Washington Post, for example, Trump has proposed building a wall along the U.S. southwest border something that was authorized via legislation in 2006 but was defunded by Democrats after they won control of the House that year and getting Mexico to pay for it. But Ryans blueprint states that we need more than just fencing to keep illegal aliens, illegal weapons and drugs and terrorists from crossing into the U.S. Also, Trump has said that NATO is out-of-date and thus obsolete, but Ryans plan urges modernizing and solidifying NATO, even as it calls for prodding member nations to spend more on their own defense so the alliance does not fall into disrepair, or worse, irrelevance (this is a major Trump complaint as well). Where Trump has suggested it might be time to help arm allies like Japan and South Korea with nuclear weapons as a counter to an atomic-armed North Korea and increasingly aggressive China, Ryan has suggested efforts to shore up or defense arrangements so the U.S. can bring together those nations, while staying clear of mentioning nukes. The document does not mention Trump by name, but it is nevertheless the final product of a foreign policy agenda that Ryan, as Speaker, began developing as part of his Better Way agenda project so that Republicans would have a proactive plan to run on in November. As for Trump, Ryan sais he believes the eventual nominee will help us make [the agenda] a reality when he endorsed Trump a week ago. Along with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Ryan and other House committee chairmen who formed the GOPs national security task force presented the proposal formally at the Council on Foreign Relations last week as a necessary shift away from President Obamas policies. Its not too much to say that our enemies no longer fear us and too many of our allies no longer trust us, Ryan said, according to the Post. I think this is a direct result of the presidents foreign policy. That said, GOP leaders added they hope Trump will read the proposals and give them some serious consideration, especially in areas where they disagree with him. This is a document that we hope the nominee will read and take attention to, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said, in response to reporters question about Trumps statements on banning Muslims. There are ways to properly vet and protect threats from coming into the United States without just a swath of a ban against any race or religion coming into the United States. The 20-page national security proposal is the second installment of the agenda project, which House Republicans intend to roll out between now and the July 18 GOP convention, the Post reported. There are some agreements with Trump contained in the proposal, however, including its frank statement that the West and the United States is being threatened by radical Islamism. We are at war with Islamist terrorists, the report argues, concluding that thus we must act like we are fighting a war. But the war will not be won with bullets and bombs alone, the authors argue. It will be won by the force of our ideas. Also, like Trump, the document is universally critical of Obamas foreign policy priorities and performance. While Trump has also called for building up the U.S. military which is being by years of deployments and plagued by equipment wear and tear, as well as budget cuts that both the White House and Congress are responsible for the authors of the proposal have also said that in order to retain a credible threat against potential enemies, more must be done to bolster military capabilities, to prevent greater dangers in the future In another proposal that appeared to mirror Trump, the document promotes accelerating economic growth through foreign aid but also stresses that there is no right to foreign aid, and that it is best when countries help themselves. More: NationalSecurity.news is part of the USA Features Media network. Check out ALL our daily headlines here. Submit a correction >> Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh chairs the meeting of Coastal States and UTs Mumbai, Fri, 17 Jun 2016 NI Wire The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh chaired the meeting of Home Ministers, Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police (DGPs) of Coastal States and Union Territories in Mumbai yesterday. The meeting has been convened to review the coastal security of India. During the meeting, Shri Rajnath Singh reviewed all aspects of security along the country's 7,516 km long coastline. The Minister stressed upon the need to safeguard not only industrial, commercial establishments and strategic installations, but also the entire coastline from external threats through sea routes. He said that steps have been initiated post 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, wherein Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is designated as the authority responsible for coastal security in territorial waters including areas to be patrolled by coastal police. Indian Navy is responsible for overall maritime security including coastal security and offshore security. Indian coasts are guarded by a 3-tier system of State Marine Police, Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy. Shri Rajnath Singh said that the ICG conducts coastal security exercises involving all stakeholders in all coastal states/UTs biannually to validate these Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for functioning of coastal police stations and also ICG promulgates these SOPs for coordination among various agencies on coastal security issues. The Minister said that the coastline has been further secured by the creation of chain of static sensors and Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers along the Indian Coast and Radars operated by the ICG at 45 locations while 38 more Radars are planned to be installed for gapless surveillance of the coastline. Shri Rajnath Singh also said that the MHA has issued Guidelines to the coastal states/UTs in regard to security of non-major ports. Further, he informed that for training of coastal police, in-principle approval has been accorded for setting up of National Marine Police Training Institute in Gujarat and State Marine Police Training Centres in the Police Training Academies of States and Union Territories. In order to track illegal movement, registration of fishing vessels has been made compulsory and for sensitizing fishermen on safety issues, community interaction programmes are conducted by Indian Coast Guard. The Minister said that consequent upon implementation of these important initiatives, our coasts are far more secure now. To strengthen the monitoring and coordination mechanism for the entire gamut of coastal security, the Government has set up an institutional mechanism at the State and the District level, and has strengthened the MHA level Steering Committee at the National Level for review of coastal security, he added. Shri Rajnath Singh highlighted the issues of maritime terrorism and its economic implications. He also invited suggestions from the Coastal States/UTs for the Phase-III of the Coastal Security Scheme to be implemented in next five years. The Minister said that with the active cooperation of all the State Governments & Union Territories and with the efforts of the officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and other Ministries as well as agencies like the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and the Coastal Police, coastal security will continue to improve and our entire coastline will be fully secured from any threat from the sea. During the meeting, the Coastal Security Scheme managed by the Government of India with an objective of strengthening the infrastructure of Coastal States/ UTs for coastal patrolling and surveillance, was also discussed. Under the scheme, assistance is given to all Coastal States and Union Territories to set up coastal police stations, check posts, outposts and construction of jetties for berthing of police boats. Presently, the Phase II of this Scheme is in progress. There were discussions on expeditious implementation of coastal security scheme, institutional set up in States/UTs to review coastal security, constitution of State Maritime Boards, security of non-major ports and single point mooring, coastal mapping, security of islands, distribution of Biometric Identity Cards and Card Readers, colour coding of boats, monitoring of fish landing points and crossing of International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) by fishermen. Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra suggested that marine policing being a specialized job, a Central Marine Police Force be created to protect sea, coast, ports and vital institutions. He also suggested that all landing points and non major ports should be brought under tech based e-surveillance. Both these suggestions were supported by some States and UTs. Shri Rajnath Singh said that the Centre will seriously consider to create a coastal police as a Central Armed Police Force based on the suggestions received from Coastal States/UTs. It was also decided that for tracking the movement of fishermen to the sea and back, an integrated computerized system/tech based e-surveillance will be implemented with States & UTs and the Central Government will help in that direction. The Indian Coast Guard and the Coastal States and UTs gave the presentations on the steps being taken by them for ensuring coastal security and their requirements as well as suggestions for strengthening it further. The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju, Lt.General (Rtd) A.K. Singh, Lt. Governor A& N Island, Shri M.O.H.F. Shahjahan, Minister for Revenue, Puducherry, Dr. G. Parmeshwar, Home Minister, Karnataka, Shri. Rajnibhai Patel, MoS(Home), Gujarat, Shri Rajiv Mehrishi, Union Home Secretary, Smt. Naini Jayaseelan, Secretary, ISCS, Shri Susheel Kumar, Secretary (Border Management), MHA, Chief Secretaries of Maharashtra, Goa and A&N, DGPs of Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal & Gujarat and other officers from MHA, participating Ministries and States/UTs attended the meeting. Source: PIB The Latest Revelation Shows another Incidence of Tughlaqi Darbar of Topi Sarkar: Meenakshi Lekhi New Delhi, Fri, 17 Jun 2016 NI Wire KEJRIWAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO TELL PEOPLE WHY IT HAS SHOWN THE HASTE TO BRING PREMIUM APP BUS SERVICE VIOLATING MOTOR VEHICLE ACT, HIGH COURT DIRECTIVE WITH NO RESTRICTION ON THE NUMBER OF ROUTES TO BE PLIED & RATES TO BE CHARGED - MEENAKSHI LEKHI New Delhi, 17th June: BJP National Spokesperson MP Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi today at a Press Conference said that by approving the App based Bus Service Delhi Government has violated many mandatory provisions of Law and has deliberately chosen not to consult the Law & Finance Department due to its corrupt practice & malafide intentions. The latest revelation on App based Bus Service shows another incidence of Tughlaqi Darbar of Topi Sarkar. Smt. Lekhi said that it is shocking that the Lt. Governor has till date given no permission to introduce the Premium App Bus Service but the Kejriwal Government on 20th May brought out a notification saying that the Lt. Governor has approved the App Bus Service. This by itself is a criminal offence. Smt. Lekhi said that BJPs Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly Shri Vijender Gupta has already filed a complaint in this matter with Delhi Governments Anti Corruption Branch. It is being alleged that the Kejriwal Government is going all out to favour a Gurugram based App Bus aggregator. She said that while trying to rush through approvals for this App based Bus Service the Government of Delhi has violated the Motor Vehicle Act 1988. She said that Government of Delhi has tried to rush through invoking emergency provisions under clause (n) of sub-section (3) of Section 66 of Motor Vehicle Act 1988 which allows such Bus service for a short duration under extraordinary circumstances such as strike by normal operators or a national calamity. In the present case the Kejriwal Government has brought it for an indefinite period. She said even the Honble Delhi High Court had in an order dated 5th September, 2013 directed that before introduction of any new cluster bus service in Delhi the proposal should be placed before the court but Kejriwal Government choose to ignore even the court directives. Smt. Lekhi said that it appears that the note of the Delhi Governments proposed Premium App Bus Service has been prepared by some individual corporate aggregator as it has come to our knowledge that during the meeting called by Delhi Government on this issue but for one all other aggregators opposed the scheme citing the Motor Vehicle Act 1988. To top it all the right to determine fare has been relinquished to the shuttle operator. It has also come out that rather than the then Minister Gopal Rai or Transport Department Officials the note which the AAP Government has presented is more or less same as the one prepared by Shri Ashish Khetan of Delhi Dialogue Commission. It is important to mention here that Minister Gopal Rai has quit from the Transport Department while Shri Ashish Khetan has surprisingly gone on a leave even as his brain child scheme is under scanner. Smt. Lekhi said that we would wish to know from the Kejriwal Government that why they did not even find it important to take prior approval of their own Finance & Law Departments. This new app based service would have a long term impact on state based Delhi Transport Corporation but the opinion of DTC was not even sought. She said that time and again we have seen the Chief Minister of Delhi raising acquisitions on app based cab services, their numbers on road and their surge pricing etc. but the same Chief Minister is prepared to allow the App based Bus Service on roads without any restriction on number of buses, number of bus routes or surge pricing. It seems Delhi is in for worst days then the city saw when the Blue Line or Red Lines were feared as killer lines. The uncontrolled Bus service reminds me of Nirbhaya case. She said that as per norms a draft proposal needed to have been put in public domain for such a scheme but even that was avoided in the present case. Smt. Lekhi said that as a citizen, as a law maker I really feel concerned that how can a State Government allow such callousness as an incompetent authority issuing a notification in a matter which can pose grave threat to the lives of lakhs of people who may use such transport. Smt. Lekhi said that today during peak hours hundreds of Chartered Bus Services run by individual bus owners operate in Delhi and with this new App based Bus Service they are likely to go out of business. The Chief Minister Kejriwal needs to tell us how the Government will ensure their livelihood in future. Share Tweet Recently I posted an article on a subject that is near and dear to mobile operators, customer acquisition and retention. It related to the publication by Next Generation Community host Nokia (News - Alert) of its 10th in a series of reports titled appropriately, Nokia 2016 Acquisition and Retention Study. It was noted that there were several categories that make the report a very useful resource. In fact, this week Nokia has published the details on the part of the series of this report dealing with Drivers of Customer Retention. And once, again, there is a lot to evaluate in the findings. As Nokia research found, there are four major drivers of customer retention: Source (News - Alert): Nokia 2016 Acquisition and Retention, Drivers of Customer Retention As mentioned in the previous article, what is clearly noteworthy in looking at the year-over-year comparisons is that while cost and billing remain the dominant concerns of mobile service customers in determining which provider they would like to use, the rapid ascent of customer care along with the service and device portfolio should be considered as calls for action. What is surprising as the decline of network quality as a driver which is likely attributable to quality being perceived as being related somewhat to network coverage as well and thanks to competition in virtually every market globally differentiation between services on this score is likely to be perceived as being almost a level playing field. That said, customer care is worth a shout out here. As the report explains, customer care as a category is comprised of three aspects: Self Care Request & Complaint Handling General Customer Service Each holds varying degrees of significance across the mature and transition markets described in the report, but as can be seen from the graphic, globally Request & Complaint Handling and General Customer Service, play the most significant roles in driving the overall importance. In speaking with Josh Aroner, Vice President, Applications & Analytics Marketing, Nokia about the series in general and about customer care, he explained that: Customers want greater transparency in billing and bundling, they want their problems handled by skilled professionals quickly and satisfactorily, and they want their services to be personalized and their care customized to meet their needs. He added that service providers should understand from the research that, The experience is everything and service providers have unique opportunities to leverage providing great experiences. He noted that this relates to all aspects of the customer experience and not just when they are interacting based on the need to resolve a problem. Aroner also observed that one of the reasons service providers are uniquely positioned to attract and retain customers, even in a world where there is now OTT competition along with competition from traditional providers, is that companies have usage data and other information directly related to the entire customer journey. This information when properly shared and analyzed can enable service providers to create and sustain differentiated value. I added, and Aroner agreed, that the emergence of concerns over security is also a nice way for service providers to create what used to be called, stickiness. Next up in the series will be, Trends in New Sign-ups. Edited by Maurice Nagle China is in talks with the Ukraine to finish a half built second copy of the Antonov cargo plane. It would likely cost about $300 million to complete the plane. The Antonov An-225 Mriya is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft that was designed by the Soviet Unions Antonov Design Bureau in the 1980s. It is powered by six turbofan engines and is the longest and heaviest airplane ever built, with a maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes (710 short tons). The Antonov An-225, initially developed for the task of transporting the Buran spaceplane, was an enlargement of the successful Antonov An-124. The first and only An-225 was completed in 1988 Partially built second Antonov 225 The only existing Antonov 225 Ukraines Antonov Airlines operates seven An-124s, as well as the massive An-225, the largest cargo plane in the world. Antonov was looking to convert the An-124 into using western avionics and engines. Antonov has helped Chinas Shaanxi Aircraft Company to produce a much improved version of the Y-8 called the Y-9, which can carry 20 tons of cargo. In addition, China held discussions with Antonov regarding the possible co-production of the 150-ton capacity An-124 Ruslan, which exceeds the 120-ton capacity of the US C-5 transport. China plans to build more than 1,000 heavy strategic transport aircraft. In January, the China Daily reported that the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force was preparing to develop a new fleet of stealth fighters and heavy transport aircraft. The latter, the Xian Y-20 transport, was in particularly high demand, given Beijings lack of a fast and reliable platform to deliver arms and soldiers over long distances. Heavy transport aircraft are critical to extend the operational range of Chinas airforce. They can be used for mid-air refueling. It will also allow for rapid deployment of troops and tanks to different locations. SOURCEs- Global security, wikipedia, Foxtrot alpha, Milnavigator Wall Street Journal's Daisuke Wakabayashi recently Tweeted, "Apple says appealing order to stop selling phones in Beijing". The Chinese intellectual property office ruled that Apple and its Chinese distributor and retailer, Zhongfu Telecom, infringed the patent of Baili Electronics, which is suing Apple over the exterior design of its 100C smartphone, Forbes reports. The city's intellectual property regulator has ruled that the design of the two phones is overly similar to another phone, the 100C, made by the Chinese company Shenzhen Baili. However, CNBC reported that Apple has appealed the ruling and the iPhone models continued to be on sale in China, citing persons familiar with the situation. Check out the image of the 100c and tell us if you see any Apple iPhone 6 in it. Sales of Apple phones in China slipped in the first quarter and were a significant contributor to Apple's financial reverse, also revealed in April. The Beijing's government move to ban the sell of iPhone 6 devices follows a prior decision by the Chinese government to shut down Apple's iBooks and iTunes Movies services. In 2012 it paid out in a settlement over the use of the name iPad. Earlier this year, Apple lost a trademark battle to exclusively own the rights to the "iPhone" brand in China. Bird and Bird partner and IP specialist Ted Chwu said that Apple has a number of legal options open to it. "Today I just want to add mine", Obama said". Clinton turned over some 30,000 emails to State Department officials after she stepped down from the job in 2013. Obama endorsed Clinton in a web video Thursday. Obama carried that state in both general elections when he ran for president. Clinton has repeatedly said she chose "not to keep" some 30,000 emails her lawyers deemed personal, which has been widely interpreted as meaning she deleted the personal emails. "I want to get this on the table, and get it on the table early: Hillary Clinton won", Warren said in her interview with Maddow. "Obama's endorsement comes after a hard fought Democratic primary season, in which Clinton struggled against leftist rival Bernie Sanders". His speeches demanding income equality and an end to the strong influence of wealthy donors and special interests in Washington have helped energize supporters. Trump's own party leaders have disavowed his rhetoric against Mexicans, Muslims, women and other groups. More pragmatic Sanderistas are pressing him to leverage his new-found political clout to shift the party to the left. For many, Clinton - a former first lady, secretary of state and USA senator - is the epitome of a political establishment that has failed the people. He said the real-estate mogul "would be a disaster" for the US. Hillary Clinton has made a bid to win the support of the Democrats' progressive wing. "I look forward to meeting with [Clinton] in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump", Sanders told reporters after the meeting with Obama. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., down the Colonnade of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 9, 2016. In what appeared to be an attempt to gently ease Sanders toward giving up his campaign, Obama met the democratic socialist for about an hour in the White House, laughing warmly as they walked into the Oval Office. Warren, who is likely to hit the campaign trail for Clinton this fall, said Democrats - after a lengthy primary - were battle-tested and ready for November. In an interview on MSNBC, Warren was asked by Rachel Maddow: "If you were asked to be Secretary Clinton's running mate, do you believe you could do it?" After a almost weeklong search for a venue, the Trump operation found a DFW home at the Southside Ballroom, otherwise known as the big room at the Gilley's complex in the Cedars. The ballroom holds about 4,500 if it's stuffed to maximum capacity. Update 5:22 Supporters and protesters are making their way to Gilley's in the Cedars about 90 minutes from the start of the event. Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, will hold a rally at 7 p.m. Thursday at Gilley's South Side Ballroom in Dallas. To that end, police are asking businesses in downtown Dallas to help out by sending their employees home early, encouraging everyone to vacate the downtown area by 3 p.m., in anticipation of major traffic delays and for safety reasons. Domingo Garcia, the main protest organizer, stated Wednesday, "we will give Trump a warm, hot Texas welcome". "The protest will be peaceful and non-violent", said Peter Johnson with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). "This is about America and what the Statue of Liberty stands for and American values", Garcia said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. In addition to the white shirts, organizers asked participants to bring American flags, not the Mexican flags that appeared at Trump rallies in the past. Another local activist Carlos Quintanilla has been posting details on his Facebook page. Trump is attending a private campaign fundraiser in Dallas in addition to the rally, which could prove hard considering he's alienated the establishment, said TCU political scientist Jim Riddlesperger. These detours will remain in place until the streets are reopened, DART said. Not so coincidentally, Dallas Police officers on Wednesday morning underwent training at Fair Park for dealing with demonstrators or potential rioters. "We are in the election year", Dallas police Deputy Chief Jeff Cotner told media in an interview broadcast on Periscope. "The Dallas Police Department is committed to protecting every person's right to free speech and to assemble peaceably". The statement went on to warn, however, that "there will be no tolerance for individuals who engage in criminal activity or attempt to incite violence or civil disorder". Wahid said the whales began stranding themselves during high tide Wednesday on the coast of Pesisir village in Probolinggo district in the province of East Java. Pilot whales are part of the oceanic dolphin family although their behaviours are closer to that of larger whales. Of the 32 whales that washed up at Pesisir Beach on the coast of Probolinggo in East Java, eight were dead and 24 were rescued and returned to sea. A boy clings on the fin of a dead whale. Rescuers pull dead whales ashore in Probolinggo. There are multiple theories about how the whales ended up beached. Despite a mammoth rescue operation which initially succeeded in moving numerous whales back out to sea, some of the animals beached again overnight and died in an estuary at Probolinggo, East Java province. Head of the East Java Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BBKSDA) Ayu Dewi Utari said that as of noon on Thursday, nine of the pilot whales had died due to lack of oxygen. Residents said whales were rarely seen in the area. According to The Jakarta Post another five of the stranded whales are expected to perish. At first, there were just one or two whales swimming near the shore, and the nature of whales is that if they are sick, they will come near the shore.... Indonesian environmental activists and local fishermen help a disoriented short-finned pilot whale. "When the tide fell all of them were trapped". A team of veterinarians from the University of Airlangga, Surabaya, have been dispatched to remove the dead whales and perform an autopsy to reveal the cause of their deaths. Omar Mateen, the gunman who fatally shot 49 people at a Orlando night club early Sunday, appeared in a documentary about the 2010 BP oil spill as a security guard complaining about the cleanup efforts. The encounter is captured via hidden camera. The documentary, The Big Fix, won a coveted spot at Cannes Film Festival in 2012. In the clip, Mateen is seen wearing his security uniform and standing guard near a beach where workers are cleaning up oil that has washed on shore after the BP oil spill. No one gives a sh*t here. He went on to say that the clean-up crew was just hoping for "more oil to- come out" so that they'll have jobs. "(Be)cause once people get laid off here it's going to suck for them. "They want more disaster to happen 'cause that's where their moneymaking is", Mateen testified to the reporter. He worked for G4S, one of the world's largest private security firms, when the documentary was filmed; Mateen was a security guard with G4S from 2007 until the time of the shooting. "Because that's where their money making is", he added in the roughly 40-second clip. An American of Afghan descent, Mateen is believed to have been radicalised online. The nightclub attack in Orlando that left 49 victims dead was initially described by some news organizations as the deadliest mass shooting in USA history. Meanwhile, an FBI source said Mateen's ex-wife, Noor, told federal investigators she tried to stop her husband from committing the attack. "I'm at my wits' end", said Senator Chris Murphy of CT, where a 2012 school shooting left 20 children dead, as he began his hours-long takeover with other Democrats. "I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns", Trump said in a tweet. Sen. Chris Murphy of CT said on Twitter that he was prepared to "talk about the need to prevent gun violence for as long as I can". "My legs are a little bit rubbery, but my heart is strong this morning, because I know that we made a difference yesterday", Murphy said Thursday. Despite the recent tragedy, nothing suggests enough Republicans are willing to loosen their grip on their beloved Second Amendment to pass the bill now - but that isn't stopping their rivals across the aisle from trying. 'Donald Trump, like the Republicans, he's talking the talk but he ain't walking the walk, ' the Senate's No. 3 Democrat, Chuck Schumer, told a news conference. Add your voice to Hillary Clinton's and mine to demand Congress take immediate action to make our communities safer from gun violence. In April 2007, Congress passed a law to strengthen the instant background check system after a gunman at Virginia Tech was able to purchase his weapons because his mental health history was not in the instant background check database. Rev. Sharon Risher, Risher, a clinical trauma chaplain in Dallas, who lost her mother Ethel Lance and two cousins in the racially-motivated shooting at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, N.C., in 2015, is embraced by Sen. Murphy won a hard-fought contest for the seat vacated by former Sen. The Senate has already voted both down in December after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. Senate Democrats also secure a vote on expanding background checks to private gun sales, something Clark opposes as well. Anyone on a terror watchlist who tries to buy a gun should be thoroughly investigated by the FBI and the sale delayed while the investigation is ongoing. That wouldn't have blocked Mateen from buying a gun, however, since he'd been pulled from the watch list. Under her bill, the government could also halt a gun purchase if the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a reasonable belief that the individual will use the firearm to commit terrorism. This time, Toomey's partner is a vocal gun-control advocate who has dedicated millions to lobbying, polling and advocating for gun control. In a statement, the NRA said it was happy to meet with Trump and reiterated its support for Cornyn's bill. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other Republicans argue that Feinstein's bill would deny due process to people who may be on the terror list erroneously. Cornyn did not sound overly hopeful of reaching compromise with Feinstein. "But we're not going to presume somebody's guilty and deny them due process of law, we're going to require the government to show some evidence and to provide for a constitutional process, that's where we differ". "Every senator now has to say whether they're for terrorists getting guns or against terrorists getting guns". Reid was already a stalwart Democratic leader in the Senate by that point and did not appear headed for any presidential contests, but the filibuster and other fights against Bush appointees helped cement his image as a scrapper in the trenches along his way to becoming the Senate's top Democrat. They turned up the pressure on Republicans, and challenged them to vote against proposals they said had widespread support in national polls. Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his five-nation tour, including to the United States, Congress said that 'not a single new idea came out of his U.S. visit'. Reports from Vienna had it that with the United States pushing its case, India's bid for membership of the 48-member grouping has received positive indications from most of the member countries but China was still playing the spoiler by persisting with its opposition. Earlier this week, Switzerland also agreed to support India's bid for membership made last month, after winning a waiver in 2008 allowing it to trade in commercial nuclear technology. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed that it had launched a high-power campaign aimed at "engaging all members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group" in the run-up to the extraordinary plenary that NSG will host in Vienna on June 9. Mexico's president said on Wednesday his country supports India's membership bid, but one Vienna-based diplomat said it still opposed the idea of it joining under conditions that did not apply equally to all. While China has raised the issue of non-NPT members joining the NSG, India has no intention to polarise the 48-member body and believes Beijing will come around to supporting its membership claim, sources said. "India is also pursuing membership into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, but certainly, if Pakistan wants to pursue that, that's something for all the members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to consider", he added. NSG members include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States. The group is to hold another meeting in Seoul on June 24. He dedicated much of the speech to the importance of fighting terrorism, thanking Congress for USA support after a Pakistan-based military group's rampage in Mumbai killed 166 people in 2008. Both groups would give India greater access to research and technology, but China has so far blocked Indias accession to the NSG. "By bringing India on board, it's a slap in the face of the entire non-proliferation regime", said a diplomatic source. "China, if anything, is hardening (its position)", another diplomat said. Pakistan has been lobbying hard with members of the NSG to scuttle India's membership to NSG. Membership of the grouping will help India significantly expand its atomic energy sector. He said that bilateral relations with India and Pakistan were separate and stand on their own merits, and so it's not prudent for the U.S.to view its security cooperation in the region in kind of a zero-sum game - or zero-sum terms. Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed Britain's support for India's application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) during a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. But on the other hand, in an article written in the state-run Global Times, it was written that China would support India entry in the forty-eight limited members club but only if India plays by rules. He said he would not speculate on whether India would attain the NSG membership but hastened to add that Washington had made it clear that it supported India's admission into the grouping. He also said that he had recently approached many countries, including Russia, Mexico, South Korea and New Zealand, to gain their support on Islamabad's viewpoint that there should be a criteria-based approach while deciding about inclusion of any country to the NSG. Experts argue that even if its membership bid is rejected at the meeting in Seoul, India's inclusion in the elite nuclear club is just a matter of time. The article also expressed concerns that its all-weather friend Pakistan will be left behind because "entry into the NSG will make it (India) a "legitimate nuclear power". State Department Spokesman asked members to back India's application when it comes up at NSG plenary in Seoul. "As a result, Pakistan's strategic interests will be threatened, which will in turn shake the strategic balance in South Asia, and even cast a cloud over peace and stability in the entire Asia-Pacific region", it said. "However, as a country that has signed neither the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) nor the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), India is not yet qualified for accession into the NSG", it said. "If the group forms such a uniform criteria, then Pakistan has stronger credentials for NSG membership than India", Aziz said. Aziz thanked Turkey for its stand that the application of both Pakistan and India should be considered simultaneously. Last week, the foreign ministry's UN Desk held a briefing in Islamabad for diplomatic missions of NSG-member countries to put forward its argument against India's membership and to push for its own entry to the elite group. Earlier, Aziz had said that Pakistan's scientists and experts were monitoring and evaluating the strategic threats that Indian nuclear doctrine posed to his country's national security. So the question is, if any non-signatory of the treaty wants to join the group, under what condition can it be accepted? "Once New Delhi gets the membership first, the nuclear balance between India and Pakistan will be broken". "I take this opportunity to make clear that I remain committed to making peace with the Palestinians and with all our neighbors". Israel has criticised the initiative, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying earlier this week: "The path to peace is not via global conferences that attempt to force a settlement, that make the Palestinian demands more extreme and in the process distance peace". "We must seek a situation in which the countries of the region are convinced of the importance of progress in the peace process", Sissi said during a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Egyptian news channels to mark his second anniversary as president. After a meeting that included U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday, Kerry told reporters he would possibly be open to holding an global conference later this year with Israeli and Palestinian representatives in attendance, but cautioned that the talks are just getting started, and that such a meeting is far from set in stone. "Our initiative aims to give them guarantees that peace will be solid, lasting and under worldwide supervision". "We're not here to propose any kind of specific agenda", a senior State Department official said. Fayrouz Sharqawi, a long-term resident of Jerusalem originally from Nazareth, a Palestinian city in northern Israel, and coordinator at Grassroots Jerusalem, an NGO that promotes alternative tourism in the city, also believes France has little to offer. A peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians must include the countries of the region. Ayrault said nations should start working by the end of June on measures to create the "framework and support" for direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. In a communique issued at the conclusion of the meeting, the participants said they had met to "reaffirm their support for a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict". He told the gathering that their initiative aims at giving them guarantees that the peace will be solid, sustainable and under global supervision. Palestinian leaders said afterwards that the meeting was a "very significant step" on the path to peace. Speaking after the meeting, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Adel Al Jubeir, rejected this idea, saying the Arab peace initiative already contained "all the elements for a final settlement". There is no scheduled participation, however, from representatives of either Israel or the Palestinians. At the same meeting, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned that hopes of a two-state solution were in "serious danger", with Israelis and Palestinians "getting further away each day". Israel continues to build settlements in the occupied West Bank, and Palestinians have taken to low-grade attacks on Israeli security officials - usually in the form of knife attacks that often result in the attacker being shot dead by security officers. The Palestinians have been pushing for a multinational mediator for future talks to replace the USA, which is seen by the Palestinians and Europeans as too close to Israel. Global pressure has been building since the U.N. General Assembly recognized a state of Palestine in 2012, though one does not exist in reality without a negotiated agreement with Israel. "At the same time, the Palestinian leadership must unequivocally combat violence and incitement, including by clearly condemning all acts of terror". Israel formally outlawed Islamic State in 2014 and negotiated the repatriation for trial of several Arab citizens who had joined or tried to join the insurgents via Turkey or Jordan. Marine recruit Christina Wauchope waits with other female recruits to fire on the rifle range during boot camp at MCRD Parris Island, S.C., on February 25, 2013. The bill is still far from being signed into law. The latest draft provision was stripped out of a bill passed by the House, meaning the two versions of the bill would still need to be reconciled in committee. During his first campaign for president, Obama promised to close the detention facility at Guantanamo, which he has called a recruiting tool for extremist groups. CNN reports the bill "still needs to go through a reconciliation process with a different House version of the legislation" before it can be enacted. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), a military veteran opposed to women serving in combat, proposed the draft amendment during mark-up, to make a point. It would not have prevented women from combat, but would require the Pentagon to study the issue. After the vote, chair of the Armed Services Committee John McCain and Republican Senator said he was disappointed it didn't contain a plan that would have helped Afghans who worked to move to the US. And as The Two-Way noted earlier this year, top leaders from the Army and Marines have testified before Congress that they, too, think women should register. If the NDAA passes the House and the president's desk, women who turn 18 in 2018 or later will be required to do this as well. In unveiling the Selective Service amendment last month, Lee said forcing women to register for the draft would be a dramatic change not only for the armed forces but culturally as well. In a potential area of contention, the Senate bill includes a provision that would require women to register for the draft. "The idea that we should forcibly conscript young girls into combat, to my mind, makes little or no sense", Cruz said. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2017 passed the Senate 85-13, with support from both of Alabama 's USA senators, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions. The bill was voted in favor by at least 85 members, and contains various controversial amendments that the Obama administration objected. The problems began last week when Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, demanded a vote on his provision that would prevent the USA government from indefinitely detaining U.S. citizens arrested on American soil for being sympathetic to terrorist groups. "Our allies question our resolve, they question our allegiances and more importantly, our adversaries don't think we're serious", said Speaker Ryan. Yeah. I've spoken very clearly about it. "Well, I think a Muslim ban does promote radicalization". Trump, a wealthy celebrity businessman, became the Republicans' presumptive nominee for the November 8 presidential election last month after seeing off 16 rivals in a largely self-funded primary campaign. "He's not yet the nominee". They just want Donald Trump to quit being quite so vulgar. Senator Marco Rubio said Tuesday that if he speaks at the GOP convention in July, he will not be speaking on Trump's behalf. Kasich told Fox News' Bill Hemmer Thursday. I just watched the leader of a white nationalist organization gleefully report how Donald Trump has helped their cause. "It looks like its gotten worse". The cover was tweeted out Tuesday night by the Daily News. But aides cautioned it was not a sign that it was not a sign he was fundamentally changing how he campaigns. She has been outspoken in her criticism of the presumptive Republican nominee in recent months, often using Twitter to unleash social media rants against him. And it did diverge from the billionaire businessman on some key issues. "I will not stand idly by listening to a person attacking the integrity of a judge due to their ethnicity", Labrador, an Idaho Republican, said at a monthly news conference he holds with a group of his fellow conservatives in the House of Representatives. Though the GOP is already torn, many believe booting Trump is politically unrealistic because it would deepen the party's rifts and is probably impossible anyway. They also do not back Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from the US for an indefinite time. If that happens, he said, the delegation's vote will reflect the results of the February 1 caucuses. But Thornberry advised that any commander in chief "abide by the law" and predicted members of the military would not violate any legal restrictions. The list includes at least one former candidate who has yet to endorse Trump, but who he said will eventually "come over to my side". A considerable number of them will vote for Hillary Clinton; some conservatives and Republicans will refuse to vote for Trump. "Since he has the 1,237 votes he needs to be the nominee", she said. Trump and his team prided themselves on winning the primaries with a bare-bones staff and a modest budget. "I don't know if that will all translate over into the general election". Trump has doubled down on the comments about Curiel, who is the presiding judge in lawsuits filed against him by former students of his Trump University. "We didn't ask for assurances". Mead says Trump's policies would be better for Wyoming and the West. "He called me right back, and I could hear I think Melania and his whole family say 'you gotta get up on stage", and the world was waiting for him on live TV. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Alabama Sen. Of the various policy areas, national security may be among the easiest to dovetail with the Trump campaign, Nunes suggested. He said he and Ryan staffers have been meeting with Trump campaign aides, "so there are no surprises" with them on the release of the document. Bernie Sanders, Clinton's rival in the Democratic race. Trump's comments were widely criticized as racist, with Ryan calling them "the textbook definition of a racist comment". Politicians need to meet the businesspeople halfway, and show wisdom, foresight and flexibility. Discussions at the forum would provide guidance and consensus for Russian and global economic development, and give impetus to all-round worldwide cooperation, Putin said. He said Russian Federation doesn't need a new Cold War and that the country's policy is "aimed at cooperation". "It is vital that we work together in our search for additional drivers of development", Putin said in a greeting read at the opening ceremony of the three-day forum. "We don't bear grudges and we are willing to meet our European partners halfway - this, however, must not be a one-way street", he added. Zakaria said later he was reading from a translation of an Interfax news report. President Vladimir Putin says Russian Federation respects the United States as the world's only superpower, but won't accept US interference in its home affairs. "She probably has her own view of U.S". Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says that Britain will suffer the most if voters chose to leave the European Union, but voiced confidence that they will decide to stay. Putin criticized the West for ignoring Russia's legitimate interests. Putin also criticized NATO's expansion, warning there would be consequences if the alliance continued what he said was its one-sided policy against Russian Federation. Petersburg International Economic Forum is underway in Russian Federation. Mr Putin had a meeting with the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday and other worldwide executives, telling them that Russian Federation is open to Western investment despite the strained ties with the West. Despite addressing mainly a Russian audience at the Kremlin's flagship economic event of the year, Juncker kept his usual blunt tone to describe EU-Russia relations. European Union regulators yesterday (11 August) began a product-by-product impact analysis of a Russian ban on European Union food imports announced in retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow's actions in Ukraine. The EU now also has other sanctions targeting Russia more directly, limiting access for Russian companies to Western capital markets, banning arms trade and limiting access to sensitive oil-industry technologies. It also has slapped asset freezes and travel restrictions on 146 people and 37 entities. Both Ban and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spoke of "building bridges" even as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Moscow continued exchanging barbs this week. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has praised Russian Federation for helping to resolve conflict in Libya. Violence in eastern Ukraine is intensifying and Russian-backed rebels have moved heavy weaponry back to the front line, worldwide monitors warned on Saturday (13 February). His words echoed the statement from Putin, who said that Ukraine has failed to approve legislation on a special status for the east to honor its end of the deal. In a preview of the previously announced non-stop flights from Los Angeles and NY to Singapore planned for 2018, the new non-stop SFO-Singapore service will be operated on a daily basis from October 23, 2016 using Airbus A350-900 aircraft. Along with adding the San Francisco service, Singapore Airlines announced Wednesday that it will end its San Francisco-Seoul-Singapore daily flight and instead fly from Los Angeles to Singapore via Seoul. United's Singapore-San Francisco flight uses a Boeing Co. Earlier this year United Airlines launched direct flights between San Francisco and Singapore, which marked the first direct link from between the USA and the Lion City since SIA suspended its LA and Newark services in 2013. The carrier halted direct flights to Los Angeles and NY in November 2013 as costs surged from using four-engine A340s on the all business-class services. To date, the 13,600km journey between Singapore and San Francisco is Singapore Airlines' furthest destination. Flights will depart Singapore in the morning, also arriving in San Francisco in the morning to enable onward connections to other destinations. The airline had axed a near 19-hour trip to NY and direct flights to Los Angeles in 2013 due to high fuel prices and weak demand. The LAX flights will both use 777-300ERs with first class, business class, premium economy and economy seating. SIA has plans to restart nonstop flights to NY and Los Angeles when it takes delivery of longer range A350-900ULRs. It has seven A350- 900ULRs on order, which will allow even longer flights - to both Los Angeles and NY. This new Singapore-Seoul-LA service will also commence on 23 October 2016, and will operate alongside the existing daily Singapore-Tokyo Narita-LA routing. United and Singapore, both Star Alliance members, are seeking approval to launch a codesharing partnership. Also in October, the airline will launch nonstop flights from San Francisco to Singapore. "Our customers have been asking us to offer more USA services and we are pleased to be able to do so". A now available flight travels from LAX to Tokyo to Singapore. "Our customers have been asking us to offer more USA services and we are pleased to be able to do so", said SIA's senior vice-president for marketing planning, Ms Lee Wen Fen. Senior vice-president of market development for Changi Airport Group Lim Ching Kiat said SIA's moves "augment Changi Airport's position as the preferred gateway between South-east Asia and the US". The airline operates three weekly flights to Sao Paulo via Barcelona. Meanwhile, SIA said it will suspend services to Sao Paulo in Brazil from Oct 20, as a result of the "sustained weak performance of the route". Services between Singapore and Barcelona will be unaffected. Prime Minister General Prayut is accompanied by his spouse, Associate Professor Naraporn Chan-o-cha and a high-level delegation including Deputy Prime Minister, several cabinet ministers, senior officials and business leaders. Gen Prayut, who is making the visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be given a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow morning after which he will go to Rajghat to pay his respects to Mahatma Gandhi. "We have prioritised the completion of the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway", Modi said. Post the event the, Thai PM will meet Vice President Shri M Hamid Ansari. Chan-o-Cha is also expected to deliver a speech at the business event hosted by FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM on Friday. The Thai PM will visit Bodh Gaya, a major place of pilgrimage for Buddhists in Gaya before returning to Thailand on June 18. To commemorate 70 years of relations with Thailand, Modi said there would be a Festival of Thailand in India and a Festival of India in Thailand. About 10 lakh Indian tourists visit Thailand every year while about one lakh tourists from Thailand come to India. Earlier, former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra paid a state visit to India in January 2012 and was the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations. The bilateral talks will concern deeper relations between the two countries. trade and investment, defence, security and tourism will be on the top agenda. Both the countries will strengthen their cooperation to combat terrorism, boost maritime security, defense ties and trade. Thailand has shown interest in joint ventures in defence production and procurement of defence platforms from India. Aside from the Chad vs Jordan clash, fans can likewise expect some big surprises in "The Bachelorette" Season 12 Episode 5. The Bachelorette 2016 spoilers tease that Jojo Fletcher knows fiance Jordan Rodgers is a cheater and she is totally okay with it. Jojo Fletcher is either the most gullible Bachelorette ever, or the rumors were true and she is a total gold-digger and could care less if her rumored victor is faithful or not. For starters, his ex-girlfriend Brittany Farrar called Jordan out as a cheater on Instagram right after his first episode aired. The International Business Times also reports that JoJo will have a pretty rough time on Monday as she will also be the target of gossip and rumors. "Brittany told JoJo that Jordan wasn't a great boyfriend", an insider told Us magazine. To be honest, we're just excited to watch Chad shove more food in his mouth for two hours... So JoJo will ask Jordan about the cheating rumors during a date in Uruguay on The Bachelorette. "Jordan cops to flirting with other women, but he denies he was unfaithful", the source tells Us Weekly. Now it's been revealed that JoJo actually met Jordan's ex in Dallas before the show began filming, and her words were far from flattering. The first source says that Fletcher "feels like she's the one courting him". And he only went on The Bachelorette to get famous or be the next Bachelor. However, JoJo nixed those rumors: "A week before this whole thing started I think his name got leaked, and it was kind of all over the Internet, so, you know, it's like "Jordan Rodgers, brother of Aaron" - so that's what I knew going into it". Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has again called for restricting immigration from certain countries, arguing that it is the only way to prevent more terrorist attacks like Sunday's Orlando nightclub massacre. But at least one, celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, rescinded his apparent backing of Trump following the billionaire real estate magnate's remarks. The congressman, who has not endorsed Trump, said that while it's fair to criticize aspects of Obama's approach to combatting terrorism, "I part company with those then who want to get into these conspiracy theories". At the end of his eight years in office, the United States will be facing more grinding conflicts than existed when he won the presidency. Trump has since repeated the proposal in television appearances. They're not bad people. Republican leaders were also shocked by this declarations and, to everybody's surprise, the spoke out against their party's nominee, but Trump continued with his idea, tweeting an article from Breitbart, a right news wing site, according to The Telegraph. "The fear that many feel today can not be superseded by a rush to demonize and marginalize other Americans of a different faith", the statement read. "Islamic terrorism problem", he said. But some of these same critics are standing by him. "It's not in keeping with the American tradition of tolerance". Asked during the presser whether he had any confidence in Trump to respect the separation of powers, especially after the candidate told critical Republicans to "just please be quiet" and "don't talk," Ryan evaded the thrust of the question as gracefully as possible. In May, Boteach published a column on The Times of Israel website calling Trump "the right candidate for the Presidency over Hillary". "I'm waiting to see if at this point there's going to be a Damascus Road experience, a dramatic change", Mr Kasich told Yahoo News. He said the column was not an endorsement. I dare Trump to hold this same standard to mass murderers like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and say he was in America only because we allowed the Irish to come here. But I will not vote for an egomaniacal authoritarian. Ryan said there is "a lot of common ground on a lot of things" between him and Trump. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday he did not think a ban on the entry of Muslims was in United States interests. Mr. Trump may have calculated that a suddenly anxious electorate would be more receptive to his campaign of fear and prejudice, emotions he immediately attempted to inflame. This is the latest incident where Donald Trump and his campaign have made clear his disregard for freedom of the press. While the post drew criticism, Trump has said he received "tens of thousands" of notes praising his foresight. Malik Mujahid, a Chicago area imam, said Trump is using a general sense of fear and insecurity stemming from the San Bernardino attacks last December and the Orlando shootings to stoke Islamophobia in the hope of rallying his supporters. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. The rehabilitation program of the medina and 27 monuments and historic sites in the ancient city of Fez, founded by Idriss II in the 7th century, is almost over. Under the program launched in 2013, twenty-six monuments and historical sites have already been renovated for a total amount of about $30 million (MAD285.50 Million.) King Mohammed VI, who is keen on preserving the architectural style and characteristics of the medina of Fez, listed by the UNESCO in 1981 as World Heritage, visited on Wednesday a number of the refurbished sites and monuments. Some of these sites and monuments are dating back to the tenth and eleventh centuries, like the Sebbaghine Souk and Terrafine Bridge, built during the Zenete era. The Sovereign also toured several refurbished madrasas (schools) built under the Merinid Dynasty in the Thirteenth century, des foundouks (inns) and Dar Al Mouaqqit, a tower used to monitor the astronomical map that was built during the reign of Merinid Sultan Abu Inan. He equally visited Hammam bin Abbad, a public bath built in the Fourteenth century, the Khrachfiyine bridge, dating back to the Eleventh century, and the Sidi Bounafae and Boutouil fortresses, built under the Saadi Dynasty during the 16th century as well as leather tanneries, some dating back to the Ninth century. The Fez medina rehabilitation program also deals with the refurbishment of some 4000 buildings that threaten to collapse and the restoration of the medina streets. The shops located along the circuits taken by visitors and tourists were fitted with traditional awnings, over 80 iron gates were replaced with cedar wood doors, and some 155 doors were renovated. Besides beautifying the median of fez, all these rehabilitation works contribute to the preservation of Moroccan craft skills. Tunisias powerful labor union UGTT Wednesday underlined its rejection of President Essebsis invitation to join the future unity government currently under discussion. The UGTT said in a statement that as a union it is not its role to join any government. The UGTT decision was made after a board meeting discussed President Caid Essebsis call for the formation of a unity government including all the countrys forces. Tunisia has been facing political, economic and instability since the 2011 revolution that ousted the former dictator Ben Ali. President Essebsi argued, earlier this month in an interview, that to overcome current difficult situation the country needs a unity government to address security, corruption, unemployment challenges that have damaged the countrys economic and political situation. The UGTT, though smashing the Presidents hopes, reiterated its commitment to actively endorse the elaboration of profitable visions for the country but on a comprehensive basis and on a constructive and responsible dialogue. The union bashed political parties claiming more portfolios in the coming unity government on the basis of results of the vote. The UGTT indicated that the claims contradict the presidents initiative to form a unity government and a mutual project. The UGTT is part f of Tunisian Quartet which won the 2015 Peace Noble Price. The White House has confirmed that First Lady Michelle Obama will visit Morocco on June 28 and 29. The visit, which is part of the Let Girls Learn initiative, will take place after a visit to Liberia. She will highlight during her trip in these two African countries the US Governments work to help adolescent girls go to school and stay in school, says the White house in a statement. In Morocco, the First Lady will be joined by actress Meryl Streep, also an advocate for girls education, and Indian actress Freida Pinto and will participate in a conversation with adolescent girls moderated by CNNs Isha Sesay. The discussion will focus on the challenges many girls in the region face in getting a quality education. The First Ladys visit will also highlight commitments made by the U.S. Government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation and USAID in partnership with the Kingdom of Morocco to help adolescent girls in Morocco go to school and stay in school, the White House statement says. After her trip in Marrakesh, Michelle Obama will fly to Madrid to speak to girls and young women about the power of education and urge them to do their part to help girls worldwide fulfill their promise. She will share with the audience the stories of girls she has met in Liberia and Morocco and her prior travels and highlight new commitments to support Let Girls Learn. While in Spain, the First Lady will also meet with Queen Letizia. At the United State of Women Summit held on June 14 in Washington, Michelle Obama Announced more than $20 Million in new commitments to the U.S. Governments Let Girls Learn Initiative. The new contributions came in response to the First Ladys call upon organizations around the country to support adolescent girls education, in order to provide the more than 62 million girls around the world who are out of school with the opportunity to attain an education. Prior press reports had said the First Lady will be accompanied by daughters Malia and Sasha. Et tu, dozens of delegates? Photo: Branden Camp/Getty Images Donald Trumps first few weeks as the Republican standard-bearer could have gone better, what with the whole making statements that the Partys Speaker has to acknowledge fit the textbook definition of racism thing. And all those revelations about his (so-called) universitys predatory practices. And the exposes on his companys habit of stiffing contractors and screwing over creditors. And his decision to reframe the general election as a referendum on religious discrimination. And, above all, his stubborn refusal to raise money or hire more staff or build field operations (in states he can actually win) or, really, put together any kind of campaign at all. So it makes sense that some GOP politicians and media personalities are having second thoughts. But theres not really much those elites can do to keep the Trump train from leaving Cleveland with the nomination in tow. The only thing that could still realize the ambitions of the #NeverTrump movement would be a mutiny among the majority of the conventions 2,400 delegates. On Friday, the Washington Post reported there are literally dozens who are planning to take up that fight. The campaign kicked off Thursday night, with a conference call between 30 delegates from 15 states. According to the Post, the group has already recruited regional coordinators in Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, and Washington. Many of these delegates are former Ted Cruz supporters, but theyd be happy to nominate anyone (who hates taxes and abortion) other than the mogul. This literally is an Anybody but Trump movement, Kendal Unruh, a Colorado delegate and the coups leader. Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but were not worried about that. Were just doing that job to make sure that hes not the face of our party. Trump replied, in effect, Im your face whether you like it or not. I have tremendous support and get the biggest crowds by far and any such move would not only be totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying, Trump wrote in a statement to the Post. People that I defeated soundly in the primaries will do anything to get a second shot but there is no mechanism for it to happen. In truth, overthrowing Trump at the convention would be totally legal and there is a mechanism for it to happen. A majority of delegates on the conventions rules committee could vote to unbind all delegates, which is to say, allow all delegates to vote as they wish on the first ballot. This proposal would then have to be approved by a majority of all convention delegates. A slight variation on this same basic maneuver would be to insert a conscience clause into the convention rules. This would effectively unbind delegates, but would require them to pledge that their violation of their states will was not motivated by political preference, but my moral obligation. On Friday, Speaker Paul Ryan revealed that he would not pressure House members to follow his lead and endorse the nominee. The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something thats contrary to their conscience, Ryan told NBCs Chuck Todd a phrasing that could give courage to dissident delegates. Nonetheless, a coup would be a profound logistical and political challenge. The Republican National Committee has yet to release a list of the thousands of delegates and alternates headed for Cleveland, stymieing the rebels recruitment efforts. And RNC chairmen Reince Priebus has insisted that delegates must represent the will of their states voters on the first ballot. And any Trump delegate that tries to switch sides risks facing the wrath of Roger Stone. But the opposition forces wont go down without a fight. This isnt going to go away, Iowa delegate Cecil Stinemetz, told the Post. Trump or others might say that these are just little groups who wont do anything and itll fizz out thats not going to happen. Trump just continues to embarrass himself and his party and this is not going to let up. California delegate Tobias Funke was even more defiant. Diplomats to Obama: Do more. Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/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, American ambassadors turn on their boss, John McCain takes everything back, and a grieving family sues Google. Heres the rundown for Friday, June 17. WEATHER The already overheated United States will get even hotter today and through the weekend. It will be hot pretty much everywhere except, notably, northern California and the Northwest but temperatures in the Southwest will truly be horrifying and potentially dangerous, topping out at 120 in Phoenix over the weekend. New York City will also be very warm, but temperatures shouldnt go much above 80. [Weather.com] FRONT PAGE More Than 50 U.S. Diplomats Urge Airstrikes in Syria More than 50 American diplomats working at the State Department signed onto a letter criticizing President Obama directly and saying the White House should change its policy in Syria. The letter called for American airstrikes and military operations against the embattled government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad if he continued to break internationally recognized cease-fire agreements. The memo was filed in the State Departments dissent channel, and although such memos are not uncommon, the number of signatures on this one is unheard of. [NYT] EARLY AND OFTEN Slaying of U.K. Lawmaker Shocks World, Draws Clintons Response Hillary Clinton responded yesterday to the brutal slaying of U.K. Parliament Member Jo Cox, who was murdered by someone who allegedly espoused anti-immigration British nationalist sentiments. Hillary Clinton condemned the murder in no uncertain terms, calling it a violent act of political intolerance, and said that the U.K. and the United States must stand united against hatred and violence. Gabby Giffords, who herself was shot in 2011, said she was sickened by the murder and described Cox as a rising star, mother, and wife. [Politico] CIA Chief Reminds Americans That ISIS Is Still Capable of Terror As If We Had Forgotten Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan spoke yesterday to remind Americans that ISIS is still capable of carrying out terrorist attacks despite years of military and non-military action taken by the U.S. government. Brennan said ISIS was capable of carrying out terrorist attacks directly, as well as influencing others to carry out attacks through its radicalizing presence online. [WSJ] Huckabee, If Israel Jumped Off a Bridge, Would You? Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee who would like you to know that he can play the bass came out in favor of Donald Trumps anti-Muslim immigration policies, pointing out that theyre not so different from those of Americas most steadfast ally, Israel. Speaking on an Israeli radio show, Huckabee explained: Muslims dont just get to come into Israel without some clearance. In fact, I am not sure that they are allowed to immigrate here at all. So when everybody acts like Oh what Trump has said is so amazing, its not that amazing in Israel. Perhaps Huckabee would do well to find a different poster child for his brand of second-wave compassionate conservatism. [Politico] John McCain Must Have Amazing Calves From All This Backpedaling John McCain has released a statement saying he misspoke when he implied that President Obama was directly responsible for the shooting in Orlando. What he said was: I am making [my constituents] realize that Barack Obama is directly responsible for it. What he meant to say was that were all responsible as lawmakers and public figures for contributing to a pervasive atmosphere of Islamophobia, homophobia, vilifying difference, and encouraging the use of violence, in general, and guns, in particular, as a way to air grievances and solve problems. Wait, no, of course he didnt say that. What he said was, I was referring to President Obamas national security decisions, not the president himself. [Reuters] THE STREET, THE VALLEY Just in Time for That Weekend Road Trip: Oil Prices Are Up Oil prices rose yesterday Brent crude futures were up 38 cents their first rise in seven days. The horrible reason for the rise was the postponement of the Brexit vote following the murder of Jo Cox, a U.K. lawmaker, on Thursday. [Reuters] A $420 Million Deal to Save Face Cosmetics company Revlon has announced it will buy rival Elizabeth Arden for $420 million in cash balllerrrr in a bid to grow its presence in the skincare marketplace. Both companies have been struggling of late and hope this acquisition will turn back the hands of time, as the products they peddle are meant to. [WSJ] Paris Terror Victims Father Sues Google, Facebook, and Twitter California design student Nohemi Gonzalez was killed in the Paris terror attack in November. Now her family has filed suit in San Francisco against Google, Facebook, and Twitter, claiming the three companies knowingly allowed terrorists to open accounts, spread terror, and recruit people to their cause, thereby providing material support to terrorists and violating the Anti-Terrorism Act. A similar suit was recently thrown out. [The Guardian] Microsofts New Billion-Dollar Idea: Remember Drug Wars on the TI-83? Hippy Bill Gates has been waiting his whole life for this: Microsoft has announced that its working on software for the increasingly legal marijuana industry. In partnership with Californian marijuana startup Kind, Microsoft will develop software for governments struggling to track legal marijuana in their states. [The Verge] MEDIA BUBBLE Grammys Now Just Letting Anyone In The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences the group behind the Grammy Awards announced yesterday that they would change their eligibility standards to reflect a world dominated by streaming. Now it will accept for consideration music only released on a streaming service, even if it is never released for traditional download or in any physical format. So everyone send them your SoundClouds. [NYT] Redstone Antics Should Hold You Over Until Game of Thrones on Sunday The long-simmering tension between Viacoms major shareholder Sumner Redstone or the people manipulating him and his companys board has finally bubbled over as Redstone unilaterally removed five of Viacoms directors, including its outspoken CEO Philippe Dauman. All five will remain in their posts until a Delaware court can approve the changes. [Reuters] Backchannel Heads to Conde Nast Widely respected tech blog Backchannel announced yesterday that it would be moving to Conde Nast where it would publish under the Wired Media Group, the home of other similar publications such as WIRED and Ars Technica. Prolific tech journalist Jessi Hempel will also come onboard as the head of the editorial department. [Backchannel] PHOTO OP Obama and Biden Pay Their Respects in Orlando They dont care about the politics, Obama said. And neither do I, and neither does Joe. Obama in Orlando: 'Those families could be our families' https://t.co/cnQrLYPXcH pic.twitter.com/lkRDlTXLUC Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) June 16, 2016 MORNING MEME The Shade That Lit Up the Internet That dude is lucky to be alive. OTHER LOCAL NEWS Birds Give Minnesotans the Finger Theres no solution yet in the East Grand Forks severed-fingers case, in which a six-year-old child found two severed fingers on a picnic table at his familys campsite. The current theory is that the fingers mightve belonged to a man from two towns over who blew up his hand with a firework last year and that they were carried to the campsite by birds with a very dark sense of humor. [Twin Cities Pioneer Press] Hunger Affects Judgment Two mightily stupid EMTs from Newarks University Hospital are out of a job today after they livestreamed themselves ignoring a call for assistance while waiting in line at a White Castle drive-through. This is so wrong on so many levels everyone knows only In-N-Out is worth killing for. [CBS] HAPPENING TODAY Obama to Meet With High-Ranking Saudi Official President Obama will meet with Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia today at the White House. The influential statesman is in town to promote his kingdoms move away from its dependence on oil, to discuss plans to combat ISIS, and to help improve the increasingly frayed relationship between the two countries. [Reuters] Today Could Be a Historic Day for Track and Field Olympic officials are meeting today to determine whether the Russian track and field team will be disqualified from taking place in this summers Olympics after its rampant systematic cheating was exposed last year. [LA Times] Great News for States With Legal Weed Have you been wanting to try virtual reality but cant afford an Oculus Rift? Well, starting today you can head down to GameStop or Best Buy, where PlayStations new VR system will be up and running for eager customers to try. It wouldnt be the first time we threw up in a Best Buy! [Endgadget] Photo: Facebook Orlando shooter Omar Mateen exchanged text messages with his wife during last Sundays massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub, CNN has learned from a law-enforcement official. Noor Salman, Mateens second wife, has avoided the press since the incident, and not much is known about her or her relationship with her husband. Earlier this week, it came to light that she might have known about his plans to attack the club and tried to talk him out of it, but she stopped short of alerting authorities. She also was reportedly with Mateen when he purchased the weapons and ammunition used in the attack, in which Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53, before being shot dead by law enforcement. CNN reports that around 4 a.m. on the night of the attack, about two hours after Mateen had entered the club, he sent his wife a text message to ask if she had seen the news. She responded with a text saying she loved him, and she also made several unanswered calls to his phone during Mateens standoff with police. Mateen also went on Facebook during the attack, the Associated Press reports, citing a letter from Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman Ron Johnson released Wednesday. The gunman had at least five Facebook accounts and made a series of posts both during and shortly before Sundays deadly attack, in which he wrote, The real muslims will never accept the filthy ways of the west, and warned that in the next few days you will see attacks from the Islamic state in the usa. He also reportedly used Facebook during the attack to search for Pulse Orlando and Shooting, according to the letter. The Senate committee has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to help authorities uncover the full scope of the shooters online activities. A few more details have emerged about Salman in recent days the AP reports that she and Mateen were married in 2011 near her hometown of Rodeo, California, and had a son who is now three years old. The 30-year-old Salman was born in the U.S. to immigrant parents of Palestinian origin, who were naturalized in 1984. Salmans family still lives in northern California; a neighbor described her to the AP as friendly but sheltered, and said Mateen was her second husband after her first, an arranged marriage, didnt work out. Mateen had also been married previously: to Sitora Yusufiy in 2009. Unlike Salman, Yusufiy has been forthcoming with the press, describing Mateen as mentally unstable and telling reporters that he had abused her during their brief marriage. Meanwhile, CNN also reports that employees of a Florida gun store had contacted authorities about Mateen last month after he tried to buy body armor and 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Robert Abell, the owner of Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, said his employees had become suspicious and called the FBI, but did not know the prospective customers name so couldnt identify him. Federal officials told CNN they had no record of any such call. Of all the crazy things Donald Trump has said, what upset Karl Rove was his disrespect for expensive ad campaigns. Photo: Karl Gehring/The Denver Post via Getty Images There are obviously a lot of Republicans who are publicly and privately upset with how Donald Trump is handling the transition from primary to general-election candidate. Most of them are unhappy with his aggressive support for religious and ethnic profiling and his modeling of prejudice in the Gonzalo Curiel incident. Leave it to Karl Rove to get mad at Trump for how hes running his campaign, not what hes saying. Specifically, Rove is furious that Trump has disrespected the importance of paid media in presidential campaigns. As someone who has devoted his career to raising and spending megabucks for mostly negative political ads from the day he left the White House, Rove probably regarded Trumps contempt for this part of politics as blasphemy. So, the Boy Genius repaired to the LOsservatore Romano of the devotees of the green god of political money, The Wall Street Journal, asking Trump to repent. Mr. Trump believes that fundraising and TV advertising are overrated. I just dont think I need nearly as much money as other people, he told Bloomberg. I get so many invitations to be on television. But consider a hypothetical: Say Hillary Clinton runs a week of TV spots in Tampa/St. Petersburg, a key media market in Florida, and Mr. Trump counters by appearing on cable shows. Counting only adults, 314,000 viewers might see a Clinton ad during 60 Minutes on Sunday, according to Nielsen data. Nearly 190,000 would see one during Dancing With the Stars on Monday; 248,000 during NCIS on Tuesday; and 120,000 during Hawaii Five-0 on Friday. Mr. Trumps appearances on Fox News would reach only a fraction of those numbers: 82,000 adults for a segment on The OReilly Factor and 61,000 for one on The Kelly File. An appearance on CNNs best-viewed evening program would reach 33,000. So the moral is clear: Raise the money, run the ads, amen. But Rove has more heresy to root out. Hes also upset that Trump is offloading the ground game to the RNC. Team Clinton, he warns, is prepared to outgun anything the national party can do unless the nominee raises some serious jack to help pay to keep up with the donkeys. And so: Mr. Trumps decisions to forgo ads, abandon his self-funding pledge and accept a big financial deficit, and turn the ground game over to the RNC are unprecedented challenges to conventional wisdom. In 21 weeks, we will know if they were smart bets. It should be noted that Trumps belief that paid media and money generally are overrated in presidential (as opposed to down-ballot) general elections (as opposed to primaries) is shared by many political scientists, thanks to the massive earned media presidential candidates receive. Because nobodys ever been better at the earned media game than Trump, its hardly surprising he figures that might be his best asset. But if hes right, theres not much of a role in national politics for people like Karl Rove, is there? And that would be blasphemy for sure. Bernie Sanders still has a couple of tricks up his sleeve if he chooses to play them. Photo: Matt McClain-Pool/Getty Images Bernie Sanderss late fade in the Democratic primaries (a bad loss in New Jersey and a surprisingly large loss in California), compounded by the quick defection of a few prominent supporters (e.g., Senator Jeff Merkley), is leading some observers to speculate that hes already lost his leverage over the Democratic convention. If he cannot credibly threaten Clintons nomination, and has already signaled he will strongly support the nominee in the general election, why should Team Hillary pay him more than lip service? Hasnt she already leaned in his ideological direction enough, to the theoretical peril of her ultimate prospects? But there are two points of leverage Sanders still maintains. First is the possibility that well-chosen Sanders platform demands could command enough support from Clinton delegates to force them onto the nominee. That could lead to media reports of HRC losing control of the convention. In past conventions for both parties, such contingencies have sometimes led the putative nominee to concede to platform demands in order to avoid any public loss of face. This time it could significantly help Sanders to put his stamp on the party platform, one of his original campaign objectives. The second leverage point is far more general but nonetheless important: the threat of dissension and unpleasantness that could materially undermine the conventions value as a projection of Clintons message and of Democratic unity. Bored media attendees will naturally be trolling in Philadelphia for stories of unhappy Sanders supporters exhibiting their displeasure at the proceedings and the inevitable minimization of Bernies role in the party and the general-election campaign. An aggressive exercise of discipline by Sanders and his campaign is the only thing that could more or less eliminate that risk. So under-the-radar-screen negotiations will focus on mere appearances as much as the heavy substance of the platform and actually more, since the images of the convention will linger long after any arguments over carbon taxes versus regulation have been forgotten. So no wonder Sanders is arguing his campaign has a purpose now that hes no longer pretending to have the ability to prevent Clintons nomination. And his leverage may be enhanced by the fact that a 75-year-old U.S. senator probably cannot be bought off with future political considerations. Perhaps the Sanders campaign is about the future of the Democratic Party. But for Sanders himself, the future is now. Bernie Sanders just wont quit. Photo: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images On Tuesday, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton met face-to-face for the first time in months. Their positive meeting, which was supposed to last an hour, stretched toward two as they sat in a hotel near the Capitol and, according to nearly identical statements released by their campaigns, talked through the issues. Sanderss consecutive meetings with President Obama and Clinton the first of which came just after Clinton officially clinched the Democratic nomination have been seen as a sign that the Vermont senator is ready to bury the hatchet and work to unite the Democratic party against Donald Trump. And, in a speech on Thursday, Sanders confirmed that defeating the presumptive GOP nominee (or, as some have called him, Cheeto Jesus) is now his top priority. Sanders indicated that he would work with Clinton to shape the most progressive platform in history, but stopped just short of actually conceding to Clinton. The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated, and defeated badly, he told supporters during a live webcast on Thursday night. And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time. With that, he devoted a few more seconds to Trump-bashing: After centuries of racism, sexism, and discrimination of all forms in our country we do not need a major party candidate who makes bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign. We cannot have a president who insults Mexicans and Latinos, Muslims, women, and African-Americans. We cannot have a president who, in the midst of so much income and wealth inequality, wants to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the very rich. We cannot have a president who, despite all of the scientific evidence, believes that climate change is a hoax. But, he said, his campaign is about more than that: Its about co-operating with Clinton to fundamentally change the Democratic party. I look forward to working with Secretary Clinton to transform the Democratic Party so that it becomes a party of working people and young people, and not just wealthy campaign contributors: a party that has the courage to take on Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the fossil-fuel industry, and the other powerful special interests that dominate our political and economic life, he said. He also called his and Clintons views quite close on some issues a phrase that could hint at an endorsement down the line. So hes willing to work with Clinton, it seems, but hes not ready to fold just yet. Of the 23 minutes he spent addressing supporters, only a few were spent discussing hypothetical party unity. This is the only section in Sanders' remarks that refers to HRC. No endorsement here. pic.twitter.com/m9mdEzUVYN Monica Alba (@albamonica) June 17, 2016 The rest of his speech was dedicated to rehashing his campaign platform: increasing the federal minimum wage, eliminating student debt, and creating an economy that works for all of us, not just the one percent. But he also took the opportunity to encourage his allies to run for office on a local level, saying the Democratic party should have a 50-state strategy and should open its doors and welcome into its ranks working people and young people, i.e. the people his campaign mobilized. .@BernieSanders goes off script of prepared remarks for a second: "We need new blood in the political process and you are that new blood." Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 17, 2016 And although he didnt say it directly, Sanders seems to be counting on the influence of those supporters to buoy him all the way to the Democratic convention. We must continue our grassroots efforts to create the America that we know we can become, he said. And we must take that energy into the Democratic National Convention on July 25 in Philadelphia where we will have more than 1,900 delegates. Well, this much is clear: hard to do a better job of dragging out a double digit loss than this Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) June 17, 2016 In short, as the Washington Post points out, Sanderss speech had all the hallmarks of a concession speech minus the concession. He has evidently abandoned his plan to win the nomination by swaying superdelegates in his favor, but Sanders seems to think theres something to be gained by keeping his gasping campaign alive for another month. Which is all well and good, but when Donald Trump praises you, it might be a sign youre doing something wrong. Hi. Would I have your vote? Photo: Seth Wenig/AP Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing at least a half-dozen federal, state, and local investigations into his fundraising, accompanied by ugly headlines and the lowest approval ratings of his tenure. Last weeks arrest of Norman Seabrook, the powerful head of the citys corrections officers union, on federal corruption charges in a case involving a de Blasio fundraiser, only crystallized what more and more New York Democrats are starting to believe: With next years election looming on the horizon, the progressive mayor is becoming vulnerable to a primary challenge. While a few prominent local politicians are toying with the idea, its City Comptroller Scott Stringer who seems to be getting the most serious about taking on de Blasio. He held a fundraiser on Tuesday night and is quietly assembling a campaign team. Elected to his citywide post in 2013, Stringer has talked up the possibility of challenging de Blasio to several Democrats over the last two months, and his chief of staff has approached at least one veteran Democratic operative about signing on to a potential bid next year. Stringer sees that de Blasio is weaker and more vulnerable than ever before because of the multiple scandals facing City Hall, said a party insider familiar with Stringers thinking. Thats why its no surprise Stringers political team is reaching out to consultants and operatives to gauge their interest about a 2017 mayoral bid. A range of Democratic sources who are aware of Stringers plans say he is the most hungry among a group of potential challengers that also includes Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Stringer has more than $1 million in his campaign account, according to the latest filings. De Blasio has about $890,000 in his 2017 account, and may not be able raise cash as readily as a typical incumbent, given his investigatory woes. (Still, he is set to hold a slew of fundraisers over the next few months.) At first glance, Stringer, 56, doesnt seem like de Blasios most obvious primary challenger. Hes liberal, but lacks an overarching policy vision. During his eight-year tenure as Manhattan borough president, he was known for his wonkish attention to community boards and transit. Like his ambitious predecessors in the comptrollers office, he has antagonized the mayor; but Stringer hasnt brought the kind of political flair to it that, say, John Liu did. However, Stringer has gotten into the mix of officials scrutinizing de Blasios conduct, having opened an inquiry into a dubious, City Hallapproved Lower East Side land deal that may turn a former facility for AIDS patients into luxury condominiums. You think you can take me? Photo: Rob Bennett/Mayoral Photography Office Chatter in Stringers orbit intensified after a May 24 Quinnipiac University poll showed de Blasio with a dismal 41-percent approval rating, the lowest of his tenure. In a head-to-head matchup with Stringer, de Blasio only led 3736 percent. The bad news for the comptroller was de Blasios commanding 5324 percent lead among the Democrats who will decide the primary outcome but this didnt tamp down any talk about what an aggressive campaign against a damaged de Blasio would look like. Stringers allies say a road map to defeating de Blasio begins with winning over as many disenchanted whites as possible, particularly affluent Democrats in Brownstone Brooklyn and the Upper West Side. Stringer, an Upper West Sider, can likely do this. To get traction in vote-rich, predominantly black neighborhoods in central Brooklyn and southeast Queens, Stringer would need to harness dissatisfaction with de Blasios record on police reform and housing. While stop-and-frisks have drastically declined under de Blasio, many minority activists feel he hasnt done enough to hold NYPD officers accountable for killing unarmed black men. De Blasios affordable-housing plan, while ambitious, will rezone large swaths of the city and possibly hasten gentrification in East New York and around Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. Stringer has been a fierce critic of de Blasios housing policies, but has yet to make his mark on policing. Those close to Stringer imagine a campaign crafted around an image of a Democrat who can get things done, a liberal reformer who touts that he is corruption-free. De Blasio once dismissed the idea of being a pothole mayor and took jaunts to Iowa to burnish his liberal credentials; Stringer, a former state assemblyman, would promise to be less aloof. Aides have already speculated about promoting Stringers Washington Heights roots and the little-known fact that he grew up with a Puerto Rican stepfather. At the moment, Stringer probably simmers with more City Hall ambition than Diaz or Jeffries. Diaz genuinely enjoys being Bronx borough president and could mount a serious mayoral bid in 2021 when de Blasio will be term-limited out of office, or even run for comptroller if Stringer challenges de Blasio. Jeffries is a top Hillary Clinton surrogate with an interest in climbing the Washington, D.C., ladder. Stringer was running for mayor in 2013 until a crowded field and sagging poll numbers forced him to take the consolation prize of city comptroller. He only kept it after surprising many political observers by besting Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced former governor known for his burning intellect, in a vicious primary. This doesnt mean Stringer will ultimately take the plunge. Those who know the comptroller say he is waiting to see how the various investigations into de Blasios fundraising for State Senate candidates, his interactions with anti-horse carriage donors, and an alleged straw-donor scheme play out and whether the mayors poll numbers take a further hit. Stringers the most politically active guy of the group looking to run next year, said Bradley Tusk, who managed Michael Bloombergs 2009 reelection bid. He probably occupies the right space in that he is liberal enough that he wont be off-putting to labor and he can win business support. Tusk, who is unaffiliated with Stringer and has made it known he wants de Blasio dethroned, released a poll last week that showed de Blasio in an effective tie with Stringer, leading 4140 percent. Tusk is also working with the Patrolmens Benevolent Association to find a candidate to run against the mayor. The PBA has met with Stringer and Diaz in the past two weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal. (The Journals Josh Dawsey also first reported the Stringer fundraiser on Tuesday night.) One advantage Stringer has over Diaz and Jeffries is a large orbit of loyalists in the public and private sector that has been privately compared to a Ready for Hillary operation. They include Audrey Gelman, his former press secretary; Micah Lasher, attorney general Eric Schneidermans former chief of staff and a candidate for State Senate on the Upper West Side; Amy Rutkin, Rep. Jerry Nadlers chief of staff; and Camille Joseph, deputy comptroller for public affairs and Anthony Weiners former campaign manager. Any 2017 bid would also likely involve Anson Kaye, a Hillary Clinton ad-maker and top strategist on Stringers comptroller campaign. At the center of it all, theres Sascha Owen, Stringers current chief of staff and former campaign manager. Speaking louder with his actions. Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images There are real risks to running against de Blasio, and he still could draw no significant Democratic challengers. As an incumbent, he boasts higher name recognition than Stringer, and he remains close to the powerful labor unions who determine the course of many municipal elections. Unless de Blasio is gravely weakened, his labor allies are unlikely to defect and will unite against Stringer. The stakes are high if Stringer were to challenge de Blasio next year and lose, hed be out of a job and a pariah in de Blasios New York. Mayor de Blasio expanded pre-K for every 4-year-old and raised wages for tens of thousands of workers. Crime is at record lows, jobs are at a second high, and New York City is building affordable housing at a record pace, said Dan Levitan, a spokesperson for de Blasio. Those are the results he will be judged on, and that is what his reelection campaign will be about. A spokesperson for Stringer declined to comment. Photo: Billy Farrell/BFA.com Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons and Possessor of Lengthy Honorifics, is one of TVs larger-than-life characters. Yet offscreen, actress Emilia Clarke has positioned herself as one of Hollywoods most relatable celebs, at least in one sense. Specifically: by talking about dudes and their junk. In her media appearances, Clarke has reliably championed male nudity on Game of Thrones, gushed about her celebrity crushes, and generally displayed a thirst appropriate to a life spent wandering the parched Dothraki sea. Lets take a look. She has praised Khal Drogos nether regions: Asked about Game of Thrones lack of male nudity, Clarke clarified that at least one person did get to see Khal Drogos dong. I saw [actor Jason Momoas] member, but it was covered in a pink fluffy sock, Clarke explained coyly in an interview with Glamour. Showing it would make people feel bad. Its too fabulous. And Daarios: Plus we all got to see Daarios butt, remember? Id like to bring your memory back to Mr. Michiel Huisman and I copulating for the first time, she added. Which began with me saying, Take off your clothes, and then you got to see his perfect bottom. But shes also pro-dad-bod: Clarke may date warriors onscreen, but that doesnt mean she only likes men with Dothraki six packs. Speaking to People, Clarke said her ideal guy is super smart, can make me laugh, [and] has, like, a dad bod. I dont need no six-pack. Like, I aint kicking it out of bed for sure, but every character Ive been with has been too perfect. She has no problem with a little platonic PDA: She isnt afraid of sharing her celebrity crushes on Instagram: In an interview with Moviefone, Jai Courtney asked Clarke what Sarah Connor (her Terminator character) and Daenerys would do on a girls night out, to which Clarke responded: Ryan Gosling might be there, just cause I think they probably would both think he was really hot. When Courtney suggested a menage a trois might be in the offing, Clarke was intrigued. Why not? she said. Im just throwing that one out there. If he wants to pick it up at any point, Im fine with that. There was also this charming Friends fangirl moment: She loves Leonardo DiCaprio, of course: On multiple occasions, Clarke has expressed adulation for her first crush, Leonardo DiCaprio. I would love to play Jane Bond, the actress told the Daily Star. My ultimate leading man would be Leonardo DiCaprio. No doubt about it. Asked by People on another occasion why shes still single, the actress riffed: If Leonardo DiCaprio decides to stop dating supermodels! (Unlikely, but we admire her idealism.) She engages in recreational boy-watching: Clarke may not be on Tinder, but that doesnt mean shes not above scouting for guys IRL. Sometimes, I just come here and stare at all the pretty boys, Clarke told the L.A. Times while people-watching at trendy Los Angeles restaurant Gjusta. Everyones pretty, and everyones looking at each other, but the food is so good that I just cannot help it. Shes not shy about initiating threesomes: Hot tip: Nothing gets Clarke in the mood for a threesome like Dothraki pet names. Someone took a fantasy in my head and played it in real life, Clarke told Harpers Bazaar of a fortuitous run-in with Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. I was at a Golden Globes after-party and Channing f**cking Tatum came up to me, and his stunning missus, Jenna. And they said, We call each other moon of my life and my sun and stars and all that. And I was like, I cannot contain this. Please, can we all have something sexual together? Youre both beautiful, even just a hug. An shes an equal-opportunity objectifier: Speaking about Julia Roberts in Stepmom to Us Weekly, Clarke gushed: You just see her cry, and she just gets this little crease, and thats it. Beautiful tears fall from her beautiful face. Shes so hot, its ridiculous. She has been on a crusade to free the penis: Clarkes campaign for junk equality was ultimately successful, if anticlimactic. And, finally, her ideal endings for Game of Thrones usually involve penis: Who needs ice and fire when you can have dong shots? I want to see Daenerys and her three dragons share the throne, she told Glamour. And bring back all the pretty boys, get them to take their trousers down, and be like, Im now the queen of everything! Id like close-ups of all the boys penises, please. We applaud the sentiment, Khaleesi. Designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla bring artistic sensibilities to everything they touch. Known in India and beyond for their work in both interior design and fashion, the two have produced intricate Indian couture since meeting in Mumbai in 1986. The book India Fantastique Fashion, out June 28 from Thames & Hudson, chronicles their mesmerizing designs. It is the art of captivatingly blending the traditional with the contemporary that Abu and Sandeep have perfected, Nita M. Ambani writes in the books preface. The two designers were part of Indias fashion scene long before they met. At 19, Jani worked 12-hour shifts in a garage designing Bollywood outfits, while Khosla studied art both at home with his mother and at the Doon School in Kapurthala. When Jani and Khosla crossed paths they instantly clicked, creating designs that delicately walk the line between traditional and modern Indian styles, all with a forward-thinking aesthetic. Click ahead to see shoots as dramatic as they are glamorous a mosaic-like textured dress in the middle of a surreal desert, golden sheaths on beach-side cliffs, and sunflowers blooming between geometric bead embroidery. Young and The Restless star Greg Rikaart and husband Robert Sudduth welcome a baby boy: https://t.co/bYLAZDISBB pic.twitter.com/iY9xKKuGNP E! News (@enews) June 14, 2016 - Greg Rikaart and his husband Robert Sudduth have welcomed their first child together! - The 39-year-old The Young and the Restless actor shared a photo on Instagram of himself and Robert with their newborn son Montgomery Argo Rikaart-Sudduth. Monte was born via surrogate on Sunday (June 12) at 5:01pm in Roseville, California. We fight hate, fear, bigotry, homophobia and injustice in the world with love, intellect and enlightenment. In the truest and most pure definitions of the latter words, it is with full hearts that Rob and I take great pride in introducing our son, Montgomery Argo Rikaart-Sudduth, he captioned the photo on Instagram. He was born in Roseville, CA at 5:01pm on 6/12/16. He is light and love and magic. Monte, Rob, myself and Marcela, our trooper of a surrogate, are all doing fantastic. lm need their own twitters because when they complain about clubs/companies on the official little mix Twitter likes this it seems really off putting and unprofessional Reply Thread Link I will have to agree with you on that one. I love them but yeah. Reply Parent Thread Link I think the reason why they don't have individual accounts is because Jesy would never make one. Or if she did, she would never use it. That's why they prefer just sharing one account. Reply Parent Thread Link Who cares if one doesn't have one. Why would that affect the others getting one? And if they're not going to their own then they need to stop using the official group one for personal petty drama Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Is it really their loss? I mean, if you are an asshole and then rant, should the company defend themselves or. .. ? Reply Thread Link you should read their fans replies. "they're fucking little mix, you should treat them as queens." and according to their local ontd fans, those girls are in the same fame-level as the spice girls, so yeah Reply Parent Thread Link I find the reviews for the club because I've checked Yelp as well as facebook. With Yelp, I can see all of the reviews and find out very quickly if someone is real or just being an asshole in life. Reply Parent Thread Link i mean ur the same way w/ 5H so is it rly any better tbh Reply Parent Thread Expand Link have you ever seen stan replies ever in your entire life jw Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Most of the reviews of the club say that the staff is always rude, but harmoz keep doing the most and involving themselves on drama that has nothing to do with their faves. How sad Reply Thread Link i don't get how establishments like that think they're god like. in vegas the high profile clubs are nice but the shithole standard in los angeles are fucking rude. Reply Parent Thread Link As a company, if you get dragged in public, and even if it wasn't your fault, you apologize because the customer is always right. That's like a rule. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This is so fucking true Reply Parent Thread Link i'm just reporting the facts bb, why so rude Reply Parent Thread Expand Link mte. such Bitter Betties :) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link LOL, I hate 5H but this stan war is over, and 5H won. Nobody cares about little mixture. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link they all need their own twitters, an official group twitter is usually just for promo stuff and the occasional fan interaction right? Reply Thread Link Yeah it makes it more confusing cause Jade is saying she had her ID. Reply Parent Thread Link i don't get how they've been a group for 5 years and still don't have individual twitter accounts. this wouldn't even be a big deal if she tweeted this from her own account but now it just looks petty imo. keep your main band account for general music info and complain on your personal accounts Reply Thread Link They used to have personal accounts. Reply Parent Thread Link i guess their label or smth made the decision to shut them down? weird move from a pr perspective. either way they need to bring back those personal accounts then Reply Parent Thread Expand Link urgh it's so embarrassing when celebs do this. and from the band's account too, yikes. Reply Thread Link But regular people do it everyday. It just gets attention when a celeb does it. Reply Parent Thread Link I wonder why Reply Parent Thread Link Thanks, Detective Obvious. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I think sending a private message would have been more appropriate. Calling out a club publicly because they wouldn't let you in is just tacky. Reply Parent Thread Link my boss would do this from the company twitter account. it was always so embarrassing. Reply Parent Thread Link If it was something that happened to her then why she used the band official account? that is nagl at all, it looks petty and is dumb. And I don't care about LM or 5H or any stan war, but this looks so unprofessional. Reply Thread Link Because the group's account is the girls' account. They don't have individual accounts. All of them share that one and just sign the tweets so people know who tweeted it. Reply Parent Thread Link Then they shouldn't use it as a personal account, it's something that happened to her only, not the band, it is dumb and petty, just create a twitter account and that's it. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link lol who gives a shit honestly, my friend went to that club once and said the staff are rude as fuck and that was waaay before this so nothing changed since then so maybe now something will :p Reply Parent Thread Link I bet that club owner is a 5K Harmony Stan Reply Thread Link they look so dumb for this Reply Thread Link Just let it go. A club not letting you in isn't reason to trash them on social media. It's so tacky and unprofessional. Reply Thread Link I think they actually went in but not all of them because Jade said that she paid entry and drinks. OP didn't include all of the tweets. Reply Parent Thread Link apparently, they went in but were trying to skip the queue and acted rude Edited at 2016-06-17 08:32 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link post is missing Jade replys. anyway, I get being frustraded with something but dont tweet like that. but it is not the first time it has happened. so I dont think they will change it. just mad Jade didnt follow me in her spree. Reply Thread Link post is missing Jade replys. lol u know why that is Reply Parent Thread Link seems like you can't read bb Reply Parent Thread Link they stay the worst Reply Thread Link Lmao, the doorhost there is a sweethart but will read you to filth if you make trouble.. They must have really pissed her off! Reply Thread Link It was Jackson right? I just read on Nyx facebook that she quit or got fired Reply Parent Thread Link Whaaaat? You're fucking me? Nooo Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Being the bigger person sucks so much, especially for women. We are so easily labeled 'crazy' if we are anything but above it all Reply Thread Link Exactly. When a woman doesnt comply with what a man wants, she's told she's crazy or being a bitch. Reply Parent Thread Link I hate being the bigger person but it's usually a scenario of "if I'm not, no one will" It actually surprises me. Reply Parent Thread Link I think this is sadly often the case in scenarios with men and women. Like if they woman is not the mature one, then the man won't be either. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link thhhhiisss Reply Parent Thread Link Right lmao. I think the expectation for women to be naturally more logical/more mature/more anything is just an excuse so men don't have to. We're either dumber than them or smarter than them and either way they always manage to win in those situations Reply Parent Thread Link I was casually hooking up with this one guy who was in my group of mutual friends and he told everybody I was crazy among other things. I only had minimal contact with this person too. I deleted him off Facebook b/c he was talking shit about me behind my back and EVERY time he saw me after that he would harass me about unfriending him saying how weird it was...and my response was always "you don't even like me, you constantly talk shit, why do you care?" He was the unstable one lol. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link This! Me and my dad are at a standstill because even though he did wrong I'm supposed to say sorry apparently. It's been that way forever until March when I said enough is enough. I haven't spoken to him since. But he keeps posting on his FB I'm crazy and unreasonable. Edited at 2016-06-17 07:42 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link or if you're a woc, they'll say you're violent, even if you never raised your voice, just defending ourselves is seen as violent. Reply Parent Thread Link I overheard 2 assholes at my gym talking about women the other day, and they were talking about those stupid graphs that go from like the crazier she is the hotter or whatever and they were talking about how hard it is to find a good girl who is independent and ambitious etc etc. and they're two low life losers, like the delusion, omg. Edited at 2016-06-17 07:56 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I was always taught by my parents to be the "bigger person" and apologize, even if I wasn't wrong. That's some shit I had to finally I had to tell them stfu about. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link yeah then if youre above it all youre a heartless bitch. theres no winning. Reply Parent Thread Link This is so true and annoys me so much that I've reached the stage where I'd rather be treated like I'm a crazy heartless bitch rather than be accommodating anymore. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link For us women sometimes we do have to be the bigger person in that scenario because ya know women are smarter and were more logical. So I feel like thats exactly what I did. And it worked. She's obviously just turning the stereotype around, but I'm sure someone will find this to be misandry. Reply Thread Link hasnt jennifer been seen out co-parenting with ben since the split so she seems to be doing just fine making it work. Reply Thread Link hate when that happens with lipstick Reply Thread Link my very first thought Reply Parent Thread Link I didn't know she had a friendly divorce. I thought wiz was saying shit about her but maybe I imagined it. Reply Thread Link Not in the beginning of their split. Iirc he made claims that their son was in an unfit environment. I Remember him saying there was dog shit all over her house that she refused to pick up. Lmao Other than that they seem to be doing well now. I know they spend holidays together as a family. Reply Parent Thread Link i thought that part was sarcasm Reply Parent Thread Link lol love the subtle shade to wiz Reply Thread Link Omg. I had never read that before but that's so fucking funny. Aren't amber Tamblyn and amber rose friends now too? Reply Parent Thread Link lol I remember this! Splits on your unibrow lmao Reply Parent Thread Link I agree sis Reply Thread Link tbh I'm kinda tired of women having to always be the "bigger person", the more mature, the more forgiving and understanding one. Reply Thread Link mmmmmmm Reply Parent Thread Link Do you mean "Mmmhmmm" are you eating something REALLY tasty? Reply Parent Thread Link Lmaoo i can see the scene of him saying that and im cracking up Reply Parent Thread Link Wait wasn't their divorce a bit messy tho? Reply Thread Link yes Reply Parent Thread Link people still care about Amber??...oh Reply Thread Link Oregon transportation officials are now calling for a halt of Union Pacific trains after a derailment on the third of June. Eleven cars from a 96-car train owned by Union Pacific that was hauling crude oil along the border of Oregon and Washington derailed, causing one of the cars to catch fire. The Oregon Department of Transportation raised its concerns on Thursday to the Oregon Transportation Commission, in reference to this specific type of traincrude-oil-onlywhich is heavier than others and might be putting greater strain on the lag bolts that connect the rails and tracks. The Oregon Department of Transportation is requesting a moratorium on the train. Union Pacific has blamed the accident on the failure of the bolts. At the time, the residents of Mosier were evacuated and 42,000 gallons of oil were spilled into the Columbia River. Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) Administrator Hal Gard said that the bolts in question were rusted on both ends and had been sheared off before the incident. Tom Fuller, the director of communications for ODOT said that without the bolts in place, the parallel rails could be pushed farther apart by the weight of the trains, which could cause a derailment. Fuller also said that the movement of the oil inside of the tanks may be a contributing factor as the oil shifts when the train is on a curve. Crude-oil-only trains have been going through that particular section of the Columbia River Gorge for about two years, and transportation officials and state investigators are concerned that because the trains are heavier and shorter, they may be putting more pressure on the tracks, leading to broken bolts. Related: Expect Much Higher Oil Prices As The Cycle Comes To An End Fuller added that his agency and Union-Pacific tested the tracks for flaws, and those tests did not uncover any broken bolts. With that in mind, Fuller expressed concern that it is not known where else the bolts may have been used. Since the incident, Union-Pacific has increased the frequency of its inspections. By Lincoln Brown for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: This week, Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services reportedly seized 64 kilograms of gold that were to be smuggled to another country; and arrested seven people connected to the smuggling network. Two of those arrested were from another country. Last year General Mohammed Atta of the NISS said that smuggling gold has become a public security problem, and that additional security directives were in place to stop the movement of gold without the proper government permission. Ahmed Mohammed Sadiq al-Karouri, the Sundanese Minister of Minerals, said the government has virtually no control over the majority of the gold produced by independent miners. Al-Karouri cited a lack of gold laboratory services as a mitigating factor that has contributed to god smuggling, and vowed to curb the smuggling problem. The Ministry of Minerals told the Sudanese Parliament in June 2014 that 75 percent of the nations gold production is smuggled. Al-Karouri told the Sudanese Parliament on Tuesday that the nations gold revenues had reached over 900 million dollars in the first quarter of 2016. He claimed that gold production for the first quarter hit 22.3 tonnes, generating some 903.13 million dollars. Related: Bribery, Corruption And Changing Contracts: Oil Investment In Iran The nation plans to produce approximately 100 tonnes of gold this year. Approximately 70 percent of the Sudans gold production last year was in the River Nile State. In April, the Ministry of Metals reported that Sudans gold production was up by 3 percent from the prior year. Sudan expects to become the number two gold producer on the African continent this year, and number 9 in the world. Last year, South Africa held the number one slot on the continent and was ranked seventh in the world. Ghana was number two in Africa and number 10 globally. Sudan was number three in Africa and ranked 17 in the world. By Lincoln Brown for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: What's in a restaurant? In this series, we ask chefs around the city to describe their restaurants in their own words and recommend three dishes that embody the best of what they offer. In this edition, we talk with Chef Christian Schroeder of Black Sheep in Walker's Point. Black Sheep 216 S. 2nd St. (414) 750-7298 blacksheepmke.com "In a nutshell, Black Sheep is a special place in my eyes," says Schroeder. "That bleeds through in everything from the decor to the concept and plays out in the way we try to treat our employees and customers. When it comes to food, its an open slate. We really try to showcase fun, creative things including inspiration from places like France, Italy, Morocco and Asia while keeping them relatable. Its also a place where the menu changes on a regular basis, so we can really offer customers who are here two or three times a week something new and different." "With new ownership in place for almost a year now, weve really worked to give Black Sheep a brand new identity as a destination with some of the best food in the city. Making the restaurant more food-forward has been one of the goals, and as the new chef, Im really aspiring to take that to a new level and show people what we can do on the culinary side of things." 1. Country fried duck testes Fried duck testes, huckleberry barbecue sauce, Cool Ranch Dorito onion rings ($11) "This is a dish that Ive been wanting to do for a long time. Its a cool dish in terms of the fact that it brings fun and relate-ability to a dish that some people might not envision wanting to eat. "The flavor is mild and a bit milky with a nice texture, and the breading is really crisp and spicy, so that adds another layer of texture to the dish. Its paired with a barbecue sauce that uses red huckleberries from the Pacific Northwest. Its sweet and tart with a little bit of kick on the back end." 2. Roasted cauliflower Roasted cauliflower, cumin, beluga lentil puree, caramelized onion, mango, micro cilantro ($14). "This entree is really pretty simple. Im a pretty carnivorous eater myself, but spring and summer is the time that I switch things up and eat more vegetables. For me, its about taking a humble vegetable and just making it really, really delicious. The flavors conjure visions of India. Theres sweetness and caramelization from the cauliflower and the mangoes. And the curry brings in more complex flavors that really play on the sweetness. The micro cilantro on the dish is from Big City Greens, and it really ties everything together with a nice bright kick. And its vegetables, but this dish is substantial enough to really satisfy even a big guy like me. 3. Gnudi Housemade gnudi, Pecorino Romano, morel mushroom, asparagus, everlasting pea, cream poached garlic puree ($24) "Gnudi means 'nude' in Italian really a reference to it being devoid of potato like a gnocchi might have. Theyre little dumplings with thyme, chevre, lemon, pecorino romano and various aromatics. This is another vegetarian dish that really showcases some of the best that spring has to offer. "Its really spring on a plate with the asparagus and morels. The garlic is poached in cream, so theres no bite and it really ties things together." Fun fact: Black Sheeps dinnerware (some of which is pictured) is created by local artist Jessie Voss of Pottery by Jessie in Mukwonago. Watch for select pieces available for purchase at Black Sheep in the coming weeks. Ray Lewis, retired Philly police officer, promises a future to believe in (Image by Rena Grasso) Details DMCA On the eve of The Peoples' Summit in Chicago (June 17-19) and as Democracy Spring plans next steps, I want, in the spirit if constructive criticism, to express concerns about the "political revolution." I was one of the 450 arrested on day one, April 11, of Democracy Spring. "Was it worth it?" I was asked, - three travel days, arrest, the fine, the risks (my last arrest at the Seneca Fall Women's Peace Encampment in 1981 was a harrowing experience)? Yes, however. Yes, because we the peoples' march to the Capitol was a mega B-12 shot to my spirit even as it awakened me to the alienating, isolating impact of the collective mental atmosphere we breathe, the polite expressions of stupefying denial: overnight the temperature drops 50 degrees, in the blink of an eye spring turns to winter, burgeoning tulips encased in 6 inches of wet snow,--"well, that's New England for you!"; brief political dialogues bloated with ill-informed opinions, rag-tags of undigested facts and media sound bites. Conversations with friends bewilder; relationships are strained. Those from whom I assumed respect for fact, reason, and independent thought stun me with their suspension of disbelief: clingers to Hillary Clinton, refusing to examine her politics, or to acknowledge her corruption. Then the spurious, fatuous gender "politics": voting for Hillary because she's a woman, gutting the social and economic justice core of feminism, travestying the radical goals of the women's movement. Most depressing is the moral aphasia at the core of this vitiated and debased collective consciousness. The stunning numbers of wealth equality evoke no empathy, nor any for civilians killed and maimed in our regime change wars. Atrocities accumulate and fall into a moral vacuum: 17 innocents in a drone strike a month ago; a Doctors without Borders' hospital bombed; more revelations yesterday on our torture practices. People acknowledge these with glazed eyes, show no moral revulsion, expressing no sense of responsibility even as they think their government based in (their) the peoples' will. No wonder our culture is peopled with zombie hordes. So, was it worth it? Yes... Because the "people united" lifted the weight of alienation, countered political apathy, affirmed our ability to will and to act. I met others who inspired hope: the woman from rural Oregon who, spurred by her respect for the hunger-striking suffragists, travelled alone to DC and civil disobedience; the couple who decided that civil disobedience was the most meaningful way to celebrate a 50th anniversary; a woman from Chicago who came to represent her disabled friend; two friends from Maryland arrested for the first time because the America they had promised their children was disappeared. Retired Philadelphia policeman, Ray Lewis, promising a future to believe in (picture above). Also, the posters animated the public space with the energizing power of naming: We Bailed out the Banks and All We Got is this Lousy Plutocracy; Disgusted into Action; Please Help: Need Funds to Buy my Own Congressperson; asserting the peoples' desire for Schools not Prisons. Yet for all these positives, my reservations, beginning with objectives and strategies. "Getting Money out of Government" is a complex issue, long-term and many dimensional. Organizers connected this to "four bills on the floor,"- without specificity, history, rationale, or ultimately evaluation. To this day, I don't know the names of these bills or the reason for their selection (versus Citizens United or a host of other options). Organizers claimed success with similar vagueness: 100 Senators supported these bills. Who? Did we influence them? How? A movement needs clear, shared purpose and outcomes. Success, too, was reported for a second objective, compelling media attention. But, yes, Democracy Now and Free Speech TV, etc. recognized our action, and that's important to the choir. However, the mass media gave no meaningful coverage to Democracy Spring. MSNBC scrolled numbers and phrases at the bottom the screen, Maddow dribbled a few words; the Times and Post scribbled a paragraph. But surely we know that these illusions of inclusion are pacifying ploys? I think Democracy Spring reflected naivete about the fourth estate, and how more insidious and powerful it has become since the 1960s. Vietnam taught the media moguls the dangers of coverage. Bernie's ideas were too threatening; their marginalization of him, in my mind, constitutes voter suppression as blatantly as did the AP announcement of Clinton's victory in California. Similarly, they won't cover our protests; they won't legitimatize dissent. This stark recognition must become a center-piece to our movement strategy. Through technology and government deregulation of the media, the wealthy few command enormous influence over the American mind. Yet no revolution can succeed without the people, so strategize to compel attention, yes, but more realistically counteract its powers to deceive and to render invisible, creatively and craftily, go over, under, and through the media veils to reach people outside our choirs. Yet over 150 miles of opportunity to educate and inform people from Philadelphia to DC, two march participants could recall no materials for distribution, and I saw none in DC. Even civil disobedience suffered from a blurred focus and diffuse action. We sat on the Capitol's steps and disobeyed the police bark to move. We stopped no Congressperson; disrupted no proceedings. It was very well managed. In fact, the police shared their pride in instituting a new bureaucratic procedure to process us. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). by Rep. Gail Whitsett The House Interim Committee on Revenue and the Senate Interim Committee on Finance and Revenue held a joint meeting at the state capitol in Salem on Friday, June 3 to hear about the states latest revenue forecast. I made the trip from Klamath Falls to attend the meeting, as I am a member of the House committee. Two representatives of Oregons Office of Economic Analysis informed us of the latest trends relating to employment, the amount of money flowing into state government coffers and other relevant matters. According to the PowerPoint presentation provided by the analysts, the states economy is adding around 5,000 jobs per month. That is 3,000 more per month than they said is needed to keep up with population growth. One of the analysts characterized our economy as being at full throttle for employment, but acknowledged that the labor market is still tight and that the levels of workforce participation are still lower than they would be in a fully health economy. That is an important distinction, as the employment rate is not always an accurate representation of the labor market. It does not include persons who are out of work who did not qualify for unemployment insurance benefits, or whose benefits have expired. Likewise, the unemployment rate does not count persons who have dropped out of the labor force and have quit looking for work. The state has regained around two-thirds of the manufacturing jobs it lost during the Great Recession, which began in 2008 with the collapse of the national housing market. While jobs in the construction, natural resources and manufacturing sectors have grown at rates above the national average in Oregon, the analysts stated that growth in those sectors is expected to slow down over the next five years. According to the analysts, manufacturers of metal materials are downsizing their operations. This is a troubling trend, especially in the Portland metropolitan area, where that industry represents a significant portion of manufacturing activity. Much of the economic growth in Oregon has occurred in the more densely populated urban areas like Portland, so any slowdown there will have adverse effects on many of the rural areas that have yet to experience any kind of widespread economic recovery. Further layoffs are also expected to take place in the durable goods and high tech sectors, with around 2000 of them already having recently happened in the Portland areas tech manufacturing industry. While the states food processing and beer brewing industries are projected to stay strong, the analysts cautioned that exports are plunging severely, which can be a troubling sign of things to come. Another drag on Oregons economy continues to be the high cost of housing, especially in the urban areas. Vacancy rates have been lower than the national average almost every year for decades now. Unfortunately, the supply of available housing remains very low, and new housing starts have simply not kept up with the growing demand stemming from population influxes of residents from other states. More information can be found in this summary of the forecast, which was put together by the non-partisan Legislative Revenue Office. Key findings include the fact that taxable personal income has fallen by almost half a billion dollars from the previous revenue forecast in March. And even though taxpayers received income tax kickers this year for the first time since the start of the recession, another is not currently projected for 2017. To watch archived footage of the meeting where the forecast was presented, click here. The next revenue forecast is scheduled to take place September 14. Representative Gail Whitsett is the Republican state representative representing House District 56 Klamath Falls Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates recently said he would donate 100,000 chickens to countries with high poverty levels, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and including Bolivia. However, Bolivia's development minister, Cesar Cocarico, told reporters in La Paz on Wednesday... No can do! The country respectfully declined the offer and advised Bill Gates to read up on the country's thriving poultry sector. He told reporters: How can he think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce?". "Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia." Bolivia produces 197 million chickens annually and has the capacity to export 36 million, the local poultry producing association said. Source: The Guardian Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), has denied the arrests of four British men, one German and two Ghanaians in a United Kingdom (UK) international law operation resulting in the seizure of a ton of narcotic drugs valued at 80 million in an Accra villa. According to a statement copied Peacefmonline.com, a publication dated June 3, 2016, and posted on Ghanaweb, as well as other media platforms about the arrests, were false. The statement signed by Col E.W.K Nibo, said that the secretariat, had established that the same story was published by peacefmonline.com on December 17, 2011. He revealed that, investigations have uncovered no new arrests as reported by Ghanaweb on June 3, 2016, supporting strongly that Ghanaweb merely recycled an old story. Read below the full statement: The attention of the national Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has been drawn to a publication on Ghanaweb dated June 3, 2016, with the above headline in which the media platform reported the arrest of four British men, one German and two Ghanaians in UK international law operation resulting in the seizure of a ton of drug in a raid on a villa in the suburbs of Accra. The story was sourced from liberianobserver.com but Ghanaweb attributed it to a Ghana Daily Mail newspaper. According to the publication, the interception of the cocaine worth Eighty Million Pounds (80 million) that was destined for the Streets of UK was imported into Ghana and the suspects were arrested when they attempted to export the drug to the UK. It has been established that this same story was published by peacefmonline on December 17, 2011. Investigations have uncovered no new arrests as reported by Ghanaweb on June 3, 2016 supporting strongly that Ghanaweb merely recycled an old story. It is noteworthy that the June 3, version provides no names of the suspects and date of arrest. COLWK NIBO (Rtd) Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Members of Ghanas parliament are fearing for their lives following the gruesome murder of Jo Cox, 41, a Labour MP in Britain, Class91.3FMs parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, has reported. On Thursday June 16, Police in Britain confirmed the death of the Labour MP for Batley and Spen. She was left bleeding on the ground by her attacker. It would be recalled that a similar incident occurred in Ghana when the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa North, JB Danquah-Adu, was attacked and murdered in his home at Shiashie in Accra. The growing insecurity of lawmakers, even in advanced countries, has prompted MPs in Ghana to demand tighter security from the state. Alexander Afenyo-Markin, MP for Efutu, led the demand for tighter security for MPs on Friday June 17 on the floor of parliament. This Member of Parliament [Jo Cox] in an advanced country was going about her parliamentary work and an extremist attacked her, shot her, and stabbed her. Mr Speaker, we are members of parliament, who are about to begin our campaign. I am taking this opportunity and relying on this sad occasion to plead with the Business Committee to, as urgently as possible, programme the Ministry for the Interior to come to this house for the necessary assurances as to how we are going to be protected. He added: If I go to Winneba and an extremist decides to attack me, are we going to be giving tribute upon tributes? We need our protection. Source: Classfmonline Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video "Ban the Box" legislation seeks to open doors to employment for people with criminal records by barring employers from asking about records on employment applications. More than 20 states and over 100 municipalities have passed such laws in recent years, some of which govern private employers. But a major new study released today by researchers at the University of Michigan and Princeton University points to a serious unintended consequence of these laws: While they may indeed improve the prospects of people with records, this gain comes at the cost of encouraging a substantial increase in racial discrimination by employers. "This consequence is clearly unintendedin fact, Ban the Box is often presented as a strategy for increasing black men's access to employment," said Sonja Starr, professor of law at the U-M Law School. "Unfortunately, we think our results strongly suggest that when it comes to this goal, it has backfired." Starr and co-author Amanda Agan, an economist at Princeton, conducted a large-scale field experiment. Over the course of a year, the authors (and their large team of U-M student research assistants) sent nearly 15,000 fictitious online job applications to entry-level, low-skill positions in New York City and New Jersey, varying the applicants' race and criminal record. The applications were sent in black/white pairs in two waves before and after each jurisdiction's adoption of Ban the Box. Agan and Starr first found support for the basic premise of Ban the Box: when companies ask about them, criminal records are a substantial obstacle to employment. Applicants without records received 63 percent more callbacks than similar applicants without records. Agan and Starr found high rates of compliance with Ban the Box, meaning that the law effectively removes this obstacleat least at the earliest stages of the hiring process, which is what Ban the Box seeks to affect. But the law has a serious downside: It appears to dramatically increase racial discrimination by affected employers. When employers asked about criminal records, Agan and Starr found that white applicants had a relatively slight advantage: they received about 7 percent more callbacks than equally qualified black applicants. After Ban the Box was adopted, this gap ballooned to 45 percent. This change was not seen among employers whose applications were unaffected by the law because they never asked about records in the first place. The researchers theorize that the reason relates to a phenomenon known as "statistical discrimination." If employers don't have information about criminal records, they are more likely to rely on their assumptionsincluding race-based assumptions. Specifically, employers may assume that black applicants have criminal records (even when they don't), and that white applicants do not. "Our results don't necessarily definitively argue against Ban the Box," Starr said. "It clearly has benefits for people with records, and policymakers might decide that those benefits are important enough to justify the law. But our results are very worrisome in terms of the effects for black male applicants, especially those without criminal records." "When you take criminal record information away, some employers seem to simply assume that black men are likely to have criminal pasts," Agan said. "So black men without conviction records, who won't be able to reveal that fact to employers, may be the ones who bear the costs of Ban the Box. This is especially troubling because black male unemployment levels are already more than twice the national average." Explore further Race and gender may not affect employer interest in resumes More information: Agan, Amanda Y. and Starr, Sonja B., Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Statistical Discrimination: A Field Experiment (June 14, 2016). U of Michigan Law & Econ Research Paper No. 16-012. Available at SSRN: Agan, Amanda Y. and Starr, Sonja B., Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Statistical Discrimination: A Field Experiment (June 14, 2016). U of Michigan Law & Econ Research Paper No. 16-012. Available at SSRN: ssrn.com/abstract=2795795 Credit: Airbus DS GmbH 2015 The shining face of the Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter, Japan's contribution to the BepiColombo mission to the Solar System's innermost planet. The octagonal spacecraft is seen here at ESA's test centre in the Netherlands, where it is being tested alongside the other elements of this dual-spacecraft mission. During cruise, it will sit above ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter at the top of the BepiColombo stack, to be launched in April 2018. The Mercury Transfer Module will deliver them to Mercury using highly efficient electric propulsion. While ESA's craft will go into a 480 x 1500 km mapping orbit around Mercury, Japan's will enter a highly elliptical 590 x 11 640 km orbit to study the planet's environment and its magnetic field. The two spacecraft employ differing strategies to cope with the temperatures in excess of 350C involved in operating around the closest world to the Sun. Japan's octagonal orbiter will spin 15 times per minute to distribute heat evenly across its surface. But since it cannot spin during BepiColombo's seven-year journey from Earth, it will be protected within the Magnetospheric Orbiter Sunshield. ESA's orbiter, meanwhile, will maintain a steady attitude, covered with high-temperature insulation with a deep space-facing radiator behind protective louvres that will dump waste heat into space. Explore further Image: Unboxing Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter flight model The manufacture of ceramic tiles in the EU generates around 3 million tones of waste each year. LIFECERAM is a European-funded project led by the Institute of Ceramic Technology (ITC-UJI) that addresses this issue. Right on schedule, LIFECERAM has achieved its goal of zero waste in the manufacture of ceramic paving through the design of a sustainable manufacturing process whereby elements of the final paving product incorporate the waste generated in other parts of the process. This new product is designed for use in urban paving. Led by the Instituto de Tecnologia Ceramica of the Universitat Jaime I of Castellon (UJI), the consortium also includes the Spanish Association of Ceramic Tile and Paving Manufacturers (ASCER) and three Spanish ceramics companies: KEROS Ceramica, S.L., VERNIS, S.A. and CHUMILLAS-TARONGI, S.L. Co-funded under LIFE+, the European Union's only financial instrument dedicated to the promotion of innovative technologies that support the environment, nature conservation and climate action, these results have been three years in the making. The new process takes waste from the ceramics manufacture process, such as green and fired scraps, glaze sludge and dust from the kiln filters, and turns them into a 100% recycled urban paving product. Presented last month at ASCER headquarters, the main conclusions from the project is that sustainable urban paving is indeed possible. Javier Garcia, research leader at the ITC, further explained that, not only is it possible, "the composition of the new material closely matches the relative proportions in which the different ceramic waste products [the aforementioned scraps, sludges and dusts] are generated. Adding that "we have achieved the porosity, mechanical resistance and environmental properties we set out to, and the end product can be processed at existing industrial instalations, meaning no changes to proceses or equipment at ceramics plants are necessary." Explore further Breakthrough achieved in ceramics 3D printing technology Spraying hexanal formula on mango trees. Credit: Vijay Kutty/IDRC Bananas, mangoes and papayas: these tender tropical fruits are in high demand in export markets and an important livelihood source for producers. But freshness is key because these fruits spoil quickly and damage easily. The challenge is especially daunting where refrigeration is lacking. Estimates suggest that up to 40% of produce in tropical countries is lost in post-harvest handling. Breakthrough research by Canadian, Indian and Sri Lankan partners points to a promising innovation: nanotech applications of a natural plant extract called hexanal can be used to delay fruit ripening. Hexanal inhibits a plant enzyme that is responsible for breaking cell membranes during a fruit's ripening process. In initial research in India and Sri Lanka, scientists used a hexanal-impregnated formula to test the product on mangoes. Spraying orchards with a low concentration of the compound slowed fruit ripening by three weeks. The team is also developing "smart packaging" systems, made from materials such as banana fibre, that slowly release hexanal to extend storage life after fruit is harvested. These applications can boost farmers' incomes. "Let's say a mango farmer sprays half or one third of the orchard with the formulation," explains Jay Subramanian, a professor at Canada's University of Guelph. "He gets that same mango production but spread out over a three- to four-week window instead of just one week, which causes a major rush and a glut in the market, leading to low prices." In field trials, farmers were able to earn up to 15% more for their crop. Once harvested, the sprayed mangoes remained fresh for up to 26 days in cold storage and 17 days at room temperature. Researchers at the University of Guelph, India's Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and Sri Lanka's Industrial Technology Institute are building on this early success. Under a second phase of funding through the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund, a joint initiative of Canada's International Development Research Centre and Global Affairs Canada, they are taking their investigations beyond Asia. Together with institutions in Kenya, Tanzania, and Trinidad and Tobago, they are looking at hexanal applications with other fruits under different growing conditions. The research teams are testing a variety of sprays, coatings and packaging on bananas, citrus, papayas and even some Canadian tender fruits and berries. Each fruit presents its own unique challenges, such as ripening along different timelines, requiring fine-tuning of the application process. Biosafety testing shows promise. Already approved as a food additive in the United States, hexanal leaves no harmful residues. "It's a very natural compound," says Dr Subramanian. "In our academic research we have found that if you spray or dip the fruit with it, within 48 hours it's all gone; you can't find even a trace using a microscope." A range of new materials is being developed, including wraps containing electro-spun or sprayed nanoparticles infused with hexanal for slow release of hexanal vapours. While exploring ways to delay ripening and improve shelf life, scientists are looking for opportunities to commercialise these technologies so they can be scaled up. The aim is to ensure the technology has a global reach and benefits low-income farmers, not just large producers. Explore further Scientists identify way to 'sniff' ripeness of mangos Provided by International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Though much progress has been made toward gender equality, news coverage of female politicians typically follows gendered lines that often disregards women's competence in political affairs, a University of Texas at Arlington assistant communication professor has found. Dustin Harp, an expert in gender and media studies, examines the issue in "Hillary Clinton's Benghazi Hearing Coverage: Political Competence, Authenticity, and the Persistence of the Double Bind," which appears online in the June issue of Women's Studies in Communication. News coverage of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is well studied concerning women in U.S. politics. In her timely paper, Harp investigated the ways in which gender played a role in the more recent discourse. The findings suggest that though this news media coverage shows some improvement in how Clinton was covered compared with previous research regarding representations of female politicians, the conversations still employ stereotypical feminine frames, including questioning Clinton's proficiency as a leader. "Because of gender stereotypes, women are expected to act in particular ways that often place them in a double bind," Harp said. "The double bind is an either/or situation where a person has one or the other option but where both options penalize the person. "One of these binds, femininity/competency is particularly tough for women politicians because to be feminine is seen as less powerful, which is clearly not good for a leader. At the same time to be a competent woman is problematic for many people who see that as unfeminine. So in this case the woman is criticized either way." On January 23, 2013, Clinton executed one of her last significant duties as secretary of state when she testified at the congressional committee hearings regarding the 2012 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans died in the attack. Both of the committees before which Clinton testified were made up primarily of men. News coverage hinted at a new double bind pitting competence against authenticity, whereas Clinton's emotional displays during the hearing were regarded as either a lack of control that undermined her capability or an insincere show of emotion to escape blame for the situation. "Media coverage of the hearings is a particularly interesting site for analysis," said Harp. "Not only was this an event in which a female politician participated in a heavily male-dominated setting, but also Clinton's performance was at the core of the political event. The juxtaposition of gender and politics, televised for all to see, is especially noteworthy." Harp undertook the new study with Ingrid Bachmann, assistant professor of communications at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, and Jaime Loke, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oklahoma. The three researchers also co-authored "Where are the Women? The Presence of Female Columnists in U.S. Opinion Pages," in the June 2014 issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. For their new study, the team examined 93 articles and commentary from the eight most heavily visited U.S. news websites from Jan. 22 to Feb. 4, 2013. The news sites included CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, the Huffington Post, Fox News, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. News aggregators, such as Google News, and non-U.S. outlets, such as BBC News were excluded. News websites were examined as there has been a significant readership decline in traditional daily newspapers and the overall news market has grown as a result of the availability of online coverage. Harp's study found that Clinton often is presented as a competent political figure, but also that her emotions are referenced in gendered ways. A Los Angeles Times story, for example, explained that at one point "Clinton's voice broke." USA Today highlighted both that she "was near tears as she talked" and that "she erupted in anger." A Washington Post commentary described Clinton as "blowing her lid." These descriptions are in line with past research findings that show how women's emotions are the focus of much attention, whereas men's emotional displays are scrutinized or mocked only when the reaction is deemed exaggerated or in violation of traditional masculinity, the paper found. One example of a man showing emotion that was later documented by the media includes former Speaker of the House John Boehner's tearful episodes during important interviews and political events. However, for women, the study found that being emotional was described as a part of who they are. For men, it is a trait that is demonstrated only sporadically, a peculiarity that is not a part of being male. The two emotions most prominent in news websites' coverage of Clinton during the Benghazi hearing were anger and sadness. The findings are in line with analysis of previous studies that have shown news coverage of female politicians is often sex stereotypical to the extent that the media function to undermine or even dismiss women politicians. "We found that when Clinton did show her humanity with an emotional display, either her capability was compromised by a show of weakness or her display was considered part of a calculated ploy," Harp said. One of the senators at the Benghazi hearings complained to CNN that Clinton "used an emotional trump card" to avoid his questions, and a column on Fox News argued that the display had been strategically timed. Because she has often been considered hard and lacking warmth, in ways hindering her likeability, had Clinton not choked up when talking about the victims of the Benghazi attacks she would have arguably been criticized for being too cold and unsympathetic. This scenario perfectly illustrates the double bind's no-win situation, Harp noted in the study. Elisabeth Cawthon, interim dean of the UTA College of Liberal Arts, said Harp's study is an example of excellence in research into the human condition, a core theme of the University's Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact. "Dr. Harp's work adds greatly to the ongoing, greater discussion about women in leadership, language used to define them, how these women are perceived in society, and the media's role in perpetuating or dispelling stereotypes about them," Cawthon said. "As more women enter higher-profile arenas, including the political sphere, studies such as this one can serve as a guide for those who have an impact on deciding what it means to be feminine or masculine, and regarding issues of gender equality." Cawthon added that the research is especially timely considering Clinton's historic bid to become the first woman president of the United States. Harp joined UTA in 2011 and has focused her research on issues of power and voice in the public sphere. She has published work on women and marginalized groups, journalism, and digital and social media. Harp also recently examined media coverage of the 2013 filibuster by former state Sen. Wendy Davis to block an abortion-restricting bill in the Texas Legislature. The move became a political exhibition and symbolized dominant gender values and norms. "The Spectacle of Politics: Wendy Davis, Abortion, and Pink Shoes in the Texas 'Fillybuster," is published online in the April 2016 issue of Journal of Gender Studies. Explore further Researcher examines lack of female opinion columnists in the US More information: Dustin Harp et al, Hillary Clinton's Benghazi Hearing Coverage: Political Competence, Authenticity, and the Persistence of the Double Bind, Women's Studies in Communication (2016). Dustin Harp et al, Hillary Clinton's Benghazi Hearing Coverage: Political Competence, Authenticity, and the Persistence of the Double Bind,(2016). DOI: 10.1080/07491409.2016.1171267 Credit: Tiago Fioreze / Wikipedia (Phys.org)A pair of researchers has found evidence that suggests that large marine animals are still being threatened by persistent organic pollutants (POPs) despite international regulations forbidding their use. In their paper published in the journal Science, Paul Jepson with the Zoological Society of London and Robin Law with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, both in the U.K. outline which animals are most at risk and from which types of pollutants. They also make some suggestions regarding ways to reduce the problem. Over the past half century, environmental scientists have identified several types of POPs that have proven detrimental to wildlifePCBs, DDT, etc., and governments have then taken action to stop their use. But, Jepson and Law claim, because of the long persistence of the chemicals and because some countries have not banned the substances, many of the animals that live at the top of the food chain are still at serious risk. POPs are dangerous to marine animals because they still exist in products that were made decades ago, in landfills and in small bits of material that exist in the ocean. Fish eat small amounts of material that have POPs in it and they are then in turn eaten by a bigger fish, which are in turn eaten perhaps by a shark or killer whale. Those POPs then build up in those larger animals because of the huge amounts of fish they consume and because their bodies do not get rid of them. Some, such as Orcas inadvertently feed POPs to their offspring via their milk. Serious study of the impact of POPs on large marine animals has not been conducted, the research pair point out, and because of that it is not clear how much harm they are causing, though there is one impact that is believed to be common in all animals that ingest POPsthey become less fertile. Jepson and Law note that Orcas, the animal that consistently has the most POPs in its body, have been declining in numbers for many years. It is possible, they suggest, that many are no longer able to reproduce, especially those that live close to shorelines high in POP concentrations, such as the US and European coasts. They suggest that studies be conducted to learn the true impact of POPs on large marine animals, to learn the source of current POP emissions into the seas and that mitigation policies be put into place to reduce the amounts of the chemicals that continue to make their way into the world's oceans. Explore further Study finds toxic pollutants in fish across the world's oceans More information: P. D. Jepson et al. Persistent pollutants, persistent threats, Science (2016). Journal information: Science P. D. Jepson et al. Persistent pollutants, persistent threats,(2016). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf9075 2016 Phys.org VENICE, FL(Marketwired Jun 16, 2016) Advanced Credit Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: ACRT) has issued the following update on the companys business and information objectives going forward in the second quarter of 2016. Advanced Credit Technologies, Inc. is pleased to announce it has agreed in principal to have Toronto based Zoompass (www.zoompass.com) facilitate its financial services processing for its various verticals, and to also include the TurnScor Pre-Paid Card. As the market expands and diversifies, prepaid card products are increasingly in demand by both the unbanked as well as the more seasoned banked population. This increased activity is demanding considerable attention from financial institutions, which are benefitting by making these cards more attractive to consumers. According to a recent study from Mercator Advisory Group, Inc., consumers loaded $276.7 billion onto prepaid cards last year and the organization predicts that number to exceed $568.4 billion by 2016. That makes it the fastest-growing non-cash method of payment in the United States. (Find Point-Of-Sale Resources, White Papers, Case studies, Software for Retailers ) The explosive growth in this part of the financial services arena is why partnering with Zoompass, a leading global financial services company and developer of one of the leading white label mobile wallet solutions in the market today, creates such a powerful combination. Zoompasss ability to offer products in all the channels opens up significant opportunities, such as payroll cards, student university cards, travel cards, and affinity cards makes them a natural fit with our marketing goals, said Chris Jackson CEO of Advanced Credit. Chris Jackson further stated, Partnering with a company like Zoompass gives us the flexibility we need in the market place, the resources to go global, and still give customers the personal touch. This is one of the hallmarks of our company, stated Rob Lee, CEO, Zoompass Inc. We pride ourselves on going the extra mile for customers and clients alike, and were really excited to help Advanced Credit Technologies, Inc. get their cards into the market place. This is a growing space and our virtual wallet truly compliments the card program. Were extremely motivated to get these programs launched to start deriving revenues for both companies. About Zoompass Zoompass Inc. is a leading financial services technology company with a unique place in the Fintech space as both a technology platform provider and physical prepaid card provider. Zoompass provides businesses and government complete program management services for a wide range of open loop Visa and MasterCard prepaid and virtual card accounts. Zoompass enables businesses to provide their customers with a number of open loop card choices including, gift cards, incentive cards, check replacement cards and online virtual card accounts. The company also provides advanced mobile technology, enabling businesses to provide their customers with a white label mobile wallet solution, like Zoompass, with the ability to manage their card balances, bill pay, transfer funds and perform card to card money transfers in real time using their mobile devices. For more information about Zoompass, visit www.zoompass.com. Safe Harbor: From time to time, the Company may issue news releases that contain forward-looking statements 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 may contain statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. For those statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statement provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any amendments thereto. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions, or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based upon expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated. BOSTON, MA(Marketwired Jun 16, 2016) Cayan today announced a new addition to its executive team, Rachel Trueblood, who joins as senior vice president of marketing. Rachel, who is a retail industry veteran, is responsible for leading the companys marketing strategy and overseeing its execution to drive the companys overall success. Rachel joins Cayan at a time of expansive growth both domestically and internationally having just completed two build outs of their Boston headquarters and a brand new office space in Belfast, Ireland. As the mobile payments industry continues to expand, Rachels marketing leadership experience in the retail industry will be integral to Cayans continued development and success. (Find Point-Of-Sale Resources, White Papers, Case studies, Software for Retailers ) Rachel is taking the helm of Cayans marketing team at a pivotal time, said Henry Helgeson, CEO and co-founder of Cayan. As Cayan continues to adapt, evolve and lead the way innovating within the payments industry, Rachels marketing expertise is exactly what we need to continue differentiating ourselves. Rachel joins Cayan from Staples, where she held various roles during her tenure including head of marketing for Staples UK division and leading Staples global internal agency, brand and media teams. Most recently, Rachel led the strategic initiatives team, which, amongst other areas, included overseeing Staples private label credit portfolios, mobile payments, gift cards and developing and launching Staples Business Loans. At Cayan, Rachel will be leading a team of 20 marketing professionals, including an internal creative and web development team, channel marketing, lead generation, product marketing, brand management, digital and social media, and marketing communications teams. Its a privilege to work alongside some of the most innovative, forward-thinking individuals Boston has to offer, said Rachel. One of our greatest challenges as a company is to put the stake in the ground as leaders in this rapidly changing industry. Im greatly looking forward to bringing my marketing experience to the table in order to help accomplish that goal. Rachel received her Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University as well as a Masters of Business Administration from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. About Cayan Cayan is the leading provider of payment technologies that give businesses a competitive advantage. From simple and reliable payment processing, to fully integrated, multi-channel customer engagement platforms, Cayan is continuously developing new ways for businesses to unlock the power of payments. Headquartered in Boston, the company has multiple offices in the United States and Belfast, Northern Ireland. Cayan is one of the worlds fastest growing payment companies. For more information, visit www.cayan.com. For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser Green Party congressional candidate Matt Funiciello will speak to Old North Church Patriots, a tea party group in Lewis County. "It should be interesting, should't it?" Funiciello said, referring to his appearance at a meeting at 7 p.m. Friday at Fellowship Bible Church in Lyons Falls. "About a month ago they sent me out an e-mail and they followed up with a phone call. A gentleman who organizes the group said they are interested in having all the (congressional) candidates in to talk with them," Funiciello in a telephone interview on Thursday. Funciello, a bread company owner and political activist from Hudson Falls, is running in the 21st Congressional District against U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, and Democratic candidate Mike Derrick, a retired Army colonel from Peru, in Clinton County. "It's not a fundraiser. It's not rubber chicken," Funiciello said. "It's talking to people who are not in agreement with the two (major) parties." Funciello said the Green Party has some common issues with the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) party movement. "We have some issues differences between the tea party and the Green Party, for sure," he said. "But the overarching ideas that we want corporate money out of politics and that we want government that spends less of the money that we have are the same." While he is in the area on Friday, Funiciello and his campaign team will be filming endorsement and issues videos in the western part of the district. "We're releasing a new website next week," he said. "We're trying to get a new look fashioned out for all of that will allow it to be very informative and video oriented." This is Funiciello's second campaign trip in recent weeks to the western part of the district. This is the latest in a series of posts about the suffrage movement in Warren and Washington counties. The heading in The Post-Star on June 15, 1916 read, Suffrage Talk Over the Telephone. Mrs. Elmer J. West of Glens Falls and Mrs. Frank P. Deering of San Francisco participated in a coast-to-coast telephone call that chambers of commerce in the two cities arranged. I am so glad that you are going to have another campaign for woman suffrage in New York in 1917. I am sure it will be your last one, Deering said. Suffrage had become accepted in California, as evidenced by no one attempting to repeal it, she said. Since we have initiative and referendum in California, were even a small number of men and women dissatisfied with the way woman suffrage works, it would be very easy to start the recall, she said. The value of suffrage is not only because of the better legislation and law enforcement which results, women voluntarily working and voting for measures they are particularly interested in, she said, but to the effect on the women themselves. Deering said suffrage resulted in increased dialogue between spouses. I heard several men say that they now were forced to inform themselves on public issues because of the interest of their wives and daughters, she said. The article can be viewed in the microfilm collection at Crandall Public Library. Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series. FORT ANN An inmate at Washington Correctional Facility was arrested Wednesday for allegedly displaying his genitalia and masturbating during a meeting with a female parole officer in the prison. Lionel L. Alleyne II, 35, was charged with public lewdness, a misdemeanor, after an investigation by State Police, authorities said. The charge was filed after troopers were called to the prison when a parole officer reported that Alleyne exposed himself while the two were meeting to discuss his upcoming release from prison. She was the only person in the room with him, and told police that he had his hands in his pants for a period of time before unzipping them and exposing himself, and she was concerned he was going to sexually assault her, according to State Police. Alleyne was meeting with the parole officer because he is due to be released from prison on Tuesday, having served the full four years of a 4-year prison term for a 2012 felony drug conviction in Warren County Court. Alleyne was jailed after pleading guilty to possessing 43 grams of crack cocaine in Glens Falls in June 2012. He was a resident of New York City at the time, and police said he was in Warren County to sell drugs. He also had nearly $4,000 in cash that he forfeited. Despite the arrest days before his scheduled release, the arrest may not have much of an effect on his parole next week. Alleyne will have served all of his sentence as of Tuesday, and can only be held past that date if he doesnt have a suitable residence to which to go or other post-prison requirements arent met. If the arrest came after his release, he could be accused of violating parole and jailed again. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision would not comment Friday on the matter, saying the situation remained under investigation. She said he is scheduled to be released Tuesday. Records released by the agency show that he had 11 disciplinary violations while in prison, although no prior sexual incidents were listed. QUEENSBURY Making small lifestyle changes can make a big difference to the environment. Whether it is using reusable shopping bags instead of plastic, growing your own vegetables or using public transportation, small steps can reduce an individuals carbon footprint and create momentum, according to Stephen Danna, dean of SUNY Plattsburghs Queensbury campus at SUNY Adirondack. If we feel like were doing something, were more likely to do other things, he said Friday at the colleges second annual climate change conference, called North Country Climate Reality: Inspiration, Common Ground and Action. About 80 people attended the daylong event, which was a partnership between SUNY Plattsburgh and Green Mountain College and featured workshops, presentations and music. The goal of the conference is to inspire people to take action. People broke into small groups to discuss what they do to help the environment and what more they could do. Tim Ellifritz of North Creek said he uses wood heating and dries his clothes outside when it is warm. But he needs a car to get to work and to haul around music equipment for the band he is in. Ellifritz said sometimes he feels social pressure to have the latest and greatest electronic gadgets. Living a simpler, environmentally friendly lifestyle can go against the grain. Youve got to be the first person to do it a lot of times, he said. Simon James of Poultney, Vermont, lives by the slogan: reduce, reuse and recycle. He walks or bikes to get places. I buy locally grown food as much as possible, which is a huge carbon footprint reducer, he said. James is a student at Green Mountain College with a dual major in philosophy and environmental engineering and ecology. William Pierce of Plattsburgh said he would like to bike more, but it is not often practical. What would be a 2- to 3-minute drive for me would be a 20-minute walk, he said. The conference featured some special guests, including Michelle McCauley, professor of psychology at Middlebury College, and her husband, artist Kevin Kite, who created an environmentally themed web comic called Hurry Up Please Its Time. They showed off several of their cartoons including one that showed two lobsters in a pot with one saying to the other: I can take the heat. Its the humidity that kills me and another with the sun saying to the Earth Fire code regulations prevent us from seating any more people on planet Earth. McCauley said they try to use humor to get the message across. We hope this type of work will invite people into the conversations. We hope we can get people to take a pause and think differently, she said. They also try to cut through some of the scientific jargon. Sometimes people get confused when they listen to scientists and hear them speaking in probabilities, not 100 percent certainties. What the laypeople hear is: You dont know. And if you dont know, why should I change anything? she said. People also heard some environmentally themed music from groups such as Juxtapoze, an Adirondacks-based trio. Mother Earth is screaming for our help. Can you hear it? The time is now for us to be compelled to help the planet. We have got to change, sang Vinnie Leddick. The group also features Ellifritz and Michelle Howland. Sponsors for the event included Solution Generation, Apex Solar Power and New York State United Teachers. Conference organizers plan a mid-year event to monitor progress people are making on their goals. Kathy Braico of Queensbury, a retired pediatrician and a conference attendee, said climate change is a serious threat. I really think this is incredibly important and everything that we can do to help mitigate global warming and improve the environment is crucial, she said. Spring is coming sooner. Summers are hotter. Winters are less wintry. Braico said her family owns a plug-in electric car and buys energy from a renewable energy provider. Paul Sheehan, also of Queensbury, said he is looking into using solar energy. I have children and grandchildren. I want to do what I can, he said. Hudson Headwaters Health Network is establishing a new traveling dental program. We should be starting in the fall, said Trip Shannon, chief development officer of Hudson Headwaters. Dental hygientists will provide cleanings, screenings and education at elementary schools and Head Start programs in Warren, Washington and Essex counties, for students through the fifth grade. Hudson Headwaters will bill Medicaid or private dental insurance, if the family has coverage, but will not charge the family for any expenses not covered. No family member of a patient is going to get a bill, Shannon said. The federal Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday announced a $525,000 grant for the program, of which $350,000 will be allocated in the first year. It is preventative and educational in nature, although it will also provide cleanings and flouride and sealant programs, Shannon said. Patients who need additional dental work will be referred to dental practices in the area. The first school districts covered will be Glens Falls, Queensbury and Warrensburg in Warren County; Hudson Falls and Fort Edward in Washington County; and Ticonderoga, Moriah and St. Marys elementary school in Essex County; along with Head Start sites in all three counties. Hudson Headwaters did an analysis of school districts with the greatest concentration of families on Medicaid, based on the health networks patient data. Other school districts might be added in the future. When school is not in session, the program will travel to health centers in the Hudson Headwaters chain. Modern compact equipment makes it easier and less costly to operate a traveling program than with specially equipped recreational vehicle dental vans of the past, Shannon said. This equipment all folds up. You throw it in the back of a Subaru hatchback or something, and you drive to the school, he said. About a year ago, the state enacted a law that allows dental hygienists to work without a dentist being present, so long as the hygienist is managed by a dentist. Hudson Headwaters will add jobs to staff the program. Were clearly going to have to hire a couple of hygienists and possibly dental assistants. And there also will be a program coordinator, he said. A complex plan costing more than $30,000 has finally been set up to make sure people arrested in Washington County have legal representation at their arraignment. The system is the result of a settlement in the Hurrell-Harring lawsuit against the state. The state agreed to provide lawyers at indigent suspects first court appearance, at which bail can be set. But getting public defenders to all of those appearances wasnt easy. The problem was that people need to be arraigned who are arrested in the middle of the night on felony and some misdemeanor charges often in drug, DWI or domestic abuse cases. Judges are on call to handle those arraignments, but lawyers are not. For now, assistant district attorneys and public defenders will be on call every night in case someone is charged with a crime. Those who are not released with an appearance ticket must have representation when they meet the judge who will set the conditions for their release. Generally, they are released on bail. But by this fall, those who need to see a judge before release will likely be brought to Washington County Jail for the night. The Senate and Assembly passed legislation allowing Washington and Essex counties to create holding cells at their jails. Suspects will wait there until the next regularly scheduled court session. The legislation is awaiting the governors signature. Assuming he signs it, the countys plan must then be approved by the state Commission of Correction, county attorney Roger Wickes said. It will still take a couple months, he said. Some of those who are currently being called in the middle of the night are counting down the days. Salem Supervisor Seth Pitts said his town justice was called at 1:30 a.m. recently to arraign a man arrested in Hudson Falls. They called five other justices in the middle of the night. No one would answer their phones, Pitts said. So the man was driven to Salem. Representatives from the District Attorneys Office and the Public Defenders Office also had to make the trek. When everyone was finally present, the justice was able to hold the brief arraignment. The on-call arrangement will cost the county and the state about $900 each, every week, until the holding cell at the jail is approved. And thats just for Washington County. The county is paying for the assistant district attorneys, while New York Office of Indigent Legal Services covers the on-call payments to public defenders. Each employee gets paid $100 per week day and $200 per weekend day or holiday on call, retroactive to May 16. The state is also covering the increased costs at the public defenders office, where one part-time defender will become full-time. Only the public defenders were required in the settlement, but county officials said prosecutors must be there as well. Hurrell-Harring changed everything, said county Budget Officer and Hebron Supervisor Brian Campbell. Prosecutors can choose not to show up, based on the particulars of the case. They dont have to be there at every single one, said Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff. The county is covering its portion of the costs with funds from forfeited bail. Once the holding cell is approved, costs will decrease but the inconvenience to those arrested may be higher. Suspects will have to wait for hours, and if they are arrested just before a holiday, they may have to wait more than a day for arraignment. FORT EDWARD Christmas could be canceled for every Washington County supervisor under the proposed ethics law. The supervisors debated the law at Fridays Board of Supervisors meeting before tabling it and sending it back to the Government Operations Committee. At issue was the laws ban on all gifts worth more than $75. Supervisors could not accept such a gift, and neither could their children or spouse. Supervisors were torn between banning all gifts, at any price, or allowing any gift for their family members. Personally, we shouldnt be accepting anything, said White Creek Supervisor Robert Shay. I would just do away with the $75. But Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff said legislators families shouldnt have to skip all gifts. Youve got Christmas, birthdays. People get gifts all the time, he said. As for a ban on expensive gifts, he said that might not be reasonable either. So my daughters fictitious boyfriend gives her an engagement ring thats $5,000 at Christmas, he said, offering an example of a gift that would not be allowed under the rules. At what point does this become unworkable? The rules appear to cover both sides of the issue. In the law, supervisors and their families cant accept gifts valued at more than $75, but if they do, they must disclose the gift in a written annual report, said county attorney Roger Wickes. The idea is you do the disclosures and everyones cards are on the table, he said. Then others can look through the gift disclosures and see whether anyone appeared unduly influenced by voting in certain ways that benefited the gift-giver, he added. Theres a possibility of a gift thats not a gift, he said. The rationale behind the ban on family members receiving gifts is that the supervisor could be indirectly influenced, Wickes explained. The idea is, Im not going to give Legislator A $1,000, Im going to give it to his wife or his kid, Wickes said. But he acknowledged that the ethics rules were designed to respond to ways in which people had misused loopholes before. Those who want to follow the spirit of the law should simply consider whether any gift is a conflict of interest, he said. Those who dont want to follow the law can find ways around it. It doesnt make you honest, he said. WEST GLENS FALLS Thomas Tracy doesnt look for much glory. But he came away with plenty Friday morning, when the Hudson Valley Volunteer Firemans Association awarded him its Joseph F. Kelly Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award at the West Glens Falls Fire Department, as part of the associations annual convention. The award is given to longtime active firefighters who also devote time to other community organizations. Tracy, who serves with the South Glens Falls Fire Department, has been an active firefighter for 64 years and is his departments longest-serving and oldest active member. Flanked by an honor guard and trailed by a line of uniformed firefighters, Tracy walked to the front of the ceremony room to accept his award as a standing ovation rippled through the audience. He took the trophy, a miniature metal firefighters helmet, murmuring a quiet appreciation. The onlookers wanted a speech, but he gave them only a humble thank you. It was enough to earn him thunderous applause anyway. Im overwhelmed, he said after the ceremony, the trophy in his lap. Many generations Tracys 64-year career has been both the product of and the inspiration for a generations-old family affair with volunteer firefighting. The 80-year-old officially joined the South Glens Falls department when he was 18 years old though he let slip after the ceremony that he really began two years prior, maybe off the books when his father, Paul, was chief. Tracy himself later served in that role and as assistant chief. Serving alongside his father proved good for bonding, he said, sitting in a bright red 1945 firetruck, before which his department had just gathered for a group photo. Hed rode on that very truck years ago while it was still in active service. Tracys son, Tim, joined in his early 20s when his father was chief, mirroring the experience of his father and grandfather. He served for about a decade. He missed a lot of dinners, Tim said of his father. My mom would have the dinner on the table, and then the pager would go off and hed have to leave. But the interruptions were worth it. A lot of time youre saving peoples lives and their property, he said. Tracys uncle and cousins were volunteers, too. His uncle, Walt Sparky Tracy, died in the line of duty decades ago. Kayla Tracy Arnold, Tracys granddaughter, spent the first half of her life in her grandparents home, constantly exposed to firefighting. Tracy was her only male role model growing up, she said. Im ridiculously proud, she said of her grandfathers honor. I wouldnt want anyone else to be my grandfather. She hopes her 1-year-old son, Royce Thomas Arnold whose middle name is meant to carry on his great-grandfathers continues the firefighting tradition in the future. Outside the fire station that day, he was fixated on the 1945 truck; his shirt read, Grandmas Lil Chief. Father figure Nicholas Quinn, assistant chief at South Glens Falls, was excited to see Tracy take home the award, especially because of the impact he has had on scores of firefighters there. Hes a father, grandfather-type figure to all of us, he said, adding later, We couldnt be more excited to celebrate this with him. Quinn said Tracy offers all kinds of advice to those coming up through the ranks for life, for training anything he knows he can pass on. He said Tracy, while not as active on calls as he used to be, still does jobs that need to be done. We dont need to put him to work, he said. He puts himself to work. Like his mentor, Quinn joined the service when he was just 16 years old. Hes been around firefighters, and Tracy, for most of his adult life. There are few firefighters in the region from Kingston to Lake Placid and beyond who dont know Tracy, the assistant chief said. Hes just so involved, he said. Hes touching so many peoples lives by just talking to them. Tracy has served on the departments board of directors and, along with being assistant chief and chief, has served as a safety officer and captain. He contributed to the creation of the junior firefighters program for children, the water rescue team in 1985 and an apprentice firefighter program for ages 16 to 18. He has also held positions with the Hudson Mohawk Volunteer Firefighters Association Convention Committee, the Hudson Valley Volunteer Firemans Association Convention Committee and the Saratoga County Fire Officers Association. While Quinn said the community might not realize the full extent of Tracys involvement, hes sure theyre thankful for it. Either way, firefighting is often a thankless job. And we like to keep it that way, he said. Its in your heart Tracy said he has far too many memories to pluck out just a few to remember. But as for why hes done all hes done, his answer was simple and easy. I just appreciate helping them, he said, referring to people in his community. The veteran firefighter, who also earned an award that morning for bringing the most new members into the association, had equally simple advice for young people thinking about becoming volunteer firefighters, as he did so long ago. Its in your heart, he said. Its something you gotta love. Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether Read more Ahiakpor said the impounded 40 foot containers are currently undergoing due processes to compel the owners to pay their duties with penalty. The state is waiting for them [owners of the trucks] to come up and just that two [trucks], the duty liability, including penalty is GHC750, 000. I am waiting for them, they will put in their declarations and then we can collect GHC750, 000, he said. He added: The spare parts too if I should estimate it, if I do not expect to get anything less than 20, 000 out of that operation. Ahiakpor said smuggling of items to avoid paying tax is a regular occurrence in Kumasi. What they were carrying is high duty and that is what is going on in Kumasi now. [They will not] smuggling. Habits and whatever they say die hard, he said. Speaking during the Conference which was under the theme Setting the Standards for the Future The Role of the Natural Resources Professional, Lawrence Omari-Mensah, President & Executive Secretary of WAIMM, said, ''the Mineral and Petroleum Industry of Africa is one of the largest in the world, and West Africa is gradually becoming the hub of Mining and Petroleum Industry in Africa ; Interestingly, Minerals, Oil and Gas exploration and subsequent exploitation remain key to the development of most countries in West Africa. Delivering his opening address, Dr. Toni Aubynn, CEO of the Minerals Commission of Ghana said, The mining age is a critical stage of an industrial revolution and we must not destroy when we mine '. He went further to state that, perhaps we need to adopt the concept of optimization and maximization. Dr. Aubynn expressed the need to move away from ounces and bullions saying, We need to have effective use of Talent. He subsequently argued for the state to influence the cost of operations of miners, emphasizing, that it is important and crucial. On exploration, the CEO of the Minerals Commission of Ghana stated that, stakeholders must look critically at the cost of producing and exploration adding that Small Scale mining has been the Bane in the industry. The cost of illegal mining is a shared responsibility. He was of the view that Ghana should reclassify Small Scale Mining more to Medium Scale. Finally, he hinted that, soon there will be the Digitization of Mining Licenses. This is when Small Scale Miners can apply for mining licenses on the internet and monitor the status of the application online without travelling all the way to the capital (Accra). He advised politicians to be bold and condemn activities of galamsey operators, and desist from supporting such operations despite being in an election year. According to the actor who has also played roles as fetish priest, member of council of elders, among others, even if a movie is tragic, a bit of comic relief is necessary. God has blessed me with creativity. No other person has strived to create comic relief. Thats too bad. Why should we lament because we are watching a tragedy? A tragedy can have a comic relief. I saw many years ago that the writers were not putting comic relief in the scripts so I decided to create it so that even if youre watching somebody who has been poisoned or killed in whatever way, youll have cause still to laugh, he noted. Asked if he has been having nightmares after playing dangerous roles in movies, Chiwetalu Agu answered, I pity anybody who does this business without first of all calling on God. He mentioned that they never shoot scenes at live shrines; rather, they set up theirs for fear of any repercussions. The case is however different when there is a church scene. When I play a native doctor, we dont use live shrines. Its not good to use live shrines. People might have worshipped there and the spirit must have engraved that place so why should you not use your common sense? he said. According to Hammer, he likes grooming talents because they are ready to listen and will welcome his criticisms, some of which may be harsh. However, artistes who have already tasted stardom may find such criticisms unfortunate and derogatory. I always bring them from the ground and build them. I dont want to work with superstars because they come into the studio with their egos. They come with girls. I will disgrace you. If you are rapping and not doing it well, I will tell you right in the face. I will diss you. So they dont want to risk that. If you are a star, when its time for you to go to the studio, forget about your stardom. Leave it behind. That is very difficult for them to do, he said on Joy FMs Cosmopolitan Mix. According to Van Vicker, Dr Clarice Ford-Kulah has been his manager and that is the only relationship that exists between them. She is my manager and we have partnered on a number of projects in terms of movies and for me she has become more of a family than just a manager because I mean we go beyond just manager because she knows my family, she visits, she knows my sister, she knows my mum so she is more of a family than just a manager I can tell you it is outright untrue and like she puts it, it was a nonsense allegation or nonsense accusation. For me, I can say clearly it is absolutely untrue, Van Vicker told Hitz FM. My wife will deny the accusations and claim to be Van Vicker's Manager and Business partner, thats what she always says, its all a cover up, and Ive caught them at a hotel twice, Dr Kulah said. Dr Clarice Ford-Kulah in a statement described the accusation as nonsense. In response to the recent rumors trending on the internet concerning Van Vicker and me, none of it is true. Neither Van nor I would do such a thing. We both have families that we love and care about dearly. Van and I have worked together professionally and as a family for over five years and have never encountered such nonsense accusations, her statement read. My husband has security issues due to an accident that has completely interrupted his life. He has been harassing all of my male friends, including pastors, ministers, and deacons for years and I chose to ignore, she added. When Van Vicker was asked during the interview if he knew the husband of his manager, he said, I dont know him, well I met him once and that is it. Although Dr Bartum Kulah has threatened to release pictures as evidence, Van Vicker is sure the pictures will be ordinary ones since he has had no affair with his manager. The suspects, Nikolay Petev Nedyalkov, 24, and Petar Petrov Yardanov, 33, are believed to have been living in Ghana for some years. The Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police Mr. Prosper Agblor, told journalists that the police began investigations following reports from affected banks that some of their customers have been complaining about a series of unauthorised ATM withdrawals from their accounts using the Gh-link platform. Mr Agblor said while investigations were ongoing, a member of the staff of Prudential Bank alerted the bank to an unauthorised withdrawal of GH140 from his account through an ATM at the banks head office about 4:30 p.m. on June 6, 2016. He said the police went to the scene and examined a CCTV footage, which revealed a fair young man on a motorbike suspected to be behind the unauthorised withdrawal. A search was mounted for him and was subsequently arrested two hours later when he was spotted on his motorbike at the Prudential Bank head office ATM. Items retrieved from the suspect and his accomplice included 24 ATM cards suspected to have been cloned, four pink sticker sheets with numbers written on them suspected to be the corresponding pin codes of the ATM cards and six ATM printout receipts with amounts between GH140 and GH280. The body was flown in an Airforce MI17 Helicopter from Airforce base in Accra to Busunu. Janaza prayers led by Alhaji Nuhu Kamagtey, Gonja Community Imam of Accra were said at the tarmac of the Airforce base before takeoff. The deceased popularly known as Hajia died on Tuesday night in Accra. The President had earlier that day started his accounting to the people tour in the Greater Accra region. He called it off afterwards to mourn with his family. The cause of death is not readily known but Pulse News understands that the deceased who was popularly known as Hajia was very old and could barely move. Hajia will be buried today according to Muslim tradition. President John Dramani Mahama after the death expressed profound sadness at the death of his mother. In a message to his mother on his official Twitter account, President Mahama said, "...Fare thee well "Mami". I'll forever miss your gentle dignity." Meanwhile other high personalities both home and abroad have expressed their sympathy and support to the president. ...There is a saying in our custom that you go before the gods three times. Thus, when you go before them the third time, they will never fail you. This is because on the two previous occasions, the gods were putting you to the test to determine whether you have faith and patience to be entrusted with what you are requesting for. The chief said this when the 2016 presidential candidate called on him at his palace in Agona Kwanyako, in the Agona East constituency, at the commencement of a 5-day campaign tour of the Central Region on Thursday, June 16, 2016. Nana Ampim Darko V added that whoever is heading for a battle must not be seen to be wavering. With the kind of support I have seen today for you, from residents of Kwanyako and from NPP members, I am sure it will end in success for you. The chief however cautioned political leaders to abstain from the use of intemperate language ahead of the November polls. In a press release, the company gave reasons for choosing this location, adding that the new plant will be the companys "most resource-efficient production location worldwide." Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony on June 16, 2016, the board of Management member for Production, Oliver Zipse, said, "all of the BMW Groups knowledge and capabilities will be on show at our new location in Mexico. The production system being established there will be a leader in productivity and sustainability, thanks to the use of innovative technologies. I am delighted to launch this ground-breaking BMW Group plant on its way. This new plant, comprising of body shop, paint shop and assembly, is where BMWs best-selling model series, the BMW 3 Series Sedan, will be produced. 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! In the letter, he praised the law enforcement officers, who showed braveness and handled their jobs responsibly during the attack. The prince wrote, "I wanted to write and express my most sincere condolences to the people of Orlando after the horrific attack on the Pulse nightclub on Sunday," "Having just spent time in Orlando I know what a warm and welcoming community it is. In spite of this senseless act, I have no doubt that the love and friendship of your city will remain strong." "I would also like to pass on my deepest admiration to the law enforcement officers who attended the nightclub during the attack for their extraordinary bravery and professionalism." "Our thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones at this most difficult of times. You are all in our prayers as you face the days and weeks ahead." The shooting, which has been met with worldwide condemnation, happened on Sunday, June 12, 2016. Da Viva, textile sponsor for AFWN 2016 will sponsor the brands set to show their latest collections at the event set for 1st-3rd July 2016 at the Eko Hotel & Suites. Details: Date - 1st-3rd July 2016. Venue -The Eko Hotel & Suites Friday 1st July 2016 Conference - 9am.Positioning Nigeria As a Production Hub FREE ENTRY Saturday 2nd July 2016 EXHIBITION - 12 noon - FREE ENTRY 1st show- 1PM N3000 entry 2nd show- 4PM N3000 entry 3rd show- 8PM N3000 entry Sunday 3rd July 1st Show Nigerias Next Top Designer Grand Finale -1 pm - FREE ENTRY 2nd Show AFWN Fashion Gala Night 6 pm - VIP TICKETS & VIP TABLES ONLY Contact: Info@africafashionweeknigeria.com for purchase/registration details. About Nipo Skin is a Fashion Brand that operates in the city of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The brand has been in existence for almost a decade and has over these years grown to become one of the leading brands in high fashion for men and women in all parts of the country. The brand mirrors Ghanas growing diversity and genuinely appeals to a myriad of demographics. Today the brand seeks to serve the fashion needs of men and women of all colours, ages and incomes, all over the world and Nipo Skin has been able to achieve this by exporting Bespoke Pieces to its clients abroad. offers a world of sophistication, comfort and class too both men and women that makes them feel confident and in tune with the changing trends in the ever so dynamic Fashion Industry. With a passion for intricate cuts and details in construction, recognizes the need to provide interesting artistic fashionable pieces for every individual that wants to stay in tune with their sense of style and comfort. The brand has worked on many platforms, styling various celebrities and pageant queens: Some of which include Miss Maliaka 2010 and 2011 and the Head Designer of Face of Independence Hall, KNUST from 2013 to 2016. The brand has showcased its various collections in the past on various runway events in country including the KNUST Fashion Week and Kumasi Fashion Week. About ASAKEOGE pronounced (A-SHA- KE-O-GE). Asake is the founders native name and Oge means Fashion in her native Yoruba language. The London based brand, was founded by Oluyomi Asake Agoro from Nigeria, West Africa. The idea was borne in March 2009 at the London Metropolitan Fashion and Dance Charity Show when she was invited to come up with a collection for the fundraiser. Officially launched with the Afrolosophy collection in spring 2010, ASAKEOGE had a clear vision, to design and produce garments that women of all shapes and sizes would love to wear. Specializing in custom-made womenswear with a passion for bold colours and prints borne from her roots and guided by a strong British tailoring influence, ASAKEOGE designs and produces limited edition ready to wear and one-off garments for the fashion forward woman. Each garment is tailored with attention to detail and emphasis on the feminine silhouette. The ethos of the label is individuality and uniqueness, its a brand for pace setters not fashion followers. The Out Of Africa couture collection features exotic African animals and scenery hand painted with jewel embellishments while the ready to wear collection features cutting edge designs in bold prints and tailored silhouettes while a made to measure services is available for occasion and everyday wear 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! It was gathered that Mohammed who is a friend of the girl's mother, dipped his fingers into her private part before using his penis to sexually assault her. The little girl narrated how Mohammed molested her and giving her two N500 notes. The girl identified as Dupe, told policemen that the suspect actually defiled her. When he came to our house, my mother was not in. He closed the door. He knelt down. I was standing. He put his fingers into me. I screamed. He used his hands to cover my mouth. He gave me money. He gave me two N500 notes and told me not to tell my mummy, Dupe said. The girls mother, Kubura, said that she found out the assault after discovering that her daughter was bleeding and when she asked her what could have caused it, she revealed that Mohammed defiled her when she had gone to the market. The mother reported the matter to the police and when Mohammed was arrested by detectives attached to the Lagos State Police Command, he denied ever touching the girl. According to him, he is the girl's mothers lover and that the woman framed him because he refused to give her some money she requested for. However, Kubura, debunked Mohammeds claim that they were lovers, saying he was only her customer who used to come to her shop to buy herbs. Mohammed is not my lover. He is only my customer and buys herbs from me. I know him. I used to prepare herbal medicine for him. But Im not his lover. I didnt ask him for any money. On the day he raped my daughter, I went out, leaving Dupe with her older siblings. The oldest among them is 20 years. I returned home around 2pm and found Dupe was sleeping. I asked her what was wrong with her. She said she wasnt feeling well. She said a man gave her money. She said the man asked her where her mother was, she told him that her mum wasnt around. He then took her to a back door. She said he put his fingers into her and later his manhood. He told her not to tell anyone. When I found her in bed, she was bleeding. I initially thought it happened at school. I went to school, but they said it wasnt at school. The State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who narrated the incident to newsmen, said: They have threatened to disown him if he disobeys them and go ahead with the marriage. Some 57% of Pulse Nigeria Poll readers are of the belief that couples who do not practice the same religion tend to have problems. A respondent, Richard Akinyemi, has these words for Kamal: "What do you mean by inheritance? landed properties or shares in company. The education given to you is the best inheritance you can ever get from your parents. But try to prevail over them through dialogue, reason being that parents wield a level of power over their children. It is better to seek their consent to avoid problems that may come the way of your expected family through extended family spiritual influences." Read Kamal's letter here: "My name is Kamal and I am from the Northern part of the country. I am from a very strong Islamic home with my parents being staunch Moslems though they are not the types that discriminate against other religions. Right from my childhood, they encouraged me and my siblings to see every human beings as the same, created by the same Allah. We grew up with this knowledge and most of my friends from school were Christians. I mixed with them and while in secondary school, I had the opportunity of attending church services with them. After my university education, I was posted to Port Harcourt for my youth service scheme and that was where I met and fell in love with Chinyere. We so much in love that we agreed to get married despite the fact that we are from different tribes and religion. When I visited her home town in Enugu, her parents were skeptical at first but after i assured them that I had good intentions towards their daughter, they accepted me. But trouble loomed for us when I took her home to introduce to my parents. When my parents found out that she is an Igbo lady and a Christian, they told me in clear terms that I cannot marry her. In fact, my father vowed to disown me if I disobey his words and get married to Chinyere. He has even gone ahead to arrange with his friend for me to marry his daughter, someone I do not love and can never see myself getting married to her. I love Chinyere so much and I will rather disobey my parents and lose my inheritance rather than lose her. What do you think I should do in this situation? Kamal." The teaser for the day was: How Nigeria voted: Yes, couples practicing different religions will always have issues - 57% No, religion should not matter in a marriage - 43% The suspect was nabbed by community members on Thursday while attempting to abduct the child and handed over to the police. According to a resident, Maduegbunam was first taken to the palace of the traditional ruler of the area, the Oni-Ijanikin, who invited the police and handed her over to the law enforcement officers from the Ijanikin Division of the State Police Command. Buhari, represented by Sen. Binta Garba, made the call at the graduation ceremony of the Girls in ICT Connect, an advocacy and empowerment outreach to teenage girls organised by Nobleteens. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training had the theme`` Expanding Horizon and Changing Attitude . ``All depends on how you make use of the training given to you. ``We were told that ICT can create wealth, as we can sell and buy with ICT and most programmes revolve within the sector ``The girl-child should see herself as a blessing and not a curse. She is intelligent, focused and has the zeal of a go-getter and an achiever, and this is something the nation should be proud of. ``I believe in the girl-child, I believe in the mother and the children, that is why we have a pet project for the girl-child education and the Future Assured, she said. The wife of the President however said there were challenges as nothing comes easy in life. ``But the most important thing is for the girls to remain focused. ``So, all of you are children who will make the country proud and make things work. She commended the organisers of the programme for bringing out the talent in the children. Speaking also, Prof Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice-Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said the ICT sector needed more women to fill up existing gap. ``According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the sector will hire 1.7 million people in the coming years. Of this, how many are women? Represented by Mr Tony Ojobo, NCCs Director of Communications, Danbatta said It was imperative for women to utilise and harness the inherent power in the ICT sector to their advantage. He said women would, in order to do that, have to access the services ICT offers, as well as opportunities. ``The implication of this for women is enormous and this includes gender equality and diversity. ``ICT also will serve as an important tool for inculcating quality and break the gender barriers, provide the girl-child equal opportunity to go to school, equal opportunity to learn and equal opportunity for growth and development. ``The future is ICT and ICT is the future as it opens a new world of working interactions, creativity and innovations for the girl child with the evolution of smart devices, social media and being globally connected to the world. Danbatta added that the NCC was taking the initiative of ensuring that more women and girls were involved in ICT. He however urged girls to close the gap by expanding their horizon and changing their attitude towards ICT, challenging them to ``use it to make an impact on their generation and Nigeria as a nation. NAN reports that the training began on Monday with 50 girls trained on different ICT applications. Lawal made the statement in Abuja on Thursday at a workshop organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC). The theme of the workshop was: ``Role of professionals in the fight against corruption. Lawal, represented by the Director, Nigerian National Volunteer Services, Mr Tor Tsavsar, said the role of lawyers and some compromised judges was injurious to the anti-corruption campaign. He said some lawyers offered services to indicted individuals and deployed delay tactics to frustrate the campaign. Lawal urged professionals to see themselves as stakeholders in the campaign. ``If the country must move forward and attain the needed development, stakeholders must rise up to the task to rid the country of such problem. ``From recent revelations, corruption is usually aided and facilitated by conniving civil servants and professionals in the public and private sectors. ``It is no news that most stolen funds are laundered through our banks and other offshore entities that are owned and managed by professionals. ``A recent case of the Panama Papers scandals is an example of how politicians, criminals and rogue industries were assisted by professionals to launder stolen funds. ``It is equally regrettable that some of the professionals do not stop at aiding, abetting and facilitating the stealing of public funds, but go further to offer direct and indirect support to indicted officials to beat the law. ``The retinue of frivolous interlocutory applications, which are pursued up to the apex court, while action on substantive matters are stayed, are common examples of how professional lawyers frustrate the fight against corruption, he said. He said the efforts of the government to reflate the economy, build infrastructure, create employment and provide social services would remain a mirage if corruption persisted. ``The fight against corruption can only be fought and won when every Nigerian, particularly our professional lawyers, accountants, auditors, engineers, etcetera rise above petty considerations and genuinely support the efforts of the government, Lawal said. The Chairman of PACAC, Prof. Itse Sagay, condemned professionals who aided corruption. Sagay said the Federal Government was looking at ways of ensuring that those who aided fraud and corruption were prosecuted. He said the workshop was intended to seek the support of professional bodies and draw their attention to their responsibilities in this regard. Sagay said as part of strategy to enlist professionals support, PACAC met with Christian Association of Nigeria, the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs and others to play their role in the fight against corruption. Sagay said religious bodies were carried along with the intention of evolving ways of ensuring that religious injunctions against corruption, fraud and impunity were highlighted and emphasised. Mr Femi Falana (SAN), an activist, urged the anti-graft agencies to look beyond public officers and politically exposed individuals to include professionals, drug dealers and human traffickers in their activities. ``In the very many cases of politically exposed persons who have been charged with corruption, fraud and money laundering, a number of lawyers, accountants, bankers, estate agents have been indicted. Even though such professionals were not prosecuted in the past, not a few have been charged to court for aiding and abetting the commission of money laundering offences. ``The other relevant professional bodies have seen the wisdom in sensitising their members to fight the scourge of money laundering and terrorism financing. `The Nigerian Bar Association has continued to insist that lawyers are immune from the prosecution under the Money Laundering Act, Falana said. He said the country found itself in a pitiable economic state largely because funds meant for social programmes were mindlessly laundered by those entrusted with public offices. Falana suggested that professionals who offered services to aid money laundering be made to face the full wrath of the law. The PACAC Executive Secretary, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, said efforts were on to isolate professionals who contributed to money laundering and corruption. According to Owasanoye, professionals who know that their clients are thieves and are not interested in exposing them, but share from the proceeds will be penalised. Abubakar who spoke when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum, said the military always carry out a documentation called profiling. ``When you suspect and arrest; you have to do what we call profiling and this profiling takes a lot of time; it is a documentation of its own. ``Because lives are involved, we do not want to treat anybody wrongly, we ensure that appropriate steps are put in place to ensure we verify. ``You know they are allegations, so you need to treat it with all confidentiality because it is not good to bring out a person as an insurgent and later the person turns out not to be. He said that anybody confirmed to be guilty is handed over to the appropriate authority. Abubakar said that the military was in the last phase of the war against the Boko Haram insurgents, adding that an operation called operation `Crack Down was designed to clear and mop up remnants of the insurgents. ``What remains is just a matter of time; those who think that they can still go on will meet their own waterloo. ``I feel all of them should come out and embrace peace, though so many of them have surrendered; some of them have confessed that what they are doing is nothing to write home about. ``They said they cannot withstand the joint operation of the military against them and for that they have no option but to surrender. Abubarka made this known when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum on Thursday in Abuja. ``Nigeria being a signatory to UN conventions, we have to comply fully with that portion of convention. ``Even if you arrest or capture an enemy or prisoner of war, by international law, you are to treat him with all human dignity; you must do that, as long as you are a signatory to UN convention. ``We evolved a policy by the defence headquarter and that operation is called operation Safe Corridor. ``Operation safe corridor is an operation trying to rehabilitate, reintegrate, empower and de-radicalise those, who surrender and those, who are captured. ``It is not in any way amnesty. We are trying to comply fully with international best global practices and that is why we came up with that. ``The Chief of Defence Staff, Maj.-Gen. Abayomi Olonishakin with other service chief agreed to this and they came up with this, which is the first of its kind since the terror of Boko Haram. ``And very soon, we will have a camp somewhere in the North- East where they will be kept for empowering and reintegrating and de-radicalising them. However, he said that the military was not in any way relaxing in finding out the sponsors of boko haram. ``We are not in any way relaxing in finding out those who are sponsoring but those who are really active in the insurgency are our first target. ``The recruitment style of this insurgency is extremely worrisome; we are doing all we can to ensure that we block them though programmes that we have evolved. ``It has gone a long way in making them to surrender. Abubakar said that the military in 2015 came up with security operation that targeted the insurgency. He said following the operation, a lot of boko haram members surrendered when they knew they would not be killed if they did so. He said that insurgency was something that was unpredictable, boundless and transitional. The director said that the military also came up with another operation called ``Operation Pulo Shield in the Niger Delta. He said the operation was aimed at ensuring total peace in the area. He said that the military was re-strategising to ensure that it curbed the menace in the Niger Delta without inflicting pains on innocent masses. He called on any aggrieved persons to channel their grievances though the right source and not through violence. He said that everyone from the Niger Delta was in support of the activities of the militants. According to Abubakar, all citizens are expected to have civic responsibility, and no nation can move forward through persistent violence. This was disclosed by Army spokesman, Colonel Sani Usman via a statement. It reads: Today, Thursday 17th June 2016, troops of Sector 5, 27 Task Force Brigade, 3 Division, in conjunction Civilian JTF from Maiduguri arrested a suspected Boko Haram terrorist, Ibrahim Jagwal, aged 38 at Gishiwa Dabua area of Potiskum, Yobe State. The suspected terrorist who turned out to be the Ameer of the Boko Haram Terrorists at Tumbin Gini, Abadam Local Government Area of Borno State, also led the team to Garejin Audu in Potiskum, where another terror suspect, Audu Ahmadu, (alias Condemned) aged 45 years, was arrested same day. Preliminary investigation confirms that Audu Ahmadu is a Boko Haram Engineer who specializes in repairs of automobiles for the Boko Haram terrorists group. It was further confirmed he was at the garage to repair 2 vehicles. The vehicles were recovered by the team, while the suspects have been taken into custody for onward movement to Joint Interrogation Centre. In a related development, troops of 156 Task Force Battalion, 29 Task Force Brigade carried out clearance patrol yesterday. The patrol team came in contact with Boko Haram terrorists near Abalam, South West of Alagarno forest. The team engaged the terrorists who fled due superior fire power. The troops pursued them and discovered that they left behind 7 men, 13 women and 27 children that were held hostage at Gemri village. The patrol team also recovered 4 Dane Guns, 3 Bows and 5 packs of arrows containing 114 arrows. The attack took place at about 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Thursday in the village of Kuda in Adamawa State. Resident Moses Kwagh told Reuters that people waited until three hours after the attack and had then counted 18 women's bodies. Some women were still missing, he said. State lawmaker Emmanuel Tsamdu told Reuters: "I am yet to get the details on how it happened and the real number of people killed. I have sent hunters to go to the area and get me the details because people are afraid to go to the village." Kuda is close to the Sambisa Forest, a vast colonial-era game reserve where Boko Harammilitants hide in secluded camps to avoid the Nigerian military. The village was attacked byBoko Haram militants in February. Under President Muhammadu Buhari's command and aided by Nigeria's neighbours, the army has recaptured most of the territory seized by Boko Haram, but the group still regularly stages guerrilla attacks. Dabiri-Erewa said this at a dialogue session on International Trade Relations and the Nigerian Economy, organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Thursday in Lagos. Dabiri-Erewa said that trust was inevitable between countries as a leveler for stimulating trade and investment. According to her, the negative perception about the countrys entrepreneurs being termed as corrupt had affected trade relationship between Nigerians and some of their foreign counterparts. ``We need to support the government's fight against corruption. It is a war that must be won because if we do not win that war we cannot talk about investment in the country, she said. Similarly, the Consul General of Germany, said, "We need to create trust in our dealings. ``It is not the current economic issues that are the problem as there are many Germans interested in investing in Nigeria to boost its trade. ``We need to find major and reliable partners to forge relationship with to improve our trade with Nigeria, Herbert said. He said that international trade relations was low in Nigeria because of its monolithic economy and urged the government to diversify the economy to boost trade. Herbert added that the government should be consistent with its policies and develop infrastructure to attract more investments into the country. Mr Fillippo Amato, Head of Trade and Economic, European Union Delegation to Nigeria and West Africa, said that Nigeria could boost its non-oil exports to EU by complying with international standards. He said that strong commitment and coordination between the private and public sectors would assist the country to achieve compliance on international best practices. The Consul General of Switzerland, Mr Yves Nicolet, said that Nigeria was his countrys second largest trading partner after South Africa. He said that there were several untapped resources in Nigeria and his government was interested in deepening trade ties between both countries. The President of LCCI, Mrs Nike Akande, said that trade policy matters were very critical for the advancement of any economy. ``This is because no country is fully self-sufficient in everything. This is why it is important for our trade policy to be consistent, transparent and sustainable, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes Akande as saying. Akande said that the country had become an investment hub for many investors from around the world, based on the rich multicultural heritage of the country. According to her, returns on investments in Nigeria are high compared to what was obtainable in other parts of the continent. She, however, said that for the country to leverage on its trade relations, there was need to strengthen its competitiveness by creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. Mr Rotimi Ogunleye, Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, said that the country needed to exploit its trading relationship with various countries to boost its trade volume. A statement by the Head of corporate communication of NIMASA, Hajia Lami Tumaka on Thursday in Lagos said that the sea time experience would lead to the issuance of Certificates of Competency. Peterside, who received 100 cadets of the scheme (NSDP) who graduated from the University of Perpetual Help, Philippines, congratulated the cadets for successfully concluding their studies and returning home without any case of misconduct. The director-general commended the graduates for being good ambassadors of Nigeria. He assured them that modalities had been put in place to ensure that they have access to the necessary sea time experience that will make them complete seafarers. ``I must commend you all for being good ambassadors of Nigeria by not involving yourselves in any untoward act while in the Philippines, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes him as saying. Peterside said, ``As a responsible Agency, we will complete what we started by making sure that you all get the required sea time that will make you professionals in your chosen career. The director-general said that the agencys was committed toward growing human and infrastructure capacity for the growth and development of the Nigerian maritime industry. Speaking in an interview with Premium Times, Obanikoro described the EFCC's claims as a charade that is being hatched by the ruling party, All Progressive Congress. "The whole world would now see their charade for what it is. It is even good for everyone to know the truth, including those who are sympathisers to the All Progressives Congress. "Because, in Nigeria, youre either on this side or the other side. But this American system is unbiased. Theyre neither for me nor for them. So, let them bring the tissue of lies that they have put together and submit everything to serious judicial scrutiny and let us see whether it will fly. I am inviting them to do that," he said. He further said, "I am telling you and I am appealing to all Nigerians to also join me in asking them to seek my extradition." The lawyer also revealed that he has some serious objections to various provisions and sections of the bill. Falana said Instead of addressing the challenges encountered in dealing with the menace of money laundering, the federal government has submitted the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016. In view of the serious objections to certain provisions of the proposed Bill by the EFCC, the National Assembly is urged to conduct a public hearing with a view to ensuring that the limited success recorded in the fight against money laundering is not sacrificed on account of expediency. The money laundering bill stipulates that financial and non-financial institutions found guilty of the crime, will pay N25m and N10m respectively. It also states that anybody found guilty of money laundering will serve a jail term of not less than seven years. Vanguard reports that the bill describes someone who has committed money laundering as a person who knows, ought reasonably to have known or suspects that property has a criminal origin, commits an offence if he conceals, disguises, converts, transfers or removes the property from Nigeria. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, said this in Abuja on Thursday at a ceremony for the inauguration of the guideline. Fashola noted that the harmonisation of the two had become necessary to embed the document into the National Building Code as its energy efficiency component. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that BEEG was produced through a collaboration of the ministry with German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The project when implemented would tackle challenges of renewable energy and energy efficiency in buildings. ``Getting to uninterrupted energy would require some life style changes especially by citizens and that is why this document, the Building Energy Efficiency Guideline for Nigeria will become most important. ``Not just for us and professionals, Architects, Designers of houses but also as a tool for education to hopefully be replicated and propagated in our educational institutions. ``And as we finalise the National Building Code it is my hope that we will find a very suitable and appropriate place to embed this document into our countrys National Building Code. Fashola noted that the BEEG would be utilised by professionals in the building sector to ensure energy efficiency. He said the present insufficient energy (electricity) supply was a major bane to socio-economic development of the country which challenged the ministry to pursue all sources to achieve increments. According to him, the challenge is not limited to Nigeria alone, which had prompted the head of ECOWAS governments to renew their commitments in 2013. According to him, the commitment was geared towards the provision and access to sustainable energy service in the region. Fashola said that the body also resolved to scale up issues of energy efficiency in building in the ECOWAS sub region. These he said was through the adoption of ECOWAS Energy Efficiency Policy (EEEP) as well as ECOWAS Renewable Energy Policy (EREP). The minister explained that reduction in energy usage could translate into reduction of burning of fossil-fuel in energy generation which in turn could mitigate on depletion of ozone layer and its implication. In his speech, Hon. Mustapha Shehuri Minster of State, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing noted that 70 per cent of the energy generated in the country was consumed in buildings. He urged professionals in built environment to key into the newly inaugurated guideline. Shehuri further noted that when energy consumption was reduced in buildings, more energy would be made available for other sectors of the economy. Mr Michael Zenner, German Ambassador to Nigeria said his countrys focus in Nigeria since 2002, had been on economic and energy sustainability, agricultural and educational development among others. He said that Germany started cooperating with Nigeria in renewable energy and energy efficiency since 2013 through a joint funding of projects through the EU cooperation. A case in point is that of three members of the House of Representatives who were recently accused of improper conduct while on an official trip to the United States of America. The trios antics were reported to House of Reps Speaker, Yakubu Dogara by US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle via a letter dated June 9, 2016. The letter read: The U.S. Department of State and the Cleveland Council on World Affairs received reports from employees of the Cleveland hotel where the representatives stayed, alleging the representatives engaged in the following behaviour: Mohammed Garba Gololo allegedly grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex. While the housekeeper reported this to her management, this incident could have involved local law enforcement and resulted in legal consequences for Representative Gololo. Mark Terseer Gbillah and Samuel Ikon allegedly requested hotel parking attendants assist them to solicit prostitutes. The U.S. Mission took pains to confirm these allegations and the identities of the individuals with the employees of the hotel in Cleveland. The conduct described above left a very negative impression of Nigeria, casting a shadow on Nigerias National Assembly, the International Visitor Leadership Program, and to the American hosts impression of Nigeria as a whole. In addition, most of the members of this group reacted very negatively to my deputy when she brought this matter to their attention, further calling into question their judgement and commitment to the goals of the International Visitor Leadership Programme. The US government was apparently just issuing a warning to the legislators but instead of reacting responsibly, they started to deny and threaten legal action. This is an affront on the National Assembly and Nigeria, it appears they have ulterior motives. We are not going to take this lightly; we will take legal actions against the US government. It is a dent on our image, Gbillah said in response to the claims. Gololo also expressed outrage while announcing his position as a honourable member representing a hallowed institution and his integrity as a husband and father. The unfortunate truth however, is that these lawmakers are most likely guilty. The US would not make such heavy accusations without concrete evidence to back them up. Gbillah is saying the US has ulterior motives, like what? Why would they randomly choose three legislators, out of ten who made the trip, to frame? What could the US possibly stand to gain by making false accusations? It's unbelievable that the legislators couldn't even restrain themselves while on official assignment. This shows that they're so used to behaving badly that they don't see anything wrong with it any more. Its also easy to believe that theyre guilty because Nigerias lawmakers have made a reputation of behaving badly. From brawls in the hallowed chamber, to unguarded statements being uttered with reckless abandon, to honourable legislators scaling gates and chasing each other around, they have proven to be a dishonourable bunch. This is beside the fact that they make tons of money for doing almost nothing and even believe that they are entitled to a lions share of the nations resources despite being grossly unworthy of it. Nigerias legislators do not deserve to be called Honourables. You dont become something because youre called by the name, it is exhibiting the necessary character in the first place that qualifies you for the name in question. Our legislators are known for their unbelievable and inexcusable allowances, their extravagant lifestyles, their penchant to get down and dirty if the need be and so on. They are definitely not known for their honour. The bombers were said to have been shot dead in Maiduguri, the state capital on Friday, June 17, 2016, according to Sahara Reporters. They were reportedly heading to the Kusari area of the town to detonate their explosives when they were killed. Our elders sighted them in our community roaming around, so they called them and tried to know their identities because their faces were strange to us. Instead, they started running, and we pursued them, shot and killed them. There were IEDs wrapped on their bodies that did not yet explode, a CJTF member, Massa Umaru, said. We thank Allah for saving us from the evil men that had wanted to wreak havoc on residents of Maiduguri. It could have been deadly if they hit their target, he added. They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Lagos shortly after their arrival that Nigerians were inhumanly treated in Libya. NAN reports that the returnees were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with the Swiss Government and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya. Mr Tunde Ayinde, an architect, said that he went to Libya in search of greener pasture but unfortunately, he fell sick and was hospitalised. Ayinde said when he could not pay for his hospital bill; he was thrown out of the hospital. I was arrested by their security agents and remanded in prison for three months just because I asked one of the officers to assist me by showing me the Nigerian embassy in Tripoli when I could not afford to pay my bill. I was subjected to series of inhuman treatment in their prison until they put me among Nigerians who were being assisted back home by IOM. I am a Pastor, I came to Libya to look for money to buy land and build own church but the suffering here is too much, he said. He urged the government to help Nigerians in Libya by providing plane to evacuate them, adding that many of them were stranded. Another returnee, George Okumbor said he regretted going to the country. Okumbor said he was happy to be back in the country, adding that many innocent Nigerians who were in search of job were languishing in prisons. He urged the government to stop Nigerians from going to Libya because they were treating them like animals. Ms Aisha Salawu, a female returnee said they went through Kano and walked on foot to Libya. Salawu, who travelled to Libya in February, said that she worked as a cleaner in a hospital. She said she was arrested by a security officer on her way to her working place. Salawu said that since then she had been languishing in prison, adding while she was in prison she was being beaten daily. She appealed to federal government to send immigration officers to Kano and Seme borders in order to prevent Nigerians from travelling to foreign countries illegally. The Chairman of the NLC in the state, Mr Waheed Olojede, told newsmen in Ibadan that government failed to meet the terms of agreement with the labour leadership. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a peace parley held on Wednesday between the labour leadership and government was inconclusive. Workers led by the national leadership of the NLC had on June 6 declared an indefinite strike over their unpaid six months salaries. The workers also rejected governments controversial education initiative to involve private participation in the management of public secondary schools while also demanding the withdrawal of all charges against the labour leaders in a court of law. Olojede on Thursday disclosed that the meeting held on Wednesday with the governor was not conclusive in resolving the disagreement between government and labour. He said government had agreed to put on hold the proposed controversial education policy , noting that a 14-man committee would be saddled with the responsibility of ratifying the recommendations. ``The committee will comprise seven representatives from each party, excluding the chairman that will come from government side, he said. Olojede, however, said that the leadership of labour insisted on the continuation of the ongoing strike action because government did not meet the demand on payment of outstanding salaries. ``We have requested that government pays at least two months of the six months outstanding salaries but government said it cannot pay due to paucity of fund, he said. He said that since the government was not ready to accede to the demand, there was no way workers in the state could go back to work. Meanwhile, the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, High Chief Lekan Balogun, has appealed to the state government and labour to embrace dialogue in the settlement of the impasse. Dudafa is charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside Taiwo Ebenezer who is also known as Olugbenga Isaiah on 23 counts bordering on N5.1 billion fraud. They were arraigned before Justice Mohammed Idris. On Wednesday, Justice Idris adjourned the case till June 20 for ruling on the accused's bail application, after listening to arguments from counsel. When the case was called, counsel to the accused, Mr Gbenga Oyewole argued that his client was entitled to bail as provided by the 1999 Constitution. Citing a plethora of authorities, the lawyer insisted that his client will attend court to defend the case if granted bail. He argued further that his client had stayed in custody of the EFCC for 60 days and prayed the court to be liberal in granting the bail. Counsel to the second accused, Mr Sunday Abumere aligned himself with Oyewoles submission. However, the prosecutor, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo vehemently opposed the application for bail on the grounds that the accused were most likely to evade trial if granted bail. He submitted that there were intelligence report to the effect that the accused persons would jump bail if granted, and urged the court to dismiss the application for bail. Justice Idris fixed June 20 for ruling, while the accused are to remain in prison custody. Some of the companies allegedly used in committing the alleged offences includes Seagate Property Development & Investment Ltd, Avalon Global Property Development Company Ltd, Iwejuo Joseph Nna and Pluto LUTO Property. Others are Investment Company Ltd, Iwejuo Joseph Nna and Rotate Interlink Services Ltd. The accused were alleged to have concealed proceeds of a crime in the sum of over N5 billion, contrary to the provisions of the money laundering prohibition act, 2012. Gwani who represents the people of Kaura constituency in Kaduna State, said the people of Southern Kaduna are farmers and not cattle rearers. He also questioned the Governors decision to establish a grazing reserve, adding that programs that promote farming should be implemented in the area, The lawmaker said If that is the case then the people are major stakeholders in land matters in their territory hence government needs to consider or take into consideration the interest of the people and their community when it comes to land usage. Gwani also said though the constitution vested the ownership and control of the land to the state government, the land use act chapter 202 states that the land is held in trust for the people. He added that As a lawmaker and a major stakeholder in Kaduna State, I was not consulted by the governor on the issue at stake in order to make my view and that of my people to inform the governor the position of my people. The lawmaker also said he was against the establishment of the grazing reserve, because of the threat it poses to the security of the area. The militants sent out a tweet that they had blown up the pipeline which is located in Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom state. Vanguard reports that Mani said the blast was caused by a leakage in the gas pipeline, adding that some engineers came from Port-Harcourt to resolve the issue. The Akwa-Ibom state police boss also assured residents to go about their normal businesses. Mani also told newsmen that the state is safe and there was no cause for alarm. The undefinedthe Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) for issuing an ultimatum to some Governors in the South-East to release the Biafra agitators in police custody. Oil prices jumped to the highest level in eight months, due to ongoing undefinedand strong Chinese oil demand data. Daily Post reports that the chairman of the group, Edward Ekpoko also called on the government to yield. He said Politicians, including an ex-governor of Delta State and militants have continued to use this neglect to blackmail the Federal Government as a reason for the renewed crisis. But who is to be held responsible. Politicians, especially some governors (both serving and former) and their cronies from the Niger Delta are hands in glove with the militants and are openly and secretly advocating dialogue with them so as to (through them) have criminal charges against them dropped. The militants are well known to some of them (governors) to the knowledge of Niger Deltans. Government should keep them under watch. Let us get it right: who are the Avengers? Tompolo has denied them, but do we believe him when they want his account de-frozen? MEND has denied them, they are used by those who created them. To dialogue with them is tantamount to open discussion with corrupt politicians from the region that have forced the pathetic conditions of life that now pervade the Niger Delta. All they want is to bargain themselves from investigation and trial, he added. The militant group issued a statement titled: Niger Delta struggle is not for political thugs. The groups spokesman, Brig. Gen Mudoch Agbinibo who signed the statement said "We are watching with keen interest the unwholesome activities of the political thugs and agents of APC to undermine the Niger Delta struggle in the likes of Mr. Ayiri and gangs. "Few days ago, he and his group was parading, regrouping, rebranding and re-arming defunct Ex-MEND and settled Militants leaders discussing pipelines, oil and gas facilities contract in Edo State Government house. Today he and his co-travelers are in delta state Government house, the Itsekiri Militants leader with community leaders and unfortunately branding them as representatives of Niger Delta Avengers for self-gain and political survivals. "We condemn its entirety the continuous linking of the Niger Delta Avengers to any meeting in Delta State Government in Asaba with Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. "We have never missed words in telling the whole listening world that the Niger Delta Avengers will not be part any dialogue deal that will not bring about the peace of our time; but we want a peace with honour as such we could not be a party to any meeting with the likes of Ayiri Emami and his co- travelers that that are ready to kill and trade for the interest of pipeline, oil and gas facilities contract from the Government to bloat their pockets and urge fantasies ." Ita-Giwa said she opted to be part of the negotiating team, so peace can return to the troubled region. She also said the resettlement of the people of Bakassi should also be part of the negotiations. Adding that Recently, my attention has been drawn to a widespread report in the national dailies that I have agreed to serve in dialogue team with the Federal Government. The Senator also said I was, however, contacted by a representative of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta asking if I will be part of an initiative to find ways to end the ongoing attacks through dialogue towards restoring peace in the region. In my response, I said that I will consider serving if the Federal Government is willing to engage in discussions with credible Nigerians that have genuine interest and sympathy for the people of the region. The spokesman of the military team, Col Isa Ado also revealed that it foiled an attempt by militants to destroy a pipeline belonging to Agip. Ado said On same day, troops in continuation of its raid on suspected pipeline vandals camps carried out cordon and search operation in Oporoma Community of Delta. Ten suspected pipeline vandals were arrested during the operation, one pistol, 195 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition, 14 handheld radio set, 30 detonating cords and several phones with SIM cards were recovered. He also added that Those behind this heinous act of bombing of critical installations in the region are warned to have a rethink and tow the line of peace by adopting a legitimate means to address their grievances instead of taking the law into their hands. We must embrace and support the laudable and bold initiative by the government to dialogue for peace and development, and call on the communities to guide their youths against acts capable of sabotaging the economy of the nation. For today, June 10, 2016 THE PUNCHNEWSPAPER Sex scandal: US govt cancels three Reps visas, Dogara orders probe The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday, directed the investigation of three members of the House for an alleged sex scandal. The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, confirmed this in Abuja just as investigations had shown that the United States Embassy had cancelled the visas of the affected members. Namdas explained that the leadership of the House decided to investigate the alleged sex scandal following a formal complaint made by the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle. READ MORE Nine die in Lagos crash, mob burns truck Tragedy struck at the University of Lagos Waterfront end of the Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos State, on Wednesday after a Mazda bus with number plate, AKD 292 XL, rammed into a stationary truck. No fewer than nine people, including the bus driver, reportedly died on the spot. Three other passengers, who sustained serious injuries, were said to have been taken to the Gbagada General Hospital, Gbagada. READ MORE Buhari extends stay in London, returns Sunday President Muhammadu Buhari will not return to Nigeria from London, where he is spending his 10-day medical vacation, until Sunday. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed this to State House correspondents on Thursday shortly before the commencement of a meeting of the National Economic Council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Buharis 10-day vacation expired on Wednesday. READ MORE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE GUARDIAN PDP governors insist Sheriff is out, supporters fight with machetes The battle for the control of the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) became fiercer yesterday. Two groups of protesting youths were locked in a physical battle during which machetes, sticks and other dangerous weapons were freely deployed. Meanwhile, the PDP has told a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt that its former acting national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, was validly removed by the legally constituted May 21, 2016 national convention of the party in Port Harcourt. READ MORE Naira in steady rally, gains 15k on new forex regime Nigerias currency, the naira, yesterday continued to gain more value against foreign currencies a day after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released the details of the flexible policy for the management of the foreign exchange in the country. Checks among Bureaux de Change ( BDCs) operators in Abuja indicated that the naira gained 15 kobo and 17 kobo respectively between Wednesday and yesterday following the apprehension and latter release of the details of the policy which restricted the market to a single window, thereby blocking opportunities for easy round- tripping and arbitrage by speculators . Ahead of the takeoff of the interbank operations under the new regime of flexible exchange rate policy, there are indications that the naira float will terminate at N300 per dollar beginning from Monday. READ MORE Why power supply cant improve Faced with militants near-unrestrained successes in blowing up gas facilities in the Niger Delta, the Federal Governments plan to add another 2000 megawatts (MW) by July may not be realised. The Guardian learnt that militants have destroyed 23 gas pipelines across the Niger Delta states since they renewed attacks on national assets from February 14 to date. Indeed, the shortage of gas supply to about 25 thermal stations in the country has critically impacted on power generation levels and further crippled power supply to consumers. READ MORE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VANGUARD NEWSPAPER Bloodbath: 11 gunned down as cult killings resurface in Rivers At least 11 people were Wednesday gunned down at Omoku town, the headquarters of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, ONELGA, of Rivers State by suspected cultists, who invaded the area. It was learnt that two people, including a popular medical doctor in the area, Dr. Erike, were kidnapped by the invaders during the raid. There has been series of killings in Omoku following the battle between two rival cult groups in the area, the Icelanders and the new Greenlanders. READ MORE FirstBank, Zenith, UBA, GTB okay as FX dealers As banks begin to settle into the dynamics of the flexible foreign exchange regime, which will take effect from Monday, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, is set to name the lead players in the foreign exchange market today. The lead players would be known as Foreign Exchange Primary Dealers, FXPD. Though CBNs guidelines indicated that about eight or 10 banks would be registered as FXPD, Vanguard investigations showed that only about four banks are fully qualified, considering their audited financial positions as at end of 2015 and first quarter of 2016. READ MORE Jonathan falls short of $5m Mo Ibrahim Prize Former President Goodluck Jonathan has failed to win the prestigious $5 million Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership despite meeting a key criterion. The announcement was made on Thursday that no former African leader met the requirements for the 2015 version of the yearly award following a meeting of the independent Prize Committee chaired by Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim. READ MORE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NATION NEWSPAPER N42b fraud: EFCC holds ex-Customs chief Dikko Former Customs chief Abdullahi Inde Dikko is being held by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). He was yesterday quizzed over an alleged N42billion fraud. Besides, the EFCC has traced how about N2.6billion was withdrawn from Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) coffers and remitted into the accounts of some companies floated by a former Assistant Comptroller General who served under Dikko. Dikko was yesterday grilled on the sources of funds with which he allegedly acquired a N2 billion mansion at 1, Audu Ogbe Street, Jabi, Abuja. READ MORE Naira, Capital Market firm up The flexible exchange rate policy the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced on Wednesday has received massive support. It is due to go into effect on Monday. The Naira and trading at the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) firmed up yesterday in response to the policy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU) delegation to Nigeria and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), among others, hailed the policy. Lagos lawyer Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) supported the policy which he believes will bring naira back to its deserved value in addition to making foreign exchange available for those who need it. READ MORE Buhari back on Sunday, says Osinbajo Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday said that President Muhammadu Buhari will return to Nigeria on Sunday. Buhari had taken 10 days medical vacation to treat an ear infection in London. The vacation expired on Wednesday and the President was supposed to resume yesterday based on the letter communicated to the National Assembly before he traveled out. But speaking with State House correspondents before the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting began at the Presidential Villa, Abuja In a recent interview with Premium Times, Obanikoro said he would not honour any form of invitation from the anti-graft body saying it will be a part of the country's charade as perpetuated by the ruling party, All Progressive Congress. ALSO READ: Obanikoro reportedly consults lawyers over EFCC raid on Ikoyi home "Let me tell you, I will not honour any invitation from the EFCC and neither would I allow my children to be part of that charade. Having gone to my house without inviting me or inviting my children. They subjected my grandkids, my teenage kids, my wife and daughter-in-law to this kind of embarrassment, it is evident that I cannot get any fair hearing from them," the former Senator said in his interview. Speaking on why his sons are out of the country, Obanikoro said, "Now, talking about my sons. Let me tell you, Jide went for a course in Hollandlet me tell you, I want them to come to America, I am repeating myself so that the two of us can have serious judicial scrutiny. Jide went to Holland for a course in fish farming. But it is convenient for the EFCC to go to a beer parlour shop and be speculating. You cannot say people should not go and improve themselves when they have interest. "Gbolahan also has a very good reason to be out of the country. Gbolahan has a valid explanation and a genuine and honest reason to be in America. But from what were seeing now, we can tell that were in deep political trouble with the government of the day," he said. Oyo-Ita said this during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Federal Government Staff Housing Loans Board and a Chinese Housing Developing Company, China Nantong Sanjian Construction Group. She described the occasion as a landmark event in the life of Nigeria's public service and to her, because it provided her another opportunity to promote the welfare of public servants. She said that though owning a house was fundamental to every individual, it had remained ``a dream unfulfilled to most public servants. The Head of Service added that the housing demand in the country had continued to rise significantly with the deficit also widening. She, therefore, said that the time was ripe for Nigeria to benefit from its contributions to the African Development Bank as a member of the African Union. This, Oyo-Ita said, was to assist Nigerians who had yet to own a dwelling place, to do so. She further added that it was in recognition of this, that government made the housing sector a key focus in the change agenda, with a target of providing 500, 000 housing units. According to her, the significant allocation to the housing sector in the 2016 budget under the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing is a testimony to this commitment. She, however, maintained that addressing the mortgage needs of Federal Government employees would not only motivate them, but would go a long way in reducing perceived corrupt practices. She expressed optimism that developing the housing sector would help stimulate economic growth as well as create jobs in the economy. ``Indeed housing construction is one of the indices for gauging the pulse of most development and developing economies.'' In his remarks, Mr Tee Ching Song, the Vice General Manager of the company, said the company was ready to share its experiences with Nigerians. He gave an assurance that his company would deliver the most quality and affordable houses to Nigerian public servants. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the company was nominated by Shelter Afrique, a UN agency. Dr Hanatu Fika, who signed the MoU on behalf of the Board, said that the houses, when completed, would be allocated to only genuine public servants. The legislators were identified as Mohammed Garba Gololo (Bauchi), Samuel Ikon (Akwa Ibom) and Mark Gbillah (Benue). The cancellation of the visas was made public by Gbillah in a letter written to the US Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, according to Punch. The letter, dated June 16, 2016, reads: "Without conclusive evidence of any sort or contact with any of the accused individuals, the US State Department and US Embassy in Nigeria have less than six days after your letter to the Speaker, gone ahead to revoke the US visas of the accused individuals based on hearsay from the employees of the hotel in Cleveland." "Affected individuals received correspondence from the US Embassy on Wednesday, June 15, 2016, indicating the denial of their US visas and requesting that they bring their passports with the current US visa to the Embassy." Entwistle had brought the incident to the notice of House of Reps Speaker, Yakubu Dogara via a letter written on June 9. The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said it would launch a forex interbank trading window that will be purely market-driven beginning from Monday, June 20, 2016. According to him, there will only be one exchange rate and the Apex bank will intervene in the market as the need arises. This move has attracted reactions from Nigerians in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Omotola Jide, an Economist described the move as the best thing that would happen to the economy. He believes the decision would ultimately stimulate the domestic economy. "What the government has done is that it has succeeded in opening the Naira to real trading, creating more investors confidence, better volatility and liquidity. This will surely place Nigeria's economy ahead of that of most African economies. "Contrary to what most people think, when you let the market determine the value of the naira, it would make Nigerian products cheaper and competing imports more expensive. On the long run, the move will stimulate the domestic economy," he said. Similarly, Ayo Teriba, an Economist Associate said the action will make the domestic economy more competitive. He however urged the federal government to lift the ban on the 41 items on the prohibition list. "The move to a market determined exchange rate is a welcomed development. However, If you say its a market-driven economy, why do you exclude particular items? "It is an exchange not a situation where people part with naira value. We hope that sooner than later, the CBN will do away with the prohibition list and let the market freely work," he said. Meanwhile, Rahama Dahiru, the CEO of Rahama Dahiru Bureau de Change expressed concerns that the move may throw him and his colleagues out of business. "They just want to promote black market where the Naira will be devalued beyond everybody's imagination. It will not help the market. Will the CBN select just ten from the thousands of us or what? Or is it a move to throw the rest of us out of the market? My advice to the government is to allow competition in the market so the economy can grow," he said. We reviewed all that have been going on in the party, especially since Monday. You are all witnesses to the thuggery that took place. Actually, those who remember how Boko Haram was born that is how it started, Makarfi said according to ThisDay. How thugs were brought into Abuja and some people force themselves into the secretariat, in the process documents and some property belonging to be party cannot be accounted for. This cannot be without some supports from some quarters, definitely not from PDP. We are calling upon security agencies especially that at this period of our nascent democracy with all the difficulties we are having in this country, peace must be allowed to reign. Any illegal action by any party member, no matter how highly placed, must be checkmated, he added. Izunaso said this at the inauguration of the Election and Election Appeal Committees in Abuja. ''There are 2,873 delegates expected to vote at the primary that will be contested by 12 aspirants. "We have the ward delegates comprising 12 persons per ward multiplied by 192 wards in Edo state. ''We also have local government delegates, 26 persons per local government multiplied by 18 local governments. ''Also, there are the state executive delegates, 35, and statutory delegates, 66, totaling 2,873 delegates in all.'' Inaugurating the committees, the APC Deputy National Chairman (South), Mr Segun Oni, charged the committee members to be diligent in the discharge of their duties. The seven-member Election Committee is chaired by Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari. Other members are Rep. Andrew Uchendu (Secretary), Rep. Yusuf Maianguwa, Dr Tunde Esan, Alhaji Shuaibu Musa, Alhaji Ibrahim Soja and Mr Amara Iwuanyanwu. The three-member Election Appeal Committee is chaired by Mr Opeyemi Bamidele while members are Alhaji Mustapha Salisu and Mrs Ekwy Onyido. In his acceptance, Chairman of the Election Committee said he had no preferred candidate and the committee would ensure justice and fairness to all the contestants. He said: ''I want to also assure you that we will do our best and produce the best and we hope that there will be no work for the Appeals Committee. ''We are going to do a thorough job. I also want to use this opportunity to assure that we will do justice to all. ''We have no preferred candidate, we have no friends and what we will be doing in Edo, we will be doing for APC, for Nigeria and for the Edo people. ''What is most important is that we have gone through this process. I have had a bitter experience of this process and I know how a party can lose election through an unfair and unjust primary. ''It has happened in my state and in so many states. This is a very critical and important assignment considering the number of candidates and the strength of our party and that of the opposition in the state. ''That will make us do what is right for the people of Edo state and for APC as a political party. ''I am assuring you that what will come out of this exercise will be a result that can stand in any court of law because you cannot rule out the possibility of somebody going on appeal.'' Also speaking at the inauguration, Chairman of the Appeal Committee, expressed confidence that there would be no reason for appeal after the primary. ''I want to thank the leadership of our party for the opportunity to also add value in our own little way. ''The constitution of our country is very clear and in cases that has been decided by Election Petition Tribunals, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court is very clear that before any aspirant can come to court, you must not only explore, but must have exhausted the internal mechanism available within the party of trying to protest or complain before coming to the court room. ''It is in that regard that we see the assignment given to us by the party as a very sensitive one.'' It would be recalled that 12 aspirants, 11 males and 1 female, collected the APC Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms for the Edo state governorship election. They are Mr Blessing Agbomhere; Maj.- Gen. Charles Airhiavbere; Prof. Fredrick Amadasun; Rep. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula; Mr Austin Emuan and Mr Peter Esele. Others are Mr Kenneth Imansuangbon; Mr Godwin Obaseki; Mrs Agbarha Justina; Mr Christopher Ogiemwonyi; Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor and the incumbent deputy governor Mr Pius Odubu. All candidates were successfully screened by the Chibudum Nwuche-led seven-member Committee. The former governor made the comments during an interview with Punch on Thursday, June 16, 2016. Excerpts below: Buhari has not demonstrated that he is serious about using dialogue to resolve the various ethnic tension. This government does not care about dialogue. The Presidents military background and approach are affecting his performance. Former President Musa YarAdua understood the importance of dialogue which enabled him to put a halt to militancy in the Niger Delta. But what do we have now? Tension and agitation in different parts of the country. Dialogue is the only way to resolve the Biafra agitation in the South-East, the Niger Delta Avengers and the Boko Haram violence. The APC does not deserve a second term. The PDP is not also a better option. We need another credible alternative Buhari created enemies for his government when he excluded the South-East from his kitchen cabinet. The kitchen cabinet is the closest to the President. The cabinet is even more superior to the main cabinet which comprises the ministers. The exclusion of the South-East from his cabinet gave rise to the agitation for Biafra. The solution is the return to a state-economy rather than a privatised economy which is not helping the country. There is unemployment, poor power supply, tension across the geopolitical zones and poverty. Fayose made the analogy in explaining why he withdrew his support for Sheriff despite initially backing the latters emergence as PDP Chairman. Without doubt, I did not beg him but I supported his coming. And when you act within ambits of time the information you have at a given time, I am not someone that will say I did not support Sheriff, he said on Thursday, June 16, 2016 after a meeting of PDP leaders in Abuja, ThisDay reports. But when you want to marry a woman, on the wedding day they tell you that the woman has HIV, will you still remain in the marriage? I am out of it, he added. Sheriff was removed from the chairmanship position during the PDPs National Convention on May 21, 2016. Fayose was one of the few PDP members who supported Sheriffs emergence despite claims that the latter had links to Boko Haram. His [Sheriffs] emergence at this time is the best thing in the present circumstance and those aggrieved should sheath their sword and deploy their time and resources into fighting the All Progressives Congress (APC) instead of their own party," the governor said on February 22, via a statement released by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka. I therefore call on all my admirers and believers in my dogged fight for the revival of our party to support our new chairman, whom I believe has the required capacity to reposition the party, the governor added. Sheriff later thanked Fayose for his support and revealed that it was the governor who made him chairman of the PDP. I never planned to be the PDP Chairman but God used people like Fayose and other Nigerians to make me the chairman (of the party), Sheriff said on March 17. I was sleeping in my room when Fayose called me from Port Harcourt and said I was going to be the new National Chairman. For me, it was a miracle, he added. When Pulse.ng arrived the Wadata Plaza, the mob, mostly young males between the ages of 18 and 25 were seen armed with sticks, stones and cutlasses. "Sheriff must go!""Sheriff is our choice!" They said singing different songs and chanting party slogans. Upon investigation, it was discovered they were supporters of immediate past chairman of the PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and the Caretaker Committee chairman, Ahmed Makarfi. "These people have been here since Monday. After Makarfi left here on Tuesday, his supporters locked the gates to the building and handed over the keys to the chairman of the Board of Trustees. In the night, Sheriff's people came and destroyed the locks," a source told our correspondent. The source who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the protesters have been receiving a daily payment of N1500. "As you can see, these politicians are just taking advantage of these boys. Their thugs will just get these boys who don't have jobs to do, pay them N1500 everyday for them to waste away here. If you come here later, you will see them drinking and smoking their lives away," he said. Attempts to speak with the protesters was unsuccessful as they could barely speak in English language. However, Chibuike Nwachukwu who identified himself as the PDP youth leader is of the view that Sheriff was hired by the APC to destroy the PDP. He however denied allegations that he hired the crowd to drum support for Makarfi. "We are not in support of Sheriff or Makarfi but we are here to protect the party which is the platform we have as future leaders. "We were here till all the national working committee members left and we locked the building and handed the key over to the BoT chairman. In the evening, Sheriff's group reinforced themselves, came back and destroyed the locks. "All we want is that Sheriff should leave PDP alone if he cannot maintain peace. How can we Edo and Ondo elections coming up. How can we win these election with this crisis? We believe that Sheriff was hired by the APC to destroy our party," he said angrily. A security operative who has been on ground to maintain law and order at the premises stated that Wale Oladipo and Deji Adeyanju (both Sherrif's supporters) narrowly escaped death on Wednesday, June 15, 2016. He said both men drove out in Oladipo's car through the gate of the neighbouring Sky Memorial Complex to avoid encounters with the irate crowd. Adeyaju was said to have abandoned his Toyota Camry with registration number Lagos - APP 767CK in the premises. "We had to intervene, else they would have destroyed Deji's car" he said. Okojie said Nigeria needs a leader who will unite the country and not divide it. He said If President Buhari wants to make a quick turn back, he should take his inaugural speech and the All Progressive Congress, APC, manifesto, study them and then start afresh. At this stage of my life, I can only advise and admonish our policy makers, especially in the education sector, that are now battling with the lives of innocent children, to allow education to flourish; for if education does not flourish, our country cannot flourish. You have already seen it in some parts of the country. We have seen it in some of our childrens behaviours. Leadership spoke with a few parents who shared their feelings of relief. One said she felt better after the news as he had been thinking of how she would transport her two girls to Ibadan, Oyo State to write the examination. Now, there is nothing like that again. I will have rest of mind now that my girls will be admitted into higher institutions of their choice without much hassle. Take a look at it, candidates suffer a lot because of the risk attached to the exam. Many of the candidates travel from Lagos to Benin and other parts of the country, while parents sponsor both the feeding and transportation. The economic situation in the country is also biting hard on the less-privileged people in the society, which is why most parents do appreciate the scrapping of the examination, she said. Another parent and chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Education, Hon. Lanre Ogunyemi explained that students who worked hard to pass the UTME do not need the added stress of another test. If we all believe in JAMB as an organization that is capable of organising examinations into tertiary institutions in the country, why should we now set up another set of examinations in the universities? he asked. Ogunyemi accused some of the tertiary institutions of using post-UTME as money making venture, saying the best they could have done was to screen the credentials of the candidates and also confirm their WASSCE and NECO results. Once that is done, I think the child should just be offered admission without any other examinations, he added. The institution was shut down on April 11 following a violent students protest which took place on the same day. The protest by UNIPORTs students led to the death of a final year male student in the Faculty of Management Sciences, who was shot by one of the policemen who came to clear the barricades on the ever-busy East-West Road, where the students were expressing their displeasure over lack of potable water and regular electricity, among others, on campus, with many students also injured and valuable property worth millions of naira either vandalised or destroyed by the students and hoodlums, who later hijacked the protest. The UNIPORTs calendar indicated that all full-time students would arrive on campus on June 19, with the first semester examinations to be between June 20 and July 16 (4 weeks), while the students would proceed on break between July 18 and July 23 and the second semester would commence on July 24. ALSO READ: Senate shut down varsity due to violent protest Second semester lectures will be between July 25 and October 14 (12 weeks). UNIPORT also fixed August 17 for extra-ordinary meeting of Senate, to consider first semester (2015/2016) results, while the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) would be between July and December, 2016. ALSO READ: Police shoots one dead as students protest rages on The Federal Government-owned higher institution also fixed October 10 to 15 for Students Union Week, involving cultural activities and professional exhibitions. ALSO READ:Nigerian event planners share craziest things that ruin the special day 1.) Weather Having a bad weather on your wedding day is a complete nightmare and moreso to the wedding planner who perhaps have to make quick changes in a short time. Open door weddings are mostly affected by rain or snow and ceremonies under the large tents, a very windy day could ruin it all. Wedding planners are advised to check out weather reports before and after setting dates and locations. 2.) Crowd Management This is a major problem for most Nigerian weddings. "I call Nigerian weddings organized chaos," Kate Diaz of Wedding Concepts, South Africa says. A Nigerian brides hardly know the exact number of people attending her wedding and even when she does, more attend anyways. A wedding planner has to make sure everyone of fed and drinks even if the number surpasses the estimated crowd. ALSO READ: 7 tips on how to be the best Wedding Planner in Nigeria 3.) Vendors Wedding planners claim these people are the most difficult, second to the bride to deal with. They are hardly certain about the demand and supply process so you have to make sure you are on their necks to make sure the wedding goes as planned. Planners have to communicate with vendors always towards the wedding and make sure they are on time with their supplies. 4.) Budget Coming up with a budget for a wedding is stressful and involves constant meetings with the bride, bride's mother or whoever the "wedding influencer' is. Planners find it difficult to deal with low-budgets especially if what's expected of them is way higher. 5.) Lack of Trust A wedding planner has to win the trust of his/her client in order to make h/her job easier. When your client doesn't trust the planner, coming up with a budget is even more difficult. The bride sometimes chooses to make deals with the vendors herself instead of allowing her planner do so. Mistakes are easily done. Respect for time gets ruined etc. 6.) Payment The rebels are notorious for mutilating civilians and kidnapping children for use as fighters. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for the LRA's messianic leader, Joseph Kony, and other senior commanders. The rebels struck on Monday, snatching three people in the morning and forcing them to carry their goods before releasing them in the evening, said Ghislain Kolengo, prefect of Haut Mbomou region. "Very early (on Tuesday), they attacked Kadjema village and kidnapped 17 people who are still in captivity. I hope that our forces in the area and the Ugandans will find these people and bring them back," Kolengo told Reuters. The population then fled the town, he said. The LRA is from northern Uganda but was driven out by a military offensive a decade ago. Today, its fighters roam a poorly policed area straddling the borders between Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. All three countries have faced their own conflicts and Uganda, another regional neighbour, said last week it planned to withdraw by the end of the year its troops involved in an operation to hunt down LRA rebels. The LRA has been weakened but its fighters still attack civilians. It has abducted nearly 350 this year, according to the LRA Crisis Tracker, which documents rebel attacks. The first clash happened on Sunday and led to the deaths of seven Seleka members who were leading cattle through the town en route for Cameroon. The former rebels took revenge, killing six civilians, said the commander, who declined to be named. Central African Republic descended into chaos in March 2013 when the predominantly Muslim Seleka seized power, triggering reprisals by "anti-balaka" Christian militias who drove tens of thousands of Muslims from the south. The statement signed by Mr Celestine Ogugua, Head of Media, Nigerian Christian Pilgrims commission (NCPC), and made available to newsmen Thursday in Abuja, said that Goren made the pledge when he paid a courtesy visit to the NCPC boss, Rev. Tor Uja. It said that the diplomat informed Uja that the reason for his visit was to have an introductory meeting to strengthen the cooperation. The statement quoted the ambassador as saying that he would have a meeting with all consular officers in NCPC and the Israeli Embassy, on how to fast track visa issuance to pilgrims. It stated that the acting ambassador also welcomed the agricultural initiatives being canvassed by NCPC, in which youths on pilgrimage would have the opportunity of learning from Israel's rich experience. It said that he assured NCPCs boss that the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) with the State of Israel would be given accelerated push through the legal department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Aviation. According to the statement, Uja informed the ambassador that he recently had fruitful discussions with officials of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on pilgrimage issues, especially on visa. ``We have the leaders of the pilgrimage movement in Nigeria and they should be given one year visa. ``This will help in the organisation of pilgrimage if visas are issued to last for at least one year. It said that NCPC boss also urged the Israeli authorities to step up the issue of direct flight from Nigeria to Israel. ``We believe that if the BASA agreement is activated, it will reduce the long hours on board. As if anyone needs another reason to wear flip flops in the hot desert sun, today if you do at a local business you can help out a good cause. As if anyone needs another reason to wear flip flops in the hot desert sun, today if you do at a local business you can help out a good cause. From 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. today at Tropical Smoothie Cafe at 1541 E. Highway 372 you can get a 24-ounce Jetty Punch smoothie free for wearing flip flops as part of their National Flip Flop Day campaign. Although the smoothie wont cost you anything, donations are being accepted to help out Camp Sunshine. Camp Sunshine is an organization out of Maine that provides healthy, happy camping experiences to children with life-threatening illnesses. This is the tenth year Tropical Smoothie has been holding its National Flip Flop Day initiative, and their efforts have raised $3.7 million in that time. National Flip Flop Day is the single most important day of the year to Tropical Smoothie Cafe, said Jennie Hong, senior director of Brand Marketing and Strategy for Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Were planning for 2016 to be one of our most successful yet in terms of giving back to children in need. Weve seen firsthand how much Camp Sunshine means to the kids and families who attend and we want to provide that opportunity to as many people as possible. This year the goal is to raise $1 million and donations will be accepted at all Tropical Smoothie Cafes throughout the month of June. A donation between one dollar and four dollars will receive a paper flip flop that the donor can write their name on and is to be hung inside the business. If a donation between five dollars and nine dollars is made, the person will receive a flip flop key fob, which will entitle the holder to receive 30 percent off at feelzgood.com, an all-natural flip flop company. If someone donates $10, they will receive a limited edition, reusable mug featuring artwork designed by a previous camper. Camp Sunshine is a year-round retreat located in Casco, Maine, 30 miles from Portland on Sebago Lake. The camp has provided hope, and support to over 43,500 individuals from 48 states and 23 countries. Camp Sunshine is currently the only full-time facility in the nation whose sole purpose is to provide a relaxing break for the whole family of a child with a life-threatening illness. The program is free of charge to all families, and includes 24-hour onsite medical and psychosocial support. Bereavement groups are also offered for families who have lost a child to an illness. For more information, visit the website at www.CampSunshine.orgor call 207-655-3800. Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter. Now that the dust has settled and James Oscarson won the Republican nomination for Nevada State Assembly District 36, his opponent in Novembers general election, famed brothel owner Dennis Hof, is ready to challenge the incumbent. Now that the dust has settled and James Oscarson won the Republican nomination for Nevada State Assembly District 36, his opponent in Novembers general election, famed brothel owner Dennis Hof, is ready to challenge the incumbent. Oscarson, a two-term assemblyman, eked out a win over Tina Trenner in Tuesdays primary election, besting her by just 133 votes overall, despite outspending her by $120,709 during their campaigns. Trenner took the vote in Nye County as she received 1,586 votes (49.98 percent) to Oscarsons 1,348 votes (42.48 percent) and Hof sees that as a sign that the voters are ready for a change. I think that the public has shown they want him out because he voted to raise taxes, said Hof, who is running as a Libertarian. He lied to us, he told Ed Goedhart, he told me, he told everybody, I wont raise taxes. Then he voted for the largest tax increase in Nevada history, the commerce tax. The package Hof mentioned is Gov. Brian Sandovals $1.4 billion package of new and extended taxes, including a business gross receipts commerce tax imposed on revenue of $4 million or more. Oscarson was one of 13 Republican members to vote for the bill. With the primary race being so close, Hof believes that the voters that went against Oscarson this week will follow suit in November in his favor, along with members of the other political parties. Its a whole nother ball game now. Nearly half the Republicans voted for Trenner and those half are going to vote for me, Hof said. So Im going to get nearly half of the Republican votes, Im going to get all the Libertarian votes and Im going to get all the Democratic votes. Before the primary election Hof said he and Trenner came to a mutual backing agreement. I told her that I would support her if she won and that I would back out of the race, because our job is to fire James Oscarson, Hof said. Also, she committed to supporting me if she lost. Ed Goedhart is supporting me, Jim Marsh is supporting me, and Trenner is supporting me, because they dont want James Oscarson in office at all. Trenner said that she is behind Hof and would be with anyone who was opposing Oscarson. Anybody but the tax monster, Trenner said. Besides the tax issue, Hof believes his history in the business world will give him an advantage over Oscarson in their race. Im a businessman, I get it, he said. Running the state of Nevada is no different than running my multiple businesses, gift shops, gas stations, brothels, restaurants. Its just more zeros at the end. I know how to run a business, James doesnt. James knows how to take special interest money, hes real good at it. Im supporting real Nevada, not rural Nevada, real Nevada and they get my message. I am one of them. Trenner said that Hof stands a solid chance against Oscarson, as she said she likely could have taken the nomination if it wasnt for the vast difference in campaign spending. I just didnt have enough money to reach enough people, she said. I would think Hof does With just over five months left until the general election in November, Hof said he is gearing up his campaign. Were putting it all together right now, were getting the billboards and billboard trucks ready, the mailouts, Hof said. We are getting ready to go. Bottom line is, Oscarson needs to go. Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter. Winners of various races that spanned across Nye County and well beyond its boundaries on Tuesday shared their post-victory comments with the Pahrump Valley Times in the aftermath of the contest. Winners of various races that spanned across Nye County and well beyond its boundaries on Tuesday shared their post-victory comments with the Pahrump Valley Times in the aftermath of the contest. The results of Nevadas primary election for Nye County began trickling in close to midnight on Tuesday after they were held up by a technical issue. A late-night election watch party at Nye County Republican Headquarters brought a group of people who patiently waited for results. District III incumbent Commissioner Donna Cox was declared the winner of the contentious race shortly after 11 p.m. to the loud cheers of those gathered at Nye County Republican Headquarters. Cox captured 34.3 percent with 258 votes, while her nearest opponent, Leo Blundo, got close to 29 percent with 217 votes. We are back in business, Cox said following the announcement of her victory. District I incumbent Commissioner Lorinda Wichman defeated her primary opponent, Scott Mattox, winning her fourth term on the commission board. Wichman, of Round Mountain, thanked supporters and contributors to her campaign in an email statement. It wouldnt be worth doing if I didnt have you to do it for and with, she said about her supporters. My last term will be strong or stronger than the previous two. Pahrump Regional Planning Commission Chairman John Koenig cruised to an easy victory in District II with over 56 percent of the vote. The nearest runner-up, former Pahrump Town Board member Amy Riches was in a second distant place with 17.6 percent. Im extremely happy that people picked me, Koenig said in a phone interview. Im the best person qualified for the job, I have experience and the background, and Ill be ready on day one. Koenig said he will work closely with outgoing incumbent Commissioner Frank Carbone to stay up-to-date on everything going on. In Novembers general election, Koenig will square off against a Democrat, former Pahrump Town Board Chairman Harley Kulkin. Wichman and Cox will not have an opponent on the November ballot. Nevada Assembly District 36 incumbent Assemblyman James Oscarson eked out a close victory with 46.5 percent over his main rival, first-time candidate Tina Trenner, who captured 43 percent. Im honored and humbled to have won yesterdays Republican primary. As we knew from the outset, this was going to be a very tough race, Oscarson said in an email statement to the Pahrump Valley Times. I cannot express enough gratitude for the supporters who stuck by me during the past many months. It was a joy to work with you and to get to know so many of the wonderful people who call District 36 home. Trenner, an opponent of the tax package that was supported by Oscarson, won Nye County with 50 percent of the vote against Oscarsons 43 percent. Oscarson however had a decisive victory in Clark County with 58 percent over Trenners 24 percent. In Lincoln County, also part of the vast Assembly District 36, Oscarson won almost 59 percent to Trenners 26 percent. In his statement, Oscarson also paid respects to Trenner and his other opponent, Rusty Stanberry. They worked tirelessly and their supporters should be proud of their efforts. I hope to work with them in the coming months as we seek to unify the party for the general election, he said. Oscarson will face brothel owner Dennis Hof in the general election in November. Hof filed for the race as a Libertarian. Nevada State Senator Ruben Kihuen emerged as a winner from the heated congressional race in Nevadas Congressional District 4. Kihuen, a Democrat, soundly beat his two top in-party rivals, former Assemblywoman Lucy Flores and philanthropist Susie Lee. Kihuen received 40 percent of the vote across various counties that encompass Nevadas Congressional District 4. Flores got 25.6 percent of the vote and Lee got 21 percent. In Nye County, Lee however was slightly ahead of Kihuen. She received 31 percent of the vote against Kihuens 29.5 percent of the vote. I am humbled by tonights victory, Kihuen said in a statement on Tuesday. Our campaign resonated with thousands of Nevadans who are working hard every day to achieve the American dream and they deserve representation that will fight for their values and their families. Our campaign was a true team effort and I want to express my deepest thanks to our team all of the volunteers, contributors, friends and family who made tonight possible. In November, Kihuen will compete against incumbent Congressman Cresent Hardy, who is seeking his second term. Hardy, a Republican, defeated his in-party challenger Mike Monroe on Tuesday. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Joe Heck also clinched decisive victories Tuesday night. In November, the two will compete for the highly-coveted seat of outgoing U.S. Senator Harry Reid. Cortez Masto got close to 73 percent in Nye County and over 80 percent statewide, while Heck captured 60 percent in Nye County and 65 percent across the state. Both released statements following their Tuesday wins. This primary was about one thing: selecting the best person to beat Harry Reids hand-picked successor in November. Im grateful for the strong showing of support from Republicans around the state and will carry the momentum of tonight into the general election, Heck said. I am extremely thankful to all the Nevadans who supported me to be their next U.S. senator and voted in this primary. Voting is a reminder of the values of freedom and democracy upon which America was founded and I commend all those who participated in the primary election. I also commend all the candidates who decided to make a difference by running for office this year, Cortez Masto said. The general election is on Nov. 8. Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77 Oh, the poor, maligned AR-15. The American media seem to keep thick files full of disinformation on this assault rifle available for instant use. Anti-AR-15 filler went up on the web and out on the airwaves before law enforcement had even named Omar Matteen as the perpetrator of the June 12 attack on The Pulse, a nightclub serving Orlando, Floridas LGBTQ community. Here are a few problems with that filler. Problem #1: Contra early speculation, the weapon Matteen used in his killing spree wasnt an AR-15. Police initially described it as an AR-15-type assault rifle. Now were told it was a different weapon, the Sig Sauer MCX. Problem #2: Some media outlets continue to propagate the myth that the AR in AR-15 stands for assault rifle. It actually stands for Armalite, the company that first produced the gun. Problem #3: Speaking of which, the term assault rifle isnt exactly meaningless, but it doesnt mean what you probably think it means. All it means is that a weapon looks ugly and scary and therefore makes a nice juicy target for demagogues. The expired 1994-2004 US assault weapons ban was about cosmetic features bayonet lugs, flash suppressors, pistol grips and so forth not about the performance characteristics of the weapons it applied to. Problem #4: In point of fact, as scary as it might look, the AR-15 is actually a fairly under-powered weapon for killing people. Most rifles for hunting large American game animals shoot bullets in the .270 to .308 caliber range. The AR-15 fires a .223 bullet, just a little bigger than the .22 that most rural American 12-year-olds used to hunt rabbits and squirrels with. Thats one reason the US military likes the M-16, its version of the AR-15 kill an enemy soldier, his buddies keep fighting; wound an enemy soldier, two of his buddies stop fighting to help him out. Problem #5: Theres nothing new, high-tech or unusual about the AR-15. Semi-automatic rifles rifles which fire one bullet each time the trigger is pulled and automatically reload themselves have been around for more than a century, and the AR-15 itself for nearly 60 years. If someone tries to tell you that the AR-15 is an automatic weapon or a machine gun, theyre just flat wrong. No amount of blaming the AR-15 (or the Sig Sauer MCX) for the Orlando attack will make the gun responsible for the attack. The shooter is to blame for the attack. No amount of fear-mongering about the AR-15 or any other weapon will make victim disarmament what its supporters call gun control legislation either moral or practical. More than 100 million Americans own more than 300 million guns and are going to keep them. Too bad a few of them werent at The Pulse on Sunday. Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida. A 34-year-old Davenport man has been arrested after he allegedly attacked a woman with the intention of sexually abusing her, Davenport police said. John Peter Benavidez, 34, of 912 W. 3rd St., Apt. 2, is charged with one count of assault with the intent to commit sexual abuse, a Class D felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of up to five years. The incident occurred at 6:30 a.m. Thursday as the woman was walking in the area of the 2300 block of 3rd Street. According to the arrest affidavit filed by Davenport Police detective Aric Robinson, officers were conducting surveillance when the crime was committed. The woman was injured in the attack, and the assault was carried out with intent to commit sexual abuse, Robinson said in his affidavit. Benavidez also was charged with crimes of interfering with officials acts after he ran from officers and allegedly fought with one of the officers, causing a small cut to the officers hands. Benavidez was also charged with misdemeanor drug possession after officers found a baggy in his pants pocket that contained used marijuana cigarettes. Benavidez was being held Thursday night in the Scott County Jail on a $20,000 cash-only bond. A $20,000 cash-only bond was set Friday for a Davenport man accused of pointing a gun at a man and firing at his car. Terrill LC Austin, 32, faces charges of intimidation with a dangerous weapon, a Class C felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and possession of a firearm or offensive weapon by a felon, a Class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Austin will be back in court Tuesday. The incident happened at 1:13 a.m. May 23 in the 5600 block of Gaines Street. According to an arrest affidavit filed Friday by Davenport police in support of the criminal complaint: Austin pointed a firearm at the man, who was in the drivers seat of a passenger vehicle. The two had gotten into an argument several hours earlier. The man said he heard two clicks from the firearm and saw Austin back away from the vehicle. During the incident, the rear passenger side door was struck. The man was able to drive away from the scene. Several residents reported that they heard at least one gunshot. A bullet fragment was recovered from inside the rear passenger door interior panel of the mans vehicle. The man picked Austin as the shooter when shown a photo lineup, according to the affidavit. Austin was convicted of felony drug charges in Scott County in 2002, 2005 and 2011, which prohibits him from possessing a firearm, according to police. The East Moline Police Department is warning the public about a possible home repair scam. Police said Thursday that they want to talk to one suspect, Steve Vega, 39, of Florida. Vega is allegedly operating a door-to-door asphalt seal coating business known as Jet Black, according to police. East Moline police received a complaint on Tuesday from a senior citizen that Vega charged an exorbitant rate to complete a residential seal coating job. Further investigation with reputable area asphalt companies found Jet Black charged them more than four times the normal rate for seal coating a residential driveway, according to police. Vega may be traveling with another man named Andy and driving a white Dodge Ram pick-up truck. Vega is not an authorized employee of the Florida Jet Black organization, according to police. Police say homeowners should be cautious in dealing with door-to-door salespeople with no local connections. Homeowners should be concerned if a contractor demands cash payment or full payment before work is completed. Always ask contractors for references and proof of insurance, always get written estimates and never sign contracts with blank spaces or something that you dont understand. Never pay more for work after completion of the project if you have previously agreed on a price in writing. A 21-year-old woman charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a Rock Island teen in April will make her first court appearance Saturday morning at the Rock Island County Justice Center. Chelsea M. Raker is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of aiding a fugitive. Bond on the warrants was set at $1 million. Raker was arrested May 28 in Chatham County, Georgia. Local law enforcement worked with a national transport service to pick up Raker in Savannah, Georgia, earlier this week, Rock Island County States Attorney John McGehee said. As of 4:30 p.m., she was not in the Rock Island County Jail. Raker and co-defendant Kire G. Carr, 17, of Rock Island, are charged in the shooting death of 15-year-old Jescie J. Armstrong. 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 with a gunshot wound to the head inside the residence. He later died at Trinity Rock Island. Prosecutors believe Armstrong was shot while Carr and Raker were committing an armed robbery. Prosecutors claim that after the shooting, Raker drove Carr from the scene and out of Rock Island County. Carr, who is believed to have pulled the trigger, was arrested April 28 in Columbus, Ohio, by the U.S. Marshals Service. Marshals said Carr and a female accomplice, later identified as Raker, 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. McGehee has said Raker was with Carr in Columbus at some point but was not there when he was arrested. A Columbus address was listed for Raker in court documents. Alex Dziagwa has worked seven months at Family Resources in Davenport and in that time, he has seen his share of domestic violence issues. People hear and read about domestic violence, but it is a worse problem than most people realize, Dziagwa said. Dziagwa spoke after joining about 50 other people Thursday at Rock Islands Schwiebert Riverfront Park for the fifth annual Flowers on the River event hosted by the Elephant Club. The Elephant Club is a group of men who want to bring attention to the issue of domestic violence and how it affects families. Events like this one help bring awareness to the issue, Dziagwa said. Beginning with a prayer, the event included a poignant skit by members of the Davenport Central High School drama group that showed how domestic violence begins and escalates. It starts at home, said Tad Birditt, a member of the Elephant Club. It starts when the family unit breaks down. It starts when there is no proper role model for the boys. Were trying to promote proper role models, Birditt said. We need more dads. The Elephant Club currently is comprised of volunteers, but on July 1, it will become a funded program of Family Resources. Nisha Ladlee, community relations manager for Family Resources said that on May 10 the Crime Victims Assistance Division of the Iowa Attorney Generals Office awarded a grant of $142,255 to support the work of the Elephant Club. The grant will allow Family Resources to hire two Engaging Male Advocates who will work with the current volunteers of the Elephant Club as well as provide direct services to boys and men who are victims-survivors of violent crimes. During the ceremony, the names of those killed in domestic violence incidents were read while men placed red carnations in the Mississippi River. Rock Island Police Chief Jeff VenHuizen said that domestic abuse continues to be an underreported crime. Too often we dont get called until its too late, VenHuizen said. The problem, he said, comes down to having a strong moral compass. It means people, especially children, need good, strong role models who are doing what is right, he added. But when a victim comes forward, that person needs a strong support network to get through it, he said. We can never do enough to help victims and spread the word about domestic violence, VenHuizen said. Children dressed in shorts and T-shirts clattered down a set of stairs at Madison Elementary School in Davenport and made a beeline for the cafeteria table. On the lunch menu: walking tacos, with meat and/or beans, lettuce, cheese and taco sauce, supplemented with fresh apple wedges and milk. This food site is one of about 44 in the Quad-Cities, all set up to feed children who normally would get nutritious and tasty meals during the school day but might miss out in the summer. This time of year, the sites are in schools, parks, churches and other locations as officials seek to provide quick and nutritious meals to places where the children are found. At Madison, the Davenport Community School District operates a program for about 100 children. Some are from the neighborhood; others are in special programs held at the elementary school. It's much easier when the students can eat breakfast and lunch in the school, said Kelly Dugan, a fourth-grade teacher at Madison. It's also efficiently operated. "They will get 60 kids through the line in 10 minutes," she said. "It runs very smoothly here." All summer programs are funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, which funnels the money through agencies such as the Iowa Department of Education. This allows Davenport, for example, to offer the program for eight weeks every summer, on Mondays through Thursdays, except for the July 4 holiday. "Summer is a critical time for children's academic and physical well-being," said Kent Heinen, with the Food and Nutrition service in Davenport and who coordinates the summer program. The meals are open to all children and teens, 18 years old and younger, and the big problem is that not enough children in that age range realize they can eat for free, Heinen said. "It's come one, come all," he said, but some youths still don't realize they are very welcome. Still, there were 60,000 summer meals served in the 23 Community Cafe sites operated by the Davenport program last year, and Heinen hopes that number will grow by 5 percent this year. By comparison, 38,000 meals were served in the summer of 2007. "This fits a niche for kids who don't always receive a full and nutritious meal during the day," Heinen said. Mike Miller agrees with Heinen on the need to get the word out to local families. Miller is president and chief executive of River Bend Foodbank, which has a hand in more than 40 summer meal sites around the Quad-Cities. Some are operated by partner agencies, and some are independent of the food bank. The big issue is that, while all a child has to do is show up to get fed, only one-sixth of the children on the free and reduced-cost lunch program take advantage of the summer food program, Miller said. In general, Miller said one in five children are "food insecure" in the Quad-Cities, which means they do not have access to enough food for a healthy and active lifestyle. The two pig-tailed daughters of Kennesha McGowan, Davenport, do know about the summer food effort. "I like the program," McGowan said, adding that her children have been in it since they attended Buchanan Elementary School in Davenport. Back in the Madison school lunchroom, the "lunch ladies" Michelle Cirian and Crystal Bowman distributed the tacos. Cirian works at Adams Elementary School during the school year while Bowman normally is at Davenport West High School. The two appreciate the slower pace of lunch in the summertime. "The kids here are all calm and polite," Cirian said. A decision on whether to allow a psychiatric hospital to be built in the Quad-Cities has once again been delayed, but the company seeking permission to build the facility said Friday it is sticking with its plan. Iowa's State Health Facilities Council has canceled its July meetings, where Strategic Behavioral Health was hoping to gain approval to build a 72-bed hospital in Bettendorf. Amy Skinner of Okoboji, a member of the council, resigned in May, and another member will miss the meeting because of a medical issue, said Rebecca Swift, who manages the certificate of need program at the Iowa Department of Public Health. Such certificates are required, by state law, for new health care facilities. Four members are required at a meeting to achieve a quorum. This is the third time the Memphis company will have been stymied in its attempt to get state permission to build. Last fall, when it was first scheduled to go before the council, a member of the five-member board couldn't make the meeting, so Strategic decided to wait until February. Then, at that meeting in Ankeny, there were only four members present again, and they deadlocked 2-2 on the question, meaning that permission could not be granted. Strategic president Jim Shaheen said Friday that the firm will continue its attempts to build here. "We remain committed to building the facility. Just have to wait until the next meeting," Shaheen said in an email. The psychiatric hospital proposal has been a point of controversy in the Quad-Cities for more than a year now. The area's two largest hospitals, Genesis Health System and UnityPoint Trinity, argue Strategic's plans would undermine their own behavioral health services. Strategic claims the area has been and continues to be underserved and that the market can accommodate all the providers. The health facilities council members are appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad. A spokesman, Ben Hammes, said Friday the administration hopes to have a replacement soon. "But we are going to take our time to make sure we have the right person," he said. Hammes added that he anticipates a new meeting may be scheduled for September, and the administration hopes to have a new member appointed by then. The governor has been critical of the certificate of need process. In March, he said in the Quad-Cities that the process originated as a way to prevent duplication in health care spending but had evolved into a way to stifle competition in some cases. Skinner's departure does open up an opportunity for Strategic Behavioral Health. She voted against allowing the psychiatric hospital to be built. Bob Lundin, the council chair and a former Trinity executive, also voted against the application. Lundin disclosed his affiliation with Trinity before the vote, and there were no objections to his taking part. The two who voted in favor of building the psychiatric hospital were Roger Thomas of Elkader and Roberta Chambers of Corydon. Connie Schmett of Clive did not attend the February meeting. Strategic is proposing the $14 million facility be built at Golden Valley Drive and Tanglefoot Lane in Bettendorf. Hy-Vee stores in the Quad-Cities and Clinton are sponsoring their eighth Honor Flight of the Quad-Cities and what will be the first flight carrying all Vietnam veterans. The grocery chain and Honor Flight officials announced the special flight at a news conference Friday at the Bettendorf Hy-Vee store. Hy-Vee officials also presented the local Honor Flight chapter with a $50,000 donation. "We want all the veterans to know how truly thankful we are for their service and sacrifice," said Mark Streit, a Davenport store director. "It is our privilege to sponsor this first full Vietnam veteran Honor Flight and properly recognize them for their sacrifices." The Sept. 15 flight will carry about 100 local Vietnam War and Vietnam-era veterans from the Quad-City International Airport to Washington, D.C. They will spend the day touring memorials to U.S. wars. The schedule will include additional time at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The flight will include about 60 guardians and Honor Flight staff. Streit said Hy-Vee also will sponsor a pre-flight dinner to acquaint the veterans and guardians. "This pre-flight dinner is unique to our Honor Flights," he said, adding that the dinner also gives Hy-Vee employees a chance to thank the veterans for their service. Steve Garrington, Honor Flight's hub director, said the organization expanded the flights to Vietnam veterans about a year ago. "Now there is enough applications to do a whole Vietnam veteran flight. It doesn't mean we are stopping taking the other vets," said Garrington, a Vietnam-era Army veteran. "If there are Korean or World War II veterans out there, we still would like to take them." The flight will be led by Honor Flight board members Mike Haney, a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran, and Dave Woods, a Vietnam Army veteran. Haney said Honor Flights were opened up to Vietnam veterans "because we saw we could not fill the planes with World War II and Korean veterans." In fact, the latest flight last month had only three World War II veterans, 33 Korean-era veterans and the balance Vietnam vets, he said. Vietnam veterans Greg Paulline of Davenport and John Lavelle of Bettendorf, who attended the announcement, were pleased to see an all-Vietnam veteran flight. "We certainly want to follow in the footsteps of the Korean and World War II veterans," said Paulline, president of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 776. The two men, who have been guardians on previous flights, said younger veterans returning from service now are finding a more positive reception, in part, because of efforts of Vietnam veterans. Lavelle said the vets want to make sure "nobody has to come home to what we did." During the news conference, Streit said, "We could not have made these flights possible without the support of our sponsors, employees and community." He publicly thanked these partners: Pepsi, Sara Lee, the Quad-City Times, Bernatello's, Snapple, Budweiser, Coors Light, Kitchen Cooked, Mama Bosso, Prairie Farms and Frito-Lay. Three years after charges of clergy abuse were brought against him, the Rev. John Stack has been cleared by the Vatican and will work again in the Diocese of Davenport. The findings were announced Friday by Deacon David Montgomery, the diocese's spokesman. Stack was accused in 2013 of inappropriately touching minors in the 1980s. The charge was reported to the Scott County Attorney's Office, the process the diocese now uses in abuse cases. Stack was removed from his ministry at Mercy Medical Center in Clinton while the investigation went forward. Bishop Martin Amos petitioned the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, requesting that Stack's case be brought to trial before three judges, none of whom is from the Davenport diocese. The charges against Stack were found to be "not proven," without a finding of innocence or guilt. On appeal, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith concurred with the three judges' "not proven" decision. Amos will reassign Stack to duties in the diocese, but he has not done so as yet, Montgomery said. Stack first served at Holy Family in Davenport as a parochial vicar from 1988 to 1990. He has served as the chaplain at the Clinton hospital since 1994 and has served in various roles in churches in Keokuk, East Pleasant Plain, Richland, Clinton, Camanche, Lost Nation, Toronto, Oxford Junction, Sugar Creek, DeWitt, Charlotte and Grand Mound. Hatchet throwing, spinning and campfire cooking are three old-time skills you can see demonstrated Saturday and Sunday during the fourth annual Pioneer Days at the Colonel Davenport House on Arsenal Island. Hours are 10 a.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults 12 years and older, $8 for active military and seniors (65 years and older), and free for those 11 years and under. Admission includes a tour of the Colonel Davenport House, which dates to 1832. The event features an overnight encampment of fur trader re-enactors, called a Buckskinners' Rendezvous, with pioneer portrayers demonstrating hatchet and knife throwing and craft demonstrators doing wood-working, chair caning, spinning, basket weaving, quilting, rope making and campfire cooking. Kid's games and activities also are offered. Historian Gena Schantz of Davenport will speak at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday about the history of the Colonel Davenport House, and Maryan Wherry of Orion, Illinois, will speak at 2 p.m. Sunday about the women of the Davenport family. Old-time music specialist Wesley Wells will play guitar and violin each afternoon. On display will be selected items from the Fort Armstrong time capsule, buried as part of the fort's 150th anniversary in 1966 and recently opened as part of the 200th anniversary. Food available for purchase will include sandwiches, sides and drinks from Dickeys BBQ, plus homemade ice cream and popcorn. This event is part of Quad-Cities Museum Week, which begins Saturday and continues through June with more than 20 participating local museums. People wanting to attend Pioneer Days are asked to enter the island through the Moline gate. A current U.S. picture ID is required for people older than 16. On Saturday, African-Americans celebrate Juneteenth, the oldest known celebration commemorating the announcement of the ending of slavery in our country, two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth is time to celebrate the rich history and accomplishments of Black Americans in our country. Though the road to equality and justice has been arduous and the journey is not yet complete, weve still come far as a nation. The election and reelection of President Obama is a testament to that. Still, our community knows that there is a lot of work to do. That is why we cannot afford to sit on the sidelines this election as Americans look to build on the progress of our first black president. Its important that we elect a candidate who will build on President Obamas accomplishments instead of tearing them down. Hillary Clinton believes that were stronger together. She has been committed to civil rights for the past 40 years and has worked her entire life to expand economic opportunity and social justice. When she began her career after graduating law school, Hillary didnt join a big law firm in Washington or New York. Instead, she went to work for the Childrens Defense Fund, where she investigated why African American teenagers were being held in adult prisons. She helped create the Childrens Health Insurance Program, which covers 8 million kids. And as a U.S. senator, she introduced legislation to provide much-needed resources and educational opportunities for disadvantaged students. These actions speak to her concern for the underserved, and her commitment to fighting for marginalized communities. Donald Trump, on the other hand, will tear this country apart and do serious harm to our security and economy. He opposes raising the minimum wage and has even suggested that wages are too high. He opposes equal pay for women, has demonized immigrants, and has repeatedly questioned President Obamas patriotism and legitimacy. Hes promised to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. And he even failed to rebuke the Ku Klux Klanand call it the terrorist organization that it iswhen one of its leaders endorsed him for president. Donald Trump has shown us time and again that he is unfit and unqualified to be president. We got an early look at his erratic and hateful candidacy in Iowa, so weve known longer than most just how dangerous a Donald Trump presidency would be for our community, state, and nation. We need to come together and stand for the fundamental values that our country stands for. Its up to us to continue the journey down the long road toward the more perfect union promised in our constitution. Juneteenth celebrates that promise and serves as a reminder of the continued journey ahead to ensure everyone has equal rights, equal protection, and the opportunity to live up to their God-given potential. This November we have the opportunity to stand up to Donald Trump and stand with a candidate who will fight for us. Hillary Clinton believes the economy should work for everyone not just those at the top, we should work with our allies to keep us safe, and that we are a better people when we respect each other and lift each other up. As president, Hillary Clinton would build a future that brings us together instead of pulling us apart. It's been the work of her life and it's why I believe we need her in the White House. When it's time to cast my ballot this fall, I'm with her. Illinois might continue its march toward modernity, but the federal government remains mired in the past. It's time federal officials end the ridiculous barriers to medical marijuana research inhibiting needed knowledge on the widely used plant. Gov. Bruce Rauner, this month, rightly pivoted away from his general distaste for the state's medical marijuana pilot program. Rauner is expected to sign legislation that would extend the state's trial pot program through July 2020. It's a welcome move, especially since a pilot program is intended as a test run. Sure, Illinois's medical pot law, arguably the most rigid in the nation, has been on the books since 2014. But it collected dust for more than a year. At a practical level, growers didn't begin cultivating their crops until November. The 2017 sunset, frankly, just wasn't enough time to gauge much of anything. The real import of Rauner's tacit approval exists in Washington's vacuum. Initial indications say pot could provide relief and comfort for any number of ailments: Cancer, spinal injuries, glaucoma -- all of which are eligible for marijuana treatment, under Illinois law. Proponents are touting marijuana's supposed therapeutic qualities for those afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder. The PTSD debate has especially split the medical and scientific communities, with vaunted organizations such as American Psychiatric Association vehemently opposed. It's just the newest ailment wrapped into the marijuana debate. More research is needed, opponents say. Agreed. So get to it, researchers. Wait. They can't. In 2015, only one research institution, the University of Mississippi, possessed a Drug Enforcement Administration license to grow and research marijuana, according to a letter drafted last year by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon. The DEA's Schedule I classification, the same level given to heroin, makes viable legal research almost impossible, by stating the plant has "No medicinal use." President Barack Obama's administration is hamstringing necessary fact finding in a time when facts are what's most required. And, in the process, many a medical provider won't prescribe marijuana due to fears of federal reprisal. Congress, too, has dodged the pot issue, even as legalization efforts grow throughout the country. In fact, the House, last year, threatened to toss Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser in jail after her city voted to legalize recreational pot use. The congressional dawdling means the growing pot business -- wholly legal, under state law -- is often barred from banking, credit and other necessary activities. Federal officials, both Republican and Democrat, are ducking a sociological wave, one fueled by failed drug policy, racial inequality and spiking prison budgets. It's apparent that pot has a place in the pantheon of medical treatments, directly counter to the DEA's classification. And it's obvious that the pot debate will continue, in spite of the incessant issue-dodging in Washington. Ohio Gov John Kasich last week signed legislation approving a medicinal program in his state. Half the states now offer medicinal or recreational programs. Like Kasich, Rauner has come around. Adding two more years to the program makes sense since it has only existed, in a practical sense, for a few months. But the future of pot in Illinois, and throughout the country, is too often rooted in anecdote instead of peer-reviewed research. Facts become increasingly important as the marijuana debate evolves from medicinal to recreational, an obvious eventuality. It won't change until federal officials get out of the way and allow scientists to do their jobs. SPRINGFIELD Ballots won't be cast for more than four months, but three southern Illinois Democrats seeking re-election to the General Assembly are already facing a blitz of negative TV and internet ads, robocalls and email blasts from the Illinois Republican Party. Sen. Gary Forby of Benton and Reps. John Bradley of Marion and Brandon Phelps of Harrisburg have become prime targets for the GOP as it tries to cut into Democratic super-majorities in the House and Senate. The overarching message is that the trio of lawmakers are "double-talking politicians" who are more loyal to House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, than to voters in their districts. "In southern Illinois, they say they're for us," the narrator says in a TV ad released Wednesday. "Then they go to Springfield and do Madigan's bidding." Likewise, a robocall that started Tuesday says, "Together, Mike Madigan, Gary Forby and John Bradley are holding the state budget hostage to force a massive tax hike with no reforms and increase our state debt by billions." Much of the criticism focuses on the lawmakers' support for a budget plan from House Democrats that Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration says is $7.5 billion out of balance. The plan was approved in the House before the May 31 close of the spring legislative session but was rejected in the Senate. The GOP launched its online campaign in the waning days of the spring session and took to the airwaves and phone lines in southern Illinois this month. While campaign spending disclosures for the current period won't be available until next month, contracts on file with the Federal Communications Commission show that the House Republican Organization is spending more than $36,000 weekly this month running 86 ads each week on WSIL-TV alone. Records indicate that the ads are scheduled to continue through next week. The spending comes after Rauner's campaign fund last month gave $5 million to the state GOP, which in turn gave $2 million to the House Republican Organization. The Illinois Republican Party "is focused on winnable races throughout the state and is actively engaged in close to two dozen races," spokesman Aaron DeGroot wrote in an email. "Southern Illinoisans are highly engaged right now because Gary Forby, John Bradley and Brandon Phelps are holding the budget hostage out of their loyalty to Mike Madigan," DeGroot wrote. "It's more important than ever for Southern Illinoisans to know that Forby, Bradley and Phelps are putting Chicago Political Boss Mike Madigan's tax-spend-and-borrow agenda ahead of funding for downstate schools and prisons." But David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said the ads and calls may be too much too soon. "There's a real risk of voter fatigue here," Yepsen said. "Voters don't have a lot of patience with politicians anyway. I don't think any party has got high ground in that debate in Springfield. There's just a general 'plague on both your houses' from voters." The strategy of tying Democratic lawmakers to Madigan has been tried many times before without much success, he said. "Mike Madigan's not very popular down here, but neither is Bruce Rauner," Yepsen said. "Plus, Bradley, Phelps, Gary Forby, they're known to a lot of people. They've been in office a long time. These caricatures are not the people that many voters know personally." Phelps, who faces a challenge from Jason Kasiar of Eldorado, said that's the message he's been getting from voters as he campaigns door to door. "Actually, those ads are kind of helping me because the governor's very unpopular in my district," he said. "He's very unpopular." Phelps said his constituents know he has a record of working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to protect their interests. Like Phelps, Forby said he doesn't think the criticisms will play with voters back home in his race against Dale Fowler of Harrisburg. "I don't think tying me to Madigan works," Forby said Wednesday, when he was at the Capitol for a meeting of a bipartisan group of lawmakers negotiating a budget compromise. "I've been in here for a long time. I'm my own guy, and I'm voting my district." Bradley, who is facing Dave Severin of Benton, couldn't be reached for comment. In addition to running the risk of turning off voters, the attacks might make it harder for the parties to reach a compromise on the budget, Yepsen said, adding that the same is true for harsh statements from Democrats against the governor and his allies. "All this rhetoric flying back and forth, I think it makes it very difficult to sit down and to trust an adversary in a negotiation," he said. DES MOINES A former law clerk for Merrick Garland, the judge nominated by President Barack Obama to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, was in Iowa this week to make the case that Garlands nomination should receive a hearing in the U.S. Senate. Eric Berger, an associate dean and law professor at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, visited Iowa as a guest of the progressive advocacy group Progress Iowa. Berger clerked for Garland in 2003 and 2004, while Garland served as a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Garlands nomination has not received a hearing in the Senate, where Republicans in control of the chamber have said the Supreme Court vacancy should be filled by the next president, after this falls presidential election. Iowas longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds hearings on Supreme Court nominees. Grassley has joined with Senate leadership, saying that the decision is not an indictment of Garland but that he thinks voters should have a say in the nomination by who they choose to be president. Democrats have hammered on the Supreme Court vacancy as they seek to unseat Grassley, who is up for re-election this fall. Grassley, who has served in Congress since 1981, is being challenged by former Iowa lieutenant governor and agriculture secretary Patty Judge. Im calling on Sen. Grassley to hold hearings and schedule a vote (on Garlands nomination), Berger said. The people deserve an opportunity to go through the process. Berger praised Garland, calling him meticulous, analytical and thorough, and a judge who does not let political ideology interfere with his rulings. He will be incredibly nonpartisan. He wont let his personal politics filter into it, Berger said. To that extent, he is a very special judge. Berger said if Republicans stand their ground through the election, he hopes the next president especially if it is Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton will consider Garland for the Supreme Court vacancy. Berger said his preference, however would be for Senate Republicans, including Grassley, to agree to start the nomination process now. I think (Garland) is exactly the kind of person we should have on the Supreme Court, Berger said. He has all the qualities you would want in a judge. PIERRE | Secretary of State Shantel Krebs plans a review of South Dakotas campaign finance reporting laws, according to her public information officer. Jason Williams said Krebs intends to convene a summer subcommittee with representatives from the Legislature, the state Board of Elections and the business community. Proposed changes will be presented at the October meeting of Board of Elections. She wants the review to ensure that the public and candidates have access to information that clearly identifies who is funding political committees when the information is most relevant, Williams said. The full review of campaign finance laws would also help to make them more straightforward and easy to understand for candidates, he added. The announcement of the Krebs plan came in the wake of a newspaper report last weekend detailing some of the secretive practices during the June 7 primary campaigns. One of the shortcomings identified is that a legislative candidates committee isnt required to file a year-end report for non-election years, such as 2015. If the candidate doesnt have a primary election, a pre-primary report isnt required either. If the candidate didnt run this year, two years would pass between reports. Those time gaps noticeably came into play this year. Several current legislators made independent expenditures on behalf of legislative candidates who had primaries or made contributions to those candidates committees for their primary campaigns. The sources of the money for the independent expenditures and the donations from legislators campaign committees werent publicly disclosed, however, because the legislators didnt have primaries and hadnt filed a report since the end of their 2014 campaigns. The governor also used his campaign committee to make contributions to some legislative candidates with primaries. Because he isnt up for election this year, he also didnt have to file a pre-primary finance report. Jason Huber and Dylan Goetsch were honored as the Belle Fourche Police Department officers of the year at Saturday's department open house. The open house drew about 200 people through the late morning and early afternoon to visit with officers over a hot dog lunch, bring children to the South Dakota Masons' Child Identification Program and see how the department has a continuing training program for officers. Along with Huber and Goetsch, the noon program headed by Chief Scott Jones also included a community service award for a person working in conjunction with officers on projects to help others in the community. Cheri Tripp of Budget Appliance received the award resulting from two instances of helping community members who had been seen by officers during their on and off duty time. One was person who had brought concerns to others and needed help with food and medication. A second instance was a family that had no furniture or proper winter clothing for the children. Jones said Tripp took the lead in helping police get beds for the family, "and she went out and personally collected coats." She also helped the department with their kids and tots program last year. The two officers of the year are relatively new to Belle Fourche, Jones said, but both quickly became part of the community, "serving the community at every level." He said, "They're both good assets to the Belle Fourche Police Department and to the community as a whole." One example of on-duty efforts came on an ambulance call for aid to a male who was not breathing. The two arrived at the scene and immediately began CPR and lifesaving tactics and continued until medical staff arrived. Jones said hospital staff told him that it was a miracle that the man survived, and that his survival could be directly attributed to the officers' actions. The police chief also offered a wrap-up of department activity for 2015 and the first half of 2016. There were just over 9,000 calls for service in 2015, and 613 that were sufficiently serious to bring a full case report. From Jan. 1 through June 1, there were 3,600 calls for service, and 316 full case reports. Drugs remain a major problem for police, Jones said. There were 56 drug cases with possession charges in the second half of 2015, he said, and 32 in the first half of 2016. More than 100 pounds of marijuana was seized, and in major cases an additional $64,000 in cash was seized. Jones said that the total value of drugs seized by police were sold by the gram, the street value would have been $1,641,400. The Masons' South Dakota Child Identification Program (SD-CHIP) took DNA, photos and other information on more than 20 children at the police headquarters. The program gives the full identification to parents in case of a child lost to abduction or other circumstances. Jones said the department was pleased to host the Masons and the families who came to have their children's' identification materials generated in the event a child becomes missing. "Everything we do is about people," Jones said. The Masons' program means that in the event a child is missing, parents can give law enforcement immediate identification material on the child that can offer a leap ahead for police in their recovery efforts. "Hats off to our local guys who took their Saturday to help make the community a better place," he said. While Jones was full of praise for the uniformed officer staff that now is at full authorized strength, he also credited Mardi Reeves both for organizing the open house and other police activities. "She's not an administration assistant, she's the glue that keeps things together," he said. She also functions as evidence technician for investigations. "The department would not function without her around, Jones said. In an effort to alleviate congestion at the Sturgis liquor store during the annual motorcycle rally, the Sturgis City Council has approved an ordinance allowing the towns grocery stores to sell liquor. Applications for the special event liquor license were first made available Wednesday. Grocery Mart co-owner Marcia Johnston said she planned to pick up an application so the store on Junction Avenue could sell liquor during the special-event period from Aug. 1 to Aug. 15. Under the ordinance, the grocery store must have a sponsoring nonprofit group. Johnston said Grocery Mart would be working with Sturgis Rally Charities. She is on the board of directors of the group, which offers annual grants to other local nonprofits, such as the Sturgis Area Arts Council, Meade County Senior Citizens Center and the Rural Meade Ambulance Service. Cost of the license is $100 per day, with a 15-day maximum. Also, 10 percent of the sales of liquor under the special events license will be split between the city and the nonprofit. Heres how it works: The grocery store buys the liquor. From its invoices, the grocery store will pay out 10 percent, part will go to the city and part will go to the charity. Sturgis City Manager Daniel Ainslie said the retailer determines how the money is split between the city and the charity. If, for instance, the retailer earmarks the entire 10 percent for the charity and zero percent for the city, their application probably wont fly with the city council. But, Ainslie wouldnt reveal what percentage would suffice for the city council. Sturgis Mayor Mark Carstensen said people need to remember that this years special event liquor license is an experiment. Were trying to see if this makes sense, he said. Johnston also sees this year as a test run. She has some experience in liquor sales, previously operating a liquor store in Colorado. That gives me a little bit of knowledge, she said. Before buying into Grocery Mart in Sturgis, Marcia and Dan Johnston owned Johnstons Hardware in Sturgis. Grocery Mart currently has licenses for off-sale wine and beer. Owners recently revamped the front of their store to establish an expansive wine selection and added beer coolers. Its going to be a little bit of a juggling act, Johnston said of adding the liquor. Johnston, a former city council member, says she knows the city has experienced issues during the rally with frustrated patrons at the city-owned liquor store. There are so many people in the liquor store, and it becomes hard for them to get everybody served, she said. Another issue has been the lack of parking at the city liquor store on Lazelle Street. Johnston says she knows how important it is to the citys bottom line. She believes allowing established retail outlets to offer liquor during the rally will work better than the satellite locations the city has tried in the past two years. And it will reduce frustrations of local customers. We do get a lot of people through here who do ask where our liquor is located, because they are used to seeing it in a grocery store, she said. When rally patrons are told they have to go into the mouth of the dragon near the intersection of Lazelle and Junction to buy at the city liquor store, they often vow to go elsewhere, including Rapid City, Johnston said. Most of them dont want to go through all the crowds and the traffic, she said. Mayor Carstensen said having liquor sales at the grocery stores and at the city-owned liquor store will help residents and the city. If someone just buys from Grocery Mart and doesnt go to the liquor store, we are still going to see a benefit on that, he said. We will be able to reach more people, but we wont have the overhead we had with the annexes. That will fall on the retailers. PIERRE | Julie Mathiesen of Sturgis resigned from the state Board of Education recently because of South Dakotas new law requiring disclosures of possible financial conflicts. The law applies to members of state boards and commissions and to people who work in leadership posts in public education. Mathiesen is the first state appointee to step down before the new law takes effect July 1. She is director for the Technology In Education (TIE) organization that assists schools throughout South Dakota. The Legislature approved the new conflicts law in response to the alleged financial crimes involving personnel for Mid-Central Educational Cooperative at Platte and the GEAR UP program for Native American high school students. Criminal charges are pending against the cooperatives former director Dan Guericke, of White Lake; the GEAR UPs programs former director Stacy Phelps, of Rapid City; and a former assistant business manager, Stephanie Hubers of Geddes. State boards and commissions specifically covered by the new law have received briefings in recent months about its effects and the waiver process that is allowed. Gov. Dennis Daugaard originally appointed Mathiesen to the state board in 2011, in part because of her work at TIE and her experience as a high school teacher in art and biology. He later reappointed her to another term. Mathiesen cited the new law in the letter of resignation she submitted with regret to the governor. I stand by my belief that my position on the BOE is not in conflict with my work in education because the board does not approve or oversee contracts, she wrote. However, recent legislative action and the associated reporting measures will create a situation that could be distracting to the work of BOE as well as to my employer, she continued. Mathiesen made clear the state board reaches policy decisions and none of the financial information affecting her has been secret. Im a proponent of open government and transparency and all the state contracts associated with my employer, which is a political subdivision of the state, are readily available on open.sd.gov, she wrote. In addition to contracts with the state, my employer frequently engages in contracts to support professional learning in school districts, which are also political subdivisions of the state. Last year, after the six members of the Scott and Nicole Westerhuis family were shot to death at their home, the governor accepted the resignation of Phelps from the state board. Phelps originally was appointed to the board by then-Gov. Mike Rounds and Daugaard reappointed Phelps in 2011 at the same time he chose Mathiesen for the board. Daugaard said Phelps continued service on the board could appear to be a conflict. That was before state Attorney General Marty Jackley filed criminal charges against Phelps, Guericke and Hubers. Scott and Nicole Westerhuis were the business manager and an assistant business manager for Mid Central. They also worked directly with Phelps in several other businesses they formed together and for two nonprofit organizations that handled GEAR UP funding. Jackley said the state investigation into the deaths indicated Scott Westerhuis shot to death his wife and their four children before lighting their house on fire and shooting himself. The Westerhuis couple is believed to have funneled many thousands of dollars away from GEAR UP. The financial investigation is continuing. The Westerhuis deaths came less than 24 hours after state Education Secretary Melody Schopp notified Guericke she wasnt renewing the GEAR UP management contract with Mid-Central. A state audit previously determined Schopps department didnt adequately supervise spending under the GEAR UP contract. Two of the people specifically identified in the audit for failing to document work were Rick Melmer, a former state secretary of education, and Keith Moore, a former head of the state office of Native American education and a former director for the federal Bureau of Indian Education. The cooperatives board has since voted to shut down the organization in 2017. To replace Mathiesen, Daugaard appointed Kay Schallenkamp of Spearfish. She is the retired president of Black Hills State University. The governor understood Julies decision, because the new law would be very complicated to comply with in her situation, even without any direct conflicts, said Tony Venhuizen, the governors chief of staff who specifically oversees the state Department of Education. He was sorry to see her resign, however, because she is an education leader in this state and has been an excellent board member, Venhuizen said. Mathiesen resigned just months before her term would have expired Dec. 31, 2016. Schallenkamp is appointed to serve the remainder of that term. Two other board members terms expire Dec. 31, 2016: Kelly Duncan of Aberdeen is dean of education at Northern State University. Her consulting business previously received contracts through Mid-Central and participated in a paid review of the GEAR UP program during the past year. Scott Herman of Mission, a Rosebud Sioux Tribe leader whom the governor appointed to fill the vacancy left by Phelps resignation in 2015. The state Board of Education meets Monday morning in Pierre. Federal representatives seeking suggestions for improving the Indian Health Service heard repeatedly Thursday the problems start with their bosses in Congress. Money talks, said Cheyenne River Sioux Chairman Harold Frazier, who complained all the legislation is meaningless without funding the promises for better healthcare. The U.S. Committee on Indian Affairs held a town hall open forum in Rapid City to review Senate Bill 2953 dubbed the IHS Accountability Act. Sponsors Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo. seek to overhaul the national care network for tribal members. In recent years, federal investigators have revealed a series of horror stories within IHS-run hospitals in the Great Plains. Cases include an unattended pregnant woman giving birth on a dirty bathroom floor and patients dying due to lack of proper medical treatment. Several of the 150 people at the forum shared stories about their IHS experiences. One woman said she was repeatedly misdiagnosed after suffering a serious worksite injury. A man lamented the dismal life-expectancy of men on the largely impoverished Rosebud reservation. Frazier expressed utter distrust of the IHS. He said many employees of the federal agency repeatedly lie to him and his constituents. He accused IHS workers of breaking federal laws by not providing the medical care guaranteed to Native people under federal treaties. These are federal laws, Frazier told the town hall panel led by T. Michael Andrews, the chief counsel of the Indian Affairs committee. If an Indian breaks a federal law, he gets locked up. If an IHS employee breaks a federal law, he gets promoted. And thats a fact. Andrews assured the crowd their information will have a significant impact on the IHS Accountability Act, which he characterized as a work in progress. Thune and Barrasso staff members with Andrews fielded citizen questions about physician retention and preventative care and complaints about substandard healthcare being provided in some IHS hospitals. Frazier criticized the bill for not containing provisions regarding methamphetamine addiction and suicide, two problems that loom large over Native American public health. Though it addresses a range of issues, the bills main thrust is making it easier to hold IHS employees accountable for their actions while protecting those employees who report malfeasance. State Rep. Elizabeth May of Kyle said while the bill makes some positive changes, it doesnt move the dial enough on what she sees as the core problem. This is a treaty obligation, and it is not being met. Period. End of discussion, May said. We need to find a plan for how were going to meet that treaty obligation. Winona Stabler, a former IHS hospital director, and Wounded Knee district representative Collins CJ Clifford of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council echoed Fraziers healthcare funding concerns. Congress needs to fund IHS 100 percent, Stabler said. The crowd consensus seemed to conclude that the IHS Accountability Act is just a start and more than one bill will be need to resolve complex problems plaguing Native American health care. The panel will continue to gather public testimony about the IHS Accountability Act during a field hearing at 10:30 a.m. today in the Rapid City Central High School Auditorium, 433 Mount Rushmore Road. Barrasso, Thune, Sen. Mike Rounds and Congresswoman Kristi Noem will be present, as will a series of invited witnesses. Those who cannot attend the field hearing can send their written testimony to testimony@indian.senate.gov. WASHINGTON | Donald Trump's ban of Washington Post journalists has left other news outlets with a stark choice: your ratings or your responsibility as journalists in a free society? Trump's announcement that he is barring Post journalists from his events follows similar bans he put on reporters from Politico, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Gawker, Foreign Policy, Fusion, Univision, Mother Jones, the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Des Moines Register and the Daily Beast. Trump goons have been known to kick out undesirable reporters at Trump events. For those journalists and media executives who still don't share the view of Post Executive Editor Martin Baron that Trump's action "is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press," it won't be long before Trump comes for you, too. Earlier this year, Trump said he would "open up" libel laws in other words, dispense with the First Amendment to make it easier for him to sue news outlets. He has suggested that, if president, he would use antitrust laws to harass Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns the Post. And longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has proposed that a President Trump seek retribution against CNN: "Turn off their FCC license." This goes beyond even Nixonian hostility. Before Trump events, all journalists blacklisted or not must apply for permission to attend. They are then notified if their applications have been approved. But there is, happily, a just and appropriate response to Trump's blacklist: a Trump blackout. I don't mean an outright ban of Trump coverage. That would be shirking our civic responsibility. But I suggest an end to the uncritical, free publicity that propelled him to the GOP nomination: No more live, wall-to-wall coverage of Trump's rallies and events; this sort of "coverage," particularly by cable news outlets, has been a huge in-kind contribution to Trump. No more Trump call-ins to TV shows; this enables him to plant falsehoods with little risk of follow-up. Rigorous use of real-time fact-checking, pointing out Trump's falsehoods in the stories in which they're reported. That's not injecting opinion it's stating fact. Beyond that, news organizations should demand that the Republican National Committee, at next month's convention, reinstate and credential all media outlets that Trump has banned. Does the RNC want to join Trump in opposing a free press? Politicians have long tried to freeze out critical reporters and news organizations by refusing to return phone calls or denying them questions at news conferences; I got that treatment covering George W. Bush's White House. But this is fundamentally different: If Trump were to behave this way in office, he could choose which journalists and outlets would be admitted to the White House briefing room, participate in the press pool or join presidential events. A push-back against Trump's authoritarian actions could work, because Trump relies almost entirely on free media attention. He lacks a traditional campaign apparatus with the ability to target and mobilize voters with advertising and field organizing. Trump won the nomination using what the British call the "dead cat" tactic: Throw a dead cat on the table, and that's what people will talk about. Trump kept hurling cats, thereby staying a step ahead of the media watchdogs. In a report out Monday, Harvard University's Shorenstein Center found that eight top news outlets gave Trump the equivalent of $55 million of free advertising last year and about two-thirds of Trump coverage was positive. Taking the news media as a whole, the center said the claim that Trump's media coverage was worth $2 billion in ads "might well be correct." Shorenstein's Thomas Patterson suggests a "corrective" response by the media to Trump's blacklist. "Too many journalists are hung up on the old balance of 'he said, she said' and are silent about putting their finger on the scale and saying which viewpoint has the larger weight" of truth, he told me. "One would hope that would change." That has begun to change in the past month. The focus has shifted from Trump's dead cats to serious probing of Trump's past, falsehoods and racial politics. Nobody has done this better than my colleagues at the Post, which is the real reason for Trump's blacklisting. Covering Trump will be more difficult if Post reporters are denied seats on the Trump press charter and news conferences and access to Trump rallies. But their coverage will be as vigorous as before. The question is whether other news organizations will recognize that Trump's ban is a call to conscience for all who believe in a free press. When serious crimes occur on Montana Indian reservations, the news is often suppressed by the multiple agencies responsible for assisting victims, investigating and bringing perpetrators to justice. Lack of public information makes such crimes all the more outrageous. Its as if the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal government leadership are saying: If we dont talk about it, the problem will go away. This attitude is corrosive to public trust. Crime affects the community, not just the individual who was injured. If an attack on a neighbor, or a schoolmate is hushed up, what confidence can other families have that they will be safe or that an attack on them would be thoroughly investigated? These worries are top of mind now with bits of information trickling out of the Crow Reservation about an unnamed woman being severely burned in April. No official law enforcement or other governmental official will confirm even the most basic facts of what happened to this woman. The FBI has refused to provide any information, except for this statement made in response to Gazette calls: The victim is being treated from her injuries. The FBI and the BIA continue to conduct a joint investigation. We cannot release any further information due to the ongoing nature of the case. A spokeswoman for Montana U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter declined comment. State Rep. Carolyn Pease Lopez, a Crow tribal member, is correct in saying that information being kept from the public makes it seem like the federal government believes life has less value on the reservation. State Rep. Kelly McCarthy, of Billings, said hes gotten the same silent treatment as tribal members and the press. Federal agencies dont return his calls about issues on Montanas Indian reservations. McCarthy told a Gazette reporter that federal authorities may believe they dont need to share information with a state official. The result of this lack of communication is to minimize the appearance of crime on Montana Indian reservations and to keep citizens in the dark about efforts (or lack of effort) to prevent violence and to bring offenders to justice. The story of a woman found severely burned somewhere between Lodge Grass and Busby two months ago is the latest, terrible example of the deafening silence from authorities responsible for protecting people on Montana reservations. The leaders of both the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and the Crow Tribe have publicly called attention to drug-related crime in their communities, largely fueled by methamphetamine trafficking. The stories of the victims of violence drug-related or not should be part of raising community awareness of that crime. All of us must demand protection for our neighbors wherever they live in Montana. We are particularly disappointed that U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter hasnt spoken up. As Montanas top federal law enforcement officer, Cotter should set the tone for public information. We call on Cotter to establish policies that will keep communities informed on a timely basis. The U.S. attorneys office has initiatives for cooperation with Montana tribal justice systems. Public cooperation is a key factor in success of such initiatives, and cooperation wont happen without public trust. There are sometimes situations in which facts may jeopardize a case if publicly revealed before an arrest. But to keep the community in the dark on all facts of a serious crime for days, weeks, even months erodes trust. Ex-construction boss at Vostochny Cosmodrome to stay under house arrest MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) - The Primorsky Territory Court in Vladivostok has extended the house arrest of former chief executive of TMK (Pacific Bridge Building Company), a contractor in the Vostochny Cosmodrome project, Viktor Grebnev who stands charged with embezzlement, until August 20, RIA Novosti reported on Friday. According to investigators, from 2012 to the fall of 2014, Grebnev knowingly signed contracts of guarantee that were unprofitable for TMK, thereby embezzling over 288 million rubles ($4.4 million). He also signed several contracts that caused TMK over 130 million rubles ($1.9 million) in losses. In February, the Commercial Court of the Primorsky Territory declared Grebnev bankrupt. Earlier, TMK said it failed to pay 96 million rubles ($1.5 million) in wages to workers because of the alleged embezzlement. Investigators claim that Grebnev used the money to buy yachts and a mansion. In February 2015, the Federal Service of Labor and Employment revealed the failure to distribute over 30.5 million rubles ($462,000) to 1,262 TMK employees working at the cosmodrome. Also, in December 2014, the company was ordered to pay over 61 million rubles ($925,400) of the debt to its staff. The construction of the space center, due to become Russia's main launch site, began in 2012. The facility is planned to be completed in 2016. Aeroflot subsidiary demands over $15.3 mln from Transaero MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) The Moscow Commercial Court has registered two lawsuits filed by Aeroflots subsidiary against Transaero Airline, demanding more than one billion rubles ($15.3 mln), RAPSI learned in the court on Friday. Two lawsuits were filed with the court on June 16. On June 9, Aeroflot filed a lawsuit seeking 429 million rubles ($6.6 million) from Transaero. Also, on June 20 the Thirteenth Court of Appeals is going to review an appeal by Transaero against the St. Petersburg Commercial Court ruling to include 5.3 billion rubles ($66.2 mln) debt to Aeroflot in the creditors demands list. On January 25, the Moscow Commercial Court ruled in favor of Aeroflot in a lawsuit against Transaero, ordering the defendant to pay about 2.85 billion rubles ($35.6 mln) it owes to the competitor. On December 7, the Moscow Commercial Court granted the first lawsuit filed by Aeroflot against Transaero and ordered the latter to pay 5.3 billion rubles ($66.2 mln). Transaero found itself unable to pay its debts estimating 250 billion rubles ($3.5 billion). Government-approved plan of transferring 75% of companys shares to Aeroflot failed. Its problems resulted in a large number of flight cancels and delays. In October, Sberbank and Alfa Bank filed bankruptcy petitions against the troubled airline. The Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region initiated a bankruptcy procedure against Transaero on December 16. Russian citizen fined $530 for calls to terrorism via WhatsApp MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) - The North Caucasus District Military Court has imposed a fine of 35,000 rubles ($530) on Dagestan resident Eyzanat Gadzhimuradova for terrorist propaganda and calls for terrorist activity via WhatsApp Messenger, RIA Novosti reported on Friday. Gadzhimuradova, born in 1997, has been found guilty under the Criminal Codes Articles on public calls for terrorist activity or justification of terrorism and incitement of hatred or enmity as well as violation of human dignity. Investigators believe that Gadzhimuradova has joined the group called Demand knowledge in the mobile application WhatsApp where she repeatedly published text messages containing calls for recognizing terrorism as true ideology. The messages had negative views of unbelievers and law-enforcement officers. According to the court representative, Gadzhimuradova has pleaded guilty to the charges. Nemtsov murder case defendant Eskerkhanov turns to ECHR MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) - Temerlan Eskerkhanov who stands charged with murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), RIA Novosti reported on Friday. Eskerkhanov claims in the complaint that Russian authorities violated his rights to effective investigation and effective remedy. He also insisted that he had been beaten during his arrest. Earlier, the suspected killer of Nemtsov Zaur Dadayev turned to the ECHR over alleged torture. Moreover, the daughter of the murdered politician, Zhanna Nemtsova, lodged an application with the ECHR complaining against inefficient investigation. Nemtsov was murdered in central Moscow on the night of February 28. In the 1990s, the politician held a number of high-ranking posts in the Russian Government. In the 2000s, he joined the opposition. Pretrial investigation into the case has been completed. Zaur Dadayev, brothers Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Temerlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev have been charged with contract murder and illegal acquisition, carrying and keeping of weapons. Alleged organizers of the murder still remain under investigation. Ruslan Mukhudinov, a former officer in Chechen Interior Ministry and alleged mastermind of the murder have been placed on the international wanted list. BILLINGS U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., endorsed Hillary Clinton for the president Friday, becoming the Montana's first statewide elected official to do so. "Hillary is the most qualified person on the ballot to unite our nation at a time when dangerous rhetoric threatens to divide us. I look forward to working with her to create jobs, strengthen the middle class, keep our country safe, and invest in education and infrastructure so we can move our nation forward," Tester said in a morning announcement. "I want to thank Bernie (Sanders) for running a strong grassroots campaign, energizing young folks, and talking about important issues facing our nation. Now it's time for us to come together to win up and down the ballot this November." Tester told the Billings Gazette earlier this week that he was withholding his endorsement until Democratic primary candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, made an announcement about his campaign. Sanders met with Clinton earlier this week and Thursday announced that he would help Clinton fight Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump. Sanders didn't suspend his campaign or endorse Clinton, who secured enough delegates June 7 to win the race. Clinton lost the June 7 Montana Democratic primary to Sanders, who won 51 percent of the vote. Clinton took 44 percent. Four percent of Democratic voters chose neither candidate. Tester is a Democratic superdelegate, as is Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. Bullock and the Democrats' other statewide elected officials haven't endorsed Clinton. Last week, Bullock's office deferred the question about his endorsement to his re-election campaign team. Bullock campaign spokesman Jason Pitt said Bullock's presidential endorsement hadn't come up, but he would ask the governor. In May, Democrats were quick to pressure statewide elected Republicans endorsing Trump. U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., endorsed Trump shortly after Trump won the delegates needed to win the GOP presidential nomination. Zinke's election challenger, Denise Juneau, hasn't endorsed anyone. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., has said he supports not electing Hillary Clinton. Montana Attorney General Tim Fox has not endorsed a presidential candidate. Two Montana superdelegates followed Tester's Clinton endorsement with their own. Democratic Party Chairman Jim Larson and Vice Chairwoman Jacquie Helt now publicly support the presumptive nominee. discussion in PARLiAMNT NATO is the highlight of Montenegrin independence Deputies of the Parliament of Montenegro today continued their discussion on the resolution on support for NATO membership. Parliament should declare on the document today. Draft resolution, submitted by the deputies of the Democratic Party of Socialists, the Positive Montenegro, the Social Democrats, the Liberal Party and minority parties. Luigj Skrelja from the DPS said that NATO membership is a guarantee that a country has a stable area for the foreign investments. "Therefore, every country has the prerequisites for rapid economic development. The expansion of NATO is response of democratic world to the challenges of the new age," he said in Parliament. The deputy of the SDP, Draginja Vuksanovic is confident that Montenegro will join NATO. "Montenegro has to join NATO. I believe that this resolution, which was once in Parliament, perhaps should not be here again, unless there was an intention to activate new divisions. I believe that the intention of those divisions was not to think about deciding on this in a referendum, because this will not be decided in a referendum, " said Vuksanovic. She pointed out that the deputies were representatives of the people, stating that nevertheless every citizen has the right to believe in something. "I do not want to intervene into someone's attitude. However, I want to say to those who are against NATO membership, that joining the alliance puts a crown on independent Montenegro. Then finally, after many centuries, the boundaries of Montenegro will be firmly established and preserved. There will be no place for the old or new ideologies, warmongering policies, wars for peace and there will be no place for corruption and crime", Vuksanovic is convinced. Milos Konatar of the Civic Movement URA said that they absolutely support Montenegro's membership in NATO, saying that there is nothing controversial about it. "Our position is that this is the best framework for Montenegro and its citizens. However, what is disputed is that today we are talking about this resolution, and we have already discussed it less than a year ago. The DF deputy, Predrag Bulatovic, ironically said that NATO is a democratic institution which, he said, was responsible for the deaths of more than 30 million people, while independent deputy, Jelisava Kalezic, stressed that NATO was a "well-organized multinational company that seeks new buildingsites. The DF's deputy Janko Vucinic said that if our country joined NATO without a referendum, "half of Montenegro will get out in front of the Parliament, Government and other institutions." Then youll have to get out in front of the nation and no fences, stun grenades, tear gas, no rubber bullets will not save you in this case," he said. Star Tribune - Obituary Eleanor Zelliot Zelliot, Eleanor October 7, 1926 - June 5, 2016 Eleanor Mae Zelliot was born October 7, 1926, in Des Moines, IA, to parents Ernest Zelliot and Minnie Hadley Zelliot. Growing up, Eleanor and her family, including her older sister Carolyn Zelliot, lived in Des Moines, Boston and Denver. From a young age, Eleanor was eager to explore the world around her. A passionate learner, she earned a BA in 1948 from William Penn College, an MA in history in 1949 from Bryn Mawr College, and, two decades later, a PhD in South Asian regional studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969. That same year, Eleanor came to Northfield, MN, where she taught history at Carleton College from 1969 until her retirement in 1997 as the Laird Bell Professor of History emerita. While at Carleton, she inspired hundreds of undergraduate students to think and write about the history of South and Southeast Asia, and to make the most of the rich intellectual and cultural opportunities available to them in India. Generations of students fell in love with the country through her classes, learning to cook and eat Indian food at her house, experiencing Indian culture through the many events she organized, or traveling with her to Pune, India. She developed the ACM (Associated Colleges of the Midwest) India Studies Program in Pune, leading the program four times. A prominent writer who specialized in the history of India, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, women of Asia, Untouchables, and global social movements, Eleanor was considered one of the foremost international experts on the history of the Dalits (Untouchables) of India and their leader, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, and, as the first American scholar to pursue a doctorate on Ambedkars work, is today considered a pioneer in the field. Eleanors historical work on Ambedkar, on the Buddhist conversion of the Dalits for which he was largely responsible, and on the subsequent cultural and literary movements "changed the paradigm" in the study of South Asia. Eleanor was the author or co-author of numerous books and articles, including "Ambedkars World: The Making of Babasaheb and the Dalit Movement" (considered an essential document for researchers and students of the Dalit movement), "From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement," "The Experience of Hinduism: Essays on Religion in Maharashtra," "Untouchable Saints: An Indian Phenomenon," "An Anthology of Dalit Literature," and many others. Although she claimed she didnt "do religion," she wrote beautifully about the saint-poets of Maharashtra, as well as the importance of Buddhism in the lives of the Dalits. Among her many honors were three American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowships (1963, 1975, 2000), a Fulbright Fellowship (1997), and the 1999 AAS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies, noted for her dedication to teaching and ground-breaking scholarship about Asia. Additionally, she served on the executive committees of the Minnesota Consortium for South Asia, the American Institute of Indian Studies, the American Association of Asian Studies, and ASIANetwork. Eleanors strong dedication to social justice was certainly influenced by her lifelong commitment to the Friends (Quakers), through whom she first became a writer, editor, teacher, and went on Quaker mission trips to India in 1952 and the Soviet Union in 1955. It was on that first trek to India that she discovered her love for the country, impressed by Indias complex, colorful and open society. That journey would lead to a lifelong passion and academic pursuit. Eleanor generously gave of her time and attention to her students, colleagues, and friends around the world, offering love, advice, and often a bit of wry humor. She traveled widely, including well into retirement, and continued to write up until her last year. She enjoyed reading, especially mysteries and detective stories, and made a point of keeping up on current events. Eleanor loved her home on the banks of the Cannon River, which she designed to take full advantage of the many flowers and birds and other wildlife that surrounded her, and to provide a retreat for all who visited. Eleanor died June 5, 2016, at her home in Randolph, MN, surrounded by loving friends and family. She was 89 years old. Eleanor is survived by two nephews, Donald Piburn of Grand Junction, CO, and Marvin Piburn of Hudson, IA; a niece, Carol Thonen of Wichita, KS; their families, and many close friends near and far. Memorial services for Eleanor will be held on Friday, June 17, at 9 am in the Carleton College Skinner Memorial Chapel and on Saturday, June 18, at 2 pm at the Cannon Valley Friends Meeting House (512 Washington St., Northfield). Gifts in memory of Eleanor may be made to the Cannon Valley Friends Meeting House or the Eleanor Zelliot Memorial Fund at Carleton College. Published on June 11, 2016 o o o Gail Omvedts article on Eleanor Zelliot in Marathi language daily Loksatta o o o Economic Times, June 11, 2016 Eleanor Zelliot, Dr. Ambedkaras greatest follower by Raja Sekhar Vundru As India and the world celebrated Ambedkaras 125th birth anniversary year, Ambedkar scholar Eleanor Zelliot, 89, passed away on June 6 in the US. After Ambedkaras death in 1956, Zelliot came to India in 1963 as a young historian working on her doctoral thesis on Ambedkar and his movement. Zelliot was professor of history at Carleton College, Minnesota, but her home was Ambedkaras world and India. In 1969, when she submitted her PhD at University of Pennsylvania, she was the first scholar to complete a doctoral thesis on Ambedkar. She initially intended to write a political biography of the social reformer and politician. But she went on to study the factors which produced Ambedkar and discovered the way he in turn changed history. At the time when Zelliot took up studying Ambedkar, most historians were busy with the Indian national movement, the British Raj or the 1857 mutiny. Since then, she never refused arequest from any academic institution, journal or encyclopedia to write on Ambedkar and the Dalit movement. Over the next 26 years, she consistently introduced Ambedkar to western academia so that every scholarly work on caste and politics, religion and politics, Indian political thought and leadership included Ambedkar. During this period and later, she encouraged scores of scholars from the US and Europe to work on Ambedkar. In 2000, French scholar Christophe Jaffrelot became the first European to produce a work on Ambedkar in French a Dr Ambedkar: Leader of Untouchables and Father of the Indian Constitution. Understanding the very idea of Ambedkar is the greatest contribution of Zelliot. She studied his leadership, his American experience and its influence on him. By 1972, Zelliot pioneered scholarship on the Dalit movement by diligently analysing and comparing the leadership of Gandhi and Ambedkar. She understood how the Mahars learnt to use the political means to empower themselves and how Buddhism and politics went together. Studying Ambedkaras leadership she defined the guiding principles which the Dalit leader consistently followed: only Dalits can understand their problems, only Dalits should lead their movement, and education and politics are means to equality. Reading Zelliot will grant us the multi-dimensional perspective that is required of Ambedkar, who, today, has become the singular rallying point for Dalits. According to the scholar, Ambedkar, along with Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, shaped 20th century India, which, in turn, has shaped the India we live in today. Zelliotas contribution to scholarship, however, goes beyond Ambedkar. She studied the Bhakti saints, women saint-poets and untouchable saints and introduced these historical trends and occurrences for modern historical study. She kept up with the latest happenings in the Dalit movement that included the workings of the Dalit Panthers and Dalit Sahitya and everything in between. Zelliot worked on Marathi Dalit literature and joined hands with writer Mulk Raj Anand to produce An Anthology of Dalit Literature in 1992. Most of the Dalit Marathi poetry was translated by her in collaboration with AK Ramanujan, Jayant Karve, Gail Omvedt, Sukhadeo Thorat and Vimal Thorat. Eleanoras and Karveas translation of Keshav Meshramas Marathi poem, aOne Day I Cursed That Mother-Fucker Goda is chilling: aOne day I cursed that mother-fucker god/ he just laughed shamelessly/ my neighbour a a born-to-pen Brahman a was shocked.a As well as Namdeo Dhasalas powerful poem: aWhile I was writing this/three oaclock struck/ though I want to have a drink/ I donat feel like drinking./ I only want to sleep peacefully/and tomorrow see no varnas.a Zelliot felt that aothers will find [Dalit] poetry as filled with life, as meaningful, as wonderfully and sorrowfully human as I do.a She was reluctant about publishing her doctoral thesis, as she felt that its title, aDr Ambedkar and the Mahar Movementa, was too restrictive for such an emancipatory movement. But it was finally published in 2004. Her seminal work, published in 1992, is From Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on Ambedkaras Movement. Without reading this book, understanding Ambedkar is incomplete. If one wants to understand what India is today, one has to understand Ambedkar. And no one has studied and understood Ambedkar so well than Eleanor Zelliot. (The writer is an IAS officer) Venezuelas diplomats to the United Nations do not hide their alignment with the separatist thesis of the Polisario in the Western Sahara conflict opposing them to Morocco. A sharp verbal altercation opposed Moroccos ambassador to the UN, Omar Hilale, and the representative of Venezuela, Rafael Ramirez, about the presence of a Polisario delegate at a debate on the Moroccan Sahara issue, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, reports Spanish news agency EFE. Moroccos representation to the UN had already had a run-in with Venezuelan diplomats about the presence of the Polisario delegate. The Moroccan ambassador had then succeeded to convince the Chinese presidency of the Security Council to ban the Polisario delegate, Ahmed Bukhari, from attending a meeting of the Security Council fifteen members on the Sahara issue. Again on Wednesday, a new row broke out between the Moroccan and the Venezuelan representatives during the debate on the Western Sahara issue held at the level of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) currently chaired by Venezuela. Venezuela has been recognizing the ghostly Sahrawi republic SADR since 1982 and openly supports the Polisarios separatist claims and its representative to the UN wanted to give the floor to the Polisario delegate at the debate that is normally attended only by the States duly recognized by the United Nations. Reacting to the Venezuelan ambassadors position, the Moroccan diplomat, Omar Hilale, strongly disputed the legitimacy of the Polisario delegate to speak on behalf of the Sahrawis living in Moroccan territory and the Fourth Committees decision, under the chairmanship of Venezuela, to present him as the local representative of Laayoune, said EFE. The Moroccan diplomat accused his Venezuelan counterpart of trying to impose his views to the other members of the committee and do at the UN what is being done in Caracas. Venezuela applies dictatorial rules as does its president, said the Moroccan ambassador, alluding to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduros obsession to cling to power although his United Socialist Party lost the December 2015 legislative polls. In his response, the Venezuelan ambassador imputed what he called Moroccos aggressiveness to the support it receives from some Security Council powers, including France. As the Moroccan ambassador refused that the Polisario delegate takes the floor, the Venezuelan diplomat and Chairman of the Committee, Rafael Ramirez, suspended the meeting, which had been adjourned the previous day at the request of Morocco. SNc Channels: Search About Salem-News.com Jun-16-2016 18:46 TweetFollow @OregonNews No Charges Against Teen in Death of Jeffery Holly The intoxicated man had a long history of domestic abuse, and threatened multiple times that he was going to kill the teen. Police officials at the scene on Friday, April 15. Photo: Keizer Police Department (KEIZER, Ore.) - No criminal charges will be filed in connection with the April 15th stabbing death of 45-year old Jeffery Holly, which occurred on Brooks Avenue in Keizer, Oregon. After a thorough review, the Marion County District Attorney's office has decided that the involved 16-year-old was justified in using deadly physical force against Holly. As part of the investigation, police interviewed friends and family members of both the deceased and the youth, as well as neighbors who lived near the home on Brooks. They further uncovered prior police reports of prior contact at the residence, assessed the physical evidence at the scene of the incident, and engaged in an extensive interview with the involved youth. The investigation revealed that Jeffrey Holly had been in a relationship with Marci Gindlesperger, the involved youth's mother, since 2014. Neighbors reported numerous calls to police because of domestic violence and fighting at the house between Holly and Gindlesperber. Police records verify repeated contact with the deceased at the Brooks address due to reports of domestic violence, the most recent of which occurring in February 2016, and resulted in the responding officer issuing a temporary emergency protective order against Holly. That order expired seven days later when Ms. Gindlesperger chose not to seek a restraining order from the Circuit Court. Gindlesperger, however, did tell Holly that he was not to be at the house on Brooks when she was not present. Holly repeatedly made known his disdain for the involved youth. On multiple previous occasions, Holly told the involved youth as well as other people that he was going to kill the involved youth. On April 15, 2016 at approximately 8:15 pm, an intoxicated Holly arrived at the Brooks address while the involved youth was home alone and Gindlesperger was at work. The involved youth sent messages to both Gindlesperger, and his sister telling them that Holly was intoxicated and at the house, and asking to be picked up from the Brooks address. Police dispatch records indicate that at about 8:40 PM, the involved youth's sister called 911 to report she was told Holly was at the Brooks address, that the involved youth was afraid of Holly, and that she believed there was a restraining order prohibiting Holly from having contact with the involved youth. The involved youth told police he retreated into his bedroom, closed the door, and remained there while Holly repeatedly called him derogatory names and challenged him to come out of the room. Holly eventually forced his way into the involved youth's bedroom and began to put his hands on the involved youth. Holly proceeded to push the involved youth and told him that he better get used to the fact that he and Gindlesperger were going to be together. The involved youth, who was 5' 9" tall and weighed 116 pounds, was now blocked from leaving the small bedroom by Holly, who was 6'0" tall and weighed 200 pounds. The involved youth armed himself with a knife for protection and asked Holly to let him leave the house and wait to be picked up. Holly advanced again and was in close proximity to another one of the involved youth's knives which he kept on his dresser. The involved youth told police he believed that Holly was going to grab one of the knives. As Holly continued to advance on the involved youth, the involved youth stabbed Holly multiple times. An autopsy conducted by the Oregon State Medical Examiner's office concluded that Holly was stabbed 7 times and he died as a result of those wounds After Holly collapsed in the involved youth's bedroom, the involved youth ran to a neighbor's house asking for someone to come to the house and provide medical assistance to Holly. Police Dispatch records confirm a 911 call from the neighbor at 8:37 PM. When officers arrived at the Brooks address, the involved youth told responding officers that he had stabbed Holly. The involved youth was cooperative with police investigators and gave them a statement about what had occurred that night. The physical evidence at the scene was consistent with the involved youth's recitation of events. Under Oregon Law, a person may use deadly force against another person if the person reasonably believes that a person is using or about to use unlawful deadly force against a person. _________________________________________ Crime | Fatal | Oregon | Most Commented on Articles for June 15, 2016 | Articles for June 16, 2016 | Articles for June 17, 2016 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. Multiple planes land, refuel and turn around at the Santa Maria Airport to fight the Sherpa Fire. The large DC-10 can hold nearly 12,000 gallons of fire retardant, it has to refill in Santa Maria because the airport is only one of three in California that can support the massive plane. As featured on Sherpa fires 'eye in the sky' coordinates air attack effort The air response effort for the Sherpa fire occurs at an altitude of roughly 5,500 feet, whe Highway 101 has reopened in both directions and Amtrak has been approved to run in the area of El Capitan Canyon and Refugio State Beach after Win races. Its what Edgar Prado does. All to the tune of 6,900 to be exact. And the Hall of Famer posted that 69th hundred win. right here at Pimlico, in true Edgar Prado fashion as he came from off-the-pace with longshot Dance With Gio beating the field and paying $19.20 to boot to win the 1 1/16-mile turf claiming in the 2nd on Thursday at Old Hilltop. His 6,900th win coming right here at the historic home of the Preakness in Baltimore some 33 years after his first trip to the winners circle in his native Peru. Pimlico. His old stomping grounds where with Edgar now, everything old is new again. And this blogger asks, How lucky are we that the legendary rider who first made a name for himself as a top notch jock right here at Pimlico and Laurel Park in the 90s has decided to once again return to Marylands jockey colony? This blogger's answer, Very Lucky! Were talking about thoroughbred racings winningest active jockey (with the retirement this week of all-time leader Russell Baze) racing right here in our own backyard. Edgar Prado, one of just 17 jockeys to win 6,000 or more races and closing in on an even more elite group as only seven riders have reached the 7,000 mark. Edgar Prado, at his best be it in a Triple Crown race on Saturday in May or a $20,000 claimer on a Thursday in June. Edgar Prado, winner of the Kentucky Derby, 2 Belmonts and 4 Breeders Cup races. Edgar Prado, whose fast action in the face of disaster in the 2006 Preakness was credited with saving the life of Barbaro, his Derby-winning mount from 2 weeks earlier, who he pulled-up in front of the main grandstand at Pimlico and helped remain calm after the colt suffered a horrific ankle injury. A special jockey-horse relationship that he chronicled in his best-selling memoir My Guy Barbaro, And how about the many great horses, like Barbaro, whose owners and trainers have trusted with Edgar Prado over the years. Can you say Round Pond, Run Happy, Scat Daddy, Silver Train, Folklore, Lemon Drop Kid, Saint Liam, Lost in the Fog and Funny Cide.to name a few. And how about his pair of long shot Belmont wins. In 2002, riding Sarava to victory at 70-to-1 odds, denying War Emblem the Triple Crown and two years later, when he won the Belmont with 36-to-1 long shot Birdstone, spoiling the Smarty Party for fans of Triple Crown hopeful Smarty Jones. Edgar Prado, 3 times the nations leading jockey. Edgar Prado, an Eclipse Award winner in 2006. And Edgar Prado, 6 times the leading jockey in Marylands jockey colony. Edgar Prado, with all those accolades aside, who lucky for us is still a jockeys jockey who thankfully has decided to return here to race once again in our own backyard. And here's a good tip. You better get out to Pimlico right away. If you dont, its a good bet youll probably miss his 6,901st win! If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). "States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2016" | Main | "'Loss' Revisited: A Guarded Defense of the Centerpiece of the Federal Economic Crime Sentencing Guideline" This new Vox commentary authored by Sharon Risher explains a notable person's notable perspective on forgiveness and the death penalty in a notable capital case. The piece is headlined "My mom was killed in the Charleston shooting. Executing Dylann Roof wont bring her back." Here are excerpts: Ethel Lance, my mother, was killed on Wednesday, June 17, 2015, along with my cousins Susie Jackson and Tywanza Sanders, and six other people at Charlestons Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. It appears to have been a racially motivated massacre plotted by a 21-year-old white man.... A mere 48 hours after the church shooting, millions of Americans watched my sister, Nadine Collier, stand in front of our mothers accused killer and forgive him at his bond hearing. The media ran with the forgiveness narrative, praising the ability of the victims families for their graciousness and faith. I didnt forgive Dylann Roof. And I still dont forgive him. After I saw my sister address the nation, I thought, This girl has to be crazy! Whos going to forgive him so quickly? I was hurt that people thought Nadines views reflected the views of the Lance family and the thoughts of all of the Charleston nines loved ones. Dont get me wrong. I disagreed with Nadine, but I respected her opinion shes my sister, and she has a right to her own emotions and grieving process. Still, after the shooting, there were several articles that exploited our different ways of grieving. They pitted us against each other in the midst of a horrific tragedy. I understand that the people of Charleston, and of America as a whole, latched onto the overwhelming message of forgiveness as a coping mechanism. But the focus on quick forgiveness and the pivot to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse washed away the severity of the larger issues at hand that the accused killer, because of his hatred of black people, could be so stirred by white supremacist ideology that he would go into that church to kill my momma and all the others. The man accused of killing my mother did not show any remorse. Why should I feel the need to forgive him when he has not asked for forgiveness? I know God commands us to forgive, but there is no time stamp forgiveness is a journey that you allow yourself to feel because someone has wronged you.... In the months since the shooting, I received a handwritten letter from Lucia McBath, whose son Jordan Davis was killed in 2012 from gun violence. Lucia sent her condolences and told me to reach out to her if I needed to. On a whim, I did. From there, I became involved with gun control advocacy, rallying for national gun control organizations.... Despite the anger I am still coping with from my mothers death, I dont believe in the death penalty, even for the man who killed her. Thats my conviction because of my faith. Ive said the same thing all along I dont believe as human beings that we should take away someones life just because we have the power to do so. God is the only person, the only being who decides our fate. Still, I will let the judicial system do what they choose. The Department of Justice announced last month that it will seek the death penalty against the shooter. Whatever the outcome, I will not protest. This is how my faith carries me. I dont walk in fear. I dont think about Dylann Roof. All I want to do is do what God has planned out for me. If I can stop one person from experiencing the pain myself and my family and all the families experienced post-Charleston, then I have done my part. Reynaldo Gonzalez, the father of Cal State Long Beach student Nohemi Gonzalez who was killed in November's terrorist attacks in Paris, is now suing Facebook, Twitter, and Google for the roles they played in allowing ISIS for allowing extremist propaganda and recruitment videos to be spread on the internet. The lawsuit, as CNet reports, filed Tuesday in US District Court in the Northern District of California, contends that both Twitter and Facebook, and Google-owned YouTube, "knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use their social networks as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits." The suit further asserts that the growth of ISIS in the last several years wouldn't have been possible without these internet tools, and that they amount to "material support" to the terrorism organization. The grieving father may or may not have a case, as the Associated Press reports. While Facebook and Twitter make efforts to quash the accounts of extremists and those spouting hate speech when they are flagged, and while social media companies have generally been exempt from liability for the things posted by their users, this suit goes further to suggest that the platform themselves enabled ISIS more than any single post or tweet and that Google/YouTube provided material support by paying out ad revenue to those who posted popular recruitment videos. Both Facebook and Twitter issued statements saying the suit is without merit, with Twitter saying, "[We have] teams around the world actively investigating reports of rule violations, identifying violating conduct, and working with law enforcement entities when appropriate." And Google issued the following statement via CNet: Our hearts go out to the victims of terrorism and their families everywhere. While we cannot comment on pending litigation, YouTube has a strong track record of taking swift action against terrorist content. We have clear policies prohibiting terrorist recruitment and content intending to incite violence and quickly remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users. We also terminate accounts run by terrorist organizations or those that repeatedly violate our policies. Interestingly, Sen. Dianne Feinstein also pointed a finger at Facebook in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting, and Facebook also seems to have played at least a small role in the Orlando attack that killed 49 people Sunday, with a New York Times report today that shooter Omar Mateen was posting to the site amid the attack, even searching for references to the attack while it was taking place. In separate posts, Mateen reportedly wrote, "Now taste the Islamic state vengeance, and denounced the filthy ways of the west," and "You kill innocent women and children by doing us airstrikes. Now taste the Islamic state vengeance. He also promised there would be more ISIS attacks in the US in the coming days. Previously: Cal State Long Beach Student Killed In Paris Attacks Dianne Feinstein Is Kind Of Blaming Facebook For Not Warning Of San Bernardino Attack Local Couple On Paris Honeymoon Were Dining Two Blocks From Bataclan Concert Hall During Attack "Paypal mafia" tech billionaire and Facebook board member Peter Thiel was awfully secretive about funding Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against the media company Gawker (over, it would appear, an article drawing attention to Thiel's seemingly open-secret sexuality). By contrast, Thiel has made much less of a secret of his support of Donald Trump, for whom he is a pledged delegate. Now, Gawker asks, has Thiel once again attempted to silence their news outlet, now on his favorite subject? Could this be his latest act of so-called "philanthropy?" Read on. In a devastating and lengthy investigation that published the same day as news of Thiel's involvement in the suit against Gawker broke, Ashley Feinberg, a writer for Gawker, asked perspicaciously: "Is Donald Trumps Hair a $60,000 Weave?" Well, is it? In the piece, she points (very convincingly, if I may say so) to the idea that Trump's strange coiffure is "a little-known, patented hair restoration treatment called a 'microcylinder intervention.'" Her main piece of evidence is circumstantial but persuasive: The fact that a company performing the procedure operated from the "private floor reserved for Donald Trumps own office." Allegations that Trump's hairdo is, in fact a cotton candy hairspray labyrinth" led to backlash from none other than Thiel's lawyer in the Hogan case against Gawker, Charles J. Harder. Of that, Gawker writes that "Harders demands included the immediate removal of the story from Gawker, a public apology, the preservation of 'all physical and electronic documents, materials and data in your possession related' to the story, and, notably, that we reveal our sources." Gawker points out that Thiel's fingerprints aren't necessarily on this case, and this, they write, is part of the issue. It's "a savvy strategy for a publicity-averse billionaire. By refusing to disclose which other lawsuits his money has touched, Thiel is able to publicly embrace PR victories (such as the Hogan case ) while distancing himself from litigation that would expose him to criticism." Data wizard and future forecaster Nate Silver's prediction? This stinks. Previously, he's implied Facebook should drop Thiel from its board. Reminder: this asshole, who's bankrolling lawsuits against journalists reporting on Trump, is on Facebook's board.https://t.co/t9WIX695iP Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 14, 2016 Previously: Will Peter Thiel's Secret Funding Of Gawker Lawsuit Jeopardize His Facebook Board Seat? Silicon Valley Billionaire Peter Thiel Secretly Funded Hulk Hogan V. Gawker Suit Peter Thiel Calls Funding Hulk Hogan v. Gawker Lawsuit 'Philanthropic' In what will come as a surprise to no one, it turns out that fancy tech shuttle or no, the employees of Facebook are pretty sick of the commute to the Menlo Park company's headquarters. The Business Times picked up a report by industry journal The Information noting that Facebook employees really want the company to open a San Francisco office. Mark Zuckerberg, however, will apparently have none of it. "One of the most consistently high-ranking requests Facebook employees make in an annual survey gauging their happiness is for an office in San Francisco, reducing the commute to Menlo Park for city residents, former employees said," reports The Information. "It has come up at several all-hands meetings in the past year. At one recent meeting, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that he believes employees should be clustered together and near the executive team for cultural reasons, according to people who were present at the meeting." Not all tech companies agree with this logic, a fact which is perhaps best exemplified by San Francisco-based Uber's 2015 purchase of the former Sears building in Oakland. According to The Information, Uber views this move as a recruiting tool Facebook engineers that are sick of commuting from SF or the East Bay to Menlo Park could work for Uber and drastically cut their commute time. As to the simpler, more straightforward idea of moving closer to work? Some tech workers, like all those people living in vans on the Google campus, have taken this idea to an extreme. Others observe that finding housing is super tough in Silicon Valley, and still others would just rather live in SF and can you blame them? If things keep going the way they are currently, Facebook may be forced to rethink its policy Zuck-approved or not if it wants to continue to recruit top talent. And Facebook may indeed be starting to crack the company is currently listing five job openings in San Francisco. However, those are all for the company's VR system Oculus Rift, and do not appear to be part of a larger move to SF fact which, for most employees, is probably annoying. "Uber's expansion may fuel simmering employee dissatisfaction at Facebook," concludes The Information, "where complaints about the 30-mile traffic-clogged commute have persisted despite the company's unwillingness to rethink the issue." Related: More Facebook Employees Commuting By Car And Some Blame Tech Shuttle Regulations The family of Luis Gongora, the homeless man shot and killed by SFPD in April of this year, is preparing to file a civil suit against the city. KRON4 reports that civil rights attorney John Burris is representing Gongora's family, and Burris and the family intend to hold a press conference at City Hall today to announce the forthcoming legal action. In less than 30 seconds the involved SFPD officers violated their training and common sense by provoking a needless confrontation and ignoring the alternatives to deescalate the situation," writes Burris in a press release announcing the filing of a Claim, the first step in a civil suit, against the city. "Tragically, as a result of their recklessness, Mr. Gongora lost his life." Police say that on April 7 officers went to a homeless encampment on Shotwell Street near 19th after being alerted by the Homeless Outreach Team that there was a person in the area wife a knife. Upon arrival, police allege Gongora waved a kitchen knife around and charged them despite repeated verbal demands that he drop the weapon. This version of events has been disputed by at least eight witnesses, all of who say Gongora, 45, posed no threat to officers and did not charge. Partial video of the shooting emerged showing officers firing on Gongora within 30 seconds of exciting their squad cars. "[SFPD] officers fired a total of 7 bullets and at least 4 shotgun propelled bean bags at Mr. Gongora," writes Burris. "Many of the gun shots and bean bag rounds struck Mr. Gongora on his right flank indicating Gongora was not standing erect but was either falling down or lying prone when the Officers used deadly force against him. Witness accounts also suggest Mr. Gongora no longer possessed the knife after the first bean bag round struck him in his rear flank." This case sparked a group of protesters, dubbed the Frisco Five, to stage a 17-day hunger strike calling for the firing of then SFPD Chief Greg Suhr. Shur, of course, was later forced to resign by Mayor Ed Lee following the shooting death of an apparently unarmed black woman in the Bayview. Previously: From Rodney King To Oscar Grant To Mario Woods, Oakland Attorney John Burris On Taking Cases That Change Police Departments All previous coverage of Luis Gongora on SFist. An investigation into the alleged trafficking of an underage sex worker by members of the Oakland Police Department, perhaps with the knowledge of their superiors, has expanded to include a look at the San Francisco Police Department, an investigator with the Alameda County District Attorney's office, and another Oakland Police employee. The widening scandal has already lead to the removal of Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent and deepened to implicate more officers as Whent's would-be replacement, BART Police's Deputy Chief Ben Fairow, was quickly removed in turn by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for reasons that remain somewhat unclear. KRON 4 reports that the now 18-year-old dispatcher's daughter being referred to in the press as Celeste Guap claims to have had sex with "like 2 [officers] from SF," one of whom was a former OPD officer, though in both cases after she came of age. We are aware of the investigation [of Oakland Police] and are conducting a review to determine if any of our members had any inappropriate contact with the victim. SFPD media relations tells KRON 4. Additionally, as KRON 4 also reports, an investigator from the Alameda County District Attorneys Office Rick Orozco, who is himself a former OPD officer, has been placed on leave once it came to light he had been sexting, if not having sex with, Guap. Their digital but explicit relationship began while she was still a minor, Guap says. In the recent past, Guap alleged she's had assignations with dozens of police officers, sometimes in exchange for tip-offs to stings and de facto protection from arrest for her sex work. It's also been alleged that she had sex with at least three Oakland police officers while she was underage as well as more officers from the Richmond Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff's Department (however, those deputies have reportedly been cleared of wrongdoing). "I think cops are fine." Guap reportedly said of the subject. "Theyre cute and all, but its like one less officer thats gonna arrest me." Much of the scandal involving Guap appears to have come to light under tragic circumstances: Through the suicide note of an Oakland Police Officer, Brendan O'Brien. Guap claims she was rescued as a 17-year-old girl by O'Brien from a pimp, and claims she began dating and having a sexual relationship with him while underage. O'Brien's wife appears to have killed herself a year earlier (January 2014), though her death was initially investigated as a homicide in which O'Brien was questioned. O'Brien then took his own life last September. Importantly, it's also alleged that former Police Chief Whent's wife knew of O'Brien's relationship with Guap, implicating him and perhaps providing grounds for his removal. Meanwhile, the Chronicle reported yesterday that another Oakland Police Department employee is now under investigation in the scandal, while CBSSF had news that another still is on leave and under investigation for possible wrongdoing that's unrelated to the scandal. KRON4 reports furthermore that Mayor Schaaf has called for a new investigation into police criminal misconduct, one to be conducted by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. Today, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth announced that at their request, the Alameda County District Attorneys Office will be handling an investigation into alleged criminal misconduct by a member of the Oakland Police Department (OPD)," or so mayoral spokesperson Erica Derryck wrote in a press release circulated yesterday. "This investigation is separate and unrelated to the ongoing investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by members of OPD. We are still not at liberty to discuss details of any ongoing investigation without risking compromise of the investigation and potentially jeopardizing our efforts to hold wrongdoers accountable," Derryck went on. "However, given the current climate we felt it necessary to make this announcement. This is an effort to reassure the public that we are taking swift action to address every instance of misconduct. Oakland residents and the good men and women in the Oakland Police Department who nobly serve this community deserve nothing less. Previously: Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent Resigns Amidst Officer Sex Scandal Oakland Police Sex Scandal Blows Up Further With Details From Formerly Underage Prostitute Oakland Police Sex Scandal Deepens With More East Bay Officers Implicated, Interim Oakland Chief Fired Why Was The Interim Oakland Police Chief Canned So Quickly? Screenings Sloan Community Blood Drive, 3:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Community Hall, 423 Evans St. Schedule an appointment at lifeservebloodcenter.org or call 800-287-4903. Free blood pressure screenings, 9:30 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays at Countryside Senior Living, front lobby. No appointment necessary. Programs/Self-Help Groups Al-Anon Information Center, call 255-6724. Al-Anon and Alateen, meetings locally. For times, dates and locations of area meetings, call 255-6724. Alcoholics Anonymous, beginners information, call 252-1333. Arc of Woodbury County, serving the mentally challenged, 5:15 p.m. meeting, second Monday of the month at Mid-Step Services, 4303 Stone Ave. For families and interested persons. Child Care Resource and Referral, provides resources, education and advocacy for children, parents, and child care providers. Assists in child care needs. For more information, call 712-277-1180. Co-Dependence Anonymous, 7 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays at First Lutheran Church, Fireside Room. Co-Dependents Anonymous (CODA), 10 a.m. Saturdays at Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St. Compassionate Friends, 7 p.m. fourth Wednesday of each month (third Thursday in November and second Sunday December) in Mercy Medical Center's Leiter Room. For families who have lost children. Contact Nancy Webb 712-212-4032 or Don Mulder 712-541-5512. Children of Divorce, to help children cope with the challenges of parental separation or divorce. Call 712-279-2373 for more information. Clinics Siouxland District Health immunization clinics, call for appointment, 712-279-6119 or 1-800-587-3005. Information Family and Addictive Illness series, for more information, call 234-2300. Iowa Fathers, 6 to 8 p.m. fourth Tuesday of each month at Hope Lutheran Church, Education Building, 218 W. 18th St., South Sioux City, Neb. Support group to help single, divorcing and divorced parents residing in the state of Iowa. Mercy Pathways Outpatient Program, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, on the third floor, Mercy's Central Medical Building, 801 Fifth St., Suite 360. Provides hope, help, opportunity to connect through group therapy for individuals experiencing personal, relationship, psychiatric issues. For more information, call 712-279-5991. Narcotics Anonymous, meetings daily, various times, dates and locations. For more information, call 712-279-0733. Overeaters Anonymous, 7 p.m. Mondays at Floyd Valley Hospital, Lower Level, 714 Lincoln St. NE, Le Mars, Iowa; 1 p.m. Tuesdays at Wesley United Methodist Church, 3700 Indian Hills Drive; 6 p.m. Tuesdays at St. John's Lutheran Church, 402 Lane Ave., Storm Lake; 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Church of the Nazarene, 226 N. Main St., Viborg, S.D.; 5:30 p.m. Thursdays and 9 a.m. Saturdays at Newman Center, 320 E. Cherry St., Vermillion, S.D.; 10:30 a.m. Saturdays at Hawkeye Club, 420 Jones St. A 12-step recovery program for people who have problems with food and weight. No fees. St. Lukes Outpatient Behavioral Health Program, 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Tuesday and Thursday on fifth floor of St. Luke's, located at 2720 Stone Park Blvd. Offers several levels of outpatient care including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and group therapy. This program provides support and integrated treatment to individuals experiencing personal or relationship issues as a result of their mental illness. For more information and admission criteria, call 712-279-3906. Sobriety By Faith, 8:30 a.m. Saturdays at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St. For more information, call James Mothershead at 712-577-9715. The Link-Recovery and Freedom, at PMA Building, 6000 Gordon Drive; 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday workshop, and Christian 12-step meeting 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. For all ages. Call Dee at 389-7432. Women in Recovery, meets monthly at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St. For details, call 712-255-4623. Tarahouse Meditation Center, 8 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 6:30 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, all at 3112 Rebecca St. Three easy 10-minute sessions in small group; beginners welcome. For more information, call 490-6410. Blood pressure and blood sugar screening, 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesdays in the lobby at Westwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Free to public. Support Groups Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous, 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Hawkeye Club basement, 420 Jones St. For more information, call 277-5935. Celebrate Recovery, Bible-based 12-step recovery group. Thursdays at 6:30 at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive. Daycare provided. 712-490-3343. PFLAG of Siouxland, (Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays), 7 p.m., fourth Monday of January, March, May, July, September and November. St. Mark ELCA Church, 5200 Glenn Ave., in the upstairs meeting area. 712-258-3116. Singles widowed and divorced, all ages, 4 p.m., Sundays. McDonald's at Sixth Street and Lewis Boulevard. 712-252-2675. HIV/AIDS Support Group, meets weekly. For more information, call Darla or Teri at Siouxland Community Health Center, 712-252-2477 or 888-371-1965. La Leche League of Siouxland, breastfeeding support group meets every third Thursday at 11 a.m. at Morningside Lutheran Church. Children are welcome. For more information, call Mary at 712-546-7280 or Jacquie at 712-255-2998. Living Each Day Cancer Support Group, 7-8 p.m. second Thursday of the month, Floyd Valley Hospital, Conference Center Room 2, Le Mars, Iowa. Open to all cancer patients, cancer survivors and family members. No charge. Pre-register by calling 712-546-3441 or 800-642-6074, ext. 441. Mom and Baby Support Group, 10-11 a.m. last Monday of the month at the Orange City (Iowa) Hospital, lower level. For new moms and babies. 712-737-5260. Tri-State Sober Project, 12-step meeting, 7:30-8:30 p.m., Tuesdays, Friendship Community Church, 305 Sergeant Square Drive, Sergeant Bluff. 6-7 p.m., Thursdays, Transitional Services of Iowa, 1221 Pierce St., Sioux City. Doug's Donors Support Group, information for organ donors and recipients, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 5:15-6:30 p.m. second and fourth Thursdays of the month at Mercy Cafeteria Woodbury Room. 712-277-1050. Divorce Care, noon Sundays starting Jan. 10; GriefShare, 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays starting Jan. 12; Single & Parenting, 6:30 p.m. Thursdays starting Jan. 14; all at Sunnybrook Community Church, 5601 Sunnybrook Drive, Sioux City. 712-276-5814. Multiple Sclerosis Support Group, 1:30-3:30 p.m. first Saturday of the month at the CNOS, Dakota Dunes. For anyone with MS and/or their families. Call Janet Limoges at 605-217-2726 prior to attending. NAMI Siouxland, (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Support Group meets 6:30 p.m., second Tuesday of the month at Friendship House, 1101 Court St. For individuals and family members dealing with mental illness. 712-255-4209. New Life Life Support Group, 3:30 p.m. every Saturday at 2929 W. Fourth St. Spiritual 12-step program. For more information, call Donald at 712-574-1744 or James at 712-255-7624. Post Polio Support Group, 11 a.m. first Thursday of the month at Perkins Restaurant by Menards. 712-490-8213. Relationship Support Group, 7 p.m. Fridays at Marketplace Mall. For more information, call 239-3129. Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, Individual and Support Groups. For more information, call CSADV in Sioux City at 712-258-7233; Plymouth County at 712-546-6764; Monona County at 712-423-3443. Advocacy and support available 24 hours a day at 1-800-982-7233. All services free of charge and confidential. Sickle Cell Disease Support Group, 11 a.m. third Saturday of each month at St. Luke's Hospital, meeting room 1. For patients, their family and any concerned member. Call La'Keshia Rainey at 712-203-2019 for more information. Sioux City Association of the Deaf, 7 p.m. third Saturday of the month at Morningside Church of Christ, 5015 Garretson Ave. Regular meeting, September-May; no meeting, June, July, August and December. Siouxland Autism Support Group, second Thursday of the month at Northwest Area Education Agency, 1520 Morningside Ave. For more information, call Julie Case at 712-490-8939. Siouxland Epilepsy Support Group, 5 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at Prestwick Apartment Clubhouse, 4230 Hickory Lane. For anyone diagnosed with seizures or epilepsy and family or friends. For more information, call Steve at 274-6927. Siouxland IC support group, meets quarterly in Sioux City. For patients struggling with interstital cystitis. For more information, call Jacque Dundas 316-641-9766. Siouxland Informational Group for the Blind, 2-5 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at Northern Hills Retirement Community, 4002 Teton Trace. For more information, call 712-266-8926 or 258-8151. Grief support group, 5:30-7:30 p.m., beginning Oct. 5 for 13 weeks (may join at any time), Crescent Park United Methodist Church, 2826 Myrtle St., Sioux City. Scott, 712-899-6315. Siouxland Ostomy Association, 2 p.m. first Sunday of each month (except September, which will be second Sunday; and no meetings June, July, August), in Room 300 at Mercy Medical Center, 801 Fifth St. For more information, call Dick Lindblom at 251-2453. Siouxland Parkinson Disease Support Group, 1 p.m. fourth Monday of the month at Siouxland Center for Active Generations, 313 Cook St. For more information, call at Jack Scherrman at 712-277-9337. Sojourners, support group for families of persons with life-threatening illness, 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays at St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, Room 416. For more information, call Marjorie Jarvill at 402-241-8637. South Sioux City Weight Support Group, 8:30 a.m. Wednesdays at St. Paul United Methodist Church, South Sioux City. For more information, call 494-1401 or 494-2133. Disabilities Resource Center of Siouxland, 520 Nebraska St., Suite 101: Women's Support Group, 1:30 p.m. first Wednesday of the month; LGBT Support Group, 1:30 p.m. first Friday of the month; Adult ADHD, 6 p.m. second Tuesday of the month; Advocacy Group, 1:30 p.m. third Tuesday of the month. For more information, call 712-255-1065. Take Off Pounds Sensibly, group meetings various times, days and locations in Siouxland. For information on the chapter in your area, call 1-800-932-TOPS. Voice Disorder Support Group, meets as needed at Mercy Medical Center, Buena Vista Room. 712-279-2686. Women's Peer Support Group, in Wayne and South Sioux City, Neb., for those who have experienced domestic abuse. For more information, call the Wayne office at 402-375-4633 or 1-800-440-4633; in South Sioux City, call 402-494-7592. Help and support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Services free and confidential. Woodbury County D.M.D.A., noon-2 p.m. first Saturday of the month at Country Friendship Acres, 4501 West St.; 7-8 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at 515 Court St. in the Community Room; 7-8 p.m. second Tuesday of the month at 441 W. Third St. in the Community Room; 7-8 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at 409 W. Third St. in the Community Room. Support group for people with disabilities and mental disorders. Natural Mamas in Siouxland, 1 p.m., third Tuesday of each month in the Garretson room of the Morningside Public Library. All ages of children are welcome to come with moms. For sharing natural living tips, recipes, natural remedies and health, homemaking, mothering, etc. For more information, call 402-913-0038 or visit their Facebook page. A Step Beyond support group, 3:30 p.m. second Tuesday of the month, except for August, November and December when it meets at 5:30 p.m. (no meeting in January) at the Christy-Smith Resource Center, 1819 Morningside Ave. For more information, call 712-276-7319. Divorce care, 5 p.m., Sundays. Fireside room, Morningside Lutheran Church, 700 South Martha St. Gamblers Anonymous meetings, 4 p.m. Thursdays at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 315 Hamilton Blvd.; 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Morningside Presbyterian Church, 4327 Morningside Ave.; 7 p.m. Tuesdays, St. John Lutheran Church. 712-277-2901. Art therapy support group, 5:30 p.m. second Thursday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. Registration required, call 252-9387. After Breast Cancer Support Group, 5:30 p.m. third Tuesday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. For more information, call Brenda, 252-9370. After Prostate Cancer Support Group, 5:15 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at the June E. Nylen Cancer Center. For more information, call 252-9426. Alzheimer's Association, Big Sioux Chapter Support Group, 2 p.m. second Tuesday of the month; 4 p.m. third Tuesday of the month (under age 65) at 201 Pierce St., Suite 110 (Famous Dave's building); and 6 p.m. first Tuesday of the month at the Barnes and Noble Cafe. For more information, call Emily Lord at 712-279-5802. Christy-Smith Funeral Homes of Sioux City, extensive grief library at the Morningside location. Open to the public during weekday hours. For more information, call 276-7319. Chronic Pain/Chronic Illness Support Group, 7:30 p.m. fourth Wednesday of the month in the lower level of the Orange City Hospital. For more information, call 712-737-5260. Connections Area Agency on Aging, and Mercy Medical Centers Older Adult Services Welcome to Medicare, 1:30-4 p.m., the first Friday of every month at Connections Area Agency on Aging, 2301 Pierce St. To pre-register, or for more information, contact Connections Area Agency on Aging at 712-279-6900. The title pretty much captures the challenge: Preparing for the Unimaginable. Its the name of a new handbook crafted to help police departments prepare for, and recover from, what the National Alliance on Mental Illness calls mass casualty events. In this era of mass shootings, the guide offers sobering recommendations on how to safeguard the mental health of police officers and others who must rush to scenes of carnage. The table of contents includes headings such as Tips for helping officers to heal and Assign a mental health incident commander. The guide, released in May, also contains intimate, first-person accounts of law enforcement officers who describe how they struggled to overcome traumatic events. They recount nightmares, cold sweats, feelings of helplessness. One night, it hit me: This job is not for me, wrote Sgt. Mark DiBona, a deputy sheriff in central Florida. DiBona, who had already been feeling stressed at work, one night tried to resuscitate a baby who wasnt breathing. The boy died, and DiBona was overwhelmed by guilt, convinced he could have done more to save the child. After the funeral, he couldnt shake the memory of the little body in his arms and relived other awful images from his career bloody crashes, victims of sexual abuse, friends who died in the line of duty. Im falling really fast, he wrote of that troubling time. I tried to fight the thoughts, but I felt like I was drowning. I attempted suicide twice that night. The National Alliance on Mental Illness developed the guide at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice and Michael Kehoe, then chief of police in Newtown, Conn., site of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Along with the letters by law enforcement personnel is an extraordinary account by Kehoes wife, Lori. Unflinching and at times painful to read, the letter recounts how she and her husband weathered the tragedy that claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults, and how the couple finally began to heal. Here are excerpts from her letter. On the day of the shooting, Dec. 14, 2012: I did not expect Mike to come home that night. After all, they had cots at the police department; they had uniforms and showers. When he did arrive home at midnight, he talked and talked until he passed out in the middle of a sentence. At 6:00 a.m., he was out the door. I offered to answer phones or e-mail. His answer was, No, I got it covered. I offered to make him breakfast, and the answer which became a common phrase in our home was, No, I got it covered. It was rare that he needed me for anything. This became the schedule: 6:00 a.m. to midnight. On fears for the officers: Each night it was necessary for Mike to decompress, and I saw it as my job to be available and to listen and do whatever he needed. He would continue to literally fall asleep talking. When Mike started yelling in his sleep, I could tell he was reliving the incident. This schedule lasted for about four months, and it became extremely isolating. Mike does not get upset. He is always cool, calm and collected. He doesnt bounce off the walls. A few weeks after the shooting, he came home and was pacing and absolutely agitated beyond agitated. He was concerned about his officers committing suicide. He expressed his concerns, and we came up with options for him to execute the next day. I was always the sounding board, bringing whatever common sense I could muster to the table. On not knowing where to turn for help: Those were the days when I would wonder, whom do you call for answers? After all, isnt there always someone to call for help in life? When you got a flat tire, you call your dad. If your cake wont rise, you call your mom. I realized there is no one to call when 20 children get blown away in your town. Youre watching your partner struggle with all these questions and no answers. On her husbands changing behavior: He was suddenly in control of everything. All of a sudden, he was telling me what to do and when. It was bizarre from a man who never gave orders at home. Then I realized he needed to be in control, to maintain order. He was spending his days making rapid-fire decisions continuously for weeks on end. Finally in August (nine months after the shooting), Mike came home and said, I got to something on my desk today that was on my desk before Dec. 14. I thought to myself, Its August, and the trauma is finally over. On how the shooting affected her: A year after the shooting, I was mentally and emotionally not functioning, almost to the point of not getting out of bed. And even though Im a nurse, I didnt know about trauma I didnt know what trauma could do to a person or that there was such a thing as PTSD by association. I was so angry. I was mad at everyone and everything. I was depressed beyond belief, alone and isolated. Lori Kehoe eventually received treatment at a trauma center in California and wrote about the experience: They taught me that the trauma actually changes your brain you can see it on an MRI. In addition to five full days of intervention and counseling, they did a physical treatment on me called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Its designed to reduce the emotion that goes with the thoughts about the traumatic experience. It was extremely effective. The treatment was necessary, and it changed my life. I absolutely came back a new woman, and I got better and better after treatment. Today, were good. DAKOTA CITY | Construction bids for a new fire station in Dakota City have come in higher than expected, leaving officials looking into their options to finance the project and save money. Of the six bids received for the station by its June 1 bidding deadline, five of the base bids were between $2.3 million and $2.6 million, with a sixth bid of $3.38 million. Dakota City Administrator Alyssa Silhacek said the community was hoping for bids in the $1.9 million range. The $1.9 million included funds generated from the half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in November 2014. Silhacek said officials began to realize bids would come in higher when they viewed the bids for the Homer and Emerson, Nebraska, fire stations, which also came in over budget. "Their bids were opened prior to ours, so we had some kind of indication that it might be high," she said. Silhacek said the city is currently in negotiations with Nelson Construction of Sioux City, which offered a base bid of $2,342,345. That amount drops to around $2.2 million if not all the bid's alternates are included, Silhacek said. Nelson's project timeline would be 240 calendar days. She said officials are looking into additional funding, as well as working with their architect, M+ Architects of Sioux City, to explore their options. "We're looking at value engineering and negotiating with the contractor, as well as some of their subs to see if there are changes that we could make," she said. Silhacek said she hopes to have further information for the city's July 7 council meeting. She said any decision to sign a contract would have to pass the city council and the Dakota Covington Rural Fire Protection district board. Dakota City fire chief Clint Rasmussen said he remains optimistic that the project will move forward soon. "We feel confident that this building, this fire station, will be a go," he said. "We just need to fine-tune everything to get it done." The new building, which will be built at the intersection of 21st and Walnut streets in Dakota City, will replace the city's current station, which was built in the 1950s. Rasmussen said the building will give the department more room for its larger fire trucks and equipment, as well as give it room for future expansion. CHARTER OAK, Iowa | A car that Charles and Ann Quandt won in Charter Oak in 1949 returns to Charter Oak on Saturday for the 11 a.m. quasquicentennial parade, a 19-block monstrosity that features 17 units from the Abu-Bekr Shrine and a surprise grand marshal. A surprise marshal? "We're announcing the grand marshal the morning of the parade," said Joanne Sachau, one of the many volunteers involved in the three-day gala, which starts today with a 3:30 p.m. opening ceremony at Memorial Walkway. Parade registration begins at 8 a.m. Saturday on the east side of the grain elevator scale house. There is no preregistration. The grand marshal was to ride in a 1949 Chrysler Royal Silver Anniversary Edition heading west from Webster City, Iowa, where it is kept by owner Jeff Kluver, a bank vice president who worked with his siblings to find, purchase and restore the car, one their grandparents, the late Charles and Ann Quandt won at the Charter Oak Fair in 1949. Instead, the two surviving Quandt children, Dorothy Quandt Kluver, of Carroll, Iowa, and Jim Quandt, of Westside, Iowa, will ride in the 1949 Chrysler, which will be driven by Jeff Kluver's brother, Jerry Kluver, of Ankeny. "The car has 71,000 miles on it," said Jeff Kluver, noting that it is owned by the four brothers and four sisters in his immediate family. Charles Quandt paid 10 cents per spin for a chance to win the car in 1949. On his sixth spin (think "Wheel of Fortune"), the wheel landed on the space noted "Car." Quandt was then given a ticket for a drawing among the spin winners. He scribbled Ann's name on the ticket, even though she didn't drive. Ann Quandt's name was drawn and the couple enjoyed their green Chrysler Royal for the next 32 years, when Charles sold it for $450 to relatives at Bancroft, Iowa. "Randy Kluver, my double-cousin, drove this car in Charter Oak's centennial celebration in 1991," Jeff Kluver recalled. "After that, it was out of sight, out of mind." It wasn't until a Quandt family reunion at Charter Oak several years ago that Jeff Kluver's interest in the old car spiked. He looked at a picture of his grandparents and wondered what became of their lucky green Chrysler. "Our dad died of a heart attack in 1965, at age 49," Jeff Kluver said. "So, naturally, we were really close to our grandparents. And so many of us remember getting a ride in that Chrysler." Jeff Kluver made some calls and learned the old car had blown its motor. It was sitting in a grove on a farm near Bancroft. "I called the widow of the man who bought it from my grandpa," Jeff Kluver said. "She told me the car was sitting in her farm field. She was just getting ready to move to town and she didn't even want any money for it." Jeff and Jerry Kluver gave her $450 for it anyway. They hauled the vehicle to Webster City, restored the engine and gave it some tender loving care. Jeff Kluver built a garage just for his car, giving his family's Royal some royal treatment. "The paint and glass are original," he said. "It's got all the original upholstery." Grandpa Quandt's pipe remains in the glove compartment, where it sat when the car was sold in 1981. The key to unlock the trunk still works, even though it is permanently stuck in the keyhole. While Raymond Kluver died in 1949, his wife, Marcella Kluver, lived to age 93, one of 10 Quandt children and a mother to eight herself. She died in 2013. "Our mother would have loved to see this car and the story," Jeff Kluver said. "And she would have been front and center for the parade and the celebration this weekend in Charter Oak." Her two remaining siblings will be, as will several of her children. And, thankfully, so will the "60-cent" Chrysler her mother won in 1949, even though she didn't drive. STORM LAKE, Iowa | A Rembrandt, Iowa, man is facing charges after authorities said he attempted to inappropriately touch a 12-year-old female on two separate occasions. According to a news release from the Storm Lake Police Department, police received a call at 5:39 p.m. Thursday to the 1400 block of North Seneca Street in reference to a sexual assault. Upon arrival, police met with a 12-year-old female who alleged that Win Dak, 43, of Rembrandt, had attempted to sexually assault her while at home alone with her. Dak is a friend of her family, the release said. Dak was at the residence upon the police's arrival and was arrested. A further investigation found Dak had inappropriately touched the victim in a separate incident in January of 2015, the release said. Dak has been charged with lascivious acts with a child and indecent acts with a child. He is being held in the Buena Vista County Jail on $5,000 bond. Storm Lake Police was assisted by the Sexual Assault Response Team. SIOUX CITY | Prosecutors have dropped charges against a Sioux City man who had been accused of taking part in a home invasion. Keegan Ingram, 19, had been charged in Woodbury County District Court with first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and second-degree theft in connection with a Jan. 25 home invasion in the 4300 block of Springfield Street. On Thursday, Assistant Woodbury County Attorney James Loomis filed a motion to dismiss the charges, saying that further investigation needed to be done to determine Ingram's whereabouts that day and the days before and after the incident. District Judge Patrick Tott dismissed the case Friday. Ingram was one of three men arrested in the case. Court documents said Ingram, Tykell Robinson and Deloyd Fields forced their way inside the home. Ingram was accused of pointing a gun at residents inside the home and helping take an AR-15 rifle, ammunition and electronics. Fields, 38, and Robinson, 19, both of Sioux City, have pleaded not guilty to several charges and await trial. SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City teen was arrested after he stole a Coca-Cola delivery truck while the driver was inside making a delivery Monday morning. Eliot Stowe, 18, took the $15,000 truck that was parked outside 410 Pierce St., and proceeded to drive to a construction site in the Dakota Dunes. Stowe began giving away $1,000 in merchandise from the vehicle, the court documents said. Stowe then reentered Sioux City in the vehicle and fled on foot when Sioux City Police attempted to stop him. Upon arrest, he was found with prescription pills that were not in his name. Stowe has been charged with first degree theft, possession of drugs, reckless driving, failure to obey a traffic sign, driving without a license and eluding arrest. He is being held at the Woodbury County Jail, and has a bond amount set at $21,900. SIOUX CITY | The UnityPoint Health St. Lukes power has been fully restored after a problem in an underground cable during the day on Friday. However, the hospital was only accepting labor and delivery patients until it resumes normal operations at 7 a.m. Saturday, the hospital said Friday evening. Other patients seeking medical attention were still being diverted and encouraged to go to Mercy Medical Center or the nearest health care facility. Ashton Newman, media relations representative for MidAmerican Energy, said the outage started around 10:30 a.m. and was confined to the hospital. According to an earlier new release, the hospital's "priority areas" were being powered by backup generators. SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City woman was taken to Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City for smoke inhalation Friday morning after a fire at her house claimed the lives of two pets. According to a Sioux City Fire Rescue news release, at 6:10 a.m. Friday, firefighters responded to a structure fire at a single-family home at 2106 Jennings Street. Upon arrival, fire was visible from the front of the structure. The female occupant of the home had been alerted to the fire by a pet dog and had exited prior to the firefighters' arrival. She suffered from smoke inhalation and was transported to Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City by Siouxland Paramedics, the release said. Her condition is unknown. The house sustained significant fire damage to the porch, as well as smoke damage throughout, the release said. Several pets were in the home at the time of the fire, and one dog and one bird died, the release said. Authorities determined the fire had been caused by improper use of electrical extension cords on the porch. Carlos Villarreals case shows why so many veterans and politicians have choice words for the Veterans Choice program run by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The disabled Marine veteran from Hobart, Ind., tried for months to get an open MRI to assess nerve damage from a mortar attack in in Iraq. The Jesse Brown VA Medical Center on Chicagos West Side, where he normally gets his health care needs met, doesnt have an open MRI machine. Villarreal, 31, said he is claustrophobic as a result of his post-traumatic stress disorder. That makes him a perfect example of why the Veterans Choice Act was passed. Unfortunately, hes also the perfect example of how poorly implementation has gone. The idea behind the Veterans Choice Act is to allow veterans to get health care locally if the nearest VA center either cant provide the care soon enough or, as in Villarreals case, doesnt have the necessary facilities to provide that care. Villarreal finally got the MRI he needed, but only by stopping in at a VA medical center while he was on vacation in Puerto Rico that had an open MRI. I got it done in less than a day, he said while headed to the Chicago VA hospital recently. His quest to get the MRI began last July. He spent hours on the phone trying to schedule the test. It was like being in customer service purgatory, descending toward hell. The Veterans Choice program was set up quickly in response to VA waits that were so horrific that dozens of veterans in Phoenix had died while waiting for care. Congress was furious, and impatient. The resulting Veterans Choice program set up by the Northwest Indiana vendor, Health Net Federal Service, is not robust. The vendor said it is hiring additional customer service representatives, signing up more health care providers and taking other steps to improve access to care for veterans. U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., has been vocal about this issue. He recently co-sponsored the Veterans First Act, which is aimed at streamlining payment and provider signup processes under the Veterans Choice program. Meanwhile, Region veterans dont have the easy access they need and deserve. Villarreal said he was so impressed with the VA hospital in Puerto Rico he has considered moving there. The VA said 83 percent of veterans were able to make same-day appointments at the VA Caribbean Health Care hospital in Puerto Rico compared to 54 percent at Jesse Brown. Patient satisfaction ratings reflect that difference; theyre 10 percent to 30 percent higher in Puerto Rico than in Chicago. Its a travesty when a veteran has to go to Puerto Rico to get a test done, because the VA isnt able to provide local care for a disabled Marine. The Veterans Choice program must be improved to offer more alternatives for local veterans. The Times of Northwest Indiana AKRON, Iowa | Cindy Appley is one of the first people patients encounter when they walk through the doors of the Akron Mercy Medical Clinic. Appley, who has worked at the rural clinic as a patient service representative for nearly 14 years, does everything she can to put patients first from the moment they arrive in the waiting room. "I interact with patients all day long," she said. "My primary job is checking them in, getting their insurance correct and dealing with the new Medicaid MCOs." From the sick small child to the adult battling drug addiction, Appley said every single patient is important and that being kind is the key to making them feel welcome, comfortable and cared for. "When they come in, I want them to know that I like them, so I smile and let them know that they've come to the right place," she said. "If I can tease them a little just to get them to smile and to crack a little bit of the shell, I think I've done my part." Appley was one of nine individuals selected by the American College of Physicians for a citizen jury to aid in the drafting of clinical guidelines. She traveled to Philadelphia to attend the two-day event on June 7 and 8. "It's becoming more important that patients be a part of their own health care, especially with the cost involved. It's becoming more and more expensive -- the cost of insurance, the cost of drugs," said Appley, whom Dr. Cynthia Wolff encouraged to apply for the citizen jury. The jurors came from all walks of life. Appley said they worked with the underprivileged and the elderly, had lung cancer and served as patient advocates. "The part that I could bring was that I represent rural health care," she explained. "I think as a patient here and as a 60-year-old woman, I represent a vast area that is underserved. As an area, we have to travel quite a ways. We don't have the specialists that are just miles away." ACP's goal is to provide clinicians with recommendations based on the best available evidence, to inform clinicians when there is no evidence and to help clinicians deliver the best health care possible. The ACP has been producing clinical guidelines since 1981. The ACP's clinical practice guidelines, guidance statements and best practice advice papers are produced through a team made up of clinical policy staff, the Clinical Guidelines Committee (CGC) -- internists with expertise in primary care, health care administration and medical and health services research -- and expert scientific collaborators. This team assembles to review clinical literature on a specified topic, to identify the best scientific paper and to analyze, reformulate and present information so health care providers can determine the usefulness of diagnostic tests, procedures and treatments. "It's very intriguing and so important the work that they do," Appley said. On June 7, Appley and the other citizen jurors attended training to help them understand what would take place during the meeting of the ACP. She got a crash course in evidence-based medicine. Later on, Appley found herself sitting at desk with a microphone in front of her, she said she felt like she was about to testify before Congress. She listened as various physicians, members of the CGC, presented evidence on a topic she can't disclose. The ACP has addressed and re-addressed clinical practice guidelines for depression, insomnia, end of life care, screening for cancer and many other topics. "There's so much information for physicians. There's just hundreds of papers that doctors cannot go through, so (the ACP) gathers these papers. They go through incredible sorting processes," Appley said. "That to me was so amazing that they read it and they based that particular problem on that information that they had gathered from many sources." Appley said a discussion ensued among the 15 committee members to make sure the recommendations said exactly what they're supposed to say. She said jurors had a chance to chime in. She said one patient expressed that doctors don't know how much drugs cost. She said another juror helped the CGC re-focus on the recommendation when they got sidetracked. "One gal brought up another point and she kept bringing it back because they weren't coming back to what she thought was important," she said. "She kept at it until they heard her. It was an important point." Appley said she's waiting to see how the citizen jury's role in the process will play out over the next year. She said she'll participate in email exchanges and phone conversations with doctors and other jurors. "I think it's going to be a learning year; and I think we as patient citizens are going to be seen more and more on the practical side," she said. "Maybe together we can do something to help make things more clear." 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 Danelle McClanahan is the associate vice president of the Institutional Equity and Diversity Office at the College of Southern Maryland. LA PLATA, Md. (June 16, 2016)Danelle McClanahan has a vision for the future of College of Southern Maryland. In that vision, the diversity of the faculty is reflective of the diverse student demographics, and the college expands and enhances strategic programs that contribute to increasing the rate of success of all students, fosters inclusion, increases access and successfully promotes students' global preparedness.McClanahan, who brings to her new role as CSM's associate vice president of Institutional Equity and Diversity Office more than 11 years of experience in various fields of diversity, said she sees that CSM has already made great strides in creating an environment that is inclusive of all ethnicities."Diversity is woven into the fabric of CSM through numerous initiatives such as the Men of Excellence and various outreach to the community for engagement such as the Diversity Institute and the Charles County Mediation Center," she said. "Moreover, CSM has a generously diverse student population35 percent of our full-time students in the spring semester alone were racially diverse and research shows that by 2027, nationally, 49 percent of high school seniors will be students of color, so we can only expect an increase in diverse college students. Hence, it is our responsibility to lead in inclusive excellence and expand and enhance our investment in diversity inclusive practices."McClanahan looks forward to considering ways to bring diversity into all aspects of student life. "The research shows that students benefit from an inclusive environment and curriculum in preparing them for the globalized society," she said. "I envision collaborating with the faculty to connect programs with the curriculum, and thereby better prepare students for a more globalized society."McClanahan said one main focus for her will be to not only recruit and retain African American men at the college, but to see them through to graduation. "The persistence rates for African American males are statistically low nationwide, and we need to improve that outcome," she said.Previously, McClanahan served as director of diversity/ombudsperson at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania where she was charged with ensuring the university complied with Titles IV, VI, VII and IX. Along with investigating discrimination and harassment claims by faculty and students, McClanahan coordinated projects to build and maintain a safe and open campus environment.In 2007, while at East Stroudsburg, McClanahan spent a month in China co-supervising 13 students at Shenyang Normal University. The students were able to experience firsthand emergence in Mandarin and the Chinese culture.For McClanahan, creating an inclusive environment is a necessity for a college environment. "Will Smith, recently, profoundly recognized the value and potential of diverse groups by stating 'diversity is the American superpower.' Diversity indeed is a superpower opportunity that necessitates proactive and strategically planned investment. It is our responsibility to go beyond our traditional reach and act upon this opportunity by instituting expansive, intentional and comprehensive recruitment, retention and persistence efforts that create and maintain an inclusive environment for the diverse student population," McClanahan said.McClanahan's career in higher education began with her bachelor's degree in psychology from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania and her master's degree in counseling from the University of Scranton. She is currently an EdD candidate in educational leadership and management at Capella University.For information about programs offered through the Diversity Institute at the College of Southern Maryland, visit CSM online at http://www.csmd.edu/community/institutes/diversity-institute/index.html. LEONARDTOWN, Md. Disclaimer: In the U.S.A., all persons accused of a crime by the State are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. See: http://so.md/presumed-innocence. Additionally, all of the information provided above is solely from the perspective of the respective law enforcement agency and does not provide any direct input from the accused or persons otherwise mentioned. You can find additional information about the case by searching the Maryland Judiciary Case Search Database using the accused's name and date of birth. The database is online at http://so.md/mdcasesearch . Persons named who have been found innocent or not guilty of all charges in the respective case, and/or have had the case ordered expunged by the court can have their name, age, and city redacted by following the process defined at http://so.md/expungeme. (June 17, 2016)The Leonardtown Barrack of the Maryland State Police (MSP) today released the following incident and arrest reports.SOBRIETY CHECKPOINT JUNE 17: The Maryland State Police Leonardtown Barrack will be conducting a sobriety checkpoint tonight, June 17 in St. Mary's County. This event will focus on both drug and/or alcohol impaired drivers in the hope of reducing the impact of impaired drivers and impaired related crashes. Drivers are reminded there are many alternatives to driving buzzed or under the influence. Call a friend, relative, or a cab. Please, don't drink and drive.HOME INVASION, ASSAULT, VIOLATION OF PROTECTIVE ORDER: On Sunday, May 11, Tpr. Manning responded to the 25000 block of Mcintosh Road for a reported disturbance with a subject with a knife. Investigation revealed that, had forced entry through the front door of a residence, grabbed a female victim, and attempted to stab her. Mr. Stamey then assaulted a male victim before fleeing the residence. The victim obtained a Protective Order and an arrest warrant was issued, charging Mr. Stamey with First Degree Assault, Home Invasion, and Assault Second Degree.On Saturday, May 30, Tpr. Geyer responded to the residence for the report of a suspect in violation of a Protection Order. Investigation revealed that Mr. Stamey had arrived at the residence, entered through the front door, and fled as Tpr. Geyer arrived. A second arrest warrant was issued for Violation of Protective Order.On June 6 at 4:05pm, TFC Ruth responded to the 42000 block of Keith Court for an unrelated report. Contact was made with Mr. Stamey and both warrants were confirmed. Mr. Stamey was placed under arrest and served with the Arrest Warrants. He was transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center and held pending a bond review with the District Court Commissioner. (16-MSP-018507 and 16-MSP-021510)ASSAULT: On Saturday, May 28, TFC Krenik responded to the 46000 block of Seabiscuit Lane for a reported domestic assault. Investigation revealed that, had assaulted a male victim. Ms. Semidey was placed under arrest and charged with Assault Second Degree. She was transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center and held pending a bond review with the District Court Commissioner. (16-MSP-021292)RESISTING ARREST: On Sunday, June 5, Tpr. Coppedge initiated a traffic stop on a white truck on Route 5 at Golden Beach Road for a minor traffic violation. Investigation revealed that the driver,, was Driving on a Suspended License. As Tpr. Coppedge was placing Mr. Martin under arrest, a brief struggle ensued. Mr. Martin was transported to the St Mary's County Detention Center and charged with Resisting Arrest and traffic violations. He was held pending a bond review with the District Court Commissioner. (16-MSP-022503)CDS: On Wednesday, June 8, Tpr. Mulhearn responded to the 22000 block of Point Lookout Road for a reported disturbance. One of the suspects was located walking down Chestnut Ridge Road at Route 5. The suspect originally gave Tpr. Mulhearn a false name, however Tpr. Mulhearn was able to identify the suspect as. Investigation revealed that Mr. Moore had two active bench warrants, and Mr. Moore was placed under arrest. A search incident to arrest revealed an Asp Baton, a knife, and two prescription pill containers containing suspected Oxycodone, Clonazepam, Amphetamine, Dextroamphetamine, and Alprazolam. Mr. Moore was transported to the St. Mary's County Detention Center, served with both warrants, and charged with False Statement to a Peace Officer, Conceal: Dangerous Weapon, Possess CDS: Not Marijuana, and Possess CDS: Paraphernalia. He was held pending a bond review with the District Court Commissioner's Office. (16-MSP-022867) Samuel Sherrod Green, 22, of Chesapeake Beach. PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. (June 17, 2016)Police in Calvert Co. have determined that the early morning shooting in the area of Tranquil Court, Prince Frederick, yesterday stemmed from a domestic issue with the suspect's girlfriend and an associate.On Thursday, June 16, at approximately 1:00 a.m., the Calvert Control Center received calls for gunshots being heard in the area of 213 Tranquil Court. Sheriff's Office patrol units responded to the area in reference to the firearms complaint. Upon arrival at the address, contact was made with the occupants of the residence. The occupants said that six gun shots had been fired from the back of the residence which went through the window and then into the ceiling. The trajectory of the shots indicated they had been fired from the ground level at the rear of the residence.The scene was secured, interviews were conducted, crime lab responded and Detective Quinn assumed the investigation. A suspect was subsequently developed.On Thursday, at approximately 6:00 p.m., members of the sheriff's office located the suspect at a residence on Paris Oaks Road. Police say the man jumped out of a window of the residence as Special Operations Team and Criminal Investigation Bureau members arrived on scene. A short foot chase ensued and the suspect was taken into custody.The suspect was identified as Samuel Sherrod Green, a 22-year-old black male of Chesapeake Beach.Police say the homeowner on Paris Oaks Road gave consent to search the residence. A handgun loaded with the same type of ammunition as the shell casings that were found on Tranquil Court was located.Detective Quinn charged Green with two counts of first degree assault, reckless endangerment, and multiple other felony charges. Green was also served with two outstanding warrants from previous incidents. Green was transported to the Calvert County Detention Center where he awaited his hearing before a District Court Commissioner. People of faith gathered Thursday evening at Sunshine Cathedral to remember the victims of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history that left 49, mostly LGBT Latino men dead. It what was called a liturgical response to the mass shooting in Orlando, pastors and parishioners offered prayers for remembrance and healing. Names of the 49 victims of the Pulse Nightclub massacre were read, bells were sounded and candles lit. There is a lot of emotional turmoil in the minds and hearts of our people, said Deacon Ed Huckemeyer, who participated in the hour long service which featured music from soloists and prayer readings from religious leaders. Sunshine Cathedral, located in southwest Fort Lauderdale, offers a sanctuary for people to practice any faith. Rev. Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Senior Minister, explained his cathedral is welcoming of all. During the service Watkins posed a difficult question to those in the pews. How do we pray for a murderer?, Watkins asked. How God, are we to pray for someone who hurt so many? Watkins, a gay man, acknowledged the need to seek a higher power. We simply feel the impulse to pray, said Watkins, dressed in a white robe and speaking from the chancel where the Gay Mens Chorus of South Florida often performs. Somehow from this tortured mess, healing can occur. Let a miracle emerge because of this, he said. Following the reading of the victims names, soloist Tara Sperry performed composer Stephen Sondheims No One Is Alone. After the service, Sperry told SFGN she was overwhelmed with emotions. My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones, said Sperry, the cathedrals soprano section leader. Ceremonies like the one Sunshine Cathedral offered Thursday are extremely important, said Sperry, a lesbian. This is a safe space where people can feel accepted and there is absolutely no judgment, Sperry said. When approached after the ceremony by reporters about his offering of prayers for the gunman, Watkins said, Jesus did it. We are instructed to pray for our enemies. For more photos check out our Facebook gallery here. A decade after the Stonewall riots and a generation before marriage equality began to take hold in Massachusetts, the epicenter of the gay civil rights movement was right here in South Florida. The documentary, The Day It Snowed in Miami, which premiered on WPBT2 on Monday, June 13, explores the battles, set off in 1977 by a groundbreaking human rights ordinance passed by the Miami-Dade county commission. At the time, opponents promised it would never pass until hell froze over. The next day, Jan. 19, South Florida received its first and only recorded snowfall. Independent filmmaker Joe Cardona was just a boy, but he vividly remembers the controversy the anti-discrimination bill stoked. I was not very old, but I was old enough to know what was going on and the commotion really stuck with me, Cardona recalled. Evangelical activist Anita Bryant, the spokesperson for the states citrus industry, took up the cause, rallying voters to overturn the ordinance, a victory that would hold for 21 years. But, the history doesnt end there, as just two years later President Ronald Reagan was elected and the AIDS crisis began to take hold in South Florida. Within a decade, South Beach emerged as a leading destination for LGBT residents and tourists. In 1997, another initiative lost by just two votes, only to pass in 1998 and be affirmed by county voters in 2002. Obviously Stonewall has its place, but were talking apples and oranges, said Cardona. The revolution was fought here. It was very heatedpersonalwithin families. The film project got its start two years ago, just as the marriage equality movement began to gain momentum. Cardona, who is also an op-ed columnist for the Miami Herald, has many close LGBT friends and colleagues, and had considered the topic after collaborating with the newspaper and WPBT2 on an Emmy-winning documentary about the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake. Its an amazing Miami story, he explained, that certainly has national ramifications. This is the civil rights movement of the day. Because of the transient community in South Florida, he realized many of his friends didnt realize the historic role the region played. There was this amazing disconnect, Cardona said. The filmmaker turned to Herald LGBT beat reporter Steve Rothaus, his walking encyclopedia, pillar of the community and producer, as well as executive producers Shed Boren and Nancy San Martin, to get the project completed while simultaneously juggling two other films. They are the best team in the business, he said. The film premieres this week on a local PBS affiliate, but by summer, Cardona expects it to be picked up by other stations across the country. Its a story of perseverance and the struggle for equality and it resonates, he added. The Day It Snowed in Miami will air Monday, June 20 at 10 p.m. Four days after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, more than a hundred South Florida residents joined forces at a vigil and rally to honor the 49 victims of the tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The gathering began at Hagen Park before the crowd walked down Wilton Drive to end at Java Boys. The crowd was made up of men, women, gay, straight, blacks, whites and Latinos of all ages. They sang, chanted and called for justice and unity. As part of the LGBT community and as a Latino, I feel its my responsibility to show solidarity, said Michael Reyes of Coral Springs. There are LGBT Muslims as well. I am here to support this intersectional gathering. Groups ranging from the Broward Greens to Al-Awda South Florida (Palestine Right to Return Coalition) to Peoples Opposition to War, Imperialism and Racism (POWIR) were among the array of activists in attendance. Organizers planned the event to be equal parts vigil and rally. Attendees were adamant that the Orlando massacre not be used to justify further violence and hatred against LGBT people or used to propagate more anti-Muslim rhetoric. I dont believe all Muslims are terrorists, said Sir Diego of North Miami Beach. Everyone, including Muslims need to stand up and speak out against this senseless violence. The shooting victims and their families were also remembered during a candlelight vigil. Most of the victims were LGBT and Latin. The shock and horror of the shooting and the heartbreaking loss were on everyones agenda. Im here, first and foremost, to memorialize those whom weve lost to honor their memory, said Father Rich Vitale of Holy Angels Catholic Community. Im also here to be a part of my community and show support for those who are mourning. If Im in any way, capable of being part of that healing process, thats a blessing. And Im here for myself too, to experience the support of my community. While some people came for healing, others came to be heard. Politics were in the air as well. I represent an organization which has supported gay rights for more than 30 years, said Jason Dilan of the Green Party of Broward County. Were completely devastated by this tragedy. I am a bisexual Latino. Im here to speak from my personal experience. As an organization, we really feel that we needed to be here. Michael Chase Fox, of the White Rose Society of the Palm Beaches made his way through the crowd spreading the word of his organization. Our goal is to fight the ever-growing word of hate, he said. That includes the campaign of Donald Trump to the anti-immigrant groups attacking those fleeing tyranny. We plan to visit mosques in Broward and Palm Beach Counties this week. We understand the Orlando shooter does not represent Islam. For more photos check out our Facebook gallery here. (CNN) President Barack Obama said Thursday that grief-filled parents in Orlando pleaded with him to take steps preventing the kind of gun violence that took their children. But he acknowledged, exasperatedly, that he could offer them few promises. "Our politics have conspired to make it as easy as possible for a terrorist or even just a disturbed individual to buy extraordinarily powerful weapons, and they can do so legally," Obama said after meeting with families who lost loved ones in the Orlando nightclub shooting that took place Sunday. "I held and hugged grieving family members and parents and they asked, 'Why does this keep happening?' And they pleaded that we do more to stop the carnage," Obama said. "They don't care about the politics. Neither do I." The role of consoler in chief was a repeat assignment for Obama, was has now traveled to 10 American cities -- including four in the last year -- scarred by mass shooting events. In Orlando, he met at a downtown arena with both families of victims and survivors of the terrorist attack, many of whom suffered serious injuries but emerged from the massacre alive. Prior to their meeting with families and survivors, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden spoke to local law enforcement officials to thank them for their actions in responding to the attack at Pulse nightclub, according to the White House. Afterward, the President and Vice President met with the owners and staff of Pulse who were working when the attack occurred. Two members of the staff were killed. The President met with the groups in private. But he did emerge afterward to lay a bouquet composed of 49 roses, one for each of the attack's victims. It was a familiar tableau for Obama, who has said the moments spent consoling families in mourning have been some of the most wrenching of his presidency. In his remarks in Orlando, however, Obama offered little solace to Americans who fear similar attacks could be carried out in their own communities. "We can't anticipate or catch every single deranged person that may wish to do harm to his neighbors or his friends or co-workers or strangers," Obama said. "Unfortunately, our politics have conspired to make it as easy as possible for a terrorist or just a disturbed individual like those in Aurora and Newtown to buy extraordinarily powerful weapons and they can do so legally." Obama said politicians who oppose strengthen gun control laws should meet with families of gun violence victims. "Those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families," Obama said. Obama said the motives of the Orlando shooter, U.S.-born Muslim Omar Mateen, were different than the killers who shot up Sandy Hook Elementary School and a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. "But the instruments of death were so similar," he said. The Orlando slaughter is unique from previous mass shootings both in the scale of the tragedy -- the death toll of 49 makes it the worst mass shooting in U.S. history -- and the killer's ties to global terror. Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS but didn't appear to be directed by the organization, according to U.S. officials. Obama said that even as his military and intelligence agencies wage battle against ISIS, additional changes are required to secure the homeland. "If you have lone wolf attacks like this, hatched in the minds of a disturbed person, then we're going to have to take different steps in order to prevent something like this from happening," Obama said. Sunday's attack targeted a gay nightclub, with many of the victims gay and Latino. That has further escalated the debate following the shooting, which struck on a series of charged political and cultural flash-points of Obama-era America. Obama said on Thursday the crime was an "attack on the LGBT community," using an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. And he called for a collective affirmation of basic U.S. values in the wake of the attack. "If there was ever a moment for all of us to reflect and reaffirm our most basic beliefs that everybody counts and everybody has dignity, now's the time," he said. "It's a good time for all of to us reflect on how we treat each other and to insist on respect and equality for every human being." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a former 2016 GOP presidential candidate, accompanied Obama on his flight to Orlando in a demonstration of the President's interest to "show solidarity," according to the White House. Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, greeted Obama at airport, as did several other local officials. Obama called the governor Wednesday. When Obama arrived, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer presented him with a black T-shirt emblazoned with a rainbow-colored heart and the words #OrlandoUnited. Hours later, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump said he had watched Obama and criticized him at his rally in Dallas, Texas. "We have tragedy after tragedy, and it's a tough situation. But he's largely, to a large extent, he's blaming guns," Trump said. "And I'm going to save your Second Amendment, folks." Back in Washington, however, lawmakers paused in efforts to pass gun control legislation, something the Obama administration has backed and the President spoke to in the wake of the Orlando shooting. A senior Democratic aide told CNN that votes will most likely happen next week, and they are looking at two Democratic amendments concerning the terror watch list and background checks as well as two GOP amendments. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas told CNN that the Senate will hold a series of votes on gun amendments Monday. Hours before Obama's plane touched down in Orlando, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy ended his high profile, 14-hour filibuster calling for votes on gun control legislation. Republican leaders in Congress have stood by their stance that gun control is not the key to fighting homegrown terror threats, but their party's presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he planned to meet with the NRA to discuss "not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns." On Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan pushed back against the Democrats' efforts on guns, saying of possible changes to the way the terror watch list works that, "if we do this wrong, like the President is proposing, we can actually blow our ongoing terrorist investigations. So, we want to get this right, so that we don't undermine terrorist investigations." And one senior Republican, Arizona Sen. John McCain, pointed to Middle East policy as opposed to gun control as driving the threat that culminated in the Orlando shooting. "Barack Obama is directly responsible for it because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures -- utter failures," McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill. "So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies." McCain said later he "misspoke," using a statement to clarify that it was not the President himself who was "personally responsible," but his "security decisions." CNN's Betsy Klein, Deirdre Walsh and Theodore Schleifer contributed to this report. Extrasolar planets ESO An international team of astronomers have found that there are far more planets of the hot Jupiter type than expected in a cluster of stars called Messier 67. This surprising result was obtained using a number of telescopes and instruments, among them the HARPS spectrograph at ESOs La Silla Observatory in Chile. The denser environment in a cluster will cause more frequent interactions between planets and nearby stars, which may explain the excess of hot Jupiters. A Chilean, Brazilian and European team led by Roberto Saglia at the Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, in Garching, Germany, and Luca Pasquini at ESO, has spent several years collecting high-precision measurements of 88 stars in Messier 67 [1]. This open star cluster is about the same age as the Sun and it is thought that the Solar System arose in a similarly dense environment [2]. The team used HARPS, along with other instruments [3], to look for the signatures of giant planets on short-period orbits, hoping to see the tell-tale wobble of a star caused by the presence of a massive object in a close orbit, a kind of planet known as a hot Jupiters. This hot Jupiter signature has now been found for a total of three stars in the cluster alongside earlier evidence for several other planets. A hot Jupiter is a giant exoplanet with a mass of more than about a third of Jupiters mass. They are hot because they are orbiting close to their parent stars, as indicated by an orbital period (their year) that is less than ten days in duration. That is very different from the Jupiter we are familiar with in our own Solar System, which has a year lasting around 12 Earth- years and is much colder than the Earth [4]. We want to use an open star cluster as laboratory to explore the properties of exoplanets and theories of planet formation, explains Roberto Saglia. Here we have not only many stars possibly hosting planets, but also a dense environment, in which they must have formed. The study found that hot Jupiters are more common around stars in Messier 67 than is the case for stars outside of clusters. This is really a striking result, marvels Anna Brucalassi, who carried out the analysis. The new results mean that there are hot Jupiters around some 5% of the Messier 67 stars studied far more than in comparable studies of stars not in clusters, where the rate is more like 1%. Astronomers think it highly unlikely that these exotic giants actually formed where we now find them, as conditions so close to the parent star would not initially have been suitable for the formation of Jupiter-like planets. Rather, it is thought that they formed further out, as Jupiter probably did, and then moved closer to the parent star. What were once distant, cold, giant planets are now a good deal hotter. The question then is: what caused them to migrate inwards towards the star? There are a number of possible answers to that question, but the authors conclude that this is most likely the result of close encounters with neighbouring stars, or even with the planets in neighbouring solar systems, and that the immediate environment around a solar system can have a significant impact on how it evolves. In a cluster like Messier 67, where stars are much closer together than the average, such encounters would be much more common, which would explain the larger numbers of hot Jupiters found there. Co-author and co-lead Luca Pasquini from ESO looks back on the remarkable recent history of studying planets in clusters: No hot Jupiters at all had been detected in open clusters until a few years ago. In three years the paradigm has shifted from a total absence of such planets to an excess! Notes [1] Some of the original sample of 88 were found to be binary stars, or unsuitable for other reasons for this study. This new paper concentrates on a sub-group of 66 stars. [2] Although the cluster Messier 67 is still holding together, the cluster that may have surrounded the Sun in its early years would have dissipated long ago, leaving the Sun on its own. [3] Spectra from the High Resolution Spectrograph on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (http://www.as.utexas.edu/mcdonald/het/het.html) in Texas, USA, were also used, as well as from the SOPHIE spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute Provence, in France. [4] The first exoplanet found around a star similar to the Sun, 51 Pegasi b, was also a hot Jupiter. This was a surprise at the time, as many astronomers had assumed that other planetary systems would probably be like the Solar System and have their more massive planets further from the parent star. More information This research was presented in a paper entitled Search for giant planets in M67 III: excess of Hot Jupiters in dense open clusters, by A. Brucalassi et al., to appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The team consists of: A. Brucalassi (Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany; University Observatory Munich, Germany), L. Pasquini (ESO, Garching, Germany), R. Saglia (Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany; University Observatory Munich, Germany), M.T. Ruiz (Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile), P. Bonifacio (GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Univ. Paris Diderot, Meudon, France), I. Leao (ESO, Garching, Germany; Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil), B.L. Canto Martins (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil), J.R. de Medeiros (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil), L. R. Bedin (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Padova, Italy) , K. Biazzo (INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Catania, Catania, Italy), C. Melo (ESO, Santiago, Chile), C. Lovis (Observatoire de Geneve, Sauverny, Switzerland) and S. Randich (INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy). ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the worlds most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the worlds most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the worlds largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become the worlds biggest eye on the sky. This Earth observation image of the southern Mediterranean area was taken by the crew of Expedition 47 aboard the International Space Station. The image looks from the coastline of Greece (bottom left) across the Ionian sea to the bottom "heel" of Italy. The tip of the toe reaches toward Sicily. Credit: NASA. NASA Three Expedition 47 crew members are preparing to go home early Saturday morning. Three other station residents will stay behind beginning Expedition 48 on the International Space Station. Veteran cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko will command the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft that will take him and astronauts Tim Kopra and Tim Peake back to Earth. The trio are due to land Saturday at 5:14 a.m. EDT in Kazakhstan completing 186 days in space. NASA TV will cover the undocking and landing activities beginning Friday at 10:15 p.m. Before Expedition 47 says goodbye, Commander Tim Kopra will hand over the station command to Flight Engineer Jeff Williams. The traditional Change of Command ceremony will take place Friday at 9:15 a.m. and be televised live on NASA TV. Expedition 48 will officially begin the moment the Soyuz spacecraft carrying the Expedition 47 crew undocks from the Rassvet module. Williams and cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin will continue station operations awaiting a new trio of crew members due to launch July 7 and arrive two days later. On-Orbit Status Report Autonomous Mission Operations (AMO) Run 3: The crew executed the final of three crew initiated experiment runs by using onboard AMO software to complete the autonomous deactivation and activation of an Expedite the Processing of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) ER7. The AMO investigation tests advanced software and operational concepts to determine how crew members on the ISS can automate spacecraft system with less involvement from the ground support staff. Microbiome Potable Water Collection: The crew completed a water sample collection from the Potable Water Dispenser (PWD) prior to the weekly PWD beverage adapter cleaning. The sample and supporting materials will be stowed in preparation for ambient return. Microbiome investigates the impact of space travel on both the human immune system and an individuals microbiome (the collection of microbes that live in and on the human body at any given time). Packed Bed Reactor Experiment (PBRE) Water Release Inspection and Lab Video Setup: The crew inspected and cleaned the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) Work Volume (WV) for water released from the PBRE vent hose. They also set up video camcorder for over-the-shoulder view of the MSG high definition (HD) monitor for the ground to view the water separator. The PBRE is used to study the behavior of gases and liquids when they flow simultaneously through a column filled with fixed porous media. The porous media or packing can be made of different shapes and materials and are used widely in chemical engineering as a means to enhance the contact between two immiscible fluid phases (e.g., liquid-gas, water-oil, etc.). Human Research Program (HRP) Collections: The crew collected and stowed saliva samples in the Minus Eighty-degree Freezer for ISS (MELFI). These sample collections will be used to support the HRP: Biochem Profile, Repository, and Cardio Ox investigations. Habitability Human Factors Directed Observations: The crew recorded and submitted a walk-through video documenting observations of an area or activity providing insight related to human factors and habitability. The Habitability investigation collects observations about the relationship between crew members and their environment on the International Space Station. Observations during the 1-year mission, as well as 6-month missions, can help spacecraft designers understand how much habitable volume is required, and whether a missions duration impacts how much space crew members need. Fine Motor Skills: A series of interactive tasks on a touchscreen tablet were completed for the Fine Motor Skills investigation. This investigation is the first fine motor skills study to measure long-term microgravity exposure, different phases of microgravity adaptation, and sensorimotor recovery after returning to Earth gravity. External TV Camera Group (ETVCG) Bulb Remove & Replace (R&R): The crew R&Rd the primary light bulb in the ETVCG Light that was brought inside on EVA 28 in preparation for an upcoming EVA. During checkout post R&R, it was found that the electrical leads were connected to the wrong sockets, which upon power-up, created a short. The 6A fuse in the Maintenance Work Area (MWA) power strip failed due to the overcurrent from the short and was replaced, however, it was still unsuccessful. The crew replaced the MWA power strip with a spare unit and the light successfully powered up. Teams are continuing to investigate. Water Mist Portable Fire Extinguishers (PFE) Deploy: The crew successfully deployed six Water Mist PFEs and attached the cue cards on the exterior of the Portable Emergency Provisions (PEP) lockers. This completes deployment of the Water Mist PFEs. Emergency Roles & Responsibilities Review: In preparation for 3-crew operations, the 46S crew reviewed responsibilities in an emergency situation. Some topics covered were Commander responsibilities, crew accountability, accessing the escape vehicle and communication and coordination not only with each other but ground teams as well. Portable Emergency Provisions (PEPS) Inspection: The crew completed this regularly scheduled maintenance to verify that Portable Fire Extinguishers (PFE), Portable Breathing Apparatus (PBA) and Pre-Breathe masks are free of damage, are functional and ready for use. Todays Planned Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. HRF. Samples Collection and Preparation for Stowage HRF. Insertion of Samples into MELFI OCT Hardware Setup PK4. Copying Data from the Hard Drive Crew Departure Preparation for Return to Earth FINEMOTR. Assistance during the Experiment Installation of an emergency water mist fire extinguisher Preparation of personal items for return EXPRS3. Laptop Hard Drive R&R IMS Conference (S-band) EXPRS3. CLS 10 Laptop Booting Assistance during the LBNP Training / r/g 2532 MELF2. Ice Bricks Installation into MELFI LBNP Training (FINAL) r/g 2532 SEISMOPROGNOZ. Data Transfer from ???? Hard Drive (start) r/g 2224 Optical Coherence Tomography (???) Subject Optical Coherence Tomography (???) Operator ER3. Insertion of an SNFM DVD into the Laptop [Aborted] Transfer of Cargo to Progress 431 (DC1) for Disposal. IMS Update / r/g 2435, 2512 AMO2. ER7 Deactivation AMO2. Status Monitoring BIOME. Water Samples Collection AMO2. ER7 Activation OCT Hardware Restow Hardware Unstow for ETVCG Maintenance Food Labeling Personal Medical Kits Packing Sanitary and Hygiene Monitoring (collection of samples from surfaces) r/g 2555 Prepack of USOS Hardware for Transfer into Soyuz Sanitary and Hygiene Monitoring (collection of samples from operators) r/g 2555 PK4. Filling the Chamber with Cleaning Gas / See OPTIMIS Viewer for procedure HABIT. Software Update On MCC Go Deinstallation of ??251?1? (???2?3) #1417726325 and ??? Memory Device #1417726934 AMO2. Status Monitoring SEISMOPROGNOZ. Data Transfer from ???? Hard Drive (end). Archiving (start) r/g 2224 Portable Fire Extinguishers (PFEs) and Portable Breathing Apparatus (PBAs) Inspection Video Greetings / r/g 2557 ??? Maintenance Crew Departure Preparation for Return to Earth ESA. Weekly Crew Conference Emergency Roles and Responsibilities Review Transfer of Cargo into Soyuz 719 for Return / r/g 2529 Cleaning of USOS CQ Nets and Filters External Television Camera Group (ETVCG) Bulb R&R FENIKS. Bioekologiya Kits Deinstallation and Transfer to Soyuz / r/g 2542 Reconfiguration of the Ethernet Cable for SM WAP Configuration File Loading Video Hardware Setup in LAB Monitoring of the Habitation Microbial Status / r/g 2554 HRF. Hardware Setup for Blood Samples Collection ER3. Ejection of an SNFM DVD from the Laptop [Aborted] Cleaning of the SSC Server Fans Fundoscope. Fundoscope Setup IMS Delta File Prep Crew Departure Preparations for Return to Earth PK4. Filling the Chamber with Gas Fundoscope. Vision Exam Fundoscope. Fundoscope Teardown and Stowage PK4. Hardware Deactivation Completed Task List Items iPAD cert update [Active] Ground Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. AMO support Nominal ground commanding Three-Day Look Ahead: Friday, 06/17: Change of Command, Handhold Experiment Platform attach, MSL sample cartridge exchange Saturday, 06/18: 45S undock/landing Sunday, 06/19: Crew off duty QUICK ISS Status Environmental Control Group: Component Status Elektron On Vozdukh Manual [???] 1 SM Air Conditioner System (SKV1) Off [???] 2 SM Air Conditioner System (SKV2) On Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab Standby Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 Operate Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab Idle Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 Operate Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) Process Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Standby Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab Off Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 Full Up ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) Security situation in Egyptian airports remains on the same level, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said Friday. "There has been no information on the resumption of the tourist flow to Egypt yet, unfortunately, the situation remains the same, and to give some promise to citizens, would mean to put them in dangerous conditions," Golodets told RIA Novosti in an interview. Russia, along with several other countries, including the United Kingdom, suspended flights to Egypt over safety concerns after an Airbus A321 crashed en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board after an explosive device detonation. US strategy in Afghanistan under both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama had been disastrously weakened by the corruption and incompetence of the state system and army that both administrations had established and supported in Kabul, Waters said. Such problems had been deeply embedded in US nation-building efforts around the world for more than half a century, Waters recalled. "It's odd how our opponents' armies in the Third World whether Communist in the 1960s and 1970s or Islamist today have the will to fight and win while our allies generally prefer to command from bars in their capital city while stealing their soldiers' salaries and rations," he observed. Kings College Department of War Studies Professor John Bew said the new US policy in Afghanistan applied the same combination of air power and ground support elements the United States was already using in Iraq and Syria. "As much as anything, it shows the entrenchment of the new way of war," Bew stated. Bew also maintained that Obama remained determined to prop up threatened allied governments in Afghanistan and as well as in Iraq and Libya. "For what it's worth, it gives a bit of a lie to the idea of American retreat or unwillingness to prop up the world order," he pointed out. The redeployment of the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower and its supporting carrier group from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean should be seen as part of the same determination to maintain current US force and deterrence levels, Bew concluded. The certainty regarding the outcome of the upcoming summit comes from G7 leaders and EU high-ranking officials, including Juncker, who have reiterated that the full implementation of the Minsk deal on Ukrainian reconciliation is the only way that the economic sanctions against Moscow would be lifted. "The leaders of Europe have consistently said that the only path to lifting the sanctions on Russia is the full implementation of Minsk 2," Richard Nephew, a program director at Columbia University, affirmed to Sputnik. Nevertheless, the approaching sanctions renewal date may be the last time they are prolonged before they are eased or completely removed, as they have proved to have had a negligible effect on Russias economy, which shrank by four percent in 2015 mainly due to slumping oil prices. "One of CEPS studies shows that sanctions had little impact on trade in goods between the EU and Russia. The slowdown in trade in goods can be attributed mainly to low oil prices and not sanctions," Kostanyan said. Moreover, the World Bank recently upgraded its forecast for GDP growth in Russia in 2016 by 0.7 percent as well as revising upwards its forecast for 2017 by 0.3 percent, expecting the Russian economy to reach 1.4 percent growth in 2017. Russia Extends Food Embargo Until the End of 2017 On Thursday, Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukaev said that the ministry was preparing documents on extending food import restrictions until the end of 2017 with the list of countries and goods remaining mostly unchanged. However, the proposal ordered by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev back in May is unlikely to have any impact on EU leaders possibly coming to a consensus on gradually lifting the anti-Russia sanctions by the time of their next review after another six-month period has elapsed, according to experts. "Russias retaliatory measures will not affect the EU sanctions. Yet, Russia's implementation of Minsk 2 will be decisive," Kostanyan stressed. During his speech at the SPIEF, Juncker said that he liked being in St.Petersburg despite some disapproval among western politicians, stressing the need to revive dialogue with Russia. Violent incidents involving chopsticks are not as uncommon in the region as one would think. In 2008, an inmate in Fuchu Prison killed himself by breaking a chopstick and stabbing the back of his head with the sharp end. In March, a 23-year-old Chinese woman, Tang Tang, accidentally swallowed a chopstick while using it to induce vomiting. Doctors had to remove it surgically, Huanqiu.com reported. Chopsticks, which were originally made of bamboo or wood, have been used as traditional ancient cooking and eating utensils throughout East Asia for more than six thousand years. They were first used by the Chinese and soon spread to countries such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, and others. In recent months, Pyongyang has criticized the United States and South Korea over massive war games held near the North Korean border as being "dress rehearsal for a full-scale invasion." North Korea has responded with a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests while moving to reinstitute the Yongbyon nuclear weapons facility. The DPRK also claims it has successfully achieved nuclear miniaturization, creating an atomic warhead small enough to be delivered by an intercontinental ballistic missile. Pyongyang also claims to be nearing targeted ballistic missile capabilities to carry out a nuclear launch against the United States. While South Korea has described recent tests as failures, defense analysts suspect that the North Korean missile tests are designed to look like failures by focusing on specific ballistic missile capacities in order to mask the programs advanced development. BEIJING (Sputnik) On Thursday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry filed a complaint to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo after a Chinese intelligence ship reportedly came close to the country's territorial waters for the second time in the past two days. According to local media, the Chinese warship entered an area outside Japan's territorial waters near the Kitadaito Island. The Dongdiao-class vessel left the co-called contiguous zone approximately an hour later. "We have seen relevant reports by the Japanese media; the Chinese warship was sailing the waters near Japan during its normal navigation which is fully in accordance with the relevant principles of international law. We are puzzled by the recent repeated unfounded speculation against the legitimate actions of the Chinese warship," the Chinese Defense Ministry said. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) China is expected to pick a clearing bank for all yuan exchange operations in Russia in order to make it easier to place temporarily free yuans. "An agreement on an offshore center with China is going through stages of signing. I think it will be over as early as this month," Bank of Russias Sergey Shvetsov told reporters in St. Petersburg. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The search plane lost contact with command near the Bach Long Vi island, a small island in the Gulf of Tonkin that is located halfway between mainland Vietnam and Chinas Hainan island, on Thursday, the Thanh Nien Daily said, referring to the Vietnamese National Committee for Search and Rescue. At the time of disappearance, the plane was searching for a missing pilot from a Su-30MK2 fighter jet which crashed on Tuesday, According to the media outlet, referring to Forecasting Hydro-meteorological Observatory for northeast region, rain showers and thunderstorms gripped Bach Long Vi area at the time of the plane's disappearance from radars. The two-seater aircraft, which was designed and developed by the state-owned manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), completed the flight at the company's airport. India's Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar attended the base to witness the HTT-40 flight, which lasted about 10 to 15 minutes. He expressed his admiration for the HAL technician team. After the flight, Parrikar got into the cockpit of the trainer jet to get a closer look at it. My congratulations to the brilliant young team of technocrats at HAL. #HTT40 pic.twitter.com/kEmGhht9zN Manohar Parrikar (@manoharparrikar) 17 2016 . #MakeInIndia #HTT40 has 80% indigenous content with more than 40 Indian MSME vendors. Manohar Parrikar (@manoharparrikar) 17 2016 . Officials said the detailed design phase of the HTT-40, which HAL completed using its own funding, was launched in August 2013 and finished in May 2015. The first prototype of the trainer jet was rolled out on February 2, 2016; it completed its first test flight on May 31. NEW DELHI (Sputnik) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Thailand's visiting Prime Minister condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and resolved to work together in building a new global strategy for combating terrorists. Both leaders acknowledged the increasing threat from nontraditional security arenas and agreed to enhance substantive cooperation to address the issue. "We are both aware that the rapid spread of terrorism and radical ideology poses a common challenge to both our societies. And we also recognize that our close security partnership would help us to secure our peoples from these threats. In our shared objective to combat these challenges, India is particularly grateful to Thailand for its assistance and cooperation," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after meeting with Thailand's Prime Minister. Modi further added that, "Beyond terrorism, we have agreed to further deepen our security engagement in the fields of cyber security, narcotics, transnational economic offenses and human trafficking." The Home Ministry cites internal security as the main reason for the stringent curbs in issuing visas. Indian intelligence agencies issued a report after the Pathankot attack stating that Pakistan based terrorists could enter into India, leading to increased scrutiny of visa applications. Rejection of visas for security concerns has compounded the problems of those Pakistani citizens who have families in India and many of them also visit India for religious purposes. Apart from Pakistani citizens, increased instances of visa denials have raised concerns in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs also. Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad had written a letter to the Indian Home Secretary asking for the reasons for the frequent visa rejections. What is more interesting is that the Indian Home Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs have different views on this issue. While the Ministry of External Affairs supports a liberalized visa regime to strengthen people-to-people contact between the two countries, the Home Ministry is in favor of fewer visas for Pakistani citizens due to security concerns. Whatever the real reason, it has become yet another irritant in India-Pakistan relations. VLADIVOSTOK (Sputnik) The total amount of declared investments of companies based in the Vladivostok free port area has surpassed $1.5 billion, the Far-East Development Corporation reports. "In the period that the free port law has been active, the Far-East Development corporation has signed agreements with 39 companies that will create over 16,000 jobs in Primorsky Territory," the corporation said. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation establishing the Vladivostok Free Port on July 13, 2015. The law, which came into force on October 12, 2015, allows for the establishment of special regulation procedures for certain industries in Vladivostok, as well as in over a dozen municipalities of the Primorsky Territory. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) Minsk has been in talks with Moscow since the start of the year in a bid to clinch a gas price reduction from the current $142 to about $73 per 1,000 cubic meters. "We still do not understand why we should go along with a lower price," Dvorkovich told the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday. "One of the talks participants from the Russian side said there could be no business as usual, but we will have to deal with it, we need to find points of convergence between Russian and EU interests," Peskov said, adding, "it is a hard and long process." Russias ties with Europe deteriorated in 2014 when the European Union along with the United States and some other nations imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia, accusing it of meddling in the Ukrainian crisis, a claim which Moscow has repeatedly denied. Italy seeks to build up economic partnership with Russia in particular in the leather sector, Carlo Calenda told Sputnik. "We have 340 projects of investment [into the Russian economy]. The problem is concentration on Moscow and St.Petersburg. We were discussing today about the leather sector. The manufacturing process is very difficult, but you [Russia] have instead the raw material, you are not exporting very much, so this is the perfect partnership we can create, bringing companies that are able to compete and create a value chain, using your raw materials. This is just one example of a project that has been proposed and submitted to the Italian companies," Calenda told Sputnik on the sidelines of the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Italy has so far proposed some 340 projects of investment into the Russian economy, according to the minister. "We will work until the end of the year in order to better qualify these [investment] projects. In 2017, we will be focused on bringing companies in the various sectors and various Russian regions. The objective is to increase the number of our medium-size enterprises here, but especially to go deeper to Russia," Calenda told Sputnik on the sidelines of the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). MOSCOW (Sputnik)Poland hopes to resume exports to the Russian market in the short term, Poland's Deputy Development Minister Radoslaw Domagalski said Friday. "I hope that we will return to the market and that this return will happen sooner than in the long-term prospect. There are a lot of areas where we can deepen cooperation, including construction materials and chemicals," Domagalski said, as quoted by TVN broadcaster, adding that Poland also wants to expand food and foodstuff exports. The Polish official, participating in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, cited low price as advantage of Polish exports over products from Western Europe. Philippe Pegorier, head of Alstom in Russia, told Sputnik that the concept of establishing a free trade zone between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union "remains a positive element for resolving a crisis" between the two organizations. "It would help resolve the political crisis, as well as to improve conditions for attracting investments to the Eurasian Economic Union. It would also allow the Eurasian Economic Commission to benefit from the EU experience in establishing such an economic union. I believe that investors completely endorse the creation of such a free trade zone," Pegorier said. He also pointed out that the fact that this year's forum was attended by European Commission representatives, including President Jean-Claude Juncker and Digital Economy and Society Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, hints at changes in the 'political' climate. The study, which is set to be completed by 2018 with a budget of 1.3 million euros, will determine whether or not there is any need to build an undersea tunnel that would span the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. Possible technical solutions, alternatives and the project's potential environmental impact are to be examined. The EU Central Baltic Program will provide 75 percent of the outlay, whereas Finland and Estonia will jointly finance the rest. For years, Helsinki and Tallinn have cherished the over-adventurous project, which would eliminate the need for the present-day ferries as long as the EU would be willing to provide most of the estimated 13 billion euros in funding. Today, about eight million ferry journeys are made every year. The Helsinki-Tallinn ferries are a widespread tourist attraction, a popular 'booze cruise' for Finns and part of a weekly commute for thousands of Estonians working in the Finnish metropolitan area. Remarkably, in 2009, the EU refused to finance a similar feasibility study, while later allocating 100,000 euros in 2015. According to earlier estimates by Finnish national broadcaster Yle, the grandiose scheme includes a 80-kilometer-long tunnel, which would stretch from Finland's Pasila railway station in Helsinki to Ulemiste district on the outskirts of Tallinn. The proposed tunnel would have a daily capacity of 25,000 passengers and offer 36-euro trips lasting about half an hour. In February, Moscow and Cairo signed a memorandum on the delivery of 4 SSJ100 planes to Egypt's Air Leisure charter airline. The deal includes an option for six more aircraft. On February 3, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said that Russia and Egypt are discussing a possible delivery of up to 40 SSJ100 to the EgyptAir airline. In May, the Russian trade minister said that the number of Sukhoi Superjet liners to be supplied to Egypt directly depends on the resumption of air traffic between the two countries. Russia and several other countries suspended flights to and from Egypt last fall after a Russian airliner crashed in the Sinai desert on October 31 while flying from the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg killing all 224 people on board. Militants affiliated with the Daesh terror group, outlawed in Russia, claimed responsibility for what they said was a bomb attack. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is a short-haul aircraft with a range of 4,400 kilometers (2,730 miles) and a capacity of 98 passengers. The jet had its first flight in 2008 and began flying on commercial routes in 2011. "All his life President Hugo Chavez was a staunch proponent of a multipolar world model, instead of the bipolar system that was being forced upon us. And this is exactly why he always advocated improving relations with Russia, Belarus and the BRICS nations," Gordils added. He also remarked that the events that transpired in the global economy, following the financial crisis of 2008, made it clear that reliance on large international financial institutions may not be a very good idea. "Capitalist countries managed to turn a systemic crisis into business and actually profit from it. Therefore the periphery countries should create their own financial institutions," Gordils said. Meanwhile, Andres Arauz, Ecuadorean Minister of Science and Human Talent, said that Russia is both an irreplaceable commercial and geostrategic partner to Ecuador, and that the anti-Russian sanctions became a "boon" for his country in terms of deepening relations with Moscow. "Russia has always been our key economic partner. Of course the sanctions basically became a boon to us. And we also intend to begin cooperation [with Russia] on several major long-term projects," he said. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is an annual event that invariably draws the attention of major companies across the world. This year the forum was attended by a number of prominent dignitaries, including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and a host of executives from the world's leading companies. "Most of the businessmen expect a positive dynamic during the second half of the year. This forum is very important for us due to a high concentration of business representatives," he explained. Harald Schwager, member of the BASF board of directors, was also quite optimistic regarding his companys prospects in Russia. "During the recent years there was a significant agricultural boom which in turn increases our own chances at booming. And Russia, with its vast swathes of fertile soil, is a very lucrative prospect for us," he said. German political scientist Alexander Rahr also pointed out that the anti-Russian sanctions are becoming a growing concern for the European business circles, and that the European politicians are no longer able to ignore the pressure to do away with these punitive measures. "Europeans should get together and finally determine which principles exactly the sanctions policy is based upon. We need to return to realpolitik. The voice of reason is gradually becoming more and more prevalent in the relations between Russia and the EU," Rahr said. The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is an annual event that invariably draws the attention of major companies across the world. This year the forum was attended by a number of prominent dignitaries, including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and a host of executives from the world's leading companies. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The 41-year-old was reportedly attacked in the street as she held a regular constituency surgery, according to The Guardian newspaper. The murder suspect, a man with allegedly mental health issues, was detained soon after. "What's happened is beyond appalling" Jeremy Corbyn, flanked by tearful Labour colleagues, at vigil for Jo Cox pic.twitter.com/zoSsQoYuvS Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) 16 June 2016 "Jo Cox died doing her public duty at the heart of our democracy," Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote, saying it was a "horrific murder." About the murder of Jo Cox, its incredibly sad, and wrong. Will hope this tragedy is not used as a political tool. Thoughts with her family. Graham W Phillips (@GrahamWP_UK) 17 June 2016 A spontaneous rally was held late Thursday outside the UK parliament in London, with hundreds paying tribute to the deceased mother-of-two. More people, including Corbyns former leadership rival Yvette Cooper, came to the parish church of St. Peters in Coxs home town Birstall. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Fifty-five members of the Senate voted in favor of the law on anti-terrorist operations, while 28 voted against, with three abstaining from the vote, local PAP news agency said. The law was passed without any amendments added. The lower chamber of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, approved the new anti-terrorism draft law on June 10. A British vote to abandon the EU could boost the clout of member countries which are calling for an end to the economic sanctions Brussels previously slapped on Russia, Bertelsmann Foundation expert Stefani Weiss told the Belgian news network RTBF The interview came as UK citizens prepare to decide whether or not their country should stay in the European Union on June 23. Bertelsmann Foundation is Germany's largest private fund dealing with pressing public problems. "There is a risk that those who enthusiastically do not support the sanctions will become stronger without Britain," Weiss said. The Out' campaign also put their efforts on hold. The assailant was reported to have shouted "Britain first", the name of one of the most radical pro-Brexit groups. While the financial risks accompanying a Brexit scenario are rife, as noted by the Bank of England (BOE) on Thursday, maintaining the status quo, as advocated by the In' campaigners, would be the most appropriate for most of the UK's establishment. However, the 'Out' campaign is finding support mostly amongst the frustrated, dismayed and occasionally dispossessed English working class, which has suffered from the negative spillovers of the expansion of the financial sector and services, as well as the declining global competitiveness of the UK's traditional industries like iron and steel, and shipbuilding, among other things. Is there a possibility that the MP Cox assassination might snowball into full-scale class warfare, between groups struggling for their vision of the future of the British economy and governance? Although this is hardly the case, an escalation in violent political radicalism might be a possibility. The 'Out' campaign's de facto leaders, Nigel Farage, head of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), and Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, both voiced their sympathy for the Cox family and made it clear that political violence is inappropriate. Deeply saddened to hear that Jo Cox has died. Sincerest condolences to her family. Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) 16 June 2016 "Sad & shocked to hear of Jo Cox's death. Appalling a MP should lose her life simply doing her best for constituents. Thoughts w/ Jo's family," Boris Johnson wrote. Sad & shocked to hear of Jo Cox's death. Appalling a MP should lose her life simply doing her best for constituents. Thoughts w/ Jo's family Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) 16 June 2016 Johnson is widely speculated as the most likely candidate for the PM office should the Brexit occur. Despite a heavy backlash over the incident among the In' supporters on social media (with some users going as far as to claim that there is "blood on the hands" of the Brexit supporters in general), both Johnson and Farage are determined to act within the framework of the existing political procedures. They aren't revolutionary leaders, explicitly or covertly. However, the hazard of politically-motivated violence possibly escalating is now prominently obvious and such a hazard emanates from smaller and less public organizations, which almost lack any representation in the UK's official political landscape. Britain First, the far-right political group whose name the assailant invoked as he took MP Cox's life, iis reported to have training camps in remote and secluded regions of the UK. Although it denies such allegations, Britain First and other similar groups, which are small in number but adamant in their conviction that direct action is a method of achieving their goals, might indeed take political violence to a new level. The question is whether a wider group would become more accepting of the more direct methods advocated by the extremists. The most appropriate assessment would be to say that the MP Cox assassination makes things complicated for both the In' and Out' supporters. The entailing controversy puts everyone under suspicion of possible involvement, undermining the overall level of mutual trust in the UK's politics. Opinions on Brexit are still divided, indicating, however, the UK is leaning to vote Out'. "Until this morning I would have said to you that on the balance of probabilities, Remain' were the favorites," John Curtice, Glasgow-based Strathclyde University's professor of politics said as reported by the BBC. "We no longer have a favorite in this referendum. There has to be a serious possibility that we will vote Leave."' However, BOE's Monetary Policy Committee warned the Brexit would severely disrupt the UK's economy. "The outcome of the referendum continues to be the largest immediate risk facing UK financial markets, and possibly also global financial markets," the BOE's Monetary Policy Committee said. A Brexit scenario would have "adverse spillovers to the global economy" through "financial market and confidence channels," they added. MP Jo Cox' Labour Party generally supported the Stay' campaign. MP Cox herself was leaning In' as well, as indicated by her recent statements, yet, she also voiced moderate concerns regarding immigration. "Immigration is a legitimate concern, but it's not a good reason to leave the EU," MP Cox told the Yorkshire Post on June 10. When an infamous Bosnian jihadist landed at Malmo airport on Monday, he was immediately detained by border police after it was established that he had been refused entrance to France. But hardly had the man uttered the word "asylum," when the deportation was interrupted by the Migration Board, Swedish Radio reported. However, following severe criticism from many security experts, the man was surprisingly refused asylum and scheduled for deportation, which runs contrary to Sweden's well-known leniency towards hardened criminals. The 46-year-old man is currently sitting in custody, awaiting his deportation. "Obviously, he had no grounds for asylum," Fredrik Bengtsson, press officer at the Swedish Migration Board, told the newspaper Sydsvenskan. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Frances ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy called on Russia and the European Union on Thursday to scrap mutual sanctions, but said Moscow should reach out first. Russia banned EU food exports in 2014 after Europe slapped it with economic restrictions. "I dont know if it would be wise to take such charitable action as lifting countermeasures," Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Putin was informed about Sarkozys proposal, Peskov said, adding there was no official response from the president. ST PETERSBURG (Sputnik) In mid-March, Brussels and Ankara agreed on a deal under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis. "We see that Europe is now changing its policy with its Turkey-EU deal, and it looks like their only interest is to stop people coming to Europe. For us this is an anti-humanitarian policy, because what Europe is doing is externalizing its borders into Turkey, and soon it is seeking to make deals with African countries, to make the borders of Europe in other countries," Meinie Nicolai said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Labour MP Jo Cox died after being shot and stabbed multiple times after a constituency meeting in West Yorkshire. The murder may become a turning point in the Brexit campaign and provide the UK vote on continued EU membership with an unexpected denouement. Remarkably, the Swedish vote on the euro in 2003 was tarnished by the murder of then Foreign Minister Anna Lindh of the Social Democrat Party, which was carried out in a similar way and under similar circumstances. Anna Lindh was stabbed to death on September 13, 2003, in the final stretch of the pro-euro campaign, preceding a referendum on joining the Eurozone. The murderer was a young man named Mijailo Mijailovic. Born in Sweden to Serb parents, Mijailovic was still troubled by the Yugoslav civil war, where Lindh had definite and anti-nationalist views. Despite the fact that the murder of Anna Lindh never was classified as a political act, Mijailovic admitted he felt hatred for all politicians, Swedish and Serbian alike. These amendments allow NATO rapid response teams to enter Poland not only in critical cases, but in peacetime. According to the amended law, the president of Poland, at the request of the Minister of Defense and the prior consent of the Prime Minister, may authorize the stationing of foreign troops (mainly NATO and EU) in Poland as part of the strengthening of the Polish armed forces in peacetime. The head of the Russias State Duma (the lower chamber of the Russian parliament) Committee on defense, former black sea fleet commander Vladimir Komoedov has described the move as an attempt to please some third countries and a complete neglect of Warsaws own interests. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The business tycoon, who invested more than $1 billion in the United Kingdom, added that it would be harder for British business to raise funds for projects and to recruit skillful employees from continental Europe after Brexit. "While ultimately a matter for the British people to decide, it is clear to me that if Britain chooses to be outside of Europe, it will be a significantly less attractive place to do business and to invest," Gates said in an open letter to The Times newspaper. Gates' statement came after opinion polls showed on Thursday a six-point lead of Brexit supporters. Voters across the United Kingdom will take part in a referendum on June 23 to decide whether or not the country should stay in the European Union. BRUSSELS (Sputnik) The next EU heads of state summit is set to be held at the end of June. "It's up to [European Council] President [Donald] Tusk to decide. It is very important to have a broad discussion on Russia and Russia-EU relations. It is not scheduled for the upcoming EU summit, but may take place in the fall," the source said. Moscow's relations with the West deteriorated in 2014 over the Ukrainian crisis, when the European Union along with the United States and some other countries imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia, accusing it of meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs, a claim Moscow has repeatedly denied. MOSCOW (Sputnik)The OSCE will conduct exercises involving 200 migration experts over two years which are aimed at suppressing of human smuggling, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Friday in a statement. "The OSCE is bringing together all relevant frontline actors from the countries of origin, transit and destination along migration routes, in an innovative, reality-based simulation exercise to enhance their capacity to investigate crime and develop effective referral mechanisms for identifying victims," OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier said. The OSCE training sessions will simulate the illegal smuggling of migrants and refugees to Europe, including scenarios of abuse. At some point, for reasons that the study has not ascertained yet, the plankton changed, becoming more variable throughout the years, and upsetting the poor foraminifera. What the study shows, according to Dr McClymont, is that "something happening on the ocean surface can impact things happening below, under 1000 meters of water. That's exactly what happened there." Beyond that, the study is a cautionary tale on how everything in our oceans is deeply intertwined. And, although foraminifera's doom was not spelt by variations in temperature, that does not mean that global warming could not cause a similar catastrophe in the near future. "We know that global warming and changes in carbon dioxide have impacted plankton greatly, and according to the International Panel on Climate Change some species of fitoplancton have started migrating," Dr McClymont told Sputnik. "The real issue is: if plankton does change, our result shows that you might have an impact deep down, on the seafloor." "And organisms living on the seafloor are parts of complex ecosystems, they affect how easily organic materials are cycled through the ocean," she added. "Such a change would have great repercussions on the whole oceanic ecosystem." ST PETERSBURG (Sputnik)Russia does not give the United Kingdom any grounds to believe that it would support it leaving the European Union, but a Brexit may improve Moscow-London relations, Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the European Union told Sputnik on Friday. "Some may think so, but there are no grounds for this," Chizhov said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), when asked why London thought Moscow backed Brexit. If the United Kingdom were to leave the European Union, Russia would form relations with it as a country that is not a member of the bloc, according to Chizhov. During a ceremony to honor his late fellow police officers, a French police officer refused to shake hands with his country's socialist President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls, the radio station RTL reported. The incident occurred after a ceremonial speech honoring two policemen who had been killed by a gunman. President Hollande passed along a row of police officers who were present at the ceremony, shaking hands with them. One of them suddenly refused to offer his hand to the president, and continued to stand still. While Copenhagen is welcoming US Secretary of State John Kerry with pomp, the pollster Megafon has conducted a survey on behalf of the channel TV2 and newspaper Politiken, yielding baffling results. Forty percent of Danes believe that a close association with the United States contributes to a greater risk of terrorism inside Denmark. However, 64 percent of the Danes polled concede that a close relationship with the US is vital for the nation's security and prosperity. Terror researcher Carsten Bagge Laustsen of Aarhus University brushed his compatriots' fear aside as unnecessary alarmism, yet admitted that their apprehension may be partially justified. "Anti-Americanist sentiment is high in the Middle East, and is even higher among the Middle Eastern Islamic terrorist organizations, so once you become associated with the American warfare, the attitude towards Denmark is adversely affected," Carsten Bagge Laustsen told TV2. "For a terrorist who resides or has roots in Denmark, it is quite obvious that the Danish participation in the war may be used as a pretext for legitimizing' a terrorist attack," he said. A group of German artists have urged the German government to allow thousands of refugees to fly to Germany, and come up with a controversial protest in order to put pressure on the government, Sputnik Germany reported on Thursday. The "Center for Political Beauty" pressure group is collecting donations from the public to pay for 100 refugees to fly to Germany from Turkey on June 28. The group calls their initiative "Devour the Refugee" because of a controversial twist: they are also seeking to recruit refugee volunteers to be eaten alive by a lion in a square in Berlin, in the event that the government refuses to support their campaign. Between 1981 and 1971, seven MPs have been murdered. Three MPs were killed by the Irish Republican Army. Another MP was murdered by an affiliate to the Black Beret Cadre a small militant Bermudian Black Power group. And another MP was killed by the Irish National Liberation Party two more were assassinated by members of the Ulster Defense Association (UDA). In The Line of Political Duty There have been two attempted murders on MPs since 1990. In 2000, Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones was stabbed and his assistant killed by a man wielding a Samurai sword while the Cheltenham MP held his weekly surgery. @jimsciutto @Emmabarnett Tho Nigel Jones MP couldve been killed by samurai sword attack in 2000, assistant tragically killed at same time Katy Riddle (@KatyMarketFresh) June 16, 2016 In 2010, Labour MP Stephen Timms was stabbed in the stomach by a student during a constituency surgery in Newham, London. In 2010 Stephen Timms MP was attacked while at work in his constituency surgery. Thankfully he survived Please no more attacks Annie (@AnnieCricket) June 16, 2016 Following the killing of Jo Cox as she went about her political duties, politicians have been advised to contact police about their security following the murder of their colleague. But many MPs showed their defiance by attending their constituency advice surgeries, traditionally held on a Friday. My response to the senseless and heartbreaking murder of Jo is to do my job today. My care home visits and surgery will go ahead as planned. Owen Smith (@OwenSmith_MP) June 17, 2016 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn shared a platform with Conservative leader David Cameron to pay tribute to Cox and announced that parliament would be recalled on Monday 20 June, "on behalf of everybody who values democracy, free speech and the right of political expression." "She was taken from us in an act of hatred, in a vile act that has killed her. It is an attack on democracy.it is the well of hatred that killed her," Corbyn said. MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova A large Eurasian partnership project proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin will put the regional economy on top, member of the Pakistani parliament Mian Abdul Mannan told Sputnik Friday, adding that the project should be led by Russia. Earlier on Friday, speaking at the St.Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Putin proposed to create a large Eurasian partnership between the Eurasian Economic Union and countries including India, Iran, Pakistan, as well as members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. "In my opinion, Russia should lead this project because the people in the region are fed up with the US policy. Putin is the most suited leader to lead this process. It is an excellent time to joint hands and form a new economic bloc for this entire region. This is a way to put the Eurasian economy on the top," Mian Abdul Mannan said. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russia prefers to have a strong Europe to cooperate with, as such a partner is less likely to be manipulated by outside forces, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. "You want me to say what Russia's stance is on this, whether Russia want to talk to a strong Europe or a weak one. Russia certainly wants to talks to a strong Europe, because having dialogue with a weak partner is not worth it. One can always expect that someone else will somehow pressure him and all agreements and joint plans will be ruined. While a strong partner will never allow something like that to be done. I think that we should respect the choice of the British people, regardless of what it will be. We just have to wait a few days and see what happens," the president said," Putin said in a response to a question regarding the upcoming UK referendum on the United Kingdom's membership in the European Union. Experts disagree on the impact that a UK exit will have on the European Union, with some arguing that Europe will consolidate and other arguing that the bloc will disintegrate, Putin added, noting that he will not express his personal opinion on the matter. On Friday Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Belgrade on a three-day visit to Serbia, after which he will visit Poland and Uzbekistan. According to reports, Serbia and China will sign around 20 agreements during the President's visit. These include an agreement about the modernization of the Belgrade-Budapest train line, and China's proposed investment of 17 million euros in infrastructure and development projects involving Chinese firms. Aleksandar Jankovic, the Serbian government's Director of the Department for Asia, Australia and the Pacific, told Sputnik that Serbia and China are important strategic partners. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to express his opinion Friday about possible British leaving the European Union saying it is a matter of UK and EU affairs. "That is absolutely not our problem, that is an issue of British people. I have my personal opinion but I cannot answer in advance, I cannot speak about the results [of the referendum] and nobody knows that," he said, adding that it is improper to link Russia to all issues including those, which Russia has nothing to do with. Voters across the United Kingdom will take part in a referendum on June 23 to decide whether or not the country should exit the European Union. "For months MSF has spoken out about a shameful European response focused on deterrence rather than providing people with the assistance and protection they need," Jerome Oberreit, International Secretary General of MSF, added. "Europes attempt to outsource migration control is having a domino effect, with closed borders stretching all the way back to Syria. People increasingly have nowhere to turn." MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) June 17, 2016 The EU also recently announced plans to send billions of euros in aid to African and Middle Eastern countries to help stop the flow of migrants. In exchange, countries agreed to welcome back migrants who are deported from Europe. France Timmerman, part of the European Commission that presented the plan, said the initiative would "use a mix of positive and negative incentives to reward those third countries willing to cooperate effectively with us and to ensure that there are consequences for those who do not." MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group is preparing to resume its armed struggle if peace negotiations with the government do not materialize. "We have extensive information that they are prepared to return to war and urban warfare, which is more devastating than the rural war. That's a reality and I know it, that is why it is so important that we reach an agreement," Santos said on Thursday, as quoted by the RCN broadcaster. The Colombian government and FARC have been engaged in peace talks since November 2012 and have reached a number of important agreements including on landmine removal, land reform, transitional justice and an end to illegal drug trafficking. According to the Libyan government, Goldman Sachs bankers used bribes, lavish gifts, and prostitutes to lock in contracts that turned out disastrous for the African nation. The trial, which begins this week in London, has made headlines, as many of the bank's top officials rotated into and out of influential government jobs, including managing partner Timothy Geithner, who was appointed Secretary of the Treasury under US President Barack Obama. Russ Baker, editor in chief of WhoWhatWhy news, covered Libya at the time of the 2011 NATO bombing. Speaking to Radio Sputnik's Loud and Clear, he explains that there's plenty of evidence the intervention was all about the money from the beginning. "Gaddafi was one of the few leaders in the Arab world that really was independentHe not only was encouraging all of the Arab countries to try to work together to generate political power on the world scene, but he also [encouraged] African countriesto take full ownership of their own natural wealth," Baker tells host Brian Becker. BLAGOVESHCHENSK (Sputnik) Mikhail Shirokopoyas, 35, was lethally injured in Aleppo in May and airlifted to a Moscow military hospital where he succumbed to his wounds on June 7. He was posthumously awarded a medal for valor. "He left for Syria for three months in mid-April," his wife told RIA Novosti. "I asked him to decline but he said an order was an order." Shirokopoyas previously served on two contracts at air bases in Russias Far East as a second-in-command platoon sergeant. He was given a military honors burial on June 11. He is survived by a wife and a 13-year-old daughter. ST PETERSBURG (Sputnik) Last week, media reports emerged claiming that Baghdadi was killed in a US airstrike. Pentagon and the Iraqi army denied these claims. "There is no clear information on his killing, but I definitely know that he was wounded. But this does not matter, as in near future not only him, but also other IS [Daesh] members will be killed," he said. The ambassador added that a meeting of Syrian and Russian defense ministers is currently being planned: "The Syrian government has been ready for the next round of talks in Geneva for a long time, as soon as [UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan] de Mistura announces them. We are waiting," the official said. Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups. A Syrian government delegation, as well as three opposition groups the Riyadh-formed High Negotiations Committee, the Moscow-Cairo and the Hmeymim groups have been taking part in the UN-mediated Geneva talks on Syrian reconciliation. The situation in and around Fallujah, situated only some 50 kilometers west of the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad is appalling. Residents are being forced to eat unsuitable food and animal fodder and drink raw river water to survive. Those attempting to escape run the risk of being maimed or shot dead by Daesh snipers, the Norwegian Refugee Council's mission in Iraq reported. Fallujah was conquered by terrorists in January 2014 and has been under siege by the Iraqi army and Shiite militias for months. Now, a famine threatens to cost even more lives in the surrounding area's refugee camps. "Our food supply is sufficient for two days only, and the situation is acute," Karl Schembri of the NRC in Iraq told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. "We will soon run out of both water and food. Also, we have an extreme shortage of medicine," Schembri said. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The Russian anti-terrorism operation in Syria is complicated by difficulties in separating the moderate opposition from the Nusra Front terrorist group, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday. "Our Aerospace Forces' operation continues in Syria. It is no secret that the fact that the continued mixing and soldering of the so-called opposition and al-Nusra remains a significant problem, this really complicates the counterterrorism [work]," Peskov told reporters. Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Earlier in the day, local media reported that the Iraqi security forces took under their control the center of Fallujah. "Daesh militants in Fallujah are now concentrated in the area of Dzulani in the north of the city. The operation may be completed during two to three days," the commander of the operation, Brig. Gen. Abdelwahab Saadi, said as quoted by the Sky News Arabia. Saadi added there were not many civilians in the city. MOSCOW (Sputnik)The internal memo signed by some 50 US diplomats, a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times from a US State Department official on Thursday, calls for "a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons," against Assad forces. "All these statements are games that we have already seen in the past. This is the way to put pressure on the Russians. They are saying: Look, we have the opposition that demands actions against Assad and calls on the government to change the current political position toward the Syrian regime, so you [the Russians] need to work with us [the current US administration] and we need to move fast," the source said. Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to president Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure after revelations that Israeli taxpayers footed a bill of over 6.7 million shekels ($1.73 million) after his trip to the 70 Session of the UN General Assembly in New York last fall, including $1,600 spent on hairstyling. The information came to light following a lengthy legal challenge to the Prime Minister's Office and Foreign Office from lawyer Shahar Ben-Meir, who petitioned the Jerusalem District Court under the Freedom of Information Law, the Haaretz newspaper reported. Netanyahu and his wife visited New York between September 29 and October 4 2015, and the bills were paid by the Israeli consulate and the Israeli mission to the UN. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The US-led coalition against the Daesh carried out 10 airstrikes on Thursday near the Syrian city of Manbij destroying terrorists tactical units and fighting positions, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a press release. Near Manbij, 10 strikes struck nine separate Daesh tactical units and destroyed six ISIL fighting positions, three Daesh vehicles, and an Daesh mortar system," CENTCOM stated on Friday. In the beginning of June, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States, have begun an offensive on Manbij to free the city from terrorists. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Earlier on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the US proposal to consider a possibility of incorporating representatives of the opposition into the Syrian government is "absolutely reasonable." "We are now in the dialogue process between the opposition and the government as we agreed and want to make a coalition with the government, to make a wider government that will include the Syrian opposition forces and the Syrian current government that should represent all Syrian people. This will ensure safety for the Syrian political structure and can accelerate the current war against terrorism. It is a very good idea," Ahmad said. Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups. The central provision of the treaty is the ban on the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. This makes it illegal in every country that joins the Convention for anyone to use cluster munitions or engage in any production or trade of the weapon. Other weapons that have been banned in this way include antipersonnel landmines, as well as biological and chemical weapons. When human rights campaign group Amnesty International discovered in early June that the UK had sold cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia, it also became apparent that Britain continues to partake in stockpiling and investing in companies that produce the weapons. In addition to this, on Thursday (June 16), it was announced that the US House of Representatives approved the sales of more cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia despite an international ban on the controversial munitions. Amnesty has documented use of several types of US-made cluster bombs in current Yemen war https://t.co/qMbsAmanNT https://t.co/rHcDvvYduL amnestypress (@amnestypress) June 16, 2016 A key campaigner against the use of cluster munitions is Firoz Alizada, Campaigns and Communications Manager for the CMC. The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) and its members in 100 countries have been raising awareness of the devastating impacts of cluster bombs, advocating for a ban, as well as monitoring states' activities and efforts towards the implementation of Convention. Firoz Alizada, Campaigns and Communications Manager for CMC, believes that the use of cluster munitions in war is extremely harmful and that financial institutions funding the companies that make them is completely wrong. "Cluster munitions are indiscriminate weapons that kill and maim civilians, including children. They have been used Syria and also in Yemen since March 2015, especially the CBU-105s Sensor Fuzed Weapon type of cluster munition, which is manufactured by Textron. It is unacceptable that financial institutions such as JP Morgan and Bank of America and all other financial institutions continue to fund cluster munitions producers of this horrendous weapon that maim civilians," Alizada told Sputnik. Alizada has also called on these companies and governments to put an end to investment in the production of cluster bombs and on all governments that haven't joined the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, to join as soon as possible. The UK is fuelling the deadly conflict in #Yemen through reckless arms sales to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition: https://t.co/hcROhVhF6D Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) June 11, 2016 When asked about thematization behind the finance, Firoz Alizada believes it is simply down to money. "Well, the aim of financial institutions is usually to make profit; it is probably this same goal that leads these companies to invest in cluster munitions producers. They put their own profit over harms or consequences their investments might cause," Alizada told Sputnik. As conflict in the Yemen continues and thousands of civilians face injury and death due to cluster munitions, CMC as many other NGOs believes that the international community can not and should not ignore what is happening. Some ten states in total have adopted legislation that prohibits (forms of) investments in cluster munitions: Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Samoa, Spain and Switzerland. But will others eventually follow suit? However Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and State Department official, is one of those in the US who believes that with the right planning and substantial military support NATO could carry out an intervention. "My solution is that we have to have an international coalition led by NATO, with regional states to resolve the situation with the Assad government, ISIS and the al-Nusra Front. I don't think just attacking Assad is the solution." "What was done in Libya was half-hearted," the US expert believes. "This is where the phrase 'leading from behind' came for the US. It was mostly a bombing campaign, run by the British and the French. You may remember that they bombed so much they ran out of bombs." WASHINGTON (Sputnik) US military conducted three airstrikes in central Yemen on June 8-12 that eliminated six al-Qaeda operatives and injured one other, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a press release on Friday. "A strike June 8 in al Badya Governorate resulted in the deaths of two al-Qa'ida operatives along with the destruction of their vehicle loaded with weapons," the release stated. "Another strike conducted June 10 in Marib Governorate killed two al-Qaeda operatives." CENTCOM added that another strike in Shabwah Governorate on June 12 killed two more terrorists, while injuring another. That deal has wavered in recent weeks following the Turkish governments crackdown on both the media and dissent, including advancing a constitutional amendment that will allow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to prosecute all opposition lawmakers from the Kurdish HDP Party under the countrys anti-terrorism laws. This move toward totalitarianism follows Turkeys aggressive decision to shoot down a Russian warplane. The Erdogan government has also faced accusations of being engaged in illegal arms and oil trade with Daesh militants, stoking the flames of war. British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested that Turkey may not be ready for inclusion in the European Union, and the EU has soured on the idea of offering visa-free travel to Turkish citizens. Erdogan responded by threatening to unleash a new wave of migrants onto Europes mainland. Now the military alliance of 28 nations is looking to strip Ankara of their greatest bargaining chip by blockading migrant sea smuggling from Turkey. "Ansar Beit al-Maqdis emerged from the chaos in Egypt under Morsi. It has now declared itself the ISIS [Daesh] branch in the Sinai," Macgregor noted. The terror group was seeking to repeat previous Islamic State gains in other countries and was escalating its assaults on long-established international peacekeeping forces between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai, Macgregor observed. "They have already attacked the Sinai task force that guards the border between Egypt and Israel," he recalled. So far, the Egyptian army had proved unable to destroy the group or roll it back, Macgregor said. "The problem is the inability of Egyptian ground forces to systematically annihilate the group in the Sinai," he stated. The US military continued to support Egypt, but was not engaging Ansar Beit al-Maqdis directly, Macgregor added. "We can and are doing much to help them, but we cannot intervene on Egypt's sovereign territory with our ground forces to eliminate this home grown Sunni Islamist organization," he concluded. Doug Macgregor holds a doctoral degree in international relations from the US Military Academy at West Point. He commanded in the Battle of 73 Easting, a decisive tank fight during the 1991 Gulf War. The first proposal, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent Program (GBSD), will forge ahead this summer. The GBSD aims to replace the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with a more precision targeted system that officials believe will be able to penetrate anti-ballistic missile shields. The US Air Force intends to outfit existing missile silos with new weapons to minimize program expenditures. The second program, the Long Range Stand-Off (LRSO) seeks to produce a new nuclear-armed cruise missile. Initial development is scheduled to begin in a matter of weeks. The LRSO would replace the Air-Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), which is slated to be phased out beginning in 2030. Rocket and mortar attacks were the second-largest cause of death for US soldiers in Iraq, prompting the defense contractor to develop the MHTK weapon to shield personnel at a fraction of the cost. The US Army, however, backed away from the acquisition late in the process, citing the reduction in US troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. The MHTK weapon features a miniaturized missile that is 27 inches long, two inches in diameter and weighs 5 pounds at launch. The missile contains no active warhead, but instead uses kinetic energy to take out a target. One launcher can fit 36 miniaturized missiles and two launchers are able to fit in the back of a flatbed truck, providing portability to the rocket and mortar shield. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The US Army is raising an almost two-thirds of a billion dollar building at Fort Meade, Maryland, the headquarters of the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), the US Department of Defense announced. "Clark Construction Group [of] Bethesda, Maryland, was awarded a $616.3 million contract options to design and build a multi-story office building," the announcement said on Friday. Work on the project will be performed at Fort Meade, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of August 11, 2020, the Defense Department noted. TOKYO (Sputnik) Hatoyama visited Crimea last year, despite certain resistance from the Western world. "I decided to go and felt that the environment on the peninsula was absolutely peaceful. And having seen proof of real facts on the peninsula and I would like to pass these facts on to the Japanese community, to people around the world," Hatoyama said during a Friday meeting with Sergei Naryshkin, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, who is on a visit to Tokyo. Hatoyama stressed that he will strive to contribute to the development of cultural exchanges between Russia and Japan. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) The issue of Western anti-Russia sanctions is not on the agenda of Russian President Vladimir Putins upcoming visit to Finland, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "The Russian side traditionally does not raise the issue of sanctions. This issue is not on our agendaRussia was not the initiator of this situationWe will not raise this issue [during Putins visit to Finland]," Peskov told journalists in St. Petersburg on Friday. Putin's visit to Finland is planned for the summer of 2016, although the exact dates have not been set yet, according to Peskov. MOSCOW (Sputnik) According to Peskov, there are still "some disputes" present to date. "There is a common understanding that there is no alternative to the implementation of the Minsk agreements. This is the first point. There also exists an understanding that a failure in the [agreement's] implementation is absolutely unacceptable because the Minsk agreements cannot remain on paper, this is not possible. Therefore, there is a common understanding a pledge that the work will continue," Peskov told reporters. In February 2015, Kiev forces and eastern Ukraine's pro-independence militia signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk after talks of the Normandy Four countries, comprising Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, as well as constitutional reforms which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk peoples republics. MOSCOW (Sputnik) A number of bilateral meetings between Vladimir Putin and foreign states' leaders was planned on the sidelines of the summit, according to the press service. "On June 23-24, 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in a meeting of the council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization leaders in Tashkent, dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the creation of this organization," the statement reads. The sanctions target imports from the peninsula and investment there, among other measures. Crimea seceded from Ukraine to rejoin Russia in March 2014 following a referendum in which over 96 percent of voters supported the move. The West labeled the vote an illegal "annexation." Moscow has stated that the referendum fully complied with international law. Western countries, as well as Japan, have imposed sanctions targeting Russia's banking, energy and defense sectors after Crimea's reunification with Russia. ST PETERSBURG (Sputnik) The Russian President addressed the Economic Forum guests with a question considering NATO expansion: "For some reason, NATO infrastructure must constantly be expanded and moved closer to the Russian borders. Did this emerge yesterday? Now they are accepting Montenegro. Who is threatening Montenegro? Therefore, this is complete disregard towards our position in everything," Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). He also called Washingtons unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty an issue. Regardless of the tensions that continue to simmer over the South China Sea, Washington has seemingly softened its stance towards Beijing; experts believe that such a shift could be explained by an upcoming change of leadership both in the United States and China. An opinion piece written by former Assistant US Army Attache in Beijing Ben Lowsen for The Diplomat is yet another example of the apparent thaw in relations between the countries. "Modern China's emergence onto the global stage brings with it both concern and hope: concern for how the world will accommodate an emerging great power and hope that a great civilization will enrich every aspect of global exchange," Lowsen writes. Saudi Arabia has always sponsored both Republican and Democratic Parties of America and the kingdom also provides with full enthusiasm 20 percent of the cost of Hillary Clintons campaign in the US presidential elections despite the fact that some influential forces within the country dont have a positive look toward supporting the candidate because she is a woman, the agencys report quoted Prince Mohammed as saying. The article explained that it is illegal in the US for presidential candidates to accept funding from foreign governments, but Saudi Arabia and Clinton are no strangers to exchanging favors. The Clinton Foundation, which is chaired by both Hillary and her husband Bill Clinton, disclosed in 2008 that it had accepted up to US$25 million from the Saudi Kingdom in the same year. Other foreign governments who have reportedly donated money to the Clintons include Norway, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy and Jamaica, which together donated around US$20 million. However later this week the Middle East Eye reported that Jordan's official news agency said on Tuesday that it was hacked when, over the weekend, a story briefly appeared on its website. "We need a Schengen area for American tanks," former Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosaw Sikorski said back in October 2015. The idea was echoed by Elisabeth Braw of the Atlantic Council in her June opinion piece for Foreign Affairs. "NATO's member states are willing to defend one another, and they have the troops and the equipment to do so. But quickly getting those troops and equipment to their destination is a different matter altogether. In some new NATO member states, bridges and railroads are simply not suitable for large troop movements. But one thing frustrates commanders even more: the arduous process of getting permission to move troops across borders," she wrote. Therefore, the bloc desperately needs a "military Schengen" zone in Europe, Braw argued. "With a military Schengen in place, NATO troops and equipment would be able to cross NATO borders to their destination the same way EU citizens do: without having to show permits," she underscored. However, it is not the first time that US policymakers have appeared to be completely divorced from reality. Much in the same vein the State Department officials decided to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in Libya several years ago, claiming that "it would bolster democratic-minded forces there and result in a model moderate, representative government in the country." "We all know how fantasy-based foreign policy works out. The examples are too numerous," McAdams emphasizes. Interestingly enough, back in November 2015 former British chief of the defense staff General Sir David Richards called upon the British government to accept the fact that Bashar al-Assad's army is the only credible force that could fight Daesh and that by ousting Assad NATO forces would trigger chaos in Syria. Moreover, former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey shared a similar stance. Back in 2013 "a highly classified assessment, put together by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then led by General Martin Dempsey, forecast that the fall of the Assad regime would lead to chaos and, potentially, to Syria's takeover by jihadi extremists, much as was then happening in Libya," Seymour Hersh wrote in his article for London Review of Books in January 2016. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) The United Nations should serve as a platform for the international talks on economic cooperation, due to its neutral nature, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Christian Friis Bach told Sputnik. "I offer the United Nations as a neutral and non-politicized platform to now create a dialogue on how we can strengthen the economic integration. This is very very needed," Bach said. Bach also stressed that he had "no opinion on the current sanctions, but that in the long run sanctions and new barriers is not the right way for Europe". WASHINGTON (Sputnik) US Department of State has no plans to make public an internal memo calling for the United States to take military action against Syrian President Bashar Assads government, US Department of State spokesperson John Kirby said in a briefing on Friday. "Theres no plans to make it public," Kirby stated when asked when the State Department would release the dissent letter. Furthermore, Kirby said there will be no investigation as to how the letter ended up in the public domain. "We are now engaging together with the government of Belarus in the process where we will hopefully facilitates dialogue between the different countries and the different unions to create closer cooperation and integration," he said, noting that Minsk has taken an initiative of acting as a bridge between the European Union and the EEU. "We [UNECE] have to create now a new framework, a new foundation for integrations where we will be open and transparent, and where countries can say we want to be part of or work closer with the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union. We do not want to choose sides, we do not want to be only part of one or the other, but have transparent and open trade regime that can facilitate growth and peaceful coexistence," Bach said Christian Friis Bach also noted that EEU should be open for integration of any country that does not want to "choose sides". "As you know, there are countries in our region thatdo not want to choose this side or that side, but want to be part of an open transparent integration. I hope that the EEU will shape its future in a way that will make it open and transparent and reach out to other unions and other countries in the region," Bach said According to Bach, UNECE works closely with the EEA commission trying to help countries break down barriers between them in order to shape a stronger EEU. "Eurasian Economic Union is a promising integration effort between some of the countries in the region," the UNECE official added. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) Russia and Ukraine will resume their normal gas cooperation after Kiev realizes that it has no monopoly on gas transit to Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. " if Ukraine realizes that it does not have monopoly on gas transit, the blackmail by some officials in that country over these deliveries will stop and we will return to a normal business cooperation," Putin said at a meeting with heads of international news agencies on Friday. According to Putin, Russia is not refusing to transport gas through Ukraine completely, though the main issue is the volume of gas and its distribution. Although we had the split of Christianity in 1054, we did not have formation of separate identities until the beginning of the 20th century according to my research.To a certain extent, the process of westernisation seems to have started about then; countries like Japan and Turkey changed markedly and became westernised. Another development was the rise of America. With the rise of U.S. power and America becoming the world hegemon, one needed a geographical concept that would encompass not just north-western Europe but a much wider arc of European society. The concept of the West is not just western-based, Professor Bonnett points out. In a country like Russia, there was a huge debate between the westernisers and the slavophiles, throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries, a time when talk about the West was simply not taking place in cities like London or Paris. Professor Bonnett mentions that we have retreated over the past couple of decades into a bipolar world. For a while it seemed like we were going to have a much more multi-polar, diverse world, with different models, but partly because the other competing models of civilisation appear so defensive, westernisation seems to be coming back.At the end of the 20th century, people thought that it is all over now, the West is in decline, it is the Asian century and so on. It may be the Asian century in terms of economics, but in terms of civilisational models, and cultural influence I think that westernisation has come back with a vengeance. As President Francois Hollande refuses to back down in the face of a wave of strikes and unrest against his anti-labor law, he threatens to ban demonstrations citing the threat of terrorism. Will such a move backfire and ignite even more militant working class action? Was Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat killed? His widow believes so, and today a judgement is due in a French court on her challenge to have the investigation re-opened. Becker is joined by Dr. Ghada Talhami from Lake Forrest College to look at what the evidence suggests about Arafat's death and the road the Palestinian struggle has traveled since he passed away in 2004. Have activists in Los Angeles been getting arrested simply for criticizing the police at their commission meetings? Progressive organizations fighting police brutality say yes, and are galvanizing support for the seven activists who have been arrested since last fall. Joining Becker to discuss the movement against police brutality and spying in Los Angeles is Hamid Khan, campaign coordinator of the Stop LAPD Spying Network. Rosenberg, who recently retired as head of the Task Force on Global Health, explains the history of what is now known as the 'Dickey Amendment', which effectively served to end all federal research on guns. He describes his initial confrontations with then US Rep. Jay Dickey (R-AR), who has since, ironically enough, become a friend and ally, and why still-absent federal research funding is so important to helping curb the nation's extraordinary gun violence epidemic. "The NRA had been attacking us [the CDC] for years, because they thought that to allow research to be done might not be good for gun sales. And so they developed a zero tolerance policy," Rosenberg tells me. "They told their members that it's either-or, black and white, take your choice. Either you can do the research or you can keep your guns. But they said you can't do both. And if you allow the research, we will all lose all of our guns." The showdown with GOPers doing the bidding of the NRA at the time, he says, came not long after CDC-funded research found that "having a gun in the home - not only did it not protect you, but it increased the risk that someone in your family would be shot and killed with a gun, not by 5 or 6 or 20 percent, not by 80 or 90 percent, but more than 200 percent." Rosenberg explains his fascinating history with former Congressman Dickey, how federal research is not actually "banned" to this day (despite reporting to the contrary), why it is still not carried out nonetheless, and what he describes as the four "basic scientific questions" that federal research could help answer. Namely: "Who gets shot, how many people?"; "What are the causes" of gun death and injury and "what increases and decreases the risk"?; What could "work to prevent it"?; and, "once you find things that work, how do you put them into legislation and craft a policy that will both keep us safe and protect the rights of law-abiding gun owners"? It's an eye-opening and important discussion that I hope you'll take some time to listen to and share. And, finally, at the end of the show, as your gift, you'll be rewarded with a much-overdue laugh, courtesy of Al Franken. Enjoy! You can find Brad's previous editions here. And tune in to Radio Sputnik one hour a day, five days a week. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Russia has the right to deploy military units wherever it wants within its own borders and this does not pose a threat to neighboring countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday. "We don't accept these allegations, as you know, we don't agree with them. As for us deploying or military units one place or the other, it is the sovereign right of Russia to freely move our forces on the entire territory of our country. These movements are in no way threatening our neighbors," Peskov told reporters. Several days before, President Putin ordered a snap inspection of the combat readiness of the Russian armed forces, which is set to last until June 22. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The Greek island of Crete on June 16-26 was set to host the council, after more than 50 years of preparations. A number of churches, including the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Georgian Orthodox Church, have refused to participate in the council as the procedure and documents of the council have not been worked out properly yet. "I believe that with the presence of good will the meeting in Crete would become an important step to overcome existing disagreements. It may contribute to preparations to that Holy and Great Council that would unite all local autocephalous churches without exception," the patriarch said in a statement sent to the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and other participants of the council. On Monday, the Russian Orthodox Church said that its Holy Synod met for an extraordinary session after which it offered to postpone the council to a later date because several Orthodox churches had refused to partake and it was expecting a response from the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It took the Russian President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov 31 minutes to run a five-kilometer event, in a race that was held within the framework of the 2016 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), according to the Russian news website Gazeta.ru A total of 255 people, including German Gref (head of Sberbank, Russia's largest bank) and head of Match TV Tina Kandelaki, took part in the SPIEF race which kicked off near St.Isaac's Cathedral in the city's center at 06:30 Moscow time on Friday. The race was won by Dmitry Razumov, chief executive of the Russian investment company ONEXIM Group. "SPIEF Race 2016: Forum participants & journalists take part in St Petersburg fun run" YouTube https://t.co/wIJFav7Byp Journalist JP (@bushi_jp) 17 2016 . Earlier, Peskov said that winning the race does not matter for him, and that the dream of the overwhelming majority of those attending the 2016 SPIEF race was "to exchange suit and shoes for sneakers and sportswear." ST.PETERSBURG (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova The Russian natural gas could play a major role in the global transition to the green energy future by replacing higher-emitting coal, the head of the World Energy Council told Sputnik Friday. "It is clear that we will have a fossil-fuel base for quite some time, "Dr Christoph Frei, Secretary General of the UN- accredited global energy body, predicted. "From the Russian prospective, gas is going to play a very critical role and is a big business opportunity." Lower-carbon natural gas is largely viewed as a "bridge" between greenhouse gas emitting coal and renewables, such as solar and wind power. As the role of coal begins to dwindle in line with the 2015 Paris climate conference commitments, the role of gas becomes "not less important but more," Dr Frei said. MOSCOW (Sputnik) A total of ten militants were killed in a special police operation in Russia's Dagestan over the past 24 hours, the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said Friday. "As a result of series of operational and combat activities carried out by special units of the Federal Security Service and the Interior Ministry, nine active members of the so-called Suleiman-Stalskiy bandit group, as well as Hasan Abdullayev [Abu Yasir], the leader of the bandit underground of the southern Dagestan, were killed," the Committee said in a statement. Earlier in the day, it was reported that three officers from special police units and an FSB officer were killed in clashes with militants in Dagestan. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) US Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas will visit Israel from June 18 to June 22 to examine cybersecurity cooperation and other topics important to the two nations, the Department of Homeland Security announced in a press release on Friday. Mayorkas will "meet with Israeli counterparts to discuss a range of homeland security-related issues, including cybersecurity, law enforcement cooperation, and aviation security," the release explained. Mayorkas will also deliver remarks at the 6th Annual Cybersecurity Conference during Cyber Week 2016 in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, the release noted. In May, this group was able to get their Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 bill passed. The bill stated the Center would be important because: "(1) Foreign governments, including the Governments of the Russian Federation and the Peoples Republic of China, use disinformation and other propaganda tools to undermine the national security objectives of the United States and key allies and partners; (2) The Russian Federation, in particular, has conducted sophisticated and large-scale disinformation campaigns that have sought to have a destabilizing effect on United States allies and interests;" It continued, stating that one the Centers 9 main functions would be: "Identifying current and emerging trends in foreign propaganda and disinformation, including the use of print, broadcast, online and social media, support for third-party outlets such as think tanks, political parties, and nongovernmental organizations, and the use of covert or clandestine special operators and agents to influence targeted populations and governments in order to coordinate and shape the development of tactics, techniques, and procedures to expose and refute foreign misinformation and disinformation and proactively promote fact-based narratives and policies to audiences outside the United States." Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), also one of the 12 lawmakers, said the Center is needed since the American government lacks the singular control of the media that Russia has. "President [Vladimir] Putins complete domination of media in Russia, strict messaging and obfuscated campaigns in neighboring countries all serve to change public perception and ultimately the facts on the ground," he said. On February 27, a US-Russia brokered ceasefire came into force in Syria. Terrorist groups such as Islamic State (ISIL, also known as Daesh), as well as Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Nusra Front), both outlawed in Russia and a range of other states, are not part of the deal. Russia recognizes Assad as the legitimate authority in Syria, stressing that the Syrian people should be free to choose their leadership without outside intervention. The United States and some of its allies have been supporting the so-called moderate Syrian opposition since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, urging Assad to resign. In 2015, the Pentagon embarked on a failed $500 million mission to train and equip Syrian rebels. The failure of the 2015 program led the Pentagon to loosen requirements for Syrian rebels, opening the pool of recruits to leaders of armed groups that have sought to overthrow the Assad government. As Palma stepped on the native soil, he was immediately arrested for "his probable responsibility" for two murders, the Mexican officials said. The drug lord was allegedly behind the assassination of a deputy police chief and his companion in the western Mexican state of Nayarit. "We are in the process of carrying out an exhaustive review, checking all the prosecutors' offices," Attorney General Arely Gomez of Mexico said. He was placed in the same maximum-security jail near Mexico City that his former associate, drug lord El Chapo, escaped from in 2015. The notorious criminal escaped in grand style, through a tunnel on a motorcycle, only to be re-arrested in January of this year. Last week, a soldier guarding El Chapo was found dead from a blow to the back of the neck, according to the BBC, which added that 300 soldiers had been sent to the prison where El Chapo is being held to prevent him from escaping again. Meanwhile, by handing Palma over to Mexico, Washington hopes to accelerate the extradition of El Chapo to the US. MOSCOW (Sputnik) US Secretary of State John Kerry called a letter signed by dozens of US diplomats, urging Washington to carry out military action against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad "an important statement," media reported on Friday. On Thursday, The New York Times reported receiving a draft of an internal diplomatic memo, which was signed by over 50 mid-level US diplomats involved in Washington's Syria policy to some degree within the last several years, urged the US government to carry out a sensible amount of "stand-off and air weapons" deployment against Syrian government forces. "It's an important statement and I respect the process, very, very much. I willhave a chance to meet with people when I get back," Kerry told the Reuters news agency. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Jailed Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko lost his grinding teeth and cannot consume solid food, the pilot's wife, Victoria Yaroshenko, said on Friday. "The prison doctor who deprived my husband of his last teeth said that deciding on whether to make or not to make implants is not within his competence. He only said that Russian authorities must talk to the prison authorities and ask them to take Konstantin to a private clinic to carry out an operation. And looking at US prices, implanting one tooth costs around $900. We do not have enough for an entire jaw, but we will try to save up at least some money so he eat," Yaroshenko said in an interview with Russia's Izvestia newspaper. According to the pilot, he has been provided with a wax jaw that is unsuitable to eat with. KIEV (Sputnik) Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman during his visit to the United States has discussed with US Sen. John McCain the situation in eastern Ukraine and the Kiev army modernization issues, according to a statement published on the Ukrainian government's website on Friday. "Volodymyr Groysman emphasized the Ukrainian army and its arms needed to be modernized. He also informed the Senator about the situation in Donbas. In turn, Senator McCain reaffirmed his support for Ukraine on its way of reform implementation and condemned Russian aggression," the statement read. Earlier in the week, Groysman met with leaders of the US House of Representatives, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, who promised to bring a $150-million security assistance package for Ukraine to a vote. Vice President Joe Biden also held talks with the head of Ukraine's government. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) US Republicans tend to view the nightclub shooting in the city of Orlando primarily as an act of Islamic terrorism, while Democrats are more likely to consider the massacre a case of domestic gun violence, a new poll revealed on Friday. About 79 percent of Republicans surveyed blamed terrorism for the deadly attack, while 60 percent of Democrats blamed the accessibility of guns for the massacre, according to a Gallup poll. "Democrats' interpretation of the Orlando shooting may be influenced by Democratic leaders' calls for stricter gun laws in recent days," a press release accompanying the poll explained. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The US Navy is substantially growing its fleet and working with military partners to strengthen its global presence, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said during a visit to the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group in the Mediterranean Sea. During Mabus visit to the carrier group on Thursday, the US guided-missile destroyer Mason conducted a refueling exercise with the Italian Navys Flotta Verde. "We're where we need to be and when we need to be there. We're growing our fleet and we're doing it pretty dramatically 308 ships by 2021," Mabus stated. "We're going to have that presence." WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The US Department of State is reviewing a draft dissident cable written by a group of its employees that urged the United States to take military action against forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, department spokesperson John Kirby told Sputnik on Friday. "We are aware of a dissent channel cable written by a group of State Department employees regarding the situation in Syria," Kirby stated. "We are reviewing the cable now, which came up very recently, and I am not going to comment on the contents." The internal memo, a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times from a State Department official on Thursday, calls for "a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons" against Assad forces. Davis noted that the United States is "really good" about assisting others in the prosecution of leaders who engage in human rights violations. "I hope at some point that there will be accountability for what we did, because we cant just ignore it and pretend it didnt happen," he stated. In addition to failing to prosecute individuals involved in the US torture program, neither President Barack Obama nor his predecessor George W. Bush have allowed a torture case to be heard before a US federal court. In 2010, the Obama administration struck down an attempted lawsuit involving CIAs detention and rendition program, under which terrorist suspects were tortured, arguing the program involves state secrets and cannot be decided by the courts. The US government also refused to hear the case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar who was interdicted in 2002 in New York City and sent to Syria to be tortured for one year under the CIA's rendition and detention program. Davis resigned from the military in 2008 for reasons that included his objection to torture and injustice at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. He was later fired from a US government job for penning an opinion piece criticizing what he called the "double standard" of justice of Guantanamo military tribunals. In 2014 the US Senate Intelligence Committee released the summary of its investigation into the CIAs rendition and detention program, concluding that the United States had engaged in torture during the early years of the War on Terror. Under the program, which lasted from 2001 through 2007, terror suspects were brought into US custody and sent to sites in more than 50 countries for interrogation. Among the most well-known detention site is detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners were subject to torture. Eugene Stoners family, including his surviving children and adult grandchildren, had never publicly weighed in on the heated debate over the weapon but have finally done so under the condition of anonymity. The family adamantly asserts that Stoner, who passed away in 1997 at the age of 74, never intended for his invention to be sold to civilians. Despite his fondness for hunting and skeet shooting, he never used the gun for sport, and did not even own one himself. "Our father, Eugene Stoner, designed the AR-15 and subsequent M-16 as a military weapon to give our soldiers an advantage over the AK-47," one of the Stoners said in a statement to NBC News. "He died long before any mass shootings occurred. But, we do think he would have been horrified and sickened as anyone, if not more by these events." Referring to the deployment of two US Navy aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean ahead of the NATO Summit in Warsaw next month, Mabus added that the Pentagon plays an important role in maritime security. "Weve been in the Mediterranean continuously for 70 years now, since World War II," he said. "Weve been keeping the sea lanes openIts what we do." With its own Black Sea Fleet operating out of Sevastopol, Russia views these maneuvers as the latest example of NATOs eastward expansion. The alliance plans to station four new battalions in the Baltics and Poland, and has installed a new missile defense system in the region. Any permanent stationing of a US warship in the waterway would be a violation of the Montreux Convention, which states that countries without a Black Sea coastline cannot keep military ships in the region for more than 21 days. The United States has successfully prosecuted numerous of terrorism cases in federal court, Davis noted, citing the successful trials of al-Qaeda conspirator, Ahmed Ghailani, and al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Ladens son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. "This whole notion that you hear a lot of politicians say we cant bring terrorists into our backyard, we have done it dozens and dozens of times and it has been successful," Davis observed. After taking office in 2009, Obama vowed to close down the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and end the military commissions. He later changed his position on the commissions and currently faces legal opposition from the US Congress in his efforts to transfer the remaining 80 Guantanamo detainees. A number of US lawmakers have opposed ending the military commissions arguing that terrorism suspects would be afforded undeserved legal rights in US courts, or testimony given in court could jeopardize national security or state secrets. Davis resigned from his post as chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay in 2007 after the Bush administration called for the use of information obtained during torture as evidence against terrorism suspects. He was later terminated from a government job for penning an opinion piece criticizing what he called the "double standard" of justice of Guantanamo military tribunals. Reports indicate that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir informed the United Nations that if the truth about Riyadhs war crimes against children in Yemen was not redacted, the country would move to eliminate as much as $500 million in annual funding for UN programs. He also threatened to coordinate with Arab allies. This is not the first time that the Saudi Foreign Minister has resorted to extortion to prevent embarrassing truths to come to light. In April, Adel al-Jubeir informed Washington that Riyadh would move to dump $750 billion in US Treasury bonds if legislation was passed that allowed the family members of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. United Nations researchers had previously determined that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen should be included under the "parties that kill or maim children" and "parties that engage in attacks on schools and/or hospitals" after uncovering evidence that 60% of the 785 child deaths and 1,168 child injuries in the conflict were attributed to Riyadhs bombing attacks. Many of these attacks involved weapons provided by the United States. RIGA (Sputnik) Phillips said he came to Latvia via Lithuania and made a report in the southeastern Latvian city of Daugavpils. The journalist stressed that he plans to continue making footage in Latvia and will return to the country despite his recent deportation. In March, Latvian law enforcement detained Phillips who tried to cover a march in Riga commemorating former members of the Latvian Legion of the Waffen SS. Prior to being arrested, Phillips, who previously contributed reports for the RT broadcaster, publicly condemned fascism. On March 16, the UK journalist was deported to Russia and was banned from entering Latvia for three years. "As the exercises unfold during the next days, we should see some training and mobilization of units also close to NATO territory, with displays of modern weaponry all covered by the media," he added. But, equally importantly, the exercise fits into the broader program of training of the Russian armed forces and its security apparatus. In previous years, the focus has been mostly on the higher-readiness land units, air force and nuclear forces. So it makes sense to the Russians to broaden the scope to include large numbers of the reservists, train usage of pre-positioned equipment, as well as protection of crucial infrastructure inside the country against internal unrest or sabotage. But I would keep calm and not read it as preparation for World War III," the analyst concluded. The practice of having unannounced inspections of combat readiness was revived after Sergei Shoigu took the defense minister's office in 2012. In February, the Russian president ordered snap inspections of the countrys Central Military District. During the inspections, the troops were carrying out various drills to test their combat readiness. The checks also assessed the airborne forces' readiness for long-distance missions and landing in unfamiliar terrain. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) Moscow hopes that the United States and its partners will avoid repeating old mistakes and not seek a military solution to the Syrian crisis, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Friday. "We would like to hope that the mistakes that have been made in the past, including by the United States and all the illegal coalitions both in Iraq and elsewhere, with forceful overthrows, with a complete lack of professionalism in conflict resolution approaches that they will not be forgotten," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to president Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups. "Russian officials hope this year's forum marks a turnaround in Russia's relations with Europe. The organizers say they also expect some of the chief executives of big multinational companies, who stayed away in 2014 and 2015, will come back this year," the newspaper said. The Financial Times also noted the probable extension of the anti-Russian sanctions, but said that "the mood is shifting and the staying power of the EU is increasingly uncertain." "If violence in eastern Ukraine does not flare up later this year, diplomats expect a more meaningful review of policy, which would begin to lift or loosen some measures," the newspaper added. For its part, the French newspaper Le Monde touted Juncker's visit to the 2016 SPIEF as a "political success". The newspaper also referred to the ever-increasing activity of those who call for lifting the sanctions. The Wall Street Journal in turn noted that against the backdrop of tense relations between Moscow and Washington, Juncker's visit "comes at a delicate moment," given that the EU is due to decide on the extension of economic sanctions against Russia during its summit in late June. "European officials say Russia will almost certainly stay in the penalty box, but Juncker said last month he hoped to use the trip to build bridges on economic issues," The Wall Street Journal said. In addition, the newspaper recalled that relations between Putin and Juncker "stretch back almost two decades from when he was Luxembourg's longtime Prime Minister." ST PETERSBURG (Sputnik) The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) is very likely to issue first bonds denominated in Russian rubles later in 2016, Kundapur Vaman Kamath, the President of the New Development Bank (NDB), told Sputnik on Friday. Earlier in June, NDB officials said the bank would issue first yuan-denominated bonds, and was considering the release in Indian Rupee. "Absolutely, it will happen indeed. We may agree on the first ruble-issue hopefully later this year. It is possible. It is too early to say how big these bonds can be. But in the last two days I understood that there is a clear opportunity for that, and I think we will arrive at it soon," Kamath said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) when asked whether the NDB was also considering issuing ruble-denominated bonds. BEIJING (Sputnik) The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday called on the United States to adhere to international human rights conventions after the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released documents on its former Detention and Interrogation program. "We saw the corresponding reports. To be honest, I am shocked by the details the documents contain. The relevant sides should respect the Geneva convention [on human rights] and other international conventions and guarantee prisoners' basic rights," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a press briefing. On Tuesday, CIA released some 50 declassified documents on its former "Detention and Interrogation" program in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). According to ACLU, the documents "underscore the cruelty of the methods the agency used in its secret, overseas black sites" under the Bush administration. CAIRO (Sputnik)The flight data recorder from EgyptAir's flight MS804, which crashed en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19, has been recovered, the Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said Friday. "After the success in retrieving the cockpit voice recorder of the doomed A320; John Lethbridge, the vessel contracted by the Egyptian Government; has managed to retrieve the second black box which is the flight data recorder," the committee said in a progress report. The two black boxes are being transported to Alexandria, where they will be handed over to the investigation committee and the general prosecution. Rodzyanko said that one of his hopes for the conference is that politicians will follow the example of business, and forge closer international relations. He related that in 2013 when he was first elected president of the Chamber of Commerce. At the time, Washington officials told him that they, in fact, wanted to do more business with Russia. "They said, 'we don't do enough business with Russia, we should do more business with Russia,'" Rodzyanko said. "The more business we do, the more stable our relationship." According to Rodzyanko, Washington did not put pressure on businesses not to attend the forum in recent years, but rather focused their pressure on key high-ranking individuals. "I'll make a distinction, there was never pressure for businesses not to come, there was quite distinct pressure for very senior US-based executives not to come, and that was in the first year when the White House and the State Department were involved in making phone calls." "That said, there are some senior executives who are here but keeping a relatively low profile and having their meetings in private," he revealed. Looking ahead to the US presidential elections later this year, Rodzyanko said that a Republican victory appears more likely than a Democratic one to bring a greater chance of improving relations between the US and Russia. "Judging from the rhetoric of the campaign, which often doesn't translate to reality, there is more of a chance for change on the Republican side than the Democratic side." Sitao Xu, Chief Economist and Partner with Deloitte China, told Radio Sputnik that the forum provides an opportunity for Russia to build on its economic links with China, where infrastructure investment is recognized as key to economic growth. "If China can offer any lessons to other countries, (they are that) China, as you know, takes infrastructure investment very seriously. That's very much long-term thinking, because you are saying infrastructure is a precondition for economic growth." "I'm not saying infrastructure will be the solution for everything, but the experience so far in China is (that) you need to get started by having good infrastructure and (that) even means the current generation may suffer in terms of financial returns, because you do this for future generations." "That's actually what China is trying to replicate in other places, so clearly Russia may want to take advantage of this opportunity. I also think (that) from Russia's perspective it's important to understand what China has to go through." Sitao Xu said that one of the tenets of China's future economic growth is "taking the environment seriously," in order to enable sustainable growth. This new view of economics has implications for industry across the world, including in Russia. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News quoted the country's Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci as saying that Ankara has no regrets about having shot down a Russian bomber last year, but that the country feels "sad about the result." "The killing of the Russian pilot with the downing of the jet is an extremely sad issue. It's an issue that we are sad about. We don't feel regret, but we are sad," Zeybekci said. At the same time, he said that "we are guessing that they should also be sad about the intentional violation of Turkish airspace," in a clear reference to Russia. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Karzai had a series of meetings in the Russian Foreign Ministry earlier on Friday to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues. "We also discussed the possibility of intelligence data exchangeMy visit here was very successful and productive," Karzai told reporters. He also expressed hope that Afghani and Russian presidents would be able to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation organization summit in Tashkent on June 23-24. ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik)Russia counts on US efforts to convince the Syrian opposition to hold a constructive dialogue with the authorities in Damascus, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. "We very much hope that our partners, first of all, the US partners, will work in appropriate way with its allies who support [the Syrian] opposition in order to convince this opposition to hold a constructive and joint work with the Syrian authorities," Putin said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). Putin added that the Syrian reconciliation issue had been discussed recently in detail with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. According to Putin, the sides stated that the Syrian crisis should have been solved under strict international control, the UN control, in particular. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) took note of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Friday decision to no longer seek EU funding amid its dangerous migration policies, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told Sputnik. Earlier on Friday, MSF said that they would no longer accept funding from the European Union member states amid the blocs approach to the migration crisis. "We take note of MSFs decision. While not being a party to the EU Turkey Statement, UNHCR has been consistently calling for a holistic and comprehensive response to the European refugee situation that puts solidarity and responsibility sharing between States and protection for refugees at its center," Spindler said. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Russia's space corporation Roscosmos is considering the possibility of signing a new contract with NASA on delivery of astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) after 2019, Roscosmos head Igor Komarov said Friday. "The US companies are developing spaceships to deliver astronauts to the ISSbut delays are likely in my opinion," Komarov said in an interview aired by Business FM radio. "If such situation arises, we will be ready to conclude new contracts to ensure the delivery of astronauts to the ISS," he emphasized. MOSCOW (Sputnik)The UK and Russian companies, both small and big, have lots of investment opportunities for doing business in the United Kingdom, and in Russia, director of Russo-British Chamber of Commerce told Sputnik on Friday. "There are big opportunities on both sides, whether that be represented by SMEs or big companies. And by facilitating the dialogue we can help these opportunities to flourish," Alan Thompson said. He noted that Russian regions show interest in exporting their items to the United Kingdom. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Russia's space agency Roscosmos and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) will sign an agreement to create a joint satellite constellation for remote earth sensing later in the day, Roscosmos head Igor Komarov said Friday. "Today, we are signing an agreement with the Italian Space Agency on creating a new generation remote earth sensing satellite constellation," Komarov told the Russian Rossiya 24 television channel. The agreement should become an important contribution to international cooperation and technological development, he added. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Russia and Italy signed contracts worth 1.3 billion euros (about $1.5 bln) at the St.Petersburg International Economic Forum and will continue working on strengthening bilateral economic cooperation, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. "Personal participation by Mr. Renzi in this event ensured high level of representation by Italian business circles. Overall, contracts worth 1.3 billion euros were signed with Italian companies at the forum," Putin said at a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minster Matteo Renzi in St. Petersburg. Putin stressed that both countries would prioritize concrete steps aimed at boosting bilateral economic ties despite current difficulties. A mixture of police corruption and a lack of firm legislation also leads to the victimization of young boys. "There is a gap and ambiguity in the laws of Afghanistan regarding bacha bazi and the existing laws do not address the problem sufficiently. Many of the perpetrators have connections with the security organs and by using power and giving bribes they get exempted from punishment," reads a 2014 report from the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) The report also said that this abuse can have lifelong effects on its victims. "The victims of bacha bazi suffer from serious psychological trauma as they often get raped. Such victims suffer from stress and a sort of distrust, hopelessness and pessimistic feeling. Bacha bazi results in fear among the children and a feeling of revenge and hostility develop in their mind." Charu Lata Hogg, a director of the London-based charity Child Soldiers International, said that bacha bazi is a cyclical problem. "We have heard anecdotal reports that many grow up to keep their own bachas, perpetuating the revolving door of abuse." she said. "In the absence of any services to recover or rehabilitate boys who are caught in this horrendous abuse, its hard to know what happens to these children." ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he believes nations should welcome as many migrants as they can afford supporting. "A country needs to take in only the amount of foreigners that it is able to adapt to local conditions of the labor market and adapt to the local language and cultural traditions," Putin said at a meeting with heads of international news agencies. Owner and breeder Tom Hill discussed 2016 Pepsi North America Cup starter Racing Hill with Trot Insider at the post draw on Tuesday, June 14. The $1 million final will be contested on Saturday, June 18 at Mohawk Racetrack. The Roll With Joe-Chasing Ideals colt regrouped from a brief break in stride in the stretch and finished third in the fastest of two eliminations behind runner-up Lyons Snyder and 1:49.1 winner Betting Line. Racing Hill drew post six and will be driven by Brett Miller, with trainer Tony Alagna making a shoeing change from steel to aluminum for the final, a race that's definitely high on the Hamilton, Ont.-based owner's personal bucket list. "It's one of the races I would really like to win...probably the race I would like to win. I came second with Art Colony in 2009. He finished second off the seven-hole. So we drew the six-hole, which is one better, so I'm hoping we [finish] one better this time." To view the entries for Saturday's card at Mohawk or a free program for Mohawks Saturday card, courtesy of TrackIT, click on one of the following links: Saturday Entries -- Saturday Program Pages. The Pepsi North America Cup is the centerpiece of Mohawks fantastic Saturday card of racing that will also feature the $438,000 final of the Fan Hanover Stakes (which will showcase three-year-old pacing fillies), the $370,000 final of the Roses Are Red (pacing mares), the $267,000 final of the Armbro Flight (trotting mares), the $268,000 final of the Goodtimes Stakes (three-year-old trotting colts), and the $100,000 Mohawk Gold Cup (invitational pacers). TSN2 will televise the Cup final live on Saturday. First-race post time for Mohawks Saturday card of racing is 6:30 p.m. The NA Cup has been slotted as Race 12 on the 15-dash card and has an approximate post time of 10:40 p.m. Mohawk will offer three Pick-4 wagers Saturday, including an All Stakes Pick-4 with a $100,000 guaranteed pool, comprising Races 9 through 12 and featuring the Roses Are Red, Mohawk Gold Cup, Fan Hanover and Pepsi North America Cup. Doug McNair will be making his North America Cup driving debut and trainer Casie Coleman will be looking for her second Cup triumph when they send out Ontario Sired pacers Magnum J and morning line favourite Betting Line, respectively, in the $1 million race. Casie Coleman said she isnt the least surprised there are two Ontario Sired horses in Saturdays (June 18) $1 million Pepsi North America Cup at Mohawk Racetrack, including her trainee Betting Line, the 5-2 morning line favourite, and Magnum J trained by Gregg McNair. Weve got great stallions, weve got great broodmares. Weve got a really good program, Coleman said of the Ontario Sires Stakes program. Here we are with two Ontario Sired horses in the final of the $1 million North America Cup - two out of 10 with all those Somebeachsomewheres and other American sires that are very, very expensive...Hopefully, they show themselves well and people are wanting to buy Ontario Sired more. Betting Line, a son of Bettors Delight out of Heathers Western, won the faster of the two NA Cup eliminations on Saturday, June 11 with a 1:49.1 victory that was three-quarters-of-a-length better than Lyons Snyder. Winning the elimination gave Coleman the right to pick her post for the final. She selected the post three on behalf of driver David Miller and her fellow owners Ross Warriner, Christine Calhoun and Mac Nichol, all from Ontario. They purchased Betting Line for $60,000 at the Standardbred Horse Sales Companys 2014 yearling sale in Harrisburg, PA. Coleman, a resident of Cambridge, Ont., won the 2010 Pepsi North America Cup with Sportswriter, now a leading stallion in Ontario that stands at Tara Hills Stud in Port Perry, Ont. Im lucky enough that Ive been in enough of these big races now that its just another race, she said when asked about the pressure a trainer feels the week of a big race. Obviously, its a million-dollar race, so its a big one and we want to make sure we dont mess anything up, but its the same daily routine that we always go through. Coleman said Betting Line, the winner of his Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Super Final a year ago, is primed and ready for Saturdays $1 million final. He had a really good week, she said Thursday. I trained him on Tuesday a couple of trips. He trained great and I went into the vet after he trained and everything looked really good. Blood was good and hes sharp, sound and healthy. Everything seems A1 right now. Magnum J will have a tougher assignment for the father-son training and driving team of Gregg and Doug McNair of Guelph, Ont. The son of Big Jim out of Jamirotoy will start from post 10 in the 10-horse field. Doug will be making his North America Cup driving debut. First or last its going to be a good experience, Doug said. Even though the pressures off having the outside post, Doug said he would rather have had the pressure of having the one or two or three hole...than to have to come from the outside. But, I guess, its only where youre starting from. Magnum J was purchased for $10,000 by Gregg McNair and Hanover, Ont. residents Tony Lawrence and William Brown at the 2014 Forest City Yearling Sale in London, Ont. In 2015, the gelding won one of the premier events for Ontario Sired horses when he captured the $200,000 Battle of Waterloo at Grand River Raceway in Elora, Ont. The pacer was saddled with the seven-hole in that race and Doug said Magnum J has been particularly unlucky with post positions. In Magnum Js last two starts, Doug has had to craft money-winning trips from far outside starting spots. Magnum J was fourth in his $75,000 Somebeachsomewhere division at Mohawk on June 4 from the 10-hole. A week ago, he started in the closed from eighth at the top of the stretch to be fourth in his $50,000 NA Cup elimination. He couldnt race any better than he did the last two starts. He came home in :25.4 one day and he was probably six, seven wide in the stretch. Then last week he came home in :26.2 into a big, strong headwind, Doug said. As for working out a winning strategy in the $1 million final, Doug said hell have to see how things unfold off the gate. He can leave as fast as you want him to leave, but going for a million dollars you know they wont leave you alone on the front end. Everything is different behind the gate. It would be nice to get away at the back and have them go big fractions, but sometimes thats not the way it goes either. Play it by ear and hopefully we get lucky, he said. Its just a bad post. Hes as good as any horse in there, I think. Regardless, Doug said hes determined to make his first NA Cup drive a good experience. Ive got a bunch of my buddies coming out to watch. I still have a lot of high school buddies around. They dont understand racing, but theyll have fun being there. The race is on TSN2 and (Magnum J) is in the race. Youve got no shot if youre not in it. Its the 10-hole, but its better than being also eligible. Doug said hes also looking forward to driving Ontario Sired four-year-old pacing mare Solar Sister (Mach ThreeCabrini Hanover) in the $370,000 Roses Are Red final for owners and breeders David Willmot of King City and Clay Horner of Toronto, Ont. Solar Sister won her Roses Are Red elimination on Saturday (June 11). Shes been really good, but thats a tough race. Theres some good mares in there, but I got lucky and won it last year (with Lady Shadow) so it would be nice two years in a row, Doug said. As for Coleman, she said she is relishing Betting Lines success even more after deciding to downsize her stable. Right now these smaller numbers are working for me. Im actually making more money on my bottom line with smaller numbers. Its a lot less stress, less staff, fewer owners and fewer horses. Im really enjoying how Im doing it now, she said, adding she will enjoy herself even more if Betting Line wins the big one on Saturday. Now he just needs the trip to work out and well see if we can get out picture taken, she said. To view the entries for Saturday's card at Mohawk or a free program for Mohawks Saturday card, courtesy of TrackIT, click on one of the following links: Saturday Entries -- Saturday Program Pages. The Pepsi North America Cup is the centerpiece of Mohawks fantastic Saturday card of racing that will also feature the $438,000 final of the Fan Hanover Stakes (which will showcase three-year-old pacing fillies), the $370,000 final of the Roses Are Red (pacing mares), the $267,000 final of the Armbro Flight (trotting mares), the $268,000 final of the Goodtimes Stakes (three-year-old trotting colts), and the $100,000 Mohawk Gold Cup (invitational pacers). TSN2 will televise the Cup final live on Saturday. First-race post time for Mohawks Saturday card of racing is 6:30 p.m. The NA Cup has been slotted as Race 12 on the 15-dash card and has an approximate post time of 10:40 p.m. Mohawk will offer three Pick-4 wagers Saturday, including an All Stakes Pick-4 with a $100,000 guaranteed pool, comprising Races 9 through 12 and featuring the Roses Are Red, Mohawk Gold Cup, Fan Hanover and Pepsi North America Cup. (with files from Ontario Racing) If you will in the Clinton Raceway area this Sunday and are looking for something exciting to do for Fathers Day, the track will be hosting a thrilling card of live racing that will includes two Racing Under Saddle races. In 2014, Clinton held the first wagering race for Racing Under Saddle in the history of North American history. RUS Ontario is pleased to return to Clinton for the 2016 season. There will be a field of six trotters in Race 2 and Race 8 on Sunday. Alex Marion, who is RUS Ontario's sole licensed male rider, will make his 2016 debut on Sunday and will compete in both of the races. Five of the six horses that are scheduled to head behind the gate in Race 2 will be doing so for the first time under saddle. Cali Magoo (Post 5) will be making his first start in three seasons of under saddle racing for John Braid and rider Marit Valstad. Race 8 will feature the return of Southwind Alice and rider Evelyn Harmes. The duo was victorious over Kawartha Downs on June 4. Massive Muscles, Gracies Harmony and Santo Domingo will be back to challenge the Dave Dowling trainee. Newcomer Amigo Loco will also compete for trainer Tiffany Stein and Alex Marion after an impressive qualifier win over Grand River Raceway. Riders will be present for meet and greets with race fans immediately following Race 2 and Race 8. Seaforth Public School will also be back Sunday for another great on-track fundraiser, Kids Day at the Races. A BBQ, auction, 50/50 draw and bake sale will be in the stands. The card of racing will kick off with a 1:30 p.m. first-race post time. Free parking and admission, fun, games and many prizes between the 10 races will surely make for a fun family friendly atmosphere this Sunday! To view the harness racing entries for Sunday at Clinton, click the following link: Sunday Entries Clinton Raceway. (With files from RUS Ontario) New Homeland Security Records Reveal Top Officials Were Exempted from Strict Ban Placed on Web-Based Personal Email Accounts Despite Heightened Security Concerns The records were obtained in response to a February 2016 The Judicial Watch WASHINGTON, June 16, 2016 / Standard Newswire / -- Judicial Watch today announced it obtained 693 pages of Department of Homeland Security records revealing that Secretary Jeh Johnson and 28 other agency officials used government computers to access personal web-based email accounts despite an agency-wide ban due to heightened security concerns. The documents also reveal that Homeland Security officials misled Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) when Perry specifically asked whether personal accounts were being used for official government business.The records were obtained in response to a February 2016 court order by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia following a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit ( Judicial Watch v. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:15-cv-01772)).The Judicial Watch lawsuit was filed in October 2015 after the Department of Homeland Security failed to comply with a July 2015 FOIA request seeking the following: All requests (in any form) submitted by senior DHS officials for waivers to use personal Web-based email accounts on government-owned computers. Copies of all waivers granted to senior DHS officials to use personal Web-based email accounts on government-owned computers. Judicial Watch sought the documents following a Bloomberg News report revealing that 29 high-level Homeland Security officials, including Johnson, obtained exemptions from a February 2014 agency-wide ban on the use of web-based email systems due to increased security concerns. The waivers were granted despite security officials' warning of the risks of malicious attacks and data exfiltration from webmail use. Included among the records is a February 19, 2014 memorandum from security officials at the Department of Homeland Security strongly warning: "According to the Office of the Chief Information Officer, access to webmail using DHS networks is responsible for almost half of all attempts to compromise DHS network security." The memo explains that webmail use resulted in 14 Trojan-Horse attacks in August 2013 and 25 attacks in December 2013 on Homeland Security computer networks. As a result, in the same memo, Department of Homeland Security officials imposed a total ban on employee use of web-based email systems: New restrictions are being implemented that will no longer allow employee access to personal webmail sites from government computers [Emphasis added]. This action is being taken to strengthen cybersecurity and enhance protection of the Departments computer networks. Effective tonight, access to webmail sites like AOL, Hotmail, Comcast, Gmail, Yahoo, and other email services will be prohibited. The records reveal that despite this strict prohibition, Johnson was given an exemption from the ban on the first day of its implementation simply because he liked to check his personal email from the office everyday... MORE: www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/new-homeland-security-records-reveal-top-officials-exempted-strict-ban-placed-web-based-personal-email-accounts-despite-heightened-security-concerns Dr. Bill Bennett to be Honored with Family Research Council's Vision and Leadership Award Contact: J.P. Duffy or Alice Chao, 866-FRC-NEWS or 866-372-6397; both with Family Research Council; media@frc.org WASHINGTON, June 17, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- This week, Family Research Council announced plans to honor Dr. Bill Bennett, former Secretary of the Department of Education in the Reagan administration, Drug Czar, best-selling author, host of the top-rated radio show "Morning in America," with the Vision and Leadership Award to be given during this year's Values Voter Summit on September 9-11, 2016 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, released the following statement: "Bill Bennett is beloved for a lot of things -- the wisdom of his best-selling books, the warm intellect he brought to mornings across America, the common sense policies that he championed under Presidents Reagan and Bush, and the voice of reason he spoke into divided political classes. For all that he has done as a national leader, broadcaster, author, speaker, and friend, FRC is proud to award Dr. Bennett with FRC's Vision and Leadership Award at a special Gala Dinner on September 10 in Washington, D.C. The gala dinner will cap off the 11th annual Values Voter Summit, which is a fitting tribute to a man who has been a highlight of every VVS he's participated in," concluded Perkins. Other confirmed Summit speakers include: Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.), Lt. Col. Oliver North, Dr. James Dobson, Governor Matt Bevin (R-Ky.), Al Robertson, Fox News' Todd Starnes, the Benham Brothers, Erick Erickson, Star Parker, and many more. To find out more about the Values Voter Summit, please visit: valuesvotersummit.org To request media credentials for this year's Values Voter Summit, please email media@frc.org. BOZEMAN, Mont. Two decades ago, rainbow trout in the upper Madison River were struggling. Whirling disease had been found in the stream, caused by a microorganism that latches onto fish. Brown trout aren't affected by it, but rainbow trout are, and numbers of adult rainbows dwindled. In one section of the river, estimates of adult rainbows those larger than 14 inches fell to fewer than 150 a mile. That was about the time Tim Weiss, a fisheries technician with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, started working on the Madison. A little more than two decades later, the density of adult rainbow trout in that river has changed dramatically. "Back then, it was hard to find rainbows over 14 inches," Weiss said. "And now, they're all over the river." The number of rainbow trout in the river has once again reached eye-level with the number of browns in the river. The encouraging numbers allowed the department to loosen some fishing regulations on the stream, allowing more year-round opportunity for anglers. FWP fisheries biologist Dave Moser said the rebound is something to celebrate. "Populations in the Madison are doing well," Moser said. "And people are catching fish." In 1994, near the peak of the disease outbreak, FWP estimated there were about 142 adult rainbow trout per mile in the Pine Butte section of the upper Madison, about three miles of river upstream of Lyons Bridge. In 2014, the estimate had climbed to 807 adults per mile, even higher than the 1988 estimate of 748. Last year's was 662. Per mile estimates for rainbows of all ages came in at 1,943 in 2015. The numbers for observed deformities related to whirling disease has decreased as well, from 10 percent a half decade ago to about 2 percent now. Biologists and anglers alike are thrilled with the data, but it doesn't mean they are completely out of the woods. Whirling disease is known to be in about 150 rivers and streams across the state, and the tiny organisms that infect fish don't just go away. They can remain in the stream for decades, and perhaps even longer. "They are going to persist at a low level forever," Moser said. So there is a chance that the rainbows in the Madison River could be hit by the disease again, but Moser and Weiss are fairly confident the fish have found some way to beat it. They just can't pinpoint how. Moser said it could be that rainbows are spawning in areas where the organisms causing the disease are less prevalent. The trout also could have developed some sort of adaptation that makes them more resistant to the disease. Bruce Farling, the executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited, said a trout's susceptibility to infection has a lot to do with when and where it spawns each year. "It's often a matter of timing or life history," Farling said. He added that fish surviving today are likely descendants of those that survived the outbreaks in the 1990s, which would mean how those fish live is already resistant to the disease. Moser said that another possibility is the stress level of the trout. Fish that are tired or living in extremely warm water may be more susceptible to infection. "In the fish disease world, when an animal is stressed, that's generally when the disease has the most impact," Moser said. They have some help with that. Hebgen Dam is a regulating force for the upper Madison, often meaning the temperatures stay low there while other rivers heat up. In late summer, FWP places "hoot owl" restrictions nighttime and afternoon fishing closures on some streams because water temperatures near intolerable levels. The upper Madison is rarely one of the streams that see those restrictions. Moser said they have concerns that high temperatures may become a problem in the future, but for now, things are looking good for those fish. "I don't think they are stressed," he said. "I think they are doing well." Anglers, too, are enjoying themselves. Weiss said they've heard plenty of positive reports from folks fishing the stream. Fish larger than 14 inches are likely between 3 and 4 years old. They are the ones anglers like to catch, and Weiss said those fish are getting caught. "Anglers are reporting catching more large rainbows," he said. ARIEL PacifiCorp says it will prepare rough estimates by mid-July regarding rebuilding or abandoning salmon acclimation ponds damaged by winter flooding in the Muddy River and Clear Creek in the upper North Fork of the Lewis River watershed. For 2016, the 38,000 young spring chinook salmon that would have spent a few weeks in the ponds before release in the fall will be put directly into the Muddy River and Clear Creek, plus a functioning acclimation tank near the mouth of Crab Creek, streamflows permitting. Restoration of spring chinook, coho and winter steelhead in the upper North Fork of the Lewis River is part of the 2008 federal license for PacifiCorp to operate Merwin, Yale and Swift dams. Flooding in mid-December tore up the ponds, which are side channels with water control structures in the two streams in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Ruth Tracy of the Forest Service said the December flooding was the highest since 1996. I knew these ponds would face flooding, said Frank Shrier, principal scientist for PacifiCorp. I didnt know theyd be destroyed. The Muddy River pond is in the worst shape. A water intake system that was along the edge of the river and is connected to a 2-foot-diameter pipe to carry Muddy River water approximately 1,300 feet to the side channel now is in the middle of the river It stands there like a monolith, said Shrier. Tracy said the Muddy River is a candidate for inclusion in the national wild and scenic river system. As such, a large water intake structure in the middle of the stream is not allowed. There are a lot of challenges here if youre thinking youre going to reconstruct, she said. Members of the Lewis River Aquatic Coordination Committee took a tour of the Muddy River and Clear Creek ponds last week. PacifiCorp has declined repeatedly to say how much the two ponds cost to construct. The Lewis River committee includes officials of PacifiCorp, plus representatives from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, state and federal fish agencies, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, Cowlitz PUD and others involved with salmon and steelhead restoration in the upper watershed. My preference is just to abandon the Muddy, Shrier said. Its got too many problems, including the water quality. Too high of levels of iron in the pond compromised salmon rearing even before the flood. Aaron Roberts of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the Muddy River pond was impressive when it was built. It looked like it was going to work, he said. The Clear Creek channel was filled in by cobble and other rock. The side channel still exists, but is shallow now and dry part of the year. I never thought wed get this kind of deposition, Shrier said. PacifiCorp officials said the Clear Creek channel would be cheaper to fix than the Muddy River channel, but still would cost more than $100,000. Id be more inclined to put money in this channel, Shrier said about Clear Creek. Its less onerous than to try to make the Muddy work. A 20-year-old Vancouver man was sentenced Thursday to nearly 13 years in prison for first-degree child rape and possession of child porn. Jordan Wayne Pittman was arrested in May 2015 after he was accused of raping and taking nude photos of a then 7-year-old female family member at a Woodland home, according to police records. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of slightly more than 160 months (13.3 years). Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Michael Evans gave Pittman 155 months to life. However, he denied Pittmans request to be admitted into the Sex Offender Sentencing Alternative program, under which offenders may get supervised, outpatient treatment to reduce prison time. Evans said Pittman did not qualify for the option after the victims guardian said Pittman had no remorse. A tearful Pittman apologized for his actions during his sentencing. I am extremely sorry for what I did, he said. It was terrible in all ways, and Im taking full responsibility for my disgraceful actions that I have done. I would hope that the family would eventually be able to forgive me, and if you cant, I understand. The victims guardian said the little girl, now 8, suffers panic attacks as a result of the abuse. In the last year, the guardian said, the girls grades have suffered dramatically and she refuses to play on the playground with other kids. He has robbed (the girl) of her innocence at 7 years old, she told Evans. (She) has suffered in so many ways. She struggles on a daily basis. At times, she convinces herself that she is seeing Jordan driving down our street and has a panic attack. She said she suspects the girl will grow to become a very challenged individual, and trust issues will be just one of the many issues she will suffer from. The girl was not at Thursdays sentencing, but Johnson relayed a message from her: I dont like ... Jordan anymore. I hate Jordan. A pre-sentence investigation by the Department of Corrections described Pittman as a loner who came from a household split by domestic violence. According to the report, he did nothing but play video games and watch TV and porn. Pittman admitted to his evaluators that if his victim and her sister (a witness to the assaults) had not reported the rape, he would have continued to sexually abuse them. hidden Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropy venture has made its first major investment, leading a funding round in a startup that trains and recruits software developers in Africa. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, created by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, led a $24 million Series B funding in Andela, the startup said on Thursday.Alphabet Inc's GV, previously known as Google Ventures, was also part of the funding round. Alphabet Inc's GV, previously known as Google Ventures, was also part of the funding round. Andela selects the top 1 percent of tech talent from Africa, trains them and places them in engineering organizations. The startup, which has nearly 200 engineers currently employed by its Nigeria and Kenya offices, will use the funds to expand to a third African country by the end of 2016."We live in a world where talent is evenly distributed, but "We live in a world where talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. Andela's mission is to close that gap," Zuckerberg said in a statement. When the philanthropy initiative was launched in late 2015, Zuckerberg said he would put in 99 percent of his Facebook shares. The initiative is structured as a limited liability company. This means, unlike a traditional charitable or philanthropic foundation, the venture can make political donations, lobby lawmakers, invest in businesses and recoup any profits from those investments. Zuckerberg has also signed the Giving Pledge, which invites the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes over their lifetime or in their will. Reuters tech2 News Staff There is no doubt that Indias a movie-mad country and Google knows that. You can now search for Bollywood content on Google and the results will be context-sensitive. If you, for example, ask Google the name of a movie that was shot at your location, itll throw up a card to tell you that. You can also look for Bollywood movies starring two of your favourite actors, plan a road-trip around movie trivia and more. Bollywood makes us believe that anything is possible. Watch, The Hero - A Bollywood Story #GoogleAtTheMovies https://t.co/azqpXBZmlG Google India (@GoogleIndia) June 16, 2016 This is different from regular search in that the results are context-sensitive and Google says that the results will also include image-rich answers. Google claims that 1 in 10 searches on mobile in India are Bollywood-related queries and Google intends to serve this audience the best way they can. "Google has a long history of building products for India, and we wanted to make sure that when these millions of Indian cinema fans pick up their phone and ask Google about their favourite films, actors or songs, they get a delightful, local experience," says Sapna Chadha, marketing head for Google India The update was announced at a media event hosted by Karan Johar himself. Also showcased was a short film that highlighted the search update in typical Bollywood fashion. The film is titled "The Hero" and it's definitely worth checking out. It's only 6 minutes, after all. tech2 News Staff Space Data Corporation has demanded a jury trial for patent rights infringement by Google and Alphabet accusing the companies of stealing their balloon based communication technologies. The technologies in question are Space Data Corporation's SkySat and SkySite systems which use weather balloons to carry radio transceivers 60,000 and 100,000 feet in the air. Apparently, a cluster of just 70 of these high altitude balloons can provide complete wireless coverage to the continental united states for voice as well as data services. In the case filing, Space Data Corporation alleges that Google representatives stole confidential information and trade secrets to use in its Project Loon. 10 Google representatives, including co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had met with Space Data Corporation executives in 2007 and 2008. These meetings were covered with a non disclosure agreement. Space Data alleges that this NDA was violated and Google used the information it had on the implementation of Space Data Corporation technology to proceed with development of Project Loon. Negotiations of a partnership between Google and Space Data Corporation apparently failed at that time, reports The Stack. The case filed by Space Data Corporation shows a comparison between a patent granted to Space Data Corporation, and a schematic for Project Loon on Google's web site. The filing also carries photos of Google co-founders launching Space Data Corporations balloons during their visit to the Space Data Corporation facility. Google was apparently given access to Space Data Corporation's production line and network operation center. The original PDF document of the original filing can be accessed here. tech2 News Staff Hackers are sending text messages posing as technology services to scare people into sending them the authentication code that can compromise their accounts. The attackers require a password to attempt the attack, but this can be extracted from one of the leaked databases of usernames and passwords. https://twitter.com/maccaw/status/739232334541524992 First the hacker sends a message like the one above. This scares the targets into thinking that they have received an alert from the official source about an attempt to get into their accounts. The message is very close in wording to the actual message you get when there has been such an attempt on your account, but the number will be unknown. Instead of asking users to enter in the 2FA (2 factor authentication) code to gain access to the account, the message asks for the 2FA code to temporarily lock the account. Then, the attackers feed in the username and password. At this point, the actual two factor authentication kicks in, and sends a 2FA code to the mobile device associated with the account. The right thing to do for the user is to ignore all the messages at this point. The login attempt will not be authorised. However, if the target sends the 2FA code to the attacker, then the hacker gets access to the target's email. This is a social engineering attack. The attacks were reported by Business Insider. There are two ways to secure yourself from such attacks. First, do not reply to any message unless you are logging in. Second, and most importantly, no legitimate support staff will ask you for your 2FA code. Also, 2FA codes are for granting access to an account, not denying access. hidden Australia's political leaders are gearing up for the first ever online election debate hosted by social media giant Facebook and one of the country's largest media organisation, News Corp Australia. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will battle it out live from 6 p.m. on Friday night in Sydney, which will be streamed via Facebook live, Xinhua news agency reported. Questions submitted by the public will be put to both leaders. News.com.au Managing Director Julian Delany said in a statement that this debate will be different to anything seen before. "It is a chance for millions of Australians to not just watch the debate, but to actively participate by asking questions and giving their instant reactions," Delany said. Managing Director of Facebook in Australia and New Zealand Stephen Scheeler encouraged all Australians to get involved. "We want to connect as many Australians as possible to one of the most important aspects of any election campaign -- a leadership debate," Scheeler said. Australia will head to the polls on July 2. This comes immediately after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg conducted his first live Q&A. IANS hidden Thailand's telecoms regulator and Central Bank said on Friday they had agreed steps to improve cyber security for electronic transactions via mobile phones as the country pursues a goal to become a cashless society. A finger print scan will be among the measures to be introduced to protect mobile users from scams, and it should be ready for service in December, Takorn Tantasith, secretary-general of the regulator, told a news conference. The regulator National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission will also examine the service fees that telecoms operators charge customers to ensure fair treatment, he said. Thailand has about 10 million mobile banking users out of the 67 million population and the number is expected to rise after a strong growth of average 73 percent annually in the past 5 years, Bank of Thailand Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said. The cooperation will support the country's electronic payment policy after the central bank and Thai commercial banks announced on Wednesday a plan to offer a new money-transfer system, PromptPay, Veerathai said. PromptPay, previously known as AnyID scheme, is seen as the first stage to transfer Thailand into a cashless society. It will enable people to use national ID or mobile phone numbers for payments to buy goods and money transfers, and it will open for registration on July 15 before services start on October 31. The launch of super high-speed fourth-generation mobile services is the main driver pushing up growth in mobile banking and electronic commerce in Thailand, Takorn said. Thailand, the second-largest smartphone market in Southeast Asia, has imported more than 77 million smartphones since 3G services were launched by operators in 2013, Takorn said. The country, which has about 103 million active mobile numbers, is expected to import 16 million to 17 million smartphones in 2016, lower than about 20 million last year, as the market is becoming saturated as many Thais have more than one mobile phone, he said. Reuters tech2 News Staff Microsofts latest Insider Preview for the lucky minority in the Fast Ring brings a with it a whole slew of improvements and updates. The latest Insider Preview build, numbered 14367, has already started rolling out. Here are some key highlights from the preview: Handwriting support The latest build brings support for handwriting recognition in 23 languages on PC and mobile. These languages include Malay, Swahili, Xhosa, Chinese and more. Sadly, there doesnt seem to be Hindi support just yet. Visual feedback Now, youll be able to take a screenshot and submit feedback simultaneously. The preview builds are for testing after all. Hitting Win + F will take a screenshot of your PC and open the feedback hub. You can then choose whether or not you want to submit that feedback. Windows 10 Mobile users can use the Vol. Down + Power button to achieve the same. A fresh start Since youll be reinstalling Windows very frequently on the Insider track, the new build will give you an in-built tool to completely wipe and reinstall Windows. The Settings window already has an option to do this, but the new tool is apparently much simpler to use. Miscellaneous improvements A number of issues have also been fixed. Cross-device notifications have been fixed, as has emoji support. Microsoft has also added on/off indicators in the Quick Actions panel. Windows Mobile also sees a whole slew of improvements and tweaks. Notably, theres now improved support for high DPI screens and the Quick Actions panel. The Kids Corner feature has been kicked out of Windows 10 Mobile. Microsoft suggests that the few of you who actually use it can try the App Corner option. The list of changes is huge and if youre interested, you can peruse through them here. Members of Microsoft's Insider Fast Ring are the first members of the public to receive beta versions of Microsoft's software. These members have been explicitly approved by Microsoft's own internal Ring of testers. Nimish Sawant Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion has restarted the speculation about the future of Twitter. According to an article in The New York Times, speculations on the Wall Street are strong that Twitter needs to find a suitable match in forms of a larger corporation, to avoid the risk of being taken over by other competitors (read: Facebook and Google). Let's not forget that there have been attempts by other Silicon Valley giants to buy Twitter. Facebook was rumoured to buy it in 2008 and then rumoured to make another attempt again in 2015. Google has been rumoured to buy Twitter as well. Based on these speculations, Twitter stock has risen up by 17 percent which pushed up the market cap of Twitter to $11.5 billion. So who should Twitter go with? Ideally, I would like it if Twitter stayed independent and fought its own battle. But let us suspend that thought for a moment and do our own speculations. Alphabet + Twitter = Social network win Going by the article, Alphabet + Twitter would make perfect sense, if all Twitter is looking for is scale. Twitter mixed with Google+ could ideally be the text + images cocktail, that could potentially increase user engagement. Google+, although is not really on the same pedestal as other social networking giants, still has some really good play when it comes to a photo-heavy social network. Specially now with the new Collections feature. Also its Community section is quite good if you're nerdy about topics, but of course that's notches below something like a Reddit. Adding the fact that Twitter will most likely be operating as an independent company within Alphabet, it just seems like a very complementary setup. Google has tried and burned its hands with Buzz, which was a Twitter clone. Also way back in 2009, Google had released Wave a real-time communications platform - which was a bit too confusing and rather, too early for its time in 2009. Wave also had the bots functionality, for instance. Twitter and Google+ do have the potential to transform into a Wave part 2. It may sound random at the moment, but I'm sure Google engineers who worked on Wave wouldn't mind giving it a rejig with a real-time communications platform such as Twitter provided those engineers are still there in Google in the first place. Cable companies, really? I was amused to see US Cable companies such as Verizon and Comcast, being speculated to buy Twitter. Sure, it makes sense for a content company, but outside of US, do these cable companies really have any pull to shoot up the number of active users? A fact on which the speculative talks of a sale are predicated? I don't think so. At the most, the reach and engagement in the US would shoot up with the cable companies, but we all know that US is not the future growth market for Twitter. That spurt in numbers will only come from South East Asia and Africa. Microsoft? just no! The idea of Microsoft buying Twitter, frankly seems scary. There have been discussions concerning Microsoft's position in the consumer market. We have seen how ineffective it has been when it comes to scaling Windows Phone OS in general and Windows phones in particular. It's last big push for Windows 10 Mobile OS in the form of Lumia 950/950XL hasn't really seen much traction. It's no wonder then that as of May 2016, Windows Phone OS market share is at a dismal 2.57 percent. Microsoft also has MSN which is more of a news aggregator than a place where news breaks something that is Twitter's strong aspect. Unless Twitter has a solid business play, beyond its current Promotions and business platforms, the incentive for Microsoft to acquire it, isn't that strong. Plus, let's face it, how much of active Twitter user base is the enterprise crowd? LinkedIn made sense for Microsoft, Twitter does not, in its current state. Apple? Apple hasn't been known to make huge social media acquisitions, and I don't see that changing. Apple is investing in Apple News as a one stop shop for news. With its latest iOS update, it seems to be going more on the path of Flipboard, providing rich layouts and is even starting magazine and newspaper subscriptions for the same. Twitter in its real-time chaotic form provides little incentive to Apple. Add the fact that if Twitter is indeed up for acquisition by Apple, it will obviously have to let go of its current form and fit into the Apple mould of things. There is really no question of it operating as a separate entity once inside the Apple stable. No easy way to say this, but Apple acquiring Twitter would be the death of Twitter as we know it. Snapchat partnership If there is one media company, that is really giving Facebook some competition and has the younger crowd hooked on it, then it has to be Snapchat. This Evan Spiegel founded ephemeral app is a rage amongst the teenage crowd and is slowly but surely attracting the attention of advertisers as well. In fact, in the US, Snapchat is projected to have more active users than Twitter or Pinterest by the end of the year. According to Statista, by April 2016, Snapchat has 200 million users as compared to Twitter's 320 million users. Mind you, unlike Twitter, Snapchat is a mobile-only app. It may certainly seem preposterous to suggest that Snapchat would consider to buy Twitter, or vice versa. But imagine a sort of partnership between the two that could be a potential win. Snapchat has engagement, Twitter has a much broader reach. At the moment, the only way to share snapstories is either via downloading the story and uploading it as a Twitter video / YouTube video post. Or you can share your snapcode and have people follow you on Snapchat. But imagine a world where snapstories could be played inline, inside a tweet with a sort of snapcode play into it. It kills two birds with one stone engagement on Twitter rises, Snapchat's reach increases. Both networks taking advantage of each others' strong areas. So those were our speculation on the 'Twitter acquisition speculations'. Let us know your thoughts or who you feel Twitter should go with, if it is indeed planning to head in that direction. Sony has been struggling to keep up in the smartphone business for the past couple of years now, but that hasnt stopped the company from launching a new flagship year on year. It hasnt shown anything radical in the market as of yet, probably one of the reasons why their sales have gone down. This year the company announced a new series ditching the three-year old Z series for the X. The new Xperia X was showcased at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year along with its powerful brother the Xperia X Performance. While the X Performance is only arriving in limited regions, the Xperia X was announced in India for a hefty price of Rs 48,999. Does this kind of pricing justify what Sony offers? Here is our review of the smartphone. Design and build: 7.5/10 The Xperia X looks similar to previous generation of Xperia Z5 smartphones having a rectangular design with slightly rounded edges. Its a clean and aesthetically pleasing device. The X brings back the 5-inch form factor and this time you get a 2.5D scratch-resistant curved glass covering the entire face of the smartphone. This is a small change but it adds a punch to your touchscreen experience especially when you are swiping edge-to-edge. Above the display there is an earpiece slot which also houses one of the two loudspeakers and a notification LED. There is also the 13MP front camera, and the usual set of sensors. Below the display there is similar slot for the second loudspeaker. The NFC chip is on the top front this time which seems like an odd positioning, to which Sony says it was just a design choice and for convenience. A metal frame holds the device together with a frosted finish. The right edge houses the fingerprint scanner which is also the power button, the volume rocker keys and a dedicated camera shutter button. The left edge houses a hybrid SIM card slot, at the bottom there is a microUSB port and at the top you get the standard 3.5mm audio jack as well as a microphone for video recording. The back is plastic with a matte finish which feels really nice. The 23MP rear camera sits on the top left corner as usual with the LED flash below. The camera does bulge out ever so slightly, but it isn't any sort of a distraction in the design flow. Sony always brings a sense of high-quality to its smartphone designs and has always relied on a simple yet well polished approach. The Xperia X is definitely premium when it comes to looks and build quality. The only negative here is that the company has dropped the water and dust proof features which was always a USP for Sony. Features: 6/10 For the first time Sony has chosen not to go for a premium SoC on its flagship and has rather gone for slightly less powerful one. It runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 which is a six-core processor with two 1.8 GHz Cortex-A72 cores and the remaining 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 cores backed up with an Adreno 510 GPU. This is the same processor that powers the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 which is selling for a mere Rs 9,999. In the memory department you get 3GB of RAM and 64GB of inbuilt storage which can be expanded further by using the second SIM card slot. Rest of the features include a 5-inch full HD display, a 23MP rear camera, a 13MP front camera and a 2,620 mAh battery. On the connectivity front, you get 4G LTE and VoLTE support, dual SIM capability, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, Wi-fi, FM Radio, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS and USB OTG. The smartphone runs on the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow update with a very light UI on top. On paper, the Xperia X sounds more of mid-segment smartphone rather than a premium flagship. The company has put in beefier hardware on the Xperia X Performance, which sadly is not going to arrive in India. Display: 7.5/10 The display combines all of Sonys technologies including Bravia, Triluminos, and X-Reality display in a 5-inch IPS LCD offering a 1080p resolution. While it sounds all good, it doesnt match up with other flagships at this price point offering a 2K resolution display like the Samsung Galaxy S7 or the HTC 10. Sony had launched the ridiculous 4K display equipped Xperia Z5 Premium last year, but its seems that Sony is taking a safer bet and focusing on quality rather than going big on resolution, and hey, a 1080p display always consumes less battery. Even though you don't get high pixel density or AMLOED technology, the display still manages to impress. It offers really accurate colours and the saturation of colours is amazing. The white balance is slightly towards the blues but nothing still feels balanced. The phone also comes with some algorithms that enhance pictures and videos by default and via the X-Reality mode, which has been around for sometime now. There is also a Super-vivid mode that utilises the X-Reality mode and boosts the contrast and colours. While these modes do improve the overall quality of your media on the smartphone, it can get deceptive when you actually transfer images to your PC. Sunlight legibility is pretty good and we really liked the auto-brightness sensor as it gradually increased or decreased brightness that too very consistently. Software: 7/10 The Xperia X runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow making it the first Xperia phone to launch with the this update. There is a light UI on top but the system does take up a lot of storage. You get some peppy wallpapers, some themes and some useful settings around the homescreen. The UI doesn't slow down at any point of time and the overall experience is very snappy. In terms of pre-installed apps, there are many including a few games. Sony says that they can be removed without any issues, but when we tried uninstalling, we ended up disabling most of them rather than completely removing them. The quick settings, apps switcher and menus are very close to stock which is nice. Sony has added a new Smart cleaning feature that automatically cleans up the cache of apps you don't use very often, of course you can always switch it off and do it manually. Then you have the usual battery management modes and also a backup feature directly integrated into the system backup settings and can backup your applications, contacts, messages, phone settings to a Sony online account or on your storage. Performance: 7/10 The Xperia X runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor which is a very good chipset and it proved its capability on the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, but it clearly doesn't make any sense on a flagship priced at Rs 48,999. Thankfully it provides a good performance package. The 3GB of RAM helps in efficient multitasking and the Adreno 510 GPU is also great at churning performance for heavy games like Asphalt 8: Airborne or Dead Trigger 2. Every task such as checking your email, skimming through Facebook, clicking a picture or two were all managed really well. The overall performance felt quite apt for a mid-ranger, but with that kind of pricing, it is nowhere near a flagship smartphone. Heating is managed well most of the times, but using the camera extensively does make the smartphone go warm. It even sends out a warning message in the camera app saying that some features might not work as the phone is heating up. Even the benchmarks proved to be very similar to what we saw on the Redmi Note 3. In terms of call quality, we faced a minor glitch where the microphone would randomly stop working for a few seconds, or completely shutdown when you pick a call. That is probably a faulty unit that we got and are currently testing another unit to check the issue. We will update accordingly if we notice any changes. We were impressed by the audio quality on the smartphone as Sony has crammed in a number of settings for the audiophile. Even the dual speakers are pretty good although not the best in class. Camera: 7.5/10 Sony is currently one of the biggest manufacturers of smartphone camera sensors, yet the company hasn't managed to make us go wow. This time the company has used a new 23MP rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture and a 24mm wide angle lens. There is also phase detection autofocus, an LED flash and a 1/2.3-inch Exmor RS image sensor. The front camera is also an upgrade featuring a 13 MP 1/3-inch Exmor RS sensor with an f/2.0 aperture and a 22mm wide angle lens. Sony has stressed on the speed of the camera and has added a Predictive Hybrid Autofocus system that allows you to tap on your subject once and track its movement with correct focus. This works well when you have moving subjects but isn't very well polished. Then there is the option to instantly take a picture by just pressing the dedicated camera key even when the phone is locked in just 0.6 seconds. We tested this feature and it did work as the company claimed but there were times that we were left images that were not correctly exposed, defeating the whole purpose, but still a nice feature to have. The camera app is fairly simple and allows you to switch between, auto, manual and video modes and a special section for some pre-installed modes like Sweep Panorama, Slow-motion video, Face in picture, Sound Photo and more. The camera has a lot of potential and offers one of the highest resolutions on smartphones today. It can produce some good looking pictures with close to natural colours although a bit undersaturated. But yet again it suffers what all the previous cameras on Sony smartphones have suffered, mediocre noise reduction. Details seem to be missing when there is less or low light. The Superior auto mode wasn't very efficient and we ended up shooting more on the manual mode, even though we could only adjust the white balance, exposure compensation and ISO. Sony has also removed 4K video recording which is quite a bummer as almost every flagship and even budget smartphones offer UHD video recording. Still, 1080p videos look really good and sharp with focusing hitting the right spots. The front camera can squeeze in a lot of pixels and Sony claims that the sensor can handle low light very well. Selfies look pretty good but some of them taken indoors weren't as crisp as outdoors. The front camera can also shoot 1080p videos which is again fairly good but nothing very compelling. Battery: 7.5/10 Sony has incorporated a 2,620mAh battery on the Xperia X. For a such a capacity, one would expect less than a days worth of charge, but surprisingly it goes on all day if you are a casual user. Heavy usage did consume almost all of the battery by evening but you get some nice and efficient battery saving modes. Apart from offering Quick Charge 2.0 for fast charging, the handset also comes with a Qnovo battery which is claimed offer a longer life, much better than a conventional Lithium battery. Verdict and Price in India The Sony Xperia X was announced at Rs 48,999 and is currently selling for about Rs 46,000 on Amazon.in. Now there has been a quick drop in the price, but it is still a very high amount. The smartphone is very well made and offers a sturdy performance package but not for the price that Sony is asking. A smartphone like this should not go beyond Rs 20,000 considering the fact that you don't get a high-end chipset and a camera which is fast but not the best in quality. If you want a similar performance package, you should save your money and buy a Redmi Note 3 which starts at just Rs 9,999. A much powerful Samsung Galaxy S7 is currently available for Rs 46,000 which is a much better flagship than the Xperia X. Sony should've brought in the Xperia X Performance at this price point and maybe, just maybe it would've reclaimed some of its glory. By selling smartphones at a premium price, the company is just losing out on more consumers. Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison. Moudud finds int`l conspiracy behind secret killings He calls for national unity to deal with militancy Dhaka, June 17 (UNB) - BNP senior leader Moudud Ahmed on Friday alleged that international plotters are patronising militancy and recent target killings in Bangladesh as it lacks democracy. Speaking at a discussion, he also alleged that the government is not sincere in curbing militancy. Militants and extremists have emerged as there is no democracy in the country theres no doubt that an international conspiracy is behind the militancy here, he said. Sammilita Peshajibi Parishad, a pro-BNP body of professionals, organised the discussion marking the shutdown of all newspapers, except four ones, on June 16, 1975. Moudud said the government will not be able to tackle terrorism and militancy unless democracy is restored. The militancy can be controlled if a democratic, accountable and representative government is established through a fair election. He also said the government should take steps for forging a national unity in the country to effectively deal with militancy. BNP will respond positively if the government seeks its help in this regard. Raising doubt about the governments sincerity to eliminate militancy, the BNP leader said, The government is says it is showing zero tolerance to militancy. Nearly 27 killing incidents took place by extremists, but the government cant start the trial of any of the incident. He said the then Awami League government in 1975 had established one-party Baksal rule by formally removing democracy from the country s constitution. But, the current situation is much horrible that that time as a one-party rule has been now restored keeping democracy only in the charter. Moudud alleged that the government has committed a grave political crime by depriving the countrys people of exercising their right to franchise in the 10th parliamentary, city corporation, municipality and union parishad elections. How a heroic Marine's military training helped him save dozens from Orlando gunman The Washington Post : When the terrifying blasts of rapid gunfire filled an Orlando nightclub early Sunday, many clubgoers panicked or froze. Amid the swirl of sensory overload, their response was overwhelmingly typical of people under threat. In an emergency situation - as any first responder can attest - a victim's first challenge is overriding the paralysis brought on by extreme fear and confusion. Imran Yousuf, a bouncer at the Pulse nightclub, had an advantage. A Marine who had served in Afghanistan, Yousuf was able to use his training to quickly identify the impending threat and remain clear-headed as people died around him, according to the Marine Corps Times. Because of the 24-year-old's decisive actions, he is being credited with saving dozens of lives. He told CBS News that he knew something was horribly wrong as soon as he heard the familiar crack of gunfire. It was then, he said, that his training took over. "The initial one was three or four" shots, said Yousuf, a former sergeant who left the Marine Corps last month. "That was a shock. Three or four shots go off, and you could tell it was a high-caliber [weapon]. Everyone froze. I'm here in the back, and I saw people start pouring into the back hallway, and they just sardine-pack everyone." Yousuf told CBS that he knew there was a door behind the panicked crowd, but people were too overwhelmed to unlatch it. "And I'm screaming, 'Open the door! Open the door!' " Yousuf said. "And no one is moving because they are scared." If they did not act, they could be targeted by the gunman, who could have appeared at any moment. They were a few feet from relative safety. Yousuf told CBS that there was "only one choice." "Either we all stay there and we all die, or I could take the chance of getting shot and saving everyone else, and I jumped over to open that latch and we got everyone that we can out of there." It was a simple act of heroism, but it may have been one of the most decisive actions that took place that morning. Asked how many people left through that exit, Yousuf told CBS that he estimated as many as 60 or 70. "As soon as people found that door was open, they kept pouring out, and after that we just ran," he said. Yousuf served in the Marine Corps from June 2010 to May 2016 as an engineer equipment electrical systems technician, according to service records obtained by The Washington Post. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and most recently was assigned to the 3rd Marine Logistics Group. His military awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Korean Defense Service Medal and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. Yousuf did not credit a particular type of training with steeling his nerves during the attack or helping him identify the rifle in close quarters. During his general deployment time frame, Marines typically underwent pre-deployment training in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where they received what was known as Enhanced Mojave Viper training. The website MilitaryNewcomers.com described the experience as "the most realistic, live-fire training exercise in the Marine Corps." "The units are presented with facilities, role players and scenarios that closely replicate the environment to which they will deploy," the site said. During the same period, Marines training to deploy abroad were prepared for the possibility of an insider attack by Afghan forces. Such training may have borne some resemblance to the surprise attack in Orlando, although Yousuf hasn't said as much. What he has said, according to the Times, is that he "just reacted." "There are a lot of people naming me a hero, and as a former Marine and Afghan veteran I honestly believe I reacted by instinct," he wrote Monday on Facebook, according to the Times. During his interview with CBS, he went a step further, wishing he could have done more during the attack. "I wish I could have saved more, to be honest," he said. "There are a lot of people that are dead. There are a lot of people that are dead." Russia strikes US-backed rebels in Syria US diplomats demand military strike against Assad Photo shows Russian Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack aircrafts taking off from Hmeimim military base in Latakia province. Reuters, Washington : Russia warplanes struck at rebels battling Islamic State militants, including forces backed by the United States, in southern Syria on Thursday, a senior U.S. defense official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, criticized the Russian air strikes near al-Tanf and said no Russia or Syrian ground forces were in the area at the time. "Russia's latest actions raise serious concern about Russian intentions," the official said. "We will seek an explanation from Russia on why it took this action and assurances this will not happen again.?" British-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said warplanes had struck a meeting of U.S.-backed forces fighting against Islamic State in al-Tanf village, near the al-Tanf border crossing with Iraq, killing two fighters and wounding four others. It said it was unclear whose planes had carried out the attack, however. Washington has consistently refused to join forces with Russia in Syria against Islamic State ever since Moscow launched its campaign of air strikes in September last year, accusing it of acting solely to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The United States has called on Assad to step down. Communication between the U.S. and Russian militaries on Syria has been limited to contacts aimed at avoiding an accidental clash as they carry out rival bombing campaigns and small numbers of U.S. forces operate on the ground. Meanwhile, dozens of State Department employees have endorsed an internal document that advocates U.S. military action to pressure Syria's government into accepting a cease-fire and engaging in peace talks, officials said Thursday. The position is at odds with U.S. policy. The "dissent channel cable" was signed by about 50 mostly mid-level department officials who deal with U.S. policy in Syria, according to officials who have seen the document. It expresses clear frustration with America's inability to halt a civil war that has killed perhaps a half-million people and contributed to a worldwide refugee crisis, and goes to the heart of President Barack Obama's reluctance to enter the fray. Obama called for regime change early on in the conflict and threatened military strikes against Syrian forces after blaming President Bashar Assad for using chemical weapons in 2013. But Obama only has authorized strikes against the Islamic State and other U.S.-designated terror groups in Syria. While Washington has provided military assistance to some anti-Assad rebels, it has favored diplomacy over armed intervention as a means of ushering Syria's leader out of power. A series of partial cease-fires in recent months have only made the war slightly less deadly, and offered little hope of a peace settlement. The dissent document was transmitted internally in a confidential form and since has been classified, said officials who weren't authorized to discuss such material and insisted on anonymity. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both quoted from the document Thursday, saying they had seen or obtained copies. The Journal said the document called for "targeted air strikes." The Times quoted a section urging a "judicious use of stand-off and air weapons" to advance the U.S. diplomatic effort led by Secretary of State John Kerry. "The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable," the Times quoted the document as saying. "The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges." State Department spokesman John Kirby said the department was reviewing the cable, which arrived via a "vehicle in place to allow State Department employees to convey alternative views and perspectives on policy issues." Some sentiments expressed in the cable mirror arguments Kerry has made in internal administration debates. Kerry, a forceful advocate of Obama's initial plan to launch airstrikes after Assad's use of chemical weapons, reversed course after the president opted against them. He has complained privately that White House resistance to more intervention has hurt efforts to persuade Russia, in particular, to take a tougher tone with Assad. Kerry, speaking to reporters in Copenhagen Friday, said "I haven't had a chance to see it yet (the cable) but I agree with the process. But it's a great process. It gives people a chance to express their views." "I think it's an important statement," he said, "and I respect the process very, very much." 135 Naval forces leave for Lebanon from Ctg Members of Bangladesh Naval Forces seen boarding the UN Special Plane at Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport on Thursday night en-route to Beirut. Chittagong Bureau : Some 135 members of Bangladesh Navy left Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport en-route to Lebanon in a UN special plane on Thursday night to join the UN Peace Keeping Mission Chief Staff officer of Chitt agong Naval Command Capt.AKMM Sherafullah gave farewell reception to the naval members at the airport in presence of the senior officials of BNS Isha Khan, a release of BN said. Contingent commander of BN in UN Peace mission Capt Mirsza Mamunur Rashid told the journalists that six teams of Bangladesh Navy discharged responsibilities in Mideterian sea for last 6 years successfully under the mission and this is 7th team of BN to Mediterian sea. He said naval ships of six countries of the world are working in the mediterian sea and two frigates of Bangladesh Navy discharging assignments with reputations. He also disclosed that more 135 crews of BN are expected to leave the country for Lebanon on June 22 next. He sought blessings from the people irrespective of caste and creed to complete the mission successfully. Mentionable that following the untired efforts of the prime Minister Sk.Hasina , two BN war ships viz.BNS Osman and BNS Madumati joined the Lebanon peace keeping mission in 2010 which later returned in Bangladesh after 4 years replacing by another two BN vessels BNS Ali Haider and BNS Nirmul, BN release said. Review by no means is a re-hearing of the appeal Appellate Division : (Civil) Md Muzammel Hossain CJ Surendra Kumar Sinha J Md Abdul Wahhab Miah J AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury J Judgment April 28th, 2014 Abdul Mazid (Md) Sarker and 8 others .....Petitioner vs Bangladesh and others....... ........ Respondents Constitution of Bangladesh, 1972 Article 105 Review by no means is a re-hearing of the appeal. It is not permissible to embark upon a reiteration of the same contentions as were advanced at the time of hearing of the leave petitions...(17) Bangladesh Bank vs Md Abdul Mannan, 46 DLR (AD) 1: Lt. Col. Nawabzada Muhammad Amir Khan vs Controller of Estate Duty, Government of Pakistan, PLD 1962 SC 335 = 13 DLR (SC) 105; Secretary Ministry of Finance vs Md Masdar Hossain 21 BLD (AD) 126 = 52 DLR (AD) 82 & 7 BLC (AD) 92 and Tarique Rahman vs Bangladesh 63 DLR (AD) 162 ref. Rafique-ul-Huq, Senior Advocate with Qumrul Islam Siddique, Advocate instructed by Nurul Islam Chowdhury, Advocate-on-Record--For the Petitioner (In all the Review Petitions). Shamim Khaled Ahmed Senior Advocate instructed by Sufia Khatun, Advocate-on- Record-For the Respondents (In all the Review Petitions). Judgment Md Muzammel Hossain CJ : These Civil Review Petitions, taken up for hearing analogously, are directed against the impugned judgment and order dated 26-7-2009 passed by this Division in Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal Nos. 1309, 1310 and 1317-24 of 2008 heard analogouly and disposed with observation affirming the judgment and order dated 23-3-2008 passed by the Administrative Appellate Tribunal in AAT Appeal Nos, 39 of 2006, 36 of 2006, 32 of 2006, 33 of 2006, 37 of 2006, 40 of 2006, 41 of 2006, 34 of 2006, 37 of 2006 and 35 of 2006 respectively and reversing the judgment and order dated 31-1-2006 passed by the Administrative Tribunal in AT Case Nos.147 of 2005 (New) and 136 of 2004 (old), 144 of 2005 (New) and 133 of 2004 (Old), 140 of 2005 (New) and 129 of 2004 (Old), 141 of 2005 (New) and 130 of 2004 (Old), 145 of 2005 (New) and 134 of 2004 (Old), 148 of 2005 (New) and 137 of 2004 (Old), 149 of 2005 (New) and 138 of 2004 (Old), 142 of 2005 (New) and 131/2004 (Old), 145/2005 (New) and 134/2004 (Old), and 143/2005 (New) and 132 of 2004 (Old) respectively allowing the cases of the petitioners and declaring their termination from service as illegal. 2. The facts, leading to the filing of these civil review petitions in a nutshell, are that the petitioners were Note/Coin Examiner, MLSS., Electric helper, Clerk-cum-typist who had been appointed in their respective service in Bangladesh Bank on different dates and confirmed in their respective posts and as per their claim they have been serving with satisfaction of the concerned authority. On 28-10-2003 at about 2-00 PM some staff of the Bangladesh Bank forcibly entering into the chamber of the Chairman of Bangladesh Bank demanded some illegal facilities and abused the Governor of Bangladesh Bank. In consequence of which a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged, with the Motijheel Police Station on the same date. The General Manager, Human Resources Department, Bangladesh Bank on 30-10-2003 proposed to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank for termination of the services of the petitioners from Bangladesh Bank pursuant to Regulation 13(ii) of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Service Regulations, 2003 stating inter alia, that the occurrence took place on 28-10-2003 and the Deputy Governor and the Governor of Bangladesh accepted and signed the said proposal. Thereafter, the Joint Manager of Bangladesh Bank, Motijheel Branch, issued an order dated 30-10-2003 with the approval of the authority for termination of the services of each of the petitioners. The petitioners preferred appeals against the order dated 30-10-2003 before the Governor of Bangladesh Bank who did not reply to it. Finding no other way, the petitioners filed individual cases before the Administrative Tribunal for setting aside the order dated 30-10-2003. The Administrative Tribunal No-3, Dhaka by the judgment and order dated 3-1-2006 passed in AT Case Nos. 147 of 2005 (New) and 136 of 2004 (old) and 9 (Nine) other AT cases as mentioned above allowed the cases of the petitioners and declared their termination from service as illegal. Against the said judgment and order passed by the Administrative Tribunal the respondents of the instant petitions filed appeals being AAT Appeal Nos. 39 of 2006 and 9 (Nine) other AAT appeals as mentioned above before the Administrative Appellate Tribunal, Dhaka who by a common judgment and order dated 23-3-2008 allowed the appeals and set aside the judgment and order passed by the Administrative Tribunal in all AT cases filed by the petitioners. 3. Being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the aforesaid judgment and order of the Administrative Appellate Tribunal, the petitioners filed Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal Nos. 1309, 1310 and 1317-1324 of 2008 before this Division. This Division by its judgment and order dated 26-7-2009 disposed of all these leave petitions affirming the judgment and order of the Administrative Appellate Tribunal with observation and direction upon the authority of Bangladesh Bank to the effect that if any situation occurs in future in any appropriate case, the authority shall, with all fairness, take appropriate legal steps against the employees for ends of justice instead of resorting to the shortcut provisions of Rule 13(ii) of the Regulations, 2003. 4. Feeling aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order dated 26-7-2009 passed by this Division, the review petitioners filed these instant petitions for review before this Division. 5. While the hearing of the review petition was going on the petitioner Md Abdul Mazid Sarker in Civil Review Petition No. 103 of 2013 submitted an Additional Paper Book with the leave of the Court in which petitioner presented the already discussed facts importing new circumstances. In the Additional Paper Book the petitioner stated that they were the members of Registered Trade Union of Bangladesh Bank having its Registration No. B-1898. The said Trade Union had been elected as the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) for the employees of Bangladesh Bank. In exercise of their legal rights and duty in the nature of a trustee, the Officers of the CBA Trade Union had to issue a notice under section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969 to the employer by letter under Memo m~I bs Rvs Ks ms/41/2003 dated 27-10-2003 raising some demands and speaking about grievances to the authority. Demands so raised was not received positively by the then Governor of Bangladesh Bank rather it was received with grudge and vindictive attitude. Out of the said grudge and decision of victimization on 29-10-2003 Mr Mostaq Aziz, Deputy Director, Bangladesh Bank, Head Office, Dhaka lodged a false FIR with the Motijheel Police Station which was later registered as GR No.4392 of 2003 under sections 143/447/448/341/ 186/189/506 of the Penal Code against the Officers of the CBA Trade Union in Dhaka. On 30-10-2003 the Manager, HRD. Head Office of Bangladesh Bank prepared a note to the effect that on 28-10-2003 some employees and officers uttered some unmannerly language to the Governor for which 10 persons should be terminated from the service of Bangladesh Bank under Regulation 13. On the basis of that note 10 persons including the petitioners were terminated by letter dated 30-10-2003. Amongst those 10 persons, 7 were the President, Executive President, Head Quarters, Vice-President, Secretary, Finance Secretary and Assistant, Finance Secretary of, the CBA Trade Union. 6. The petitioner also submitted that, at the time of preparing the application tiled before the Administrative Tribunal, the petitioner told everything to his learned Advocate but the learned Advocate refused to make these statements before the Administrative Tribunal saying that the Administrative Tribunal would not consider victimization for trade union activities and labour laws are not considered by the Administrative Tribunal. 7. Mr Rafique-ul Huq, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioners submits that the cases of the petitioners are not cases of 'termination simpliciter' because as many as 10 employees were terminated thus these were cases of 'termination enmasse. He submits that in the latest judgment dated 8-11-2009 in Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal Nos. 578-614 of 2009 this Division has affirmed the judgment of the High Court Division dated 11-1-2009 wherein the High Court Division had declared termination of 46 Biman Employees as illegal, void and without lawful authority and that all the Biman employees were terminated in purported exercise of power under Regulation 52(1) of the Bangladesh Biman Employees Service Regulations, 1979, which has also empowered the Biman to terminate the service of a permanent employee by giving 3 months notice or in lieu thereof by payment of 3 months pay. The learned Senior 'Advocate also refers to the case of Bangladesh, Bank vs Md Abdul Mannan reported in 46 DLR (AD), 1 in support of his arguf!1ent and submits, that while passing the impugned judgment this Division had failed to consider the above mentioned decision of this Division exactly on the same point and that this Division had committed serious error which had led to miscarriage of justice., He contends that this Court had also failed to: consider, that termination of a permanent employee with 1 month pay, in lieu of 1 month notice is opposed to Public Policy and the principle of "Audi Alteram Partem" and the petitioners had not only been condemned unheard but they had been also denied the procedural safeguards of the provision of the Article 135 of the Constitution. He finally submits that review of a judgment is permissible to do complete justice if this Division fails to consider a previous decision exactly on the similar point and, as such, this Division should set aside the impugned judgment and order considering the decision of the above referred case and thereby allow these petitions. 8. Mr Shamim Khaled Ahmed, the learned Senior Advocate for the respondents, supporting the impugned judgment and order, of this Division, submits that the petitioners, miserably failed to make out any case for, review of the impugned judgment and order and all the points raised in this review petitions were addressed and well answered in the impugned judgment and order by this Division in these leave petitioners and therefore, there is nothing left to be reconsidered in these review petitions and, as such, these review petitions are liable to be dismissed. 9. We have heard the learned Advocates for both the parties and perused the Civil Revision Petitions, impugned judgment and order dated 26-7-2009 passed by this Division disposing of the Civil Petitions for Leave to Appeal and all other connected papers on record. 10. In the instant cases we have to decide whether the petitioners have made out their cases for review and whether services of the review petitioners were terminated or dismissed by invoking Regulation 13(ii) of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003. The Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations of 2003 is the guiding principle in respect of service of the employees of Bangladesh Bank. Regulation 13 of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003 provides for termination of service. Regulation 13(ii) reads as under: "(II) The Bank may determine the service of any employee by calling upon him to resign or otherwise, after the expiry of the period of his probation on giving him three months, notice or pay in lieu thereof if he is an Assistant Director and above, and on giving him one month's notice or pay in lieu thereof if he is an employee of any other class/category. The power to determine the service of an employee shall be exercised by the Governor with the prior approval of the Board in the case of an Assistant Director and above and by the General Manager of an office or branch with the approval of the Governor in the case of other employees". 11. Regulation 13(ii) provides that the appropriate Bank Authority may determine the service of any employee after giving him one month's notice or pay in lieu thereof. In the instant case this Division while disposing of the leave petitions with observation rightly noticed that the Administrative Appellate Tribunal found that the General Manager of Bangladesh Bank being the appropriate authority of the petitioners for termination of their service, terminated their service by order dated 30-10-2003; that the order of termination signed by the Joint Manager (Admn-1) is a mere communicating order as the order was proposed and given by the General Manager with the approval of the Governor and others; that the heading of the order of termination of service is written in BangIa as OeiLvIO and within bracket the words "termination of service" were written and the said letters were issued pursuant to Regulation No.13(ii) and erroneously the word OeiLvIO was written in BangIa in the order instead of OPvKzixP~ZO and that the Administrative Tribunal wrongly allowed the cases of the petitioners declaring the order dated. 13-10-2003 passed by the respondent null and void and without jurisdiction on the ground that the petitioners were not terminated from their service but they were dismissed from their service in the garb of Regulation 13(ii) though under Regulation 44(i)(g) of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003 the respondent Bank was empowered to dismiss the petitioners from their service after giving them oppol1unity of being heard as per provision of Article 135(2) of the Constitution. It is to be noted that all the orders of termination of services of the petitioners were in identical terms. In this context it is pertinent to quote in verbatim the order dated 30-10-2003 of termination of service of the petitioner in Civil Review Petition No. 105 of 2010 which reads as under: ???????? ?????? ??????, ????? ????????? ?? ????? ??? ......?????????????? ???????? ??????? ??-???????? ? ???/???? ????? ? ?? ???????, ???? ?? ??????? ???? ???????? ??????????? (??????????? ?? ???????) ? ???? ??? ????? ??????, ?????-?? ???? ??????? ??????????? ???????????? ???? ?????? ?????-?? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??????, (?????? ????? ???? ?? ???????-??) ?? ?????????? ???? ????? ??????????, ???? ?? ??(??) ????? ? (??) ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???? ??????? (??????????? ?? ???????) ??? ???? ?? ??????? ???????? ??????? ????? ???????? ????? ????????/- (??? ?????? ????? ????? ?????????? (???????-?) 12. On perusal of the memos dated 30-10-2003 it appears that the petitioners service was terminated by invoking Regulation 13(ii) of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003 but in the aforesaid letter of termination the word OeiLvIO was written though Regulation No. 13(ii) and termination of service was clearly stated in the letter of termination under consideration. We have found that Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003 consists of 4 parts. Part-I is the General Part which contains amongst others definitions, employment of temporary staff, appointments, probation, reversion, termination of service, retirement and re-employment and record of service. Part II contains discipline. Part-III contains punishment. In this Part Regulation 44 provides for penalties, 45 provides for inquiry and punishment and 46 enumerates the provisions of appeal and Part IV contains miscellaneous matters like salary, leave, medical attendance, allowances etc. 13. From the scheme and the contents of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003 it appears that two different provisions namely, Regulation 13 provides for termination of service contained in Part 1 of the Regulations and Regulation 44(1)(f) provides for removal from service and Regulation 44(1)(g) provides for dismissal from service contained in Part III of tile Regulations. In the instant case the services of the petitioners were terminated vide memos dated 30-10-2003 by invoking Regulation 13(ii) of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003. It seems that mistakenly the word OeiLvIO was written in the order of termination of service instead of the correct word ??????????? But in the subject matter of the order the expressions ???????? ??????????? (Termination of service)" were correctly written. Mere using the word OeiLvIO mistakenly in the order of termination of service will not make the same "dismissal" because the respondent Bangladesh Bank Authority specifically invoked Regulation 13(ii) in terminating the services of the petitioners with one month's notice. From a careful reading of Regulation 13(ii) of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003 it appears that the Appropriate Bank Authority may determine the service of an employee after giving him one month's notice or pay in lieu thereof. (To be continued) The power to determine the service of an employee below the rank of Assistant Director who are classified as "other employees" shall be exercised by the General Manager of an office or Branch with the approval of the Governor of the Bank. In the instant case this Division rightly found that the General Manager made a proposal to the Governor of the Bangladesh Bank for the termination of the services of the petitioners pursuant to Regulation 13 (ii) of the Regulations, 2003. Accordingly, the General Manager terminated the services of the petitioners with the approval of the Governor. Regulation 13 (ii) does not provide for dismissal of the employee and it does not contain any stigma or, punishment against the petitioners. Therefore, this Division in the leave petitions having considered all aspects of the matter disposed of them with observation holding that the Administrative Appellate Tribunal rightly allowed the appeals after setting aside the judgment and order passed by the Administrative Tribunal. We are of the view that the services of the petitioners were rightly terminated by invoking the Regulation 13(ii) of the Bangladesh Bank Staff Regulations, 2003. 14. While speaking about the scope of review the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the case of Lt. Col. Nawabzada Muhammad Amir Khan vs Controller of Estate Duty, Government of Pakistan, reported in PLD 1962 SC 335 = 13 DLR (SC) 105 observed as under: "To permit a review on the ground of incorrectness would amount to granting the Court the jurisdiction to hear appeals against its own judgments or perhaps a jurisdiction to one Bench of the Court to hear appeals against other Benches; and that surely is not the scope of review jurisdiction. No mistake in a considered conclusion, whatever the extent of that mistake, can be a ground for the exercise of review jurisdiction." 15. In the case of Secretary Ministry of Finance vs Md Masdar Hossain reported in 21 BLD (AD) 126 at page 131 para 12 = 7 BLC (AD) 92 this Division reiterated the principle as under: "a review is by no means an appeal in disguise whereby an erroneous decision is reheard and corrected. A review lies where an error apparent on the face of the record exists. It is not a re-hearing of the main appeal. Review is not intended to empower the Court to correct a mistaken view of law, if any, taken in the main judgment. It is only a clerical mistake or mistake apparent on the face of the record that can be corrected by the leave but it does not include the correction of any erroneous view of law taken by the Court." 16. I n the case of Tarique Rahman vs Bangladesh reported in 63 DLR (AD) 162 at page 172 para 23 in which two of us was party, whi Ie expounding the grounds of review we observed as under: "In order to review a judgment there must be an error apparent on the face of the record and that this error is so apparent and manifest and clear that no court of law would permit such an error to remain on the record. We arc therefore convinced to reach to the conclusion that the error must not only be apparent it must also have a material bearing on the face of the case". (n disposing of the Civil Petitions for Leave to Appeal we already considered the same grounds which have been advanced before us in these civil review petitions. 17. In these civil review petitions we do not find any substance in the submissions of Mr Rafique-ul-Huq, the learned Advocate for the petitioners rather we find substance in the submissions of Mr Shamim Khaled Ahmed, the learned Advocate appearing for the respondents to the effect that the grounds taken in the review petitions are in real terms the same grounds which were already considered and repelled in the judgment and order passed by this Division in the above leave petitions. This Division consistently held that review by no means is are-hearing of the appeal. We are, therefore, of the view that in all these civil review petitions the grounds urged by the petitioners are nothing but the grounds taken into consideration and repelled in the leave Petitions. It is therefore not permissible to embark upon a reiteration of the same contentions as were advanced at the time of hearing of the leave petitions. 18. From the above discussions and findings we are of the opinion that there is no error apparent on the face of the record to interfere in the impugned judgment and order passed by this Division in the above leave petitions. There is no legal ground in these civil review petitions for review of the impugned judgment and order passed by this Division in the civil petitions for leave to appeal. Accordingly, all these civil review petitions are dismissed. Transgender getting skill dev training in Rajshahi BSS, Rajshahi : Transgender people have started getting skill development training here for improving their living and livelihood condition. Department of Social Service (DSS) organized a 50-daylong training for them in its regional training centre in Rajshahi city yesterday. On the occasion, the department hosted an inaugural session in conference hall of Deputy Commissioner. Deputy Commissioner Kazi Ashraf Uddin addressed the session as chief guest with Rubina Yeasmin, Deputy Director of DSS, in the chair. Social worker Shaheen Akhter Rainy and Paba Upazila Social Service Officer Kazi Abu Taher also spoke. The discussants stressed the need for ensuring fundamental rights especially the health, social and legal rights of the transgender people for uplifting their living and livelihood condition. The society, as a whole, should come forward with a positive attitude toward the extreme socially excluded people for their coexistence in society with decent livelihood. Chief Guest Kazi Ashraf Uddin said the present government is very much positive towards solving the problems of the hijra community. He urged the people to change their attitude towards the transgender people and demanded quota for them in education and job sectors. He said general people have a very narrow mindset regarding genderless people and they should change their mentality. The training will help the extremely excluded population free from being subjected to repression, discrimination and negligence in every spheres of their life. Oppressed Minority Society formed a human chain in front of Jatiya Press Club on Friday in protest against repression on Hindu people all over the country. Elvin, Badhon, Prashun work with Hasan Jahangir in Eid play Sheikh Arif Bulbon :On the occasion of coming Eid-ul-Fitr, noted play director and actor Hasan Jahangir has made a special play titled Prothom Valolaga. Maruf Rehman wrote story of the play. Shooting of the play was wrapped up in the citys Eskaton area last week. For the first time, three Lux stars - Tasnuva Elvin, Azmeri Haque Badhon and Prashun Azad - worked with Hasan Jahangir in the play.While talking about the play actor and director Hasan Jahangir told this correspondent, It is really a nice story. My role in the play is Ishan. Younger sister of Badhon, Prashun loves Ishan. But without Prashuns concern engagement between Badhon and Ishan took place silently. On the other hand, Prashun's cousin Elvin also started to love Ishan. Complexity raised and the story of the play gets momentum.At first, I wanted to make the play by a director. Later I thought though I acted in an important role so that I could give its direction. For this reason, I made the play sincerely and cordially. Badhon, Prashun and Elvin acted really well in the play, Hasan Jahangir added.Badhon shared her feelings by this way, Due to its story I agreed to work in the play. I believe viewers will enjoy the play.Prashun Azad said, It is really an exceptional story based play. Viewers always want to watch different story. It is like that.Elvin said, For the first time, I worked under Hasan Jahangir Bhais direction. He works sincerely. I am very much optimistic about the play.Hasan Jahangir also informed that the play will be aired on RTV in Eid-ul-Fitr. He is also engaged with making plays on the occasion of coming Eid. Badhon has already finished several works in this regard. Amirul Islam Aruns Chokrojal and Anjan Aichs Eid serial BPL are mentionable of those works. On the other hand, Prashun has already finished shooting of Shahriar Nazim Joys play Chander Moto Meye.Meanwhile, as a newcomer, Elvin will be seen in several numbers of plays in Eid. Orlando families to bury victims Friday US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden place flowers for the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub at a memorial in Orlando, Florida. Reuters, Orlando : Families of some of the 49 people killed in a massacre at an Orlando gay nightclub will mourn and bury their dead on Friday, a day after President Barack Obama met survivors and said the United States must act to control gun violence. Funerals are expected to be held over the next two weeks. Anthony Luis Laureano Disla, 25, like many of the victims of the Pulse club mass shooting, was from Puerto Rico. He is to be buried on Friday, according to the Newcomer Funeral Home, a day after more than 150 friends and family mourned him at a wake. Obama, who traveled to Orlando on Thursday and met survivors and families of those who died, told reporters: "I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, 'Why does this keep happening?'." He urged Congress to pass measures to make it harder to legally acquire high-powered weapons like the semi-automatic rifle used in the attack on Sunday. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were in Orlando after a U.S.-born gunman claiming allegiance to various Islamist militant groups carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. During the shooting rampage the gunman, Omar Mateen, exchanged text messages with his wife, CNN reported on Thursday, as well as posting on Facebook and placing a phone call to a television station. Police killed Mateen, 29, a U.S. citizen born in New York to Afghan immigrants. Obama, who has visited mass shooting victims' families in towns from San Bernardino, California, to Newtown, Connecticut, since becoming president, laid flowers at a memorial for the victims of the attack on the Pulse nightclub. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack but U.S. officials have said they do not believe Mateen was assisted from abroad. A married couple also claiming allegiance to Islamic State shot dead 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December. On Thursday, more than 300 people, including Florida Governor Rick Scott, attended the viewing for Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera, who was born in Dorado, Puerto Rico. He was 36 when he was killed during a night of dancing to celebrate a friend's new house. His husband had stayed home that night in the couple's apartment. "He was in a Snapchat video that's out there, dancing away, so we know he had some fun before the madness," said his cousin, Orlando Gonzalez. Twenty-three of the 53 wounded remained hospitalized, six in critical condition, according to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. CNN reported, citing a law enforcement official it did not identify, that Mateen exchanged text messages with his wife, Noor Salman, during the three hours he was holed up in a bathroom inside the nightclub. Salman is under investigation to find out whether she knew about Mateen's plans ahead of time. Tanners to file appeal Staff Reporter : Tannery industry owners will file an appeal with Supreme Court against the High Court Order that asked them to pay Tk 50,000 as compensation per day for damaging the environment in city's Hazaribagh area. According to the order, the owners of 154 tanneries will have to deposit the money with the state exchequer from the date of receiving copies of the HC order until relocation of their factories to Savar Tannery Industrial Estate from Hazaribagh. The HC passed the order upon a petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh. "We will file an appeal with the Supreme Court against the HC order," Shaheen Ahmed, President of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA), told The New Nation on Friday. The appeal will be filed after getting the HC order, he added. Shaheen Ahmed said: It is not possible to shift all the tanneries to Savar immediately. We need at least six more months for the purpose. "A lot of works have to be done before shifting the tanneries to Savar. So, we need the time to complete the relocation," he said. General Secretary of BTA Sakhawat Ullah on Friday said, "We will lodge an appeal with Supreme Court soon seeking stay on the order." Echoing the same view with BTA President, Sakhawat Ullah said, "We'll need at least 5-6 months more to shift the tanneries completely." "It'll be possible to shift only 50 to 60 tanneries out of 155 to the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate within July, and the remaining others by December," he said. The tanners had missed more than a dozen deadlines for shifting their factories to Savar over the last one decade. The latest deadline for tannery relocation set by the government expired on March 31 this year. "Tanners have missed the deadline because they are yet to complete construction of their factory buildings," said Sakhawat Ullah. He, however, said that tanners will not waste any time to relocate their factories to Savar once they completed construction of factory buildings there. Sources said, some 21,000 cubic metres of untreated toxic waste are released every day from the Hazaribagh tanneries into the Buriganga River, posing a serious threat to environment as well as human and animal health. To mitigate the risk, the government earlier initiated the process to shift tanneries from the city's Hazaribagh area to Savar setting up a special zone for tannery industry. Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), a state-run agency is implementing the tannery estate project, for 152 industrial units in Savar. Of those, 148 units are now under-construction, according to BSCIC officials. 2 held with 14kg gold at HSIA Staff Reporter : The Customs Authorities seized gold bars and ornaments weighing 14 kgs from two siblings at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in the city on Friday. Acting on a tip off, the Customs Officials arrested the two brothers -- Mamun Khan, 39, and Murad Khan, 30, and recovered the gold bars and ornaments from their possession, said Rezaul Karim, chief of preventive team of Dhaka Customs. Rezaul, also the Assistant Commissioner of Dhaka Customs House, said as soon as the two brothers arrived at HSIA at 12:30pm by a flight of Tiger Airlines from Singapore, they detained them and searched the body. "The gold bars and ornaments were hidden in specially made belts warped around the two brothers' waists, he said, adding the market price of the seized gold bars and ornaments is estimated around Tk 7.50 crore. The recovered gold would be deposited with the Bangladesh Bank. A case has been filed with the Airport Police Station in this connection. Bernicat leads BD business team UNB, Dhaka : A delegation of prominent Bangladeshi businesspeople will attend a three-day "SelectUSA Investment Summit-2016" that begins in Washington on Sunday to learn about business opportunities in the United States. The delegation will learn from some of the "best minds" in business and government about the opportunities that exist for their companies, said US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat in a video message who left for Washington on Thursday night along with the delegation. The business delegation will engage in matchmaking with different economic and development professionals, companies and business people around the United States, she said. "I am pleased to personally lead a delegation of prominent Bangladeshi businesspeople to the 2016 SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington," Bernicat said. She said they are delighted to reciprocate the warm hospitality that Bangladesh has extended to the US companies in Bangladesh. Bernicat said, the US government is helping Bangladeshi companies access the United States market and the opportunities that lie throughout the USA. However, it could not be known who are in the business delegation. US President Barack Obama, who hosts the Investment Summit, will deliver the keynote address on June 20 (Monday). This year's Summit theme is "The Innovation Advantage" and will showcase investment opportunities from every corner of the United States for global investors. The Summit is the highest-profile event that promotes foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States. It provides an unparalleled opportunity to bring together companies from all over the world, economic development organisations from every corner of the nation, others working to facilitate investment in the United States, and high-level government officials. Participants can find the practical tools, information and connections they need to move investments forward. The Summit will begin with an optional add-on Summit Academy that addresses the basics of investing in the United States and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). India takes up with BD The Indian Express :India has taken up with Bangladeshi authorities the death threat to a priest of the Ramakrishna Mission in Dhaka by suspected militants claiming to be from the ISIS even as security at the complex has been beefed up.The Ramakrishna Mission received a threat letter on Wednesday which said the priest will be killed if he continues to preach his religion, amid astring of targeted murders across the country by suspected militants in the recent months. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Friday that the Indian High Commission has taken up the issue with Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry and police."High Commission of India, Dhaka, has contacted both Bangladesh Police and MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and have been assured of full support and protection. We are also in direct contact with the RK Mission in Dhaka," Swarup said. He said police presence at the complex has been strengthened.Swarup said the First Secretary (Consular) in the High Commission visited the RK Mission yesterday morning to review the security. The Dhaka Ramakrishna Mission is a branch of the Belur Math in Kolkata.A police official in Dhaka yesterday had said the priest received the letter on Wednesday evening on a computer-composed IS letterhead with the perpetrator identifying himself as one AB Siddiqui."Bangladesh is an Islamic state. You can't preach your religion here. If you continue preaching, you'll be hacked to death with machetes between the 20th and 30th," the officer quoted the letter as saying.The letter, he said, did not mention any month. Suspected Islamists have killed a number of secular activists, Hindus and other minorities across Bangladesh in recent months prompting authorities to launch a nationwide anti-militant clampdown since Friday. Bangladesh authorities have detained nearly 12,000 people in a nationwide crackdown to halt a spate of deadly attacks. Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn unite in tributes BBC Online :David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn have united to condemn the killing of MP Jo Cox as an "attack on democracy".Speaking alongside the prime minister in Mrs Cox's West Yorkshire constituency, Labour leader Mr Corbyn said Parliament would be recalled on Monday, and labelled the attack "an act of hatred".Mrs Cox, 41, was shot and stabbed in the street as she headed to a scheduled constituency surgery on Thursday.A 52-year-old man has been arrested. The visit came as the Conservatives, Lib Dems and UKIP all announced they would not contest the by-election resulting from her death.Joined by Commons Chaplain Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn and Commons Speaker John Bercow, the prime minister and the Labour leader bowed their heads as they laid bouquets in Birstall.Mr Corbyn said he had asked for Parliament to be recalled to enable politicians to pay tribute to the Labour MP "on behalf of everybody in this country who values democracy... free from the kind of brutality that Jo suffered." He added: "Jo was an exceptional, wonderful, very talented woman, taken from us in her early 40s when she had so much to give and so much of her life ahead of her."It's a tragedy beyond tragedy what happened yesterday. "In her memory, we will not allow those people that spread hatred and poison to divide our society, we will strengthen our democracy, strengthen our free speech."Vote Leave and Remain have both suspended campaigning in the EU referendum in light of the attack.Mr Cameron said: "Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities. "If we truly want to honour Jo, then what we should do is recognise that her values - service, community, tolerance - the values she lived by and worked by, those are the values that we need to redouble in our national life in the months and years to come."The 52-year-old arrested man, named locally as Tommy Mair, remains in custody.Witness Ben Abdullah, who was working at a cafe next to the scene of the attack, said he saw "a river of people" coming down the street "screaming and shouting". Mr Abdullah said he heard several shots and saw Mrs Cox on the floor "in a very bad state". Politicians have been warned to review their security in the wake of the attack and a reminder of safety guidance has been sent out to MPs, said a government spokesman.West Yorkshire Police have so far refused to discuss the possible motive behind the killing.On Thursday, hundreds of people of all faiths packed into Saint Peter's Church in Birstall for a service of remembrance a while a vigil was also held outside Parliament.Mrs Cox is the first sitting MP to be killed since 1990, when Ian Gow was the last in a string of politicians to die at the hands of Northern Irish terror groups. She was married to campaigner Brendan Cox, and had two young children, with the family dividing its time between its constituency home and a river boat on the Thames.He said in a statement: "Jo would have no regrets about her life, she lived every day of it to the full."Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people." Stop mass arbitrary arrests soon Staff Reporter : Bangladesh authorities should immediately stop arbitrarily arresting people without proper evidence of a crime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday. HRW, a US-based international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights, came up with the statement following the arrest of several thousand people in the week-long police drive across the country. In the statement, it said Bangladesh authorities should investigate attacks on secular writers, gay rights activists and religious minorities, and identify and prosecute the perpetrators. Between June 10 and 16, 2016, security forces have reportedly arrested over 11,000 people in connection with a spate of murders of bloggers with secular or atheist leanings, non-Muslims, members of the LGBT community, and other progressive or liberal thinkers. Those detained should either be charged on the basis of credible evidence of criminal activities and brought immediately before a judge, or be immediately released, the HRW said. "After a slow and complacent response to these horrific attacks, Bangladesh's security forces are falling back on old habits and rounding up the 'usual suspects' instead of doing the hard work of carrying out proper investigations," said Brad Adams, Asia Director of the Organisation. "The government has an obligation to put an end to these murders and hold the perpetrators to account, but it must do so through proper procedures set out in its own criminal code as well as in international law." The wave of targeted killings of bloggers, secularists, and religious minorities began in 2013 and has escalated in recent months. To date, more than 50 have been killed, often through machete attacks in public spaces. Many of these killings have subsequently been claimed by IS or Ansar al-Islam, a Bangladeshi militant group linked to al-Qaeda, but their involvement has not been established. The government denies the presence of both groups in the country. The authorities were initially slow to respond to these murders, making only a handful of arrests in a few cases. In several of these cases, HRW found that police detained those arrested weeks before they formally accused them of murder, failing to inform their families of their locations or provide access to legal counsel. However, following the high profile murders of two gay rights activists on April 25, 2016, and the wife of a senior police officer responsible for counter terrorism operations on June 5, the government announced a new crackdown on extremists to bring an end to these killings, and the mass arrests began. The killings of bloggers and others who allegedly do not conform to Islamist principles began in 2013 and, following a brief respite in 2014, resumed in 2015, continuing unabated until today. The initial "machete attacks" were largely against bloggers writing publicly about secularist or atheist principles, but later expanded to target members of religious minority groups, professors and students, publishers, and most recently LGBT rights activists. The government's initial reaction involved both condemning the killings but also urging those targeted to censor their writing or curtail their activities. In 2013, the authorities prosecuted four bloggers for "offending religious sentiments." In 2015, following the murder of prominent blogger Niladri Chatterjee Niloy, Bangladesh's Inspector General of Police warned bloggers that "hurting religious sentiments is a crime," rather than protecting the right of free expression. Police sources stated that of the more than 11,000 rounded up on this drive, only about 145 are confirmed members of militant organisations. Membership of an organisation is not sufficient evidence to link individuals to these crimes, it said in the news release. Media reports claim that some of those detained are being made to pay bribes to secure their release, a familiar pattern in Bangladesh. For instance, in one case reported to HRW in the present roundup, police detained a youth, beat him up in custody, and then demanded a 100,000 taka (US$1,270) bribe, threatening otherwise to list him as a suspected fundamentalist. Given the well documented history of impunity for torture and other custodial abuse in Bangladesh, there is a real risk of harm during detention and interrogation. HRW has documented torture and custodial abuse of those detained by Bangladeshi security forces, including that of one of its own consultants in 2008. A 2012 HRW report documented the mass arrests, torture, and custodial deaths of those suspected of involvement in a 2009 mutiny by the Bangladesh Rifles. Subsequent investigations by Human Rights Watch before and after the violent elections in January 2014 documented arbitrary and illegal arrests, leading in some cases to disappearances and deaths. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has promised a climate of zero tolerance for torture and impunity, the HRW noted. "The mass arrest of thousands upon thousands within the course of a few days is a familiar scene in Bangladesh, but does little to inspire confidence either that these ghastly killings will stop or that due process will be followed," Adams said. "The authorities need to conduct focused investigations in order to find those responsible for planning and carrying out the wave of killings that has so outraged the world," it added. Don`t make ISIL global: Our crisis is our creation Editorial Desk :The United States is interested in exploring the option of armed Bangladeshi private security personnel ensuring security of US officials in Dhaka. The US, which is worried about the safety and security of its officials in Bangladesh, following the brutal murder of its staff Xulhaz Mannan, will raise the issue of deploying private security forces in the upcoming fifth Partnership Dialogue between the two countries scheduled in Washington on June 23-25, as per reports of a local daily. We do not want to see wrong kind of cooperation to grow between Bangladesh and the US. On ISIL, the US Ambassador Marcia Bernicat in Bangladesh the other day said that terrorism is a global threat, therefore its presence is global and there is no need to talk about where an organisation is or is not. "ISIL has global reach and can be everywhere thanks to the internet," she said, adding that the two governments have agreed that it is a global threat and they have to work on it globally and jointly.The US Ambassador here should know that ISIL has no existence in Bangladesh and our terrorism is our creation. We expect high ranking US government officials to make proper assessment of the situation. Our situation is not an immediate threat to the world, but Bangladesh is sliding into a crisis of terrible violence and human rights violations which must be contained politically. Don't make ways for outside terrorists to come into Bangladesh. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ISIL, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is a Salafi jihadist militant group that follows an Islamic fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. Although it was formed in 1999, it took over 12 years for the group to establish itself - and that too, because it was associated with Syrian rebels who were fighting to free their country from the tyranny of President Bashar al-Assad. Despite world plans of domination - as detailed in a map in 2014 -- after over two years it still remains in control of parts of Syria and Iraq - with populations of over 2.8 million people. It is wrong to treat them as having a world reach. Whatever these terrorists claim, their power base is war and chaos fuelled, willingly or not, by global powers in the Middle East. Most Muslim leaders do not treat them as Muslims - they are brutal terrorists with no respect for Islam. They do not practice Islam. They are a greater threat to the Muslims, doing greater harm to Islam. They grew up in cruel war torn conditions of the Middle East and they should be buried in the Middle East. They have killed more Muslims, raped Muslim women and given Islam a bad name. We firmly believe that the Western countries must not play into the hands of enemies of Islam. President Obama is very right that the West must not make Muslims feel that the West hates them. The ISIL and other extremist groups using Islam are being encouraged to be a force by enemies of Islam. They are exploiting some genuine grievances the Muslims have against the Western countries for their blind support for Israel and allowing Israeli government to treat the Muslims of Palestine and Gaza brutally as a colonial power. It is a grave mistake for the Western countries not to understand that the government of Israel has become power-drunk for being too much pampered. The West must pursue forcefully to reach the Palestinian solution. IS is not a global threat though they want to be seen like one and claim credit for any act of terrorism taking place anywhere. Their claims of smuggling over 5000 fighters in Europe with the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in 2015 and 2016 were proven to be false - indeed their real organisational capability seems to be to make ghastly videos of inhuman executions. Most importantly Muslim leaders must be engaged more visibly and more unitedly behind the Western move to finish IS and likes of IS in the Middle East.But do not support state terrorism by way of fighting imaginary global terrorism. That will mean supporting state terrorism for the rise of new dictators in countries struggling for democracy. We repeat that the cruel activities do not make ISIS a global threat and conclude by quoting from the statement of an eminent former US Ambassador to Bangladesh, Dan W Mozena as he remarked: "A moderate, tolerant, democratic country, Bangladesh, the world's seventh most populous country and third largest Muslim majority country, is a viable alternative to violent extremism in a troubled region of the world." "The record companies know that I have not had any part of TPB for ages, still suing," Sunde wrote. "Bullying is the new black." One of the founders of notorious file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been ordered to pay a fine worth nearly US$400,000 to several major record labels after their content was shared illegally via the platform.The penalty has been imposed on The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde by a court in Helsinki, Finland.Interestingly, Sunde, who already left the notorious file sharing site in 2009, said on Twitter that he lost the court case he did not even know about.The court case was brought by the Finnish divisions of Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music and EMI, accusing the Pirate Bay of illegally sharing the music of 60 of their artists through its service.The artists mentioned in the brief included "" according to the local outlet Digitoday However, the recording division did not accuse Sunde of direct infringement; rather it accused Sunde of his involvement in the Pirate Bay that indirectly made him responsible for infringements.The Helsinki District Court ordered the 37-year-old to pay $395,000 (350,000 Euros) to the record labels.Sunde did not appear in the court to defend himself, so the Finnish Court handed down a default judgment.Sunde is now ordered to pay the full amount and costs of nearly $62,000 (55,000 Euros) to the local branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).Besides, the judge also threatened a fine of 1 Million Euros if the pirated content continues to be shared through The Pirate Bay website, though it is still not clear that how Sunde is supposed to do anything about the sharing of content on the site since he has no association with the service.As TorrentFreak notes , Sunde and other co-founders of the Pirate Bay, including Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm, also owes large sums of money to other copyright holders as a result of various court judgments over the years.However, so far, none of those penalties have been "satisfied," and it is likely that this penalty will also go unpaid. Louisiana House and Senate leaders reached a deal Thursday for handling the budget bill that will spend the tax dollars raised during the special legislative session. Louisiana House and Senate leaders reached a deal Thursday for handling the budget bill that will spend the tax dollars raised during the special legislative session, ending a logjam that had created tension between the two sides. Lawmakers in the House agreed to stop stalling the measure and intend to schedule it for a Monday hearing. Without the bill, any dollars raised couldn't be spent to stop health and education program cuts next year. But until Thursday, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Cameron Henry hadn't even filed the budget measure for consideration. House leaders had said they didn't want to craft a plan to spend new tax dollars until the state's income forecasting panel, the Revenue Estimating Conference, formally recognizes the money as available for spending. They gave up on that idea amid pushback from the Senate. Senate leaders say formal recognition of the tax dollars can happen after the special session ends and before the July 1 start of the new budget year. "The (Legislative) Fiscal Office is advising us all through the process. I don't know why we can't use those numbers like we have done forever," said Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego. Henry, R-Metairie, gave in and said he doesn't expect the estimating panel to meet until after the legislative session ends next week. "In an ideal world, I think it's prudent for us to have the Revenue Estimating Conference meeting. I don't think time really allows for that at this point," Henry said. No tax bills from the special session have reached final legislative passage or been signed into law by Gov. John Bel Edwards so the income estimating panel has nothing to forecast for spending yet. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, said if the House waited on an updated income forecast reflecting tax bills that haven't passed, "they'll be waiting a long time." He described Henry's initial plan to wait as "ludicrous." "I don't know what they were thinking," LaFleur said Thursday. A meeting between House Speaker Taylor Barras, Alario, Henry and LaFleur ended talk of needing a Revenue Estimating Conference meeting before session ends. And Henry filed the budget bill. "Everybody's working together well," Henry said. "I don't expect much drama." The House and Senate haven't reached a deal yet on taxes, so Henry said the House will work with the $220 million or so the House has agreed to raise so far. Edwards has asked for $600 million to stave off cuts to the safety-net hospitals that care for the poor, the TOPS college tuition program, K-12 education, public safety programs and college campuses. Senate leaders want to raise $450 million. The special session must end June 23. IND L!VE offers highlights of the many live music events taking place around Acadiana this weekend. ACOUSTIC SHOWCASE WITH CORY LANDRY AND SAL MELANCON Thursday, June 16 Grouse Room Doors: 6 p.m. This acoustic showcase is shaping up to be one of our most entertaining shows yet! If you like great musicianship and great voices, then this show is for you! Cory Landry (three37 band) and his pal Sal Melancon, III are collaborating to showcase this "dueling acoustic" set. One of kind show. PUDGE + NEAT + ROZWELL KID + WOOZY Thursday, June 16 Feed & Seed Doors: 8 p.m. Feed N Seed welcomes indie and punk bands Pudge, Neat, Rozwell Kid, and Woozy! TERRY AND THE ZYDECO BAD BOYS Thursday, June 16 Blue Moon Saloon Doors: 9:30 p.m. Founded in 2001 and hailing from Duson, Louisiana, Terry and the Zydeco Bad Boys play a traditional style of zydeco with a touch of Funk. BANTAM FOXES + THE SHAKE BACKS + RANDOM ANIMALS WITH BLAKE PUJOL Friday, June 17 Feed & Seed Doors: 8 p.m. Admission: $10 Join Feed & Seed for Bantam Foxes new EP release of Gold Record. FOREST HUVAL + TEE CHAOUI TRIO Friday, June 17 Blue Moon Saloon Doors: 9:30 p.m. Forest Huval is an intrepid upcoming musician with a voyagers soul. A native of Cecilia, Louisiana, Forest was influenced by legendary cajun musician. His soulful vocals along with his effortless accordion and intense fiddle playing can get any crowd up and dancing. The young accordionist and fiddle player continues to hone his melodic craft with a reverence for master works and respectful nudge to the edges in original efforts. Forest aspires on working diligently to keep the true authentic style of cajun music alive both within and beyond Louisiana. THREE37 BAND Friday, June 17 Grouse Room Doors: 10 p.m. Enjoy high energy, uptemp, groove making songs with Three37 at the Grouse Room. DOWNTOWN COUNTRY FESTIVAL Saturday, June 18 Parc International Doors: 3 p.m. Admission: $25, $20 in advance Be a part of the FIRST ever Downtown Country Music Festival in Lafayette, and share your passion for country music. Frank Foster, Lainey Wilson, The Gillis Silo, Alex Smit, and Clay Cormier and The Highway Boys are among the best and most talented country music artists that will be celebrating country music the right way. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the The Acadiana Affiliate of Susan G. Komen. This event will be the beginning of something great, so don't let your friends tell you about it. FEUFOLLET + CEDRIC WATSON & BIJOU CREOLE Saturday, June 18 Feed & Seed Doors: 8 p.m. Admission: $10 Join Feed & Seed for a night of dancing with Feufollet and Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole. Photo by Daniel Sanda ZYDECO RADIO Saturday, June 18 Grouse Room Doors: 10 p.m. Join us the 3rd Saturday of every month for our Zydeco Night featuring Zydeco Radio! Once a pro-slavery denomination aligned with the Confederacy, the SBC voted to condemn the familiar battle flag of the Confederate States of America. On Tuesday, Flag Day, leadership of the second largest Christian denomination in the United States voted overwhelmingly to reject the Confederate flag. Once a pro-slavery denomination aligned with the Confederacy, the Southern Baptist Convention voted to condemn the familiar battle flag of the Confederate States of America in a movement sparked by a black SBC pastor from Arlington, Texas, in the weeks after the massacre of nine black parishioners at a church in Charleston, SC. The resolution reads: We call our brothers and sisters in Christ to discontinue the display of the Confederate battle flag as a sign of solidarity of the whole Body of Christ, including our African-American brothers and sisters. Founded in 1845, the SBC is the second largest Christian denomination in America behind Catholicism. While SBC resolutions are not binding for member churches, the membership typically falls in line with leadership directives. The denomination originated in a split in the U.S. Baptist church over issues related to slavery in the run-up to the Civil War. According to Wikipedia: Slavery in the 19th century became the most critical moral issue dividing Baptists in the United States. Struggling to gain a foothold in the South, after the American Revolution, the next generation of Baptist preachers accommodated themselves to the leadership of southern society. Rather than challenging the gentry on slavery and urging manumission (as did the Quakers and Methodists), they began to interpret the Bible as supporting the practice of slavery and encouraged good paternalistic practices by slaveholders. They preached to slaves to accept their places and obey their masters. In the two decades after the Revolution during the Second Great Awakening, Baptist preachers abandoned their pleas that slaves be manumitted. After first attracting yeomen farmers and common planters, in the nineteenth century, the Baptists began to attract major planters among the elite. While the Baptists welcomed slaves and free blacks as members, whites controlled leadership of the churches, their preaching supported slavery, and blacks were usually segregated in seating. Read more at nola.com. 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. President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia's economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. The United States generally imports about 100,000 barrels a day from Russia, only about 5% of Russia's crude oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. Last year, roughly 8% of U.S. imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA. Should the US ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war? You voted: A Carbondale man has been arrested for the third time in the past 14 months for drug-related offenses. Jermaine Archer, 22, of Carbondale was arrested at about 11 p.m. June 9, when a Carbondale Police officer made a traffic stop on East Willow Street, the department said Friday in a news release. During the stop, officers found Archer to be in possession of suspected cocaine, heroin and cannabis. He was later charged with possession and delivery of a controlled substance, possession of cannabis and resisting a peace officer. He was incarcerated in the Jackson County Jail. In May, Archer was arrested after a traffic stop revealed he had an expired drivers license. Further investigation found Archer was in possession of cocaine. He was charged with possession of cocaine less than 15 grams and possession of controlled substance with intent to deliver and driving on an expired license. According to Judici.com, the case is awaiting a preliminary hearing on June 30. In April 2015, police responded to the 500 block of South Ash Street for a report of shots fired. During that investigation, officers identified Archer as a suspect and found that he was in possession of a controlled substance and a stolen firearm. Archer was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a stolen firearm, aggravated discharge of firearm, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. According to Judici court records, Archer pleaded guilty a charge of possession with intent to deliver in November, and was placed on probation for two years. BENTON The Franklin Hospital District Board of Directors held a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss pending litigation put forth by the hospitals former chief of medical staff. The breach of contract lawsuit, filed in April on behalf of Morthland College Health Services LLC, is expected to be dismissed during a Friday morning hearing by the Franklin County Circuit Clerk. Franklin Hospital Chief Operating Officer Derek Johnson said the purpose of the closed session meeting was to receive an update on the motion for dismissal of the lawsuit. Attorney Peter Popit of Troutt, Popit & Warner provided legal representation. MCHSs five-year contract with the hospital began in September 2013 and was terminated Feb. 1 with a six-month notice to discontinue hospitalist and medical services on July 31. Dr. Tim Morthland, the founding president of West Frankfort-based Morthland College, served as hospitalist under the agreement. The suit alleges that Franklin Hospital Chief Executive Officer Hervey Davis made false and misleading statements to the board in order to induce them into terminating the contract early. Morthland filed a voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit three days after announcing his intention to build a $40 million hospital in Franklin County, with or without the participation of the Franklin Hospital board. Chairman Brent Young said the board has been too busy with the lawsuit to discuss Morthlands proposal for the new hospital. The proposal is not currently on the agenda for the boards next meeting, which is slated for Tuesday, June 28, Johnson said. The hearing to dismiss the lawsuit is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday. Last week, State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, was recognized as recipient of the 2016 Legislative Service Award from the Illinois Press Association. Dennis DeRossett, president and CEO of the IPA, said the award was given to acknowledge Bradley for his work as a sponsor presiding over the legislation that created www.publicnoticeillinois.com, a website that collects government notices from the state and assists citizens interested in local, county and state government. Public Notices are vital to open government, DeRossett said. Just as important is the third-party verification of notices that newspapers provide. This website is an extension of services already provided by newspapers, and thanks to Representative Bradley, weve been able to do this for the public at no cost to taxpayers. Additionally, DeRossett commended Bradley for providing citizens with access to an open and honest government. Accountability and transparency have always been high priorities for the IPA and over the years, John has proven he is absolutely committed to keeping government open and honest, he said. CARBONDALE Alex Leandro Carraminana La Rosa passed away Thursday, June 2, 2016, due to a tragic accident. Alex was born May 27, 1991, in Providence, Rhode Island. He had been living in Carbondale with his father who is a professor at Southern Illinois University. Alex is survived by his sister Arlenn and his parents, Myrna and Rodrigo, and many, many uncles, aunts, cousins and nephews and nieces in Chile. Alex and his family moved to Oak Park in 1994. He attended, Lincoln School, Gwendoline Brooks and OPRFHS. Alex loved skate boarding, snowboarding, camping and traveling, what he did intensely with his family. He was thinking to return to Triton College in the fall of this year. Alex most likely will be remembered as an easy going and a sweet boy, one of his teachers at OPRFHS said I really loved Alex so much, he was one of my favorite students of all time and I can see him smiling right now. His family will be celebrating Alexs life at noon Sunday, June 19, in West Central SDA Church, followed by a potluck, at 1154 Wisconsin Ave, in Oak Park. This is open to anyone that would like to celebrate his life. Thumbs down to well, us. Illinois residents complain about their representatives and their governor and the impasse that they have created. But the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform points out that only 39 percent of this falls races for the legislature will be contested. 96 of the 158 available seats have already been decided. In California, a state that has term limits, 79 percent of November legislative contests will be contested. Thumbs up to Shawnee Alliance in Carterville for their tireless work to connect seniors with services and protect older adults and people with disabilities from abuse and neglect. The so-called "golden years" are not so golden for everyone. Some people grow old alone, or with family and caregivers that exploit them. Consider making your good deed for the week popping in on an elderly neighbor. And if you see, hear or suspect something suspicious, reach out to Shawnee Alliance. Their case managers are well-versed in complex family dynamics, and are trained in looking into these matters with sensitivity. Thumbs down to the thus-far unoriginal, uninspiring campaigns of Republican statehouse challengers Jason Kasiar and Dave Severin. Kasiar, of Eldorado, is challenging Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg; and Severin is challenging Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion. Its not uncommon for the newspaper to receive back-to-back emailed statements from challenges Kasiar and Severin slamming their opponents for something going on in Springfield, and tying their opponents to House Speaker Mike Madigan. The problem is the messages sound so canned, and so unlike the way the candidates actually speak, that its hard to take them seriously. And they come from the same email address, one belonging to Aaron DeGroot, whose LinkedIn account says he is the downstate press secretary for the Illinois Republican Party. So much for our hope for independent voices of reason on the campaign trail. Thumbs up to Pinckneyville Community Hospital board and administrator Randall Dauby for moving closer to making a final decision about what to do with the old hospital building at 101 W. Walnut St. and auctioning surplus items from the old building. The old building was left vacant when the new hospital building opened at 5383 Illinois 154, just east of Pinckneyville, on Sept. 28. Thumbs down to the Pinckneyville City Council for considering utility shutoff as an option for residents who do not clean up their properties or pay fines associated with violating nuisance ordinances already on the books. Often this type of overreaching occurs because enforcement of current laws is sporadic. Creating harsher punishments for nuisances rarely works. Six health centers in South Carolina will receive almost $2.3 million to increase access to integrated oral health care services and improve oral health outcomes, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell announced Thursday. Family Health Centers in Orangeburg will receive $525,000. Nationwide, nearly $156 million in funding was provided to support 420 health centers in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. This funding enables health centers to expand integrated oral health care services and increase the number of patients served. Health centers across the country will be able to increase their oral health service capacity by hiring approximately 1,600 new dentists, dental hygienists, assistants, aides and technicians to treat nearly 785,000 new patients. On June 14, 2016, Ms. Betty Jean Stoudemire Slusher passed away, 11 days short of her 83rd birthday. Ms. Betty was a loving and devoted mother and friend to her children, other family members and friends. Ms. Betty was loved and respected by many in her community and state. She served on the Town Council in South Congaree in her younger years. Ms. Betty was forced to bear heartache when her husband, Ralph Stoudemire Sr. was brutally murdered in 1977 at his SOC Station in South Congaree, leaving a widow and four children. Ms. Betty, even in her pain, was determined that the killers of her husband would be brought to justice. That fight lasted twenty years. On January 8, 1999 Ms. Betty became a Palmetto Lady by being awarded the Order of the Palmetto by former Governor David Beasley for her friendship to the people of the state of South Carolina. She was also recognized for her protection of the SC Bill of Rights. Ms. Betty was a true advocate for victims rights. She served on the board for the SC Victims Advocacy for Domestic Violence. She also became involved with helping other victims families by leading them through the court system, attending parole hearings, and in any other manner needed. Ms. Betty was awarded numerous awards by the State of SC pertaining to her volunteer work for victims and victims rights. Ms. Betty was a successful small business woman and owner, as well as a long term employee of the K-Mart Corporation. She was recognized many times for her customer satisfaction. Several years after her husbands death, Ms. Betty met and married another wonderful man, Mr. Bruce Slusher. He truly loved her because he stood right by her side during all the struggles for Ralph and the other victims she fought for. This became a way of life for the two of them. Ms. Betty was very well known by those at the State House and other public officials. She had a powerful voice that carried a long way toward righting wrongs. Ms. Betty was also of Native American heritage. She was very proud of this. She did the research necessary to identify her tribe, Beaver Creek Nation. She brought that information to the attention of officials at the State House to have this tribe recognized by the state of SC. Her Indian name was Voice of Thunderstorm, very well deserved. During her marriage to Ralph Stoudemire, they had four children, Sherill Duraski (Ed), Gerald Stoudemire (Peggy), Ralph Stoudemire (Bari) and Marion Stoudemire (Kim). Ms. Betty had an adopted son, B. J. Slusher (Brandy); two sisters, Ann Adams of Elloree and Vernelle Walling of St. Matthews; brother, Steve Walling of Orangeburg. She had 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren; friends, Margaret Boone and Valerie Lever and her loving companion and pet "Precious Slusher". She was predeceased by her first husband, Ralph Stoudemire and second husband, Bruce Slusher. Ms. Betty was a long time member of Ebenezer Pentecostal Holiness Church, 501 Church Street, West Columbia, SC 29172. Donations may be made to the churchs Mission Fund. A visitation will be held from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. on Friday, June 17, 2016, at Caughman-Harman Funeral Home, West Columbia Chapel. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 18, 2016 at Ebenezer Pentecostal Holiness Church. His friends wanted to know: Why are you going to South Carolina State? But Leroy Jones Jr. knew he was at a special place. I never lost faith. I kept praying, the senior said. On Thursday, the faith of Jones and other students paid off when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools announced that it withdrew the universitys probation. S.C. State is fully accredited, as before, but this time with no qualifiers. Now all I can see is South Carolina State going up. All I can see is it going up, he said. Jones was one of a group of students, alumni, employees and public officials who filled the steps of Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium to hear the official announcement about S.C. States accreditation. Were on the right track and things are only going to get better, Interim President Dr. W. Franklin Evans said. It was a time of thanks, as Evans thanked the employees who stood by the institution and worked to retain and recruit students. He thanked the trustees, alumni, S.C. General Assembly, city, county, Gov. Nikki Haley and others. Also, Im grateful to students who never wavered, he said. Evans also thanked God, saying, He touched some hearts. I hope we removed all doubt South Carolina State University is the place to be, he said. Kimberly Greene, a student and university fundraiser, has seen first-hand the support S.C. State has received. Giving grew from $2 million during the last budget year to $4 million so far this budget year. She called it the best year for donations in 18 years. Greene said Thursdays announcement was great for the university and the city. S.C. State is Orangeburg and Orangeburg is S.C. State, she said. The announcement led to relief among everyone who loves the university. Ulysses Jarvis family came to S.C. State during the 1800s to help build the school and send its children there. He calls it home with a capital H. Im glad we were able to come out of the muck and the mire, he said. While Jarvis believes lawmakers have been negligent toward S.C. State since its inception, he is grateful that the General Assembly has stepped up, as well as the board, which was designed to do so, the faculty, citizens of the community and alumni. I trust that the governing powers of this state would give credence to the history and futuristic outlook of this institution, he said. Annette Zimmerman, who earned her bachelors and masters from S.C. State, came out to the announcement so she could be part of the celebration. While she was concerned about the probation, she was sure it could be lifted. Having the probation lifted shows the institution is moving in the right direction. I think this is going to help with an increase in enrollment, she said. Two millennia after Jesus is said to have performed his miracles in the Galilee, a modern miracle has occurred in the region now known as Northern Israel. Cynthia Levinson's book "Watch Out For Flying Kids!" (Peachtree Publishers, 2015) chronicles how two youth circuses, one in Israel and one in America, joined forces to accomplish what many believed was impossible -- Arabs and Jews rising out of the ashes of conflict to work together for the common good. The Galilee Circus was founded by Rabbi Marc Rosenstein, who sought a vehicle for resolving conflict between Palestinians and Jews in the aftermath of the second intifada. "From the start, when nine Jewish and sixteen Arab kids signed up," Levinson writes, "the mission of the Galilee Circus was to bring together young people who would otherwise never meet or get to know one another." Over 6,000 miles away in St. Louis, Jessica Hentoff -- Nat's daughter and Nick's sister -- had founded a circus performance troupe called the St. Louis Arches, composed of kids from diverse ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. The St. Louis Arches later became part of Circus Harmony, a nonprofit Jessica founded in 2001 to use circus arts to inspire social change. Out of 700 kids who took classes at Circus Harmony in 2012, only 10 were good enough to become Arches. In 2007 the St. Louis Arches traveled to Israel, where they partnered with members of the Galilee Circus to form the Galilee Arches. The group performed in Arab and Jewish villages throughout the Galilee, an adventure captured in the 2010 documentary "Circus Kids." The St. Louis Arches visited Galilee again in 2012 and 2014, while the Arab and Jewish members of the Galilee Arches traveled to St. Louis to perform in 2008 and 2012. They will be returning to St. Louis this August. "When you see them together, you are struck by their abilities -- their abilities to juggle, balance and fly through the air," Jessica wrote in a letter to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, requesting that he approve visas for the kids' first visit in 2007. "(B)ut more importantly, you are struck by their abilities to trust, to work together and to give to others." Levinson juxtaposes the experiences of the kids from Israel with those from America, observing that while the kids in the St. Louis Arches come from mostly black or mostly white neighborhoods, the Galilee kids come from mostly Arab or mostly Jewish villages. Her book profiles the individual kids in the Galilee Arches and follows them over a 10-year period through the rocket attacks of the second war in Lebanon, tribal violence in Arab villages, gang violence in St. Louis and the Ferguson protests of 2014. "Circus is about expressing how we're capable of extraordinary things," Marc Miller, the managing director of the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, told Levinson. "That is circus at its core -- to illustrate that things that do not look possible ... are very possible." Which is how a bunch of kids who love circus came to love one another and, in the process, do a better job of bringing a hope for peace to the Middle East than a generation of politicians and negotiators. "Circus will not bring peace to the Middle East," the website of the Galilee Circus concedes. "But it can help to make dialogue possible by reducing fears, lowering barriers and building trust. It can provide a model of a shared loyalty that transcends ethnic identities. It can teach the art of taking risks for the common good. It can demonstrate, to a wide audience, that what appears to be impossible is indeed possible." ----- Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights. He is a member of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Cato Institute, where he is a senior fellow. Nick Hentoff is a criminal defense attorney in New York who has worked as a judicial clerk for a U.S. district court judge. Donald Trumps assault on the free press further erodes public confidence in the media particularly newspapers. The Republican presidential candidate on Tuesday added The Washington Post to the list of media being banned from his campaign events. He said The Post did not accurately report what he said Monday in accusing President Barack Obama of complicity in the Orlando terrorist killings. Never mind that the newspaper reported what the presumptive GOP nominee said. His piling on reinforces the idea among Trump supporters and others that The Post is a liberal newspaper that dislikes Trump and uses its reporting to undermine his candidacy. Trump is adding to the confusion about media particularly newspapers that persists in America today. Because news and opinion have become so homogenized with the prevalence of talk radio, TV commentary and the onslaught of information on social media disguised as news, the public believes all media have forsaken objectivity. Newspapers, long the medium to which people have looked for the most objective reporting, have suffered in the present environment. According to a recent Gallup Poll, more than half of Americans maintain at least some confidence in newspapers as a U.S. institution, but the percentage expressing high confidence has dwindled to 20 percent. The percentage with low confidence is now close to twice that rate. The findings reflect a downturn in confidence among all age and political party groups to the point that young adults and Democrats, who once expressed solidly positive confidence in newspapers, are now neutral or net negative. Gallup states: The publics mood over the past 16 years has been something of a whirlpool, pulling most major U.S. institutions underwater, but newspapers appear to be faring a bit worse than average. The rise of digital media could be a factor in the trust Americans place in a traditionally print medium such as newspapers, but perhaps more importantly, newspapers are suffering from the broader decline Gallup sees in Americans trust in the mass media in general. Trump is taking advantage of the decline in trust and in the process undermining the very freedoms he professes to cherish, openly leading his supporters to believe that as president he would act in authoritative fashion to rein in the press. The American Society of News Editors said of Trumps decision regarding The Post: Candidate Trumps move to sanction coverage of his drive to win the presidency is an unprecedented dismissal of the 1st Amendment freedoms essential to our democracy. The public is best served when a fearless, unfettered and independent press is present at all campaign events, speeches and political forums. We urge the Republican Party to return to its historical support for openness and transparency and call on both the party and its presumptive nominee to reverse course on these undemocratic sanctions and attempts at censorship. In the meantime, we encourage news outlets to ignore, reject and oppose all unconstitutional restrictions that any party, candidate or government official attempts to impose. Newspapers will persevere and survive. It is essential that the mission of so-called print journalists remain, regardless of the many ways in which their work in reporting information objectively is presented in the modern era. The wisdom of Americans will prevail. From oldest to youngest, they will sort through todays maze of information and determine what is news and what is not. And as they do, the efforts of professionals committed to the principles of journalism, whether with newspapers or other media, will win the day. Colin Williams, DPP, explained that there is no immediate likelihood that murder accused Veron Primus would be extradited to the USA. by Dayle Da Silva Should evidence in the United States support the theory that murder accused Veron Primus is responsible for the death of Chanel Petro-Nixon, a US National, it is unlikely that he will be extradited with any immediacy. According to the Director of Public Prosecution Colin Williams, under the Fugitive Offenders Act, in circumstances where an individual is charged and is expected to stand trial, or has already been convicted and is currently serving a sentence, then the Governor General may refuse to honour a warrant for the individuals arrest/extradition. "They can always bring a charge of murder and they can make a request for extradition, Williams told THE VINCENTIAN. However, persons are generally not extradited when charges are pending in the requested state, Williams explained. The 29-year-old Vermont resident was charged in April with the November 2015 murder of real-estate agent Sharleen Greaves. Evidence pointing to Primus involvement in the death of Greaves surfaced while he was being investigated for his alleged abduction of Mewanah Hadaway. Hadaway claimed to have been held against her will in the basement of Primuss home in Vermont, from January 1 until her release on April 15. Primus also became a person of interest to law enforcement authorities in New York who had linked him to the death of honours student Petro-Nixon back in 2006, while Primus was a resident of the United States. The 16-year-olds body was discovered in a garbage bin along a sidewalk in Brooklyn, NY. It was later revealed that she was strangled. NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce addresses press conference in the company of law enforcement authorities, officials and relatives of Chanel Petro-Nixon, with enlarged photo of Petro-Nixon displayed. Inset:Veron Primus was indicted for the 2008 murder of Chanel Petro-Nixon. Brooklyn, New York District Attorney Ken Thompson on Wednesday announced the indictment of long-sought Vincentian suspect, Veron Primus, in the June 2006 murder of a Brooklyn high school student . Vermont native Primus, 29, who had resided in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn before his deportation, was indicted on one count of second-degree murder of former classmate Chanel Petro-Nixon, 16. Petro-Nixon had lived in Brooklyns Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. Thompson said Primus will be arraigned following his extradition from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where he is currently detained on another matter. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. According to the investigation, Petro-Nixon was last seen alive on Fathers Day, Sunday, June 18, 2006, when she left her parents Bedford-Stuyvesant home to visit with a friend. Thompson said Petro-Nixon had stated that she would be meeting Primus. She still hadnt returned home the next day and was reported missing, Thompson said. He said that, three days later, Petro-Nixons body was found in a trash bag on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights. "Ten years ago, a promising young womans life was tragically taken, leaving her family and the community searching for answers, the Brooklyn District Attorney told reporters. "My office remained steadfast in our search for justice; and, with this indictment, we will ensure that the defendant is brought back to Brooklyn and held accountable for the death of Chanel Petro-Nixon. "In our business a terrible business investigating homicides rarely do we witness true evil in anybody, said the New York Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Detectives, Robert Boyce. "Here, we witnessed it in this case. New York law enforcement authorities say they are trying to extradite Primus from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, after he was deported there last year. After allegedly strangling Petro-Nixon in 2006, Primus, a few years later, was arrested for allegedly raping a woman and subsequently convicted of assault, reported amNewYork on Wednesday. He served around four years in prison, and was deported in 2015, said the paper, adding that, while in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Primus reportedly stabbed a real estate agent to death. He then apparently kidnapped a young woman and kept her for three months in a "mountain home before she was rescued, amNewYork said. According to New Yorks television station WPIX11, Mewanah Hadaway told investigators that Primus locked her in a wooden enclosure for three months. The station said Hadaway was dating Primus last summer "and told detectives he showed her a 2006 news clipping from the Petro-Nixon case. WPIX11 said Crime Watch Daily flew PIX11s Mary Murphy to St. Vincent and the Grenadines "to get the back story. The station said Murphy interviewed the former captive. To date, WPIX11 said Primus has been charged with one murder in St. Vincent and the Grenadines the November 2015 fatal stabbing of real estate agent, Sharleen Greaves. "Its a bittersweet day today for the family, said Petro-Nixons mother, Lucita Petro-Nixon, at Wednesdays press conference. "Finally, at least we can see a light at the end of the tunnel it took 10 years. Thompson said a rally, with Chanels family members, will be held on Saturday in front of 212 Kingston Avenue in Brooklyn, where the students body was found, calling for witnesses to come forward. "Chanels family never stopped searching for answers, this community never stopped searching for the truth, the district attorney said. "It is important for us that we bring Primus back to Brooklyn to face justice. See Page 28. by Gloriah Chad Stapleton, an eleven-year-old student of the St. Marys Roman Catholic School, placed 7th for boys and 10th overall at the recently administered CPEA examination. He told THE VINCENTIAN that this placement came as an absolute surprise. "I didnt expect to place in the top ten. I expected the top fifty, he said, "now I feel ecstatic, excited. Right now, there are many persons wishing they were Chad! His position was achieved as a result of his grades, which were: Language Arts, 92%; Mathematics, 94%; and Science, 94%. He said that he took extra classes after school, worked past papers, read additional Science and Health books, studied hard, and trusted in God to accomplish the feat. He gave early words of advice to upcoming students. "Work hard, he affirmed, "you cannot be lazy, but you cant study too hard either. You do not want to be too tired on the day of the exams. He encouraged that they should take the School-based Assessment seriously as it helps students to better understand the external assessment. Although Chads class teacher Mrs. Claudia Windsor described him as the best writer in the Grade 6 class, he called Mathematics his favourite subject. He explained that his interest is heightened because he is highly enthused by doing computations with the four mathematical operations. He says that he intends to use Mathematics in his future career as he plans to become a computer programmer. Chad, who is the son of Giselle Myers and Bennie Stapleton, will attend the St. Vincent Grammar School where he hopes to maintain his CPEA grades throughout his secondary schooling. Left:Stephen Lashley made no bones about denouncing dancehall for inciting violence and misbehaviour. (Photo Credit: Barbados Today) Right:The sign that was hung and then removed at the Clifton Hill Beach Hotel in Trinidad. (Photo Credit: Jamaica STAR) Dancehall music continues to be the focus of attention, with its detractors claiming that the genre incites violence. The most recent high ranking Caribbean personality to join the fray was the Barbados Minister of Culture, Stephen Lashley. Lashley called for a ban on the popular genre, claiming that "it incites violence and promotes reckless behaviour. The Barbados media quoted Lashley as saying, "I am indeed very concerned about the escalation of gun violence, and, in particular, the escalation of violent acts that have claimed the lives of so many persons already this year. He added, "I am equally concerned about the impact of certain types of dancehall music and videos, the impact that this is having on the minds of our citizens, especially our young people. I take this opportunity this evening to call on each and every one of us to take a stand on this reckless behaviour. Lashleys denouncing of the genre of Jamaican origin, came on the heels of a ban on the music at a London nightclub (March 2016) and at the Clifton Hill Beach Hotel in Trinidad and Tobago (though the ban at that hotel has since been rescinded). But the Ministers claims did not go unnoticed. Several industry insiders coming out in support of the genre, stating that dancehall music cannot be blamed for societal ills. Dancehall artiste Razor B, for example, stated that there are other genres of music that also influence people negatively. "Dancehall is an intricate part of our Caribbean culture just like calypso and soca which have also come under attack over the years for their explicit content, so unless the minister is also planning on banning those along with hip-hop, etc., his efforts will be futile. In my opinion, this is just a politician playing politics, he told THE STAR newspaper of Jamaica. Veteran Jamaican producer Gussie Clarke told the same Jamaican newspaper that the ministers statements were irresponsible, as dancehall music alone cannot be blamed for the violence occurring in that country. "Music has positive and negative connotations. It can incite violence, it can evoke love, patriotism, camaraderie, he explained. "Music can influence both negatively and positively, but it cannot do that on its own. It is the people who determine how the music affects them, so it is a people problem and not necessarily a music problem. Some Jamaican insiders also viewed the latest comment by a Minister of Government as furthering a perceived CARICOM plot against Jamaicans, as has been seen with the difficulties they experience travelling through the rest of the Caribbean. (See accompanying article on this page.) (Source: Barbados Today & Trinidad Guardian) Participants in the U.S. State Departments IVLP program pose with U.S. Ambassador Linda Taglialatela (centre) before their departure to Washington, D.C. A group of librarians and archivists from Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, including Donna Mason-McLean, the Librarian at the National Public Library in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is currently in the United States as participants in a U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP). The 21-day proramme, which commenced on June 13, is, according to a release from the US Embassy in Barbados, is designed to enhance participants knowledge and understanding of policies, best practices, and challenges for improving awareness and protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). In addition to Ms. Mason-McClean, other particpants are drawn from Antigua and Barbuda (2), Barbados (2), Dominica (1), Grenada (1) and St. Kitts and Nevis (2). This professional exchange program is titled Librarians and Archivists as Defenders of Intellectual Property Rights. Through meetings and discussions with public and private sector professionals in the United States, participants will explore a broad range of IPR issues, including copyrights, patents, and trademarks. In addition, they will examine the implementation and enforcement of IPR legislation. The role and impact of non-governmental organizations on IPR will also be explored, and the role of libraries in providing critical services and expanding access to intellectual property will be emphasized. The program will begin in Washington, D.C., and will include travel to Dallas, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, before concluding in Manchester, New Hampshire. The IVLP is the Department of States premier, professional exchange program. The program brings together emerging leaders in their respective professions to learn how U.S. experts in that profession operate and to share best practices with the other program participants who hail from the same region and across the globe. (Source: US Embassy, Barbados) Nikianna Williams, Miss SVG 2016, said thanks to and interacted with her many supporters and well-wishers. A number of persons were last Friday, June 11th given the opportunity to interact with Miss SVG 2016 Nikianna Williams, thanks to her sponsors, telecommunications company FLOW. A motorcade, organised by FLOW, took Miss Williams through Kingstown to greet and thank her many well-wishers and supporters. After the motorcade, Williams proceeded to FLOWs Halifax Street location where she took time to take selfies and talk to adoring fans. According to Senior Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager at FLOW Nikala Williams, Friday afternoon was a celebration of Williams and FLOWs big win at the 2016 Miss SVG Pageant, held at Carnival City, Victoria Park, on Saturday June 4th. Said Nikala, "Miss FLOW, Nikianna Williams, is the very first Miss FLOW because we always had a Miss LIME, so we wanted to celebrate her win and give her the opportunity to say thanks to the people and recognize the persons who supported her, Nikala said. The motorcade was deemed to be such a huge success that indications are that FLOW is considering repeating it so that even more persons can interact with Nikianna. "It went absolutely wonderful. Lots of persons came out onto the streets. A lot of persons wanted to say congratulations to her and never got to do so. I think that was something we might want to do again because we saw the streets lined with hundreds of persons, Nikala proffered. Officials of the Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment have confirmed that as of June 14, there was one pregnant women among twenty-eight laboratory-confirmed cases of the Zika virus/infection in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The necessary care and monitoring of the pregnant patient and her unborn baby is in place, health officials said. The twenty-eight confirmed cases represent an increase of some twenty cases and Public health officials have disclosed that of the twenty new cases, fifteen (15) have come from Bequia, one each from Lodge Village, Indian Bay and Layou and two of unknown addresses. To date, 108 serum samples have been sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for ZIKA testing. The Ministry of Health, in a release this week, stated that it has further intensified ongoing efforts, and will continue to focus surveillance and response activities on addressing the rising number of cases. The Ministry also noted that this development was anticipated, given the onset of the rainy season, and urged the public to continue to take the necessary steps to protect themselves. Symptoms of Zika virus include fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis (red eyes), muscle pain, headache, pain behind the eyes and vomiting. When they do emerge, the symptoms mirror the flu. Zika virus disease is a mosquito-borne disease. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are considered the main vectors. Eleven-year-old Emma Rouse of Golden Vale has given her parents much to smile about . Emma, a student at the Sugar Mill Academy, recorded 96% in Mathematics, 84 % in Language and 95% in Science, placing her in a tie of 1st for girls and 5th overall, with her classmate, Danielle Wright. She is the daughter of Samantha Minors- Rouse, Registrar at the St. Vincent Community College and Father, Iron Rouse, a Teacher at the Campden Park Technical Institute. The affable lass said she was aiming for a top ten place , but was very surprised that she placed 5th overall. The news of her success was relayed to her by the schools Principal. "I was so surprised, I started to scream and I started to cry, and I get up and hug everybody around me, said Rouse, on her reaction to the good news. The news was relayed to her parents in advance of Emma knowing and she said her mother started to cry for joy and "Daddy was really proud of me as well. Like her classmates, Emma sacrificed her time "on electronics, and participated in before class and after lunch learning sessions, prior to the exams. She found time, though, to be an active member of the La Garcia Dance Company. Students desirous of doing well in their exams need "to work hard, sacrifice, but maintain the extracurricular activities since it is an outlet to relieve stress, Emma advised. The young scholar has her eyes set on becoming a Dancer or a Teacher in the future, but her immediate plan is to travel to Canada for the holidays. She expressed thanks to her parents and to her teachers for their support and encouragement. (KH) Left:Allen Chastanet and his UWP never expected to win by such a wide margin. Right:Dr. Kenny Anthony and the SLP never expected to lose. by Earl Bousquet Editors Note: Earl Bousquet is a veteran St. Lucian-born Caribbean journalist with over three decades of ongoing experience in newspaper, radio and television in St. Lucia, Grenada and Guyana. He is a a former Press Secretary to Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony . We are pleased to present this view of the recent elections in St. Lucia, provided exclusively for overseas publication to THE VINCENTIAN. There may be lessons in it for us. Saint Lucia General Elections 2016 has quickly come and gone, leaving astounding results, with several pretty and ugly nuances. Once again, voters on the island have confounded the rest of the Caribbean and the world with yet another unexpected result. Take the following five examples: 1. Just as in the two previous elections in 2006 and 2011, voters returned another 11-6 verdict. 2. The opposition United Workers Party (UWP) expected to win, but not by such a margin. The ruling Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) though, never expected to lose. 3. It was sure that one of the two major parties (SLP and UWP) would have broken the 8-8 tie in the number of elections each won since Independence in 1979, but no one was sure which one. 4. It was not expected the two polls cited by the two major parties By CADRES and Don Anderson, respectively would have ended-up poles apart. But they did, one predicting the results would be too close to call, the other predicting the direct reverse of the end result. 5. Similarly, Prime Minister Dr Kenny D. Anthony was not expected to concede defeat the way he did and so early. But he surprisingly bowed out gracefully even before the vote count ended, announcing he does not intend to serve as the incoming Leader of the Opposition, or to continue as SLP Leader, thus opening the way for quick succession. He will only serve as MP for Vieux Fort South, where he was elected for a fifth consecutive time. The debate will continue as to what went wrong for Labour, and/or where and when what went well for the UWP. But in the end, the majority has spoken and their message was clear. The change is now here, so what is the road ahead? I offer ten signposts: 1. Like every new government, the new administration will face the same old problems and people will still want all they had expected from the previous Government. 2. The new administration will have to adjust quickly to the new economic and social reality before applying its promised new economic medicine. 3. More jobs will be expected. (Both party-sponsored polls in fact indicated the Number One priority of all voters is Employment.) 4. There will be anxiety about the Value Added Tax (VAT), the National Initiative to Create Employment (NICE), the Short Term Employment Program (STEP) and other similar Social Programs. 5. There will also be some anxiety and expectation about continuation of the Free Laptops program for students, Bursaries for Parents and Public Assistance for the most needy and vulnerable. 6. Voters will also look forward for all contained in the 5-Plus-5 Packages designed to Keep Saint Lucia Alive. 7. The political parties will all now have to go back to the drawing board. 8. The new administration will have the usual 100 Days to stamp itself into office and do what it has said it will do with the likes of the IMPACS Report. 9. The new Government will also have all of five years to bring the change the majority voted for. And 10. Saint Lucians now have another opportunity to press for all the electoral and constitutional changes so many called for during the campaign. It would be to the benefit of all too, if, now that the election campaign dust has settled, the next 100 days could also be like 100 Days of Solitude. Indeed, during the next three months, lessons can be learned by all, about all aspects of this just-concluded national electoral experience. So what about me? I am as humbled by the result as all who also voted like me on Monday. But I havent taken it as bad as many others I have spoken to. (Or, maybe not yet) Indeed, all Labour supporters were previously quite humbled by the rejection of the SLP in the 2006 General Elections when things were better and the party was booted out. So much so, that I pledged forever, thereafter, to try my best never to allow complacency to get the better of me. Since then, I have been very careful never to count Labour chickens before they are hatched. I warned in the two weeks before Monday that polls are mere guides not to be depended on absolutely. I also warned that no election is ever won until the last vote is counted. In the end, it was reaffirmed that Saint Lucians continue to vote for mainly for party and not according to how they feel about government policies. I take nothing back from anything I said or wrote leading to the election, at home or abroad. I still wish the result was the opposite, but that is still just a wish. Instead, like everyone else, I have to respect the expressed will of the people and move on. So what will I do? I will observe my One Hundred Days of Solitude, ending this page and starting a next chapter. New times always bring new challenges, each of which also brings new opportunities. Saint Lucia still being a land of opportunities; I invite fellow citizens to continue drafting and writing the next chapter of our common history. I ask that we ensure we did not vote for new problems of old, or more of the same. But then, I also know we will never know until the next time comes to ask and answer ourselves. Between now and then, however, as I have also always pointed out after each of the 17 general elections since 1979, we should never ever forget, to always remember, that we always get the government we voted for! Luzette King moved to disassociate the frontline protestors from the actions of one Absult Sky Juice Richards. Left: Luzette King being bodily removed from a protest position on January 6, 2016. No violent and threatening behaviour will be tolerated in the area in front of the Electoral Office, where protest action is ongoing. So says Luzette King, host of the radio progamme Global Highlights and political activist. She was at the time reacting to a story that appeared in the press last week. In last Fridays edition of THE VINCENTIAN, it was reported that a resident of Victoria Village, Absult Sky Juice Richards, was charged and appeared in the Magistrates Court to answer charges of using indecent and threatening language against the Supervisor of Elections, Sylvia Findlay. King called in to the New Democratic Partys Monday New Times radio programme, to inform the public that Richards was not part of the protest action. "I know that the Unity Labour Party (ULP) and their cohorts will want to see the end of the frontline (protest in front of the Electoral Office), King said. She continued, "It was reported that someone was charged for threatening the Supervisor of Elections. I want to tell everybody listening and hope that it sends a message across, that sort of conduct is not tolerated on the frontline. According to King, she has since found out that the man went to the electoral office to conduct some business, and while she did not know the details of what occurred inside, he became irate. "But he was not a part of the frontline; if he was, I would have told him please either leave and go do his stuff, or stay there and stop it, adding that nobody on the protest line then knew Richards. "I want to tell the world that we are not here to threaten anybodys life, she said. Monday was day number 183 since supporters of the New Democratic Party (NDP) have been staging a protest outside the Electoral Office, claiming that the general elections of December 09, 2015 were not free and fair. In related news, a matter before the court involving King has been further adjourned to August 8. King, who was to have her day at the Serious Offences Court to answer to a charge of inconveniencing the public On Monday, requested the adjournment, explaining that her legal counsel was not able to attend Mondays hearing because of involvement in other matters, in other jurisdictions. The prosecution supported the request for the adjournment, saying that they were in the process of seeking further direction on the issue. The matters involving other protestors who were also arrested and charged along with King, were adjourned to July 25. King has been at the forefront of the ongoing protest action by supporters of the New Democratic Party. The charge against her arose from an incident on January 6, 2016 when law enforcement officers moved to remove the protestors from in front of the electoral office, to a distance some 200 feet away from the area where they (protestors) had gathered. She was charged with causing inconvenience "to the public in the exercise of common rights, to wit, sitting in the public road, hindering the free flow of traffic, the result of her refusing to move. (DD) Left:Prime Minister Andrew Holness will welcome Dr. Rowley to Jamaica where the latter is expected to address Jamaicans directly. (Photo Credit: caricom.org) Right:Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley is assured that the Jamaicans do not think that his country has a policy of discrimination against them. (Photo Credit: i995FM) The ongoing immigration and manufacturing dispute between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago will be addressed at the highest level of government . Indications are that Dr Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, will visit Jamaica "in the not-too-distant future, for further talks with his Jamaica counterpart, Andrew Holness, as well as to "put (the issue) to bed by the voice of T&T speaking directly to the people of Jamaica. Rowley told media personnel on his return from Havana, Cuba, where he attended a recent ACS Summit, that he and PM Holness had discussed the impasses when they met in Cuba. Noting that there is a sentiment being fuelled in Jamaica that their nationals are not welcome in T&T, Dr. Rowley said that he addressed the matter directly with Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness while in Cuba. "The Jamaican Prime Minister and I agreed that the time has come that this matter be put to bed by the voice of T&T speaking directly to the people of Jamaica. I propose to do so myself, Rowley said. He confirmed that before he left for the ACS, Holness had asked for a meeting in Havana to discuss the dispute. He said while in Cuba, he had an extensive meeting with Holness, his Foreign Minister and the Attorney General. The Jamaicans, according to Rowley, accepted T&Ts position "that theres no policy of discrimination against Jamaicans in T&T. He said he also reminded them that there are Jamaican nationals who are doing the right things here in T&T as students, workers taking on jobs and the bond between T&T and Jamaica is very strong. Describing the dispute as unproductive and negative, Rowley said it would not be tolerated, especially by those who think they can prosper by "the fanning of these flames. (Trinidad Guardian) Left:Dillon Ollivierre becomes the second youngest Vincentian to receive a Queens Young Leader Award. Right:Vincentian poet Dillon Ollivierre (seated 3rd from left) celebrated National Poetry Day at the Paradise Primary School in Bequia. (Credit: Radiograndines.com) Vincentian Dillon Ollivierre is among eight young persons from the Commonwealth Caribbean who will be presented by Her Majesty The Queen with this years Young Leaders Award . The Queens Young Leader Award recognizes and celebrates exceptional people aged 18-29 from across the Commonwealth, who are taking the lead in their communities and using their skills to transform lives. The eight will receive their awards at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, London on Thursday 23rd June. Ollivierre, a Bequia native, is the second Vincentian recipient of the prestigious award, following on Kenville Horne, a reporter with THE VINCENTIAN and Director of a sports-based programme, who was among the inaugural group of recipients in 2015. The young man has for the last few years been using poetry as a tool to address social issues. He considers himself "a voice for the youths and uses his poetry "to relate, educate and motivate young people. Currently a teacher at the Bequia Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, he is a Director of Rise Up Bequia Inc., a registered non-profit organization which focuses on building and strengthening core ideas and practices of sustainable community development, education, agency and outreach. "To be selected as a Queens Young Leader is a proud moment not only for me but for all patriotic Vincentians. I hope my achievement can serve as a testimony to all Vincentian youth that nothing is too hard to attain in life. With the right attitude anything is achievable, the Bequia native posted on his Facebook page. "Im very excited, it will surely be an eye opener. I have the opportunity to meet influential young men and women and to be in the presence of Her Majesty, he added. Ollivierre left the state on Thursday for what is termed a residential week, during which he and the other awardees, before receiving their Queens Young Leaders Award at Buckingham Palace, will visit 10 Downing Street and the UK headquarters of global social networking company Twitter, and meet with senior executives at the BBC World Service. They will also meet the Commonwealth Secretary General, take part in workshops at the University of Cambridge, have meetings with UK business leaders, and visit projects that are changing the lives of vulnerable people in the UK. According to a release from the UK High Commissioner in Barbados, this years Award winners are working to support others, raise awareness and inspire change on a variety of issues including education, climate change, gender equality, mental health and improving the lives of people with disabilities. (KH) A 17-year-old Vincentian high school student in Brooklyn, New York, last Saturday night took the first runner-up spot in the Miss New York Continental Cultural Pageant at George Wingate High School Auditorium, Brooklyn. Miss St. Vincent, Yeshi Francis of South Rivers, was edged out of the crown by Miss Georgetown -Guyana, Shary Solomon, 22, in the keenly-contested event that featured five other beauties, including Franciss compatriot Miss Grenadines (St. Vincent) Raphaelia Leamy, 21, who was voted Miss Congeniality. Francis, who graduates later this month from Brooklyn High School for Leadership and Community Services, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, competed in her first pageant, organized by the Brooklyn-based Caribbean American Cultural Group, Inc. (CACG). CACG was founded and is headed by Yvonne Peters, of Pauls Avenue, Kingstown. "I feel good, Francis told THE VINCENTIAN in an exclusive, post-pageant interview. "I was actually surprised. "At first, I was so scared to do it [compete in the pageant], added Francis, who migrated to New York 10 years ago and plans to attend La Guardia Community College, City University of New York, in Queens, New York in the fall. She said she has her eyes set on becoming a registered nurse. "My family they encouraged me, continued Francis, who lives in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn with her mom, Lukesh Hackshaw, also of South Rivers. For evening wear, Francis wore a light pink gown. She danced in an all-in-one, orange Olympic jump suit, with sheer wrap, with the name St. Vincent imprinted at the back. She danced to Allez by St. Lucian soca artiste Teddyson John for her talent. Her Interview question, posed by Master of Ceremonies Atiba Williams, of Lower Kingstown, was: How would you feel if a transgender won the pageant over a natural born woman? "Its not how the person looks on the outside; its how they feel on the inside, Francis responded in part. All contestants also competed in swimwear. The others were: Miss Barbados Drena Akuetaire, 20, second runner-up; Miss Guyana Aliyah James, 17; Miss Haiti Anaise Guillet, 19; and Miss New York Stantel Trapp, 21. "Ill like to thank my mom, my aunt Avette (Hackshaw, of South Rivers) and the rest of the family who came out to support me, said Francis, disclosing that another aunt, Kathy-Ann Dublin, also of South Rivers, had urged her to compete in the pageant. EDITORS NOTE: This article was first published in THE VINCENTIAN, February 22, 1991. Recent developments with respect to the Oaths by Officials Amendment Bill here, make this piece as instructive today as it would have been when it was first published, and demonstrates clearly a thinking (then) that was way ahead of its time. In the propaganda campaign leading up to Independence, much stress was placed on the glory of self-determination and the honour to be derived from Vincentians representing St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the forums of the world. Eleven years of independence have gone, and all forms of celebration have been indulged in there was the visit by president Kaunda of Zambia (perhaps for the purpose of imposing him on St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a role model); there were acrobatics by Chinese Troupes and a great deal of other window-dressing shows; but there has been little or nothing done to bring the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines a deep feeling of pride in themselves as the prime components of the nation. From the date of independence to now, several governments have assumed office and have wielded great power; but so engrossed have been the political leaders in establishing themselves on power bases, that the least of their effort was put into matters designed to eradicate the colonial status of the people. No government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has attempted or even pretended (notwithstanding their overwhelming majority in the House) to initiate amendment of the Saint Vincent Constitution Order 1979 for the purpose of upgrading such provisions as are inimical to the spirit of self-determination and genuine independence. Section 19 of the Saint Vincent Constitution Order 1979 provides that there shall be a Governor General who shall be appointed by Her Majesty and who shall be Her Majestys representative in St. Vincent. In keeping with this, it is laid down at Section 21 of the Constitution Order, that the Governor General should take and subscribe the oath of allegiance and the oath of office. In dealing with the House of Assembly, the Constitution Order sets out that every member of the House (including duly elected representatives) should take and subscribe the oath of allegiance. The Oath of Allegiance made by the House of Assembly on March 23rd, 1989, and promulgated by S.R.O No. 16 of 1989, is:- "I do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors, according to law. So help me God. Whatever may be the demerits of retaining the Monarchy as Head of State there can be little objection to a Governor General of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who is appointed by Her Majesty and who is Her Majestys representative in St. Vincent, taking and subscribing an oath of allegiance to her Majesty. However, against the background of independence and even considering that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second is alleged to be the richest woman in the world (with a daily income said to be in excess of three million dollars not EC dollars), it is difficult to readily reconcile why Representatives of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, duly elected by the people to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines, duly elected by the people to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines House of Assembly, should take and subscribe an oath which totally excludes a pledge of loyalty to the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Clem Iton - February 10th, 1991. A 12- year-old Arnos Vale resident has tied with her classmate, Emma Rouse, as the top female performer in the 2015/16 Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) exam . Danielle Wright, daughter of Fitzaudy Wright, Country Manager at the Bank of Nova Scotia, and retired Doctor, Nicole Wright, both Jamaicans, has helped to put the Sugar Mill Academy in the spotlight once again, as one of the top performing schools in the CPEA exams. Fitzaudy scored 92% for Mathematics, 90% Language and Science 96%, to place 1st for girls and 5th overall, the same position as her classmate Emma Rouse. "I am very proud of myself. I screamed and I cried, said Wright, when asked about her reaction to the news of her success. Recapping the moment she was told about her accomplishment, Wright said she was called into the Principals office last Tuesday, at which point the result slip was handed to her. She said she was surprised by the result. "I was aiming for top 10, but I didnt expect to come this high, said the young scholar, adding that her parents were very proud of her accomplishment. In order to prepare for her exams, Fitzaudy had to sacrifice the time she spent on her electronic device, and play time. She described the CPEA exam as manageable. Interestingly, having entered the Academy at Grade 6, the young lady did not have a writing portfolio from Grade 5, which was required to add to the overall marks of the CPEA examination. "So she had to do the extra of getting all her writing pieces to meet the standard of the writing portfolio, her class teacher Hazel Agard explained. Like her classmate Emma Rouse, Fitzaudy is a member of La Gracia Dance Company and aspires to be either a dancer or a doctor. She is expecting to take a trip back to her native Jamaica where she hopes to celebrate with family and friends. (KH) We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. World number-one steelmaker ArcelorMittal is preparing to shed about 10 per cent of its 17,200 strong workforce in France through the sale of two subsidiaries, according to a report in Le Figaro newspaper. The report said the two units for sale are Solustil, which makes steel for car bodies, and WireSolutions, which makes fencing wire and nails. It said parts of loss-making Solustil may be acquired by affiliated Italian groups Cellino and CLN, while a buyer for WireSolutions may be announced on July 7, with US fund Oaktree a leading contender. The Amsterdam-listed company, which employs 210,000 people worldwide, could not be immediately reached for comment. Reuters US President Barack Obama will meet with Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince on Friday and the two are expected to discuss conflicts in the Middle East including the campaign against Islamic State, a White House spokesman said on Thursday. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman, is on a visit to the US aimed at restoring frayed relations with Washington and to promote a plan to slash the kingdom's dependence on oil revenues. Friday's meeting will take place at the White House. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the meeting would provide an opportunity to discuss issues including the conflicts in Syria and Yemen and "our cooperation with the Saudis in the campaign against ISIL," as Islamic State is also known. Prince Mohammed, whose influence in Saudi governing councils appears to be growing rapidly, is being given wide access to Obama's administration. He met with Obama's National Economic Council at the White House on Thursday afternoon to discuss the plan the prince is championing to transform the Saudi economy by 2030. US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker were among those present. "US officials welcomed Saudi Arabia's commitment to economic reform and underscored the US desire to be a key partner in helping Saudi Arabia implement its ambitious economic reform program," the White House said in a statement after the meeting. Prince Mohammed, who is also the Saudi defense minister, also is due to meet US Defense Secretary Ash Carter at the Pentagon on Thursday. Reuters Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, plans to install signs warning of alligators in the area where a 2-year-old boy was killed by one of the reptiles, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. Police divers recovered the body of Lane Graves on Wednesday from the man-made lake where he had been snatched by the alligator as he played at the water's edge the night before. The resort had "No Swimming" signs where the boy was killed at the Seven Seas Lagoon, but did not specifically mention alligators. A source with knowledge of the situation said the resort now plans to install signs explicitly warning of the dangerous animals. The boy was grabbed by the reptile at the water's edge at about 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday while his family, on vacation from Omaha, Nebraska, relaxed on the shore nearby, authorities have said. His parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, tried to save the child but were unable to free him from the alligator's grip. A complete autopsy was conducted on Thursday afternoon on the body of the boy, which was found intact underwater. "The cause of death was ruled as a result of drowning and traumatic injuries," the Orange County Medical Examiner's Office said in a brief statement. It did not elaborate. Rose Silva, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office, said on Thursday that a probe into the toddler's death was ongoing, but was not criminal in nature. The Graves family released a statement praising local authorities and adding: "Words cannot describe the shock and grief our family is experiencing over the loss of our son. We are devastated and ask for privacy during this extremely difficult time." The aquatic predators often roll their larger prey beneath the surface until their victim stops breathing, experts say, and then stash the body away to eat later. Walt Disney Co chief executive Bob Iger spoke with the family by telephone on Wednesday and expressed his sympathies, the company said. Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said on Thursday that resort beaches that were closed after the attack would be off-limits to guests until further notice. "All of our beaches are currently closed, and we are conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols," Wahler said in a statement. "This includes the number, placement and wording of our signage and warnings." - Reuters Schools Study group June 23 The June edition of the Werner Wildlife Museums Wildlife Study Group will feature two separate topics on Thursday, June 23. At noon, the topic will be The Bear Necessities. Participants will learn to tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear, why the fur of a polar bear really isnt white, and more. Participants are also encouraged to bring their own bear stories and share with host India Hayford, museum assistant, and others. At 7 p.m.. the topic will be Raptors and Wind Turbines. Museum assistant Eileen Lemm will discuss the dangers that wind turbine technology poses to raptors and how those dangers can be mitigated along with the challenges facing scientists as they work on mitigation solutions. The Wildlife Study Group meets monthly in the Wyoming Room at the Werner Wildlife Museum, located at 405 E. 15th Street. Anyone interested in learning about wildlife in the inter-mountain west and who would like to meet others who share their interests are welcome. For more information, contact the museum at 235-2108. Enrolling at Calvary Academy Calvary Academy is accepting registrations for the 2016-2017 school year, for grades K-12. Calvary Academy, a ministry of Calvary Baptist church, provides a quality education with Christ at the center and the Bible as the foundation. The A Beka curriculum is used for most subjects, focusing on foundational skills such as phonics, reading, comprehension, spelling, grammar, writing skills, math facts, and problem solving. Cursive writing and penmanship are also emphasized. For more information, please call 266-5417. New class on women and food A new class that will look at the complex interplay of food and the construction of identities and social structures will be offered for the fall semester online through Casper College. Taught by Gender Studies Program Director Georgia Wheatley, Women and Food (WMST 2020 N1) is for anyone interested in the intersection of culinary history, social history cultural history, and women's history, Wheatley said. Both historical and social analysis along with memoir and fiction will be used to explore a variety of issues. To register or for more information contact Wheatley at wheatley@caspercollege.edu or enrollment services at 268-2611. The 2016 fall semester will begin on Monday, Aug. 22. Respiratory program earns distinction The Casper College Respiratory Therapy program has been chosen by the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care to receive the Distinguished RRT (registered respiratory therapist) Credentialing Success Award at the American Association for Respiratory Cares Summer Forum in late June. Programs awarded were required to: have three or more years of outcomes data; hold accreditation without a progress report; document RRT credentialing success of 90 percent or above; and meet or exceed established CoARC thresholds for certified respiratory therapist credentialing success, attrition and positive (job) placement. Apply for Early Head Start Early Head Start, a United Way agency, serving pregnant women and children birth to age 3, is accepting applications for the 2016-2017 program year. There are three programs: a home-based option with weekly home visits and twice a month Discovery Groups, a 2:2 center-based option with two home visits a month and two Discovery Groups a week, and a 2:2 option with wraparound childcare that accepts DFS. Please call one of our centers at 2659562 or 473-5848 for more information or an application, or visit our website at www.wyomingchild.org or a center. Head Start applications Head Start is currently accepting applications for the 2016-2017 school year. Head Start is a free, quality preschool program that prepares children for school. Applications are available at 301 W. B St. in Casper. Head Start is a United Way agency. Call 577-1864. University of Wyoming President Laurie Nichols sudden move Wednesday to declare a financial crisis will create a quicker, and easier, way to eliminate programs. Nichols received approval from UWs board of trustees to declare a crisis in response to the almost $41 million reduction in funding the school must face in the next two years due to declining tax revenue and legislative cuts. The cost of a new financial reporting system brings the total cut closer to $50 million. Nichols budget plan for the current fiscal year was also approved by the board Wednesday. It will eliminate 70 vacant positions and reduce spending by about $19 million. The plan will standardize teaching time, reduce temporary faculty posts and incentivize early retirement. However, those first steps will not solve the universitys shortfall. And the financial crisis declaration sets the stage for more substantive changes at the university. We have managed to avoid program cuts and layoffs in the fiscal year that begins next month, Nichols said. But those types of reductions will be unavoidable in the following year. UW faculty were taken aback by the decision, particularly to avoid the typical requirement of going before the faculty senate, but some said they respect her willingness to include professors, staff and students in a review committee. Crisis mode Nichols declaration establishes the Financial Crisis Advisory Committee, whose primary job is to advise the president on how to slash programs, and save money. The committee will have representatives from faculty, staff and students and meet throughout the summer. With the Crisis Committees input, the president will draft a financial crisis plan for board approval in October. The University of Wyomings rules for eliminating programs require a number of steps, including approval by the faculty senate. But the rule cant serve its purpose in the current climate of financial insecurity, Nichols said in a statement. That regulation is not intended to be used as a means of addressing a substantial reduction in University revenues, Nichols explained in a letter to the campus community Thursday. It is intended as a methodology to evaluate the wisdom of continuing an academic program in a financial climate that is far different than the one the University now faces. Still, the move to declare a crisis this week surprised some, like Scott Shaw, chairman of the UW Faculty Senate. It was not listed on the agenda for the Trustees meeting, nor was it presented in the 182 pages of report materials that were provided prior to the meeting, Shaw said in an email. We learned about it during the meeting, like everyone else, and the Faculty Senate is working diligently to assess what it means, and to meet the current demands of the situation. It isnt just the financial crisis declaration that has faculty and staff scrambling. Standardizing teaching time, for example, is a short-term solution that will mean less time for UW faculty to work on research and other assignments, risking valuable grant money, Shaw said. Further, it may not make up for all the eliminated positions, he added. The losses so far have been random, not strategically selected, he said. So even if all the remaining professors teach more courses, it wont necessarily fill all the current needs for certain core classes. Transparency Some view Nichols choice to declare a financial crisis as a responsible decision, with clear benefits. There is also some leeway granted to the new president, who has only been on the job a matter of months. Convening this Committee will give the faculty, staff, and students a voice in the processes of budget planning from this point forward, Shaw said. Over the past few weeks, things have been happening very rapidly. Including more opinions from faculty, staff, and students is bound to improve the process, as we move forward. Nichols has said she is committed to a transparent presidency, particularly in regard to eliminating or consolidating programs. She appears to be honoring her word, said Donal OToole, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Sciences. There is a fair amount of sympathy with Nichols, he said. No honeymoon period, she is just straight into the trenches. In 27 years at UW, the professor has never seen cuts this severe, he said. If this is not a financial emergency, I dont know what is, he said. (The financial crisis declaration) really should not be a surprise to the campus community. On Thursday the president released a letter explaining the difficult situation that led to the declaration and citing the regulations she is abiding by in the process. Nichols cautioned those who fear a more serious declaration down the road, called financial exigency, which allows the university to eliminate tenured professors. The declaration of a financial crisis is different than a recommendation to declare financial exigency, she said. The declaration of the former does not mean that the latter is a foregone conclusion far from it. Looking ahead Nichols acknowledged in a statement that the severity of the cuts and the likelihood of programs being cut had thrashed morale at the school. Declaring a financial crisis is a step that, by its nature, is unlikely to improve morale, she said. But, as I will continue to emphasize, refocusing our efforts over the next two years will place UW in a far more favorable position for the future. That is the reason I accepted the position of president, and I remain committed to that as we move forward. The president will hold another meeting on the financial crisis at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center. The members of the Crisis Committee will likely be announced at that time, and will hold their first meeting June 28. CHEYENNE Leaders of the Cheyenne community gathered Thursday to honor the victims of the Orlando, Florida, nightclub shooting. A few hundred people gathered in downtown Cheyenne to remember the lives of the 49 people who were shot and killed at the gay nightclub on Sunday. Multiple churches and religions sent an official representative to speak at the Cheyenne vigil, including Presbyterians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Episcopalians and Unitarian Universalists. At the vigil, people spoke about peace and acceptance, as well as the need for protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Many speakers addressed the struggles the LGBT community faces. At the end of the vigil, the names of the 49 victims were read aloud, with the crowd repeating their names. Theres a big difference between being able to speak the Crow language and being able to teach it. But, for a language used by a dwindling number of people in the roughly 13,000-member tribe, there arent many teaching resources. The Crow Summer Institute helps fill that void. Ive learned more from this than I have from anything else, said Roanne Hill, a Crow language and culture teacher at St. Labre High School. The techniques that we use here, I feel like are much more efficient. The institute, organized by the Crow Language Consortium, Little Big Horn College and The Language Conservancy, a nonprofit that works to save endangered languages, is in its fourth year. Hill grew up speaking Crow and didnt learn English until age 5. Thats not typical for todays Crow youth; a 2012 study commissioned by the tribe showed that only 3 percent of preschoolers were fluent, while 14 percent had limited fluency. Tylis Bad Bear is a success story, both for language learners and the institute. He wasnt taught Crow at a young age, but learned the language over time and felt comfortable speaking it more by eighth grade. He graduated from Hardin High School in 2011. A student of previous years institutes, he was tabbed to teach an intensive beginners Crow language class being offered for the first time this year. He previously taught at St. Labres immersion preschool and taught Crow language at Crow Agency Elementary. We dont have all the English letters, he told his class Wednesday morning. But the Crow Language does have additional vowels like Uu and Oo. Which version of a noun is used is often dictated by whether its describing a relationship with a person. There are masculine and feminine versions, and changes for situations. For example, Dasaake describes a girls dad, as spoken by a third party. Diluupxe is a boys father in the same tense. Basaake is my dad, as spoken by a female, while biluupxe is my dad, as spoken by a male. To address their father, a female says basaakaa. A male says axxe. It depends on what kind of context youre using, Bad Bear said. At one point, a Native American student asked why she doesnt hear people using the formal address tense. Its because nobodys speaking Crow, Bad Bear said. Thats why we dont hear it. A patient and accepting approach to teaching is crucial, he said. For a while, Crow Indians who didnt speak Crow faced a shaming approach by language teachers. We damaged a good-sized generation by saying, You should know this. If youre a Crow, you should already know this, he said. Its all about teaching, not preaching. The institute began at Sitting Bull College in North Dakota, but moved to Little Big Horn College last year. Many (teachers) came through school when (Crow) wasnt part of the curriculum, said Janine Pease, an instructor and administrator at Little Bighorn College. They are here to sharpen their skills. Theyre almost all teaching multiple grades. Participants also help record audio for a new Crow app, and the Language Conservancy is working to adapt materials used to teach Lakota for teaching Crow. With the growth of immersion preschools has come greater demand for speakers of Native languages, especially those with teacher training. I didnt think learning the language in third and fourth-grade would put me here, teaching this language, Bad Bear said. Some 27 years ago, desiring to become a fiction writer, I applied to a program at University of California at Davis. I had met some of its writers and professors and thought we were a match; hence, I was pleased when the Department of English welcomed me into its graduate program. It was a disaster. The tenured writers were openly hostile to newbie writers, the department shenanigans an outright obstacle to learning. With the support of the dean of graduate studies I managed to complete an MA in English but was forever disabused of fiction writing, even fiction reading, though Sunil Yapa would be a recent exception. Last year, Princetons website published research that confirmed what some of us have long suspected: Average citizens, even mass-based interest groups, have little or no independent influence on our countrys politics. Even where a plurality exists across party lines, the median public interest holds no sway in policy making. Despite the trappings and tradition of a representative democracy, the truth is, those are just theatrics, writes one commentator. He cites the Iraq War, the 2008 criminally caused economy crash, the rise of the Kochs, the most obstructive Congress in history, Citizens United. Even without the rigors of research, these fuel the urgency of the issue. If Bayer gets its way and buys Monsanto, writes another commentator, that merger from hell will make the new corporation the biggest seed and pesticide company in the world, with almost total control of our food supply. At the center of Bayer and Monsantos corporate agribusiness model is the indiscriminate, widespread use of chemicals linked to the massive global bee die-off and a new era of sterile crops soaked in dangerous pesticides. These issues are acted out in Sunil Yapas Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist. The book is social commentary dressed as fiction. The cover describes Yapa as the biracial son of a Sri Lankan father and a mother from Montana. His introductory sketch of Victor, a 19-year-old globetrotter peddling weed at a protest rally, could be a younger version of the author. We meet him again in the closing pages, a victim of police beatings. In between, Yapas Sri Lanka seeks entry into the World Trade Organization. Its November 1999 in Seattle, where police prepare for a visit from then-president Bill Clinton to a meeting of economic leaders from 135 countries, including a Sri Lankan delegate with his WTO mission. Fifty thousand demonstrators have locked themselves together with chains and PVC pipe. They protest the jobs lost to American manufacturing; they bullhorn about workers in the fields of California who wash their babies in ditchwater, work horrible hours and get paid next to nothing; they attest to rainforest decimation for plantations of banana trees and oil palms, workers soaked in pesticides; they point fingers at the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the WTO. In a bus full of protesters on the way to jail, the dissenters speak to the Sri Lankan of United Auto Workers, of unfair American corn subsidies that decimated the Mexican economy, of habitat destruction. They talked calmly, knowledgeably about the WTO, about Monsanto, about pharmaceutical companies who wanted to stop the manufacturing of generic AIDS drugs in Africa which were saving millions of lives ... [and] ... Third World debt. Did you know, they said, Nigerians pay more every year on the interest on their debt than they do on education and health? Monsanto, they point out, is marketing itself as an agricultural company, selling seed that makes plants that dont reproduce seeds; consequently, third-world farmers must buy new seed from Monsanto every year. The Sri Lankan minister, though reminded that his islands export thus far has been our daughters. We send our daughters to the Middle East where they work as maids, has the duty to believe in the system. When he makes it to the meeting, however, he is told hell be conferring with an aide rather than with Clinton. Hell be forced to stipulate away all your state enterprises ... your water and electricity and communication ... There will be no entry into the WTO for Sri Lanka, nor any free trade agreement with the U.S., unless you enact some serious reforms ... your grossly overfunded health and education will have to go. Apart from commentary that highlights a democracy being subsumed by global power, Yapas most disturbing passages contain descriptions of police brutality, even as protesters remain convinced they will persuade peaceably. The writing is visceral, its images horrifying. Sunil Yapa is no beach reading. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Latinos make up 14 percent of Rhode Island's population but hold only 4 percent of the seats in the General Assembly. An analysis of demographic data by The Associated Press found that Rhode Island is one of the top 10 states for Hispanic underrepresentation in state legislatures. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials says there are five Latino state lawmakers in Rhode Island, with four of them in the House of Representatives. There are 113 state lawmakers in total. Juan Pichardo, a Democrat from Providence, is the sole Latino state senator despite Latinos being the largest group in five of the state's 38 Senate districts. Pichardo said the lack of representation can affect policy. As an example, the lawmaker pointed to stalled legislation that would have granted driver's licenses to immigrants in the country illegally. But he's also hopeful about the political progress he's seen since his family moved from the Dominican Republic in the 1970s. "I see more people stepping up," Pichardo said. "I see some of the Latino organizations cultivating new leadership." Of the 75 seats in the state House of Representatives, Latinos are the largest group in nine House districts. Six of those districts have Latino majorities. The district with the largest Latino majority represented by a non-Latino legislator is the one held by Democratic Rep. John Carnevale, vice chairman of the powerful House Finance Committee. An investigative report by WPRI-TV this week questioned whether Carnevale even lives in the district after revealing he owns a house in another district that he failed to disclose in ethics filings since taking office in 2009. After TV cameras repeatedly captured him and his vehicles at the undisclosed Johnston house, Carnevale amended his filings but insisted his residency is at the two-family Providence home where he's registered to vote. Democratic state Rep. Carlos Tobon said it took him years to build enough electoral support to make him the first Latino lawmaker from Pawtucket. Interstate 95 bisects his racially and ethnically diverse district, and he said winning elections meant bridging a minority neighborhood of many Latino and African newcomers with a relatively wealthier neighborhood of white homeowners of mostly Italian and Portuguese descent. A Rhode Island native, the 34-year-old Colombian-American said his parents' generation now sees him as helping to give immigrant communities a voice in state politics. "As the population continues to grow, we're going to see a natural progression of their involvement," Tobon said. Rhode Island's overrepresentation of non-Latino white lawmakers is not as extreme as many other states, partly because the proportion of black lawmakers in the General Assembly is close to the proportion of the state's population that is black. Ten state lawmakers from both chambers are in the Rhode Island Legislative Black and Latino Caucus. There are no Asian-American lawmakers, but the state's Asian population is low just over 3 percent. Providence Democratic Rep. Grace Diaz, vice chairwoman of the Black and Latino Caucus, said her concern is less about the number of Latino legislators and more about how well constituents are being represented on issues affecting the economy and education. "It's more that we don't have the power," she said. ___ This story has been corrected to show there are 113 state lawmakers, not 114. Tucson International Airport has reached an agreement with the ride-hailing service Uber to allow passengers to use the service at the airport, a day after announcing a similar deal with Uber rival Lyft. Uber will now be allowed to pick up arriving passengers at TIA through the companys mobile app. Official Uber pick-ups began immediately following Thursday evenings announcement, after Lyft began service earlier Thursday, the airport said. As with Lyft, Uber will be able to pick up passengers from the same designated area next to TIAs rental car facility, east of baggage claim near the shuttle stop for off-site car rental firms. Signs point the way to the Uber and Lyft pickup area. Uber will provide service at TIA under the same terms as the airports deal with Lyft, paying $2 for each pickup and dropoff, together roughly comparable to the $4 taxis pay for airport pickups, airport spokeswoman Jessie Butler said. Uber immediately posted that a $2 airport surcharge will apply to all pickups and drops; Lyft says on its website that airport fees vary. Both service contracts with Tucson International Airport run through Jan. 31, 2017, when they will be revisited, Butler said. This is kind of a trial run, to see how it works out, she said, adding that other ride-sharing services would have to negotiate individual contracts along the same lines as Uber and Lyft. Uber, Lyft and similar transportation network companies arrange rides, typically via smartphone apps, allowing customers to submit trip requests that are then routed to drivers who use their own cars. Uber serves 475 cities in more than 70 countries; Lyft now operates in more than 200 U.S. cities. Both companies are based in San Francisco. Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing services are set to begin service at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Saturday. PHOENIX The newest state utility regulator is blasting Chairman Doug Little for sidelining a discussion of whether Arizona Public Service should be forced to use some of the money it has from ratepayers to reduce peak energy demand through battery storage. The Arizona Corporation Commissions Andy Tobin told Capitol Media Services that all he wanted was to discuss at a meeting this week the idea of requiring APS to look at things like storing energy in batteries. He said that would go a long way toward addressing the bid by APS and other utilities to impose new demand charges on customers on top of what they already pay for electricity. But Tobin said when he refused a request by APS to table the issue, the utility went to Little. And the chairman admitted he used his authority to yank the item from the agenda. Little would not consent to be interviewed, instead issuing a statement blasting Tobins idea, saying it could result in substantial additional costs to ratepayers if not properly implemented. We cannot shoot from the hip on important policy matters like this, his statement read. And Little said it would have locked APS into programs to shift energy use away from peak periods for five years without regard to whether they were cost effective or not. But Tobin said what Little has done, at APS behest, is short-circuit any discussion. It makes me mad, he said. I wasnt very pleased we couldnt even have the conversation. Central to all this is the bid by utilities to change how residential customers are billed. They now pay a base fee for being connected to the grid, with a charge based on usage. What APS is proposing and other utilities are considering is adding a demand factor, with the bill based in part on the highest demand. So a customer whose air conditioner, dryer and pool pump all kicked on at the same time could face a much larger bill for the entire month, even if he or she kept overall energy use low. APS has a demand-side management plan, using ratepayer dollars for things like rebates for customers to buy programmable thermostats and more efficient air conditioners. But Tobin said the company has nearly $26 million in demand-side funds sitting idle. So he proposed spending $4 million of that on incentives to reduce energy consumption during demand periods, including energy storage. Little acknowledged at the meeting that APS had asked him to pull the item, saying utility officials were concerned they did not have the time to review Tobins proposal, which had been introduced just the day before. But the chairman said he had intended to do that even without APS input, saying what Tobin wanted had sweeping implications. Tobin, however, countered that APS had given commissioners only a week to review the utilitys plans. Anyway, he said, there was no reason not to explore the issue. It would have been nice to have the conversation, he said. And he chided APS for wanting to change the rates to reduce peak demand while not really doing anything about it like proposing a storage pilot program. Why didnt they come up with the idea? he said. Little is not the only problem. Commissioner Bob Stump weighed in with his own prepared statement saying Tobin should begin focusing on good-faith consensus-building, as opposed to confrontation, as we work together on issues we all agree are critical to Arizonas future. Stump, too, would not consent to an interview. But Tobin said what Stump essentially wants is a discussion of the issue behind the scenes, away from the public. Having withdrawn it entirely I think was a mistake for the chairman, he said. And then for them to tell me that Im not a team player? Tobin continued. What does that tell you? Do they want to just coordinate this not in public? APS insists its not necessarily opposed to some kind of energy storage, calling it in a statement an increasingly promising element in the delivery of electric service. Company spokesman Jim McDonald said APS already is looking at energy storage, both at the residential and the grid level. And he said APS intends to work with the commission as they consider the issue. There is a political side to all of this. APS has refused to confirm or deny that it funneled money into the 2014 campaign to elect Little and Tom Forese through one of two dark money organizations that were spending heavily to influence that election. OTTAWA, Ill. (AP) In the mid-1990s, Ryan Nevins was a student of English instructor and Starved Rock storyteller Bill Myers in classes at Ottawa High School. Nevins, who became a high school English teacher himself and became personal friends with his former teacher over the years, gave Myers credit as his inspiration for his career in education. Following Nevins' untimely death as fate would have it Myers, who retired from teaching full time at OHS and Marquette Academy years ago, accepted the school's request of becoming Nevins' long-term substitute taking over the English classes of his former student. Months before his death from cancer April 8 at the age of 38 in an interview for a news article about his mentor Nevins explained his long relationship with his former instructor. "Myers' passion and his love of literature helped me decide to go into teaching and teaching English," Nevins said. "In fact, my personal philosophy (of classroom instruction) is based on his style and approach of teaching. These days, my friendship with Bill remains important to me, because I have always looked up to him not only as a great teacher, but always as a leader." Myers stepped in. "I was deeply honored to be asked to take over Ryan's classes, but, at the same time, was heartsick at the circumstances," Myers said. "I felt the tremendous responsibility to carry the flag forward for such a great person, husband, father and teacher." Myers said Nevins' students quickly became his students. "We finished lessons on 'Romeo and Juliet' and had other assignments for the weeks I was here such as essay writing, poetry and interpretive homework," Myers said. "I also shoved grammar down my kids' throats while I was there, because they needed it." Recalling speaking at Nevins' funeral in April, Myers said, "I picked a piece from Edgar Lee Masters' 'Spoon River Anthology' about a dead man named George Gray speaking from his grave who had wasted his life away being afraid to live life. "Ryan was never afraid. He lived his life to the fullest at home, at work, at play. He put real meaning in the few years he had in life. "The last time I saw Ryan was during a lunch we shared last fall. During our conversation, I remember how he pounded on the table and said 'Damn it. We only get one chance to live a life. You got to live it.' I will never forget that." Myers said taking on the classes was physically and emotionally draining for him. "But, as we went along, the students and I felt like Ryan was with us each and every day during our studies. I hope I did some good for him. I believe I did." In the classroom that once belonged to Nevins after Myers took over students quickly saw the similarities between the two teachers. The two teachers were dynamic instructors who push their passion for literature and life onto their classes. "It was awesome to be in Mr. Nevins' class," said freshman Molly Harris. "He always made his lessons fun in a learning environment. In many ways, Mr. Myers, when he became our teacher, kept the memory of Mr. Nevins alive." Classmate Kekoa Gross, 15, agreed. "Mr. Myers was in a tough spot replacing Mr. Nevins," Gross said. "Like Mr. Nevins, Mr. Myers taught us not only about English and literature, but also how to live our lives. Mr. Nevins, like Mr. Myers, was a great guy." ___ Source: The (Ottawa) Times, PANTANO SWEPT BY EPIDEMIC OF NEW MALADY County Authorities Act Quickly to Arrest Spread to Tucson; Mortality Rate High Among Children; Inquest Today An epidemic of some disease which county authorities have not yet been able to identify, is raging at Pantano, having claimed five victims, all children, within a few days, according to information brought to the city yesterday. In order to stem, if possible, the further spread of the disease at Pantano and to prevent its communication to other parts of the county and the state, Dr. Schnabel and Sheriff Forbes, under orders from the county board of health, left yesterday afternoon at 4 oclock for Pantano, with instructions to clean up the place. The mortality rate of the disease is exceedingly high and it is apparently highly contagious. County authorities received word yesterday that another had been added to the death list, a child, making a total, it is said, of five deaths since the first appearance of the disease several days ago. The epidemic spread from a camp of Southern Pacific railroad section employees and their families. The majority of them, it is said, came recently from Mexico and, it is believed, brought the disease over the border. When news of the epidemic was brought to the city yesterday, Dr. Schnabel went to Pantano and reported to County Attorney Hilzinger upon his return. While he was unable to identify the disease from his casual observation yesterday, he said he was satisfied that it was caused by bad sanitation, the camp being in an extremely filthy condition. Chairman Estill, of the county board of health, being out of the city, County Attorney Hilzinger called a meeting of the board, at which the epidemic was discussed. It was decided to have made a thorough clean-up of the camp and to take stringent methods of preventing the spread of the disease to other parts of the county. Accordingly, Dr. Schnabel and Sheriff Forbes were instructed to go to Pantano and institute a clean-up campaign. An inquest will be held in the case of the child who died yesterday, in order to determine the nature of the disease and its causes. Sheriff Forbes and Doctor Schnabel returned to the city last night. The sheriff said that the total of deaths, so far as they could ascertain, might be as high as eight. Doctor Schnabel now believes that the deaths have been caused by acute bronchitis caused by exposure while the children were recuperating from whooping cough. At Pantano the nights are very cool, and it is believed that lack of sufficient covering made the victims an early prey to bronchitis. It would be easy to get confused by the minor scandal involving Pima County Supervisor Ally Millers office and conclude that its all about a young staffer who screwed up, then compounded his error by lying. That did happen, but its not the point. As you know if you follow local politics, Timothy DesJarlais finally acknowledged over the weekend that he had created a news website called the Arizona Daily Herald. One of his first acts after anonymously creating the website, he now acknowledges, was to use a pseudonym to ask other supervisor candidates about Millers road-repair plan, announced May 14. That amounted to trickery a county supervisors employee posing as a journalist, pressing her rivals for their views on her plan. The obvious question was whether Miller had put DesJarlais up to it. The answer, so far, is we dont know. But we can still come to some conclusions because of the way the story unfolded after the Tucson Sentinel, Tucson Weekly and I separately broke the news May 19. Miller chose to treat the story as a trumped-up attack on her by a local news media that despises her. Rather than suspending judgment and seeking clarification, she chose to believe her young staffers outlandish explanation and claim the stories were part of a conspiracy against her. That was bad judgment her bad judgment. She compounded the bad judgment by reporting the incident to the FBI and encouraging DesJarlais to do so as well, something that puts him in jeopardy of a criminal charge for false reporting. It was never clear what she thought the crime was she claimed that somebody else had assumed DesJarlais online pseudonym, Jim Falken, in an effort to smear her by creating this minor scandal. That made no sense then or now. But when you are an elected official with a persecution complex, you can apparently convince yourself and your avid supporters of about anything. Miller went further. When DesJarlais, in a panic, spit out the name John Dalton as the person whom he believed was responsible for the Arizona Daily Herald conspiracy, Miller again swallowed the lie whole. She posted an oblique accusation on the Facebook page of a local Republican activist named John Dalton: Yes I have reported this to the FBI cybercrimes Unit. We have the name of the individual who did this and HE will be brought to justice. I reported the individual by NAME. She added, Nice try! Miller wasnt the only one who used bad judgment in this situation, though. Her band of supporters in the local alternative media in Tucson, that means a handful of conservative outlets bought her version whole. Chris DeSimone and Joe Higgins of KVOI 1030-AM, James T. Harris of KQTH 104.1 FM, and Lori Hunnicutt, who runs the Arizona Daily Independent blog, all enabled Miller by supporting her bad judgment. A true friend and supporter of Miller, in this situation, would have tried to persuade her to take a colder, more rational look at the facts. But they didnt. Check out this bizarre sentence by Hunnicutt, discussing DesJarlais after his confession: While his actions may lead to an indictment, those who should be indicted by the public are the journalists, who used their barrels of ink to drown a 19 year old and ignore the powers-that-be. The key question with this affair never was whether DesJarlais did something wrong, though he has opened himself to scrutiny by filing to run for Marana school board. It was always Millers behavior. We wont know until we go through public records whether Miller had anything to do with the original creation of the Arizona Daily Herald. I suspect she did not. But we do know she and her supporters exercised bad judgment by instinctively believing DesJarlais, reporting the incident as a crime, believing in an anti-Miller conspiracy and lashing out at those who questioned him. They were wrong. DesJarlais can be forgiven for making a 19-year-olds mistakes and I hope nobody pursues legal action against him. He has resigned and apologized sincerely to Miller and Dalton. Miller? Before Dalton left town Thursday, he had heard nothing from this grown-up elected official who accused him publicly of wrongdoing. Bad judgment. directly responsible On Thursday, Sen. John McCain repeatedly accused President Obama of being directly responsible for Sundays massacre at a nightclub in Orlando. It was an extreme accusation because it suggested, through the use of the word directly, that Obama was somehow involved in the attack. In the age of Donald Trump, that implication is not so surprising, but its still beyond the bounds of traditional political discussion. Maybe more interesting is what he meant. McCain explained later that Obamas policies have led to the rise of the Islamic State group, which inspired the killer Sunday. Its a defensible argument, for sure. But in making it, McCain does something many of us do, but still should avoid: Prematurely concluding what the killers motivation was. From the reporting thats happened so far, it appears not only that the Islamic State was a likely factor, but so was the killers failed attempt at a police career, hatred of gays, mental instability, easy access to firearms, and, most provocatively, his own possible repressed homosexuality. It seems we tend to pick the explanation that bolsters our own political perspective. Sad to see McCain do that too, but not surprising in an election year. But we repeat ourselves Democrats Tom Chabin and Bill Mundell are mounting what could be a strong challenge to the Republicans on the Arizona Corporation Commission. The revelation last week that the FBI is questioning people about the 2014 commission election bolsters their argument that change is needed. What doesnt bolster their argument? Their answers to a candidate questionnaire from the Arizona Investment Council, a group of utility investors who support infrastructure spending. Unlike the Republican candidates, the two Democrats answered identically to almost every question. For example, this was Question 4: Are you in favor of competition in retail electricity markets in Arizona? Why or why not? Both Chabin and Mundell answered: I would listen fairly and objectively to the arguments presented by the parties. My decision will be based on the facts and evidence presented. I get running as a slate, but that doesnt mean youre twins. Pima County health officials have reported the first confirmed local case of the Zika virus. The infected person contracted the virus while traveling outside the United States to various places in the Caribbean, the Pima County Health Department said in a news release Friday. The person returned to Pima County and has recovered from all Zika-related symptoms, the county said. No additional Zika cases have been identified. "This individual is no longer at risk of transmitting the virus and officials are confident this person was infected while traveling," the news release said. Mosquito bites spread the Zika virus, which causes fever, rash, joint pain, and red or swollen eyes, the county said. The illness is typically mild and symptoms last for a few days. Arizona is home to one of the Aedes species of mosquitoes that spread the Zika virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday three cases of babies born in the United States with birth defects related to the Zika virus. All of the mothers were infected while traveling in Latin America or the Caribbean. The World Health Organization said the virus also can be spread through sexual contact. The virus also causes Guillain-Barre syndrome, which the WHO described as a rare condition in which the immune system attacks nerves. Most people fully recover from the syndrome, but in about one-fourth of cases the virus affects chest muscles and makes breathing difficult. As soon as we knew this person was at risk for Zika, we took the necessary steps to inform the individual on how to prevent mosquito bites, Pima County Health Department Director Francisco Garcia said in the news release. The health department said officials have increased mosquito trapping, surveillance and testing throughout the county. While travel related cases like this one are reminders that we should take steps to protect ourselves at home and during travel, the risk of having a person become infected with Zika virus while here in Pima County remains low, Garcia said. Officials urged county residents to decrease the threat of mosquito-borne diseases by using mosquito repellent, wearing pants and loose-fitting, light-colored, long-sleeve shirts. Residents should remove objects from their yards that collect water and dump standing water. Residents also should protect themselves with mosquito repellent and appropriate clothing while traveling and contact their healthcare provider if they feel ill upon their return to Pima County. The deadly week for pedestrians and motorists continued in the Tucson area. Officials said a driver was killed in a crash Thursday afternoon on the northwest side, a pedestrian was struck and killed late Thursday in midtown and a man who suffered critical injuries after being hit by an SUV earlier in the month has died. This brings to eight the number of motorists and pedestrians who have died since Monday night on Tucson-area streets. Driver facing charges The driver of a car that struck and killed a pedestrian has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, Tucson police said Friday. Authorities also identified the pedestrian as Kevin Ryan Ugg, 48, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a Tucson Police Department spokesman. Officers were called at 11 p.m. Thursday to an accident involving a pedestrian on East Grant Road near North Mountain Avenue. Tucson Fire personnel were rendering aid to the pedestrian, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives learned that the man was crossing the eastbound lanes of traffic on Grant when he was struck by a 2012 Dodge Challenger that was eastbound in the center lane, said Dugan. The pedestrian was not crossing in a crosswalk, police said. Detectives determined the driver of the car was impaired, police said. Byron Omar Calderon, 36, was arrested and booked into the Pima County jail on one count of manslaughter. Police said speed was not a factor in the crash. There have been 26-traffic related deaths in Tucson this year, including seven pedestrians, police said. That's compared to 25 deaths this time last year. Pedestrian dies from injuries A man who was struck by an SUV two weeks ago died Thursday from his injuries, police said. The man was identified as Michael Gary Edminster, 50, said Dugan. The incident happened on the city's north side in the 2000 block of East Prince Road shortly before 8:30 p.m. The neighborhood is near North Campbell Avenue. Traffic detectives determined that a 2001 BMW SUV was traveling west on Prince. Edminster, who was not in a crosswalk, ran across the road from south to north and was struck by the vehicle, Dugan said. The driver of the SUV remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. No citations will be issued, Dugan said. In 2015, Arizona traffic fatals were 895; Pima County were 91, data shows. Driver dies when car hits pole A man was killed in a single-vehicle crash on Tucson's northwest side Thursday afternoon. The man was identified as Lawrence Junco, 73, said Deputy Courtney Rodriguez, a Pima County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. At 4:30 p.m., deputies responded to the crash at West Overton Road and North La Cholla Boulevard after 911-callers reported the incident, said Rodriguez. Deputies found the car had crashed into a traffic signal pole. Junco was wearing a seat belt and was the only occupant in the car. Traffic detectives were working to determine what caused the crash, Rodriguez said. PHOENIX The Arizona Supreme Court this morning upheld the conviction and nine death sentences imposed against Mark Goudeau, the "Baseline Killer.'' In a 76-page opinion, the justices rejected a series of claims by Goudeau's attorneys that there were errors in the trial, in which he was convicted on killing nine people during a series of crimes that terrorized the Phoenix area about 10 years ago. That included questions about the legality of one of the search warrants as well as the fact that the police used all of the DNA it had in testing, leaving none for Goudeau's legal team. Potentially most significant, Justice John Pelander, writing for the unanimous court, rebuffed Goudeau's claim he was entitled to separate trials for the different slayings, rapes and robberies. Jurors in 2011 found Mark Goudeau, then 47, guilty of the nine murders and 58 other charges, including kidnapping and rape. They sentenced him to death on each of the nine murder counts. According to Goudeau, jurors might have been swayed by the sheer number of charges and the mountain of evidence, finding him guilty even in cases where the evidence was weak. Pelander, however, said the only disputed issue in the case was the identity of who committed the murders and assaults. He said that made it relevant for jurors to have all of the evidence of all of the crimes. SHOW LOW Fire lines were holding Thursday in the fight against a wildfire threatening several communities with thousands of residents in east-central Arizona. The winds werent as bad, and the backburns did exactly what we wanted them to do, Navajo County Sheriff KC Clark said at a late afternoon news conference. The blaze still was burning about a mile from locations that would trigger mandatory evacuations. But if we get through today, I think well be all right, Clark said. Fire officials feared a repeat of Wednesday, when the fire broke out around noon 12 miles south of Show Low. Wind gusts of 35 mph pushed the fire burning brush and ponderosa pine to 1.5 square miles within three hours and nearly 4 square miles by 5 p.m. Residents in five communities were put on pre-evacuation alert. But authorities said winds were lighter Thursday. About 600 personnel were on the ground battling the flames as successful controlled burns helped slow the head of the fire at its northeast point. We really worked it hard. Lots of burnout operations, fire operations chief Rocky Gilbert said. We didnt have any of the fire going over lines that we didnt want it to. The blaze has charred about 12.5 square miles, including thousands of acres that were set on fire by firefighters to deprive the fire of fuel. Air tankers were dropping retardant and water to stop the flames from spreading. Residents have been urged to prepare go kits with essential belongings such as medications, make arrangements for pets and put green tags on their doors or mailboxes so authorities know homes have been evacuated. Areas under pre-evacuation advisories included Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside. Only a few homes were evacuated. The fires cause was under investigation. A 20-mile stretch of U.S. 60 remained closed. Kim Reabe was among the Linden residents preparing for possible evacuations. Some people had already left to avoid being caught in a traffic jam later, she said. Its terrifying to have to evacuate. ... People dont want to have to deal with that, Reabe said. She said smoke from the fire caused her to cough even inside her home. She also reported long lines at grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies. The region is popular with visitors seeking to avoid heat in Arizonas desert cities. PHOENIX Gov. Doug Ducey wants a federal judge to block or at least narrow efforts by lawyers for the Tohono Oodham Nation to question his staffers in the legal fight over the Glendale casino. Attorneys for the governor have told U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell the tribe is not entitled to some of the information it is seeking. They say some of it is protected by attorney-client privilege. The governors legal team also said there is no right for the tribe to delve into internal discussions that took place within the Governors Office, even if it did not involve legal advice. And Duceys lawyers warned Campbell that allowing tribal attorneys to look into such matters would set a bad precedent. Any disclosure of internal discussions regarding the subpoena topics would have a chilling effect on future deliberations within the state executive branch, the governors lawyers said. The executive branch and especially the Governors Office frequently have to make difficult decisions that affect state funding, public safety, and relations with various tribes located within Arizona, they continued. As a result, the executive branch must have the ability to openly discuss options and weigh recommendations without fear these internal communications become public for unnecessary scrutiny. At a hearing Friday, Campbell said he wants to get legal briefs from the tribes attorneys on why they think theyre entitled to delve into these areas. He gave them until the end of the month to respond. In the interim, tribal lawyers will be able to question two former state employees on Wednesday: Steve Hart, who previously served as director of the Arizona Department of Gaming, and Mike Bielicki, who was an aide to Gov. Jane Hull when she was negotiating new gaming compacts with the Oodham and other tribes. The move comes as the tribe is seeking to persuade Campbell to effectively order state Gaming Director Daniel Bergin to allow it to have full-scale Class III gaming at its new Glendale casino. Bergin has refused, contending the tribe effectively committed fraud more than a decade ago as voters were being asked to approve new gaming compacts. He said the tribe concealed its plans for the Glendale casino from state officials and the public even as voters were being told that approving the compacts would mean no new casinos in the Phoenix area. With the lawsuit unresolved, the tribe opened the facility as a Class II casino with devices that look like slot machines but operate electronically like interconnected bingo games. Those are not subject to state regulation. The tribe, however, wants not only full-blown slots but also games like blackjack and poker, which require state approval. Among the questions tribal attorneys want to ask are the basis for any belief by the governor at the time of the 2002 public vote that there would be no expansion of gaming in the area. Help India! Accuse Indian Government of Implicitly Justifying the Murder of Congolese National and Attacks on Africans in India, Demand Action Support TwoCircles By M Ghazali Khan Britains South Asian and African Caribbean organisations have strongly condemned the murder of a Congolese national, Masonda Kitanda Oliver, in Delhi last month and have called upon the government to stop such hate spate against Africans in India. We in Britain are horrified and dismayed at these recent developments, says an angry and terse letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and signed by ten different organisations representing South Asians and Africans in the UK. Not only do Indians and other South Asians living in Britain face racism and racist violence, but there is a long history of people of African and South Asian origin working together in solidarity to confront and challenge British racism. It reads. Highlighting the history of racism against Africans in India the letter goes on, Racial prejudice against Africans has, of course, been endemic in Indian society for many years linked to historically embedded supremacist ideologies of both caste and colonialism. However, with the rise of your party to power and the total impunity given by the BJP government to Hindu supremacist gangs to harass, abuse and kill Muslims, Christians and Dalits, as well as those who racially attack people from the North-East of India, racism against Africans has also escalated. It adds, Africans face a constant barrage of racism. Everyday experiences include being taunted on the street with overt racist slurs, denied accommodation by landlords and being stereotyped as drug-dealers, if they are men and sex-workers (if they are women). In addition, there have been brutal attacks and murders and sexual violence. In February this year in a vicious attack in Bangalore, a mob assaulted a Tanzanian student, partially stripped her, and set her car on fire. The letter accuses the Indian Government not only of inaction but trivializing and implicitly justifying the attacks and says, Far from condemning these attacks and murders, members of your government and party have trivialised them, denied or deflected their racist nature, or even implicitly justified them. For example V.K. Singh, Minister for External Affairs in your government, claimed that the press were blowing up [a] minor scuffle as [an] attack, your foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, declared that the attacks were criminal acts, but were not racial and Tourism and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma commented that Africa is unsafe too. The attempt of the government to reframe these attacks as criminal acts rather than racially motivated hate crimes allows the Indian Government to try to safeguard its economic interests in Africa whilst denying the racist ideology deeply embedded in your own party and administration, clearly demonstrated when the Tourism Minister in Goa (a state ruled by your party), Dilip Parulekar, commented with overt racism that Nigerians make trouble in India and ought to be deported. Organisations signing the condemnation have also supported African diplomats in their call to boycott the Africa Day celebrations and have urged the Prime Minister to (1) take steps to ensure that immediate action is taken to bring those responsible for the recent racist attacks including those politicians indulging in racist hate-speeches like Dilip Parulekar to justice, (2) that the survivors and the families of the victims are provided with all possible support and assistance by your government and (3) that the government of India takes immediate steps for the development and systematic implementation of policies which aim to confront and eradicate racism in India at all levels as a matter of the utmost urgency. Human Rights organization South Asia Solidarity Group has also uploaded the letter on internet as a petition and have asked UK residents to sign it. The full text of the letter is as follows: Dear Prime Minister Modi, We the undersigned strongly condemn the horrific killing of Masonda Kitanda Oliver and the spate of violent attacks on African nationals living in India. Our deepest sympathies and solidarity are with the families of the victims. In the last two years, there has been an enormous rise in racist violence against Africans in India. Racial prejudice against Africans has, of course, been endemic in Indian society for many years linked to historically embedded supremacist ideologies of both caste and colonialism. However, with the rise of your party to power and the total impunity given by the BJP government to Hindu supremacist gangs to harass, abuse and kill Muslims, Christians and Dalits, as well as those who racially attack people from the North-East of India, racism against Africans has also escalated. Africans face a constant barrage of racism. Everyday experiences include being taunted on the street with overt racist slurs, denied accommodation by landlords and being stereotyped as drug-dealers, if they are men and sex-workers if they are women. In addition, there have been brutal attacks and murders and sexual violence. In February this year in a vicious attack in Bangalore, a mob assaulted a Tanzanian student, partially stripped her, and set her car on fire. We would like particularly to highlight the events of the last month in Delhi. On May 20, 24 year-old Congolese teacher Masunda Kitanda Oliver, was bludgeoned to death. This was followed within days by a brutal attack on Nigerian priest Kenneth Igbinosa as he returned home with his wife and four-month-old son, and attacks on four separate groups of Africans also in the capital. Far from condemning these attacks and murders, members of your government and party have trivialised them, denied or deflected their racist nature, or even implicitly justified them. For example V.K. Singh, Minister for External Affairs in your government, claimed that the press were blowing up [a] minor scuffle as [an] attack, your foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, declared that the attacks were criminal acts, but were not racial and tourism and culture minister Mahesh Sharma commented that Africa is unsafe too, The attempt of the government to reframe these attacks as criminal acts rather than racially motivated hate crimes allows the Indian Government to try to safeguard its economic interests in Africa whilst denying the racist ideology deeply embedded in your own party and administration, clearly demonstrated when the Tourism minister in Goa (a state ruled by your party), Dilip Parulekar, commented with overt racism that Nigerians make trouble in India and ought to be deported. We support the decision of the African diplomatic community to boycott the Africa Day celebrations over the killings and Eritrean ambassador Alem Tsehage Woldemarians demand that the problem of racism and Afro-phobia in India be addressed by the Indian Government. We in Britain are horrified and dismayed at these recent developments. Not only do Indians and other South Asians living in Britain face racism and racist violence, but there is a long history of people of African and South Asian origin working together in solidarity to confront and challenge British racism. We demand (1) that you ensure that immediate action is taken to bring those responsible for the recent racist attacks including those politicians indulging in racist hate-speech like Dilip Parulekar to justice, (2) that the survivors and the families of the victims are provided with all possible support and assistance by your government and (3) that the government of India takes immediate steps for the development and systematic implementation of policies which aim to confront and eradicate racism in India at all levels as a matter of the utmost urgency. Hana Sandhu, South Asia Solidarity Group Explo Nani-Kofi, Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination, Ghana and London Asad Rehman, Newham Monitoring Project Esther Stanford-Xosei, Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe Naeem Malik, South Asian Alliance Jendayi Serwah, Global Afrikan Peoples Parliament (GAPP). Nirmala Rajasingam, Freedom Without Fear Platform Sara Calloway, Women of Colour Global Womens Strike Cristel, Black Womens Rape Action project Wretched of the Earth Collective Help India! By Amit Kumar, Twocircles.net Churachandpur, Manipur: It would not be an exaggeration to say that in Manipur, the dominant political discourse you hear depends on your location. In the valley regions, this discourse is almost completely dominated, and some would say, hegemonised, by the Meiteis. This also explains why the support for passing the three controversial bills has triggered wide-spread protests in the region of Imphal and Thoubal. However, a two-hour ride into the interiors of the state show a drastic change in how the bills introduced by the Manipur government are perceived. Here, the only form of reaction to these Bills is that of complete protest; against passing them. In Churachandpur, you are unlikely to find a person who agrees with the Meiteis; the tribals of this region have been at the centre of protests against these Bills, and understandably so. Support TwoCircles File photo of protests in Churachandpur last September after nine people died in police firing. In fact, the day these Bills were passed, violence erupted in almost all hill districts of Manipur and angry protesters attacked the houses of local MLAs. Over the next two days, 9 people were killed in Churachandpur by security forces including a 10 year old during wide-spread protests. The town is yet to bury its martyrs and there bodies remain kept in the district hospital. The three Bills: The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh) Amendment Bill 2015 (MLRLR Bill 2015), The Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015 and The Manipur Shops and Establishments Act (Second) Amendment Bill 2015, are being presented by the Government of Manipur as a solution to long pending demand for implementation of Inner Line Permit system by the Meitei organizations to protect them from the high rate of influx of outsiders. The Inner Line Permit is a special permit required to enter certain restricted areas in the country, and currently such a system exists in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. The Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System (JCILPS) has been spearheading the movement for legislation to protect the indigenous population from migrants. But in Churachanpur, Tamenglong, Senapati, Chandel and Ukhrulthe five hill districts of Manipurthere has been a strong movement against the three bills, spearheaded by Joint Action Committee against Anti-Tribal Bills, also known as JAC. The JAC is of the opinion that these Bills are another attempt by the Valley people to undermine the status of the tribal regions, which have been ignored when it comes to development. Speaking to Twocircles.net, Mangchinkhup, chief convener of the JAC, said these Bills are the result of over three decades of demands from the valley people. As early as 1980, the All Manipur Students Union demanded an Inner Line Permit, he said. The JAC, he added, has never been against Inner Line Permit, and that the ILP issue is being used as a convenient diversionary tactic by the valley people. Had it been only about Inner Line permit issue, we had no issues. But these Bills are much more than that, he added. For tribals, letting go of land is not an option To begin with, the tribals point out that despite being categorised as Scheduled Tribes, they have been denied the sixth schedule. The Constitution of India refers tribal areas within the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura & Mizoram, as those areas specified in Parts I, II, IIA & III of the table appended to paragraph 20 of the Sixth Schedule. But somehow, the tribal regions of Manipur were never included in the list. Sixth schedule is our right, which has been denied to us for all these years. But instead of addressing this issue, the Manipur government wants us to forget that we are tribals, Mangchinkhup adds. To understand Mangchinkhups point, it is important to look Manipurs demography. While the valley regions four districtsImphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupuroccupy 10% of the states total area, these four districts, according to Census 2011 data, are home to just over 60% of the states population. On the contrary, the five hill districts, which cover about 90% of the states area, have only 40% of the population. Over the years, with the rise in construction activities, land has become a premium product in the valley region. Add to that, the increase in the Meyang (outsiders) population, and the result has been a growing pressure from the Meiteis and their leadership to both protect the Valley and open the hill regions to the valley people. And according to the JAC, it is this policy that is at the centre of these Bills; not the ILP. The lack of land in the valley is a result of government policies. Over the past decades, all development projects like small-scale industries, colleges, universities and hospitals have been built in the valley region. Bar one hospital, we are yet to see any development from the state. It is the Church that has established schools, colleges and hospitals in this region, Mangchinkhup adds. One of the bills set the definition for Manipur domicile: Persons of Manipur whose names are in the National Register of Citizens, 1951, Census Report 1951 and Village Directory of 1951 and their descendants who have contributed to the collective social, cultural and economic life of Manipur. This clause is the bone of contention. We all know what the level of literacy in the tribal hills was in 1951. Who kept registers at the time? We are told that officers prepared reports sitting in Imphal. Also, it is not clear what they mean by to have contributed to the social and cultural life of Manipur? This will leave out many of us tribals, says an agitated Mangchinkhup. He points to another law which loosens the regime restricting the Meiteis from buying lands in the hills. The valley people are trying to equate themselves with us and are trying to seek the scheduled caste status, he says. Even the districts name comes from the name of a Meitei king from the 19th century. For the locals, the place is still known as Lamka. It is about our identity, our territory. All we have is our land. If this is also taken away from us, what do we have left?, asks Benjamin Vualnam, an alumnus of TISS, Mumbai who came back home after his Masters in 2013. An important reason behind the deep mistrust among the hill and valley residents is also because of the cultural differences. While all the valley districts have more than 60% Hindu population, in districts like Churachandpur, Christians constitute over 90% of the population. Also, the Zomi and Chin tribes of the region are culturally much closer to the Mizos compared with the Meiteis. We understand and identify with Mizos a lot more than the Meiteis, says Vualnam. The tribal regions invoked a ten-day economic blockade to press for their demands, even as their agitation in Delhi was brutally beaten up outside Manipur Bhawan earlier this month. The tribal delegation had been protesting against the arrival of a delegation from various political parties of Manipur seeking the President of Indias nod for the Bills. Although the President rejected one of the three Bills, the tribals know that the state government is unlikely to give up on their demands. The same can be said for the tribals. Help India! By Sadiq Zafar for TwoCircles.net It is claimed that the exodus is happening in Kairana of Shamli district since the communal inferno of Muzaffarnagar during September 2013. The anti-Muslim violence which became centric to the division of society on communal lines made way for the right wing political party, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) to win 71 out of 80 seats from Uttar Pradesh (UP) during the 2014 Parliamentary elections. Support TwoCircles So, it can be said, as per the claims of the BJPs political representatives from the region that things were not going well in the polarized society of western UP at least from the past two years, as per the election campaigns and slogans. In these two years the political party, BJP is ruling the nation and the political representative, parliamentarian of the region at the national stage is from the very political party. How can they be so insensitive to the cause of the people constituting their own vote bank for which they claim that they can die? If the exodus be the truth, then it is asked that for these two years the BJP didnt raise any voice in the parliament, media or in the sate against such a horrifying situation. Was that not the responsibility of an MP as a political representative of the region to diffuse any such situation, in order to achieve communal harmony and peace, only if he wanted to? Since theyre crying a foul play, my question to the BJP is that why did they keep mum on such a grave situation and didnt work with the District Magistrate to establish a peace committee for the region and work with both the communities in order to improve the ground condition. Though they claim the state is working as perpetrator of peace, was that not their own responsibility to lead a fact finding team since the initiation of this claimed exodus and bring this issue to the notice of the August house. The communal riot of Muzaffarnagar may be a reason to many polarized movements in the western part of the province. Ghettoization happens when communal tension arouses, the way it happened after the Advani led demolition of Babri Masjid. Demolition of Babri Masjid and riots that followed it played a vital role in surfacing up of segregated neighborhoods on the urban map of India resulting in the formation of ghettos in the urban morphology. Even if the exodus happened, which is not a healthy sign of a developing nation, segregation leads to fanaticism and kills the interactive space within different communities of the society. Why is the issue being raised at the time when the state of Uttar Pradesh is going for election earlier next year? Why should it not be seen as the issue to gain political escalations and the seat of power in the coming provincial elections? And I wonder what exactly did they do to stop the migration when the BJP got aware of this movement in Kairana? The region which gave a school of thought to the music industry should not suffer from the political stiff of the right and the rest, but it should be ensured that the peace of the region should be maintained. We should always remember that the strength of our nation lies in pluralistic and diverse society, which is also the beauty of the Indian culture and its democracy. Aaj ki raat bahut garam hawa chalti hai Aaj ki raat na neend aayegi Hum sub uthein, main bhi uthun, tum bhi utho Koi khidki isi deewar mein khul jayegi Kaifi Azmi [A Delhi-based architect and urban planner, Sadiq Zafar is the author of Sustainable Development of Yamuna Floodplain, Delhi which is available with Barnes & Noble.] Help India! By Shafeeq Hudawi, TwoCircles.net Kozhikode: Palakkad may be a favourite among tourist destinations in Kerala, with its numerous waterfalls, forts and temples. But one young filmmaker, Sudevan Peringode, a resident of Palakkad, has been trying to put the district on a cinematic map with a twist: every movie that Sudevan has made until now, including his latest upcoming project, is funded by ordinary citizens. And this, despite the fact that none of his movies have stars; but instead feature citizens from all walks of life. Support TwoCircles Sudevan Peringod The idea of looking towards crowdfunding is not new, especially in Kerala. People who follow Malayalam cinema would remember John Abraham, the Malayali film maker who rebelled against the establishment by redefining the ways of filmmaking and leading a nomadic life. The genius left his mark in the history of Malayalam cinema by starting a peoples cinema movement, a form of independent filmmaking through his Odessa Collective in 1980s. Spectators, who contributed him amounts they could spare, were the stakeholders of his films, some of which were later listed among the top Indian films. Three decades later, Sudevan is set to look towards the crowd of cinema buffs again as he attempts to make a three-hour portmanteau movie comprising five short films under the collective Pace Trust by raising fund of Rs 15 lakh from people. Sudevan is now calling up on the film lovers to be stakeholders of strong alternative films after successfully bringing out five finely crafted films, Varoo (Come), Planning, Randu (Two), Thattumborathappan and Crime No. 89. Unlike John Abraham and his companions, who wandered seeking funds from everyone, Sudevan accepts contributions from those who love his films. We collect money from those who like our movies. There might be people, who dont like my style of filmmaking. They have the right to know about what they are spending for, Sudevan says. Pace Production, the first form of Pace Trust, developed into an entity in 2004 while a group of film lovers joined their hands for a novel cause, peoples film. Varoo and Planning, the first film made by a handy cam in 2004 and 2008, brought this collective attention and few awards after being exhibited in some of the film festivals. Poster of first film Varoo Pace Productions tale is an unprecedented one as it was started as a five-member group of common men, who were without film background. Their love towards movies brought the team, which comprised artists, school teachers and coolies, together and led towards a novel movement. In short, not only does Sudevan depend on people to contribute financially, he also depends on the crowd for providing him with actors. The first film was made with a budget of Rs 5,000, which was collected from the members while collection reached Rs 8,000 in 2006 for the second film Planning. We needed Rs 20,000 for the third film and we were unable to meet the expenses with our income. The well wishers, who loved our movies came in helping us, Sudevan said. Sudevan says that raising funds was not an easy affair. We have to convey them significance of our movies and give an ear to their responses, he adds. Randu and Thattumporathappan, the third and fourth movies by Pace Production, were awaited a better turn as they won several awards and accolades from film lovers across the state. Thattumporathappan, which dealt with the spiritual cults and beliefs, was exhibited at around 200 venues across Kerala while 2,500 DVDs of these films were sent to film lovers who contributed financially to the collective. In 2011, when the collective started to receive money from various parts of the globe, Pace Production was formed as a trust named Pace Trust. It was need of the hour to make it a trust in order to keep our functions and transactions transparent, Sudevan said. Poster of film Randu In 2013, CR No. 89, one of the finest Malayalam films in recent times was brought out by the group spending Rs 7 lakh, contributed by the well wishers and fans. To add to the pleasure of the collective, CR No.89 won the Kerala State Award for Best Film and Best Second Actor in 2013 and the NETPAC Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK). No wonder then, Sudevans attempts have earned him a lot of praise from the film makers in Kerala. Peoples film movement or independent film movement is getting strong ground in Kerala and Sudevan is an important part of it. The new culture helps filmmakers to bring out more artistic film and get rid of the compulsions of the commercial interests, says film director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, who is part of the independent film movement through making his feature film Ozhivu Divasathe Kali (An Off Day Game). In this kind of film making, directors need not compromise the quality as marketing is not a concern for them at all, he adds. Sudevans films continue the legacy of John Abraham while it comes to extend strong resistance against the establishment and social decay. Characters in my films are nameless. Names represent castes, he says. Quoting Sree Narayana Guru, the great social reformer in Kerala, Sudevan says dont say and dont ask caste. The professional artist who used to work as a painter to earn a livelihood, Sudevan is now fully engaged in materialising the dream of making a package of short films. We have completed one of the four short films using the money in hand. We will make it as campaigns, aimed at finding out the rest of the amount, are evoking a good response, he adds. Related: TCN Positive page Help India! By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net, Pune: June 2, 2014 was a hot day in Pune with mercury reaching 39C. This ended up being the hottest day of June that year. The heat was further raised by members of right-wing Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS) who went on a violent rampage in the city. Ostensibly they were disturbed at some derogatory images of Shivaji and Bal Thackeray uploaded to the facebook. Support TwoCircles 28-year old Mohsin Shaikh, who was IT manager at a local company, was caught by the Hindutva mob when he stepped out of the Masjid at Hadapsar in Pune. Hadapsar is the industrial hub of Pune with offices of some of the big multi-nationals present there. This tiny area has three Special Economic Zones: Magarpatta city, Amanora parktown and Fursungi IT Park (SP Infocity). [R to L] Adv. Hafeez Qazi, Ujwal Nikam, Zahid Khan (President of Action Committee) and Azhar Tamboli Only a week after Narendra Modi took oath as a Prime Minister in New Delhi, members of Hindu Rashtra Sena went on a violent rampage in Pune and killed Mohsin Sadiq Shaikh. A young lad with smiling face and future plans he was looking forward to planning his wedding after the upcoming Ramadan. Neither the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan visited the family of Shaikh and gave stern statement that violence on the basis of religion will not be tolerated. However the then Congress-led Maharashtra Government acted sternly against these extremists and 22 members of HRS were arrested including its chief Dhananjay Desai. Two years down, apart from five two juveniles and three others rest of the accused continue to remain in jail after their several bail applications were rejected by Punes Session Court and Bombay High Court. The juveniles were granted bail after two months of their arrest in August 2014 and three other accused Shubnam Dattatrey Barade (19), Mahesh Maruti Khot(24) and Abhishek Chavan (29) all residents of Kalepadal near Hadapsar were granted bail by Bombay High Court in April 2016. While granted bail, the high court imposed severe conditions on the accused. On Tuesday, a special court in Pune rejected bail plea of Dhananjay Desai for the third time. The court also rejected his discharge application citing evidences against him establishing his role in the criminal conspiracy behind the killing of Mohsin. Considering the gravity of case, the Maharashtra state had appointed Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam in this case. However, Sadiq Shaikh, father of Mohsin Shaikh too appointed a lawyer Hafeez Qazi as an intervener in the case who remains present during every hearing of the matter. Explaining why he appointed a lawyer in the case, Sadiq Shaikh tells TwoCircles.net, My advocate keeps a close watch in the case and informs me about proceedings. I want to make sure perpetrators of Mohsins murder are not granted bail or the case is not weakened against them and therefore I have intervened in the case from the start. He is not happy with the delay in trial and wants speedy justice. He says, FortTwo years they have been arrested but charges have not been framed against the accused. Justice will only be done when they are put to harshest punishment. Talking about the delay in the matter, Advocate Qazi told TwoCircles.net, The delay caused in the framing of charges is not intentional. Prosecution has drafted charges but it is not able to frame it because accused keeps filing discharge applications before court and as a procedure unless court decides discharge pleas, it cannot frame charges. Now that all discharge applications are rejected by court, we can expect court to soon frame charges and start trial, he adds. Azhar Tamboli, a social activist in Pune accompanies advocate Qazi in court on behalf of Sadiq Shaikh and facilitates between them for providing documents and other information. I saw Sadiq Shaikh making rounds of Pune for hearing of the matter. In order to provide him some relief from travelling, I voluntarily attend every hearing and inform him of every proceedings, Tamboli told TwoCirlces.net. Tamboli had played an important role in taking care of Mubin, brother of Mohsin. Mohsin was beaten to death before Mubins eyes by the accused. Overcome with emotions Mubin was shouting, abusing and crying at the Noble Hospital where Mohsin was declared dead on the night of June 2, 2014. Related: Three Ramadans without Mohsin Shaikh, a mother recalls memories of her son Chinese-American artist Ken Jan Woo recognized for giving new life to Medieval style of church art Of the long list of awards and nominations he's received for his artistic endeavors, Chinese-American painter Ken Jan Woo believes the Artist Achievement Award he got on June 11 from Union City, New Jersey, is the most special. Presented every summer, the Union City Artist Awards honor the most talented and dedicated artists from all disciplines who have contributed to the local artistic fabric, according to the organizers. Only a five-minute drive to downtown Manhattan, Union City is a place many world renowned actors, musicians, artists and Broadway celebrities call home. Chinese-American painter Ken Jan Woo works on the St Crysostom panel at the Church of Our Savior in New York City. photos provided to china daily "This award is very special to the art world in New York," Woo said, adding the event is a celebration of the many contributions that artists have made and continue to make to the local culture. "It was based on my accumulated work and contributions to the community," he said. "I've been in Union City for 10 years. This award was a big honor for me because I am based in Union City. I am proud to be recognized in the city where I work." Among his many accomplishments, Woo's involvement as a muralist in the project at the Church of Our Savior at Park Avenue and 38th Street in New York City, completed in 2009, won him much recognition, including the Best Renovation of the Year and a Gold Leaf Award. "The Artist Achievement Award was primarily for the work done at the church," said Woo. After winning the bid on the church project among seven international artists, Woo used a traditional process - wood treated with animal glue, 10 coatings of gesso, a coat of red clay, then gilding and paint of oil tempera - to produce seven devotional icons highlighted by a 24-foot-tall Byzantine image of Christ. Ken Jan Woo poses for a picture with Lucio Fernandez, commissioner of public affairs, after receiving the Artist Achievement Award on June 11 from Union City, New Jersey. "I like public works," Woo said, "you're not cooped up painting every day in isolation." The three-phase project took six years to complete and was funded by the Vatican, the church and private donations. The installation of Woo's large-scale paintings required scaffolding, electric lifts and other high-tech equipment. A teacher at Berkeley College in New York, Woo was commissioned to paint Pope John Paul II's coronation portrait and had his work previewed last June at New York University's Catholic Center. "I am currently working on many murals for the Toronto Oratory Church in Toronto Canada. This project will include eight large murals all with 23-karat gold gilding," Woo said, adding that many of his commissioned projects come from word of mouth. Born in Shanghai to an artist mother, Woo moved to the US when he was four. He studied art in Florence, Italy, in 1995 and continued in master's programs at the New York of Academy of Art and Central Academy of Art in Beijing from 2002 to 2004. junechang@chinadailyusa.com China's economy to grow 6.5% this year: Allianz economist Updated: 2016-06-17 11:22 By Yu Xiaoming(chinadaily.com.cn) Michael Heise, Chief Economist the Alliance SE, in the ZDF Talk show Maybrit Illner, April 28, 2016. [Photo/IC] A senior Allianz economist has expressed optimism about China's economy and predicted the country will deliver a 6.5 percent annual growth this year. Generally speaking, China's economy is not doing as badly as some have said, Michael Heise, Chief Economist of Allianz Dresdner Economic Research, said during an exclusive interview with Shanghai Securities News. Heise has always paid attention to China as the country is now settling into a "new normal" of lower growth rates. "This year, China's GDP growth will slow to 6.5 percent from 6.9 percent last year," he predicted. The country is in a transition from an investment- and export-led growth model to one powered by consumption. This transition cannot be accomplished in one step, he said. "Given the policy tools that the government and the central bank could use, we predicted that China will ensure a stable economic growth and avert a sharp slowdown." "In addition, the trend of personal consumption gives us more confidence in China's short-term prospects, meanwhile, the market sentiment is still positive." When talking about China's insurance market, he said that last year China ranked third in terms of written premiums, only behind the United States and Japan. "We predict China's insurance industry will see double-digit growth during the next ten years, with an average growth of 12 percent." China will overtake Japan to become the second-largest insurance market in five years, he added. Former senior legislator stands trial for graft Updated: 2016-06-16 16:10 (Xinhua) BEIJING -- Bai Enpei, a former senior official with the top legislature, on Thursday stood trial on two counts of corruption-related charges. Bai, formerly deputy head of the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the National People's Congress, was accused of taking advantage of his various official posts and other perks associated with his posts from 2000 to 2013 to seek benefits -- in regard of project construction, real estate development, obtaining mining rights and personal promotions -- for 17 companies and individuals. In exchange, he personally, or through his wife, accepted bribes worth over 246 million yuan ($37.4 million). Also, prosecutors allege, the assets and expenditure of the Bai family significantly exceeded their legal income and Bai was unable to specify the sources of his assets, which constitutes another suspected criminal violation. The People's Procuratorate of Anyang City in central China's Henan Province filed the two charges with Anyang Intermediate People's Court. In his final statement, Bai accepted the charges and showed repentance. Over 60 people, including legal and political representatives, journalists and members of the public, attended the hearing. The court ruling will be announced at a later date. Government agencies, SOEs required to hear more from legal counsels Updated: 2016-06-16 21:43 (Xinhua) BEIJING -- China's central government has ordered all central ministerial agencies, governments and Communist Party committees above the country-level and state-owned enterprises (SOE) to adopt a legal counsel system before 2017, a major step to promote rule of law. Such legal counsels, either hired from outside or converted from the previous public office lawyers within the government, will play a bigger role in government functions and SOE operations, according to a guideline released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council. Government and Party organizations are urged to hear the opinions of legal counsels before deliberations or making major decisions, involve them in the process of decision-making, formulation of major government policies and intra-Party rules, and the handling of some legal cases and emergency situations, said the guideline. They are also expected to participate in negotiations involving government or Party organizations and deal with other legal matters. Legal counsels at SOEs will take part in the formulation of board rules, help review operational decisions and contracts and provide legal opinions on major moves, such as mergers and acquisitions, reorganization, going public and intellectual property protection. The document is a follow-up to a decision released after the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, which said, "We will establish a universal system of legal counsel." Global reach targeted in Beidou drive Updated: 2016-06-17 02:25 By Zhao Lei(China Daily) More international recognition expected for China's homegrown satellite navigation system China is striving to promote its domestically developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System to more international organizations to boost the space network's overseas expansion, project officials said on Thursday. The Beidou system's standards have been ratified by the International Maritime Organization for nautical operations, following the United States' GPS and Russia's Glonass, Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, said at a news conference in Beijing. "We are pressing forward with recognition of the Beidou system by organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization and 3rd Generation Partnership Project," Ren said. This partnership project groups regional telecommunications organizations seeking to enhance the standardization of mobile communications. At the news conference, hosted by the State Council Information Office, a white paper was released, elaborating on the current situation and development plan for the Beidou system. The document is the first of its kind published by China on the global navigation satellite system. Hu Kaihong, a spokesman for the information office, said China hopes to build a Beidou system benefiting not only the country but also the world. He said the nation is committed to providing a consistent, stable and reliable service to users worldwide. Wang Li, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office's International Cooperation Research Center, told China Daily the International Civil Aviation Organization has begun standardization procedures for the Beidou system to enable it to be adopted by airlines for flight navigation. Triplets' struggle brings out the best in others Updated: 2016-06-17 08:19 By Zhou Huiying In Harbin(China Daily) As the weather warms, Liu Xing is welcoming more and more customers to her grilled oyster stall at a night market in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province. "During the past two months, I have been able to earn about 300 yuan ($46) a day," said the 28-year-old. But the money that flows in is only a fraction of what she needs for the treatment of her 4-year-old triplets. Liu's daughters, who were born in 2012 in Bei'an, a county 340 kms from Harbin, initially brought great happiness to the family. But the happiness turned to worry when the girls were diagnosed with cerebral palsy when they were 17 months old. Doctors said at the time they would not be able to walk because of the disorder, which affects a person's ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Liu was comforted by the doctors' assertion that the girls were expected to have normal intelligence and language ability. "The doctors told us that, after treatment, it would be highly possible that the girls would be able to recover the ability to walk normally. But the treatment would cost at least 600,000 yuan, which was an astronomical number for us," the young mother said. But the family didn't give up. Although they had moved to Yantai in Shandong province after the triplet's birth, they decided to move to Harbin in order to see doctors at better hospitals. The couple set about scraping together the money they needed for the triplets' treatment by doing odd jobs at first and then by opening their grilled oyster stall in May 2015. Liu said more people began to know the family's story after it was reported in local media, and since then, many people have tried to help. She said they were offered the stall at the busy market without needing to pay any administrative fees. And the boss of the seafood market where they buy their oysters offered them a much lower price. But what touches the couple the most is the kindness of strangers who drop by their stall with money or who send cash without leaving their names. "Some people have told me that they have come to the stall from far away especially to buy our oysters, and some people have left money without even taking any oysters away," Liu said. "So far, we have received nearly 300,000 yuan in donations." Last year, the couple took the triplets to Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, where they received two rounds of treatment at a local hospital. "Every round of treatment costs about 180,000 yuan, and the daily rehabilitation services cost about 9,000 yuan a month," Liu told China Daily. But she said the treatment has led to a great improvement and the triplets can now walk slowly with the help of orthopedic shoes. Even though the couple has a heavy burden to shoulder, the smiles never vanish from their faces. "We don't know how many difficulties we will have to face in the future, but we will never give up," Liu said. zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn Liu Xing with her three daughters at their home in Harbin, Heilongjiang province.Wang Song / Xinhua (China Daily 06/17/2016 page7) Rural teacher donates everything to students in need Updated: 2016-06-17 16:14 By Ma Chi(chinadaily.com.cn) Jiang Guozhen passed away in hospital on June 15, 2016. [Photo/thepaper.cn] A rural teacher who donated everything he had to help students in need died on Thursday. Jiang Guozhen was born in Jiangjia village in East China's Jiangxi province in 1930. He was a veteran and a government official before being assigned to work at a rural primary school in 1953 due to acute shortage of rural teachers. During his 30 years of teaching career, Jiang donated more than 400,000 yuan ($60,720) to students facing financial problems. The sum included most of his salary, the pension, and money he earned from farming and scavenging. When he died on Thursday, only 1.36 yuan were left in his bank card. With no offspring, Jiang led an extremely simple life. He usually ate only sweet potato and wore worn-out clothes. He did not even spend money on his run-down house - and the house later collapsed. After he was saved from the rubbles, Jiang moved into an elderly care home. Because of his efforts to help students, Jiang was honored the Outstanding Communist Party Member and Most Beautiful Rural Teacher, and nominated for National Moral Model. He was hospitalized in March for nasopharnyx cancer, a type of cancer that starts in the upper part of the throat behind the nose. In the hospital, he told the staff to stop giving him injections because they were too expensive. On April 21, Jiang signed to donate his cornea to people in need. "I am a Party member. When the country needs me, I will devote my life to it," said Jiang on his death bed. Partnership with CEE in context of Belt and Road Updated: 2016-06-17 08:03 By Liu Ming(China Daily) The press conference of the 2nd Ministerial Conference of China and Central and Eastern European Countries on Promoting Trade and Economic Cooperation is held in Ningbo, June 9, 2016. [Photo by Guo Rong/chinadaily.com.cn] President Xi Jinping's visit to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan has attracted special attention because China's top leader has not been a frequent visitor to these countries. This is also Xi's first visit to the Western Balkans, his second to Central Europe within three months and his fourth to Central Asia. These diplomatic arrangements, therefore, reflect China's determination to boost its comprehensive cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries and Central Asian countries in the context of its Belt and Road Initiative, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. They also show, from China's perspective, the significance of Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan in the regions. In 2012, China proposed a new type of cooperation framework with Central and Eastern European countries (China-CEEC) to develop a comprehensive relationship with 16 CEE countries, including Serbia and Poland, which became strategic partners of China in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Since then, the Serbia and Poland, despite the changes in governments, have provided strong political support to the 16+1 cooperation framework as well as the Belt and Road Initiative. There is obviously a political consensus in the two countries on the need to deepen cooperation with China. The most recent evidence of this was seen in March when the lower house of the Polish Parliament (or Sejm) unanimously ratified an agreement for Warsaw to participate in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which made Poland officially the first and only founding member of the AIIB in Central and Eastern Europe. Thank you China and welcome President Xi Updated: 2016-06-17 08:19 By DUSAN PROROKOVIC(China Daily) Chinese President Xi Jinping (9th L) poses for a group photo with leaders attending the 4th Summit of China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 26, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua] President Xi Jinping's visit to Belgrade is a big event. Unlike some other Central and Eastern European countries, Serbia is not a European Union member. Because of a dispute with Brussels on the issue of Kosovo's status, maybe it never will be. Although Serbia has signed trade agreements with the EU, political tensions between Belgrade and Brussels persist. China has become the largest single investor in Serbia. And the geographical position of the country has made it critical to the realization of Belt and Road Initiative strategy of China. Chinese investors are no longer present only in the sectors of infrastructure and energy. In April, HeSteel bought the only steel factory in Serbia, and memorandums on further cooperation in the information technology and agriculture sectors were signed. Serbia is the only European country that has started negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union on a free trade agreement. This is significant for Serbian agriculture, which is increasingly turning toward the Russian market. For Chinese investors, this may be an additional motive. Despite not having a big territory, Serbia still occupies an ideal position for duty-free export of all that is produced within its territory. For the new strategic positioning of Serbia, China is in the long run probably the most important partner. Initiative cannot be separated from SCO Updated: 2016-06-17 08:31 By Farhod Toplipov(China Daily) State Councilor Yang Jiechi meets with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Secretary-General Dmitry Fedorovich Mezentsev in Beijing on Dec 29. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/CHINA DAILY] China's Belt and Road Initiative has prompted broad interest not only at the official level but also among analysts and experts. The central question that many are discussing about this initiative is: "What does it mean in economic, cultural and especially geopolitical terms?" Indeed, is it just a declaration of intent or an actual, concrete and practical project? The Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on June 23 and 24 will probably be an important opportunity for Chinese President Xi Jinping to re-articulate the Belt and Road Initiative and give it a more realistic shape, especially because the SCO summit will take place in the context of increasing geopolitical contradictions on the one hand and the active reformatting and accommodation of Central Asian and Eurasian spaces on the other. The Belt and Road Initiative is a long-term and ambitious strategy so is the Russian strategy of creating the Eurasian Economic Union. And the two projects are supposed to be conjugated. Those who analyze Russian and Chinese thrust for pivotal role in Central Asia often consider if Russia can provide security arrangements for the region and China can support economic development. Such a perception, however, looks quite simplistic and superficial. According to widespread and stereotypical perceptions Russia-led arrangements imply Eurasian Economic Union and Collective Security Treaty Organization and China-led arrangements imply SCO and the Belt and Road Initiative. That's why the statements about the possibility of conjugation of these two sets of arrangements look, so far, vague. The SCO's agenda, hitherto primarily focused on Central Asia, will obviously become broader with the inclusion of India and Pakistan. This would complicate the situation of the SCO's existing Central Asian members and could become an excessive burden both for these states and the organization itself. Uzbekistan's president has said the SCO is likely to be joined by two nuclear powers that are in permanent conflict. Besides, not all SCO conventions and agreements adopted within the organization are implemented in full, especially in the realm of confidence measures and military activity in the border areas. New entrants to the SCO are even more sensitive to such issues. Visit could open up new vistas for Poland Updated: 2016-06-17 08:35 By Katarzyna Anna Nawrot(China Daily) LI FENG/CHINA DAILY Despite numerous achievements over the past two decadesincluding the establishment of the 16+1 dialogue (16 Central and Eastern European countries plus China), increasing mutual trade and investment flows, direct train connection between Chengdu and the Polish city of odzzzthere still exist bottlenecks in the shape of increasing trade deficits for Poland, asymmetry in bilateral flow of investment and Polish entrepreneurs' struggle to enter China's huge market. Notable efforts have been made by the Polish administration in the last few years, including taking measures to boost trade and investment, but they haven't necessarily borne tangible results. The trade volume between Poland and China, according to European Union statistics, reached $16.53 billion in 2015, four times more than in 2004 and over 30 times more than in the early 1990s. However, China's exports to Poland accounted for the lion's share of the trade, about $14.5 billion, with Poland exporting only about $2 billion worth of goods to China. The visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Poland is thus noteworthy. It means that the recent change in Polish government didn't entirely turn away Warsaw from the East because China is regarded as Poland's strategic partner both in economic and political terms. This also shows Poland understands the importance of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Poland holds the strategic position in this regard. It seems the shortest land trade routes linking the West and the East, and further the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas go through Polish territory, which constitutes a merging platform for Eurasia. China, US talk negative list for treaty Updated: 2016-06-17 10:59 By Chen Weihua In Washington(China Daily USA) Secretary Lew says pathway to BIT could be in sight before year's end Chinese and US negotiating teams are talking in Washington this week about a revised negative list for a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), although the agreement looks unlikely to be concluded during the remaining seven months of the Obama administration. Jack Lew, the US secretary of treasury, said on Thursday that a sufficiently ambitious negative list - where only exceptions to the treaty are specified - from China could open a pathway to additional progress before the end of the year. "Up till this last round, the negative list that we've seen has not been sufficiently ambitious to open enough of the economy for the BIT to have a successful path forward," he said in a talk at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on Thursday. He said he doesn't want to comment on something that is very much a work in progress, noting the talk had been going on over the past 24 hours. "But they certainly led us to expect that the list will be the basis for working together going forward, even though it wouldn't be the final end result. I hope that's the case when our experts go through the list and report back," he said. Lew hopes the Chinese take advantage of the remaining seven months of the Obama administration, noting an upcoming September meeting between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou on the sidelines of the G20 summit. He noted that leaders' meetings are very useful deadlines to focus attention, but said, "I can't sit here and warrant that it will be successful." Derek Scissors, resident scholar at AEI, believes there is no chance for the BIT to pass the US Congress during Obama's remaining months in office. Most experts believe that the top priority for the US government is to make a last-ditch effort to push the Congress to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries that does not include China. Scissors noted that the environment in the US now is very protectionist, and the immediate priority for the next administration will be domestic issues rather than any international agenda. He agreed that the Chinese side should be negotiating in good faith. "But you don't want to give away everything to this administration because the new administration wants to put its own stamp on it," he said. The US business community has long hoped that a BIT would help open up more of the vast China market. Many in China hope it will provide better protection to the growing Chinese investment in the US, especially with regard to the controversial CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) reviews. Some Chinese also believe a BIT would help push forward necessary economic reforms in China. China and the US are also facing a potential battle this year. While the Chinese government believes its 2001 WTO accession agreement means that it will automatically enjoy market economy status by the end of this year, Lew said, its not automatic and will be reviewed and determined by the Department of Commerce. I said to my counterparts in China that the further you go on a reform agenda, the more likely you are going to succeed, he said. By refusing to recognize Chinas market economy status, the US would be able to impose arbitrary anti-dumping duties on Chinese exports, disadvantaging Chinese exporters. Lew applauded the many achievements in US-China economic relations during the Obama administration. US exports to China have roughly doubled since early 2009, much faster than in any other region of the world. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com Part of The 1/4 Mile art piece created by Robert Rauschenberg. The exhibition will run till Aug 21. li jing / china daily In 1985 American artist Robert Rauschenberg traveled to Beijing to held a solo exhibition, ROCI China, at the institution now known as the National Art Museum of China. More than three decades on, his work has returned to the Chinese capital for a second major show. Rauschenberg in China, a retrospective of the late artists work, opened at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art on June 12 and runs until Aug 21. Reviewing Rauschenberg is equivalent to reviewing the development of Chinese contemporary art, said art critic Li Xianting. In the 1980s, he said, Chinas exposure to Western art was limited to reproductions in catalogues, and the understanding of art was largely confined to academic painting, sculpture and printmaking. In contrast, Rauschenbergs enthusiasm for popular culture and rejection of the seriousness of abstract expressionists led him to concentrate primarily on collage and embrace materials traditionally outside the reach of artists. He would cover a canvas with house paint, or ink the wheel of a car and use it to create a drawing on paper. The 1985 exhibition received more than 300,000 visitors over three weeks. He brought great excitement and stimulation to Chinese contemporary art, especially to nonartists, Li recalled. He challenged Chinese audiences that stuff like that could be called art. Contemporary artist Li Xinjian added that Rauschenbergs work inspired an emerging generation of Chinese artists that would later come to be known as the 85 new wave. Visiting the retrospective exhibition now, you find he is very different from 30 years ago, he said. Rauschenberg in China at UCCA is the first major exhibition since the artists death in Florida in 2008. Among the works on display is The 1/4 Mile or 2 Furlong Piece, which is regarded as one of his most important creations. Stretching 305 meters and made up of 190 parts, the piece was completed over a period of 17 years, from 1981 to 1998, and reflects the major themes throughout his career, from his white paintings, combines, cardboards and gluts to collages composed with found images as well as the artists own photographs. There are also some Chinese elements, such as the inclusion of photos he took while in the Tibet autonomous region. David White, one of the exhibitions two curators and the artists former long-time assistant, said, It is a very journalistic record of Rauschenbergs involvement with the world, in all kinds of material. He described the artist as outgoing, upbeat and generous, adding, It shows in his art (in terms of) the openness and welcoming of all kinds of experiences. Susan Davidson, his fellow curator, recalled the artist as a terrific cook: He cooked like he painted; he just kept adding more materials. Rauschenberg kept adding and revising The 1/4 Mile over the years. The first major display for the work was in 1987 when it went on show for a year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Yet the artist continuously added more material, and in keeping with his ideology of nonintention the work has been presented in various configurations over the years. UCCA director Philip Tinari said the exhibition marks the first time the full piece has gone on show since 1999, when it appeared at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams. In addition to The 1/4 Mile, visitors can also see Study for Chinese Summerhall, two portfolios of images taken during Rauschenbergs first trip to China in the summer of 1982. These rare images were made as studies for the 30-meter scroll-like work, which was also one of the centerpieces of the ROCI China show. On show are also documents and archived material from the 1985 exhibition. Rauschenbergs interactions with China started in 1982 when he made a trip to one of the worlds oldest paper mills in Jingxian, Anhui province, to collaborate on an art project. That trip resulted in his 1985 exhibitions in Beijing and Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region. It also inspired him to found the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, a serial project of international exhibitions held between 1984 and 1991 in countries including Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Japan, Cuba, the then-Soviet Union, Germany and Malaysia. The series culminated in a retrospective at the National Gallery in Washington in 1991. lijing2009@chinadaily.com.cn Analysts: 'Leave' vote bad for trade relations Updated: 2016-06-16 07:55 By Angus Mcneice In London(China Daily) Opinion polls show the two sides neck and neck in the run-up to next week's referendum Britain's trade relations with China, celebrated as a key part of a golden era during President Xi Jinping's state visit in October, are likely to be affected if Britons vote to leave the European Union in a referendum on June 23. Analysts and policy experts contacted by China Daily believe the UK would be at a disadvantage in any trade negotiations in the event of a "leave" vote. Attention here is already focusing on the effects of the referendum's result, which will be known early on June 24, including what it would mean for the so-called golden age heralded by Xi and British Prime Minister David Cameron. China has cautiously implied it would favor the status quo. On his visit in October, Xi reportedly indicated to Cameron that China would prefer the UK to remain in the EU - a position later confirmed in a Foreign Ministry statement. Last month, Yao Ling, deputy director of a research center under China's Ministry of Commerce, warned that those investing in Britain as a way into the EU would see the "bridgehead curtailed" if the country exits the EU. In May, Ipsos MORI surveyed 667 international businesses with operations in Britain. Of the 26 Chinese businesses included, 29 percent said a Brexit (a name coined by the British media) would have a very negative impact on their company's future investment decisions, 21 percent said the impact would be fairly negative, 39 percent said it would have no effect and 11 percent did not know. Not one company said it expected a very positive or fairly positive effect. Opinion polls show the two sides neck and neck in the run-up to the vote, although bookmakers are giving odds favoring a vote to remain in the EU. Already, the campaign by the Remain group, headed by Cameron, and Vote Leave supporters, headed by former London mayor Boris Johnson has become increasingly bitter. Many political observers believe Johnson is using the campaign to boost his chances of taking over from Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party. Britain faces a general election in 2020 and Cameron has previously said he would not serve a third term. British politicians linked to the Leave campaign predict that a United Kingdom unencumbered by EU bureaucracy would allow bilateral relations to flourish. Chinese investment has flooded into Britain over the past decade, and UK exports to China have more than doubled since 2010. Cameron led a business delegation to China in 2013 when he spoke of lifting the "bamboo curtain" of European trade barriers to China. Xi's visit heralded deals worth 40 billion pounds ($57 billion). As of November, the last set of official figures available, UK exports to China were worth 18.7 billion pounds, with Chinese imports running at 38.3 billion pounds. Although Britain had a surplus with China in the services sector, this was countered by a deficit in the trade of goods. Both sides offer competing narratives on what will happen to the Britain and China's "special relationship" should the public vote to leave the EU. The line from the Leave camp is that Britain would greatly benefit from a bilateral free trade agreement with China, something the European Commission has so far been unable to reach. John Zai, founder and CEO of Cocoon Networks, a China-funded private equity company in London, is among the Chinese businessmen who said they believe the idea of Britain leaving the EU is bad. He said it would harm the prospects for Chinese investment in European companies. Cocoon's business includes buying equity stakes in European businesses that market their activities through London-based networks to attract international investors. "This process may become more difficult if London stops being seen as the deal negotiation center for mergers and acquisition activity for European firms," Zai said. In addition, he adds, the lack of a free flow of resources between Europe and Britain will reduce the UK's competitiveness, which in turn would make British firms less attractive as equity investment targets for Chinese companies. Others hold a different view. "I think we would do a good deal with China in a relatively short amount of time," said Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, a legislator who is chair of the Conservative Friends of the Chinese. "Rather than EU bureaucracy getting in the way, I think our trade with China is likely to go from strength to strength. "I actually think it would be both in China's interests and the UK's interest if we came out of the EU. We should do a trade deal that suits both of us, and suits our businesses." Clifton-Brown points to China and Britain working together to establish London as the biggest trading center outside Beijing for renminbi as an example of the kind of moves Britain would be able to make as a standalone nation. "This had nothing whatsoever to do with the EU," he said. "If we can do colossal deals like that, there is no reason why we shouldn't go on doing other deals." Andy Clayton, chief executive of LNP China, which helps companies do business with China, said if Britain were to leave the EU, then the country would have to rely on financial services as its most potent leveraging tool. "The disparities (between the British and Chinese economies) are on several levels, and within that lay both an opportunity and a challenge," he said, explaining that negotiations would inevitably be one-sided. "Typically, the nature of FTAs is that they reflect the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two economies, and I think the opportunity for Britain is to somehow leverage our position in the financial services." Those who support the Remain campaign, however, fear that China's interest in Britain would cool, as the Chinese seek out an alternate gateway into the European single market. "We'd be immeasurably weakened," said Lord Clement-Jones, a Liberal Democrat peer and deputy chair or the All Party Parliamentary China Group. "There's an element of suspended disbelief - the idea that we're going to leave a trading bloc of 500 million people is a little bit incredible as far as (the Chinese) are concerned. They think of us as being firmly rooted in the EU. They talk about Europe a heck of the lot of the time, not about Britain." Philippe Le Corre, a policy analyst in China-Europe relations and a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, echoed this sentiment: "The UK market is just not big enough or interesting enough for China. What is interesting for China is the whole of the EU." Fredrik Erixon, an economist and former adviser to China's commerce and finance ministries, said the idea that Britain would be able to leverage market access reforms in China in any trade agreement as a standalone nation is a "naive proposition". "The opportunities are scarce (in the event of a leave vote). What I recommend if (Britain) did leave is to become the Hong Kong of Europe," he said. "To deregulate, cut taxes ruthlessly, cut spending ruthlessly, take away not just regulations that come from the EU, but all regulations that have been generated domestically, and use that as an opportunity to change the composition of policy in the country." Jiang Jiaxi, a senior partner with Jursino Law Group in Beijing, said Chinese businesses would prefer Britain to remain in the EU, to allow them to benefit from using the country as a bridge for their products and services to enter the European market. Cecily Liu contributed to this story. angus@mail.chinadailyuk.com EU remain supporters take a selfie at the launch of a 'Labour In' poster in London, on June 6.Neil Hall / Reuters (China Daily 06/16/2016 page10) A thriving kind of Chinatown, Chicago has Updated: 2016-06-17 10:44 By Willtam Hennelly in New York and Jian Ping in Chicago(China Daily USA) The city's second Chinatown has endured on the South Side since 1912, and with a new public library and strong civic sociations, the neighborhood shows no signs of fading, Willtam Hennelly in New York and Jian Ping in Chicago report. To Soo Lon Moy, it was only natural that Chicago have a museum that celebrated the Chinese immigrant experience in the US Midwest. "We have Chinese-American museums on the East Coast and on the West Coast. We're the only one to tell the immigration story in the Midwest," said Moy, the interim executive director of the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago (CAMOC) and its board chairwoman. Moy, who said her surname is prominent in Chicago but rare in China, witnessed life in the neighborhood for decades as a bilingual teacher. She was born in the Taishan region of Guangdong province, but Moy has the unmistakably earnest accent of the Windy City. She spent some time as a child in Hong Kong before the family relocated in stages to Chicago. The museum opened to the public on May 21, 2005. After a devastating fire in September 2008, the source of which Moy said was undetermined, the museum was closed for a gut renovation and reopened in 2010. The museum is located on West 23rd Street, in a building that was formerly the Quong Yick Co grocery store. It is named for Raymond B and Jean T. Lee Center. Lee is a local neighborhood leader and successful businessman who moved to Chinatown in 1950. He also helped build the popular Chinatown Square, an outdoor mall that opened in 1993, "Make sure, when you walk down Wentworth, to turn left, not right. Because right is a (non-Chinese) neighborhood, and they pick on us. Go left and that's China, basically," Lee said, in describing the first advice he received in the neighborhood, according to a 2013 Chicago Tribune story. Lee once lived with his father on the third floor of the current museum building when it was a grocery, the paper said. "Raymond Lee bought the building for $660,000 and gave it to the museum with the stipulation that we open in one year. We opened in May 2005 with the first exhibition, Paper Sons!" Moy exclaimed. "And the rest is history." Moy told how a group of young people from the neighborhood were trained to conduct an excavation of what is now the museum's parking lot. "We were afraid that they may have unearthed something that Al Capone left," she joked. "They found coins, pottery, pork bones, so we had an exhibition about that." "We're very small potatoes compared to the Field Museum. In fact, my husband and I are docents for the Terracotta Warriors exhibit (at the Field until January 2017)," where Moy is a volunteer. "I've been to Xi'an, and we were in the pits where the excavation (of the Terracotta Soldiers) was," Moy told China Daily. The museum is a mainstay in a neighborhood that saw its population increase 24 percent between 2000 and 2010. Asians make up nearly 90 percent of Chinatown's population, according to 2010 US Census data. Between 2009 and 2013, the Bridgeport neighborhood's Asian-American population grew from 26 percent to 35 percent; McKinley Park's went from under 8 percent to 17 percent, according to an analysis of Census data, the Chicago Tribune reported. The heart of Chicago Chinatown sits between West Cermak Road and South Wentworth Avenue on the South Side. Formed in 1912, it is considered the United States' second-oldest Chinatown after San Francisco's. The current Chinatown emerged after the original Chinatown on the South Loop, which dated to the 1860s, literally picked up and moved due to rising rents and discrimination. In an effort to escape anti-Chinese violence on the West Coast, the first Chinese began arriving in Chicago in 1869 after the Transcontinental Railroad was built. They settled along Clark Street between Van Buren and Harrison streets. In 1912, the Chinese living in that area began moving south to Armour Square. Besides rents and discrimination, historians have argued that a high non-Chinese crime rate and disagreements between the two associations ("tongs") in the community, the Hip Sing Tong and the On Leong Tong, were behind the migration. The move was led by the On Leong Merchants Association, which in 1912 constructed a building on Cermak Avenue that would house 15 stores, 30 apartments and the association headquarters. "Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. Chinatown has somehow survived," Darryl Tom, the president of the Chicago Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, told China Daily. The Chinese-American Museum of Chicago in Chinatown opened in 2005 but had to close after a fi re in 2008. The museum reopened in 2010. David K.Lee Tom said the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce represents "roughly around 300 different organizations in the Chicago Chinatown commercial district. We have 180 members 60 to 70 restaurants. Ten banks, a few grocery stores, a few shops. "My grandfather came to Chicago in about 1910," said Tom, at a time when most of the immigrants were Cantonese-speaking. But that is changing. Tom also noted that the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana has the largest overseas Chinese student population in the US. "You can tell by the restaurants that opened up, used to be mostly Cantonese. Now it's a mix, more Northern style." One restaurant that hasn't changed is Won Kow (pictured) on Wentoworth. Won Kow was built in 1928 by a restaurateur also named Moy. As the Tribune described it: "Guardian lions, also known as fu dogs, are carved into the building's facade. But nowadays, a dragon perched atop a nearby lamppost looks as if it's taunting them with a red ball." The restaurant has changed hands twice, says proprietor David Hoy, whose family took it over in 1991. Longtime customers still favor the chow mein and chop suey. Peter Huey, Hoy's uncle, worked at the restaurant as a waiter not long after he came to the US in 1950. Legend has it that Capone liked to sit at a table in the restaurant's far northwest corner, Hoy said. In 2015, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning released its Chinatown Community Vision Plan to preserve Chinatown's cultural identity by improving public education and senior care, bolstering transit infrastructure and creating more parks. The 112-page report, the result of a survey (in English and Chinese) of 1,300 residents, detailed eight areas of focus for improving Chinatown: safety, transportation and circulation, residential community, economic development, education and workforce, parks and public spaces, future development and long-term capacity building. In August, the city opened a two-story, $19.1 million branch of the Chicago Public Library (see story below) on South Wentworth. Chinatown is proud of Ping Tom Memorial Park on the banks of the Chicago River. The 17-acre park is named in memory of a Chinatown businessman who pushed for the park's dedication. Chinatown had lost its only parks in 1962, with the construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway. In 2013, Mayor Rahm Emanuel officially opened the Ping Tom Memorial Park Fieldhouse, a 30,000 square-foot facility with a gymnasium, natatorium, fitness center, and meeting rooms. That same year, the park also saw the opening of the first of three boathouses on the Chicago River. "The Park District fieldhouse, the story behind that is back when the Dan Ryan Expressway was built in the 1960s, there used to be a park and a fieldhouse that was used by Chinatown residents. Since then, the community has asked for a new fieldhouse." When Chinatown Square, a two-story outdoor mall, was built, the community was astir about the possibility of gentrification, Bernie Wong, the president of Chinese-American Service League, told the Tribune. "But I still don't see gentrification; it's mostly Chinese," Wong said. "And it's not just about having a Chinese neighbor. In Chinatown, you belong to organizations. You belong to social groups." Moy, who as a teacher instructed Cantonese-speaking students, said that later in her tenure (after Nixon's 1972 trip, she joked) "we had Chinese students who came from Brazil and Burma Chinese communities". And she began hearing more dialects: Mandarin, Fujianese, Shanghaiese, Taiwanese. Despite any political differences some of the immigrants may have had, Moy said that in Chinatown there is now "big national pride over how much progress" China has made on the world stage. Contact the writer at williamhennelly@chinadailyusa.com Should I stay, or should I go? Updated: 2016-06-17 23:20 (China Daily USA) Students gather at the launch of the "Brighter Future In" campaign bus at Exeter University in Devon. Prime Minister David Cameron attends the activity. Dan Kitwood / for China Daily Britain's trade relations with China, celebrated as a key part of a golden era during President Xi Jinping's state visit in October, are likely to be affected if Britons vote to leave the European Union in a referendum on June 23. Analysts and policy experts contacted by China Daily believe the United Kingdom would be at a disadvantage in any trade negotiations in the event of a "leave" vote. Attention here is already focusing on the effects of the referendum's result, which will be known early on June 24, London time, including what it would mean for the so-called golden age heralded by Prime Minister David Cameron and President Xi. China has cautiously implied it would favor the status quo. On his visit in October, Xi reportedly indicated to Cameron that China would prefer the UK to remain in the EU a position later confirmed in a Foreign Ministry statement. Last month, Yao Ling, deputy director of a research center under China's Ministry of Commerce, warned in a ministry-run paper that those investing in Britain as a way into the EU would see the "bridgehead curtailed" if the country exits the EU. In May, Ipsos MORI surveyed 667 international businesses with operations in Britain. Of the 26 Chinese businesses included, 29 percent said a Brexit (a name coined by the British media) would have a very negative impact on their company's future investment decisions, 21 percent said the impact would be fairly negative, 39 percent said it would have no effect and 11 percent did not know. Not one company said it expected a very positive or fairly positive effect. Opinion polls show the two sides neck and neck in the run-up to the vote, although bookmakers are giving odds favoring a vote to remain in the EU. Already, the campaign by the Remain group, headed by Cameron, and Vote Leave supporters, headed by a government minister, a former cabinet minister and, crucially, former London mayor Boris Johnson, has become increasingly bitter. Many political observers believe Johnson is using the campaign to boost his chances of taking over from Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party. Britain faces a general election in 2020 and Cameron has previously said he would not serve a third term. Goings on(Houston) Updated: 2016-06-17 10:44 (China Daily USA) Chinatown safety talk - Houston, Tx Community activist JJ Clemence addresses the crowd at the Asian Community and Police Town Hall on June 11 in Houston to discuss safety issues in Chinatown. More than 20 police officers, including two assistant chiefs from the Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff's Office, attended the event. More than 10 individual officers and civic leaders discussed common sense safety tips before a short Q&A session was started. May Zhou / China Daily Fighting crime - Houston, Tx Many police officers and community members attended the Asian Community and Police Town Hall out of concern for recent robbery and burglary cases in Chinatown. May Zhou / China Daily Emperors' treasure - Houston, Tx Nancy Li (left), board chairwoman of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association; Valerie Greiner (center), senior development officer of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH); and MFAH curatorial assistant Beatrice Chan talk about the upcoming exhibit Emperors' Treasure: Chinese Art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei in Houston on Monday. The exhibit, scheduled to begin in October at MFAH, will showcase more than 160 pieces of art from collections of the Chinese emperors. Greiner said that the MFAH hopes to raise sufficient funds to let the public enjoy the exhibition free of charge and has solicited help from the Chinese community. May Zhou / China Daily Artful support - Houston, Tx Anne Chao (center), MFAH trustee and a professor at Rice University, speaks about the Emperors' Treasure exhibition. Chao, along with Nancy Li and Kenneth Li (second from left), chairman of Chinese Community Center and Southwest Management District,organized the meeting to support the artwork. A steering committee for fundraising was formed at the meeting. May Zhou / China Daily Goings on(San Francisco) Updated: 2016-06-17 10:44 (China Daily USA) Emperors' Treasures - San Francisco Chuan-hsing Ho (center), deputy director of the Taipei National Palace Museum, introduces to the media an ink painting from the Ming Dynasty at the media preview of the exhibition Emperors' Treasures at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum on June 15. The exhibition, on display from June 17 to Sept 18, presents more than 150 Chinese imperial artworks from the Taipei National Palace Museum. Zhizhi Cen / China Daily Ancient tea time - San Francisco Yu Pei-Chin (front), chief curator of the Antiquities Department of the Taipei National Palace Museum, describes a cup and saucer set that belonged to Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) of the Qing Dynasty at the media preview for the exhibition Emperors' Treasures at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum on June 15. Zhizhi Cen / China Daily Vase of glory - San Francisco A vase with a revolving core and eight-trigram design from the Qing Dynasty reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795), is one of artworks on display at the exhibition Emperors Treasure. Provided To China Daily Looks edible - San Francisco A meat-shaped stone from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The stone is made of jasper, and the stand is gold. The item is on display at the exhibition Emperor's Treasure. Provided To China Daily Qianlong's poem - San Francisco A vase with the Emperor Qianlong's poem carved on the base, a high-fired ceramic with celadon glaze from the Northern Song dynasty (960-1126), is one of the artworks on display at the exhibition Emperor's Treasure. Provided To China Daily No Chinese casualties in recent rioting and looting in Venezuela Updated: 2016-06-18 00:07 By Wang Qingyun(chinadaily.com.cn) There have been no reports of casualties of Chinese citizens in the recent looting in Venezuela, China's Foreign Ministry revealed on Friday. The Chinese embassy in Venezuela has asked the Venezuelan government to protect the safety and property of the Chinese citizens, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a daily news conference. People in the Venezuelan city of Cumana looted supermarkets and shops including some owned by Chinese people on Tuesday, and the police arrived to restore order, said the Chinese Embassy in Venezuela on its website. The South American country is experiencing a severe economic crisis due to plunging oil prices. The Chinese embassy in Venezuela issued an alert on Tuesday, warning the Chinese people in Cumana to avoid going outdoors when it's not necessary, and avoid going to regions where there is unrest. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua said: "As a country friendly to Venezuela, China hopes the Venezuelan government and people can deal with the problem properly. We hope the lawful rights and interests of the Chinese citizens will be effectively safeguarded." "China attaches great importance to the development of the China-Venezuelan ties, and hopes to keep on exchanges and cooperation with Venezuela in various fields based on the principle of mutual benefit and win-win," she said. Arbitration tribunal's jurisdiction challenged Updated: 2016-06-18 01:51 By LUIS LIU in Hong Kong and Zhang Yunbi in Beijing (China Daily) Daniel R. Fung, chairman of the Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Institute of International Law (APIIL) receives interview by Xinhua June 16, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua] An international group of legal experts and lawyers have signed a legal opinion document questioning an arbitration tribunal's jurisdiction in a case filed against China by the Philippines. They have also voiced concern over the suitability of the tribunal to handle such an issue without considering the historical and political context, according to Hong Kong barrister Daniel Fung Wah-kin. "We hope to protect the integrity and reputation of the tribunal and the whole international law system," Fung said. In 2013, the Philippines unilaterally filed compulsory arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea challenging China's sovereignty in the area. Beijing has refused to be part of the arbitration and says the tribunal has no jurisdiction, while Manila has showed no indication of returning to bilateral negotiations. Others signing the document include Tony Carty, a British scholar and professor of international law at Tsinghua University, and Natalie Klein, professor and dean of Macquarie Law School in Sydney. Fung said they are awaiting a reply from the tribunal and have asked for an opportunity to present the case orally. Although the full text of the document has not been released to the media, its main point is that the tribunal has no jurisdiction over sovereignty disputes and maritime delimitation, as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea does not issue such judgments. Huang Yao, dean of the School of Law at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, said the tribunal has imposed its jurisdiction but has no legitimacy. Fung said that as Chinese people have had links to the islands in the South China Sea for more than 2,000 years, the tribunal should carry out adequate research into the country's rights and interests before making any judgment. "These questions should be settled by diplomatic negotiations in treaty form," Fung said. Kuen-chen Fu, dean of the South China Sea Institute at Xiamen University, said the tribunal should take the document for reference, but it has no obligation to accept it. Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page. Loading... Checking your browser before accessing the website. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please wait a few seconds. HCM CITY By voluntarily providing information about their products, food producers can win consumers trust, thus enhancing their competitiveness, a seminar heard in HCM City yesterday. Speaking at the seminar on Aligning Efforts to Ensure Transparency and Traceability in National Food Supply Chains, Vu The Thanh, a food safety expert, said for most consumers transparent information about food from the input to the production stage is extremely important. The information should then be verified by Government management agencies, he said. He also suggested that food producers should provide warning labels (for example, the product could cause allergies to certain users) as is the case in many countries. Nguyen Thi Hong Minh, chairwoman of the advocacy committee for the establishment of Food Transparency Association, said unsafe food is still widespread in the market, directly affecting peoples health. The use of plant protection chemicals in farming, antibiotics in animal breeding and preservatives in foodstuffs is still common, and authorised agencies seem unable to control it, she said. What is safe to eat and drink remains a concern for many people, she said. The ratio of producers meeting food safety and hygiene standards is low, she said. Many companies have invested in producing safe food products, but consumers do not trust them because the inspection and certification system has problems, she said. Achieving safe food certification is only half the work, and the other half consists of building trust, market education, PR and marketing, and all these responsibilities fall on the shoulders of food producers. Stand-alone farmers and producers do not have sufficient resources and even certified safe food producers cannot survive without support from the market, she said. Safe food producers need to collaborate to communicate, promote and market their products to win consumers trust, she said. The Food Transparency Association would link up responsible players in the food production chain for the benefit of society and the environment, she said. Nguyen Phuoc Trung, director of the HCM City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the Food Transparency Association is necessary to bring food producers and traders together for building a safe food industry and improving the competitiveness of Vietnamese products, especially at a time of deeper integration. The city would increase inspections and deal severely with violations related to food production, processing and trading, he said. - VNS Bilateral trade relations between Viet Nam and Romania still falls short of potential, a business conference heard yesterday in the capital. VNA/VNS Photo HA NOI Bilateral trade relations between Viet Nam and Romania still falls short of potential, a business conference heard yesterday in the capital. Nguyen Quang Vinh, the deputy general secretary of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), blamed the unsatisfactory performance on inadequate information about each nations enterprises, as well as on difficulties in customs and payment which firms from the two nations encounter. The two governments plan new practical measures to increase future two-way trade, Vinh told the Viet Nam-Romania Business Forum. Vlad Vasiliu, the Romanian State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Environment, said businesses from his country want investment opportunities in electronics, electrics, telecommunications, information technology, agriculture, gas and petroleum in Viet Nam. Romania wants more Vietnamese investments in multiple fields, according to Oana Bizgan, Counsellor for the Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business Environment Relations of Romania. Bizgans commented at a similar business forum on Wednesday in HCM City. Romania welcomes domestic and foreign investments and encourages enterprises to shift towards high-tech industries, Bizgan said. As the Eastern gateway to Europe, Romania is an appealing destination for foreign investors. Its advantages over other EU countries include lower labour costs and preferential tariff policies, she said. Two-way trade between the countries reached US$170 million in 2015, with approximately $102 million from Vietnamese exports. Trade reached a modest $16 million over the past four months. Viet Nam shipped mainly coffee, seafood, clothing, footwear, electronics products and computers to Romania and imported wheat flour, machines and chemicals from the partner. Bilateral trade has not yet reached its full potential, so business communities should hold more joint trade promotion events and co-operate to complement each other, suggested Vo Tan Thanh, director of VCCIs HCM City branch. VNS President Tran ai Quang visits Unnalom pagoda during his visit to Cambodia. VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang PHNOM PENH President Tran ai Quang and his encourage concluded their two-day State visit to Cambodia yesterday afternoon. In the morning the President paid courtesy calls on the Great Supreme Patriarch of Mohanikaya sect Tep Vong at Unnalom pagoda and the Great Supreme Patriarch of Dhammayuttika sect Bour Kry at Say Pope pagoda. He expressed his belief that with Tep Vong at the helm, Cambodia s Buddhism would increasingly flourish, and with his role and prestige, the host would make more positive contributions to the solidarity, friendship and neighborliness between Viet Nam and Cambodia . Tep Vong welcomed the visit, which was expected to tighten bilateral friendship and cooperation. Meeting Bour Kry, the Vietnamese leader affirmed that the Vietnamese Party, State and people would do their best to nurture the traditional friendship between the two nations. He hoped that Bour Kry would continue educating Buddhists and the Cambodian people about the tradition of bilateral ties. The host, for his part, said Cambodian Buddhists wished for peace, prosperity and development for Cambodia and Viet Nam , and for Southeast Asia in general. Also in the morning, Quang held a meeting with representatives of Vietnamese businesses operating in Cambodia . Speaking at the event, the State leader spoke highly of the role of Vietnamese investors and the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Cambodia (AVIC), saying that successful joint projects in trade, investment and tourism have increased the State budget and created more jobs in Cambodia , thereby contributing to the bilateral co-operation. The Vietnamese Party, State and Government would continue devising strategies and adopting effective measures to facilitate long-term business operations in Cambodia and encourage Vietnamese investment in the neighboring country, along the the principle of equality and mutual benefit, he said. He also urged Vietnamese firms to improve their business efficiency in Cambodia , abide by the host countrys law and contribute to its social welfare. According to the AVIC, Viet Nam has invested US$3.2 billion in 172 projects in Cambodia, becoming the fifth largest investor in the country, mostly in the fields of finance-banking, energy, mining, agro-forestry and telecommunications. Vietnamese tourist arrivals to Cambodia have grown and Viet Nam has been among the top sources of visitors to the country over the past five years. The President also presented a $1 million vocational training school to Prey Veng province. A joint statement was issued at the end of the visit. The full text of the joint statement can be read at vietnamnews.vn. VNS HA NOI Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc called on Viet Nam and Thailand to redouble their efforts in order to bring bilateral trade to US$20 billion in 2020. At a reception for Thai Deputy Prime Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn in Ha Noi yesterday the Vietnamese Government leader suggested the two countries, as the worlds biggest rice exporters, partner with each other to keep rice prices beneficial to their farmers. A boost should be given to collaboration in trade and investment, he said, citing opportunities awaiting Thai investors after Viet Nam engages in many new-generation free trade agreements. Besides, Viet Nam boasts abundant and skillful labour resources that can meet Thailands demands, he added. The leader also proposed the two countries collaborate on culture, national defence and security while strengthening bilateral ties in people-to-people diplomacy. Praising the co-operation between Viet Nam and Thailand in regional and international forums, Prime Minister Phuc urged the two countries to team up with other affected nations and international organisations in the sustainable and effective management and use of Mekong River water resources. More joint efforts should be focused on the actualisation of an action programme to realise the strategic partnership for 2014-2018 as well as agreements reached at Viet Nam-Thailand Joint Cabinet Retreats, the host said. For his part, the Thai Deputy Prime Minister voiced his wish that the Vietnamese Government will create more optimal conditions for Thai businesses in the country. The Thai Government encourages local investors to run long-term and sustainable operations in Viet Nam, he said. The guest conveyed Thai PM Prayuth Chan-ochas invitation to the Vietnamese Prime Minister Phuc to pay a visit to Thailand in a bid to consolidate bilateral ties and partake in a number of activities making the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries (August 6, 1976). Yesterday, the Thai Deputy Prime Minister met with his counterpart Vu uc am, during which they shared the view that Viet Nam and Thailand hold substantial potential for co-operation in economy, trade and investment that can bring bilateral trade to $20 billion. They agreed on the need for the two countries to reach a plan on tourism co-operation for 2016-18 soon and foster their partnership in education. Host and guest consented to continue co-operating with other ASEAN member countries in order to maintain the intra-bloc solidarity and carry forward the ten-member groups central role and common voice on regional and international issues. The same day, Thanasak Patimaprakorn was welcomed by National Assembly Vice Chairman o Ba Ty, who thanked the Thai Government and people for their $100,000 aid package donated to Viet Nams southern provinces stricken by drought and saltwater intrusion. Ty said he wished that the two countries will maintain the exchange of delegations at all levels, effectively implement their co-operation mechanisms and agreements, pay more heed to the role played by each countrys legislative body and step up co-operation between their parliamentarians. The Thai Deputy Prime Minister pledged to make all-out efforts in order to consolidate and strengthen collaboration between the two nations across all fields. His official visit to Viet Nam lasts from June 16-19. VNS HCM CITY Better links between industries and educational institutions are needed to enhance the employability of graduates in a more competitive globalised environment, said deputy minister of education and training, Bui Van Ga. Ga spoke at a two-day global education dialogue that began yesterday in HCM City. Viet Nam has nearly 450 colleges and universities, some of them long-standing and well-known in the country with noted achievements, he said. However, student employability remains a problem. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developments (OECD) student assessment test ranks Viet Nam in the top 10 countries globally, "but we still get complaints from industries about the employability of graduates. So graduates need further training by industries to be employable, Ga said. Leaders of tertiary institutions are aware of the need for better university-industry links, curricula design and professional programmes. However, university-industry partnerships have progressed slowly, Ga said. Industry contributions to human resource training and student internships are still minimal. Many industries believe that such training is solely the responsibility of universities. It is necessary to change the point of view about university-industry links to improve the quality of human resource training, he said. Ga said that through the two-day dialogue, the Government could develop better policies to encourage such links with universities. Dialogue can also promote bilateral co-operation in education and training between Viet Nam and the UK, and make significant contributions to the reform of the educational system in Viet Nam. Professor Werner Hofer, dean of research at Newcastle University, said We need to laser-focus on specific R&D leadership areas and where there are gaps in global R&D clustering. Innovation hubs for commercial problem-solving should be developed, he said, adding that they create a regional innovation voice for national and international engagement with key corporate innovation leaders. Vivienne Stern, director of the UKs Higher Education International Unit, said that universities across the world are facing the challenge of how to prepare graduates for highly competitive globalised job markets. To meet this challenge, institutions are adapting curricula, working directly with industry to provide professional experience and exploring new models of research as well as the creation of dedicated facilities allowing students and academic staff to explore the commercial potential of their work. The dialogue was one of the activities under the Joint Statement on Higher Education Co-operation between the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam, the British Council Viet Nam and the UK Higher Education International Unit signed in London in September, 2015. The dialogue attracted 130 delegates, including government officials, industry and higher education leaders, researchers and practitioners from the UK, Viet Nam and ASEAN countries. VNS Viet Nam could improve migrants access to public services and employment by reducing the time and number of requirements needed for residents to get a household registration certificate. Photo plo.vn HA NOI Viet Nam could improve migrants access to public services and employment by reducing the time and number of requirements needed for residents to get a household registration certificate, according to a report released yesterday. The report, which was implemented by the World Bank and Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences, said the gap in the access to services and employment between those who owned permanent and temporary household registration certificates must be narrowed. At least 5.6 million people in five cities and provinces, including Ha Noi, HCM City, a Nang, Binh Duong and ak Nong, did not have permanent registration certificates at the time of the study. Most of them were facing difficulties accessing public schools, buying health insurance or even registering motorcycles. Vu Hoang Linh, economist with the poverty and equity global practice of the World Bank, said that those who failed to get permanent certificates faced job discrimination in public agencies and companies. Their children were less likely to be in school than those with permanent registration certificates. They also faced limited access to health care services. Achim Fock, the World Banks Acting Country Director for Viet Nam, said the study showed that the household registration system had created inequities in the opportunities for Vietnamese citizens. Reform was necessary to assure that migrants had the same opportuninities to access to schools, health care and employment in the public sector. It would encourage people to move to cities and support the nations economic growth, he said. ang Nguyen Anh, deputy director of the Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences, said the certificate system was no longer relevant for managing and controlling Vietnamese society. It should be replaced by a more scientific and modern tool to make peoples lives easier and more inclusive, he said. Household registration certificates began 50 years ago as a tool for public security and migration control. Few countries - including Viet Nam, China and the former Soviet Union countries - maintain the system that is linked to social services. Most countries in the world have a system to register living places, but they are not linked to the access of local services. VNS HA NOI Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue has urged the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to buy salt to help salt producers, especially in areas with significant salt storage. The direction of the deputy prime minister was sent yesterday to the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Planning and Investment, Industry and Trade and Finance, as well as to the State Bank of Vietnam and the Vietnam Northern Food Corporation. The Vietnam Northern Food Corporation, which is in charge of salt purchases, will use the public funds from the mother company. The purchase of salt will follow market prices to help salt producers gain a profit. The corporation will take responsibility for purchasing salt and repaying the public funds used after the purchase is complete. The corporation was asked to report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development if any difficulties arose. The Ministry of Industry and Trade was assigned to coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to supervise the salt purchase in various localities. It also encouraged enterprises to consume domestic-produced salt if it meets requirements for chemical production and its price is not excessive compared to imported salt. VNS BINH THUAN Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha has suspended titanium mining operations, after an embankment was breached surrounding waste reservoirs at Ham Thuan Nam Districts Thuan Quy Commune. The mine is operated by by Tan Quang Cuong Trading Co. Ltd in in the central province of Binh Thuan. Ha further requested the General department of Geology and Mineral of Viet Nam to coordinate with the Environment Administration to determine the cause, as well as solutions to problems caused by the spill of waste into the environment. If the company was found to have allowed violations or improperly managed waste control, it would be subject to having its mining licences withdrawn, in accordance with government regulations, Ha said. Further, the General department of Geology and Mineral of Viet Nam has asked the southern department for Control of Mining activities to work with the southern environment department and Binh Thuan Provinces natural resource and environment department to identify the cause, as well as whether regulations were followed in mining operations and in protecting the surrounding environment at Nhum Stream titanium mine. These agencies were expected to submit a report to the General Department of Geology and Mineral of Viet Nam before June 20. Yesterday morning, hundreds of cubic metres of water and sand spilled out onto the street, along with spillovers at tourists sites, after the nearly 3,000 sq.m wide embankment was partially breached. The incident has affected the Hieu Nam Tourist Complex and local households, due to the thick sludge which flowed into the area. Also, pollution was said to have reached Thuan Quy beach, causing sea waters to turn red. VNS HA NOI Vietnam News Agency in general and Viet Nam News in particular need to continue to renew news reporting and management methods, improve quality and accomplish the missions assigned by the Party and the State, making contributions to maintaining peace and stability, and fostering international integration while realising the 12th Party Resolution. Uong Chu Luu, National Assembly Vice Chairman made the statement while attending the 25th anniversary celebrations on June 17, 2016, of Viet Nam News, the first and only English language daily in Viet Nam. On this date, 25 years ago, the Vietnam News Agency published its first edition of Viet Nam News, with four black-and-white printed pages. The number of pages was later increased to eight, and there are currently 28 coloured, printed pages. Seven years later, in 1998, the online version, Viet Nam News Online, was launched, marking a new development for the newspaper in the digital age. Terry Hartney, a veteran Australian journalist, who has followed Viet Nam News progress for more than 20 years, said, In the journalism systems of the world and the region, Viet Nam News is always considered the voice of Viet Nam on diplomacy, business, economic development and social issues that reflect the countrys non-stop movement. With the weekly Sunday Viet Nam News, launched in 1992; monthly Outlook magazine, offered from 2004 to 2015; and online financial and business hub bizhub.vn, launched in 2012, Viet Nam News has provided detailed information from different angles and in-depth, comprehensive analyses of major issues in the countrys development process. Australian Ambassador to Viet Nam HE Hugh Borrowman said, As an expatriate living in Viet Nam, I have found the Viet Nam News to be a most useful source of information, covering major political, socio-economic, cultural and business events in English and making news easily accessible for non-Vietnamese speakers. In particular, I welcome Viet Nam News efforts to share the perspectives of different people, from government officials to experts to ordinary people and even Expat Corner, which shares stories of the work and lives of foreigners in Viet Nam. Camilla Bjelkas, cultural officer of the Swedish Embassy in Viet Nam, said, I have a look in the Viet Nam News every morning when I arrive at the office. And as a cultural officer for the Swedish Embassy, the articles on different cultural events or personalities are important for me. It gives me a better understanding of the local culture and also provides ideas for possible collaborations. For me, this section could be much bigger and could include more interviews with contemporary artists, musicians, designers, etc., along with the more established material. So if I were to suggest some improvements, I would focus on whats happening within the country, news that is hard for foreigners to find anywhere else if you dont speak Vietnamese, she said. Nguyen Lam Giang, HELVETAS director, said Viet Nam News information was carefully selected and covered the policies and viewpoints of Viet Nams professional agencies in the fastest and shortest ways, helping non-governmental organisations learn the facts about Viet Nam. It is the official source of information that leaders and officials of HELVETAS Viet Nam use in discussions with colleagues at our headquarters in Switzerland and to determine orientation and strategies for key projects in Viet Nam, she said. Viet Nam News Editor-in-Chief Trinh Thanh Thuy said Viet Nam News was proud to have accomplished its mission as a newspaper providing external information services and having earned the trust of the Party, the State and the readers over the past 25 years. In the coming period, besides maintaining the print edition, we at editorial will stay up to date on new trends in journalism and continue to be a reliable and comprehensive source of news on Viet Nam, bridging Viet Nam and the international community. The newspaper must produce more high quality and diversified news products of an international level to meet the increasingly high demand for news on Viet Nam in other nations within the context of global integration, she highlighted. Viet Nam News Agency aims to strengthen Viet Nam News position as the nations most influential English language daily, Nguyen uc Loi, Party Central Committee member and the Viet Nam News Agency General Director said. Pham Van Linh, Vice Chairman of the Party Central Committees Commission for Publicity and Education, affirmed that external information services in general, including from the external information service of Viet Nam News Agency, had made important contributions towards maintaining a peaceful and stable environment for national development; protecting national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity; and fostering and expanding friendly cooperation between Viet Nam and other countries, thus enhancing the nations international integration. - VNS by Phuoc Buu In early December 2010, Vietnamese tra fish (basa fish) made headlines when the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) placed it on its red list, which names produce that is farmed under unhygienic conditions or traded illegally. The red label on Vietnamese basa fillets meant that WWFs suggestion to refrain from consuming the product could affect the lives of millions of farmers, workers and traders in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, where basa fish farms and processing factories are based. At that time, local newspapers printed many stories in favour of protecting the product, stating that WWFs red labelling was unfair. I read most of them and questioned whether Vietnamese basa fillet consumers in other countries could read these articles and others published in Vietnamese. I then decided that Viet Nam News, the countrys leading English newspaper, should serve as a pioneer in proving the unfairness suffered by the basa fish industry. But at that time, I was only a junior reporter, and I doubted I would be assigned such a challenging story. However, when the newsrooms head asked for a volunteer to investigate the issue on a three- or four-day field trip, I raised my hand first. I then left the meeting in a hurry to pack at home, leaving behind the surprised, sceptical faces of my seniors. The accusations reported in newspapers helped me collect information for counter arguments, in which I planned to show that fish farms met hygienic requirements, including a clean farming environment, hygienic processing factories and proper waste treatment. The second point was that Viet Nams breeding system no longer relied on fish naturally-sourced from Tonle Sap, which meant the industry did not harm nature. Without any contacts, I hopped on a bus and first stopped at the Cai Be Breeding Centre in Tien Giang Province near HCM City. Later, I travelled to the adjacent ong Thap and spent the rest of the day working with the Department of Fishery Protection. I ended the first day with an empty stomach and headache from the 38 degree Celsius heat. My second day was consumed by visits to fish farms around ong Thap and a return trip to Tan Hong District, 60km from the municipal city, to visit some prominent fish farms and processing factories. The second day ended at Vam Cong ferry station for the last return trip at 9pm. I said goodbye to the young lady from the Department of Fishery Protection, who lent me her motorbike and guided me around the area. After reaching the opposite river bank and walking in the dark for almost a kilometre, I took a motorbike taxi, which passed me off to another driver. The second driver left me in the dark with his motorbike as he disappeared into the bushes without a word for almost 20 minutes. I feared he would return with some weapon to rob my brand new Canon 60D, but luckily, he returned tiredly saying he suddenly saw a snake and tried to catch it. I finally arrived at a hotel in An Giangs Long Xuyen City with funny memories. The next morning was tough. The dean of the environment faculty at An Giang University refused me, suspecting I had bad motives. However, a female lecturer confidentially showed me the process to treat wastewater using water orchids at a fish farm where she supervised the hygiene and environment. I then took a bus back to HCM City with a big question in mind: "Why did the dean get irritated with me when I was trying to do a good thing?" I spent the next two days in HCM Citys newsroom developing the story, with several long pauses to sleep on the floor. The air conditioner felt cool, although I was coming down with a fever. On December 15, 2010 when Viet Nam News published my story in the morning newspaper, I was in the hospital with a fever and stomach inflammation. But it was still a great day because it was the first time my byline appeared on Viet Nam News front page. In addition, I learned that a WWF official arrived in Viet Nam that day and read my story, prompting him to visit the Mekong Delta and ultimately concluded that basa fish should be removed from WWFs red list. Right person, right time. The sense of fulfilment gained from this story inspired following trips. I believe that in journalism, visiting a place to see, hear, feel and investigate always makes a better story. VNS By Le Quynh Anh In 2011, as a budding reporter who had just started a career at the Viet Nam News, I was lucky enough to have a life-changing field trip out to the East Sea. I remember I received this assignment on a cold January and Tet was just around the corner. Whereas people were excited to come home for the biggest holiday, I was enthused with my first sea voyage to visit the two islands off the central coast of Viet Nam. Any journalist would yearn for opportunities to visit far-flung places to fill his/her notebooks with eye-opening, awe-inspring stories weaved from in-person interviews and close-up observations on the scence. This trip offered more than such a thrill, it was a privilege. Not every Vietnamese citizen can board a Viet Nam Navy ship but I was among the few who were granted such honour. Along with other six journalist fellows, I boarded the HQ-628 patrol ship and embarked on a four-day trip with the crew to sail thousands of nautical miles on the waters off the central coast of Viet Nam. The ship was making an annual tradition of delivering the gifts and the festive spirits from the mainland to soldiers and habitants on Con Co and Ly Son islands ahead of Tet holiday. No sooner had I boarded the 60-metre ship than I started wandering around the ship deck to marvel at the great view of an expanding ocean. My excitement quickly dissipated, however, as soon as the sea sickness kicked in. As callow as I could ever be, I did the exact thing to aggravate the queasiness which was to do a lot of moving instead of laying still. As the ship got further away from the shore and encountered strong tidal currents with accompany winds, the sea sickness engulfed me. My stomach quickly became empty due to excessive vomiting, and I literally threw up bile. Yet there was no escape since surrounding us was the vast black sea; I wished that I could just die. We finally got close to Con Co Island by the noon of the second day. The moment we were ashore, all of us felt like we were born again. Without rest, we embarked on a 4-kilometre hike on a muddy trail to tour around this island. We quickly regained our heartiness as we savored the vast greenery that welcomed us. As a secluded island where access to it was very limited even until today there has been no commercial transport routes connecting the island with mainland Con Co has preserved the primitive conditions of a young volcanic island. It is a biodiversity hotbed, home to a diverse tropical maritime ecosystem featuring unique black coral reefs. When we visited, this 2.3-square-kilometre island was in the making as this once-military station was designated as an administrative district starting from 2004. Scattering around were numerous construction sites to build roads and schools. The primary school which was under construction during our visit came into operation just last year. As I had just completed an article on tapping into the potential of renewable energy, it was close to a deja vu to see with my own eyes how the smart islanders put this idea into actions. Dozens of solar panels had been installed to power the whole island. We were warmly received by soldiers who stationed there and the habitants who were among the first to settle down here. As we shared meals with them, we talked at length of the hardships they were facing to humanize an island. They seemed not to mind the rudimentary living conditions as much as the sense of isolation from the rest of the community. That was why they often looked forward to visits by entourages like ours. They were loath to part us on the harbour, and a soldier was kind enough to offer me a few small tips to combat sea sickness. These advices worked like a charm or at least I thought they did. In the second leg of the trip when we spent another night on board before reaching Ly Son Island, I did not vomit for once (phew). Contrast to the tranquility of Con Co, Ly Son was full of life. It is home to a large fishery fleet, where fishing has been the main livelihood for the islanders for centuries. Interestingly, the island carries with it a burial tradition like no other. Islanders maintained a practice of building a special type of graves for those whose bodies were forever lost to the sea. The shore-facing tomb included a model of a human being whose components were made of different materials: clay for skin, white mulberry branches for skeleton and egg for stomach, alluvial soil for liver among others. A veteran necromancer would be trusted with building such an intricate model and conducting a solemn ceremony to guide the lost soul back home. In the modern time, these graves are dedicated to unfortunate local fishers who could not make it home from a fatal voyage. I was fortunate to sit down with Vo Van Toai, among the very last necromancers still alive on the island. In a thick, hard-to-decipher accent, he explained this tradition traced back to the Nguyen Dynasty from the 18th century. Under the Kings order, each year the island would choose the strongest warriors under the leadership of a Commander to sail the ocean and protect the sovereignty of the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago. Many brave soldiers died at sea while on duty. To commemorate their sacrifice and help these heroes rest in peace, members of their families started building such type of graves. More and more graves filled the island as generation after generation of islanders crossed the sea to defend the Paracels. Legend has it that there were years where none of the troop came back and all of the graves were for them. Elsewhere in the island, one also could find other evidence of relics of such heroic crusades by the Kings men of Ly Son Island. My impression was that the whole island was a living testimony to the indisputable sovereignty of Viet Nam over the Paracels which was totally taken by force by the Chinese in 1974. As I listened to all these stories, I could not help but wonder how difficult for a reporter to get all the richness and evocative details without actually being on the field. I was very fortunate that the editorial board at this newspaper always encouraged me and other reporters to take on challenging field trips. Such trips not only provide us with materials for great stories but also enrich our perspectives to become a better journalist and in general a better person. Take this particular trip for example. I came back, I became physically stronger and, felt a bigger love for my home country with its magnificent scenic beauty and its patriotic people who serve this country selflessly. VNS Indias plan to lease farm land in Mozambique, Tanzania and Malawi to grow pulses for domestic consumers is not the first such project and all such attempt in the past have not yielded desired results due to high cost of investment, poor law and order and inadequate infrastructure. Amid the media reports which emerged last week and claimed that Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a US airstrike, Damascus's envoy to Moscow on Friday said, "I definitely know that he was wounded". Ambassador Riyad Haddad told Sputnik magazine that there was no clear information on his killing. However, he asserted that in near future not only Baghdadi, but also other Islamic State members will be killed. The ambassador added, a meeting of Syrian and Russian defence ministers was currently being planned. "Indeed, one minister should visit the other, the place and the date are not known yet, but we have such plans," he informed. Earlier this year, various reports emerged about Baghdadi's injuries and death. In April, US Department of Defence announced that Baghdadi was alive, and was travelling between Syria and Iraq. Chinas total borrowings were more than double its gross domestic product (GDP) last year, a government economist said, warning that debt linkages between the state and industry could be fatal for the worlds second largest . The countrys debt has ballooned as Beijing has made getting credit cheap and easy in an effort to stimulate slowing growth, unleashing a massive debt-fuelled spending binge. While the stimulus may help the country post better growth numbers in the near term, analysts say the rebound might be short-lived. Chinas borrowings hit 168.48 trillion yuan ($25.6 trillion) at the end of last year, equivalent to 249 per cent of the economys GDP, Li Yang, a senior researcher with a top government think tank, the Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told reporters yesterday. The number, while enormous, is still lower than some outside estimates. Consulting firm the McKinsey Group has said that the countrys total debt was likely as high as $28 trillion by mid-2014. CASS, in a report last year, said Chinas debt amounted to 150.03 trillion yuan at the end of 2014, according to previous Chinese media reports. The most worrying risks lie in the non-financial corporate sector, where the debt-to-GDP ratio was estimated at 156 per cent, including liabilities of local government financing vehicles, Li said. Many of the companies in question are state-owned firms that borrowed heavily from government-backed banks and so problems with the sector could ultimately trigger systemic risks in the economy, he said. DRAGON IN TROUBLE Chinas borrowings hit 168 trn ($25.6 trn) at the end of last year, equivalent to 249% of the economys GDP McKinsey Group said countrys total debt as high as $28 trn by mid-2014 Most worrying risks lie in the non-financial corporate sector, where the debt-to-GDP ratio was estimated at 156% Problem will also affect state coffers because Chinese banks are closely linked to the government The Peoples Bank of has announced that new loans extended by banks jumped to 985.5 bn last month, up from 555.6 bn in April The gravity of Chinas non-financial corporate (debt) is that if problems occur with it, Chinas financial system will have problems immediately, Li said. He added that the problem will also affect state coffers because Chinese banks are closely linked to the government. Its a fatal issue in . Because of such a link, it is probably more urgent for China than other countries to resolve the debt problem, he said. Speaking earlier this week, David Lipton, first deputy managing director with the Monetary Fund, also singled out Chinas corporate borrowing as a major concern, warning that addressing the issue is imperative to avoid serious problems down the road. Despite the concerns, China is having difficulty kicking its credit addiction. On Wednesday, the Peoples Bank of China announced that new loans extended by banks jumped to 985.5 billion yuan last month, up from 555.6 billion yuan in April. Abandoned the families: Kean lashes Labors first budget NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has slammed the Albanese Government for failing to provide families with cost of living support amid soaring inflation and electricity prices. Isnt sufficient: Experts reply to Chalmers bold housing crisis solution Jim Chalmers has announced a historic national Housing Accord which will see one million homes built over five years - but experts are not convinced the "bold" plan is enough to address the housing crisis. Fill up now: Petrol prices set to soar Motorists in major cities have been warned to "fill up" as soon as possible as Australians face several surging costs following the Albanese Government's first budget overnight. Police saddle up for return of crowds at Melbourne Cup Victoria Police sent a message to racegoers as cops prepare for hundreds of thousands of punters to descend upon Melbourne for the race that stops the nation. CEDAR FALLS Like many, Andrew Bouska learned about the killings of 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub soon after the attack. Unlike most Northeast Iowans, however, Bouska heard about it from his friends. Most of my friends who meet in Orlando are of Latin descent, so they not only were familiar with the club, but also knew more of the victims, Bouska, of Cedar Falls, said. So I was already living it through them, which was very sad. But the news was about to get worse. Grieving the community he lost in Orlando on Tuesday evening, Bouska couldnt sleep. So he was watching videos on YouTube when he hit upon a tribute to victims, whose names were being read by CNNs Anderson Cooper. A name Bouska recognized was first. Edward Sotomayor, Jr., Cooper says in the video, choking back emotion. He worked at a travel agency that catered to the gay community. His family says he was witty, charming and that he always left things better than he found them. Bouska realized his friend a friend he had seen just days earlier on a trip to Orlando was among the dead. I was shocked I didnt believe it, Bouska said. I had to rewind the video. I was already starting the healing process from the devastation overall, and then I was hit with, Oh, by the way, one of YOUR friends was there too. It was painful. But Bouska doesnt regret finding out. Had I not watched the video, I might not have known until longer after the fact. Or tried to contact him only to find out the worst, he said. Bouska and Sotomayor met in Orlando in 2012 while seated next to each other on a bus. They hit it off, kept in touch and hung out each summer in Orlando. Most of the influential people in my life Ive met simply because I was randomly in the right place at the right moment, Bouska said. Edward was no exception. He was the type of person others were drawn to. Witty, charming, a natural comedian, the center of attention, but someone who would help a total stranger. In fact, Bouska said, Sotomayor had helped friends in Pulse get to safety and was killed in the process of doing so. The world needs more people like him, he said. Bouska last hung out with Sotomayor at One Magical Weekend, a four-day LGBT celebration at Walt Disney World, the weekend before the shooting. That weekend is probably what I look forward to the most each year. Its a celebration of life and of diversity, Bouska said. Everyone celebrates gays, straights. We were all doing just that, being with our friends, enjoying life and being alive. Its sad that no one knew what was about to happen. But, Bouska said, hes glad he had that final time with Sotomayor. Even thought there were many individuals who were closer to him than I was, I can certainly feel the emptiness that everyone has now, he said. He said he will continue his Orlando trips in the summer with other Orlando friends. If we dont continue to celebrate life, then the Orlando victims died in vain and the gunman wins, he said. The terrorists only want to divide us and bring us down, and all they do is unify us and make us stronger. WEST UNION -- A person in the United States illegally now also faces serious charges of sexually abusing a young girl. Pedro Candido, 41, was arrested Wednesday in West Union, according to the Fayette County Sheriff's Office. He is charged with second-degree sexual abuse and with third-degree sexual abuse, which are both felonies. According to the sheriff's office, the investigation revealed Candido "performed multiple sexual acts upon an 11 year-old female and again upon the same female at the age of 12." Authorities described the investigation as "intense." Candido was taken to the Fayette County Jail and is being held on a no bond warrant. The sheriffs office also worked with the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, determining Candido is in the United States illegally. A hold was placed on Candido through ICE. The Iowa Department of Human Services is working with the girl and her family. If convicted, Candido could face up to 75 years in prison, be required to register as a sex offender and be deported. WATERLOO A Waterloo woman police and firefighters were searching for along Black Hawk Creek was found and arrested on an unrelated charge Thursday. Waterloo Police and Waterloo Fire and Rescue searched a large portion of Black Hawk Creek Wednesday night and Thursday morning for Kelly Lee Marie Schake, 36, who was tubing on the creek. Schake and another person were on the water together when the man she was with lost sight of her. He called police shortly after 10 p.m. Police and fire personnel were unsure if she was still in the water. They suspended the search due to darkness. They posted police at the vehicles the pair used for the float at Ranchero Road and at Hope Martin Park. Searchers did find items along the creek during the search. However, witnesses said they saw Schake emerge from the creek. Waterloo Police Capt. Dave Mohlis said the search was continued as a precaution while officers tried to locate the woman in town. We didnt know whether she went back into the creek or not, Mohlis said. Schake was located Thursday afternoon and taken into custody on an unrelated charge. Mohlis said numerous officers over multiple shifts assisted in the search, along with Waterloo Fire Rescue personnel. WATERLOO Each day, each dollar, each lap around the course brings us one step closer. Organizers and participants in the annual Black Hawk County American Cancer Society Relay for Life want nothing less than to see the day when the disease no longer threatens lives or cuts them short. So they walked Friday at Hawkeye Community College. They supported one another. They raised money. Even if you put in $1, at least you put something in to fight it, said Carole Lindecrantz, a participant and volunteer fundraiser. Dawn Belbis and Kim Brustkern are captains of Team Pink Elephants. The group honors Tim Brustkern Jr., Belbis brother and Kim Brustkerns cousin-in-law. Tim Brustkern died of cancer five years ago. The Pink Elephants Tims favorite animal and his mother Sandys favorite color formed the next year. After he passed away we came, saw it because we had never been here and decided we needed to get a team together, Belbis said. Belbis describes the relay as an amazing event and is particularly impressed with the unity on display. Everybody just supports everybody else. You just feel a bond with everyone. ... It just brings people togther, she added. About 25 Pink Elephants participated this year. Each is one of Tim Brustkerns friends or a family member, according to Belbis, including her 14-year-old daughter, Chloe. She enjoys the relay even as she thinks about her late uncle. Its just really fun, and ... you feel closer to him, Chloe Belbis said. Based on Lindecrantz experience, such stories are familiar. Everybody Ive ever known has had a relative or somebody theyve known with cancer, she said. It touches every family and every person. In her case, both parents died because of cancer. Lindecrantz and Gwen Timmerman were co-captains this year of Team Tyson, which is supported by Tyson Fresh Meats employees like herself. Lindecrantz is a registered nurse and has been with the company 16 years. During that time, she participated in 14 relays. Its something I always believed in and should help out with, Lindecrantz said. Zach Engbrecht, president of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society at Hawkeye, volunteered Friday, too. He spent part of his time in the information booth near the walking course. Cancer is definitely something that impacts a lot of peoples lives, he said. Including his own. His father, Jarvis Engrecht, had lymphoma but has been in remission for several years. He beat it, Zach Engbrecht said. Linda Allen, president of Hawkeye Community College, welcomed participants during an opening ceremony. She said she hoped the venue on campus would serve as a place for everyone to remember loved ones, celebrate survivors and most importantly to fight back against cancer. Black Hawk County has hosted a Relay for Life for more than 20 years, according to Tammy Schoonover, a community manager for the American Cancer Society. The event endures, she said, because cancer hasnt gone away. Its touched so many people. The relay also represents a meaningful way to publicly honor and remember friends and family, Schoonover said. Theres one day when you can keep their memories alive, she said. As the relay began, Schoonover said the event had already generated $118,000. The goal is $200,000. We have a saying: Fundraising isnt all we do, but everything we do depends on fundraising, Schoonover said. The event is today, but cancer doesnt end today. So the fundraising cant end today, she added. Kate Kastli, captain of Dream Team, opened the relay with about $1,700. She expected the figure to grow, however. Like many of the groups assembled Friday afternoon and evening on campus, Kastli and Dream Team got together initially because of one persons struggle. Kastlis inspiration was from a college friend, Kara Luett, who was diagnosed ahead of the 2001 relay. She was alive when the relay happened but she was too sick to come, Kastli said. And then she actually passed away that next year. The Dream Team camp featured banners listing loved ones now missing: Our Fallen Stars. Unfortunately weve had to add names every year of people weve lost, Kastli said. Since 2015, their group has put on 10 additional names. Dream Teams list now honors 52 people. This is why we do this, so hopefully we wont have to add names, so that somebody else doesnt have a sign with 52 names on it, Kastli said. President Obama is determined to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But his administrations refusal to reveal pertinent information about detainees may thwart whatever slim opportunity he has to convince Congress to do so. In March, Paul Lewis, the senior Department of Defense official responsible for overseeing Guantanamo, told members of Congress detainees released during the George W. Bush administration had killed Americans overseas. No specifics were publicly provided. Last week, the Washington Post reported 12 former detainees had killed six Americans, including a female aid worker in 2008. Nine of those former detainees are believed dead or in foreign custody. According to U.S. intelligence, about 30 percent of released detainees are suspected or confirmed of re-engaging in militancy nearly 21 percent of those released by the Bush administration and about 4.5 percent of the 158 released by the Obama administration. The National Counterterrorism Center did provide the House Foreign Affairs Committee with a memo, the Post stated, naming the suspected former detainees, describing the attacks and information about, but not the names of, the victims. Because many of these incidents were large-scale firefights in a war zone, we cannot always distinguish whether Americans were killed by the former detainees or by others in the same fight, the Post was told. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said even her staff lacked the security clearance to read the NCTC memo. One Republican aide called it grossly overclassified. There appears to be a consistent and concerted effort by the administration to prevent Americans from knowing the truth regarding the terrorist activities and affiliations of past and present Guantanamo detainees, Ayotte wrote Obama, requesting the names of U.S. and NATO personnel killed by former detainees. The secrecy began with the Bush administration, which refused to list the names of detainees until required by a 2006 Freedom of Information Act ruling. Most of what else is known about Guantanamo comes from document dumps by fugitive former Central Intelligence Agency employee Edward Snowden and defense attorneys. The prison on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay was established during the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan that overthrew the Taliban government. The Bush administration transported 779 enemy combatants of various nationalities as well as al-Qaida-linked terrorists to the prison in southeastern Cuba. An estimated 80 prisoners are still there, including 14 high-value detainees. Five men are on trial for organizing the 9/11 attacks, while three others have been convicted for it. Thirty have been cleared for transfers into custody their homelands. The remaining prisoners will be prosecuted or held indefinitely as law of war detainees until the war on terrorism ends. Some could be sent overseas for prosecution, including Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, a Kenyan accused of plotting attacks in Mombasa in November 2002 against an Israeli-owned hotel, killing 13, and an unsuccessful attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner. As a budgetary matter, it costs $450 million annually to operate the prison. The Obama administration estimates it would cost between $290 million and $475 million to prepare a U.S facility and transfer detainees. Three to five years down the road, it cites $335 million in net savings over 10 years and up to $1.7 billion in net savings over 20 years. Congress, which has blocked attempts to move the prisoners to the United States, is expected to extend its ban this month. The clock has struck midnight and the American people have won, said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who opposes moving detainees to prisons in his state. The president needs to admit that. It is unlikely the president will resort to an executive order that would prove politically unpopular prior to the general election. However, considering the promise he made to close Guantanamo within a year after his election in 2008, a post-election decision is not out of the question. Returning Guantanamo to Cuba wont be happening. During the presidents trip to Cuba earlier this year, the administration stated it has no intention at present to change the lease. Doing so would create a political firestorm. The Castro government protested the U.S. took the land by force in 1898 during the Spanish-American War, but a treaty giving the U.S. control of Guantanamo was signed in 1903 and reaffirmed in 1934. However, the secrecy continuing to shroud nearly every aspect of the Guantanamo prison and detainees present and past needs to be lifted. If former prisoners have recommitted to a war against Americans and the West, the public has a right to know. Hearst Center to show Potter film CEDAR FALLS The Hearst Center will screen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Mae Latta Hall, part of a project to show all the Harry Potter films this summer. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. The Hearsts film series is sponsored by Far Reach. Beyond Pink sets Tuesday meeting CEDAR FALLS The Beyond Pink TEAM will host its next Meet, Mingle and Learn event Tuesday at the Cedar Valley Unitarian Universalists building, 3912 Cedar Heights Drive. Cindy Harris, BPT member, will present on her approach to using natural products while cleaning. The free event is open to women living with any type of cancer diagnosis. Activities are planned from 4:30 to 7 p.m., but the presentation will be from 6 to 6:45 p.m. There will be light refreshments available. For more information, call Gabbi DeWitt at 292-2225 or Dee Hughes at 235-3179, or go to www.cedarvalleybreastcancer.org. KidsFit events will be offered WATERLOO Hy-Vee KidsFit Five-Week Challenge will be offered from 11 a.m. to noon every Thursday, June 23 through July 21, at all Waterloo and Cedar Falls Hy-Vee stores. Children can try a new healthy food and earn prizes each week. Registration is not required. Joint camp will be held June 27 WATERLOO Covenant Clinic Orthopedic Surgery will host its monthly Total Joint Replacement Camp at 6 p.m. June 27 in the West Dining Room at Sartori Memorial Hospital. The program includes a brief presentation from joint replacement experts who work in areas including nursing, discharge planning, and therapy. The seminar is free, and patients can call 272-7200 for more information. Music workshop set at Wartburg WAVERLY The Northeast Area Music Teachers Association will host the 2016 Pedagogy Workshop at Wartburg College on June 27-28. Guest clinician will be Nancy Bachus, an Eastman School of Music grad. She will present four sessions, including Teaching Stylistic Differences, The Technique behind Intermediate Repertoire, Pedaling with Style and a master class. Dr. Ted Reuter from Wartburg College will present The Development of Classical Style and A Technical Approach to Classical Elegance. Dr. Jason Sifford will discuss The Art of Lyricism and a session on new music. Contact dbuseman@mchsi.com for additional registration information. Appreciation day at C.F. market CEDAR FALLS The Cedar Falls Farmers Market will have its June Customer Appreciation Day from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday. There will be free doughnut holes, coffee, lemonade and ice water while supplies last. Vendors with offer early summer vegetables, flower and vegetable plants plus fresh bouquets, fresh baked goods, along with eggs, meat, honey, popcorn, pottery, jewelry, cosmetics, hot food and more. The market is located on West Third and Clay streets by Overman Park and is open every Saturday morning through October. Starting in June, Iowa Farmers Market Nutrition checks will be accepted by certified vendors. Vets grill-out set in Waterloo WATERLOO The Black Hawk County Veteran Affairs Commission will hold its last grill out for homeless vets 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. June 29 at Lincoln Park. The event is open to any veteran. Hicks Place will provide food and Tysons is donating 40 pounds of taco meat for walking tacos and hot dogs. Attendees are invited to bring veterans from nursing homes, service organizations and elsewhere. Councilmen to host town hall WATERLOO At-large City Council Members Steve Schmitt, Tom Lind and Second Ward Councilman Bruce Jacobs have scheduled another budget town hall meeting 1 to 3 p.m. June 26 at Law Court Theatre, Waterloo Center for the Arts, 225 Commercial St. The public will be invited to provice ideas and feedback regarding the budgets of specific City of Waterloo departments at this meeting, the Central Garage and Code Enforcement/Legal. Department heads from the aforementioned areas will be invited to attend as well. All Waterloo residents are welcome to attend. CORE meets in Washburn WASHBURN The annual meeting of the Waterloo Chapter of CORE will meet at 1 p.m. June 26 at the Moose Lodge in Washburn. There will be election of officers, a discussion of health care changes, and time for questions and answers from those in attendance. Come with any concerns, and the board will try to answer them. Soft skills are sometimes overlooked in broader conversations about employee training, but they are one of the biggest assets for an organization. Soft skills are the intangible traits that guide how you interact with others: leadership, communication, customer relations, conflict resolution and collaboration. Strong soft skills are important to the professional success and reputation of employers and their employees, especially in todays connected society. Today, the customer experience can go viral, said Dr. Celina Peerman, an organizational behavior specialist with The Peerman Group. With fierce competition and customers who have more options we have to be able to distinguish ourselves. Among the business and industry training offered at Hawkeye Community College, I have seen requests for customer service training increase the most in the past year. Companies large and small are finding employees have the technical skills for the work, but need additional soft skills training to increase productivity and enhance consumer experience. A recent survey by Talent Q showed nine out of 10 employers believe employees with soft skills are increasingly important in the world of globalization. Yet in a 2014 survey by the Hay Group, a majority of employers believe entry-level employees arent prepared with the soft skills they need for todays global economy. When a consumer has a positive customer experience they might tell one person. When someone has a negative experience they might tell 10 people at least thats the way it used to be. In the age of social media and 24/7 connectivity, that number has multiplied almost infinitely. We really dont often talk about the good experiences as much, but we are more likely to post about the negative, Dr. Peerman said. It can multiply quickly. Smart business leaders are looking not just at how employees interact with customers, but how they interact with each other. Building strong communication skills is important for all levels of an organization, from entry-level employees to seasoned management. At Geater Machining and Manufacturing Co. in Independence, Hawkeye Community College provided effective communication training for frontline employees. It improved awareness and decreased misunderstandings due to poor communication skills, said Char Bantz, human resources coordinator. It was also beneficial for handling unexpected issues between internal and external customers. Soft skills are important across industries and at all levels in an organization. Understanding the role strong communication and customer service skills play is crucial to a companys success in a global marketplace. For more information on customer service, soft skills, leadership and other customized training for your business, contact Hawkeye Business and Community Education at 296-4223 or visit www.hawkeyecollege.edu/business-and-community. By The Associated Press Jun. 17, 2016 | 05:51 AM | PADUCAH, KY The Ohio River's annual cleanup day takes place this Saturday along its shores in six states.The River Sweep covers more than 3,000 miles of riverbank from its origin in Pittsburgh to its end in Cairo, Illinois. The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission organizes the event, which saw 100,000 pounds of trash collected last year at 149 sites.McCracken County volunteers will gather at the Paducah riverfront at 8:00 am. You can call 270-908-4545 to find out more.Livingston County will meet at the Smithland waterfront at 8am. You can call 270-928-2168 for information.Ballard County volunteers will begin at the Wickliffe riverfront starting at 7:00 am. Call 270-335-8000.In southern Illinois, crews will be working out of Massac County at the Fort Massac boat ramp, as well as the Brookport and Joppa riverfronts.Other southern Illinois work sites include Pulaski County and Fisherman's Bluff at Olmsted, at Golconda in Pope County, Cave-In-Rock State Park, the Elizabethtown riverfront, Rosiclare City Park, and Fort Defiance in Cairo.For more information on the Ohio River event, click the link below. On the Net: past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 17 (6) May 16 (5) May 15 (7) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (9) May 10 (3) May 09 (7) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (5) May 05 (8) May 03 (9) May 02 (1) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (8) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (10) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (7) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (8) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (12) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (8) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (1) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (2) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (2) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (1) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (2) Jan 20 (2) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (2) Dec 17 (1) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (2) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (1) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (5) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (10) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (2) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (5) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (9) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (6) Oct 22 (4) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (1) Oct 06 (10) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (1) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (6) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (8) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (5) Aug 31 (8) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (8) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (8) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (8) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (10) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (1) Jul 16 (10) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (7) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (8) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (10) Jun 05 (14) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (6) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (2) May 29 (7) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (4) May 25 (5) May 24 (4) May 23 (5) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (3) May 19 (10) May 18 (6) May 17 (3) May 16 (6) May 15 (2) May 14 (3) May 13 (5) May 11 (1) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (2) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (5) May 03 (5) May 02 (1) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (8) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (14) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (1) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (1) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (1) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (9) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (9) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (13) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (6) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (9) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (9) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (2) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (5) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (12) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (7) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (1) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (10) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (12) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (6) Dec 08 (7) Dec 07 (12) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (13) Dec 04 (6) Dec 02 (8) Dec 01 (8) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (8) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (11) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (14) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (11) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (10) Nov 01 (8) Oct 31 (12) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (13) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (8) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (11) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (10) Oct 12 (11) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (10) Oct 09 (7) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (14) Oct 04 (9) Oct 03 (12) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (9) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (10) Sep 21 (12) Sep 20 (12) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (11) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (8) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (10) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (9) Sep 07 (8) Sep 06 (11) Sep 05 (2) Sep 04 (8) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (9) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (2) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (6) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (7) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (11) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (9) Jul 31 (11) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (11) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (7) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (5) Jul 06 (6) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (3) Jun 30 (8) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (7) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (7) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (9) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (8) May 30 (7) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (3) May 23 (5) May 22 (2) May 21 (3) May 20 (7) May 19 (11) May 18 (1) May 17 (7) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (4) May 11 (11) May 10 (2) May 09 (6) May 08 (6) May 07 (2) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (8) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (13) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (9) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (2) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (9) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (6) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (9) Feb 24 (11) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (6) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (2) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (10) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (2) Feb 05 (9) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (7) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (14) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (10) Jan 18 (11) Jan 17 (9) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (10) Jan 06 (8) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (5) Jan 01 (14) Dec 30 (13) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (5) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (7) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (9) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (17) Dec 09 (8) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (10) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (9) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (15) Nov 24 (7) Nov 23 (15) Nov 22 (9) Nov 21 (6) Nov 20 (11) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (13) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (7) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (13) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (8) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (8) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (15) Oct 26 (10) Oct 25 (10) Oct 24 (13) Oct 23 (9) Oct 21 (8) Oct 20 (13) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (8) Oct 16 (14) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (13) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (15) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (11) Oct 05 (18) Oct 04 (14) Oct 03 (1) Oct 02 (10) Sep 30 (11) Sep 29 (11) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (15) Sep 26 (7) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (17) Sep 20 (20) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (11) Sep 16 (10) Sep 15 (12) Sep 14 (9) Sep 13 (12) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (8) Sep 09 (9) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (13) Sep 06 (15) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (10) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (12) Aug 31 (14) Aug 30 (14) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (8) Aug 27 (9) Aug 26 (12) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (11) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (9) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (8) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (6) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (6) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (15) Jul 15 (14) Jul 14 (5) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (12) Jul 11 (8) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (10) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (10) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (7) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (11) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (14) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (8) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (11) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (16) Jun 03 (8) Jun 02 (12) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (7) May 30 (15) May 28 (7) May 27 (5) May 26 (21) May 25 (14) May 24 (10) May 23 (7) May 22 (8) May 21 (11) May 20 (5) May 19 (4) May 18 (10) May 17 (11) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (7) May 13 (12) May 12 (10) May 11 (7) May 10 (13) May 09 (4) May 08 (7) May 07 (3) May 06 (6) May 05 (9) May 04 (14) May 03 (7) May 02 (10) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (14) Apr 22 (16) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (16) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (8) Apr 10 (12) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (13) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (15) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (15) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (11) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (10) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (12) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (8) Mar 24 (7) Mar 23 (15) Mar 22 (17) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (8) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (19) Mar 15 (13) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (20) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (13) Mar 08 (13) Mar 07 (7) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (16) Mar 02 (16) Mar 01 (13) Feb 29 (8) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (16) Feb 26 (10) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (12) Feb 23 (14) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (12) Feb 18 (12) Feb 17 (11) Feb 16 (8) Feb 15 (9) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (10) Feb 12 (11) Feb 11 (13) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (13) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (19) Jan 31 (21) Jan 29 (11) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (13) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (2) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (13) Jan 21 (11) Jan 20 (9) Jan 19 (13) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (11) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (13) Jan 13 (9) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (5) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (1) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (13) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (11) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (9) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (10) Dec 08 (13) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (8) Dec 04 (11) Dec 03 (12) Dec 02 (16) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (11) Nov 28 (15) Nov 27 (16) Nov 26 (11) Nov 25 (9) Nov 24 (13) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (10) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (10) Nov 13 (14) Nov 12 (8) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (12) Nov 05 (17) Nov 04 (12) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (12) Oct 31 (11) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (10) Oct 28 (18) Oct 27 (16) Oct 26 (11) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (12) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (12) Oct 20 (17) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (15) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (10) Oct 14 (16) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (12) Oct 09 (21) Oct 08 (22) Oct 07 (19) Oct 06 (18) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (17) Oct 03 (13) Oct 02 (14) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (14) Sep 29 (15) Sep 28 (12) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (15) Sep 25 (13) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (10) Sep 22 (12) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (12) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (16) Sep 16 (21) Sep 15 (14) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (10) Sep 11 (16) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (8) Sep 08 (10) Sep 07 (7) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (9) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (10) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (14) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (13) Aug 20 (9) Aug 19 (13) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (12) Aug 11 (9) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (14) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (2) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (6) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (6) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (9) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (13) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (7) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (9) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (7) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (11) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (8) Jun 03 (9) Jun 02 (6) Jun 01 (4) May 30 (7) May 29 (9) May 28 (13) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (2) May 23 (8) May 22 (9) May 21 (7) May 20 (4) May 19 (6) May 18 (7) May 17 (8) May 15 (9) May 14 (5) May 13 (8) May 12 (6) May 11 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (6) May 07 (11) May 06 (7) May 05 (4) May 04 (11) May 03 (5) May 02 (4) May 01 (9) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (10) Apr 22 (8) Apr 21 (9) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (6) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (2) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (7) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (9) Mar 19 (9) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (9) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (11) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (12) Mar 11 (9) Mar 10 (12) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (11) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (8) Feb 27 (9) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (10) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (7) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (2) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (12) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (10) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (12) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (8) Jan 26 (13) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (12) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (10) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (11) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (8) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (9) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (10) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (10) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (9) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (10) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (1) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (9) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (12) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (6) Nov 18 (10) Nov 17 (12) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (12) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (7) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (9) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (14) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (9) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (8) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (11) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (7) Oct 15 (7) Oct 14 (8) Oct 13 (5) Oct 12 (8) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (11) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (8) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (10) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (7) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (8) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (11) Sep 24 (15) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (10) Sep 17 (10) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (7) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (9) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (12) Aug 19 (8) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (8) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (12) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (12) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (8) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (8) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (8) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (9) Jul 13 (10) Jul 11 (9) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (7) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (7) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (15) Jun 26 (10) Jun 25 (9) Jun 24 (16) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (12) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (13) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (14) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (16) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (18) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (8) May 31 (3) May 30 (6) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (8) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (2) May 18 (9) May 17 (1) May 16 (5) May 15 (5) May 14 (7) May 13 (7) May 12 (7) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (5) May 08 (10) May 07 (4) May 06 (13) May 05 (4) May 04 (10) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (9) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (9) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (7) Apr 14 (11) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (9) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (10) Apr 03 (9) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (8) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (7) Mar 21 (14) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (11) Mar 17 (12) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (8) Mar 14 (13) Mar 13 (8) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (8) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (15) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (12) Mar 02 (20) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (11) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (14) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (8) Feb 16 (11) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (2) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (2) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (7) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (1) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 27 (1) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (8) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (1) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (9) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (8) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (12) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (12) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (9) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (11) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (7) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (2) Oct 21 (7) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (7) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (20) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (21) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (34) Oct 04 (24) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (7) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (6) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (2) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (9) Sep 19 (11) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (6) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (11) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (10) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (8) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (7) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (7) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (10) Jul 22 (8) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (7) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (10) Jul 16 (11) Jul 15 (5) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (12) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (12) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (23) Jun 27 (18) Jun 26 (12) Jun 25 (14) Jun 24 (15) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (15) Jun 20 (9) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (11) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (6) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (9) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (8) May 24 (7) May 23 (6) May 22 (9) May 21 (6) May 20 (5) May 19 (6) May 18 (9) May 17 (10) May 16 (11) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (7) May 11 (7) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (11) May 05 (5) May 04 (9) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (8) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (10) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (8) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (11) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (9) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (10) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (2) Mar 10 (1) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (1) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (2) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (5) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (9) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (10) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (8) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (1) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (1) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (8) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (8) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (7) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (1) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (16) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (5) Nov 25 (2) Nov 24 (6) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (15) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (5) Nov 08 (8) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (9) Nov 05 (1) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (8) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (1) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (1) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (10) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (15) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (1) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (8) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (8) Sep 24 (8) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (9) Sep 20 (7) Sep 19 (8) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (7) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (9) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (10) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (15) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (7) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (11) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (15) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (7) Aug 19 (2) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (9) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (7) Aug 07 (9) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (11) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (6) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (8) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (14) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (8) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (14) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (12) Jun 15 (12) Jun 14 (10) Jun 13 (10) Jun 12 (9) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (12) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (12) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (3) May 25 (5) May 24 (9) May 23 (16) May 22 (12) May 21 (11) May 20 (7) May 19 (10) May 18 (8) May 17 (8) May 16 (10) May 15 (8) May 14 (5) May 13 (1) May 12 (6) May 11 (9) May 10 (9) May 09 (10) May 08 (9) May 07 (6) May 06 (5) May 05 (7) May 04 (10) May 03 (7) May 02 (9) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (12) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (9) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (10) Apr 14 (7) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (8) Apr 05 (8) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (11) Mar 30 (12) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (9) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (12) Mar 20 (14) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (12) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (8) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (13) Feb 25 (10) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (10) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (18) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (9) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (8) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (10) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (12) Jan 30 (7) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (7) Jan 27 (12) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (11) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (12) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (11) Jan 16 (9) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (9) Jan 10 (10) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (10) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (10) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (9) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (8) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (1) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (6) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (13) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (7) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (7) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (9) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (7) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (8) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (10) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (10) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (8) Nov 17 (9) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (12) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (8) Nov 06 (10) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (11) Nov 01 (10) Oct 31 (5) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (8) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (11) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (7) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (9) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (9) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (12) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (13) Oct 04 (11) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (14) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (12) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (10) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (8) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (7) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (14) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (11) Sep 14 (13) Sep 13 (11) Sep 12 (9) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (13) Sep 08 (11) Sep 07 (11) Sep 06 (16) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (8) Sep 01 (7) Aug 31 (1) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (12) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (13) Jul 28 (10) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (12) Jul 22 (14) Jul 21 (6) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (12) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (8) Jul 14 (15) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (6) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (9) Jul 06 (15) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (10) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (11) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (11) Jun 24 (9) Jun 23 (10) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (8) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (15) Jun 17 (8) Jun 16 (13) Jun 15 (15) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (6) Jun 12 (15) Jun 11 (7) Jun 10 (7) Jun 09 (18) Jun 08 (20) Jun 07 (17) Jun 06 (9) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (12) Jun 03 (13) Jun 02 (14) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (13) May 30 (8) May 29 (6) May 28 (8) May 27 (17) May 26 (8) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (9) May 22 (4) May 21 (4) May 20 (11) May 19 (14) May 18 (6) May 17 (10) May 16 (4) May 15 (5) May 14 (28) May 12 (9) May 11 (17) May 10 (15) May 09 (12) May 08 (5) May 07 (4) May 06 (10) May 05 (8) May 04 (10) May 03 (5) May 02 (6) May 01 (8) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (12) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (10) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (13) Apr 19 (11) Apr 18 (11) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (11) Apr 14 (17) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (16) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (18) Apr 08 (14) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (21) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (13) Apr 01 (8) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (11) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (12) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (8) Mar 20 (4) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (9) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (14) Mar 11 (13) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (17) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (13) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (14) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (18) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (2) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (13) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (13) Feb 22 (12) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (16) Feb 18 (17) Feb 17 (15) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (15) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (15) Feb 10 (11) Feb 09 (13) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (15) Feb 04 (15) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (14) Feb 01 (15) Jan 31 (11) Jan 30 (9) Jan 29 (19) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (9) Jan 26 (16) Jan 25 (19) Jan 24 (17) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (15) Jan 21 (9) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (12) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (14) Jan 12 (11) Jan 11 (13) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (20) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (14) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (14) Dec 30 (15) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (10) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (11) Dec 24 (9) Dec 23 (9) Dec 22 (15) Dec 21 (12) Dec 20 (11) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (12) Dec 15 (14) Dec 14 (11) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (17) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (12) Dec 07 (16) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (12) Dec 03 (15) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (12) Nov 30 (16) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (13) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (15) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (8) Nov 19 (9) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (9) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (10) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (14) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (13) Nov 01 (9) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (18) Oct 28 (13) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (12) Oct 25 (14) Oct 24 (20) Oct 22 (18) Oct 21 (18) Oct 20 (19) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (18) Oct 15 (8) Oct 14 (11) Oct 13 (9) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (27) Oct 08 (14) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (10) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (9) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (13) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (14) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (14) Sep 22 (20) Sep 21 (11) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (14) Sep 17 (8) Sep 16 (17) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (11) Sep 13 (9) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (14) Sep 09 (12) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (9) Sep 04 (20) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (16) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (13) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (11) Aug 25 (10) Aug 24 (14) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (13) Aug 21 (10) Aug 20 (13) Aug 19 (15) Aug 18 (8) Aug 17 (10) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (11) Aug 13 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (10) Aug 10 (17) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (13) Aug 07 (11) Aug 06 (13) Aug 05 (11) Aug 04 (11) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (10) Jul 30 (21) Jul 29 (14) Jul 28 (13) Jul 27 (16) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (15) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (15) Jul 21 (19) Jul 20 (17) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (26) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (20) Jul 14 (16) Jul 13 (19) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (13) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (16) Jul 05 (9) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (15) Jul 02 (11) Jul 01 (14) Jun 30 (13) Jun 29 (19) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (9) Jun 26 (16) Jun 25 (22) Jun 24 (17) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (15) Jun 21 (14) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (17) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (10) Jun 16 (17) Jun 15 (13) Jun 14 (14) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (13) Jun 11 (15) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (10) Jun 08 (23) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (20) Jun 05 (10) Jun 04 (11) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (21) Jun 01 (14) May 31 (10) May 30 (14) May 29 (8) May 28 (23) May 27 (20) May 26 (16) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (10) May 22 (18) May 21 (14) May 20 (12) May 19 (18) May 18 (14) May 17 (13) May 16 (4) May 15 (7) May 14 (16) May 13 (13) May 12 (8) May 11 (18) May 10 (8) May 09 (7) May 08 (13) May 07 (11) May 06 (15) May 05 (18) May 04 (17) May 03 (7) May 02 (5) May 01 (11) Apr 30 (19) Apr 29 (21) Apr 28 (18) Apr 27 (16) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (20) Apr 22 (23) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (16) Apr 19 (13) Apr 18 (6) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (16) Apr 15 (18) Apr 14 (13) Apr 13 (14) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (14) Apr 08 (12) Apr 07 (18) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (11) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (16) Mar 31 (16) Mar 30 (22) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (19) Mar 26 (31) Mar 25 (25) Mar 24 (26) Mar 23 (27) Mar 22 (22) Mar 21 (22) Mar 20 (13) Mar 19 (21) Mar 18 (20) Mar 17 (24) Mar 16 (18) Mar 15 (9) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (29) Mar 12 (15) Mar 11 (11) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (20) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (21) Mar 05 (22) Mar 04 (19) Mar 03 (9) Mar 02 (20) Mar 01 (11) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (27) Feb 26 (15) Feb 25 (18) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (19) Feb 22 (24) Feb 21 (10) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (25) Feb 18 (16) Feb 17 (19) Feb 16 (23) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (16) Feb 11 (12) Feb 10 (18) Feb 09 (12) Feb 08 (14) Feb 07 (8) Feb 06 (27) Feb 05 (28) Feb 04 (24) Feb 03 (17) Feb 02 (20) Feb 01 (23) Jan 31 (16) Jan 30 (20) Jan 29 (26) Jan 28 (17) Jan 27 (21) Jan 26 (24) Jan 25 (16) Jan 24 (14) Jan 23 (16) Jan 22 (17) Jan 21 (19) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (17) Jan 18 (13) Jan 17 (14) Jan 16 (10) Jan 15 (21) Jan 14 (16) Jan 13 (19) Jan 12 (30) Jan 11 (14) Jan 10 (11) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (23) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (21) Jan 05 (15) Jan 04 (18) Jan 03 (9) Jan 02 (12) Jan 01 (15) Dec 31 (18) Dec 30 (7) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (6) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (28) Dec 23 (12) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (17) Dec 20 (19) Dec 19 (19) Dec 18 (22) Dec 17 (24) Dec 16 (17) Dec 15 (29) Dec 14 (22) Dec 13 (12) Dec 12 (22) Dec 11 (24) Dec 10 (25) Dec 09 (18) Dec 08 (15) Dec 07 (21) Dec 06 (24) Dec 05 (30) Dec 04 (28) Dec 03 (26) Dec 02 (22) Dec 01 (33) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (18) Nov 27 (25) Nov 26 (17) Nov 25 (23) Nov 24 (27) Nov 23 (12) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (15) Nov 20 (23) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (24) Nov 17 (21) Nov 16 (20) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (15) Nov 13 (27) Nov 12 (23) Nov 11 (19) Nov 10 (21) Nov 09 (13) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (16) Nov 06 (32) Nov 05 (24) Nov 04 (20) Nov 03 (29) Nov 02 (12) Nov 01 (15) Oct 31 (20) Oct 30 (22) Oct 29 (27) Oct 28 (20) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (21) Oct 25 (15) Oct 24 (23) Oct 23 (26) Oct 22 (27) Oct 21 (28) Oct 20 (24) Oct 19 (13) Oct 18 (9) Oct 17 (30) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (20) Oct 14 (14) Oct 13 (17) Oct 12 (16) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (19) Oct 09 (22) Oct 08 (16) Oct 07 (18) Oct 06 (23) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (15) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (22) Sep 30 (25) Sep 29 (20) Sep 28 (17) Sep 27 (13) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (15) Sep 24 (24) Sep 23 (23) Sep 22 (18) Sep 21 (20) Sep 20 (11) Sep 19 (24) Sep 18 (25) Sep 17 (25) Sep 16 (19) Sep 15 (21) Sep 14 (15) Sep 13 (10) Sep 12 (23) Sep 11 (23) Sep 10 (25) Sep 09 (25) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (17) Sep 05 (14) Sep 04 (24) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (19) Aug 31 (20) Aug 30 (11) Aug 29 (24) Aug 28 (24) Aug 27 (16) Aug 26 (26) Aug 25 (21) Aug 24 (15) Aug 23 (19) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (25) Aug 20 (27) Aug 19 (19) Aug 18 (24) Aug 17 (14) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (15) Aug 14 (16) Aug 13 (21) Aug 12 (30) Aug 11 (19) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (12) Aug 08 (17) Aug 07 (21) Aug 06 (26) Aug 05 (23) Aug 04 (21) Aug 03 (12) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (19) Jul 31 (21) Jul 30 (25) Jul 29 (29) Jul 28 (23) Jul 27 (17) Jul 26 (11) Jul 25 (21) Jul 24 (14) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (19) Jul 21 (15) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (10) Jul 18 (15) Jul 17 (22) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (21) Jul 14 (20) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (29) Jul 10 (19) Jul 09 (17) Jul 08 (26) Jul 07 (21) Jul 06 (18) Jul 05 (14) Jul 04 (20) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (24) Jul 01 (23) Jun 30 (23) Jun 29 (18) Jun 28 (16) Jun 27 (16) Jun 26 (17) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (32) Jun 23 (29) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (17) Jun 20 (25) Jun 19 (28) Jun 18 (19) Jun 17 (25) Jun 16 (23) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (14) Jun 12 (22) Jun 11 (19) Jun 10 (17) Jun 09 (15) Jun 08 (16) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (29) Jun 05 (27) Jun 04 (24) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (22) Jun 01 (13) May 31 (9) May 30 (26) May 29 (19) May 28 (15) May 27 (15) May 26 (23) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (24) May 22 (13) May 21 (21) May 20 (18) May 19 (16) May 18 (7) May 17 (12) May 16 (25) May 15 (24) May 14 (23) May 13 (19) May 12 (17) May 11 (8) May 10 (6) May 09 (14) May 08 (21) May 07 (26) May 06 (14) May 05 (14) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (24) May 01 (13) Apr 30 (15) Apr 29 (24) Apr 28 (24) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (13) Apr 24 (27) Apr 23 (15) Apr 22 (21) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (17) Apr 19 (8) Apr 18 (20) Apr 17 (27) Apr 16 (27) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (8) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (22) Apr 09 (15) Apr 08 (15) Apr 07 (17) Apr 06 (14) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (19) Mar 31 (25) Mar 30 (13) Mar 29 (9) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (23) Mar 26 (22) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (25) Mar 23 (16) Mar 22 (13) Mar 21 (24) Mar 20 (27) Mar 19 (20) Mar 18 (24) Mar 17 (17) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (20) Mar 13 (28) Mar 12 (30) Mar 11 (20) Mar 10 (21) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (8) Mar 07 (17) Mar 06 (20) Mar 05 (19) Mar 04 (15) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (12) Feb 28 (16) Feb 27 (17) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (23) Feb 24 (15) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (24) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (24) Feb 18 (19) Feb 17 (27) Feb 16 (13) Feb 15 (11) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (13) Feb 12 (13) Feb 11 (21) Feb 10 (16) Feb 09 (15) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (17) Feb 06 (21) Feb 05 (17) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (23) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (8) Jan 31 (17) Jan 30 (22) Jan 29 (23) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (24) Jan 26 (12) Jan 25 (9) Jan 24 (12) Jan 23 (19) Jan 22 (19) Jan 21 (14) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (12) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (20) Jan 16 (14) Jan 15 (23) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (20) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (18) Jan 09 (11) Jan 08 (18) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (12) Jan 05 (12) Jan 04 (11) Jan 03 (10) Jan 02 (9) Jan 01 (9) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (13) Dec 26 (15) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (8) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (14) Dec 19 (17) Dec 18 (14) Dec 17 (14) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (9) Dec 13 (11) Dec 12 (16) Dec 11 (18) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (24) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (19) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (26) Dec 04 (15) Dec 03 (20) Dec 02 (17) Dec 01 (11) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (18) Nov 28 (21) Nov 27 (10) Nov 26 (22) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (18) Nov 21 (9) Nov 20 (17) Nov 19 (16) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (21) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (20) Nov 12 (16) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (15) Nov 06 (18) Nov 05 (19) Nov 04 (16) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (17) Oct 31 (17) Oct 30 (21) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (16) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (16) Oct 24 (18) Oct 23 (14) Oct 22 (17) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (8) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (12) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (19) Oct 14 (15) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (10) Oct 10 (23) Oct 09 (13) Oct 08 (15) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (13) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (16) Oct 03 (17) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (20) Sep 30 (17) Sep 29 (9) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (14) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (19) Sep 24 (13) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (21) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (20) Sep 16 (16) Sep 15 (10) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (18) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (24) Sep 10 (17) Sep 09 (16) Sep 08 (16) Sep 07 (10) Sep 06 (20) Sep 05 (13) Sep 04 (23) Sep 03 (14) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (11) Aug 31 (11) Aug 30 (13) Aug 29 (18) Aug 28 (14) Aug 27 (21) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (10) Aug 23 (17) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (14) Aug 20 (20) Aug 19 (20) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (9) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (12) Aug 14 (14) Aug 13 (19) Aug 12 (14) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (12) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (18) Aug 07 (16) Aug 06 (16) Aug 05 (20) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (12) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (16) Jul 30 (16) Jul 29 (11) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (9) Jul 26 (17) Jul 25 (20) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (11) Jul 22 (18) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (14) Jul 18 (11) Jul 17 (15) Jul 16 (12) Jul 15 (10) Jul 14 (8) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (17) Jul 11 (18) Jul 10 (16) Jul 09 (13) Jul 08 (10) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (8) Jul 05 (16) Jul 04 (14) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (13) Jul 01 (16) Jun 30 (19) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (19) Jun 27 (21) Jun 26 (27) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (23) Jun 23 (12) Jun 22 (9) Jun 21 (18) Jun 20 (15) Jun 19 (24) Jun 18 (21) Jun 17 (13) Jun 16 (9) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (18) Jun 13 (24) Jun 12 (18) Jun 11 (23) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (24) Jun 08 (27) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (25) Jun 05 (30) Jun 04 (23) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (16) Jun 01 (17) May 31 (18) May 30 (19) May 29 (17) May 28 (23) May 27 (15) May 26 (10) May 25 (19) May 24 (16) May 23 (16) May 22 (27) May 21 (20) May 20 (26) May 19 (6) May 18 (8) May 17 (20) May 16 (8) May 15 (18) May 14 (5) May 13 (21) May 12 (9) May 11 (8) May 10 (12) May 09 (18) May 08 (11) May 07 (27) May 06 (12) May 05 (16) May 04 (19) May 03 (14) May 02 (18) May 01 (18) Apr 30 (25) Apr 29 (27) Apr 28 (11) Apr 27 (10) Apr 26 (18) Apr 25 (10) Apr 24 (29) Apr 23 (29) Apr 22 (14) Apr 21 (15) Apr 20 (20) Apr 19 (22) Apr 18 (16) Apr 17 (32) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (21) Apr 13 (15) Apr 12 (13) Apr 11 (14) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (20) Apr 08 (36) Apr 07 (22) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (28) Apr 04 (20) Apr 03 (29) Apr 02 (32) Apr 01 (18) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (15) Mar 28 (22) Mar 27 (24) Mar 26 (17) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (13) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (15) Mar 20 (18) Mar 19 (19) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (10) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (18) Mar 14 (24) Mar 13 (18) Mar 12 (18) Mar 11 (17) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (18) Mar 07 (25) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (16) Mar 04 (22) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (23) Feb 29 (19) Feb 28 (25) Feb 27 (26) Feb 26 (23) Feb 25 (12) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (15) Feb 22 (26) Feb 21 (31) Feb 20 (12) Feb 19 (21) Feb 18 (15) Feb 17 (10) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (19) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (20) Feb 11 (9) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (28) Feb 08 (20) Feb 07 (22) Feb 06 (20) Feb 05 (19) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (16) Feb 02 (28) Feb 01 (37) Jan 31 (27) Jan 30 (31) Jan 29 (18) Jan 28 (14) Jan 27 (10) Jan 26 (18) Jan 25 (26) Jan 24 (34) Jan 23 (21) Jan 22 (21) Jan 21 (18) Jan 20 (18) Jan 19 (18) Jan 18 (26) Jan 17 (24) Jan 16 (23) Jan 15 (30) Jan 14 (20) Jan 13 (18) Jan 12 (24) Jan 11 (11) Jan 10 (23) Jan 09 (22) Jan 08 (17) Jan 07 (17) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (18) Jan 04 (15) Jan 03 (19) Jan 02 (14) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (15) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (7) Dec 26 (10) Dec 25 (16) Dec 24 (13) Dec 23 (16) Dec 22 (11) Dec 21 (26) Dec 20 (28) Dec 19 (14) Dec 18 (25) Dec 17 (23) Dec 16 (19) Dec 15 (22) Dec 14 (38) Dec 13 (26) Dec 12 (25) Dec 11 (27) Dec 10 (31) Dec 09 (15) Dec 08 (30) Dec 07 (31) Dec 06 (27) Dec 05 (38) Dec 04 (25) Dec 03 (27) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (36) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (17) Nov 28 (23) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (16) Nov 25 (14) Nov 24 (18) Nov 23 (21) Nov 22 (21) Nov 21 (24) Nov 20 (20) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (17) Nov 17 (17) Nov 16 (34) Nov 15 (25) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (21) Nov 12 (18) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1) A very good example of what I pay for food is milk. I just bought 5 milks at 29 rubles per liter. That is give or take, 44 cents per liter and that equates to .44 X 3.8 liters per gallon = $1.672 per gallon. I then looked at the government information in America of prices just for milk Milk price America.gov : Then I looked at other items (look it all up yourself at the link below! I do not make this stuff up) http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ap Link in case the download fails Bread for me in Russia 18 rubles per loaf = 27 cents in dollars. Price per gov. = $1.40 in America Eggs 39 rubles per 10 = 3.9 rubles per egg. 6 cents per egg. America 17 to 20 cents an egg Bananas I paid 57 rubles for a kilo. America pays 57 cents for a pound. Big difference for a kilo is 2.2 pounds Whole chicken I pay 79 rubles a kilo. America is paying $1.60 per pound. Once again kilo is much heavier than a pound I could go on all day, but with the few exceptions, I pay much less than I would in America for basic foods You should question things around you! Why does a country under heavy illegal sanctions and under massive attacks financially, still doing better than America for her people? Why does Russia now lead the world in wheat exports? Why is Russia becoming pork independent? Beef independent? Chicken independent? Why is Russia looking over her shoulder and watching the recession recede away? Why can Russia crank up internal production, but America keeps sending its life blood out the door? You should ask, Why? Why is all this happening and all you hear is about how terrible things are in Russia? * * * * * * * * * * Tidbit 1: Yes, things as food cost more in Russia, but then they cost more for everyone in the world. Tidbit 2: Illegal Sanctions backfired and yet the EU and the USA keep them going as if they are doing any good The sanctions are doing a good thing; they are killing the host * * * * * * * * * * Remember how terrible the west attacked verbally, media wise and even politically Russia about the Olympics a few years ago? Well it all is happening to Brazil and the shameless media, politicians and lies are abound from the western world. Hate is such a terrible thing to live life with I wish Sveta and I could go, but it is so far away and so expensive to travel that far. Money is tight, but we were able to go to the Paralympics here in Russia and that was a trip of a lifetime It is going to be wonderful for Brazil. They have fought a huge battle against the west, just like Russia did and China before that, with their Olympics. The only thing I will say to Brazil is, Watch your back! The west is gunning for you! * * * * * * * * * * The winds of power in the world are changing The old powers are slipping and they are scared. This is normal in the world, but never has the old powers had so much technology at their disposal. When I look at the advancements made since even the Vietnam war; I sometimes stop and pray that if there is a God, may he step in and stop what is brewing, like a volcano just about to erupt. I look around me and hope that if at anytime we need someone bigger than us to say NO! It is now! God is as big as it comes in my eyes! WtR There are two Olympics that I care about and it is not the Summer Olympics nor the Winter Olympics. I have very little desire to watch the regular Olympics and that is how I have been for my whole life. Now in the same mode of mind, but in a different way of my thinking, I am a avid supporter of the Paralympics and the Special Olympics! I believe that the true spirit of the Olympics can be found in the Special and Paralympics. I watched the money being lavished upon the elite over regular Olympics and realized that it was all just a political merry-go-round I use to have many certificates of appreciation from the Special and Paralympic committees in the past, because I went out of my way to offer, give and supply as many services as I could afford and asked nothing in return. I did my best to stay out of the limelight and keep a low profile, as that is just the way I am. They the committees made sure that I was embarrassed with presentations and such, but a jealous ex-wife burned all my appreciation certificates and destroyed two actually gold medals associated with the Special Olympics (No they were real facsimile medals, but not what the athletes would get!) I remember the look on peoples faces as I would deliver free basic meals, as in meals on wheels to the Special Olympics and I sat down and had very good insightful conversations with Paralympics athletes. I also got to experience the unique abilities of the mentally handicap and learned that I myself had the messed up thinkings, not them. I guess there was some perks about being the boss and spending my money the way I decided. I do know that funding for the lessor of the Olympics is pathetic at best, I knew this and I helped with what I could do. I was in foodservice and hence I could effect the bellies of the athletes I am talking about this right now, because the Paralympics are now getting ready to start in Russia. Now while my favorite are the Intellectually Challenged Special Olympics, but I will take the Paralympics as a backup any day I guess I should have said what Olympics many years ago, that Sveta and I would go to. Sveta agrees and we will go to the Paralympics this year. It is starting at the end of this week and will last one week exactly. We have tickets to see several events and we are excited to see the facilities and changes that happened to Sochi. Though knowing me, I will be a little upset as I loved Sochi the way it was and from what I am seeing, there have been big changes Tickets for events in the Sochi Paralympics are few and basically sold out across the board, right now. I suspect that some tickets will pop up right before the events, but as it is looking, hotels are sold out and tickets are sold out. That makes me smile So while we enjoyed the Sochi Olympics on the computer screen, we will enjoy one of the best Olympics, in person Now that is just how I feel and I was amazed that my little sweetie Sveta, feels the same way Post by Kyle Keeton Windows to Russia If youre looking to try out an online casino, there are several things that will help you make a decision. Heres what you should look for when choosing an online casino Are they regulated? A lot of the larger ones have licenses issued by the authorities in their respective regions, so its worth checking this first. Do they offer games from different software providers? Some casinos just use one software provider and limit your selection. This is fine if you like playing those types of games but you may want to check other casinos as well. What does their payout percentage look like? The payout rate refers to how much money you can expect to win after every bet. A high payout rate means youll be able to play more often without having to worry about losing all your money. Its also important to know the minimum and maximum bets allowed on each game. If youre going to play roulette, for example, then you probably dont want a casino with a minimum bet of less than $2.50 or even lower than that. The players used to play the game slot online in the land based casinos in the past time. But now with time after the invention of the online casinos players play the game slot online. Online platform provide the players with the convenience in playing and even better winning. Even after keeping a good percentage of the profits, they distribute good funds to players. How many games do they offer? There are lots of different types of games to choose from. Roulette, blackjack and poker are some of the most popular options, but you might find slots, video pokers, video bingo and others as well. You can usually filter these games down to only show the ones that interest you best, so make sure that your list isnt too long! Is there a bonus offer? Many online casinos offer free bonuses as part of their welcome package which includes new players being awarded 100% up to $10 instantly, for example. These offers are great but not everyone has access to them all the time (and some require you to deposit real money). If youd prefer to avoid paying a fee, some casinos offer no-deposit bonuses where you can get a certain amount of funds before you need to put any actual money into the account. These are usually offered alongside welcome bonuses, so make sure you read both parts of the terms and conditions carefully before signing up. Does it offer live dealer games? Live dealers are much preferred by many over regular virtual versions, so it pays to check this option out too. Most online casinos now offer live dealer games in addition to their regular offerings, allowing you to experience the thrill of the real thing without needing to leave home. Now that youve got an idea of what to look for when choosing an online casino, heres some tips for making the right choice It really comes down to personal preference. No two people are exactly alike, so everyone has an opinion on what they like and dislike about each casino. That said, here are some things to consider in order to narrow down your choices Popularity. Check out reviews, forums and Facebook pages to see what other people think of the casino. Also, ask around at work or friends houses who they would recommend to you. You could always take a look at the casinos website too, to see what kind of information they provide about themselves. Reputation. Find out what the general public thinks about the casino. Check out any customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Amazon and Google Play to find out more. As far as gaming goes, you can also check out the Better Business Bureau to see whether there have been any complaints against the casino. Security. Make sure the casino uses SSL encryption to secure its transactions, meaning that your private data stays safe during transactions. Other than that, look for security seals on the site itself and verify that theyre legitimate. You can also check out the casinos privacy policy to see how they handle confidential information. Payment methods. Its good to have multiple payment options available, especially if you plan to play frequently. Its also nice to find a casino that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. If youre worried about safety, you can always opt for a credit card or PayPal instead. With all those criteria in mind, heres our top picks Betway: Betway is a relatively new UK casino offering online gambling to residents of the United Kingdom and European Union. They offer hundreds of games across both land based and digital platforms, with plenty of top software providers like Net Entertainment, Microgaming and Yggdrasil Gaming Network. With a generous welcome offer that gives players 100% up to 100, you really cant go wrong with Betway. Coral Casino: Coral Casino is operated by the same company that runs the famous Caribbean casino, Grand Reef. Like many casinos, Coral Casino offers a wide variety of games, including plenty of video slots and table games. New players can benefit from a huge 100% match bonus up to 1000, while existing customers enjoy 25% cash back on deposits made within 48 hours of opening an account. Ladbrokes Casino: Ladbrokes Casino is owned by the same company as the famous bookmaker that started life in 1921. With more than 500 games from leading software providers such as Amaya, NetEnt and Microgaming, you wont be disappointed by the quality of the games here. New players get a 200% match bonus up to 500, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits. Paddy Power Casino: Paddy Power is another Irish-owned casino that operates throughout Europe. Not only does Paddy Power Casino offer traditional casino games like blackjack, roulette and slots, but it also provides a full range of sports betting, including football, tennis, boxing and horse racing. New players can receive a massive 100% match bonus up to 200, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits. William Hill Casino: William Hill Casino is one of the biggest names in the industry, operating in Europe, Asia and North America. Founded in 1984, this online casino has more than 400 games to choose from, including slots and table games, with a wide array of software providers like WagerLogic, Big Time Gaming and Rival. Bonus: 100% Match Bonus up to 100 Register Now Betway: 100% Match Bonus up to 100 Claim Now Coral Casino: 25% Cash Back on Deposits Claim Now Ladbrokes Casino: 35% Cash Back on First 3 Deposits Claim Now Paddy Power Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200 Claim Now William Hill Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200 Claim Now If youre interested in trying out an online casino but arent quite ready to commit to one, why not try out one of the many no deposit casinos weve reviewed? You can test drive various casinos completely risk-free, so you can feel confident about your choice before you make a single penny deposit. Canl Bahis siteleri sektoru son derece onu ack ve farkl ozelliklere sahip bir sektordur. Elbette bahis secenekleri arasnda yuksek kazanc getiren alan kuskusuz canl bahistir. Peki, canl bahis nedir? Canl Bahis Nedir? Canl bahis adndan da anlaslacag gibi devam eden musabakaya bahis yapmaktr. Bu bahis musabaka devam ederken de yaplabilir olmasdr. Basta futbol olmak uzere voleybol, tenis, hentbol, basketbol, buz hokeyi ve masa tenisi gibi spor organizasyonlarna canl bahisler yaplabilmektedir. Canl bahis siteleri bu oyunlarn hepsine yuksek oranlara bahis yapmanza imkan tanr. En fazla tercih edilen futbol canl bahisleri diger alanlara gore daha fazla on plandadr. Siteden siteye degisen sartlar ve uygulama esaslar soz konusu olsa da kurallar sabittir. Canl bahisi populer klan ve heyecan katan en onemli ozellikle musabakann basladg ana dek bahis yapabilmedir. Canl bahis icerisinde yer alan secenekler kazanma sansnz da dogrudan arttrmaktadr. Ilk korneri kim kullanr, ilk tac, gol, sar kart, krmz kart gibi futbol musabakas icerisinde olabilecek hemen hemen her seye bahis yaplabilmektedir. Normal bahisegore de son derece yuksek oranda olmas avantajl yonlerini ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim dogru secenek ksa surede kazancl ckmanza etki edecektir. Strateji ve dogru analizle 90 dakika gibi bir surede anaparanzkatlayabilirsiniz. Tabi bunu basarabilmek icin mutlaka musabakaya dair ayrntlar iyi degerlendirmek gerekir. Soz konusu musabakann detaylarn inceleyip, cezal, sakat oyuncu veya performans dusen takm oyunu gibi detaylar bilmek canl bahiste kazanc belirleyen onemli unsurdur. Guvenilir Canl bahis hem heyecanl zaman gecirmeyi hem de musabakalar takip ederken para kazanmay saglamaktadr. Canl Bahis Nasl Oynanr? Bahislerinizi guvenilir sitelerden gerceklestirdiginiz zaman herhangi bir sekilde para cekme de sorun yasamazsnz. Guvenilir bahis siteleri tespit edip sonrasnda da uyelik islemlerini tamamlamanz gerekmektedir. Belirlenen uyelik sartlarn yerine getirip hesabnza da paray aktardktan sonra bahis islemlerini sorunsuz yapabilirsiniz. Peki, canl bahis nasl oynanr? Oncelikle bahis konusunda mutlaka dogru site arastrmas yapmalsnz. Yapacagnz arastrma neticesinde buldugunuz site uzerinden canl bahisislemlerini gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Bunun icin uye olup, hesaba para atp, canl bahis bolumune girmelisiniz. Sonrasnda dahil olmak istediginiz musabakann saatini ogrenip, gerekli analizleri yapmalsnz. Tahminlerinizi belirledikten sonra karsnza ckacak olan bahis sayfasndan istediginiz hamleyi yapmalsnz. Bahis tutarn belirledikten sonra musabaka baslayacaktr. Canl bahis diger normal bahis esaslarna gore farkllklar icermektedir. Bunlardan en onemlisi musabakann gidisatna gore islem yapabilir olmaktr.Ayrca musabakann 2. Yarsna gore hamle yapp ayr bir bahisin soz konusu olmas da ciddi avantajdr. Dogru hamle ile sizde istediginiz bahisi yapp kazanc elde edebilirsiniz. Nitekim canl olarak yapacagnz bahis icin mac oncesi raporlara gore hareket etmek onemlidir. Cunku takmlarn durumlarn analiz etmek tahmin gucunu arttracaktr. Misal tamnn en iyi oyuncusu sakat ya da kart cezals ise takmn performansnda dusus yasanacaktr. Buna ek olarak takmn deplasman performans ile evinde ki performans ayr olacaktr. Burada da takmn musabakay nerede yaptgna bakmak gerekir. Bu ayrntlar da iyice analiz ettikten sonra bahsinizi yapp kazanmann keyfini yasayabilirsiniz. Canl Bahis Siteleri Son derece yuksek getiriye sahip bahis sektoru uzun zamandr faaliyet gostermektedir. Cok ciddi rakamlarn soz konusu oldugu bu sektor zamanla sanal ortamlara donusmustur. Elbette guvenli ve bir o kadar da avantajl olan bu siteler cok yonlu frsatlar sunmaktadrlar. Canl iddaa siteleri gerek yeni uyelere gerekse de hali hazrdaki uyelerine bolca bonus frsatlar vermektedir. Yatracagnz tutara gore belirlenen bonuslar site icerisinde rahat hareket etmenizi de saglayacaktr. Canl bahis sitelerini kullanmadan once mutlaka guvenli olup olmadgna goz atmalsnz. Zira baz kullanclar guvenli olmayan sitelerden yaptklar islemlerden dolay magdur olmaktadrlar. Nitekim guvenli ve sorunsuz hizmet sunan yurt ds site tercih etmek en dogru secenektir. Sektorde uzun yllar faaliyet gosteren siteleri tercih edebilirsiniz. Bu alanda yer alan yabanc siteler musteri memnuniyetine onem vermektedir. Oncelik site kullanclarn sorunsuz sekilde bahislerini yapabilir olmasn saglamaktr. Bahis sitelerinde amac hem daha fazla kullancya hizmet vermek hem de sektorde emin admlarla ilerlemek onceliklidir. Dogru site tercihi ile sizde canl bahislerinizi sorun yasamadan gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Sizler icin hazrlams oldugumuz canl bahis siteleri listesi su sekildedir; Mobilbahis Tempobet Bets10 Bahigo 1xbahis Betboo Youwin Superbahis Sralams oldugumuz bu siteler sektorde basarl islere imza atms sitelerdedir. Canl bahis konusunda beklentileri karslayacak olan bu siteler sizlere kolaylk sunmaktadrlar. Bol bonuslu secenekle de sizlere farkl bahis yonlerini sunacaklardr. Sistemsel etki icerisinde her zaman etkin sonuc alabilmek icin surekli olarak faaliyet icerisindedirler. Canl Bahis Taktikleri Bahis sektorunun en fazla dikkat edilmesi gereken hususu dogru taktik ve dogru tahmindir. Elbette dogru tahmini yapabilmek icin analizi cok iyi yapmak gerekir. Canl bahis taktikleri arasnda ilk sra analiz gelmektedir. Analiz yapamadgnz zaman basarl tahminlerde bulunmanz pek de mumkun degildir. Cunku bahiste onemli olan konu musabakann analizini cok iyi yaplmas gerektigidir. Canl bahisin ozelliklerini iyi bilmek ve nasl bir hamle yapacagnz bilmek gerekir. Ozellikle riskli maclarda yaplacak degerlendirmeler cok daha onemlidir. Canl bahis yapacaklarn takip edecegi degerler takmlarn durumlar ile alakal olmaldr. Performans uzerine kurulu bahis sisteminde takm degerlendirmesine iyi bakmak gerekir. Iki takmn son 5 macta nasl bir sonuc ortaya koyduguna bakarak hareket etmek onemlidir. Ayrca hangi takm evinde daha iyi performans sergiliyor diye de ayrca bakmak gerekir. Analizlerle alakal puan durumlarna da goz atmak cok onemlidir. Puan degerlendirmesinde oncelikle takmlarn ihtiyaclar ile dogru orantl hareket etmek gerekir. Cunku olusturulan performans takmn da durumunu ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim istenilen sonucu elde edebilmek icin tum ayrntlar bilmek gerekir. Takm ici duzenden tutunda da takmn son durumuna kadar her ayrnt onemlidir. Iki takmn birbirleri arasnda ki sonuclar da incelemek gerekir. Burada dikkat edilecek detaylarn basnda maclarda kac gol oldugu ve gollerin hangi dakikalarda atldgdr. Cekismeli gecen musabakalarda bazen goller ilk yarda daha fazla olurken baz maclarda da ikinci yarda daha cok gol olmustur. Iki takm arasnda ki maclarda gollerin cogunlugu ilk yarda geliyorsa buna gore bahis yapabilirsiniz. Canl Bahis Siteleri Bonuslar ve Kampanyalar Bahis yapanlar veya yapmay dusununler sitelerin sunmus olduklar frsatlar merak etmektedirler. Cunku siteler daha fazla kullancya erismek icin her donem kampanyalar duzenleyerek kullanc odakl hamleler yapmaktadrlar. Canl bahis bonuslar ve kampanyalar oldukca populer olup, siteler bu konuda adeta birbirleri ile yarsmaktadrlar. Birbirinden farkl ozelliklere sahip olan kampanyalar size frsatlar sunmaktadr. Daha cok kazanma ihtimalinizi arttran bu bonuslar daha cesur olmanza da dogrudan etki edecektir. Nitekim bonuslar sitelerin cekiciligini ve avantajlarn arttrmaktadr. En cok kazandran canl bahis siteleri bedava bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin http://www.milano2018.com/canli-bahis-siteleri-2022/ linkinden yardm alabilirsiniz. Hos geldin bonusu ile baslayan ve sonrasnda para yatrdkca bonus veren cok sayda site bulunmaktadr. Canl bahis bonusu veren siteler yeni uyelere sunduklar frsatlar farkl kampanyalarla mevcut uyelerine de sunmaktadrlar. Hali hazrda siteyi kullananlarn da bonus frsatlarndan yararlanmalar icin donemsel kampanyalar olusturmaktadrlar. Boylece baska sitelere gidisler olmayacag gibi site de daha keyifli zaman gecirmek mumkun klnmaktadr. Bu tur eklentiler yapan sitelerde musteri memnuniyeti daha fazladr. Bahis siteleri ozellik ve uygulama bakmndan farkllklar bunyelerinde bulundurmaktadrlar. Verilen bonuslarn olusturulmas ve kullanclar aktarlmasnda yatrlan para miktarlar belirleyici olmaktadr. 1.000 TL yatran bir kullanc yuzde 20 bonus frsat olan bir kampanyadan 200 TL bonus kazanabilmektedir. Yatracag tutar 10.000 TL oldugunda bu bonustutar 2.000 TL olabilmektedir. Gerceklesen ve uygulanan esaslar tamamen donemsel olarak yaplan kampanyalarla alakaldr. Iyi Canl bahis siteleri bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin sitelerin vermis oldugu oranlar takip edebilirsiniz. Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Yatrma Online Canl bahis yapacaklarn merak ettigi konulardan bir digeri de para yatrma islemleridir. Oldukca onemli olan bu konuda hata yapmamak cok onemlidir. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemi sanlann aksine son derece basittir. Oldukca basit ve uygulama esas dogru etki olusturan bu yapda sizde islemi rahatca tamamlayabilirsiniz. Para yatrma konusunda su yolu izleyebilirsiniz. Guvendiginiz ve herhangi bir sekilde aklnzda soru isareti kalmayan bahis sitesine uye olmanz gerekmektedir. Uyelik islemini sorunsuz sekilde tamamladktan sonra para yatrma islemine gecebilirsiniz. Kullanacagnz siteye uye olduktan sonra karsnza kullanc ad ve sifresini gireceginiz yer gelecektir. Buraya giris yaptktan sonra site icerisine islemlere devam edebilirsiniz. Sitede yer alan para yatrma sekmesine tklayp sonrasnda karsnza gelen sayfay inceleyebilirsiniz. Para yatrma bolumunde yer alan ksma ne kadar para yatracagnz yazp devam tusuna basmalsnz. Yatrmak istediginiz tutar girip sonrasnda da devam tusuna bastktan sonra karsnza kart bilgilerinizi gireceginiz sayfa gelecektir. Kredi kart kullanarak para gondermek isteyenlerin tercih ettigi bu sayfa tum bilgiler girilip islem onaylanmaldr. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemini gerceklestirmek icin hesaba havale secenegini de kullanabilirsiniz. Site icerisinde musteri hizmetleri ile iletisime gecerek banka hesap numaralarn ogrenebilirsiniz. Belirtilen IBAN numarasna istediginiz tutar havale edebilirsiniz. Havale ederken acklama ksmna yazlacak bilgilere dikkat etmelisiniz. Kredi kart veya banka havalesi ile gerceklesen para yatrma islemi sonucunda site hesabnzdan bakiyenize bakabilirsiniz. Bakiyenize gore dilediginiz sekilde bahislerinizi gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Cekme Canl bahiste dogru hamleler ve dogru tahminler sonucunda kazandgnz bedeli geri almak isteyebilirsiniz. Kazanclarnz istediginiz banka hesabnza cekebilmek icin uymanz gereken kurallar soz konusudur. Oncelikle bahis sitelerinden para cekebilmeniz icin uye olurken dogru bilgi paylasmnda bulunmanz gerektigidir. Cunku canl bahis sitelerinden para cekme islemi icin kullanc hesab ile talep edilen banka hesap bilgilerinin ortusmesi gerekir. Yani uye olurken verilen bilgi ile banka hesab kime ait ise o bilgiler ayn olmaldr. Bu uygulama sitenin hem kullancsn hem de kendisini guvene alma politikasdr. Ayrca frsatclarn onune gecerek yeni bir uye olusumunun da onune gecmek amac gutmektedir. Uye olan kisi farkl para cekilme talebi verilen hesap farkl oldugunda para cekme islemi gerceklesmeyecektir. Bahisleriniz sonucunda kazanc elde edebilir ve bu kazancnz da hakknz olarak almak isteyebilirsiniz. Burada son derece basit uygulama soz konusu olurken siteler aras farkl gorunumler soz konusu olabilir. Fakat yine de tum sitelerde uyenin site icerisinde para cekme bolumune girmesi yeterlidir. Burada cekilecek olan tutarn belirlenmesi ve hesap numarasnn girilmesi ile birlikte islem onay gerekecektir. Para cekme taleplerinde sizden gerekli bilgiler istenmekte ve havale islemi istenilen bilgiler esliginde yurutulmektedir. Dogru bilgi paylasmak sorunsuz para cekebilmeniz en onemli kuraldr. Istenilen bilgiler girildikten sonra site sorumlular gerekli kontrolleri yapp herhangi bir sorun yoksa ksa surede hesabnza gerekli paray aktaracaklardr. Canl Bahis Sitelerinden Para Cekmek Icin Istenen Belgeler Bahis sitelerine uye olduktan sonra baz kullanclar para cekme taleplerinin karslanmadg konusunda sikayetlerde bulunmuslardr. Bu sikayetlersektorde uzun zamandr bulunan guvenilir bahis siteleri de yer almaktadr. Fakat sikayetlerin dayanaklarna bakldgnda ise islerin tamamen farkl oldugu gorulmektedir. Yasanan bu durum kullanclarn hatal bilgi girmesi ve uyelik bilgileri ile banka bilgilerinin uyusmamas ile dogru orantldr. Birde canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler eksik ya da hatal olarak sunulmus olabilir. Ortaya ckan karsklar neticesinde para cekme talebinde bulunan kisi istedigini alamadg icin sikayetci olmaktadr. Oysa ki istenilen bilgiler dogru ve istenilen evraklar eksiksiz sunulsa para cekme islemi sorunsuz olacak. Sitelerin para cekme konusunda dikkatli hareket etmesi hilelerin ve illegal faaliyetlerin onune gecmek adnadr. Cunku baz kullanclar farkl bilgiler vererek ikinci hesap acabilmektedirler. Bazen de bilincsizce hatal bilgi girilebilmektedir. Hatal islemlerin cozumu konusunda islem yaptgnz sitenin musteri temsilcileri ile gorusebilirsiniz. Talepleriniz dogrultusunda para cekme islemlerinde ki sorunlar giderilecektir. Canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler listesi su sekildedir; Kullanc bilgileri ile banka bilgilerini karslastrmak icin kimlik fotokopisi Banka hesap bilgileri Ikametgah ve kisiye ait herhangi bir fatura. Kacak Iddaa Turkiyede dogrudan bahis yapmak icin resmi kanallar kullanlabilmektedir. Fakat tercih edilen ve oran olarak cok daha fazla frsatlar sunan kacar iddaasiteleri bulunmaktadr. Bu siteler kanunlara aykr sekilde yaplmakta olup, yasal bir dayanag yoktur. Elbette bu sitelerin kurulus merkezi Turkiye olmayp, ds ulkelerdedir ve faaliyetler belirlenen siteler uzerinden yaplmaktadr. Kacak Iddaa oldukca riskli olup, cok dikkatli olunmas gerekir. Kacak Bahis Kanunlar cercevesinde istediginiz gibi bahis yapamayabilirsiniz. Bahis yapabilmek icin ya kanuni olarak sorun olmayan ulke dsnda ki kumarhanelere gitmeniz veya kacak bahis sitelerinden islem yapabilirsiniz. Zira bu durum tehlikeli olsa da cok sayda site guvenli sekilde bu alanda hizmet vermektedir. Kacak bahiste oldukca fazla secenek bulunurken yuksek oranda kazanc sunuyor olmas da ragbeti arttryor. Illegal Bahis Bahisin bircok alanda yasak oldugu Turkiyede bu alanda cok sayda yabanc merkezli siteler hizmet vermektedir. Illegal bahis sektorunde faaliyet gosteren siteler guvenli hizmet anlays ile kullanclarna frsatlar sunmaktadr. Yurt ds merkezli bu siteler sorunsuz sekilde hizmetlerini surdururken bulunduklar ulkelerde kanunlara uygun sekildedir. Elbette faaliyet noktasnda bulunduklar ulkelerde sorun teskil etmese de Turkiyede faaliyet gostermeleri kanunin yasaklanmstr. Yasads Bahis Gerek olusturulan etkenler gerekse de ortaya konulan riskler yasads bahis de oldukca tehlikelidir. Kanunlarn mudahil olduklar bu alanlar da hem kullanclar hem de populer bahis yaptranlar tum riskleri goze almaktadrlar. Fakat yasaklardan uzak sekilde guvenli hizmet sunan siteler de bulunmaktadr. Takipler neticesinde kapatlan sitelerin muhakkak alternatifleri kurularak yollarna devam etmektedirler. Canl Iddaa Siteleri Nelerdir? Dunya genelinde kabul gormus cok sayda guvenli hizmet veren populer bahis siteleri bulunmaktadr. Elbette bu siteler dunyann bircok ulkesinde faaliyet gosterse de Turkiyede yasaktr. Sektorde yer alan cok sayda legal iddaa siteleri bulunmaktadr. Herhangi bir kanunsuzlugun olmadg bu sitelerden hzl ve guvenli islem yaplabilmektedir. Tabi bu sitelerde uygulanan oranlar yasal olmayan sitelere gore daha dusuktur. Illegal sitelerin tercih edilme sebeplerinin en onemli etkeni de olusturulan oranlardr. Peki, Iddaa siteleri nelerdir? Faaliyetleri ve uygulama esaslar nelerdir? Turkiyede faaliyet gosteren yasal iddaa siteleri listesi su sekildedir; Iddaa Bilyoner Tuttur Birebin Oley Nesine Misli Iddaa 2004 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslayan Iddaa Spor toto tarafndan kurulmus olup, ilk etapta bayilik seklinde calsmaya baslamstr. Elbette zamanla gelisen teknolojiye ayak uydurarak internet uzerinde de populer bahis severlerin hizmetine sunulmustur. Kuruldugu donemde devletin resmi kurumu olarak faaliyet gosterirken gelinen yeni donemde ozellestirilmistir. Bilyoner Turkiyede faaliyetine 2006 ylnda baslayan Bilyoner ilk ozel yasal bahis sitesi olma ozelligine sahiptir. Guvenilir bahis siteleri Turkiyede bunlardr. Ksa surede populer olan site halen faaliyetlerini sorunsuz sekilde surdurmektedir. Tuttur Ksa surede adndan bahsettirmeyi basaran Tuttur 2009 ylnda faaliyetlere baslamstr. Guvenilir bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almstr. Gunumuze dek bircok alanda populer bahis yapanlara frsatlar sunarken avantajlar ile de begeni toplamstr. Birebin Kullanc odakl calsmalar surdurse de 2011 ylnda sektore giren Birebindiger sitelere gore daha az ragbet gormektedir. Bahis oynamak ise bu sitede oldukca kolaydr. Elbette farkl yaklasmlara sahip olmasndan dolay ilerleyen sureclerde adndan sklkla bahsettirecek gibi gorunuyor. Oley 2009 ylnda Dogus yayn gruplarnn istiraki olarak kurulmus olup yasal olarak herhangi bir sorunu olmayan sitelerdendir. Bahis siteleri arasnda hzl cks yapms bir sitedir. Oley yapms oldugu yenilikler ile kullanclarn da dikkatini ksa surede cekmeyi basarmstr. Nesine Birbirini takip eden surecte Nesine de yine 2006 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslamstr. Yasal bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almay basaran firma ksa surede sevilen ve ragbet goren bir site olmustur. Misli 2009 ylnda sektore cok hzl giris yapan Misli cok sayda reklam filmi ile on plana ckmay basarmstr. Internet uzerinden hem yasal hem de sorunsuz hizmet veren bahis sitelerinden bir tanesi olmustur. Canl Bahis Siteleri Kayt ve Uyelik Islemleri Her zaman populerligini koruyan ve surekli gelisim gosteren canl bahis gun gectikce daha da gucleniyor. Bahis oynamak icin ise sitelere uye olunmas gerekir. Yuksek getirisi ve begeni toplayan faaliyetleri ile cok sayda site bu alanda faaliyet gostermektedir. Elbette sorunsuz sekilde uye olmanz ve faaliyetler gostermeniz de oldukca kolaydr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri dakikalar icerisinde gerceklestirilecek yapya sahiptir. Uye olacagnz siteyi belirledikten sonra siteye girmeniz gerekmektedir. Girdiginiz sitenin ana sayfasnda uye ol ya da kayt ol bolumu bulunacaktr. Siteler arasnda degiskenlik gosteren bu alanda temel unsurlar bulunmaktadr. Elbette farkllklar olsa da temelinde benzer bilgiler uye olmak isteyen kisilerden talep edilmektedir. Uye ol bolumune tkladktan sonra karsnza uyelik bilgi formu ckacaktr. Bu formda sizin kim oldugunuzu ogrenmek ve sitenin guvenligini saglamak adna islemler yaplmaktadr. Uyelik formunda yer alan ad soyad bolumunu eksiksiz ve dogru sekilde doldurmalsnz. Sizden bu formda istenen bilgilerin tamamn girmeniz istenecektir. Istenen bilgiler mutlaka dogru ve eksiksiz sekilde olmaldr. Eksik veya hatal bilgi uyelik islemlerinde sorun teskil edebilir. Yine de yanls bilgi girisine ragmen uyelik islemleri tamamlanabilir. Fakat boyle bir yol izleyenler sonrasnda buyuk skntlarla karslasabilirler. Bu skntlarn basnda da para cekme islemlerinde yasanan sorunlardr. Uyelik islemleri dikkatli ve ozenle doldurulmas gereken yapdadr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri gerceklestirilirken verilen bilgiler site yonetimi tarafndan muhafaza edilmektedir. Herhangi bir sekilde 3. Sahslarla paylaslmas gibi bir durum soz konusu degildir. Bu faaliyetleri surduren sitelerin guven unsurlar arasnda bu nokta onceliklidir. Bahis sitelerine uye olurken hatal bilgi paylasmnda bulunmak size faydadan cok zarar verecektir. Diyelim ki bilgileri hatal girdiniz ve uyelik onayland. Uyelik tamamlandktan sonra siteye para yatrdnz ve kazanc elde ettiniz. Kazancnz sonrasnda hesabnza almak istediginizde karsnza banka bilgileri bolumu gelecektir. Para cekme talebi gerceklestikten sonra site uyelik bilgileri ile banka hesap bilgileri ortusmez ise paranz alamazsnz. Boyle bir durumla karslasmamak adna bu hususa ayrca dikkat etmelisiniz. The beautiful Central American country of Costa Rica is to hold a Ironman 70.3 race in June 2017. The inaugural event will take place on Sunday, June 18, 2017, in Playa del Coco, Guanacaste, located on the Pacific Coast. Advertisement With its beautiful natural landscape and indigenous flora and fauna, Costa Rica is the ideal place to host an Ironman 70.3 race, said Wilber Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Miami Tri Events and Colombia Tri Events and licensee of this new race. We are confident that this event will become a classic as participants cross the finish line in a stunning location that will let them know their effort was worthwhile. The triathlon begins with a 1.9km one-loop swim in the Gulf of Papagayo, while riding the 90 km two-loop bike course through the regions lush vegetation, will give participants the chance to see monkeys and iguanas, if they take their eyes off the road. The 21 km (13.1 mile) run course takes place between palm trees with an ocean view and brings athletes to the finish line in breathtaking Playa del Coco, Guanacaste. It is a great honour to welcome athletes and their families from around the world to our country, said Mauricio Ventura, Minister of Tourism of Costa Rica. This is an opportunity for everyone to come together and enjoy the race with thousands of supporting spectators. Costa Ricas lavish rainforests, beautiful beaches on the Pacific Ocean and endless biodiversity make it the perfect destination race, expressed Edwin Vargas, Vice President of Colombia Tri Events. Athletes will be greeted by a country that values ecotourism with such energy, they will feel the appreciation for nature, local society and culture immediately. Advertisement Related 3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month. Jun 17, 2016 | By Benedict In an interview with British newspaper the Daily Mirror, US presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan has warned that weaponized 3D printed drones could be used by terrorists. Istvan, leader of the Transhumanist Party, entered the presidential race to raise awareness about transhumanist politics. Which 2016 US presidential candidate has the most outlandish ideas? For many people, the answer is obviousand it isnt Hillary Clinton. One man, however, is doing his best to compete with Donald J. Trump in the crazy stakes. That man is Zoltan Istvan Gyurko, an American writer and philosopher running for presidency as leader of the Transhumanist Party, a group of people who believe that technology could let humans live forever. But while technology could, according to Istvan and his followers, potentially eradicate death, it could also be used for more troublesome purposes such as terrorism. Unfortunately for us, that technology includes our beloved 3D printing, which Istvan believes could accelerate the development of DIY weaponry. In a recent interview with the Daily Mirror, a British tabloid newspaper, the presidential hopeful warned that 3D printed drone armies pose a serious threat to national security. You can 3D-print 100 drones for about $30,000 or $40,000, Istvan said. That means at least half of adult Americans can come up with the money to create a drone army. Its really easy to arm these dronesyou go to Walmart, you buy a bullet, you put the bullet in and you can shoot it pretty easily. While the idea of a drone army is not, in itself, so farfetchedthe Pentagon recently released footage of its own 3D printed drone swarm launched from fighter jetsIstvan perhaps undermines his argument by suggesting that drones could be loaded up with buckets of acid to pour on unsuspecting enemies. It's not just drones carrying bullets, he cautioned. The risks posed by 3D printing probably arent severe enough to warrant governmental action against printer manufacturers, but Istvan does make another argument concerning another, more deadly form of technology: guns. The transhumanist believes that American gun laws need to be changed to prevent the kind of tragedies which already occur on an all-too-frequent basis in the States, and which could soon occur on an even larger scale. When they wrote the constitution they were writing with quill pens and they were talking about single-shot guns, Istvan said. They were not talking about drones that can fire multiple bullets at once at crowds and have hundreds of them swarming. The US presidential candidate made headlines last year when he began driving the Immortality Bus, a converted single-decker bus shaped and painted like a coffin, while on the campaign trail. The self-acknowledged publicity stunt was intended to raise awareness of transhumanist beliefs; an outcome that Istvan hopes to build upon in the lead-up to the election. We really need a legal and a governmental organizationmaybe even a brand new institutionto deal with how fast and how far science and technology is developing in the United States," Istvan said. Because people just dont realize that there are multiple ways of using technology to harm citizens, and without some type of increased security measures, were going to have tragedies happen. While Istvan does not believe he has a chance of actually winning the election, he hopes that his involvement will spark debate on issues of technology and weaponry. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: Donald wrote at 6/20/2016 6:44:36 PM:"US presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan" ... The candidate for people who think the Libertarian party doesn't have enough crazy. Jun 17, 2016 | By Tess As weve seen, time and time again, 3D printing has offered trainees and professionals in the medical field an advanced and tactile way of interacting with surgical plans and models. 3D printed plastic organs, bones, and anatomies have helped surgeons and doctors prepare for complex procedures, and have helped doctors in training to become better acquainted with the human body. San Draw, Inc., a 3D printing solutions company, is hoping to further 3D printings capability to help medical education through its innovative new 3D printing system, FAM. FAM, which stands for Full-color, Adjustable hardness, and Multi-material 3D printing, is a system developed by San Draws founders, Gary Chang and Michael Lu, two graduates from Stanford University. The innovative 3D printing system is designed to create multi-color models out of silicone, a flexible and tactile material that can be made to resemble skin and other organic materials, perfect for educating medical students, patients, and even more. As the company told 3Ders, Medical education often depends on diagrams and whats found in books. However, students and patients want something that they can hold in their hands to truly understand the shape and function. This is where FAM Technology can make a considerable impact. As mentioned, FAM technology, which draws from CMYK inkjet printing, is capable of 3D printing in full color. Because the 3D printer uses silicone, which it solidifies from liquid to solid form, thus not necessitating melting the material, the machine can also print at different hardnesses. This is achieved by adjusting the models internal stucture, and by changing the type of silicone. As the company points out, this last feature is not achievable with FDM 3D printing technologies, which cannot have different hardnesses even with varying infill densities. San Draws FAM 3D printer has a relatively large print volume of 300 x 200 x 150 mm, and is capable of combining different types of silicone material into a single print. And while the technology has broad applications across a number of fields, San Draws central focus has been on the medical industry because of the advantages 3D printing in silicone can offer it. The company has even stated that they hope to one day introduce 3D printed silicone implants. San Draw recently presented its FAM 3D printing technology at CES Asia, which was held in Shanghai this past May. There, the company demonstrated their silicone 3D printing, and presented the benefits their technology could have for the medical community, by allowing for life-like and malleable surgical and training models. While their 3D printing system is not on the market, the company is offering its technology as a service. Posted in 3D Printing Technology Maybe you also like: Peter E. Gordon in The Nation: In February 1966, the historian Gershom Scholem dashed off a few lines to alert his friend Theodor Adorno of his travel plans. Ill arrive Wednesday in Frankfurt, where Ill touch down at the Park Hotel, he wrote. Please arrange with the Marxist heavens, just in case you dont maintain diplomatic relations with the resident of the other heaven, for sunshine on March 16th. For myself I prefer to rely on the old angel. The collected correspondence between Scholem and Adorno, recently issued by the prestigious German publishing house Suhrkamp Verlag, doesnt record the meteorological conditions for the middle of March 1966. Nor do we know whose deity might have proved more responsive. Men of extraordinary erudition and critical acumen, Scholem and Adorno could never truly overcome their philosophical and political differences, though in retrospect its clear that both men epitomized a shared style of Central European intelligence, fusing irony with utopian conviction, that emerged in the years before the mid-century catastrophe. Born in 1897, Gershom (originally Gerhard) Scholem was raised in a well-acculturated German-Jewish family in Berlin. Early in life, he committed himself to the Zionist cause, and by 1923 hed immigrated to Palestine, where he assumed a post at the newly established Hebrew University of Jerusalem and forged an entirely new field of historical inquiry into the esoteric and half-forgotten texts of the Kabbalah. Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund-Adorno was born in 1903 (the Adorno is from his mothers Catholic Corsican side) and was raised in Frankfurt, where he divided his time between philosophy and music. Eventually, he would join intellectuals like Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, and Leo Lowenthal to develop the subtle style of neo-Marxist social philosophy known as critical theory. The two wouldnt meet in person until 1938, at the New York home of the socialist theologian Paul Tillich, who had once served as Adornos academic adviser. More here. As you'd expect, DeGeneres has the funny bits down pat, particularly Dory's rambling monologues. Thanks to her memory lapses, these usually take several detours, only to wind up at a destination thoroughly unrelated to the original subject. But it's in Dory's quieter moments that DeGeneres breathes a soul into her little blue character: Speaking barely above a whisper, she alternately registers wonder, trepidation and, occasionally, heartbreaking sorrow. Robin Williams, for his turn as Aladdin's genie, should have become the first voice actor nominated for an Oscar. For her work in Finding Dory, DeGeneres deserves the same consideration. As the title implies, there's a certain organic repetition to the plot of Finding Dory. In the first film, a tiny clownfish was the target of the search, led by his frantic father, Marlin voiced then, as now, by Albert Brooks. Helping him was Dory, a bit of comic relief who ended up stealing the show. Now Dory swims off in search of the parents she can only dimly remember, challenging Nemo and Marlin to keep up with her impulsive misadventures. Each star brings a different kind of energy to his part, but the film's most compelling moments come when the intellectual action screeches to a halt and someone reads a bit of Wolfe's writing out loud. For these passages, screenwriter Logan wisely lets Wolfe's authorial voice commandeer the proceedings. It requires no stretch of the imagination to believe the first such recitations of Wolfe's raw work were, to the literary-minded, equivalent to the revelation of sacred scripture. At one point, Perkins starts to agonize about his role as syntactical surgeon: "That's what we editors lose sleep over, you know," he sighs. "Are we really making your books better, or just making them different?" Nicole Kidman, her eyes aflame, nearly sets the screen on fire as Wolfe's antagonist-benefactor-jilted lover Aline Bernstein, a married stage designer who first brings the writer to Perkins' attention. Both she and Linney break your heart a bit as their characters come to realize they have been, for the moment at least, consigned to the colophons of their men's life stories. The guys, to be sure, pay a price. But only one of them learns a lesson. Writers and their editors know too well how easily artistic aspirations can end up dashed on the rocks of opposition or, worse, indifference. But that's not something easily conveyed to outsiders, who tend to view aesthetic calamities as small potatoes in a world where people, you know, starve. The genius of Genius is its patience in building its case. The film's climactic moment is signified by nothing more than Perkins finally removing that stupid hat. And yet we catch our breath when it happens. For two hours we've explored the power of the written word, and in an instant a minor gesture adds a visual exclamation point. Words, pictures it doesn't matter. Genius proves that in the right hands, either one can sneak up and swallow you whole. Bill Newcott is a writer, editor and movie critic for AARP Media. WHAT DOES FORGIVENESS LOOK LIKE? It's in the eyes of some of those who lost loved ones a year ago at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Dylann Roof, 22, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, is accused of turning a .45-caliber handgun on a Bible study gathering. On that awful day June 17, 2015 the killer not only took nine lives; he silenced a poet, stole two great-grandmothers and destroyed a couple's future. An outpouring of bitterness and hatred might have been expected from those left behind. Instead, at Roof's first court hearing, many said they'd forgiven him. A year later, Emanuel has been nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. Yes, the place still echoes with sadness but listen to those voices, and look into those eyes. In an effort to find others in the same situation, Dowd joined the National At-Home Dad Network and organized a group of local fathers who gather weekly for playground meet-ups and "pancakes and play sets" in a member's home. "Guys have to seek out those communities," he says, adding with a laugh, "and as much as we spend time talking about discipline and other child issues, we also talk about movies and beer." Another millennial dad, Simon Isaacs, also sees big changes in the way younger men approach parenting. When the New Yorker and his wife were expecting their first child, both jumped online looking for parenting websites. What Isaacs found was that the web was dominated by more than 4 million blogs for moms but very few for dads. So in typical millennial entrepreneurial fashion, he and a business partner launched the website Fatherly in April 2015. Fatherly bills itself as a practical lifestyle guide, with articles ranging from books on potty training to iconic road-trip vacations. The site has been a huge success, according to Isaacs. "We found that men are far more engaged in their families than ever before and really want to break that glass ceiling at home." Isaacs, 35, the father of a 15-month-old daughter, notes that a popular topic is dads and daughters. "Millennial dads are looking for ways to support young girls, breaking down gender stereotypes," he says. What surprised him and other editors was the popularity of the "2 Minute Therapy" column, which deals with couples' relationship issues. "Dual-income couples have very ambitious desires when it comes to both home and career, and that presents challenges to their relationships," he says. WASHINGTON For Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, getting to that Unity, New Hampshire, moment might take some time. Thats where Clinton joined rival Barack Obama in 2008 for a splashy endorsement the two rivals had literally split the vote in the town in the primary. But now, more than a week after Clinton clinched the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, Sanders has still not called Clinton the presumptive nominee, has not conceded the race and people close to both campaigns say a formal endorsement is not imminent. That has some Democrats agitated. The sooner Bernie Sanders comes on board and activates his supporters, the easier it will be to drive the message, said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, a Clinton supporter. If were fiddling over the party platform, were tripping over dollars to pick up pennies. The potential is having a governing majority next year. To me, that is going to bring about more gain than a tweak to the party platform. Sanders has indicated the coming weeks could give him his best opportunity to get Clintons imprimatur on a number of policy positions and election reforms that formed the basis of his insurgent campaign. Their face-to-face meeting at a Washington hotel on Tuesday night was an initial step in the process, in the shadow of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Eight years ago, it took Clinton about three weeks before she joined Obama in the joint event in New Hampshire. Asked during a Tuesday news conference when he would endorse Clinton, Sanders demurred, telling reporters that his fight had always been about transforming America. It is standing up for working people. It is fighting for a progressive agenda which serves the needs of working people and not powerful corporate interests. Sanders was speaking to his supporters Thursday in an online address from his hometown of Burlington, Vermont. He was expected to talk about the future of the political revolution he has helped create during the past year. He was not expected to end his presidential bid. Following Tuesdays final primary in the District of Columbia, Clinton and Sanders are trying to piece together a truce that will allow the Vermont senators supporters to unite around the former secretary of state and ensure that Sanders message about an economy rigged against American workers, and big money in politics, is carried into the general election and beyond. Many Democrats, including some of Sanders supporters, want a public endorsement of Clinton to present a united front against Republican nominee-in-waiting Donald Trump. My preference is sooner rather than later. Its pretty clear that Hillary is the nominee, said Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., on the timing of a Sanders endorsement. Welch, who attended a meeting at the senators home last weekend, said acknowledging that Clinton will be the partys standard-bearer might strengthen Sanders position in negotiating policy commitments and electoral changes. Theres heartbreak in politics when you work as hard as you do and you come up short. Yes there will be disappointment but weve got to work through it, he said. Sanders often says he cannot simply snap my fingers and make his millions of supporters, many of them millennials, march in line behind Clinton. And some Sanders supporters still hold Clinton in low esteem. Sanders mere mention of her name at rallies often elicited boos from the crowd and a quick endorsement might make them feel as if he simply capitulated to Clinton without getting anything in return. For his part, Sanders has outlined a wish list of sorts. During Tuesdays news conference before the Clinton meeting, he said the Democratic National Committee needs new leadership. His campaigns latest public critique of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the partys chair, called for the elimination of superdelegates. He also advocated for a progressive platform that would cement his policy positions on curtailing the role of Wall Street in the economy and campaigns, free tuition at public colleges and universities and taking bold steps to curb climate change. What were going to see is an ongoing conversation between the two campaigns. There is a huge win-win opportunity, said Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Sanders endorsee. Clintons upcoming schedule and moves could send Sanders the message that she gets his concerns. In an interview Wednesday with USA Today, Clinton said if Congress fails to act, she would ask the Treasury Department to use its regulatory authority to eliminate the so-called carried interest loophole allowing hedge-fund managers to pay a lower tax rate than other taxpayers. Thats a move that would be welcomed by Sanders loyalists. Clinton is expected to present her economic vision for the nation next week in Ohio, giving her a platform to address one of Sanders prime concerns: That the economy has largely benefited the wealthiest Americans as the nation has recovered from the recession. Banking regulations and tax policies, Sanders says, make it more difficult to working families to get ahead. But so far, she hasnt committed to making any concessions to her former rival at least not publicly. Im not going to get into the specifics on the platform, she told The Associated Press in an interview last week. The discussions about that are just getting underway and we have a lot to talk about. __ On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC and Lisa Lerer at https://twitter.com/llerer Its a lucky day for Dad this Sunday, June 19, at several area casinos, with lots to eat and money to win. Celebrate Fathers Day at Thunder Road Steakhouse & Cantina inside Route 66 Casino Hotel. The steakhouse will be offering a duo of bone-in rib-eye and crab legs on Sunday for $34.99. And all month long, Thunder Road will be offering a sizzling New York strip and lobster special for $19.99. Eat and be merry when live local bands take the stage at 9 p.m. every Friday and Saturday. This June, Route 66 is all revved up with its Race in to Win promotion. Get your chance to win a 2016 Ford Mustang during this June promotion. Mustang qualifier drawings begin at 5 p.m. Saturdays. Earn entries each time you accrue 10 points while playing your favorite games using your Ultimate Rewards Club card. Ultimate Rewards Club members also can receive more chances to win with weekly bonus entry multipliers and during Friday slot tournaments. Friday slot tournaments run hourly from noon to 10 p.m. Visit rt66casino.com. THE DOWNS RACETRACK & CASINO: Fill Dads belly with a special Fathers Day prix fixe menu featuring a salad course, appetizer, main course and dessert display, as well as a bloody mary, margarita or mimosa, all for $39 per person. For the salad course, choose jumbo poached prawns on grilled romaine or seared barbecue duck breast over Napa cabbage. Move on to an appetizer of crab and jalapeno popper wrapped in bacon or lamb lollypops. The main course selections are New York strip and eggs or risotto of the sea made with scallops, shrimp, clams, mussels and saffron or filet Benedict. Visit, facebook.com/thecrownroomatthedowns. ISLETA RESORT & CASINO: Isleta Resort & Casino and its sister nonsmoking casino, Palace West, will celebrate Fathers Day with a gift giveaway starting at 8 a.m. Sunday. All male guests will receive a cooler when they earn 50 points playing their favorite games using their Eagle Players Club cards. Visit any promotional kiosk to receive a voucher to be redeemed at the gift redemption area. Head over to the bingo hall for Fathers Play Free day on Sunday from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Buy-in is $5 all-you-can-play and pays $500. All male guests receive free admission buy-in. Men who buy an additional $5 pack receive a free Fathers Day dauber. Kick off summer with the Slam Into Summer Slot Tournament from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 18. Earn 100 points playing slots, tables, poker or bingo and visit any promotional kiosk to print your entry ticket. Visit, isleta.com. SKY CITY CASINO HOTEL: The Hukawa Restaurant, inside Sky City Casino Hotel on Acoma Pueblo, will be serving Fathers Day brunch and dinner buffets on Sunday. Brunch will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and feature honey-glazed pit ham, omelettes and more. Brunch is $12.99 for adults and $7.49 for children. Dinner will be held from 4 to 10 p.m. and include slow braised honey-mustard pork cushion, cilantro and lime marinated tilapia fillets and a variety of sides. Dinner is $15.99 for adults and $8.49 for children. Also on Sunday, Sky City will be giving away $5,000 total cash during its Fathers Day Toolbox drawings. Two winners will be selected each hour from 4 to 9 p.m. to win between $250 and $1,000 cash. Guests receive an entry with every 40 points they earn playing their favorite Sky City games. Visit skycity.com. Opening the vast world of arts to children who might never have the opportunity is the mission of Vintage Albuquerque. We support multiple beneficiaries every year because we want to support arts education to kids all over the state in a variety of different art mediums because those can be life-changing, life-altering experiences, said Steve Wedeen, board member and past event chairman for Vintage Albuquerque. I know personally, and a lot of people involved in our organization have had some kind of child pivotal moment, whether theyve been exposed to theater or whether theyve been exposed to music or visual arts or dance or whatever thats just opened their eyes to whats possible in the world. It changes things. Vintage Albuquerque, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, raises money by hosting events featuring fine wines from around the country and the world, as well as fine cuisine. This years event begins Wednesday, June 22, and runs through Sunday, June 26. Each year, Vintage Albuquerque puts on a number of events, including an opening-night gala, grand tasting and several wine dinners throughout Albuquerque. Through the years, Vintage Albuquerque has developed an impressive reputation in the wine community not only for the money it has raised for childrens art programs but for its impressive list of honorary chairs. This years honorary chair is Californias Wagner Family of Wine, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary and is known for founding the prestigious Caymus Vineyards in Napa Valley. Winemaking itself is an art, Wedeen said. People who are winemakers are making really good wines. Its agricultural, but its a passion and kind of expressive practice. We looked at it at the standpoint, from the fact at 25 years were really hitting this point that now were hitting multiple generations and also were expanding. Weve really put a lot of effort this year to expand our reach in terms of multiple generations of people that come. Theyre setting up programs within Vintage Albuquerque to attract millennials and younger people who really love wine or want to know more about wine. Great arts span generations. We have an honorary chair who is now three generations of winemakers. Proceeds from the events will benefit childrens programs provided by the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program, Art in the School, New Mexico Jazz Workshop, National Dance Institute of New Mexico and the New Mexico Philharmonic. We seek to best transform the lives of children who without our gift they live lives without the enlightenment and creativity that the arts can expire, Wedeen quoted Vintage Albuquerques mission statement. Our goal is to benefit New Mexico schoolchildren through their exposure to arts of every and any kind. We intend for our donations to provide transformational experiences for the children served. We expect our donations to have a significant impact on children, not only to make them better and measurably happier but to make our world better in return. Making movies about writers is risky business: Theres next to nothing cinematic about someone tapping away on a keyboard, then staring into the distance to think. And its just as disastrous when an ambitious filmmaker tries to liven things up by confecting a dramatic piece of business to demonstrate the writers plight, the most ludicrous example being Jane Fondas Lillian Hellman throwing her typewriter out a window in a bout of writerly pique. Genius, Michael Grandages stalwart if staid bio-pic about literary editor Maxwell Perkins and author Thomas Wolfe, largely sidesteps the Scylla and Charybdis of inertia and burlesque through which any film about an artist must pass. Anchored by a quietly sympathetic performance by Colin Firth the most reliable actor on the planet when it comes to personifying diffidence and moral rectitude this attractive, ultimately affecting portrait of friendship and creative collaboration may lack the dynamism and fire of the work it celebrates, but it provides an absorbing account of a relationship that, although obscure to most viewers, radically reshaped the American literary landscape of the 20th century. Based on A. Scott Bergs 1978 biography of Perkins, Genius begins in 1929, when the editor was working at Scribners, where he had already discovered F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. As the movie opens, Perkins is quickly and ruthlessly crossing out sentences in red pencil when an associate dumps a 1,100-page manuscript on his desk. Perkins begins to read and, in the graceful montage that ensues, keeps reading, through his commute home to Connecticut, through greeting his wife, Louise (Laura Linney), and five daughters, and practically through dinner, during which he forgets to take off his hat. Thats a very long paragraph, one of the Perkins girls observes, reading over her fathers shoulder. It started four pages ago, he replies in his laconic New England drawl. So begins the literary bromance between Perkins puritanical, concise, self-effacing and conservative and Thomas Wolfe, the garrulous, expansive, self-sabotaging wunderkind from North Carolina, portrayed with puppyish overeagerness by Jude Law. Temperamental opposites who have an almost telepathic mutual understanding, the two would collaborate on that first manuscript (which would become Look Homeward, Angel) and Wolfes only best-seller, Of Time and the River, an even more unwieldy continuation of his autobiographical oeuvre that arrives at Perkinss office in crates. One of the finest, funniest scenes in Genius chronicles how Perkins attempted to tame the ungovernable, word-drunk beast that Wolfe has created, goading the writer into paring a florid love scene into a brief, sharply observed few sentences that stand out in unadorned relief to the great, rolling mountains of prose around it. Genius, adapted for the screen by John Logan, suffers from some common afflictions of the bookish bio-pic. Grandage, a fixture of the London theater scene making his film-directing debut here, often makes the proceedings feel more like a play than a movie, a stageyness that extends to Laws often teary, declamatory delivery. Nods to the Depression that forms the backdrop to Genius feel perfunctory and patronizing. Whats happening to our country, Max? Wolfe asks balefully as the two pass a soup line. The arrival of Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce) and Hemingway (Dominic West) resembles a dutiful tableau-vivant pageant of Great Authors Through History. For all that, though, Genius possesses an autumnal beauty both in its visuals and a lovely, Coplandesque musical score by Adam Cork that feels appropriate to the melancholic spirit of the story. (Its a foregone conclusion that Wolfe, the impatient enfant terrible and aesthetic sensualist, cant help but break the heart of the supposedly less passionate man who makes his success possible.) In addition to Firths sensitive, foursquare portrayal of Perkins, Genius is made much more interesting by Nicole Kidman, who as Wolfes married lover and patron, Aline Bernstein, throws out stinging shards of competition, rage and jealousy. She thoroughly dominates one of the films finest scenes, when Bernstein confronts Wolfe over the devastating emotional cost of his casual, self-involved cruelties. When Kidman starred in The Hours several years ago, sales of Virginia Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway spiked. One can only hope the same holds true for this Wolfe, whose lambent, sonorous prose weaves through the film like the river that served as the authors most cherished metaphor. Genius may be a bit stodgy and safe, but it tells a story of beauty as it plays out in an improbably fruitful friendship, and as its discovered within vast expanses of raw language by a craftsman who was arguably an artist in his own right. As a character observes, the world needs poets but poets need editors, a truth that the best poets know in their bones and the best editors never abuse. Wolfes prodigious gifts notwithstanding, theres no doubt to whom the title of Genius refers, in a film that proves its case with the taste, restraint and fundamental decency of the man himself. Genius RATED: PG-13 (for mature thematic elements and suggestive material) WHEN: Opens today WHERE: Century 14 Downtown, High Ridge, DeVargas 6 (Santa Fe) Childhood and, in fact, the very act of being human involve a certain level of loneliness. The great news is, you can make money off it. For close to 80 years, if you go by Disneys Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs making history in 1937, all sorts and achievement levels of feature animation have preyed upon the fears, insecurities and isolating circumstances of growing up. The best Pixar features, like those pre- and post-digital from Pixars parent company, Disney, have exploited that loneliness brilliantly, and the lesser Pixars have tried to do the same. Finding Dory, the satisfying follow-up to the 2003 smash Finding Nemo, amplifies the defining characteristic short-term memory loss of the blue tang fish voiced, then and now, with subtle warmth and unerring comic timing by Ellen DeGeneres. What began as comic gold, with a delicate, bittersweet undercurrent, is now a sensitively handled disability. Flashbacks to Dorys childhood (Eugene Levy and Diane Keaton voice Dorys parents) reveal her barely recalled family life as a truly enviable and loving one. Finding Dory, which more accurately would be titled Nemo and Marlin Help Dory Find Her Folks, manages to raise its newly central characters emotional stakes without wiping out the comedy altogether. If the movies good, not great, well, there it is. This would be an apt time to remember Pixars track record when it comes to providing stockholder-friendly sequels to its properties. Besides Toy Story 2 and, to a lesser degree, 3, Finding Dory is the only Pixar sequel to qualitatively justify its existence as a movie. Cars 2 and Monsters University are best considered karmic payback for the glorious Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up getting made in the first place. Finding Dory takes place a year after Finding Nemo. Dory fin-twists, gently, Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Hayden Rolence) into aiding her in her search for the parents she only periodically recalls. The quest takes the trio to the coast of California and the Marine Life Institute, based visually on the Monterey Bay Aquarium. There, Dory meets her newest comrades. They include the misanthropic but redeemable septopus (octopus minus one tentacle) named Hank, voiced by Ed ONeill, whose mission in life is not to leave captivity but to stay in it. Beluga whale Bailey (Ty Burrell) and whale shark Destiny (Kaitlin Olson) join forces, and theyre pleasant comic company. Andrew Stanton co-directed, with Angus MacLane, and co-wrote, with Victoria Strouse. The visual personality of the movie is fantastically vivid and bright, the story itself, less so. I think Stanton and company erred in confining so much of the action to the marine institute and on dry land. Theres a typically complex and inventive action climax for a Pixar project, this one all around the hills and highways of what appears to be the coastal Bay Area. The open ocean is the reward for Dory, along with reuniting with her parents, and I felt slightly jerked around in getting to the reward part. Still, and this is a big still: Were a long way from the contrivances of a Cars 2 or Monsters University. Will we ever again hit the Pixar heights of the early 21st century? Who knows? And technically, its still early in the century. This weekend is all about Mabel Dodge Luhan up in Taos with a symposium on her influence on American Moderns in the West, tied in with an art exhibit at the Harwood Musem, 238 Ledoux St. You can hear a panel of speakers 1-4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Taos Center for the Arts ($18, 575-758-4677), see Leslie Harrell Dillens one-woman play portraying Mabel 7-9 p.m. today in Arthur Bell Auditorium ($12), and hear a community dialogue about Anglo patronage and cultural influences on Hispano society in Taos from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, also in the auditorium (free with museum admission). You can get the full rundown at mabeldodgeluhan.org. FANTASE: In case you havent been getting enough light shows, art installations, performances and such at the Currents International New Media Festival in the Railyard, head on down to Fantase Fest 6 p.m. to midnight Saturday in DeVargas Park along the Santa Fe River. Local bands will play on two stages and food trucks will keep your tummy full through the night. A skate jam will keep the younger folks rolling, while a wall will stand ready for graffiti art. Dont forget to check out the latest exhibit in Axle Contemporarys rolling gallery, which will be parked nearby. And the only thing you have to pay for is the food or other vendor offerings. SOUTHERN LOWRIDERS: With lowrider culture filling exhibits at two downtown museums, author Denise Chavez will add to the mix with her talk about whats going low and slow closer to the Mexico border. Born and raised in Las Cruces, Chavez will give a view of the lowrider scene there at 2 p.m. Sunday in the auditorium at the New Mexico History Museum, 113 Lincoln Ave. The event is free with museum admission, which is free to New Mexico residents on Sundays. APACHE HEART: Basketry, micaceous pottery and beadwork all are on display in a new exhibition at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, located on Museum Hill. Stop by and take a look at Jicarilla: Home Near the Heart of the World, which will be on display through April 16, 2017. It was put together in cooperation with the Jicarilla Apache Nation, its Arts and Crafts and Archives departments, and the Center of Southwest Studies at Ft. Lewis College in Durango, Colo. More than 80 objects trace the tribes history from the mid-19th century to the present. There are two different ways to approach the new art exhibit at Art House. You could ponder deep philosophical questions about whether independent intelligence can exist at all in computers and, in the reverse, whether humans are simply biological machines responding to coding embedded in their genes. Or you can just have a hoot playing with the interactive artworks or watching images morph or unfold, depicting things such as a day in the life of a fracking sinkhole or a rural Kansas barn, or the real-time labor of setting a fencepost. Then again, maybe you can just gaze upon a breathtaking still image by photographer Stephen Wilkes compressing in one scene all the animals visiting a watering hole in Serengeti National Park in one day. You can do it all and more during a visit to Mouse in the Machine: Nature in the Age of Digital Art, the latest exhibition with an opening 5-7 p.m. Saturday at the Art House, 213 Delgado St., a project of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation. The overall theme of the show, explained gallery staffer Kathleen Richards, plays with the Ghost in the Machine concept, which represents philosophers concept of mind-body duality that there was some separate part of us, a soul, running our personal show. Mouse is subbed in for ghost, though, to bring up the image of a computer mouse issuing directions. And the nature in the subtitle can refer to our own human natures or the global life on many levels that surrounds us in the environment. Thus, you can look at the natural world through the language of the digital world, as Richards put it, by seeing how Wilkes extracted a single image from 2,200 photographs taken over 26 hours at the watering hole. The profusion of animal life over time shows the centrality of that spot to the natural world that might not be as evident in activity there at any single point in time. Or Nam June Paik in TV Fish (2000) contrasts the languid glides of actual goldfish in an aquarium with TV images behind it of rapidly shifting, chopped-up images that also occasionally flash with fish. It makes you wonder if the real fish will have a nervous breakdown from the constant stimuli, although they seemed serene enough on a recent visit. It also sets a new standard for maintenance for an art work Richards said, yes, she has to clean the tanks and feed the fish. Harold Cohen made a machine and algorithm to create and print out its own art, which he then colored. So, Richards asked, is the computer simply responding to its programming, or is there an element of learning and choice in how it puts together the images? Is the computer or the algorithm making the artistic choices? she said. The element of computer choice also comes into question with Rafael Lozano-Hemmers Please Empty Your Pockets (2000). This interactive piece can become addictive. It calls for the viewer to drop a small item on an airline security-type conveyer belt. The item is recorded in the system and then depicted in a one-of-a-kind image with an assortment of other items from some 600,000 in the virtual inventory. The artist often works with the idea of the growing amount of surveillance in our world and the question of what happens to those images, Richards said. A couple of pieces included audience participation: one in which people chose to participate, another that caught them unawares. The latter can be seen in Jim Campbells Grand Central Station N. 3 (2009). Campbell is a technical genius who developed the high-resolution color computer chip, according to Richards, but then went in the reverse direction with this artwork by recording commuter movement through the station in very few pixels, giving the resulting image a soft, black-and-white appearance of abstraction. On the other hand, Daniel Canogars Rise/Times Square, July 2014 invited people to crawl across a long, horizontal green screen, then projected the images onto buildings around the square. The outlines of some 1,200 participants scaling the massive structures remind Richards of King Kong scaling the Empire State Building. In the version at Art House, the human outlines, sometimes in neon colors and other times simple white on black, crawl up a rectangular surface, sometimes clumping, sometimes alone, sometimes racing, sometimes slow. It feels not like a horde of humanity, but of the joy of humanity working together, human beings moving in concert with each other, Richards said. Thats countered by another work she finds somewhat disturbing: Alan Raths Wall Eye I (1997) shows a roving eye looking, blinking, almost as if theres a human inside the box of wires, trying to escape from the machine. Then again, the notes on the piece say the artist was contemplating why people tend to construct robots with human-like expressive characteristics. Theres much more, including Daniel Rozins Mirror No. 12 (2013) that expresses what its camera sees in real time and space, presenting viewers in impressionistic strokes that make you want to gyrate and change position to generate new visual interpretations. The exhibit will be on display through next spring. You might want to stop by more than once, since many of the moving images change over time and may present a different view each time you stop by. If you go WHAT: Mouse in the Machine: Nature in the Age of Digital Art WHEN: Opening reception 5-7 p.m. Saturday, runs through spring 2017 WHERE: Art House, 231 Delgado St. GALLERY HOURS: Thursday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. COST: Free In decades past, cinephiles would eagerly anticipate the latest releases from European filmmakers who were expanding the boundaries and defying conventions of how to tell a story on the big screen. Then, theyd cluster in coffee shops, bars or film clubs to debate and analyze the new techniques. Thats something of the feeling Jason Silverman says hes trying to recreate with the Auteurs series at the Center for Contemporary Arts Cinematheque albeit in a retro sort of way. Some approaches that were groundbreaking when the films in the series were released might be old hat today. People want to experience that, what its like to see it on the big screen, said Silverman, Cinematheque director. Its exciting. Now in its third year, the Auteurs series started as part of the Summer Film Institute at St. Johns College, where students studied legendary directors and their films, many of which were screened at the CCA. This year, St. Johns is not offering Film Institute screenings for the public, but the previous ones were so popular, Silverman said he decided to put together his own program. People loved it more than we anticipated, he said. The program theme centers on newly restored films, although two of the offerings have not been restored. One of them never was released in the United States because of certain rights issues, but now is being made available through a newly discovered 35mm print. A half-dozen cities will be playing this very rare print, Silverman said of Ossessione, a 1943 film by Italian director Luchino Visconti. After showing in Santa Fe and a few other U.S. locations, it will head back to a vault in Rome, he added. This film was a landmark for Italian neorealist style a somewhat gritty cinema of the streets that involves hand-held cameras with an in the moment feel, he said. And the story may be familiar to Americans its based on James M. Cains novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. That story of a drifter and the wife of a cafe owner plotting murder was made into films in the United States in both 1946 and 1981. Writer and producer Kirk Ellis, whom Silverman calls one of the worlds greatest introducers of films of any genre, will offer opening remarks for the Ossessione screening. Opera lovers will get a cinematic preview to Samuel Barbers Vanessa on this summers Santa Fe Opera program through Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergmans Thirst. James Robinson, stage director for Vanessa, will introduce Bergmans film, and tell how it influenced his design and direction for the opera. He will give an idea of how opera and cinema connect, Silverman said. He calls Thirst an idiosyncratic melodrama, but not one that follows the obvious plot lines in the American style of that genre. Its filled with surprises, Silverman said. The story is told in a mystical fashion; its also incredibly beautiful to look at. It follows a couples travels across post-war Europe, the people they encounter and their growing separation. People call it his first masterpiece, Silverman said. Others would debate that. The series opened last week with Jean Cocteaus Beauty and the Beast, a film that uses magical effects back before the days when computers could make anything look real on screen. Jean Cocteau was a very visionary director, very inventive. He played with reality and was very imaginative, Silverman said. This Saturdays film is Thin Blue Line, a documentary by Errol Morris that shattered everyones idea of what a documentary should be like. Rather than outlining a staid set of facts in examining a person convicted of killing a Dallas police officer, the 1981 film uses controversial re-enactments to throw the viewer in the middle of a thriller. There is no voice-of-God narrative, Silverman said. Youre immersed in it as if its a piece of fiction. Now, its a pretty standard way of fact-based story-telling, he added. Paul Barnes, who edited this film and was an early editing partner with Ken Burns, will introduce it. Silverman himself, who co-directed a documentary on African filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, will introduce Black Girl, Sembenes first feature film. It focuses on a Senegalese woman who goes to work for a French couple who end up taking her to France, where she feels isolated and degraded. Its partly a story about victimization, but also about self-empowerment in a way, Silverman said. It has parallels in the continued French power in the African country at the time, even after it won its independence, and also in Sembenes struggle to make a film with no money and very little in the way of equipment. And its the first time that an African story was told by an African filmmaker, instead of the European viewpoint usually applied to such tales, he said. The series ends with Jean-Luc Godards 1964 crime caper Band of Outsiders. It follows and is somewhat similar to Breathless, Godards better known film, but Silverman said it shows a little more refinement in its storytelling. This example of French New Wave features Anna Karina, with whom Godard had an ongoing actor/director relationship. It includes a dash through the Louvre and a dance scene that may have inspired a similar one in Pulp Fiction, Silverman said. He bends time he jumps us around from moment to moment, he said of Godards jump-cut technique. It bends and breaks the rules. THE AUTEURS: a series of classic films THE LINEUP: Thin Blue Line, 7:30 p.m. Saturday Black Girl, 7:30 p.m. June 25 Osessione, 7 p.m. July 2 Thirst, 7 p.m. July 9 Band of Outsiders, 7:30 p.m. July 16 WHERE: CCA Cinematheque, 1050 Old Pecos Trail COST: $7.50-$10.50 per film; $36-$46 series pass Many coal-supporting Westerners cheered when the Supreme Court halted the federal governments implementation of its Clean Power Plan, pending judicial review. But even though the attorneys general of Colorado, Wyoming and other states might succeed in gutting the Clean Power Plan, they can never do what they really want to do: They cannot return the world to the 1990s. Low-sulphur, high-Btu coal from the Powder River Basin and other Western coalfields was king back then. Now, the science of climate change has become too compelling, the risks too worrisome and the ultimate costs too great. If you parse most criticism of the Clean Power Plan, it sounds like this: Technological innovation reached its peak after World War II, when we developed large power plants fired by burning coal. The electricity produced was cheap and we still need it as a reliable base nationwide. Really? Have we as a species completely run out of new ideas? The challenge for the mostly Republican critics in coal-rich Western states is to come up with a better path forward than the Clean Power Plan if we hope to solve the problem of a planet increasingly out of whack. One market-based solution is to put a price on carbon emissions. Because the problem is not the actual coal, natural gas or other carbon sources. The problem is the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere whenever we burn these fuels. Right now, there is no charge for using the sky as one giant dumping ground. But take bald tires and old stoves to a landfill, and you will be assessed a dumping fee. Similarly, we need to establish an atmospheric dumping fee. The atmospheric dumping we currently allow has accelerated at a stunning rate. We added 35 parts per million of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere during the first two centuries of the Industrial Revolution and, just in my lifetime, weve added 85 ppm more. That puts us at 400 ppm. Within 15 to 20 years, well be at 450 ppm. That threshold may make us warmer; it could also torque the climate in unpredictable ways, like a washing machine thrown out of balance. Nobody really knows. Climate science still has gaps and unanswered questions. Like all of human knowledge, it is a work in progress. Brad Mead was dead-on when he analyzed the state of our knowledge in Wyomings Jackson Hole News&Guide this way: Any scientific theory that encompasses the complexity of weather and climate on a global scale is bound to have teething problems. Mead, an attorney and the brother of Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, cited University of Wyoming research on methods of carbon sequestration. But the technology is only part of the problem. The marketplace needs motivation to make whatever process researchers develop economically viable. If there is no cost to the industries that create the pollution, there is no incentive to innovate. So far, sequestration technology looks hopelessly expensive. Perhaps it always will be, though at one time the same argument was made about solar panels. Lets let the marketplace figure it out, setting a price on this risky pollution. Where would this tax revenue go? Some, such as the advocacy group Citizens Climate Lobby, argue for a revenue-neutral carbon fee. They would return revenues to the public, eliminating the argument that a carbon fee would only grow the size of government. Economists say the tax needs to be high enough to instigate change. It also should be phased in gradually, to avoid causing economic heartburn. Others argue for more intense research on solving climate change perhaps a federally funded approach similar in scope to the Manhattan Project. Bill Gates thinks the risks that climate change poses to U.S. interests are so high that we need to triple the federal budget currently allocated to research and development. Wouldnt it be splendid if the Republican Party produced a leader who could broker the necessary compromises to put a morally justified price on carbon? Critics of the Clean Power Plan argue that it will, by itself, do little to tame global emissions. Theyre technically correct, yet I believe theyre too pessimistic. If you have any belief in American exceptionalism, you should have faith in the ability of the United States to set a persuasive example for the rest of the world. Meanwhile, our in-limbo Clean Power Plan addresses emissions from only the electric sector, or just 31 percent of total U.S. emissions. We need more comprehensive action. Let the Clean Power Plans critics propose their own robust solution to the clear danger of global warming. Let those who rail against regulations frame a market response that will work. It should start with a price on carbon. Allen Best is a contributor to Writers on the Range, an opinion service of High Country News (hcn.org). He lives in the Denver area and publishes an e-zine called Mountain Town News. A District Court judge has come down on the side of transparency and accountability in the corruption case of former state Sen. Phil Griego ordering most of the Senate ethics investigation records be produced at a preliminary hearing next month. Judge Brett Loveless of Albuquerque on Monday ruled the Legislative Council Service, the Legislatures administrative arm, has no constitutional privilege to refuse to produce the records. (Loveless did rule some correspondence between the ethics panel and its lawyer can remain secret under the attorney-client relationship.) Griego, a Democrat from San Miguel County, is accused of bribery and other charges in connection with using his position in the Senate to make money on the sale of a historic state building in Santa Fe. He pocketed a sweet $50,000 brokers fee for monitoring the deal. In March 2015 he resigned from the Senate rather than face possible discipline as a result of the Senate ethics investigation into his role. The state Attorney Generals Office, which is prosecuting the case, had subpoenaed the records, but the council service objected, arguing the agency is duty-bound to preserve and protect the independence and integrity of the Legislature. While the judge rejected those arguments, he has not yet ruled on a similar but separate council service motion to prevent lawmakers and legislative staff members from testifying, or at least to limit the scope of their testimony, in the criminal case set for a preliminary hearing July 5. The LCS argument is that making legislators testify would violate an immunity provision in the state Constitution. Article 4, Section 13 reads: Members of the legislature shall, in all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace not be questioned in any other place for any speech or debate or for any vote cast in either house. AG Hector Balderas, whose office has indicated it intends to call nine lawmakers and at least four legislative staffers, has another view: As public servants we have an obligation to taxpayers and the citizens of New Mexico to be transparent and accountable, and the Legislative Council Services attempt to assert a blanket privilege on behalf of all legislators in this matter is obstructive to the administration of justice and the transparency that all New Mexicans deserve. The LCS efforts to shield records and block testimony certainly raise the questions of what do lawmakers have to hide? Are they trying to shield Griego from possible prison? Spare the Legislature from further embarrassment? Will a picture emerge showing lawmakers should have known about this and acted sooner? If convicted of all 10 counts, Griego, who has pleaded not guilty, could face up to 28 years in prison and more than $40,000 in fines. Balderas is right: The public deserves to have the complete case tried in the sunshine, Griego deserves his day in court, and a legislative agency shouldnt prevent alleged criminal activity from being vetted by the justice system. 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. VERMEJO PARK RANCH With towering, snow-draped mountains scratching the sky at nearly 13,000 feet framing one end of a valley and rolling green meadows serving as a backdrop at the other, Casa Grande was unveiled Wednesday and opened for business following a four-year, multi-million-dollar renovation project. The centerpiece of Ted Turners 590,000-acre ranch, Casa Grande created as a mansion in the early 1900s will serve as upscale guest quarters for those who wish to commune with nature on a grand scale. The costs are on something of a grand scale, as well, as room rates for two at Casa Grande start at $850 (including all meals) per night, although there are other, less expensive rooms available at the Vermejo. The opening of the 25,000-square-foot Casa Grande coincides with last years creation of Ted Turner Expeditions as the media mogul has thrown open his three New Mexico ranches, covering about one million acres not to mention his other properties across the country to sportsmen, adventurers and ecotourists. Casa Grande is a national treasure set amidst the national treasure that is Americas West, Turner said. By opening this mansion to global travelers, I invite visitors to explore our American heritage and assist in its preservation. Seven bedrooms are sprinkled across the opulent, stone-faced mansion, built by Chicago businessman and former Vermejo Park owner William H. Bartlett. The structure also houses a billiards room, library, plant-filled atrium and a ballroom complete with a grand piano. Of course, this project would not have been possible without the support of Ted Turner and his vision for the ranches, Gus Holm, ranch manager, said at Vermejo Park. Weve not only preserved a piece of the Vermejo with the Casa Grande, but also sustained the Vermejo going into the future. At this point in his life, Turner said, it was time to start letting other people enjoy some of what he has been fortunate to own. I have too many places to enjoy them all myself, he said to reporters here. So thats the reason Im going to rent them out a little bit so they can be utilized. This has really been a wonderful experience, and it gives me something to live for beside cable television. Turner, founder of cable television stations CNN, TBS and TNT, bought the Vermejo ranch in 1996, but the 106-year-old Casa Grande was in need of modernization. It was built between 1907 and 1909 by prominent architect Joseph Lyman Sisbee, a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright. The renovation began four years ago at the insistence of Mark Kossler, general manager of Turner Ranches, Holm said. Mark was the person who had the vision and the drive to start this project, he said. We would not all be standing here in front of this incredible building, celebrating its return to its former glory, without Mark Kossler. The plan was to modernize the building while also retaining its original Victorian charm in order to make it a special experience for anyone using it, said Jeff Mokotoff, chief administrative officer of Turner Enterprises. During Teds ownership of Vermejo, Casa Grande had been used by Ted, his family and guests as a private getaway, and was not generally open to the public, he said. But we realized to appeal to the ecotourism guest that we were seeking to attract, we wanted to have a property that would act as a crown jewel for our overarching brand. The ranch has long served as a playground for the wealthy. For instance, in the 1920s, notable luminaries such as Cecil B. deMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and even President Herbert Hoover each paid an annual $1,000 fee for the rights to use the ranch to hunt and fish. The Great Depression signaled the end of that enterprise and it passed through various owners until 1960 when Casa Grande got its first facelift. The Pennzoil Co. soon bought the property, holding it until selling it to Turner for a reported $80 million. (The New Mexico state government had passed on buying Vermejo Park in the 1970s for $26 million). With more than 50 years since its last renovation, Casa Grande needed significant work, particularly in the area of heating and cooling, electrical and plumbing. So, when Casa Grande was undergoing restoration and renovation for Ted and his family, Ted agreed to allow us to bring Casa Grande into our greater vision of ecotourism on Teds properties, Mokotoff said. So now the lineup of activities at Vermejo includes ecotours that can be as short as three hours or many, many hours as visitors keep on the lookout for bobcats, black bears, wild turkeys, raptors, elk, feral horses and, of course, bison, of which some 1,700 head roam on the ranch. The ecotours can also encounter desolate homesteads, Native American ruins and 100-year-old charcoal kilns that still carry the burning odor. Theres mountain biking, not only on the 2,000 miles of dirt roads that crisscross the ranch, but also on rugged trails through the hills and mountains. Hiking is plentiful and challenging, with numerous high-country peaks and fish-stocked lakes. Skeet and clay pigeon shooting both enthrall visitors, as does the archery range with targets shaped like animals. Mokotoff tried to put the immensity of Turners holdings in New Mexico and the West into perspective. Over the course of the last two decades, Ted has acquired over two million acres of land in the western United States, he said. Two million acres is more than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. And those two states have more than two million people living in their borders. We have a couple of hundred people living in there. So visiting the Vermejo is akin to having a private national park. The smallest of Teds three ranches in New Mexico is 150,000 acres, which is the same size as Zion, he said. Zion sees approximately 3.5 million visitors a year. Vermejo will see a couple of thousand, with a nearly certain chance of seeing more wildlife than you would have at the very best national parks. Ted wishes to share his complete love of nature, wildlife and discovery in order to help all generations develop a keen appreciation and awareness of our earth and what it has to offer. And, just as importantly, a shared responsibility for the well-being of our environment. It comes down to conservation and being stewards of the land, Holm said. Our mission statement is to manage Turner land in an economically sustainable and environmentally sensible manner with an emphasis on native species and habitat, he said. Many people believe this statement is contradictory. One cant be done without negative impact on the other. But we at Team Turner view this mission statement as complementary and interconnected. Sort of a yin and yang, for everything must be in balance. Santa Fe police detective Tony Trujillo thumbs through a black three-ring binder filled with pages of information about unresolved Santa Fe murder cases dating back decades. Marie Vicki Griego. She was found in a vacant field behind where the Taco Bell is now on Cerrillos Road. Shed been strangled, he said, flipping ahead to another section of the binder. Tamara Britton. Her remains have not been found yet, he said, flipping ahead again. Teal Pittington. Her remains were found off Old Las Vegas Highway. Her bra was found around her neck. Whats interesting about that one is she was a roommate of Tamaras at one time. Most of the cold cases victims are women, but not all of them. Earlier this week, the Santa Fe Police Department sent out a media release saying it was seeking the publics help with the 1987 murder of Patricio Pacheco, who was bludgeoned to death with a carpenters claw hammer at his apartment on Agua Fria Street. SFPD issued the release on Sunday, believed to be the 29th anniversary of Pachecos death. Were trying to get the word out, said Trujillo, who is working the cold cases with Detective Jimmie Montoya. We believe theres still somebody out there who has information. Through the physical evidence we have and people coming forward with information, whether its something about Mr. Pacheco or the people he associated with, we can find out who his killer was. Key to the effort are the advances that have been made in forensic DNA analysis since many of these murders occurred. Its all about DNA, Trujillo said. Back then, they didnt think about handling evidence with DNA in mind. It wasnt until the late 1980s and early 1990s that DNA profiling became practice. At the time of the Pacheco murder, ABO blood typing collected from saliva was common. That method, however, serves only to narrow the list of possible suspects and is not nearly as precise as DNA matching, which renders a profile as unique as a fingerprint. Trujillo said some persons of interest in the Pacheco case submitted saliva samples back then and some hair samples were taken. The hair was used to try to match hair found at the crime scene back then. Now, DNA profiles can be extracted from hair. And DNA has since been lifted from the murder weapon, a hammer found on the floor of the apartment. Mr. Pachecos DNA was found on the working end of the hammer and unknown DNA was found on the handle, the detective said. There is a profile there. Were not saying its the suspects, but it is something to work with. Trujillo wont name any suspects in this or other cases. We dont want to identify any of them. After all these years, they may think they have gotten away with it, he said. The same holds true for rapists. Earlier this year, New Mexico lawmakers and the governor approved additional funding to help clear a backlog of more than 5,400 so-called rape kits which may include specimens containing DNA samples dating back to the 1980s. About 350 of those rape kits are from Santa Fe victims, Trujillo said. The likely perpetrator could be identified by comparing DNA samples with those already entered into a national database. Pacheco likely knew killer Newspaper articles in the days following the murder describe Pacheco as a quiet man who kept to himself. He especially enjoyed taking his nieces and nephews out to eat or for ice cream. Everybody liked him. He was really a likeable guy, his sister-in-law, Theresa Pacheco, told the Journal at the time. Known as Bito, Pacheco was 40 when he was killed. He worked at the family-owned Owl Liquor Store much of the time, but labored at other jobs here and there. Hed also check in with his mother on a daily basis. He watered the lawn of her home on Kathryn Place on Thursday night. When he didnt show up Friday or Saturday, his mother grew concerned and asked one of her other children to check on him. They found the door to Pachecos apartment slightly open and Pacheco slumped on the couch, barefoot, in front of the television set. We believe he knew his assailant and that it was someone he trusted. The scene dictates that, Trujillo said. It looked like Pacheco had spent a relaxing evening at home hanging out with a friend or two. There was a six-pack of empty Budweisers on the kitchen counter, more cans on the dining room table and a few at his feet. Chances are they got pretty intoxicated, the detective said. Accessing the scene, Trujillo said Pacheco may not have seen it coming. He apparently was watching TV. He may have dozed off and someone came up from behind, Trujillo speculated. The hammer used to strike Pacheco in the head was found on the floor of the apartment. While the crime scene says a lot and theres physical evidence, to be honest, we dont know a motive, Trujillo said. Pachecos wallet wasnt taken and it doesnt appear anything else was missing. There was a vague suggestion that Pacheco might have had a safe in the house, but that couldnt be substantiated. Though its not mentioned in the newspaper articles, Trujillo said Pacheco was gay. Could that have been a motive? Could it have been a hate crime? Could be, he said. Gone, but not forgotten While Trujillo believes the cold cases in his binder are solvable, not all of them can be prosecuted. New Mexico doesnt have a statute of limitations in first-degree murder cases, but it hasnt always been that way. The statute of limitations used to be 15 years but, when the law changed, it made any murder committed after July 1, 1982, free from limitations. But murders committed before that date can no longer be prosecuted. That means Vicki Marie Griegos killer may have already gotten away with murder. She was killed four years before the law went into effect. But Trujillo points out that knowing the answer to the question of Who killed my loved one? could at least provide some sense of closure or resolve for the victims families. It may be that some of the killers have already been caught or are dead. Trujillo suspects that David Bruce Morton, now serving life sentences for killing two Santa Fe women Janet Benoit in 1983 and Teri Lynn Mulvaney in 1984 may have been a serial killer. I suspect him in about four others, he said, Pittingtons death being one of them. Unfortunately, we never got DNA from the victims. In 1988, the Journal ran a story under the headline Unsolved Murders Stir Serial Killer Theories. Benoit, Mulvaney and three other women in Trujillos binder Pittington, Griego and Susan LaPorte are mentioned as possible victims of a repeat murderer. A sidebar to the article speculates that Kenneth Ray Luna, who hanged himself in a Sandoval County jail in 1986, may have killed multiple women in Utah and New Mexico. He confessed to killing two women in New Mexico and was identified by a Utah woman as the man who beat and raped her and left her for dead. But Trujillo said a serial killer couldnt have committed all the murders in the cold cases binder. And lacking DNA evidence in some of the cases, he and Montoya are doing what they can to solve them. Theyve laid a fresh set of eyes on the case files, consulted with former SFPD detectives who handled the cases to try to gain insight and went back to talk to people who were interviewed during the initial investigation. But he admits they need more help. We dont have a homicide division. We all have a regular case load and, when we get an opportunity, we come back and open the files, he said. These are cases we never threw into a box and forgot about. Do you have any information? The Santa Fe Police Department is seeking help from the public to help crack several unsolved murder cases. In addition to the case involving the 1987 killing of Patricio Pacheco, police are seeking information in the following cases: Vickie Griego, 25, was raped, beaten and strangled with her own belt after leaving a party around midnight on July 8, 1978. Her nude body was discovered five days later near her scattered clothing in a field off Calle Cielo. Tamara Britton, 24 when she was reported missing on Aug. 8, 1984. She was a sales person at West Coast Sound, located on Cerrillos at the time of her disappearance, and simply disappeared. Interestingly, she was a former roommate of Teal Pittington, who went missing a week later. Teal Pittington, 18, was last seen alive on Aug. 15, 1984 in the parking lot of a Cerrillos Road variety store. Her remains were discovered a month later in a culvert about a mile south of the New Mexico Girls Ranch on U.S. 285 south of Lamy. Investigators say she was strangled with her own bra. Susan LaPorte, 25, of Boston, was visiting a friend in Santa Fe when she was strangled Dec. 4, 1985. She had borrowed her friends car to go find a quiet place in which to read. A jogger found her body on a dirt road near what is now The Lodge across from the Santa Fe National Cemetery. Diedra Young, 25, was a paralegal and part-time ski instructor who was found dead inside a home on Galisteo that had been deliberately set on fire on Jan. 8, 1998. Annie Tapia, 72, was found dead inside Rockin TP Lounge, a Cerrillos Road bar she owned, in March 1995. She had been beaten to death with a baseball bat. Larry Roybal, 74, was found dead in his Don Diego Avenue home by a family member June 15, 2014. The more information we have from people who saw Mr. Roybal or any suspicious activity in the area could provide the piece of the puzzle we need, a police spokeswoman said two days after the crime. No matter how many pieces of the puzzle we already have, we need those pieces to fit together in order to make an arrest. In a nondescript warehouse/studio space off Santa Fes Siler Road, thousands of portraits of euthanized dogs are stored, including a group of giant 8-foot-by-8-foot pictures that cover walls from top to bottom. Mark Barone, who painted the dogs over four years, and Marina Dervan want a museum to show off the massive collection 5,500 dog pictures to wake up people about the loss of dogs that end up in shelters, to cultivate compassion, and generate money for dog rescue operations and no-kill shelters. And they want someone to provide the museum for them. Dervan said the couple is hoping for a philanthropist who would come in and say, Hey, I get the vision. I want to be part of this, and make this a reality. Their nonprofit Act of Dog Museum of Compassion project began in Santa Fe about five years ago after Barone and Dervan had moved here from St. Louis. Barones dog of 22 years had died and Dervan researched dog adoption, and started finding out what was happening in the shelter system. Her rough estimate of the number of shelter dogs killed in a day in the United States came to 5,500, the inspiration for the number of paintings Barone has made. The original plan was to sell the paintings all on 12-inch-by-12-inch panels, except for 11 wall-sized works representing special cases or issues to raise $20 million for dog rescue. But they later shifted their goal to a museum that could provide ongoing revenue for animal rescue operations and a place for education efforts. Dervan says that, back in 2011, they got no help with the idea from Santa Fe or Albuquerque. Dervan said she approached Santa Fe city officials, although Debra Garcia y Griego, director of the city Arts Commission, said this week she knew of no contact concerning the Act of Dog idea. I dont think anyone thought we would really do it, said Barone. He started painting the dogs in the small kitchen of a Canyon Road house where Dervan was homesitting. From this little kitchen, I only had 60 done, he said. Dervan said they made contact with 30 other cities and got positive feedback before the couple decamped to Louisville, where they were given studio space in the private Mellwood Arts Center and low-cost housing. The guy in Louisville stepped up and we had to go, said Barone. He said he worked 1,400 days straight on the paintings. We took a half day off for Thanksgiving and half day for Christmas, he said. I estimated it would take two years, and its taken me four, Barone said. The resulting paintings, he said, taken together are bigger than the Vaticans Sistine Chapel. You know, it took Michelangelo four years, and it took me four years but he had help. The paintings were from photos of dogs that couldnt be saved, provided by rescue groups through Facebook, Dervan said. It was just non-stop on Facebook after she built an audience there, she said. The project has attracted news media attention from People magazine, the Huffington Post and CNNs Headline News, and Barone said magazines in Greece and Italy have also taken note. Barone said he never wanted to just be a machine cranking out paintings. Well into the project, preparing panels for painting got to be like (the movie) Groundhog Day after a while, he said. But he says he ended up connecting with all the dogs. Once I started an individual painting, I got into each one of them, he said. About 1,000 of the paintings were damaged and will have to be redone because of a roof collapse caused by a snowstorm at the Louisville location, Barone said. He showed tall, paper-wrapped stacks of bundles in the back of the studio that he said include both the good and damaged dog paintings. Barone has left five of the small paintings undone so that they can be completed in front of cameras for a public television documentary the couple says in the works. There was some interest in a museum in Louisville, and the couple also checked out Jacksonville, Fla., but their dream was to come back to Santa Fe for the project, they said. Art and animal lovers here New Mexico we know theyre animal lovers, we know theyre art lovers, so hopefully someone with the means to help us really brings this vision to life, because its really going to help the community, Dervan said. But she said theyll go somewhere else if a supporter comes through. Were just attached to the outcome of savings lives and getting this done, she said. Barone has experience in using art as a community and economic development tool as part of a successful project in Paducah, Ky., that used incentives in the early 2000s to attract artists from around the country to what had been the rundown Lowertown neighborhood. That project won urban planning awards, and positive press from the likes of ABC News, NPR and major newspapers. Barone and Dervan say their museum would bring in tourists and provide educational programs in purpose-driven art for school children. They have a website that now offers T-shirts and prints that they say should start generating enough revenue to provide donations for rescue groups by the end of this year. Dervan said Barones dog art was inspired by the Holocaust Museum and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C. begging the question of why theyve chosen to focus on animals instead of people. There are already so many charities working with children around the world and adults around the world in need, and the huge difference is human beings are not being killed on a daily basis, said Dervan. Their lives are not being taken away for no good reason and animals do not have a voice. We support all those other groups, said Barone. But he and Dervan followed their affinity and passion to try to help save dogs, he said. He noted that dogs are being used to help people with PTSD and in other therapies for humans. Dervan added: Were trying to develop something that gets to the core of the issue. Whatever is going on in the world, whether were killing animals, killing children, starvation, whatever it is, it comes back to the core thing, which is compassion. Youve got to cultivate compassion. Barone said: We see it as a very integrated thing. Dervan and Barone have not established a relationship with the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, a respected community institution which a spokesman said euthanizes only animals proven to be dangerous or who are in pain despite measures, including surgery, that try to save them. No animals are killed for lack of space. As many as 97 percent of animals that end up at the shelter annually have been saved, the spokesman said. Dervan said the shelter is doing an amazing job these days, and that she and Barone want to build an inclusive platform. She said saving dogs depends on rescue groups and animal fostering programs that free up shelter and rescue space for more dogs. The real crazy Act of Dog, Inc., has filed public financial statements required of nonprofits. In 2011, it reported $11,409 in contributions; the total was $39,000 in 2012, most of it reported as being from Barone himself. For 2013 and 2014, Act of Dog filed simpler forms saying its gross receipts are normally less than $50,000. One of the forms reports $12.4 million in assets a rough estimate of the value of Barones paintings, the couple said. I wish it was cash, said Barone. Barone said the project has so far been funded mainly through his retirement savings. When a reporter opined that creating 5,500 paintings was kind of crazy, Dervan responded, We think the real crazy is that 5,500 dogs are killed every day. Thats the real crazy, right? LAS CRUCES The retrial of a former Santa Fe County sheriffs deputy accused of killing a fellow deputy in 2014 has been scheduled for Nov. 28. Last week, jurors told a Las Cruces judge that they couldnt reach a decision in the Tai Chan case after nearly 14 hours of deliberations. Chan had been charged with first-degree murder in fellow deputy Jeremy Martins death. The judge scheduled the November trial on Tuesday, but Chans defense attorney John Day said prosecutors have indicated they are working to push the trail to early next year, The Las Cruces Sun-News reported. Day said he would not be opposed to moving the trial to after the holiday season and that it makes sense to not have witnesses traveling during the holidays. Prosecutors with the District Attorneys Office did not confirm that they are seeking to delay the trial, instead saying in a statement that both the defense and the prosecution have agreed to address their concerns about starting the 10-day trial the Monday after Thanksgiving. Chan and Martin had dropped off prisoners in Arizona and were staying the night at a Las Cruces hotel in October 2014 when shots were fired, killing Martin. Prosecutors said Chan deliberately shot multiple times at Martin as Martin tried to escape down a hotel hallway. Chans lawyers argued that Martin had been the aggressor in the argument leading up to the shooting and Chan opened fire in self-defense. Day said regardless of any decision to delay the trial, he will be ready for Nov. 28. We believe we still have a strong case for self-defense, he said, the facts of the case remain the same. The facts dont change. The District Attorneys Office declined Wednesday to comment on how prosecutors would present their case. Of all the ways to assess two presidential candidates, proclaiming which one youd most like to have a beer with is among the most superficial. But replies to the question do reveal something about how we view a candidates relatability, or even likability, and those are important if intangible qualities. Rasmussen Reports, a conservative-leaning national polling firm, recently asked 1,000 voters whom they would rather drink a beer with: Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton. The national telephone and online poll found that voters, especially men, would rather have a beer with Trump. Forty-five percent of likely U.S. voters would prefer to have a beer with Trump. Thirty-seven percent would rather sip suds with Clinton. Eighteen percent were undecided. But when Rasmussen Reports asked the same voters whom they would rather invite home to dinner, Clinton nearly pulled even. Forty-two percent of respondents said theyd prefer to invite Trump home to dinner and 41 percent chose Clinton. Seventeen percent were not sure, according to Rasmussen. For what its worth, Trump has said he doesnt drink alcohol, so the chance of drinking a real beer with him would seem especially slim. POOR TASTE? A pair of email solicitations from Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., to her supporters this month asked them to sign a petition demanding that the Republican-controlled Congress renew the assault weapons ban that expired in 2014. But the letters also contained information about how to donate to Lujan Grishams re-election campaign, a fundraising tactic that some in the past have decried as unseemly. One letter, which referenced the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which left more than 20 dead in 2012, contained an electronic contribute button at the bottom that when clicked led to a donation page, in addition to a separate button that asked for names and email addresses that would be added to a petition. The congresswomans email referencing the Orlando shootings this week contained an electronic button to sign the petition, with contribution information but no button below it. A spokesman for Lujan Grisham said inclusion of the contribute button the Sandy Hook email was a mistake. The campaign should have removed the donate button because the e-mail clearly was not intended as a solicitation, said Gilbert Gallegos. If you read the substance of the message, it was a substantive and appropriate call to action in support of efforts to reduce gun violence in American communities. A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is in charge of recruiting and promoting Republican candidates, declined to comment on Lujan Grishams emails. Republicans have been criticized in the past for fundraising appeals that referenced the Benghazi disaster that led to the deaths of four Americans in a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya in 2012. JOHNSON ON CNN: Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnsons presidential campaign is going prime time. CNN announced this week that Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, will participate in a town hall meeting on the national network at 9 p.m. Wednesday. The format, aired live and hosted by Chris Cuomo, will allow voters to ask questions of Johnson and Weld, a former Massachusetts governor. Johnson, who is mounting his second bid for president, has long complained about a lack of media coverage for his campaigns. He contends that more extensive coverage would give him a better chance to reach a 15 percent polling threshold required for inclusion in the presidential debates. Michael Coleman: mcoleman@abqjournal.com A former top western New Mexico county official fired after her third drunken driving arrest just two days into a new job was wrongfully terminated because the countys drug and alcohol policy conflicts with state law, according to a new federal lawsuit. In court papers filed last week in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, an attorney for former interim Cibola County manager Rheganne Vaughn said the 2014 drunken driving arrest happened outside of work and did not impair her ability to complete her job duties. Vaughn was arrested in Grants after a State Police officer spotted her car swerving in and out of a driving lane, police records said. Authorities said she failed a sobriety test and was charged with aggravated drunken driving. Vaughn, then 46, had just been named interim county manager after serving as the countys chief operations officer for a year. Two weeks after the arrest, Cibola County commissioners unanimously voted to fire Vaughn for violating the countys drug and alcohol policy. But the lawsuit said that county policy for employees conflicted with state law since its arbitrary and capricious for a New Mexico public employer to terminate one public employee for a DWI arrest that is unrelated to the employees work duties. Cibola County manager Tony Boyd said he couldnt comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages from Cibola County for breach of contract and violating Vaughns due process. Court records showed that Vaughn was later convicted of aggravated drunken driving, stemming from her 2014 arrest. Records also showed that Vaughn pleaded no contest for driving under the influence in 2011 following an arrest in Deming. The Deming Headlight reported that Vaughn was overseeing the Luna Countys DWI Prevention Program at the time of her arrest. A 2006 drunken driving charge against Vaughn was dismissed. AUSTIN, Texas Texas cant keep out Syrian refugees, a federal judge has ruled, dismissing concerns state Republican leaders sounded over hidden extremists following the Paris attacks and revived this week by Donald Trump following the nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida. Texas was the first state to sue the Obama administration over resettlements, though nearly 30 states vowed to ban Syrian refugees after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris killed 130 people. But U.S. District Judge David Godbey threw out the lawsuit in an order signed Wednesday, ruling that Texas had no authority over resettlements that are handled by the federal government. Similar challenges by other states have also sputtered: Indianas attempts to bar state agencies from helping Syrian refugees have been blocked by a federal judge, and the Obama administration is seeking dismissal of an Alabama lawsuit that is nearly identical to the one filed in Texas. This ruling is a strong rebuke of unconstitutional efforts to block refugee resettlement. It sends the clear message to other states that such attempts are not only un-American, they are contrary to the law and will fail in court, said Cecilia Wang of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented a nonprofit resettlement organization in the Texas case. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the state is now considering its options. I am disappointed with the courts determination that Texas cannot hold the federal government accountable to consult with us before resettling refugees here, Paxton said. The Obama administration says refugee vetting is rigorous and can take up to two years. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate who has renewed his call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigrants following the Orlando shooting, supporters at Wednesday in Atlanta that the United States is taking in thousands of refugees when they dont think like us and we dont know who the hell they are. CIA Director John Brennan told a Senate intelligence committee Thursday that the agency has found no connection between the Orlando gunman, who was an American-raised Muslim and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on Facebook and during a 911 call, and any foreign terrorist organization. Godbey, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, had previously knocked Texas for offering largely speculative hearsay about extremists possibly infiltrating Syrian refugees. In Indiana, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt has said Gov. Mike Pences order denying state help to Syrian refugees clearly discriminates against refugees from the war-torn country. ___ Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber Copyright 2016 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Former University of New Mexico top lobbyist Marc Saavedra, who left one UNM position and backed out of another amid controversy over DWI issues, has been hired as executive director of the New Mexico Council of University Presidents. The son of a former longtime state legislator, Saavedra beat out two other finalists to land the $115,000-a-year job for the organization, which counts six of the states seven universities as members. The University of New Mexico withdrew from the organization earlier this year. Saavedras start date for the job is July 1. Saavedra resigned from his high-profile job as UNMs government affairs director in 2014 after being arrested and charged with his third DWI, and he pulled the plug on a $50,000 consulting contract with UNM Health Sciences Center last summer after it drew criticism from some community members and scrutiny from the UNM Board of Regents. At the time, he was still on probation for his most recent DWI case. Court records show he wrapped up probation last fall, having met all obligations. In an interview Thursday, Saavedra said he was approached regarding the vacant executive director position and believes it will be a good fit. Im really moving forward with my life and not looking back, Saavedra told the Journal. I feel like Im in a great place. Joseph Shepard, president of Western New Mexico University and vice chairman of the Council of University Presidents, said Thursday that the council was aware of Saavedras drunken driving record when it decided to hire him as executive director. New Mexico State University President Garrey Carruthers, chairman of the Council of University Presidents, was traveling out of state and could not be reached for comment Thursday. Shepard said the organization recognizes Saavedras personal background has not been exemplary, but his professional background has been. We looked at that, and we felt everyone deserves another chance, he added. We think (Saavedra) is solid. Out of all the candidates, he had by far the most policy and technical experience. He also said that Saavedras one-year contract will be evaluated next year and that any additional run-ins with the law on Saavedras part will not be tolerated. If he slips back into the behaviors of the past, well get rid of him, Shepard said. The two other finalists were Paul Aguilar, a deputy Cabinet secretary in the Public Education Department, and Vicente Vargas, state director in New Mexico State Universitys Office of Government Relations. As executive director of the Council of University Presidents, Saavedra will be in charge of working with state agencies, testifying on legislation at the Roundhouse and advising university presidents on funding-related issues, according to a formal job description. He was hired to fill a vacancy created when longtime council Executive Director David Lepre retired recently. Saavedras salary will actually be less than his predecessors Lepre had been making $179,000 per year and will likely come from a mix of public funds and university endowment dollars, Shepard said. Saavedra is the son of former Rep. Henry Kiki Saavedra, an Albuquerque Democrat who served in the Legislature from 1977 through 2014 and served as chairman of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. During Marc Saavedras tenure as director of UNMs office of Community and Government Affairs, he signed a Last Chance Agreement with the university after his second DWI arrest in 2006. He then resigned after being arrested on another DWI charge in July 2014. Saavedra also faced a criminal summons for a separate 2014 incident, after he reportedly failed to pay about $28 for a taxi ride and fled the scene. Charges were later dismissed in that case. Previously, Saavedra had worked as a court administrator for Bernalillo County Metro Court and as a budget analyst for the Albuquerque-based 2nd Judicial District. UNM and the council Meanwhile, the decision to hire Saavedra as the Council of University Presidents director comes after UNMs withdrawal from the group this spring. UNM spokeswoman Dianne Anderson said that the university will continue to collaborate with the council and New Mexicos other universities, but that the decision to withdraw was prompted by an ongoing budget crunch. Each university pays a fee to be a member. While we have had a productive and collegial experience over the years as part of this organization, UNM is currently trying to cut costs in every possible manner and is scrutinizing all expenses and external funding commitments, Anderson said in an email Thursday. Despite his past ties with UNM, Saavedra said he doesnt believe the universitys decision to back out from the Council of University Presidents will make for an awkward situation. I hope to work with UNM, and I hope they will work with the (other) university presidents, he said. Saavedra cited state budget belt-tightening and the solvency of the legislative lottery scholarship program set to lose a temporary funding infusion next year as likely priorities in his new position. FARMINGTON Business owners, technology workers, school district personnel and others learned about cyber security and safety as part of the inaugural CyberCon FourCorners today at San Juan College. College President Toni Pendergrass said the event was being held because technology remains a part of everyday living, and access to electronic devices continues to increase, resulting in data breaches and data security issues. According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the number of electronic devices connected to the Internet will triple by 2020, she said. Its our goal over the two days to bring awareness about cyber security and to provide all of you with tools, that youll be able to protect yourself both personally and professionally, Pendergrass said. The increase in technology and Internet use has led to more employment opportunities, including those based in the cyber security field. In response, the college is working to expand the number of students earning credentials in information technology and security programs, she said. Bill Hall, the FBI agent in charge of the Farmington field office, provided an overview of the bureaus efforts to combat cyber threats as part of his keynote address. With Internet use being the norm, the FBI continues to combat cyber threats that exist nationally and globally, but threats and intrusions are becoming more sophisticated, he said. The intrusions are becoming as complex as the equipment we work off of and we work with, Hall said. Companies can be threatened by adversaries or insiders distributing information, colleges are targeted for their research work, individuals are singled out for identity theft and children are fixed on by predators, he added. Among the threats faced by businesses are ransom ware and distortion ware, both of which involve the use of malware to lock a computers hard drive. The perpetrator then demands a ransom in order to grant access, Hall said. To date, terrorists have not used the Internet to launch a full-scale cyber attack, but we cannot underestimate the intent, he said. One way the bureau is addressing the issue is by using the investigatory authority of its cyber crime division and examining cyber threats by partnering with other federal agencies. Each of the 56 field divisions in the FBI has a cyber division that specializes in cyber crime, Hall said. Agents also undergo annual training regarding cyber threats and attacks, he added. The FBI also accepts complaints about Internet crimes at its website, ic3.gov. Hall reiterated the need for students to study computer technology, computer forensics and surveillance technology, then seek employment that addresses cyber crimes. Shawn Shay, director of technology for the Aztec Municipal School District, was attending the conference to learn about emerging threats and to collaborate with peers. This is the first time weve had anything security related in this area, and I wanted to see what its about and see if it addresses any of our needs in the district, Shay said. He said it is important to learn about threats because the district has student data, and an attack to steal information could occur. We want to make sure were protecting them the best we can, Shay said. The conference continues from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Quality Center for Business at San Juan College, 5101 College Blvd. Noel Lyn Smith covers the Navajo Nation for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4636. 2016 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at www.daily-times.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. _____ DUBAI, United Arab Emirates In the wake of the Orlando killings this week, Hillary Clinton had harsh words for Americas Gulf allies, criticizing them for funding institutions that radicalize young Muslims. It is long past time for the Saudis, the Qataris and the Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organizations, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee told an Ohio crowd. And they should stop supporting radical schools and mosques around the world that have set too many young people on a path toward extremism. These were not the kind of incendiary political comments common for her Republican rival Donald Trump no proposed bans, no generalizations, no stereotypes. But they did provide a window into how a President Clinton might approach the combustible, complex Middle East: polite but harsh truth-telling, with specifics, delivered as if among friends. Tellingly, the comments were received without protest from most regional leaders who consider the messenger as much as the message. However, Saudi Arabias Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in Washington on Friday that his government has tight control over charitable giving and has designated entities and individuals suspected of terror finance. He also said that its unfair to point a finger at Saudi Arabia if a mosque that it funded years ago begins advocating intolerance and violence. From her time as first lady to her globe-hopping travel as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, Clinton has formed first-name relationships in the region. That helps in a region largely dominated by the decades-long reigns. Such continuity can offer comfort and even open minds to criticism. Shes very personal, unlike Obama, said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor of political science at United Arab Emirates University. They value the strategic relationship, but they value more the personal approach. Yet in all of it, shes learned the limits of American power in a region rich in history but impoverished by multiple wars and conflicts. Heres a look at some issues that will arise in the Middle East for Clinton if she wins in November: ___ FIRST LADY AS DIPLOMAT Even as first lady, Clinton traveled to more than 80 countries with her husband and on her own, helping promote U.S. policy and causes such as supporting the rights of women and children. In March 1999, Clinton stretched a 15-minute meeting with Egypts then-President Hosni Mubarak into an hour, pushing an autocratic but important U.S. ally on her concerns about the rights of the countrys minority Coptic Christians. She toured Israel and the Palestinian territories as first lady several times, once causing a stir by suggesting in 1998 well before it was U.S. policy that a genuinely independent Palestinian state would be in the long-term interests of the Middle East. In 1999 she unnerved Israelis when, after embracing Yasser Arafats wife Suha, she listened without protest as her Palestinian counterpart alleged that Israel used poison gas against Palestinians. Her subsequent efforts to criticize the allegations unsubstantiated and hotly denied didnt cool an angry Israeli reaction and blistering headlines in New York tabloids ahead of her U.S. Senate run. As president, she would come under growing pressure to step into the Israeli-Palestinian morass, though each presidency following her own husband has seen diminishing returns in pushing peace talks. ___ HAWKISHNESS ON 9/11 AND IRAQ The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks took place during Clintons first year as a U.S. senator. She arrived to the scene of the World Trade Center the next day wearing a mask as dust still hung in the air over lower Manhattan. She called the attack an act of war an early signal of her hawkishness on defense. She then voted in 2002 to grant President George W. Bush the broad authority to invade Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein, calling it the hardest decision Ive ever had to make. That vote came up repeatedly in her failed 2008 campaign against Obama, who campaigned on and later pulled all American troops out of Iraq and has been raised by her opponents again in the campaign over the past months. Many in the Middle East do not regret Saddams ouster and regional allies allowed U.S. bases in their country to support the war. But many also now fear the Islamic State group, which rose in the chaos of Syrias civil war and Iraqs security vacuum. Clinton also this week used the term radical Islamism in discussing the Orlando shooting, a phrase generally avoided by Obama and used often by Republicans, who criticize those who dont. However, Clinton stressed the need to reach out to all Muslims to defeat this threat, which is so evil and has got to be denounced by everyone, regardless of religion. ___ ARAB SPRING EMBERS Clinton travelled nearly a million miles to 112 countries as secretary of state. While part of an Obama administration effort to pivot U.S. diplomatic attention to Asia, Clinton found herself entangled in the Mideast on her first weeks in the job with the Gaza War that ended in 2009. The traditional order of U.S. allies and enemies in the region quickly found itself upended by the Arab Spring. In her autobiography Hard Choices, Clinton recounts walking through Cairos Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of Egypts Arab Spring uprising. Her realpolitik conclusions after that put her at odds with a more idealistic Obama White House. I came away worried that they would end up handing the country to the Muslim Brotherhood or the military by default, which in the end is exactly what happened, she wrote. Soon the United States, having abandoned Mubarak, found itself blamed by many Egyptians for the rise of the Brotherhood, whose year in power ended in another military takeover. As president, she would have to decide whether to embrace Egypts President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi an authoritarian battling a deadly Islamic State insurgency. ___ INTERVENTIONISM AND THE LIMITS OF POWER Clinton has grown into an interventionist, backing the raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and finding herself arguing in vain for the U.S. to arm moderate rebels in Syrias civil war, a conflict that still rages today. In Libya, she supported removing dictator Moammar Gadhafi but the results are mixed at best. The country is still an active war zone where rival governments and militias battle. A U.S. ambassador and others were killed on Clintons watch, sparking a series of Congressional investigations. Even on the tiny island of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navys 5th Fleet, Clinton was unable to stop Saudi and Emirati forces from crushing a protest by the nations Shiite majority. As president, she will have to balance Americas relations with its Sunni allies the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations with its emerging rapprochement with Shiite power Iran. The Gulfs distrust of last years nuclear deal with Iran will loom large in any Clinton presidency, testing her ability to balance priorities, leverage relationships and manage crises in one of the most explosive corners of the world. She already knows the challenge as she once wrote: Trying to drive change in the Middle East could feel like banging your head against a brick wall. ___ Gambrell, an Associated Press reporter since 2006, has covered the Middle East from Cairo and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, since 2013. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap and find his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/jon-gambrell . Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report from Washington. An AP Analysis A tanker drops retardant on the Dog Head Fire in the Manzano Mountains on Thursday. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal) Fire retardant dropped by air tankers marks the trees near homes as the Dog Head Fire burns on Thursday near Chilili. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal) Gov. Susana Martinez surveys the Dog Head Fire in the Manzano Mountains from a Black Hawk helicopter Thursday evening. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal) Gov. Susana Martinez updates reporters on the Dog Head Fire, which grew to more than 12,000 acres Thursday. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal) Velma and Orlando Gurule of Chilili, right, sit with their extended family in the gym of the El Vicino Community Center in Tijeras on Thursday. All of them were evacuated from their homes Wednesday to escape the Dog Head Fire. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal) East Mountains residents leave their homes as the Dog Head Fire burns Thursday. (Greg Sorber/Albuquerque Journal) Gov. Susana Martinez watches the Dog Head Fire from a Black Hawk helicopter Thursday. (Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal) The Dog Head Fire spread to 2,000 acres Wednesday night as crews fought to keep it away from towns and structures. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for Chilili and Escabosa. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) A resident along Para Road drives away from the Dog Head Fire in the Manzano Mountains on Wednesday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Janice Farrington waits for her husband to finish gathering their belongings as the couple evacuates Chilili as the Dog Head Fire approaches. The fire has charred an estimated 2,000 acres in the Manzano Mountains. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Residents of Chilili watch the Dog Head Fire near N.M. 337 on Wednesday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Joe Gutierrez of Chilili watches the Dog Head Fire from his car, parked off of N.M. 337 on Wednesday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) The Dog Head Fire burns as seen from the town of Tajique, near the Manzano Mountains on Wednesday. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) Ryan Steffens, a Tajique artist, uses binoculars to get a better view of a forest fire near Fourth of July Campground in the Manzano Mountains on Tuesday. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) A fire burning in the Manzano Mountains is seen from the Albuquerque International Sunport on Tuesday afternoon. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal) A tanker drops fire retardant on a forest fire near the Fourth of July Campground in the Manzano Mountains on Tuesday. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal) The ruins of a structure destroyed by the Doghead Fire smolder in the Monzano Mountains. (Dean Hanson/Albuquerque Journal) Prev 1 of 17 Next TIJERAS Several hundred people whose homes, animals and ways of life are threatened by the Dog Head Fire heard Gov. Susana Martinez promise during a public meeting here Friday to commit more resources to help them through their ordeal. Martinez told anxious Manzano Mountain area residents, jammed into the Roosevelt Middle School gym, that she has ordered more New Mexico National Guardsmen to provide security for neighborhoods that have been or may be evacuated, and that she would look into the possibility of making the fairgrounds at Expo New Mexico available to accept animals being removed from the path of the 26-square-mile fire. By late Friday, the fire that started Tuesday six miles northwest of Tajique in Torrance County had burned 17,000 acres, destroyed two dozen homes and more than 20 other structures, and forced scores of people to leave their homes. Authorities early Friday afternoon announced that Bernalillo County sheriffs deputies had removed residents from an area extending from the junction of N.M. 217 and 337 south to the county line. Much of the concern expressed at Fridays meeting centered over confusion about which areas were under mandatory evacuation orders and which were voluntary. Bernalillo County Commissioner Wayne Johnson offered some advice on that issue. I would not recommend staying anywhere near that 217/337 intersection, Johnson told the crowd. Lighter winds early Friday did help crews hold fire lines and limit the growth of the blaze to about an additional 1,000 acres. Rich Nieto, incident commander, said crews had been focusing on the northwest corner of the fire. The 337 road is what weve been trying to hold, and weve been doing a pretty good job so far, Nieto said. But that doesnt mean the fire is giving in. It remains uncontained and Fire Information Officer Denise Ottaviano said the fire, which shifted east Friday, is still extremely active. Officials are concerned that strong winds expected from the south on Sunday will push the fire north. Close to 700 firefighters are now battling the fire, assisted by air tankers and helicopters that on Friday dropped retardant and water on the fires eastern edge, the side of the fire closest to the small community of Chilili, near where the homes and other buildings destroyed by the fire are located. Sen. Ted Barela, R-Estancia, whose district is in the fire area, was at Fridays meeting in Tijeras. Earlier in the day, Barela said previous fires have burned in the dense forests in his district, but the Dog Head Fire is the first he can remember coming close to established communities. Barela surveyed fire damage earlier this week with a State Police escort. The fire has definitely been no respecter of anything, he said. This fire is impacting many people, both directly and indirectly. People are hopeful and theyre working hard at taking care of their property. U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., visited the incident command center and area communities affected by the fire on Friday, stops that included thanking firefighters from Hotshot crews and listening to the heartbreaking stories from some of the families evacuated from their homes. She also expressed her appreciation for the hard work of fire managers and the volunteers helping families at shelters. Please keep all of these people, including the dozens of evacuees, in your thoughts and prayers, Lujan Grisham said on social media. Journal staff writers Dan Boyd and Ollie Reed Jr. contributed to this report. DENVER A wildfire on Fort Carson has burned at least 900 acres and is about 60 percent contained. The Fort Carson fire is contributing to smoke and haze across parts of Colorado, along with smoke from large fires in New Mexico and Arizona. According to KRDO-TV (http://tinyurl.com/znhhvqv ), the fire on Fort Carson is burning in the middle of a training range. Officials say it was likely caused by lightning. No injuries have been reported and there is currently no threat to buildings. ___ Information from: KRDO-TV, http://www.krdo.com/ PALO ALTO, Calif. After a jury convicted a California man of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in a fatal drunken driving crash, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to six months in jail and ordered him to undergo random alcohol testing. The judge sentenced Frank Guerrero to three years in prison for robbing another man. In both cases, Persky followed the sentencing recommendation of the Santa Clara County Probation Department. An Associated Press review of his rulings shows that Persky has adhered to the same practice in every trial where the probation office made a recommendation since he began presiding over a Palo Alto criminal court in 2015. That includes the sexual assault conviction of former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner, who got six months in jail and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life. Prosecutors had sought a six-year sentence. The light sentence given to Turner, and Perskys reasoning for it, touched off intense debate over whether he handled the case properly and drew widespread calls for the judges removal. On Tuesday, the local district attorney blocked Persky from hearing a new sexual assault case and said he is considering blocking all sexual assault cases that get assigned to Perskys court. Santa Clara County DA Jeff Rosen said he lacked confidence that the judge could fairly participate in the new case. But Rosen said he does not support removing Persky from the bench. The judges supporters describe him as a smart jurist who listens to all parties, including the probation department, and who is open to sparing first-time offenders lengthy prison sentences when hes convinced counseling and court monitoring can help them get back on track. Persky has many progressive ideas, said Gary Goodman, who is in charge of the Palo Alto public defenders office and has more than a dozen cases pending before Persky. But critics say Perskys handling of the Stanford case makes him unfit for the bench. They insist he has the authority to ignore the probation departments recommendation and that the sentence he gave to Turner marginalizes campus sexual assault and may deter future victims from reporting attacks. It is ignorance, said Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, who is a friend of Turners victim. The AP reviewed court records for 20 criminal cases in which Persky has issued sentences, including all seven trials he presided over, since January 2015. The probation department issued sentencing recommendations after five jury verdicts of guilty. One defendant was convicted of misdemeanor drunken driving, and the probation department did not make a recommendation. A seventh trial ended in acquittal. Cheryl Stevens, a lawyer in the Santa Clara county counsels office, said the probation department is responsible for providing the court with a neutral recommendation for sentencing of a defendant. Echoing findings in Turners probation report, Persky said on June 3 that Turners youth, character references, lack of a criminal record and, to a lesser extent, the role alcohol played in the assault pointed toward a short jail sentence rather than a longer prison term. Turner also has to register as a sex offender for life. The sentence, coupled with Turners fathers plea for leniency because his son had already paid a steep price for 20 minutes of action, thrust the case into the national debate over campus sexual assault. Until getting assigned the Turner case, Persky and his Palo Alto court attracted little outside attention. Compared to the chaotic Hall of Justice 20 miles south in San Jose, the Palo Alto courts quietly handle a steady stream of suburban Silicon Valley crimes that rarely make headlines. But the Turner case changed that. Even before Turner was sentenced, the case drew more attention than any other Persky has handled since arriving in Palo Alto. Because of the poor state of Santa Clara Countys technology, accessing Perskys cases is virtually impossible for the public. The Palo Alto court clerks office isnt equipped with a computer for public use, and it maintains only Perskys current, daily calendar. The year before the governor appointed him, Persky lost an election to a fellow prosecutor in the Santa Clara district attorneys office for an open slot on the bench. As a prosecutor, Persky worked to keep sexually violent predators confined to mental hospitals after they served their prison terms, among other duties. On the bench, Persky has served in family court and civil court and had a good reputation as a fair-minded and smart judge. He earned two Stanford degrees, including a masters in international relations, and captained the schools lacrosse team as an undergraduate. He graduated from the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. In the Stanford case, the judge was blasted for going too easy on a well-heeled, white defendant. But a review of Perskys other rulings gives no indication of racial bias in the cases where a defendants race is listed in court papers. Persky sentenced a Tongan man to four months in jail for stealing $10,000 from an elderly couple fading into dementia he was hired to care for. The man was also ordered to get counseling for compulsive gambling. Michael Lee Simpson, 32 and white, faced life in prison for raping a stranger when he pleaded guilty in exchange for a nearly 31-year sentence. Persky told Simpsons public defender he would not approve a sentence any lower. He also sentenced Kristoffer Bowen, 44 and white, to seven years in prison for pistol whipping a friend he met on his previous stint in prison. Then theres the case of Rachel Garcia, a Latina charged with misdemeanor theft who insisted on a trial. During jury selection last week, several potential jurors told Persky they couldnt serve in his courtroom because of the Turner sentence. Persky dismissed the critics, seated 14 jurors and alternates and started the trial on June 10. It was the first trial he has presided over since Turners, and it ended abruptly Monday when Persky tossed out the case before giving it to the jury, ruling that the prosecutor had not proved Garcia guilty. Its the kind of move supporters would characterize as a sign of Perskys strength rather than letting a weak case go to a jury he intervened. The district attorney described it as puzzling. Copyright 2016 Albuquerque Journal Santiago Romero-Amayas car was acting up Wednesday evening. So after fiddling with it for awhile, he grabbed the keys to his daughters brand new Jeep Patriot and headed to AutoZone near Coors and Rio Bravo. He told me he was going to be right back, his daughter Karina Romero said Friday. The 64-year-old, who worked making mouldings for the past 24 years, didnt even make it into the store. Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office deputies say a self-proclaimed Westside Bloods gang member demanded the Jeep and then shot and killed Romero-Amaya in the AutoZone parking lot, taking off with the car. Deputies believe the suspect, later identified as 21-year-old Ronald Delfino, then held up a Northwest Albuquerque McDonalds, robbing it at gunpoint. He only spent a couple hours on the run before Albuquerque Police Department officers saw him near West Central. They and sheriffs deputies started chasing him near Central and Unser. Sheriffs deputies say he fired at least one shot at officers, and deputies and officers opened fire on him. At some point, the Jeep caught on fire, and Delfino was pronounced dead at the scene. Delfino only has one adult conviction for misdemeanor DWI, but his run-ins with police date back to 2009, according to police records. In October 2009, when Delfino was 15, he and off-duty APD officer Earl Nagy got into a road rage fight that ended with shots fired by both parties, according to Journal archives. Both Nagys wife and Delfino were struck with bullets but were not seriously wounded. Delfino faced numerous charges, but the outcome of that case was not immediately available Friday. In 2013, Delfino was caught with a friend in a stolen truck and charged for it, but the case was later dismissed. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor DWI in September 2014, and he had a warrant out for his arrest for another misdemeanor DWI in 2014, according to court records. BCSO spokeswoman Felicia Romero on Friday sent out a lengthy summary of Delfinos arrests, but not convictions, which included multiple photos, apparently taken off of Delfinos Facebook page, that show him throwing gang signs. In that document, Felicia Romero said he went by the moniker Lil Never Skared. Deputies have not said how exactly he died, though Sheriff Manuel Gonzales said he would believe Delfino was struck by police and deputies gunfire. An Albuquerque police officer was struck in his bulletproof vest with a bullet, and another APD officer tore his Achilles tendon while trying to throw out a spike belt. Both were released from the hospital early Thursday. Karina Romero, who just graduated from Rio Grande High School, said she would like to thank the officers who were injured for their efforts in stopping Delfino. Romero-Amaya leaves behind his wife, two daughters and two grandchildren. She said her family is still in shock. Were devastated, she said. We only have each other now. HOUSTON Legendary investigator Johnny Bonds, hero of the 1983 book The Cop Who Wouldnt Quit, can rest for another five years. The man he helped put in prison twice, once for a triple murder and then again for money laundering, has again been denied parole, Bonds said week. If theres ever been a guy who deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison, its him, the retired detective told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1RXsrWF ). He was speaking of Walter Waldhauser, one of Houstons most notorious criminals. Hes one of the smartest people Ive ever known. I never saw anybody work so hard to get over on people, Bonds said. Waldhauser confessed in 1981 to his role in one of Houstons most infamous murder cases in exchange for a 30-year prison sentence. Nine years later, Waldhauser was released on parole and changed his name to Michael Lee Davis. He eventually moved to Dallas and started running financial scams. A decade after his release, he was sentenced to 60 years for money laundering on evidence that he stole more than $5 million. Because it was a nonviolent crime, Waldhauser came up for parole just seven years later. That year, Bonds marshaled forces to convince the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny release and put it off for five years. Bonds did it again in 2011. And earlier this year, he began a similar campaign by reaching out to his long list of friends and contacts to write letters protesting release. That effort proved successful last week when the parole board again refused to set Waldhauser free, and postponed the next decision until 2021. Bonds was vacationing in rural Arkansas when he got the news. Ive got another five years that I dont have to worry about the SOB being on the streets, he said with a laugh. My goal is to outlive him. Waldhauser is 63. Bonds, now 68, retired from the Harris County District Attorneys Office in 2008 after 40 years in law enforcement. His legacy became inextricably linked with Waldhausers fate after the detective spent two years unraveling the 1979 murders of John and Diana Wanstrath and their 14-month-old son, Kevin. Bonds was able to show the slayings were intentional killings orchestrated by Diana Wanstraths adopted brother, not a murder-suicide as originally thought. He also showed that the adopted brother, Markham Duff-Smith, had hired triggerman Allen Wayne Janecka to kill the family for inheritance money. Duff-Smith and Janecka both landed on death row and have been executed for their roles. Bonds was also able to prove that Waldhauser was involved in Diana Wanstraths mothers death, which was ruled a suicide five years earlier. Waldhauser, who confessed, acted as the middleman who hired and paid Janecka in both incidents. The saga became the book The Cop Who Wouldnt Quit by Rick Nelson, which cemented Bonds place in Houstons crime lore. ___ Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com Editors note: This is an AP Member Exchange shared by the Houston Chronicle. PHOENIX Supporters of Donald Trump plan to offer protection to fellow backers as dissenters work to keep protests peaceful when the Republican presidential candidate makes a return visit to Phoenix this weekend. The presumptive GOP nominee is expected to speak to roughly 14,500 people in sweltering heat Saturday afternoon at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. During Trumps last Arizona visit to metropolitan Phoenix, activists blocked the only major roads leading to the event site about 3 miles away. Three protesters were arrested. A volunteer group calling itself Lions Guard Arizona is planning to ward off any rowdy protesters by escorting rally attendees to and from their vehicles. We cant tell anybody else what to do and were not there to intimidate them or get them going, said Cindy Perrin, the groups spokeswoman. Some may also be carrying concealed weapons. Perrin said she expects as many as several hundred volunteers. Most are veterans or former police officers. Firearms wont be permitted in the arena for security purposes but there are no rules for the surrounding grounds. Whoever carries normally and wants to carry, theyre going to carry, Perrin said. We are not going to have any open-carry. A former police officer, Perrin, of Fountain Hills, said her group will reach out to law enforcement if there is any trouble. They will only intervene if someone is physically threatened. Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Damon Cecil said the state police agency cannot predict what will happen before, during and after the rally but is prepared. DPS has reached out to groups that may be involved with protests and encouraged them to be peaceful. With most of those groups, Cecil said, we have talked to their leadership and got assurances that their protests are going to be peaceful we do expect that they are going to police themselves. We are prepared for any type of contingency. Peace was the consensus among a coalition of Hispanic advocacy groups announcing a planned Saturday demonstration at a nearby park. The protest, however, is scheduled to end around 1 p.m., when doors to the Trump event open. Representatives from all of them discouraged against acting out with violence. Please understand that the rest of the community also has its right to get its message out in a peaceful non-violent way. Respect the dignity of our cause, said Roberto Reveles, founding president of Somos America. Carmen Cornejo, an advocate for young immigrants granted deferred deportation status by the Obama administration, wants young Hispanics to respond to political rhetoric by peacefully protesting and mobilizing voters. Do not respond to the provocation. Its incendiary, Cornejo said. Its meant to provoke and enrage people into a violent response. Perrin said she started the group after incidents at Trump rallies in Albuquerque, New Mexico and San Jose, California. (The protesters) are exercising their First Amendment and thats fine, Perrin said. But when you start getting into the physical aspect of it throwing eggs, spitting and hurting people its just not going happen. ___ Associated Press writer Paul Davenport contributed to this report. ___ Follow Terry Tang at https://twitter.com/ttangAP ACAs library of educational tools help members improve their business practices. ACA also holds the most popular industry conferences and offers credentialing for collectors, attorneys, and more. ACAs Training Zone subscription gives agencies access to almost all of our education for one low cost. Princeton, N.J.-based Top 100 Firm WithumSmith+Brown has struck a deal to become a NetSuite solution provider. Firm partners Tom Durkee and Lena Combs, who manage Withums vacation ownership division, plan to immediately begin introducing resort clients to San Mateo, Calif.-based NetSuites enterprise resource planning system and cloud-based business management software. Withum aims to use NetSuite expand upon its current accounting and consulting service offerings and meet the rising demand for cloud enterprise resource management and e-commerce solutions among its clients and prospective customers. Withum will provide implementation, customization and support services for NetSuites cloud business management suite to new and existing clients. NetSuite will be a natural fit, delivering significant value for not only our small to mid-sized resort companies and [homeowners associations], but will also greatly benefit major, multi-site clients, Durkee in a statement. We are proud to reinforce our commitment to meeting the changing business needs of our customers by adding this forward-thinking product. Withums business philosophy is to offer clients far more than just traditional tax and accounting services, Combs added in a statement. The NetSuite solution provider program will offer clients 21st century tools with which to streamline and retool their business practices. IndiaMART, India's largest online marketplace that connects buyers with suppliers, announces an exclusive digital campaign #CarryTheLegacy, celebrating the occasion of Fathers Day. The campaign is a reflection of successive generations carrying on their fathers legacy and inheriting the responsibilities of their business from the Head of the Family. Treading that line of thought, the company has collaborated with Bang in the Middle to launch the campaign via a one minute short film that is intended to celebrate and acknowledge every father who works hard to ensure a better future for his children. The short film thoughtfully captures the sincerity and commitment of fathers across India, who built successful businesses on their own terms and proudly hands over the reins of their enterprise to the next generation. The scenes profoundly establish a fathers affection towards his children through those popular Hari, Mehta, or Aziz & sons/daughters signboards. Showcasing the father-child bond, the video depicts how these duos work together to build a greater enterprise which carries their family name. Shot across various brick and mortar marketplaces, the campaign hopes to strike a chord with the audience and make them realize the importance of their father in their lives. Commenting on this campaign, Sumit Bedi, VP Marketing, IndiaMart said, Bearing in mind that almost 90% businesses in India are family owned, one can only imagine the hard work and labor that one goes through in setting up a business and earn reputation to their names in the society. People trust these businesses because of that name on the door and that name is more than just a business brand its a legacy, passed down from one generation to the other. Its what a father hopes for his heir to inherit and then build on. With this as a background, we decided to launch this unique campaign to celebrate these fathers, who have conquered the world through sheer hard work and dedication. Adding his bit, Anirban Sen, Executive Creative Director, BITM said, Whatever a father acquires in his life, it is always for his children. The same goes for whatever he builds and creates. Be it a home or business, the vision is always passing these down to his kids. Since we generally see signboards relaying names such as Mehta and Sons, Aggarwal and Sons, Singh and Sons everywhere, it gave us an idea to create a campaign that would make a nice, moving testimony of a fathers hard work and dedication being passed down through generations. The video release marks the launch of a digital campaign which is scheduled to be launched this Friday, i.e., 17th June 2016 and will run across multiple social network and online platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Additionally, IndiaMART will also unveil interesting contests and activities to amplify this initiative. Josy Paul, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, BBDO India, has his hands full over the next three days as a Jury member for Glass Lions at 2016 Cannes Lions Festival. Not only that, he will also be doing a Masterclass at the Festival. Paul set up BBDO in India from the backseat of his car in 2008 along with his partner Ajai Jhala. The agency pioneered the idea of brand movements with the belief that India needs more Acts Not Ads. Josy is ranked among the most influential people in Indian advertising according to The Economic Times. Paul and his team have won almost every inaugural Lion at Cannes Lions. The Glass Lion Grand Prix for P&G's Whisper Touch The Pickle. The Glass Lion Gold for P&G's Ariel Share The Load. The Black Lion for Creative Effectiveness for Gillette Women Against Lazy Stubble. Josy was one of the main speakers at Cannes Lions in 2012 and 2014. He was also Campaign Magazine's 'Creative Person of the Year' in 2015 for India and South Asia. In March this year, Josy was awarded Creative Agency Head of the Year at the IAA Leadership Awards. As for his Cannes, heres Josy Paul in his own words... What I plan to do For three days Ill be locked in a room doing jury duty for Glass Lions, then another day I am doing a Masterclass, and I am also speaking on stage on what happened at the Glass Lions. For four days I am fully locked blocked, so I am looking at what I can do in the last three days, and with clients there, theres a bit of networking lunch and dinners. So given all that, I am still negotiating my way, but because I am in the Glass Lion jury, I have a registration for the whole week. So, I am definitely going to sit quietly, alone and listen to people. This is really a pilgrimage, and so nobody is a jury anymore as I had said, you cant be a jury, you cant be a guru everything is a learning programme right now for me because things are changing so fast, you can only react with your gut, you can only react with how you feel about the idea based on your idea muscle. All of us have an idea muscle and when you see something, the idea muscle acts up its an intuitive muscle. And for me, thats how I am responding. My body reacts, my heart reacts, so I dont analyse things much when it comes to judging. Confidence in Indias performance I never thought last year would be bad, I always thought last year would be good, but it looked like something different was happening in Cannes. Like that line from the Havells ad hawa badal raha hai and I feel that this year, the hawa is blowing in our direction, because if you look at a lot of the work they seem to be fresh for the jury because they are a lot of cultural nuances and local nuances. These are the things that the jury today seem to like and you would have seen that with the way how we performed last year with something so remote and integral to India like Whisper Touch the Pickle, which you could never tell that any jury would understand, but they understood it and they gave it award after award. Clearly, the mood it about sharing. Cannes and the advertising fraternity I think Cannes is a cultural exchange programme, its a creative exchange programme. It is to re-energise yourself, open your mind, its about forgetting your past. I think its about everyone who says this is how you should do this; they should be able to come back and say I am so happy that I went to Cannes. I always thought this is the only way things are to be done, but now I know I can also do it this way and that sort of progressive, open mindset will help the individual, the brand, the agency and the advertisers. And therefore, I think its a good place to be. Making the difference on the battlefield Living by the motto That others may live Air Force pararescue specialists ensure that they are trained to the highest standards to conduct personnel recovery operations. It is these highly skilled individuals that provide the only dedicated U.S. personnel recovery assets in Afghanistan. Recently Airmen from the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron conducted a joint mass casualty and extrication exercise with U.S. Army Task Force Chosen to increase interoperability with each other and demonstrate theater personnel recovery capabilities. Realistic training and making the combat situations as realistic as possible is going to make the difference on the battlefield, said Lt. Col. Russell Cook, 83rd ERQ commander. Realistic training is key. In the realistic training situation Airmen acted as injured patients. There were Airmen spread across the grounds of the site including those stuck inside damaged vehicles. Airmen from the 83rd ERQS and Soldiers from Task Force Chosen responded to the scene and immediately began the work to identify injuries and extract patients. The teams used a variety of tools including saws and the Jaws of Life in order to safely extract injured patients from the vehicles. The goal is to get the patient out as quickly and safely as possible in order to save their life. The reason we do these exercises is because there is only a certain amount of time before a patient could go south on you, said 1st Lt. Nicholas Adagio, 83rd ERQS Combat Rescue Officer. Trying to get the best extrication techniques possible out there and train to the highest standards is best for our isolated personnel. These realistic scenarios ensure that Air Force pararescue teams are ready at moments notice to execute a variety of personnel recovery operations in the differing terrain environments throughout Afghanistan. We train to this every single day and we are the most capable response force for personnel recovery, said Adagio. Canadian exercise trains new generation of Dobbins C-130 warfighters More than 70 Airmen from the 94th Airlift Wing recently took part in Maple Flag 49, an annual international air exercise, at 4 Wing Cold Lake in Alberta. Each year, allied forces from around the world seek to prepare their service members for tactical global operations. They came together from May 30-June 10 for air-to-air, air-to-surface and close air support operations in a simulated combat environment. Participating for the third time, the wing sought to invest its resources into its future fighting force. Lt. Col. Thomas Moffatt, the 700th Airlift Squadron director of operations and 94th AW Maple Flag mission commander, designed a detailed plan to meet that objective. Our objective is to provide Air Force Reserve Command with combat ready aircrew members, Moffatt said. A unique way we approach Maple Flag is that we put our up and coming pilots in positions of authority. They serve as aircraft commanders. The more experienced aircrew members serve as planners and mentors, providing guidance to the less experienced. This helps us to develop skilled tactical warfighters. From the aircraft commanders, co-pilots, planning cells, and maintenance personnel to aircrew life support, all first-time exercise attendees took advantage of the experience passed on from veteran Maple Flag participants. The unique thing about Maple Flag is that it offers us control of our scenarios, so we can give our aircrews the training they need, said Capt. Jamie Atkinson, a 700th AS C-130 Hercules pilot and aircraft commander. It allowed us to work with different weapon systems, as well as air and ground forces from different countries. From a planner's perspective, the challenge was learning how to integrate these different weapon systems and tactics while being able to put together an effective mission plan, he added. For the aircrews flying the missions, we had to make sure we were meeting our objectives, while flying in an environment that was always changing due to enemy threats, weather or other sources. Since their first Maple Flag exercise in 2013, 94th AW members have taken the opportunity to participate whenever their schedule allows. The timeline for this annual exercise works great for us because it gives us a year on to participate, and a year off to fulfill our deployment obligation, Moffatt said. Its a win for both the 94th AW and AFRC. Although Maple Flag 47 in 2014 was a big operation for AFRC with eight C-130s participating from various wings, there were significant changes this year for Maple Flag 49. According to Royal Canadian Air Force Capt. Vuri Mokievsky-Zubok, the Maple Flag deputy lead planner, exercise 47 was reduced due to real-world commitments. The normal NATO fighter aircraft did not participate, reducing the scenarios to transport aircraft only. This year, Canadian, French, German and Belgium fighter aircraft were present. Tactical aircraft participation included air-to-air refueling aircraft, airborne warning and control systems, long-range patrol aircraft, tactical helicopters and C-130s from the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard. We had a record number of participants this year, Mokievsky-Zubok said. We hope to get even more for Maple Flag 50. Aircrews from the 94th AW flew two rotations per day, one four-ship formation in the morning, teaming up with members of the Kentucky Air National Guard, and a two-ship formation in the afternoon from the Edmonton International Airport in Alberta. Early morning missions were comprised of paratrooper and equipment airdrops, and then it was off to the 4,478-square-mile air weapons range at the Air Force Tactical Training Center in Cold Lake. The range was very challenging, Atkinson said. It gave us the opportunity to fully employ our tactics in a low-level training environment. On our local low-level routes at home station, we have restrictions on how low we can fly due to the populated areas in Atlanta. We were able to fly a true low-level while in the range at Cold Lake. According to the squadron aviation resource manager, aircrews logged 101 flying hours and performed 54 sorties in simulated combat missions. This is by far the best training exercise Ive ever experienced, Atkinson said. A lot (of) real-world training was provided with each mission flown. The ongoing tussle between Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and BJP at the centre was followed with a new scam. Recently, AAP was attacked over the appointment of 21 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries, there after they trained its guns at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for shielding former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit over the alleged 400 crore water tanker scam. A political war of words erupted soon after between the BJP and AAP. Both traded charges of trying to cover up the scam. AAP leader Dilip Pandey accused BJP of being an ally of the Congress Party. Three days after the AAP government announced it had sent the report of a fact-finding committee on water tankers distribution management systems scam to the Lieutenant Governor and the Centre, so the report has been forwarded to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) for investigation. Trouble mounted for the former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit when a report of a fact-finding panel on the alleged 400-crore water tanker scam linking her, was forwarded to anti-graft agency Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) by Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung for further investigation. The report by a committee of the Delhi Jal Board was sent to Jung by the AAP government for probe by either CBI or Delhis ACB following persistent demand by the city BJP leader Vijender Gupta. Jung has also forwarded to ACB a complaint filed with him by Gupta accusing Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of suppressing the committees report into the tanker scam for 11 months. Last week, the AAP Government had made the committees report public after Gupta demanded from Kejriwal in Delhi Assembly to do the same, as he filed three different FIRs against the people involved in this scam including Madam Dikshit. He alleged instead of cancelling tenders issued by the previous government, the AAP government chose to continue with the wrongdoers, thereby perpetuating the crime. AAP hit back alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to protect Sheila Dikshit. As the anti-corruption bureau and CBI come directly under him what stopped him from acting against Sheila Dikshit for so long? The tanker scam relates to allegations that cropped up between 2008 and 2011, the Congress government led by Sheila Dikshit bypassed the rules and caused losses worth crores while awarding tenders for water tankers at much higher rates to undeserving companies. Dikshit was the chief minister of Delhi for three straight terms between from 1998 to 2013. Her meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi sparked speculation that she could be fielded by the party as its chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, where elections will be held next year. Sheila Dikshit said the allegations being levelled against her are politically motivated. She said she is absolutely clean, all due procedures were followed, also dared AAP and BJP government to find out the facts before targeting her. Even today, those tankers are being used. It was for the service of the people of Delhi. Where does the question of scam come into picture? The decisions regarding Jal board were taken collectively, including the CEOs, BJP members, MCD members. Everyone took the decision collectively. And why was the report sent to the ACB, only the Lieutenant Governor and Kejriwal should answer this. The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) will probe the former Delhi chief minister for her alleged role in the water tanker scam. Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party Government had in June last year constituted a fact-finding committee to probe the irregularities in hiring some 385 stainless steel water tankers by the Delhi Jal Board in 2012 during the Congress rule. Many times, AAP and BJP just alleged Congress and its leaders for corruption but none of them ever acted against these charges or dared to file an FIR or gone against any leader. No one knows when and how this war of words will come into practical and action will be taken against culprits, be it Sonia Gandhi, Robert Vadra or Sheila Dikshit, Aam Aadmi party and Narendra Modi randomly attacked them but never took any action against the alleged crime that they mentioned in their public speeches. Now, the time has come where these leaders are hardly taken seriously by people or anyone is buying the corruption allegations against Congress. Maybe this foolishness of present government gives fair chance to Congress in upcoming elections. (Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com) Dozens of state department employees have endorsed an internal document that advocates US military action to pressure Syrias government into accepting a ceasefire and engaging in peace talks a position that is at odds with US policy. The dissent channel cable was signed by 51 mostly mid-level state department officials who deal with US policy in Syria, according to officials who have seen the document. Many of them are career officers in the foreign service who have been involved in Syria policy over the past several years. It expresses clear frustration with Americas inability to halt a civil war that has killed perhaps a half-million people and contributed to a worldwide refugee crisis, and goes to the heart of President Barack Obamas reluctance to enter the fray. Obama called for regime change early on in the conflict and threatened military strikes against Syrian forces after blaming President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons in 2013. But Obama only has authorised strikes against the Islamic State and other US-designated terror groups in Syria. While Washington has provided military assistance to some anti-Assad rebels, it has favored diplomacy over armed intervention as a means of ushering Syrias leader out of power. A series of partial ceasefires in recent months have only made the war slightly less deadly, and offered little hope of a peace settlement. Dissent document calls for targeted air strikes The dissent document was transmitted internally in a confidential form and since has been classified, said officials who werent authorised to discuss such material and insisted on anonymity. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both quoted from the document on Thursday, saying they had seen or obtained copies. The Journal said the document called for targeted air strikes. The Times quoted a section urging a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons to advance the US diplomatic effort led by secretary of state John Kerry. The moral rationale for taking steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of brutal war, is evident and unquestionable, the Times quoted the document as saying. The status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges. State department spokesman John Kirby said the department is reviewing the cable, which arrived via a vehicle in place to allow state department employees to convey alternative views and perspectives on policy issues. The dissent channel mechanism, which allows officials to offer alternative views on foreign policy without fear of retaliation, was established during the Vietnam War in the 1960s so that senior officials of the state department could access alternative policy views. Sources familiar with the memo said officials had been discussing sending it for some time but they finally decided to move forward because negotiations with Russia over a political transition in Syria have all but collapsed and the fragile ceasefire continues to disintegrate, CNN reported. Grade: F June 15, 2016, Portland (OR) Mercury: Step Aside, Lord of the Rings. Vaxxed Is the Fantasy Epic of Our Age By Erik Henriksen For here we come to the crux of Vaxxedthe part that, along with footage of teary-eyed parents and slow-mo close-ups of screaming babies, takes up much of the tale's runtime. Boasting secretly recorded conversations with CDC scientist William Thompson (whose own findings, too, were discreditedthough this also isn't mentioned), Vaxxed accuses the nefarious CDC of destroying research that proved a link between autism and vaccines, particularly in African American boys. And since no fantasy is complete without a prophecy, Vaxxed offers that, too: Warning of "complete catastrophe," Vaxxed vows that if we keep vaccinating children, the Dark Age of 2032 will mark the epoch in which half of all children bornincluding 80 percent of all boyswill be autistic. Erik Henriksen had an article about Vaxxed on June 8, 2016. (It was also received an F.) The grade of F here should stand for fraud on the part of the Portland Mercury. Reporter Henriksen was unmoved by what he saw in Vaxxed. Doctors, scientists and legislators in the film raising serious concerns about an agency with vast money ties to the industry they regulate werent worth mentioning. Henriksen wasnt troubled by officials with oversight over themselves. Instead, he devoted most of time to attacking Dr. Wakefield. Dr. William Thompsons admissions about the destruction research findings on the MMR vaccine were talked about in ONE SENTENCE. Henriksen ridiculed the story of fraud and corruption that is the message in Vaxxed. Its all just science fiction that the CDC is accused of covering up an autism risk for African American boys. All the autism everywhere that no one can explain, along with terrifying predictions of future rates, mean nothing. Theres nothing anyone could tell this person that would cause him to question any aspect of vaccine safety claims. Henriksen simply doesnt care. His job is to convince people Vaxxed isnt worth seeing. And of course, in the manner of all good propaganda pieces, theres no place for comments. Grade F June 14, 2016, Williamette Week (Portland OR): The Documentary Says Vaccinating Your Kids Will Make Them Autistic--"Vaxxed" is wack By James Helmsworth It's totally reasonable to believe in widespread government cover-ups. The U.S. government spies on you through your computer and phone, the Chicago police department ran a secret torture chamber, and public officials in our own city knowingly allowed our kids to drink polluted water. If all of these are trueand they areis it so crazy to think the Centers for Disease Control could be covering up vaccines' ability to cause autism? I listened to Wakefield's argument. ...Using sound bites from autism journalists, activists and parents of autistic people, and a few shorthand notes from a CDC meeting schedule, it posits that the CDC suppressed evidence the MMR vaccine causes autism in order to retain funding from Big Pharma. Helmsworth is one more frightening example of journalists so bereft in ethics and a sense of duty that they can sit through "Vaxxed" and be totally untroubled by any aspect of the film. Sure, there have been government cover-ups in the past, but that could never happen when it comes to vaccines. Helmsworth has only to think back to March when the story of Michigan officials allowing lead in drinking water in Flint came to light. This is Helmsworth's description of "Vaxxed"..."[I]t posits that the CDC suppressed evidence the MMR vaccine causes autism in order to retain funding from Big Pharma." Helmsworth joined in the cover-up by carefully NOT mentioning any of the doctors, scientists, and elected officials appearing in "Vaxxed" who challenged the safety claims of the CDC and called for major reform of this agency. Helmsworth's "review" was really nothing about the film. Instead, he trashed Andrew Wakefield, and he explain that vaccines don't really make that much money for pharma in the first place, so no one would have an incentive to cover up findings. Missing was any mention of the specific study findings that were destroyed, including the 240 percent greater risk in African American boys who received the MMR before 36 months of age. Missing too were the recorded comments by Dr. Thompson where he described an agency regularly engaging in malfeasance and where "senior people just do completely unethical, vile things and no one holds them accountable." Helmsworth did point out that the parental accounts of vaccine injury, which he described as "a teary-eyed anecdote about how a kid started showing signs of autism after getting a vaccine," while "moving," was nothing more than coincidence. This is the mindset of almost all of mainstream media. They're not going to look into this because it couldn't possibly be true. It just can't be. Grade: A June 13, 2016, Edmond (OK) Sun: Makers of the movie Vaxxed visit Oklahoma City Amidst the overwhelming response to the movie, producers, Del Bigtree and Polly Tommey, as well as director Dr. Andrew Wakefield, attended a Q&A dinner in Bricktown Wednesday evening, with over 140 Oklahomans in attendance. Doctors and legislators joined the crowd that turned out to learn more about the CDC cover-up from ones most familiar with the story. The reporter here described what was said during the Q and A with Del, Polly, and Andy. The unnamed reporter quoted Andrew Wakefield and talked about the push to have Dr. William Thompson testify before Congress. While there was no Vaxxed trailer included, it was authentic coverage. Grade: F June 13, 2016, OregonLive.com: Does controversial film 'Vaxxed' fan vaccination fears with discredited science? By Grant Butler "Vaxxed" contends there's a link between vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella when administered to children under age 2 and autism. The film also explores whether the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention knew about the connection and destroyed evidence from scientific studies. Butler cleverly avoids any mention of a CDC researcher turned whistleblower who revealed a criminal cover-up of data implicating the MMR with autism. He also hides the fact that it involved African American boys. Earlier Vaxxed reviews in the press. NOTE: Thanks to attendee Levi Quackenboss for blogging about this meeting at the Quackenboss site: I wasnt going to write this blog until next week but my flight landed and clearly all of you are standing by to hear how today went, so I am sitting down the minute I walked into my house to update you. This is going to be quick and dirty because its late and I havent slept after flying into and out of DC today and yesterday. The background is that a few months ago I approached Tami Canal, the founder of March Against Monsanto (MAM), to strike a deal: if I gave her the link to watch Vaxxed before just about anyone else in the country, she would write a review of it and promote it on Facebook. Because of an incoming link to my blog earlier in the year I realized her position on vaccines for the first time and the fact that the anti-GMO group isnt united with the vaccine freedom group boggled my mind. Weve got to get it together. Long story short, she accepted. Vaxxed lit a fire in her and I put her in contact with people who advocate on the federal level. As kismet would have it, Tami is a constituent of Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) the committee charged with investigating the CDC Whistleblower hot potato. Because MAM has over a million followers, she was able to get a meeting with her Congressman and a half dozen of us convened in Representative Chaffetzs office this afternoon without him knowing who was coming. Surprise! We brought Del Bigtree, one of the producers of Vaxxed, with us. Read more at Levi's site: Here's a video of Del Bigtree of VaXxed with March Against Monsanto founder Tami Canal. Del speaks about the disconnect among many liberals and progressives: they can see the duplicity, lying and corporate greed in Monsanto and our food supply and American health but have not opened their eyes to the parallel world of pharma, government interference and vaccine injury. Below is a video from Facebook live of Del at Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz's office to call for a subpeona of Dr. William Thompson and hearings on the CDC whistle blower. Thank you to Del, as ever. The Assyrian Center of Learning Destroyed By ISIS in Iraq When ISIS fighters detonated explosives inside the gate of the Temple of Nabu at Nimrud earlier this month, they destroyed more than a reconstructed ancient temple. They attacked one of the Assyrian empire's greatest centers of learning. The temple was originally constructed by the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (ruled from 883--859 BC) to stand alongside the new palace he had built for himself on top of the citadel at Nimrud (this palace was also destroyed by ISIS last year). The patron god of writing and scribes, Nabu was originally worshipped in the southern Mesopotamian city of Borsippa where he was venerated as the son of the chief Babylonian god Marduk. Ashurnasirpal acknowledged the cultural debt by naming the new temple Ezida, meaning 'the true house', the same name given to the temple of Nabu in Borsippa. Little remains of Ashurnasirpal's temple, for the later king Adad-Nirari III (ruled 811--783 BC) carried out a massive project to rebuild the temple in 798 BC. The new temple featured two equal-sized sanctuaries for Nabu and his divine consort Tashmetum. The main entrance, known as the Fish Gate, was flanked by two gold-plated statues of mermen who represented the mythical Seven Sages who had brought knowledge to the earth in primeval times. Inside the gates the temple of Nabu functioned as a centre of learning and scholarship, as evidenced by a library, which British excavators uncovered there in the 1950s. The names appended to documents in the archives reveal that families of scholars worked at the temple for generations, passing their profession from father to son. One of the tablets from the Temple of Nabu in Nimrud, which features Neo-Assyrian cuneiform side by side with attempts at reconstructing older cuneiform signs. P. 208 of Nimrud: An Assyrian Imperial City Revealed, by Joan Oates. What forms did their scholarship take? Out of around 300 tablets found in the library 30 per cent concerned the interpretation of omens. Lunar and solar eclipses as well as astronomical observations of the stars, moon, and Venus were all thought to contain messages from the gods. Other texts explain the meanings of deformed births, or the patterns made by crawling ants or flocks of birds. Still others contained illustrated instructions for how to read the livers of slaughtered animals. Scholars from the temple routinely wrote to the royal court to keep the king informed of the latest omens. Another 30 per cent were incantation texts, usually related to medical issues. It was hoped that ritual repetition of the formulas could cure various conditions such as epilepsy, toothaches, and baldness. Possibly more useful was a catalogue of medicinal plants also found in the library. The rest of the tablets include a list of proverbs, prayers to various gods, and inscriptions prepared by the scribes to record the official histories of the Assyrian kings. Screenshot from ISIS video showing the destroyed 'mermen' statues of the seven sages at the Fish Gate, Temple of Nabu, Nimrud, Iraq. Possibly the most fascinating documents from the temple archive are several tablets featuring charts which show cuneiform signs from the scribe's own time alongside attempts to reconstruct the earliest cuneiform signs used two thousand years earlier. The signs do not closely resemble what we know of the earliest cuneiform, but it was an admirable effort and one that showed a serious attempt by the scribes to understand their own past. An ISIS video showed footage of the Fish Gate at the Temple of Nabu in Nimrud, along with the 'mermen' statues representing the Seven Sages that flanked the entrance. Day-to-day life in the temple often featured mundane tasks and petty bureaucratic disputes. One letter speaks of the growth of fungus in the inner courtyard and in some of the storehouses and attempts by the priests to remove it. Another letter to the king complained that a priest named Pulu was making unauthorised changes to the temple furnishings and modifying some of the rituals. 'No one can do [anything]; there is an order to remain silent', wrote the traditionally-minded complainant, adding 'But they have changed the old rites!' Another letter, possibly from the same author, found fault with an upcoming ceremony involving a visit to the temple by a statue of the goddess Ishtar because 'it is not ancient -- your father introduced it.' A screenshot from the ISIS video showing the Temple of Nabu prior to being destroyed. The tablets from the Nabu Temple archive are now housed in the British Museum in London and the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The mermen which once guarded the entrance to the temple were still standing there, albeit broken and missing their gold plating, when ISIS blew up the Fish Gate. Video footage shows broken pieces of the statues lying amongst the rubble. The symbolic significance of destroying the entrance to what was once a center of ancient learning is obvious. June 16, 2016 Abbas Araghchi, whose official title is deputy minister for legal and international affairs at Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is more signficiantly one of Iran's senior nuclear negotiators. While Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif played the lead role in the nuclear talks and received the majority of media coverage, Araghchi and his American and European counterparts played important roles in bringing about the landmark nuclear deal. The English-speaking diplomat, who holds a doctorate from the University of Kent in Britain, has a well-known record as a diplomat in Iran's Foreign Ministry dating back 20 years. However, in a recent interview with an Iranian magazine, a former commander from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has introduced a controversial and unverified new aspect to Araghchi's background. According to Javad Mansouri, one of the first commanders of the IRGC, Araghchi is a member of the IRGC's elite Quds Force, which is headed by Gen. Qasem Soleimani and is tasked with military operations outside Iran's borders. Mansouri made the claim in an interview with Iranian magazine Ramz-e-Obour (Password). Mansouri also said that Iran's ambassadors to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are also members of the Quds Force. According to Mehr News, an "informed source" in the Foreign Ministry denied Mansouri's allegations and called them "baseless and far from reality." That Iran's ambassadors to countries where Iran has a significant military presence would be members of the Quds Force is not necessarily surprising. But that one of Iran's top diplomats would be a member of an organization that is sanctioned by the United States and Europe, and whose members are restricted from travel to certain countries, has caught even some Iranian media outlets by surprise. Reformist newspaper Ghanoon condemned Mansouri's comments on Araghchi in an articled headlined, "They targeted Zarif's wings." The Ghanoon article wrote that conservative critics of Zarif, Araghchi and deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi have consistently tried to derail one of the best diplomatic teams since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The article continued that these efforts have hit a dead end, but now Mansouri's allegations, in a magazine opposed to the administration, pose a danger to the country. Given Mansouri's comments, Iran's enemies will use these "false claims" and foreign delegations may request that Araghchi no longer be involved in ongoing negotiations over the implementation of the nuclear deal. Araghchi himself has not responded to the allegations. He was accompanying Zarif and other members of Iran's nuclear negotiation team to Norway and Germany when the story broke. While in Norway, Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly met for over an hour behind closed doors. Hossein Jaberi Ansari, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said that while the two discussed the issues of Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the primary focus of the meeting was negotiations on the nuclear deal. Takht-Ravanchi, along with Araghchi, also met with European Union deputy foreign policy chief Helga Schmid to discuss the remaining financial and banking restrictions on Iran. After years of very assertive US Treasury Department sanctions against countries that conducted business with Iran, along with remaining US sanctions on Tehran, investors and banks in Europe that seek to do business in Iran are still nervous. Some have speculated that the continued banking obstacles over the nuclear deal could even possibly cause the nuclear deal to unravel. June 17, 2016 WASHINGTON Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, at meetings in Oslo, Norway, this week, signaled that he has more authority on the Syria file than he has had until now, and that Iran may be prepared to show more flexibility to advance a political solution, sources who met with him there told Al-Monitor. The apparent shift in Iran's Syria policymaking comes as the Obama administration is facing internal criticism of its Syria policy, in the form of a dissent cable signed by some 50 State Department officers urging the United States to conduct airstrikes against the Assad regime in order to pressure it to make serious concessions at stalled political transition talks with the opposition in Geneva. The memo, first reported by The New York Times June 16, calls for "a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed US-led diplomatic process." The internal pressure in both Tehran and Washington to shift course to accelerate a political settlement in Syria comes as Zarif met with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the Oslo Forum June 15, to discuss implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and the situation in Syria. "What [Zarif] seemed to be signaling was that he has more authority on the Syria file than he has had until now," a US nongovernmental source who met with Zarif on the sidelines of the Oslo Forum, speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor. "He seemed to suggest that Iran is prepared to show more flexibility on how fast that question [of Assad] is dealt with and how." "The Syrian crisis can be only resolved politically, and a solution to the Syrian crisis will not be achieved through military means," Zarif said in a joint press conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Boerge Brende on June 13, Iran's Press TV reported. "I have said all along that there will be no solution if we focus on any individual, because it is a zero-sum question that will inevitably lead to stalemate and deadlock," Zarif told Al-Monitor by email June 16, when asked about what suggestions for advancing a Syrian political resolution he proposed. "The answer is to focus on institutional dispersion of power and the future form of governance, through which you may be able to reduce or even eliminate the centrality of the role of any individual or ethnicity," Zarif continued. "It is very clear that the cessation of hostilities is frayed and at risk, and that it is critical for a genuine cessation to be put in place," Kerry told the Oslo Forum of his discussions with Zarif about Syria June 15. "And Russia needs to understand that our patience is not infinite. In fact, it is very limited now with respect to whether or not Assad is going to be held accountable." "So, this is a critical moment, and we are working very, very hard to see if we can in the next, literally, week or two come to an agreement that has the capacity to more fully implement a cease-fire across the country and deliver humanitarian access in a way that then provides for a genuine opportunity to bring people to the table and start talking about a transition," Kerry said. "But I do believe the conversation I had with Zarif indicates to me possibilities for how this could be achieved," Kerry said. "And my hope is that we will open up some political space to try to resolve one of the most complex international challenges the community has faced in at least a generation." The observation that Zarif appeared to be taking a larger role in Tehran's Syria policymaking with a renewed focus on a political solution came shortly after Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) announced that SNSC Secretary Ali Shamkhani had been appointed Irans senior coordinator for political, military and security affairs with Syria and Russia, reportedly the first time that position has existed. The announcement of Shamkhanis appointment came after the Russian, Iranian and Syrian defense ministers held a somewhat unusual meeting in Tehran on June 9, after which Iran's Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan announced support for a Syria cease-fire that does "not result in the strengthening of terrorists in this country." "It is necessary that inter-Syrian dialogue replace 'war and bloodletting' in the country," Shamkhani said after meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu in Tehran June 10, Tehran Times reported. Shamkhani's appointment and putting the Syria file into the Iran interagency process may signal Tehran's deciding that a political solution in Syria may better serve its interests than extended conflict. "The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has so far been the main controller of events in Syria, but after this post, politics may have more influence," Al Jazeera's Tehran Bureau Chief Abdul Qader Fayez told the Middle East Monitor. The shift in Iran to seeking a political resolution on Syria comes as the Obama administration faces unprecedented internal criticism from State Department officers to toughen the US stance against Assad in order to accelerate a political resolution to the five-year-old Syrian civil war that has killed an estimated 400,000 people. Former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said the dissent cable was unprecedented for the number of people who had signed on, and for showing broad consensus that the current US policy focused on combating the Islamic State was failing. "It is remarkable that they have 50 signatures," Ford told Al-Monitor in an interview June 17. "I never heard of a dissent memo with so many signatures, and that tells me that there is a broad consensus that the current policy is failing and will continue to fail." "There is broad consensus that there needs to be a new approach that involves pressure on the Assad government," Ford, now a fellow at the Middle East Institute, continued. "That suggests to me there is a kind of menu that includes limited US strikes, more assistance to the opposition, but all with the goal of getting concessions from the Syrian government so that you can get to a political deal." "There is broad consensus that the administration focus now on the Islamic State in Syria is not going to deliver a sustainable solution to the Islamic State challenge in Syria because it will not convince enough Syrian Sunni Arabs to fight the Islamic State when they themselves view Bashar al-Assad as a bigger problem than the Islamic State," Ford said. Regarding a possible shift in Iran on Syria, Ford noted that Iran has been taking a lot of casualties in Syria, and that could be a sensitive point to motivate such a shift, but he would not expect a sudden change in their red lines on Assad. "The Iranians are taking a lot of casualties in Syria," Ford said. "And even if the casualties are overstated there must be a reason that the Iranians are mobilizing Afghan refugees and Iraqi Shia rather than Iranians. Clearly they are sensitive about casualties." "But I would not presume that they are going to do a 180 very quickly," Ford said. "It could be the Iranians are more sobered by the difficulty in Syria, and [are] sort of rethinking. But the Iranians are the world's best negotiators, and they have strategic patience the Americans can only dream about. So I would not look for a radical abrupt change." Meanwhile, State Department spokesman John Kirby, fielding numerous questions about the issue at the June 17 press briefing, confirmed the internal dissent channel memo on Syria, which he thought had been sent June 16, but he declined to discuss its contents and said its authors had chosen to make it classified. It is "unusual" for such a dissent to have so many signatures, Kirby said, adding no one can be satisfied with the status quo on Syria, and Kerry welcomed dissenting views. June 17, 2016 BAGHDAD The archaeological sites of Ur, Eridu and Uruk as well as the Iraqi marshlands are under consideration for UNESCO's World Heritage List. The decision will be made at the World Heritage Committee meeting to be held July 10-20 in Turkey, where the UNESCO member states will vote on adding new sites to World List. In anticipation of the event, President Fouad Masoum formed a committee on May 19, headed by presidential adviser Qahtan al-Jubouri. Its members include Deputy Culture Minister Qais Hussein Rashid, Deputy Environment Minister Jassim, adviser to the foreign minister Ihsan al-Awadi, and the provincial council heads of Maysan, Muthanna, Basra and Dhi Qar. On June 1, the committee announced its program to pursue this matter and work toward getting the Iraqi marshlands on the World Heritage List. On May 19, Jubouri issued a statement saying, The inclusion of the marshlands and historic cities in the World Heritage List will ensure water quotas and international protection for these marshlands and historic cities and will contribute to activating tourism. The marshlands face drought as desertification plagues the country. The water level of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers has fallen due to damming by Turkey and Iran on the rivers and their tributaries. Iraq's wetlands, known as the Mesopotamian marshlands, are located in the areas surrounding the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in the provinces of Basra, Maysan and Dhi Qar in southern Iraq. Eridu, Ur and Uruk are archaeological sites dating back to the Sumerian civilization. Faleh al-Khozai, a parliament member for Basra province on the parliamentary committee for tourism and antiquities, told Al-Monitor, The archaeological sites in southern Iraq and the marshlands deserve to be part of the World Heritage List. They date back to the great Sumerian civilization, which gave mankind many scientific discoveries and innovations. These sites are unparalleled attractive tourist areas. He went on, Achieving this goal would give these sites many privileges. Their inclusion in the World Heritage List would turn them into international sites and promote tourism activity as a source of income for the country, which will revive the economic situation. This may provide these cities with international protection from wars and acts of terrorism. Khozai added, By including these sites on the World Heritage List, UNESCO would prohibit, under international conventions, any harmful changes or sabotage of these sites. Regarding the marshlands, any future attempt to drain them or damage them would be deemed a violation of international conventions. It should be noted that inclusion on the World Heritage List means that archaeological and heritage sites would be managed by UNESCO, which will preserve the sites and provide them with financial aid under the World Heritage Convention signed in 1972 by 189 countries. On the odds of success, Khozai said, The World Heritage Committee will likely vote in favor of Iraq, given that these sites meet all of the necessary conditions to be inscribed on this list. They are natural, historical and cultural sites. They are a magnet for tourism and they need international care. Hamid al-Ghazi, head of the provincial council of Dhi Qar, where a large part of the marshlands area is located, said in a June 2 statement that so far, 20 out of 195 member states support the inclusion of the Iraqi archaeological sites and marshlands on the World Heritage List and will vote in favor of Iraq at the World Heritage Committee meeting. The statement went on to say that an official invitation was sent to the charge d'affaires of the Holy See to Iraq Monsignor George Panamthundil, the French ambassador to Iraq, and more than 20 other ambassadors to visit the archaeological city of Ur and the Dhi Qar marshes with the Iraqi foreign minister and a delegation from the presidency and the concerned ministries. On June 2, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri issued a statement stressing that the inclusion of the Iraqi marshlands on the World Heritage List is a national cause. The legislative power will intensify efforts and address official requests to UNESCO to include the marshlands to the World Heritage List, he said. In parallel, other Iraqi governmental bodies and nongovernmental organizations are busy with media activities and campaigns to support the inclusion of the Iraqi sites and marshlands in the World Heritage List. Laith Shubbar, the head of the Development Center for Energy and Water, told Al-Monitor, The center created a media campaign using the hashtag #YourVoteForYourNation to support the marshlands and is now organizing art activities and events for this purpose. He added, These events include a 1,000-meter painting that will be the longest painting in the world, drawn by children and calling for supporting the inclusion of the marshlands on the World Heritage List. He pointed out that French Ambassador Marc Baretti toured the marshlands May 31 as part of a campaign event, suggesting that his country may support the campaign to have it listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. Iraqi antiquities are being plundered in smuggling operations and have been vulnerable to sabotage and terrorism after Saddam Husseins fall in 2003, after which the Iraqi antiquities museum was looted along with various archaeological sites in an environment of security chaos and governmental neglect. These sites continue to lack proper maintenance and protection. The economic blockade imposed on Iraq by the United Nations in the 1990s halted the archaeological exploration of dozens of ancient cities in Mesopotamia dating back to the Babylonian, Assyrian, Sumerian and Akkadian civilizations. June 17, 2016 BAGHDAD Factions affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Units have taken part in the operations to liberate Fallujah launched on May 23 in support of the Iraqi security forces. However, some of the forces fighting under the group's umbrella have well-known relations with Iran through the Quds Force and its commander Qasem Soleimani, who has been in Iraq since the Islamic State (IS) took over the city of Mosul June 10, 2014. Some of the Iraqi Sunni forces have been against the participation of the Popular Mobilization Units in the battle to liberate Fallujah, protesting that the militia would commit human rights violations as it had done last year in the city of Tikrit in the Salahuddin province. Although this rejection might be based on sectarian concerns, there have been reports and evidence of these violations. Iraqi activists posted videos online showing the group's forces attacking civilians in Fallujah. A video posted by Sunni activists on YouTube showed a man wearing a military uniform beating a group of civilians with a rod, commanding them to proclaim that the people of Fallujah are cowards. Another video shows a group of civilian men in distress, some of them bloodied and lying on the ground, perhaps unconscious. Then members of the Popular Mobilization Units accuse them of being affiliated with IS before attacking them. In a TV report broadcast on the Saudi al-Arabiya TV on June 6, a Fallujah resident in his 60s said he was part of a group taken by the Popular Mobilization Units by car from the Karma district to Saqlawiyah and beaten. Saad al-Hadithi, spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, told Al-Monitor, The prime minister ordered that arrest warrants be issued for those accused of committing abuses against civilians in the battle for Fallujah and for them to be prevented from fighting, regardless of who they are, and referred for investigation. At present, some perpetrators of violations are being investigated. Hadithi added, The Iraqi government has no interest in committing human rights violations. On the contrary, any violation would affect its reputation and the course of the battle in general. Ever since the battle to liberate Fallujah began, the prime minister has emphasized that the troops will enter Fallujah as liberators, not aggressors. The Iraqi forces could have regained Fallujah in a short period of time, but they put the safety of civilians above all, and this is why they are progressing slowly. In a report published June 9, Human Rights Watch noted, The announced investigation into allegations of abuse of civilians around Fallujah by Iraqi government forces is a test for the governments ability to hold abusive forces accountable. Judicial officials should conduct this investigation transparently and impartially, assess command responsibility and ensure protection for victims and witnesses. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Popular Mobilization Units spokesman Karim al-Nuri protested this narrative, saying, The violations the media reported and accused the Popular Mobilization Units of committing have not been verified yet, because there are certain parties who want to show the Popular Mobilization Units in a bad light. He added, We, the Popular Mobilization Units, are keen on keeping civilians safe, and there are pictures and video clips that show how [humane] we are in dealing with civilians and treating them as our brothers and our families. But the media highlights things that do not exist and broadcasts fabricated pictures and videos. Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty Internationals researcher on Iraq, told Al-Monitor, Amnesty International's concerns are based on information and testimonies of individuals who have managed to escape from Fallujah and the surrounding areas since May 23, including local officials, analysts, activists and former detainees. Eltahawy added, According to the testimonies, fighters with the Popular Mobilization Units mistreated hundreds of men from Saqlawiyah after they arrested them on June 2, and many of the detained who were transferred to the district of Fallujah suffered from fractures, bruises and burns as a result of the beatings that the detaining forces subjected them to. On June 13, Suhaib al-Rawi, the governor of Anbar, announced the recommendations of a committee he formed to investigate the actions attributed to the group against those fleeing the Fallujah areas. According to Rawi, the committee called on the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Abadi, and the head of the Popular Mobilization Units body, Faleh al-Fayad, to put an end to the activities of Popular Mobilization Units factions in al-Masuliyyah [the area around Fallujah], where crimes took place, and to get those factions out of there. The committee stressed the need to ask Prime Minister Abadi to intervene personally to reveal the fate of the missing people who were displaced from Saqlawiyah" and said, "These total 643 civilians, while 49 others were killed while attempting to flee Saqlawiyah. On June 5, Abadi said in a press statement broadcast by the semi-official Al-Iraqiya TV, I admit that there are mistakes that occurred, as the combatants who took part in the Fallujah battles have different backgrounds. He went on, We are against any violations, and we stressed to the security agencies the need to respect human rights and the dignity of civilians. The abuses against civilians were not systematic, but we will neither remain silent about them nor cover for anyone who made them. The violations during in the battle for Fallujah may be far from the last of their kind, as large numbers of fighters in the Iraqi security forces and the troops supporting these forces are untrained to deal with civilians in conflict zones. They also tend to view all the Fallujah residents as IS members, a prejudice that has encouraged some pro-government fighters to attack them. June 17, 2016 Mayors from northern Israel met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Muqata in Ramallah on May 31. As reported in Al-Monitor, the gathering was organized and coordinated by the Committee for Interaction with Israel, headed by Mohammed Madani. At that meeting, which took place almost concurrently as Avigdor Libermans swearing-in as defense minister, Abbas surprised the participants when he said he was willing to meet with Liberman. The mayor of Maalot, Shlomo Bohbot, one of the Israeli organizers of the meeting, encouraged Abbas, telling him that Liberman is a far more pragmatic person than he is portrayed in the media. Is Liberman really pragmatic? On June 15, Liberman ordered the revocation of Madanis entry permit into Israel on the grounds that he had promoted subversion in Israel, attempted to intervene in its internal affairs and had even tried to establish a political party. The revocation of Madanis entry permit means the muzzling of the committee that was created at the instruction of Abbas to establish a dialogue with Israeli society and convey the message that the Palestinian Authority seeks peace and does not engage in incitement and warmongering, as the Netanyahu government depicts it. I would be very glad to meet with our minister of defense, who has good intentions, in order to convince him that if we really want peace, dialogue is the way to get there, Bohbot told Al-Monitor in response to Libermans order. I know one thing, Bohbot added. If you close up a hole, water will get through another way. The decision [by Liberman] will force those who are interested in holding a dialogue [with the Palestinians] to do so abroad. So why not do it in Israel? All Ive said assumes that we [in Israel] want to make peace. If we dont want to, its a different story. Bohbot also related that some members of the Knesset and mayors hold meetings with Palestinians abroad out of fear or embarrassment. Ayelet Harel of the Women Wage Peace movement told Al-Monitor that she had met with members of Madanis committee a number of times. In all of the conversations I attended, she said, the committee members presented the audience with the Palestinian narrative for solving the conflict. There is someone to talk to today. Harel further said that in response to the recent wave of terror, her movement is organizing a womens march for peace to go throughout the country calling on the government to advance a diplomatic process. According to her, members of the Palestinian committee relayed a message to Palestinian women that even though we are an Israeli organization, our initiative is welcome and advised them to participate in the peace march. I cant seem to understand why Israel is trying to damage the activity of the committee, said Harel. The interaction committee was created in December 2012, after Palestine was granted nonmember observer state status at the United Nations. After the Netanyahu government portrayed the Palestinians' application to the United Nations as a hostile act, the Palestinian leadership sought to convey a conciliatory message to Israelis by means of the committee. Abbas extended a hand of peace to the Israel public, and the application to the United Nations was made after he became convinced that the Netanyahu government was not interested in holding a diplomatic process. The man chosen to head the committee was Madani. In an interview with Gal Berger on Kol Israel in February 2014, Madani related that he had been chosen for the post because of his support for dialogue with Israelis since the 1970s. In those days, he was close to Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, and it was forbidden to say the word peace. Madani said that his family fled from the village of Kafr Sabt, in the Lower Galilee, to Lebanon in 1948. His brother was killed in a battle with the Haganah, and when his father found his sons body, he had a heart attack and died. Despite this difficult family story that we have carried all these years, I am a peace-seeking man, he said at the time. This week, following the revocation of his entry permit to Israel, Madani told Al-Monitor that Abbas had called to offer him encouragement. Madani stated, Despite the obstacles Israel is trying to put up, Abbas told me, we have to continue conveying the message to the Israeli public that we want peace. If talk of peace and of building a better future for our children and for Israeli children is a threat, what can I add? What threat do we pose to the State of Israel? Madani adamantly denies the claim that he tried to establish a political party in Israel. We have never thought of, never planned and never tried to establish a party in Israel, he said. We even oppose the militant voices of some Israeli Arabs, members of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement. When the recent wave of terror broke out, we told them, This isnt your concern. Youre Israeli Arabs, what does this have to do with you? Dont get involved. Madani emphasized that all the meetings between Palestinians and Israelis had been open. Nothing was done in secret or under cover of darkness, he said. Since the committee was created, its members were invited to meet with mayors, at academic institutions, at kibbutzim and house parties. We talk peace and say that Mahmoud Abbas is interested in peace with 1967 borders. Israelis dont know this, and we want them to know it. Weve met Israelis from all sectors right wing and left wing, religious and secular, and even new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, whom Liberman purports to represent [as head of Yisrael Beitenu, a party that includes many such immigrants]. In these meetings, we discovered that the Israeli public knows absolutely nothing about the Palestinians, who live only 40 minutes from Tel Aviv. According to Madani, what is said in the meetings between Palestinians and Israelis is passed on to the Israeli security establishment. In view of Libermans order, it is doubtful whether these voices of peace will reach the public in Israel. A senior source at the Defense Ministry made the case to journalists that, in addition to the revocation of Madani's entry permit, that is the primary obstacle to peace. Indeed, there is a new atmosphere at the Defense Ministry in the spirit of Defense Minister Liberman. June 16, 2016 RAMALLAH, West Bank Violence against Palestinian women is being reported more frequently, and women there are fighting back but in a nonviolent way. One obstacle in the battle has been a lack of accurate statistics with which to influence politicians and increase public awareness. Now the Ministry of Womens Affairs plans to establish the National Observatory on Violence Against Women. The ministry will collaborate with the Ministries of Social Affairs and Health, the police and a number of civil society institutions. The observatory, which is expected to see the light in one year, will collect and document cases of violence against women to gauge the gravity and extent of the problem. The data will be analyzed to help develop public policies to confront the situation. "The idea stems from the ministrys main purpose to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women," Amin Assi, general director of planning and policy in the Ministry of Womens Affairs, told Al-Monitor. "The idea was born during a conference [on developing a national strategy to combat violence] organized by the ministry in 2007, but languished until it was recently brought up again. The Jerusalem-based Italian Cooperation Development Unit for the Palestinian territories is providing 250,000 euros (almost $280,000) for the effort. The observatory will help form a clear picture of violence against women based on figures and facts in order to develop national policies to deal with such violations and to provide guidance and assistance, Assi said. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics last survey on violence, in 2011, about 37% of women who had been married were subjected to violence at the hands of their husbands. Of those, 58.6% had been verbally and mentally abused at least once; 55.1% had been subjected to economic violence; 54.8% to social violence; 23.5% to physical violence; and 11.8% to sexual violence. Moreover, 65.3% of abused women preferred to remain silent about violence, while not more than 0.7% of them were referred to institutions or centers for social counseling. Establishing such an observatory will affirm that Palestinian women are being subjected to violence on a large scale, especially since some officials deny this widespread phenomenon," said Jalal Khoder, legal adviser to the Sawa Organization for combating violence against women and children, which has offices in Ramallah and Jerusalem. She told Al-Monitor, "The evidence and information that will be documented by the observatory will serve as a powerful and compelling tool for decision-makers to make changes in laws and policies to protect women. Commenting on the degree of violence against women as documented by Sawa, Khoder said, We cannot gauge exactly the scale of violence in the country. However, the [known] number of abused women is rising as they have more available means today to voice their views, such as centers and institutions that document cases of abuse, provide assistance and guidance as well as hotlines to receive complaints. This is seen as breaking social traditions [that say] abuse and violence ought to be kept secrets in the family, while we are seeking to involve the public opinion. The observatory will also document cases of violence by Israeli soldiers against women, providing accurate and scientific statistics, said Amal Khreisheh, general director of the Palestinian Working Women Society. Israeli soldiers practice direct forms of violence against women by storming into their houses, arresting and killing them. This is not to mention the violence against men who are beaten and arrested in front of their families, Khreisheh told Al-Monitor. Having accurate information on violence against women will allow us to build up support to pressure Israel at the international level. At the regional level, we could use such information to launch a systemic advocacy campaign to place pressure on decision-makers to amend laws and policies and ensure protection for women, she added. Despite the importance of establishing the observatory, its advocates know that providing statistics is not enough to stop the phenomenon of violence. There is an urgent need to change outdated laws and align them with the international conventions in which Palestine has taken part, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women of 2009. Even then, laws aren't always enough. One of the main challenges facing women in Palestine is the enormous gap between some of the legal texts and the reality of what is happening with women," Khreisheh said. "Although some legal and constitutional texts stress womens equality, this is not reflected in their rights in reality. This is in addition to the fact that many laws need to be amended such as the personal status law and the Jordanian Penal Code of 1960, which are still in force" in the West Bank. Legal expert Gandhi Amin also believes laws must be updated and enforced. The lawyer told Al-Monitor, Palestinian criminal and penal legislation should be harmonized with international agreements so as to criminalize acts according to a clear constitutional text. This means that violence against women ought to become a criminal offense described in the law, which has yet to happen. Commenting on the most prominent laws that need to be amended to limit violence against women, Amin said, The Penal Code needs extensive amendments to include modern penal policy and to rescind old text. The family protection act ought to be passed, while the criminal procedure code ought to be amended. The legal dilemma lies in the Jordanian Penal Code of 1960. Even when it is enforced, the code does not refer to the Palestinian Basic Law, which stipulates, Personal freedom is a natural right, shall be guaranteed and may not be violated. Experts say the penal code reinforces the subordination of women, treats them as individuals unable to make decisions and denies them their right of choice and the right to self-determination. President Mahmoud Abbas instructed the government on March 6, 2014, to form a legal committee to comprehensively review all materials in various legislation that discriminate against women, and to introduce the necessary legal amendments, which have yet to be implemented. June 16, 2016 For the first time since the Syrian military intervention in Lebanon in 1976, a civilian at the Syrian Jdeidet Yabous border crossing can note the presence of Lebanese politicians going to Damascus. For 40 years, Syrian authorities designated a special line at the crossing for prominent Lebanese figures who are friends of the regime. This was known as the military line. Over all those years, those lucky ones, such as ministers, parliamentarians, politicians, party leaders and figures close to Syrian officials, were given recommendation cards to use this special line and avoid the hassle of standing at Syrian General Security centers or waiting for entry and exit papers. This was the case right up through late May. However, the scene was different June 1, as several Lebanese politicians took the civilian line. A Syrian taxi driver told Al-Monitor, A new measure was introduced by the Syrians a few days ago. The military line is now completely closed, and it has become imperative for everyone to take the formal crossing without exception. In Damascus, life seems almost normal. Even the staccato bursts of missile and artillery shells have become quite common for Damascenes. Al-Monitor visited a Syrian parliament member, who insisted on remaining anonymous, at his house in Damascus to discuss the latest developments in Syria. Al-Monitors first question was about the nearby sound of missiles. With a smile, the host confirmed that the sound was coming from Daraya, a suburb only 5 miles away. "People have become accustomed to such sounds. They can even know if a missile is falling down or being launched. These sounds have stopped affecting them. He added, Our military [the Syrian regime army] has made a series of incursions on several fronts in Ghouta," another nearby suburban area. "The Syrian army and its allies are dealing fatal blows to the opposition gunmen. But the Syrian authorities in Damascus are dealing with the front under advisement, as the decision-making process is now subject to certain priorities. Where shall we strike and where shall we restore the land? He did not mention what priorities he was referring to. This pushes one to question whether these priorities are subject to the so-called concept of useful Syria, whose idea is that Syrian authorities seek to liberate the most desirable parts of Syrian territory, in the west, while overlooking the fact that other areas are still controlled by gunmen. The Syrian parliamentarian, who is very close to the decision-making circles in Damascus, said this was not true. We are determined to restore the Syrian territory entirely. Our troops are still in Deir ez-Zor [in the east] to date and this is sufficient evidence. The battle has moved to Raqqa now. But around Damascus, we are keen to reduce [the numbers of] our army and we want to start with the liberation of areas that are more strategic than others. On the way to the office of a Syrian government official, Al-Monitor asked the parliament member about the disappearance of the "military line" at the border. "It was closed based on the direct instructions of the presidential palace," he replied. "New measures have been taken since the identification of the people behind the series of bombings that hit the Syrian coast in Tartus on May 23. One of the terrorists had a recommendation card from a Lebanese politician close to Damascus to take the military line." Asked if this means that a security breach took place, he rushed to say that the issue was "individual and limited." "But the seriousness of the crime led to the issuance of the new regulations. What happened is not normal. The media reported more than 100 people killed in the Tartus bombings, but there is talk among Syrian officials about 400 people dead and twice as many wounded, he said. At the office of the Syrian government official, who also requested that his name not be mentioned, the discussion went directly to political issues. The official briefly summarized the Syrian situation by saying, We have gone beyond the stage of discussing the fate of the regime or tackling the regime members. Today, we are [in] a battle to define the regimes form, its work mechanisms and its way of dealing with the Syrian people and with Syria [itself]. Some are speaking of a federation and a decentralized system, among other forms, like Kurds, Russians and even [President] Bashar al-Assad himself. This is what is being discussed today. The rest is behind us. Regarding the leak of the so-called Russian draft of a new Syrian Constitution, the Syrian government official did not deny the existence of such a draft. We have made some comments on this draft. The pluralism mentioned therein is secured under the local administration law in Syria and is therefore constitutionally guaranteed. Therefore, there is no need for any [changes] in this regard, he added. It is noteworthy that the draft constitution prepared by Russia was leaked May 24 and received negative criticism from many Syrian journalists. This pushed Syrian authorities to issue official denials. But the official who met with Al-Monitor did not deny that there is a draft. As to whether the Russian draft was made in coordination with the Iranians, or whether the competition between Moscow and Tehran over their role in Damascus became evident, the official replied, There is no competition at all. There may be some misunderstandings or poor coordination at times like when the Russians and the Americans declared a truce in February and the Iranians were not aware of it but the three of us have met and discussed things. We [Syrians] have full confidence in both allies [Iran and Russia]. Therefore, we are facilitating the relationship between the two and giving them all the information we have. There is no problem at all at this level. To a question about what is impeding an actual solution, he answered, I think the only problem remaining is with Turkey, depending on what Ankara's leaders want and the influence they aspire to have, be it in Syria, Iraq or elsewhere. For their part, the Saudi and Qatari risks in terms of armament and financing of [the opposition] have dramatically receded. The only threat remaining is [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, who is still playing with fire in neighboring [countries]. But we are aware that he is as much of a problem for Washington and Moscow as he is for us, so we are reassured, the government official replied. At the door of his office, the official remembered a critical point. He said, The Syrian pound exchange rate to the US dollar fell by about 30% today [June 4], as our monetary authorities do not intervene in the exchange market. This is a very positive sign. The improvement of the Syrian pound exchange rate increases its purchasing power for Syrians living in Syria, as it leads to a price decrease and an upgrade in living conditions. On my way back from Damascus to Beirut, I saw a Syrian policeman running radar under the hot sun along the desert road. The surrounding areas are controlled by armed terrorists, yet the policeman was issuing tickets to drivers speeding to or from Damascus to escape an ambush or shooting. This was such a surreal scene, but at the same time it showed that the Syrian state is still functional at some level. June 17, 2016 Russia and Turkey are extending gestures to one another in hopes of strengthening ties, but there are many factors at play: their opposing goals in the Syrian war, Black Sea politics and not a small sticking point Russia is still waiting for an apology and restitution for Turkey's downing of its jet last year. The Russian Institute for Strategic Relations (RISS), founded by President Vladimir Putin, on June 2 hosted representatives of the Ankara Policy Center. On the meeting room table was a bottle of RISS whisky with the brand name Strategy. This was the table prepared to assist in the normalization of Russian-Turkish relations. RISS paid all the expenses of the Turkish team. Both sides reported the meeting's outcome to their national leaders. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, sent a letter of congratulations to Putin on the occasion of Russia's independence day (June 12) with the message, I hope relations between Turkey and Russia will reach the levels they deserve. To manage this sensitive process, Erdogan transferred Turkeys ambassador to Brazil, Huseyin Dirioz, who has NATO and Middle East experience, to Moscow. Dirioz, who once served as deputy secretary-general of NATO, also was ambassador to Jordan and worked as director-general of Middle East affairs in Turkey's Foreign Ministry. Another gesture by Erdogan was to invite Andrey Karlov, the Russian ambassador to Ankara, to an iftar meal (to break the day's Ramadan fast) with other foreign diplomats. While these steps were being taken to forge a new beginning with Russia, Turkey-supported groups lost all their positions on northern Syrias Turkmen Mountain, which has long been extolled in Turkey's ruling party circles as an Ottoman legacy. Russian-Turkish relations first began to sour in October and November when Russia attacked the groups on Turkmen Mountain. Turkey reacted to these operations strongly, claiming, Turkmens are being massacred. On Nov. 24, Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on charges that it violated Turkish air space. Turkey-supported groups on the ground then shot and killed the Russian pilot who had bailed out and landed in their midst. In recent days, the Syrian army recaptured many villages that were controlled by opposition groups. With its recent advances, the Syrian army is now about 1 mile from Turkeys borders in the Bayir-Bucak Turkmen region. Izzet Sohta, who is in charge of military affairs in the Syrian Turkmen Assembly, told Al-Monitor, Isa Pinar, Karaman and Hayat have been lost. We still control Yamadi, Sallur and Jip Toros, but the situation is extremely critical. We dont have the means to confront the weapons used by a superpower. In the Bayir-Bucak region, opposition groups fighting the Syrian army include Salafist-Jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, Jund al-Sham, the Turkistan Islamic Party and the 2nd Coastal Division of Turkmens. Abdurrahman Mustafa, former chairman of the Turkmen Assembly, also confirmed that the Turkmens lost some critical positions, but noted they have taken some of these areas back through counterattacks. The struggle is not over. The Turkish government says that it is behind Turkmens. But as you know, the crisis has now become international and what Turkey can do is limited, he told Al-Monitor. Ankaras policy of reducing the Turkmens to a useful card to play against the Syrian regime has thus collapsed. The loss of Turkmen Mountain coincided with the moves to restore Ankara-Moscow relations. While Turkeys Islamist and nationalist circles are loudly protesting the loss of Turkmen Mountain, which is our honor and dignity, Russia continues to support the Syrian army, but now is more discreet in its pronouncements. Erdogans desperation and silence over the loss of Turkmen Mountain appears to be the cost of improving relations with Moscow. Nevertheless, neither Erdogans congratulatory letter to Putin nor his iftar invitation to the Russian ambassador was enough to open a new page in relations with Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Erdogans letter was a protocol message and Russia is still demanding an apology and compensation for the downed jet. Despite Ankara's gestures and Moscow's softer tone, it is not yet possible to talk of a meaningful dialogue between the two sides. The Syrian war and the crisis that erupted from the downed jet proved that Turkish-Russian relations are not based on solid foundations and go beyond Russian tourists, Russian brides in Turkey, commercial links and the work of Turkish contractors in the Russian construction sector. This was the conclusion of the June 2 meeting in Moscow attended by former diplomats, intelligence personnel and experts. Barbaros Binicioglu, Istanbul's representative of the Ankara Policy Center, noted that participants at the meeting stressed the need for comprehensive cooperation and dialogue in both official and unofficial sectors. Business leaders want Turkey and Russia to restore relations. Turkeys tense relations with the United States and the European Union also contribute to the pressure for better ties between Ankara and Moscow. But Russians are not happy with Ankaras call for NATO to play a bigger role in the Black Sea. In Moscow, Al-Monitors contacts noted that they feel such a move threatens the Montreux Treaty, which regulates navigation through Turkeys straits. Though Turkey wants to repair its relations with Russia, such controversial moves obstruct true restoration of a healthy dialogue. Binicioglu shared the outcome of the Moscow meeting with Al-Monitor: Everyone is keen to develop relations with Turkey, but the diplomatic channels are not operating as desired. They all think something has to be done, hence the Moscow meeting. A second such gathering will be in Turkey. In this framework we signed a cooperation agreement in Moscow and conveyed our suggestions to President Erdogan." He continued, "Russians submitted their report to Putin. They believe that the shooting down of their plane was a provocation by the West, and Turkey did not do it intentionally. But Ankaras owning up to the incident, its declaration that it would do it again and the killing of a live pilot caused serious reactions. This is how Russians see it. If the crisis had been managed wisely and not exploited to impress the public opinion, the situation would not have come to this point. But we were all aware Turk-Russian relations are fragile, hence the need to reassess them. Despite massive strategic projects such as the Akkuyu nuclear power station, Blue Stream natural gas pipeline and Turkish Stream pipeline, Turkish-Russian relations are devoid of strategic wisdom. Another negative element is the lack of mutual confidence and the Turkish governments vacillating moves in its approach to diverse blocs. June 17, 2016 The latest battle between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the outlawed Gulen movement is being fought in universities. The government is seizing universities many with tens of thousands of students enrolled operated by Gulen movement foundations and has appointed trustees to run them with the intention of either turning them into public universities or closing them down. At the May 26 meeting of the National Security Council, Erdogan declared that the council has officially registered the Gulen movement as the Fethullah Terror Organization (FETO). Until now, scores of businessmen, journalists and police officials, including members of their senior ranks, have been detained in what were called "operations against parallel state structures." Now, such anti-Gulen actions will be taken based on "combating terror organizations." But several legal experts have warned that charging people under a terrorist designation without a judicial decision would contravene the law and the constitution. Sami Selcuk, honorary president of the Court of Appeals and a law professor at Bilkent University, said only a court can determine that a group is a terror organization, and then such a ruling has to be ratified by the Court of Appeals. Neither the National Security Council nor the national parliament can reach such a conclusion and so advise or instruct the judiciary, he said. Until the massive bribery and corruption investigations of 2013, Erdogan and the Gulen movement were close allies. Erdogan believed the Gulen movement was behind the corruption allegations, which implicated some government ministers and even Erdogan's family. What did we ever deny to you? he asked, and labeled them first as coup plotters and then a terror organization. In this new phase, after seizing a variety of companies and media organizations, the government has launched an operation to seize 17 universities belonging to the movement. The Higher Education Board has made changes in its bylaws related to private foundation universities and paved the way for their seizure. New regulations say, If a foundation is directly involved in actions against the integrity of the state or in supporting such actions, then such foundation-owned universities can be seized, closed or turned over to a state university in that province. Under such allegations, a court appoints a trustee to run the foundation that owns the university. The school's administration automatically becomes subject to the trustee's control. Istanbuls Fatih University, which was established in 1996 and has graduated thousands since then, this month became the latest university to be seized. The Gulen movement-affiliated foundation that operated the Mevlana University in Konya, the hometown of former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, was also put under a trustee. The most controversial takeover happened at Halic University of Istanbul, which was seized in May. University Chairman Mansur Topcuoglu reacted sharply to the decision to turn Halic over to Istanbul University. In a press conference, Topcuoglu labeled the Higher Education Board as a gang that has personal interests in universities and said the decision to take over Halic University was illegal. A year ago in Izmir, police raided the Turkish Doctors Foundation, and its affiliated Sifa hospital and university were also seized based on charges of providing financing to FETO/parallel structure terror organizations. In Kayseri, Meliksah University and the Burc Foundation, which managed it, were raided by police in September. Prominent businessman Memduh Boydak, who was president of the foundation and the university, was detained. Boydak, who also was a board member of the powerful TUSIAD, the Turkish Industry and Business Association, resigned from the association. Boydak Holding, with 41 companies and 14,000 employees, is one of the country's major corporations. Now that the National Security Council has officially declared the Gulen movement a terrorist organization, the government is expected to step up seizures of universities and companies. The ruling Justice and Development Party government, which also amended the bylaws of the Court of Appeals and Council of State, the two highest courts of the land, is also taking steps to protect the government-appointed trustees against prosecution. The government has determined that trustees appointed to universities cannot be taken to court to be held accountable for their actions. Meanwhile, Karatay University, owned by the pro-government Chamber of Commerce of Konya, announced the forthcoming opening of a new faculty for the 2016-17 academic year. Selcuk Ozturk, chairman of Karatay University, said the Islamic economy, finance and banking faculty will be the first of its kind in the world and will contribute significantly to training acutely needed workers. Ozturk said that, worldwide, there are 40 universities offering graduate degrees in Islamic finance and economy, but none at the undergraduate level. Ozturk said this is extremely important for Turkey, as Islamic-compliant banking is rapidly growing. There are reports that in addition to Islamic banking, the Islamic-compliant insurance market is also developing rapidly in Turkey. So far, 1.5 million people have bought Islamic insurance policies and their premiums have reached $300 million. Interest-free Islamic investment insurance called Solidarity is also gaining popularity, though it was only introduced recently. In addition to 1.5 million policyholders, 525,000 people have joined the interest-free personal retirement system, thus bringing the total number of people opting for Islamic insurance to more than 2 million. General Electric's refrigeration plant in Decatur is officially under new ownership. The company formally sold its GE Appliances business this month to Haier, a subsidiary of Qingdao Haier Co. in China. The $5.6 billion sale is expected to generate an after-tax gain of approximately $0.20 per share. The division's headquarters will remain in Louisville, Ky., under the current management team. The Decatur facility, which employs about 1,200 workers, will remain unchanged. "There is no impact on Decatur or any of our facilities due to the sale," said GE spokeswoman Kim Freeman. GE, which worked with legal adviser Sidley Austin LLP, announced in September 2014 it would sell its Appliances business to Swedish company Electrolux for $3.3 billion. The company later pulled out of the deal for undisclosed reasons. GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said the agreement with Haier is "another step in the company's portfolio transformation" as it works to become a leading Digital Industry company. "By successfully acquiring Alstom's power and grid assets, splitting off Synchrony Financial and by continuing to execute the GE Capital exit strategy ahead of plan, the team is making GE a simpler, more competitive company," he said. Haier said it will donate $100,000 to help people prepare for manufacturing careers. The money will fund a new Manufacturing Workforce Pipeline Development Accelerator within the nonprofit Kentucky Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education. 36 more of the saddest country songs By Ike Morgan | @ikemorgan This time, you made the call. Several days ago I published 21 of the saddest country music songs in history. It was a great list, no matter what you said about me. It's understandable that many of y'all were not impressed by what was left off the list. After all, there are more than a few tear-jerker country songs out there. The great songwriters are going to get us all with hardcore, real-life stuff -- and we all have different life experiences. Here are 36 more of the saddest songs in country music history -- some of the ones suggested by AL.com readers on the site, on our Facebook page and to me personally. Don't Edit The Grand Tour (George Jones) Don't Edit Give My Love to Rose (Johnny Cash) Don't Edit The Greatest Man I Never Knew (Reba McEntire) Don't Edit Don't Take the Girl (Tim McGraw) Don't Edit Don't Edit Misery and Gin (Merle Haggard) Don't Edit I Don't Call Him Daddy (Doug Supernaw) Don't Edit Go Rest High on That Mountain (Vince Gill) We went with the video of Gill and Patty Loveless singing the song at the George Jones tribute at the Grand Ole Opry. It's probably one of the most emotional moments on that hallowed stage, and the country great has a difficult time getting through the song. Don't Edit Whiskey Lullaby (Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss) Don't Edit That's My Job (Conway Twitty) Don't Edit Don't Edit Where've You Been? (Kathy Mattea) Don't Edit I'd Be Better Off in a Pine Box (Doug Stone) Don't Edit Is It Raining at Your House? (Vern Gosdin) Don't Edit Farewell Party (Gene Watson) Don't Edit When I Call Your Name (Vince Gill) Don't Edit Don't Edit Dress Blues (Jason Isbell) Don't Edit Sissy's Song (Alan Jackson) Don't Edit Till Each Tear You Cry Becomes a Rose (Keith Whitley and Lorrie Morgan) Don't Edit Old Violin (Johnny Paycheck) Don't Edit Over You (Miranda Lambert) Don't Edit Don't Edit The Door (George Jones) Don't Edit Devil in the Bottle (T.G. Shepherd) Don't Edit Wildwood Flower (The Carter Family) Don't Edit I'm Not Lisa (Jessi Colter) Don't Edit Alyssa Lies (Jason Michael Carroll) Don't Edit Don't Edit Green, Green Grass of Home (Porter Wagoner) Where exactly is the green, green grass of home? Depends on who's listening, of course. But songwriter Curly Putnam was born in Jackson County, Alabama. Don't Edit Old Shep (Red Foley) He had me at "I wish that they'd shoot me instead." Don't Edit Roses for Mama (Red Sovine) Red doesn't hold back. Don't Edit Long Way Home (Hayes Carll) Real country ain't dead. It's just hiding somewhere away from your radio. Don't Edit Temporary Home (Carrie Underwood) Don't Edit Don't Edit The Ballad of Ira Hayes (Johnny Cash) Don't Edit Daddy's Wildwood Flower (Ralph Stanley) Don't Edit You're Gonna Miss This (Trace Atkins) Don't Edit Captain and the Kid (Jimmy Buffett) A song about his grandfather growing old. "His world had gone from sailing ships to raking Mom's backyard." Don't Edit She's Got You (Patsy Cline) Don't Edit Don't Edit Love, Me (Collin Raye) Don't Edit I Dreamed About Mama Last Night (Luke the Drifter) Hank Williams' alter ego, Luke the Drifter, was his good conscience -- but he still lived in a dark place. Don't Edit More country music Now see our list: 21 of the saddest country songs 7 country music verses that were dropped, added or changed The most 'outlaw' songs ever recorded 12 Guy Clark songs you should know One inspirational home is about to bring some national attention to the metro Birmingham area. Once open, 20,000 people are estimated to tour the 2016 Southern Living Idea House located in the town of Mt Laurel, a master-planned community on the edge of Birmingham. Southern Living has built or renovated idea houses from the ground up for more than 20 years. The Birmingham-based magazine is one of Time Inc.'s brands and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Their idea houses showcase traditional design and beautiful landscaping that evokes Southern charm. Elegantly styled interiors, tall windows and ceilings, and you guessed it, wide and inviting front porches abound. Those features are true of the 2016 Idea House designed by Birmingham architect Bill Ingram. He worked with Town Builders, Inc. to construct it. Landscape architect David Brush created the home's eye-catching curb appeal with plants from the Southern Living Plant Collection. (You have a chance to win those plants here.) Inside, designers Amy Berry, Ashley Gilbreath, Lauren Liess, Margaret Kirkland and Mark D. Sikes, created modern spaces that were inspired by past issues of the magazine. Each of their designs represent a decade of the magazine's history. Added bonus, if you like the look of shiplap, you'll love this house. We can't show you the inside until after Southern Living publishes their own feature on the home. However, you can grab a sneak peek by checking out the Instagram pages of the designers linked above. Can't wait to see? The Idea House is located at 10 Nolen St, Birmingham, Ala, 35242, and will be open to the public from June 25th through December 18th, 2016. During that time, you can tour the home from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and from noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Once inside, you're free to tour the home and volunteers will be inside to answer any questions. You can find a planning guide for your visit here. Pro tip: Stick around and check out Mt Laurel's idyllic town center after the tour. Admission is $15 at the door. Tickets are not available to purchase online in advance. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Children's of Alabama and the Mt Laurel Public Library. The town of Mt Laurel is a Southern Living Inspired Community, which means that it is part of a collection of residential developments that exemplify the Southern Living lifestyle. Hayley Barber was crowned Miss Alabama on June 11, 2016. Miss Alabama Hayley Barber, who was crowned on June 11, has set her sights on being crowned Miss America on Sept. 11 in Atlantic City. But even if that doesn't happen, she's got a bigger vision that she'll pursue. The 2012 graduate of Pelham High School is a senior marketing major at UAB. She'll have to take a year off from school to fulfill her duties as Miss Alabama. When she graduates, she wants to continue her education. "I hope to immediately go into optometry school for another four years and potentially own my own private practice one day," Barber said. "I'd love to open a pediatric optometry practice." That ties into her Miss Alabama platform, Sight for Small Eyes. "I encourage eye examinations at a young age and then I raise funds for children with low vision," Barber said. "I've written a curriculum called three tips for healthy vision that's sent to Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Alabama state elementary schools. I've written a bill that would require comprehensive eye examinations at a young age before entering kindergarten in Alabama. I have raised money for Sight Savers America, a non-profit in Pelham. I raised money for a device called a CCTV, it's a closed-circuit television, for children with low vision. That would help them to read for the first time, put on makeup. I've seen them help little girls see their mother's face for the first time." Barber, 22, wears glasses while she's driving or when she's in class. Now that she's going to be in the public eye, she plans to get contact lenses soon. Pastor's daughter Barber's father, the Rev. Mark Barber, grew up in Sylacauga and has been the senior pastor of Hillview Baptist Church in Forestdale since 2008. "We do have faith and we practice our faith," Mark Barber said. "We love everyone and judge no one. Being a pastor's daughter gave Hayley a taste of the scrutiny she'll face as Miss Alabama. "I pretty much knew what it was like to be on at a young age because I was having to greet people throughout the church," she said. Before settling in Pelham, her father had traveled extensively in his ministry. "We've lived in five different states, I think by the time I was 10 years old," she said. "I had to be ready to move if my dad felt like he wanted to start a new church or grow a new church. I learned at a young age to make connections pretty quickly and to be okay with whatever was thrown my way." She was the youngest of three children and was born in Augusta, Ga., although the family was living in South Carolina at the time. Before Pelham High School, she attended Chelsea public schools. Her mother, Karon, grew up in Decatur, and now works as an accounting clerk in Vestavia Hills. "They're great parents," Hayley said. "They really devoted a lot of their lives to helping me be happy in whatever I pursue." Earning scholarships Since her older brother, Daniel, and sister, Lauren Ross, were in college at the same time, she needed to earn some scholarship money to help pay for college. She earned $13,800 from the Miss Alabama Pageant this year, including $10,000 for winning. It was her fifth year competing in Miss Alabama. She earned $65,000 total. "I will graduate debt-free from UAB," Barber said. "I definitely would not have been able to attend college if not for that scholarship money." Yet Barber never viewed herself as a pageant contestant. "I'm not a pageant girl," she said. "I never really liked to get dressed up and wear makeup." But that's only part of it, she said. "You grow so much through speaking to people, making those sort of contacts, but also devoting yourself to service," Barber said. Part of her duties as a Miss Alabama contestant and winner include raising funds for the Children's Miracle Network. "I raised $32,600 this year alone, and I've raised over $55,000 total," she said. Barber's first public appearance after winning the crown at Samford University was in her hometown for Pelham's observance of Flag Day. She'll attend Miss America orientation in July and make dozens of public appearances all over the state on the way to competing in the Miss America Pageant in September. "She's got a servant's heart," Mark Barber said of his daughter. "That's what's most important. If you're going to be in a place of influence, a title holder, you've got to have a servant's heart. You've got to do it with the right heart, be a blessing and encouragement to somebody." Anniston police are seeking a man who has been missing since Sunday. Police said Michael Keith Thompson, 43, may be headed to Panama City Beach, Fla. He is described as standing 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 350 pounds. He was last seen June 12 in Anniston. Anyone with information is asked to call the police department's investigative division at (256) 240-4075. A Clay County man was arrested Wednesday after Gadsden police solicited help through the media in a theft investigation. Sgt. John Hallman said a Calhoun County Sheriff's deputy spotted a vehicle pulling a trailer which was suspected in the theft of lawn equipment. A vehicle and trailer were involved in the theft of approximately $32,000 in lawn equipment from a business in the 600 block of West Meighan Boulevard early Tuesday. The vehicle appeared on surveillance images to be a 2000's model dark maroon colored Dodge Durango. The deputy had seen media reports about the theft. "The piece of lawn equipment was confirmed to be part of the equipment stolen in our case," Hallman said. Jonathan Lewis Jennings, 25, is in the Calhoun County Jail on charges of first degree property theft and third degree criminal mischief. An Alabama appeals court on Friday ordered a Jefferson County judge to vacate her rulings earlier this year that declared the state's capital punishment sentencing scheme unconstitutional. In its order the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals says the state's capital sentencing scheme is constitutional and told Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Tracie Todd to vacate her March 3 order in the pending capital murder cases of four men that says otherwise. The Alabama Attorney General's Office had filed four petitions for a writ of mandamus asking the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to direct Todd to vacate her orders and allow the state to decide whether to seek imposition of the death penalty in those cases if it decides. The cases involve Kenneth Eugene Billups, Stanley Brent Chapman, Terrell Corey McMullin, and Benjamin Todd Acton who were all indicted for various counts of capital murder. Chapman and McMullin are charged in the same case and the others in separate cases. Before their trials, the men each filed a motion to bar imposition of the death penalty in their cases and to hold Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme unconstitutional based on the United States Supreme Court's decision in January declaring Florida's death sentencing system unconstitutional. Todd agreed and declared the capital murder sentencing law unconstitutional in a 28-page order. "The Alabama capital sentencing scheme fails to provide special procedural safeguards to minimize the obvious influence of partisan politics or the potential for unlawful bias in the judiciary," Todd stated in her ruling. "As a result, the death penalty in Alabama is being imposed in a "wholly arbitrary and capricious" manner." The Court of Criminal Appeals, however, said Friday that the state's capital sentencing law is constitutional. "Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme is constitutional under (U.S. Supreme Court rulings) Apprendi, Ring, and Hurst, and the circuit court (Todd) erred in holding otherwise and prohibiting the State from seeking the death penalty in capital-murder prosecutions," the appeals court opinion on Friday states. The Alabama Attorney General's Office established the prerequisites for the appeals court to issue an order to Todd telling her to vacate her opinion, the appeals court stated in its order. "Therefore, the circuit court (Todd) is directed to set aside its order holding Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme unconstitutional and to allow the State to seek the death penalty in capital-murder prosecutions if it chooses to do so. The appeals court ruled that under Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme a capital murder defendant "is not eligible for the death penalty unless the jury unanimously finds beyond a reasonable doubt, either during the guilt phase or during the penalty phase of the trial, that at least one of the aggravating circumstances ... exists." The court noted that Florida's law, which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in January as unconstitutional, was conditioned on a first-degree-murder defendant's eligibility for the death penalty based on a finding by the trial judge, rather than the jury, that an aggravating circumstance existed. The appeals court also criticized the fact that the Attorney General was not given a the required notice that a state law was being challenged as unconstitutional and that Todd then didn't allow an assistant AG to speak at the hearing she held before making her ruling. Todd also had pre-written her ruling before the hearing, the court stated. Judges Mike Joiner and Liles Burke concurred with the majority although they differed on some points in separate opinions. Both Joiner and Burke criticized Todd's order. Todd's order "contains sparse analysis on the application of Hurst to Alabama's capital-sentencing scheme," Burke wrote. "The majority of the order is devoted to the trial court's opinions regarding partisan politics, the effects of an elected judiciary, court funding, and the propriety of the death penalty in general," Burke states. "Additionally, the trial court extensively cites secondary sources, including materials from "Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty" as well as from the Web site of the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit organization whose attorneys are representing the defendants in this very proceeding." "In reviewing the materials that were filed with this Court, I find no mention of these issues," Burke writes. "Thus, I question whether the trial court's (Todd's) ultimate conclusion is based on its analysis of Hurst or on the trial judge's personal opinions regarding Alabama's death penalty." Alabama's attorney general reacted to the ruling early Friday night. "Today's decision by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals is the first case to affirm under Hurst that Alabama's capital sentencing is constitutional," Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange stated in a Friday evening press release. "The Appeals Court vacated the Jefferson County Court's March order and thereby held that Alabama can continue to seek the death penalty in capital murder prosecutions." It's unclear, however, how Friday's ruling might affect recent orders by the U.S. Supreme Court telling the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to reconsider the appeals of three Alabama death row inmates in light of the Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year striking down Florida's capital punishment scheme. An Arkansas man is jailed in Shelby County on charges of human trafficking. The Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force on Thursday took 25-year-old Alexander Jackson into custody. Task force commander Lt. Clay Hammac said Jackson's arrest stemmed from an undercover operation in North Shelby County focusing on prostitution and drug activity. During the course of that investigation, he said, multiple females were identified as being involved with prostitution. Those women have been referred to community-based organizations to help them escape their current situations, Hammac said. Alexander is being held in the Shelby County Jail with bond set at $100,000. According to court records, the charge against Jackson involves the interstate transportation of prostitutes. Records show he has six prior arrests, including breaking and entering a vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, manufacturing a controlled substance - for which he was sentenced to eight years in prison - and promoting prostitution. In seeking the $100,000 bond, authorities noted that Jackson has no ties to Alabama and has expressed plans to return to Arkansas. "These investigations are heartbreaking at times. Our goal is not to put these young ladies in jail, but to help them escape the situation that each of them currently find themselves in,'' Hammac said. "However, we will always relentlessly pursue and arrest the individuals who attempt force others into this lifestyle in an attempt to profit from it." Birmingham police radios will observe a moment of silence today in remembrance of three officers killed 12 years ago today in a hail of gunfire at an Ensley drug house. Officers Carlos Owen, Robert Bennett and Harley Chisholm died in a hail of gunfire at an Ensley drug house on what would become the deadliest day in Birmingham police history. Officer Michael Collins, now a sergeant, was wounded, but survived the attack. He spoke with AL.com in 2014 about his struggles, and his healing. Today's moment of silence will be held at 1:25 p.m. "This day is an extremely sad reminder of the tragic loss of life of three of Birmingham's Finest,'' said Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper. "These days are especially tough on the families who still miss their loved ones and understandably, it's a void that can never be filled. During a time where it's so easy to criticize our law enforcement officers, we are reminded of the risks and their selfless service." Multiple current and former officers are posting their own memories on social media. "Twelve years ago today my life changed,'' wrote Sgt. Dean Pesnell. "That day will never be forgotten. The love my Heavenly Father as He carried others and me through this will never be forgotten. RIP Curlyk, RoboCop and Tarheel. Heroes." A 2004 police radio transmission recorded Bennett saying at 1:24:34 p.m. that day, "They're going out the front. " Two seconds later, at 1:24:36 p.m., the first "shots fired" call was dispatched, followed by a second at 1:24:40 p.m. At 1:25:20 p.m., Collins radioed his "double aught, double aught" emergency call for assistance, the most drastic request an officer can make for backup. Bennett died on the ground in the front of the apartment. Chisholm and Owen died on the kitchen floor of the small, dingy apartment. Chisholm, 40, known as "RoboCop," was remembered as a decorated ex-Marine who was tough on criminals and devoted to public service. He knew, his supervisors said, when to police from the heart and when to police by the book. He was, they said, a hard-charger with a heart as big as a mountain. Bennett, 33, was likened to a knight -- loyal, courageous, courteous and generous. At his funeral, he was described as a "giant of a man" and a "hero." He left behind a wife and a 4-year-old daughter. Owen, 58, a highly-decorated, 27-year veteran of the department and a former president of the Fraternal Order of Police, was well-known in the Ensley area he patrolled for years. He was affectionately known for his once-permed hair and admired for his uncanny ability to catch bad guys. He was called a "soldier of the city" and "a rare breed." He was a husband, father and grandfather who was set to soon retire. Funerals for the officers were held the following week, as was a citywide memorial service held at Fair Park Arena. The officers' police cruisers sat outside the arena during the service, their blue lights flashing. Owen's son, Greg Owen, spoke there. "Do not let these deaths defeat you, let these deaths strengthen your resolve,'' he said. "These fallen officers would want you to get back out there. Although we will miss these fallen officers very much, they did not die in vain." Here is what police, city and state officials said following the officers' slayings: -Capt. Hollis Crutchfield, then-commander of the West Precinct: "We have saluted you with our hands and our hearts. We now charge each other to carry on. With our arms wrapped around Officer Michael Collins, we will carry on." - Former Gov. Bob Riley: "These men sacrificed everything they had for people they did not know. They did it for all the right reasons so that each one of us can go to sleep tonight and not worry about our safety. -Former Attorney General Troy King: "I can tell you these officers were the kind of men that I'm glad my kids had to look to as an example. The kind of example we should hold up again, and again and again." -Former Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid: "We pledge to you that we will work to make our public safety officials, both police and fire in the largest city in Alabama, the highest paid in Alabama." -Former Birmingham Police Chief Annetta Nunn, who sang a cappella a verse from "I Am Determined to Walk with Jesus": "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." A federal jury on Friday found former Birmingham Health Care CEO Jonathan Dunning guilty on 98 counts of conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. The 12 jurors, made up of nine women and three men, began deliberating Tuesday afternoon. Dunning was acquitted on another 14 counts. A sentencing date has not yet been set, but U.S. District Court Judge David Proctor said it would be held in about 90 days. Meanwhile, Dunning remains free on bond but is being restricted to travel only within north Alabama unless given permission by the U.S. Probation office. The maximum prison penalty for conspiracy is five years, for wire fraud and money laundering the maximum is 20 years, and for bank fraud, 30 years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. "We are pleased with the jury's verdict," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamarra Matthews-Johnson. "It is clear they spent time and considered all the evidence presented." "We also think the verdict sends a message to those entrusted with millions of dollars meant for the community and that that power should not be abused or subjected to personal whim or greed," Matthews-Johnson said. Dunning and his attorneys declined comment after the verdict. Jurors found Dunning guilty on 62 counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and 33 counts of money laundering. Jurors found him not guilty on six wire fraud counts, one bank fraud count, and seven money laundering counts. The jury also found Dunning guilty on one conspiracy count, finding that he conspired with another person to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. The trial began May 24 with jury selection before Washington D.C.-based U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein, who was specially appointed to hear the case. More than 50 witnesses appeared. Dunning did not testify. Rothstein left to go back to Washington D.C. after the jurors began their deliberations. Proctor was assigned to take juror questions, in consultation with Rothstein, and to take the verdict. Prosecutors alleged that Dunning, the former nonprofit CEO of both BHC and Central Alabama Comprehensive Health Inc. (CACH) in Tuskegee, diverted to his own companies' millions of dollars in federal grant money meant for treating the poor and homeless at BHC and CACH. The prosecutors say Dunning continued to profit from the two agencies, even after he stepped down as CEO in 2008, by setting up companies to contract with BHC for services, including billing, management consulting, and for lease agreements with BHC on buildings. BHC and CACH were among 1,400 federally-funded community health centers nationwide. BHC in January changed its name to Alabama Regional Medical Services. Problems were first reported by AL.com and the Birmingham News in 2012 when it was revealed that CACH and BHC paid more than $2 million to Dunning's private companies for contracting service, including while Dunning was CEO of the companies Dunning's defense was that there is nothing wrong with BHC contracting out services or renting buildings, even with a former employee. Dunning's attorneys also pointed to two others for theft from BHC and CACH - Terri Mollica, who formerly was Chief Financial Officer over both groups, and former bookkeeper Sheila Parker. Mollica pleaded guilty last year in a plea deal with federal prosecutors related to fraud against the government related to illegally obtaining $1.7 million as her part in diverting $11 million from BHC and CACH. Mollica, who has yet to be sentenced on the charges, asserted her Fifth Amendment right not to testify at Dunning's trial. Parker and her son pleaded guilty to charges related to the theft of $116,000 from CACH. The money was used to buy personal items such as electronic fish finders, truck tires, cell phones and an adult website membership. The two also face charges related to failing to file tax returns. Sheila Parker testified for the prosecution at the trial. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa Atwood and John B. Ward also prosecuted the case. Attorneys Bill Athanas, William H. Thomas Jr., and Charles Walton Prueter represented Dunning. The FBI, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, and Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Following the verdict a joint statement was issued Friday by U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Special Agent in Charge Derrick L. Jackson. "Dunning relentlessly stole taxpayer dollars that were meant to provide critical medical care to the poor and homeless in Birmingham," Vance said. "His shameless devotion to purchasing luxury items like a Jaguar for himself, while leaving to suffer the people he committed to serve, is deplorable." she said. "I applaud the commitment of the agents of the FBI, IRS and HHS, and the prosecution team in my office, who all worked long hours to unsnarl the tangle of companies, contracts, real estate and financial dealings that Dunning used in an unsuccessful effort to conceal his criminal conduct," Vance said. Stanton stated: "Mr. Dunning took money intended to help the less fortunate in our area and used it for his own personal bank account -- actions that are simply inexcusable and hard to comprehend. I am extremely proud of the work on this case, and I want to personally thank the agents and prosecutors for their tireless efforts in bringing Dunning to justice." Hyman-Pillot said the guilty verdict is a victory for the American public. "Jonathan Dunning used taxpayer funds from Birmingham Healthcare to enrich himself. As a result, he built his fortune on a foundation of greed and deceit. IRS Criminal Investigation and our law enforcement partners exposed every layer of financial fraud Jonathan Dunning attempted to conceal. Today, justice has been served," she said. Jackson said the jury's verdict "speaks volumes." "Stealing federal money meant to treat the poor and homeless will not be tolerated," Jackson stated. "We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to protect the vulnerable beneficiaries of these taxpayer-funded programs from greed-fueled schemes." AL.com reporter Mike Oliver contributed to this story Updated at 11 a.m. June 17 with additional information and comments Okinawa, Japan On Sunday, tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in what could become the largest anti-American military base rally in more than two decades on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The recent alleged rape and killing of a 20-year-old Japanese woman by Kenneth Shinzato, a 32-year-old civilian employee of the Okinawa-based US Kadena Air Base, has reignited decades-long resentment among locals towards the heavy American military presence and partly towards their own central government in Tokyo. The sentiment dates back to more than seven decades ago, when 150,000 Okinawans around one quarter of the islands population at the time were killed in the fierce Battle of Okinawa, as the US tried to build a bridgehead to attack Japans mainland towards the end of World War II. Ever since, America has kept their bases, Moriteru Arasaki, a professor emeritus of history at Okinawa University, told Al Jazeera. Over the 70 years of history, peoples anti-base sentiment has been built up, added Arasaki, pointing out to the repeated crimes committed by US military personnel and employees based on the island. Voices of Okinawa: Standing against a US military base Even after Okinawas reversion to Japanese sovereignty in 1972, which ended 27 years of US administrative rule, as much as one fifth of Okinawas main island has been host to more than half of the 50,000 US troops stationed across Japan Okinawa accounts for less than 1 percent of land mass of the entire country. In the wake of a 1995 rally of some 85,000 people, triggered by the gang rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three American servicemen, Washington and Tokyo announced the relocation plan of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the densely populated Ginowan to the relatively less crowded area of Henoko in the northern part of the island. Yet, subsequent crimes [have] made Okinawans now more determined, so as to oppose any US military presence in Okinawa, said Hiroji Yamashiro, of the Okinawa Peace Movement Center, which has been organising a daily protest at the Henoko base construction site. Very angry When I visited Henoko on Friday, more than 100 people were defying the scorching hot and humid weather to stage their 712th-day protest against the base construction. With a semi-permanent protest camp set up just outside the base, the participants make speeches, chant slogans and occasionally attempt to block the entry and exit of vehicles out of the base. READ MORE: Japan protests alleged rape by US sailor With the growing anti-American base sentiment, a sense of betrayal towards Tokyo is also conspicuous, Yamashiro told Al Jazeera. Okinawa people are very angry at the Japanese government for putting so much of a burden on us and most of the Japanese people who ignore our situation. This sentiment was re-confirmed in the outcome of the 48-seat prefecture assembly election earlier this month, in which candidates backing Governor Takeshi Onagas efforts to block construction of the Henoko base formed a majority with 27 seats. Onaga, elected as a governor on the back of a strident anti-base campaign in 2014, has been in a head-to-head clash with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Sundays planned rally will be the climax of all the oppositions over many years. So, their demand will be stronger than ever, Arasaki said, adding that for the first time in such a rally protesters would be calling for the complete withdrawal of the US bases. However, such a demand is highly unlikely to be accommodated both by Tokyo and Washington Okinawa is located in a strategic location in the face of an increasingly assertive China in the East China Sea. To counter the rise of China, the US has adopted a policy to pivot to Asia and Tokyo and Washington know very well that they need each other, as seen in the ever-closer Japan-US alliance. How a small shelter in the Netherlands is helping Syrian refugees to integrate into the community. Amsterdam, Netherlands I just wanted to show that it could be done, says Lian Priemus. The Dutch woman is sitting in the office of the shelter for Syrian refugees that she set up with a group of volunteers from her neighbourhood. The small shelter, in the middle of Amsterdam, houses about 30 people. In the room beside the office, a language lesson is in full flow and voices can be heard repeating sentences in Dutch. In the kitchen downstairs a family from Aleppo is preparing the evening meal for the entire shelter. The smell of Syrian home cooking drifts through the building. Theres a fierce competition going on between between Aleppans and Damascans about whose cuisine is the best, Lian says, laughing. The result is that we always eat very well here. Mohammed, a young electrical engineer from Aleppo, walks into the office to say hello. He says he is happy to live in the shelter, but that he is going through a difficult time. My wife is still in Aleppo and I am very worried about her. I feel guilty for being here. Lian listens as he talks about the situation in his home town. Refugee shelters in the Netherlands usually house hundreds of people and are often located far from residential areas, which means refugees dont get the chance to immediately start integrating into society, Lian explains. She launched this project to see if things could be done differently. The people in our shelter live in the middle of the city. This means that as soon as they arrive, they can get to know their Dutch neighbours, and their Dutch neighbours get to know them. This is so important for mutual understanding. People from all over Amsterdam came to bring stuff Fifty-year-old Lian normally works as a television director and had never been involved with refugees until September 2015, when she saw a message on Facebook: a large group of Syrian refugees had arrived at the Amsterdam central train station and they were hungry. Together with her 16-year-old daughter, she went to the station with fruit and bottles of water. It was the first time I came face to face with the refugee crisis, she says. Suddenly I met the people who had been in those rubber boats I had seen on the news. It made a deep impression on me. That night she decided to start working as a volunteer in the emergency shelter for refugees in Amsterdam. The people that arrived were totally exhausted. I would play with the children so the parents could sleep. Within two days she found herself coordinating the volunteer work and set up a Facebook group to ask for things the refugees needed, such as warm clothes and toiletries. READ MORE: The Syrian refugees of Gaza She made friends with several Syrians and kept in touch with them when they moved to the Heumensoord emergency centre, near the Dutch city of Nijmegen. Conditions in the camp, which is now closed, were bad. Lian says her Syrian friends had to live in tents with no privacy and couldnt sleep because of the continuous noise. They lived in constant insecurity, she says, with no idea when the process of being granted asylum might start. I saw people who had arrived full of hope and optimism become depressed, she recalls. So she invited her friends to stay at her house during the weekend so that they could sleep and relax. And at some point I started thinking: if I could find an empty building in the neighbourhood, I could offer this opportunity to more refugees. Together with a group of volunteers from her neighbourhood, called Gastvrij Oost (Hospitable East), she found a housing corporation that was willing to put an empty office building at their disposal. They then convinced the district council to support the project. Thats how we started, unaware of the enormous task we had taken upon ourselves, Lian says. With financial help from the housing corporation and the district council, volunteers and refugees turned the office into a shelter. It was furnished with donations from people responding to Lians Facebook messages. It was incredible, she says. People from all over Amsterdam came to bring stuff. Some brought couches, cupboards and beds. Others helped to hang the curtains or brought home-made cookies. But not all locals were happy with the plan, so the group organised meetings during which the refugees could introduce themselves to residents of the neighbourhood. These people were mainly afraid, because they didnt know what to expect, Lian explains. During the information meetings they could speak directly with the refugees and they could see this man is also a father, just like me. I am glad to be living in this shelter now The shelter opened in February. The residents are all Syrians. But, Lian says: They are a diverse group: Sunni and Alevi Muslims and Christians. But they are really committed to make this work. They said, If we cant make this work, there will never be peace in Syria.' Among them are a tailor, a musician, a pharmacist and an architect. Their portraits hang on the wall in the communal living room, which is furnished with bright red arm chairs, a colourful rug and a flatscreen television all gifts. READ MORE: The Syrian cheese-maker of Bavaria Ammar, 36, lives with his family in the shelters largest room. Using curtains, he has created a cosy bedroom for his sons, aged five and eight. The youngest is sleeping, the oldest is playing the keyboard. Ammar used to be a tailor before the war forced him to flee his home town, Aleppo. I am glad to be living in this shelter now, he says. In Heumensoord we were going crazy. We were living with three families in one room. The children couldnt go to school, they had no place to play, the food was bad. Here we can cook for ourselves and we have a huge room for ourselves. Hanan is a 37-year-old lawyer from Damascus and was one of the first to move into the shelter. Now that I live here, I feel that my life is becoming normal again, she says. I am learning Dutch, I work out and soon my two children will come over to Holland. They are living with my mother in Lebanon and I miss them so much. The shelter is run by the refugees themselves. There is a schedule for household tasks such as cleaning, buying groceries and cooking. Four volunteers from the neighbourhood support them, managing the finances and fixing technical problems in the building. They also help the refugees look for work, internships or schooling. Theres a circle of additional volunteers who help occasionally: people with a medical background who accompany them when they need to see a doctor; a hairdresser who cuts their hair for free; and locals who offer Dutch conversation lessons. READ MORE: Welcome to Syrian Berlin In regular emergency asylum centres in the Netherlands, refugees are not allowed to cook for themselves, they have no privacy, they can hardly mix with locals, Lian explains. In our shelter they can lead as normal a life as possible. Its the small scale of the shelter that makes this possible. Five hundred refugees in an asylum centre on the outskirts of town remain anonymous to the local residents. But 30 refugees in the neighbourhood become real people, because you can get to know them. I really believe in this approach. A second chance The shelter is only a temporary solution: once the residents are granted asylum they leave to live in a flat of their own. We thought people would want to live in their own flat as soon as possible. But not everybody is so eager. They say it feels like one big family here, Lian says. That doesnt mean there are never problems. Sometimes there are conflicts. And often its about the schedule for cleaning and cooking, Lian says. And now that they can finally relax, there is the psychological space to fully realise what has happened to them. Thats hard. So sometimes people are irritable. But they support each other. Its comforting to live with people who understand what youre going through. Meanwhile in the kitchen, Ammar and his wife Eman are serving todays meal: tabouleh, chicken with potatoes and lentil soup. There is a red and white checkered tablecloth on the table. A young girl rides her small bicycle into the kitchen. On the wall is a list for people who want to take swimming lessons. Really very important when you live in the Netherlands, it reads. Its been a second job for me to set up this shelter, Lian reflects. There have been moments when I thought What have I gotten myself into? Its such a big responsibility. But its been worth it. I have witnessed these people, who lost so much, regain their lives. The privatisation of Chinas SOEs is about much more than just reducing capacity in coal and steel. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit: Theyre all great American cities. But they have all seen better days. There are endless debates over what turned the United States industrial heartland into a post-industrial rust belt, but most people agree that some kind of transition was inevitable. The US simply doesnt need hundreds of millions of tonnes a year of cheap steel any more. Neither does China. China is the Saudi Arabia of steel, and then some. China produces half the worlds steel, up from a third only 10 years ago. Chinas steel output is nearly eight times that of Japan, its nearest competitor. But Chinas steel industry is highly fragmented. Its largest producer, Hebei Iron and Steel, accounts for about 6 percent of the countrys output. Compare that with Japan, where the largest steel producer, Nippon Steel, accounts for more than 40 percent. China is chock-full of small, inefficient steel companies. The problem is that they are only small by Chinese standards. Nearly two million people work for Chinas state-owned steelmakers, not counting all the other jobs that directly or indirectly depend on steel. The government plans to fire half a million of them, plus another 1.3 million coal miners. Layoffs in other industries are anticipated as well as government moves to privatise thousands of inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The government-sponsored consolidation of Chinas steel industry has hit hardest in heavily industrialised Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing. The proximity of Hebei to the capital has given foreign journalists easy access to its sights and stories of post-industrial apocalypse. Industrial downsizing really began to bite in Hebei province in 2015. But it didnt start there. The Dongbei model The Chinese governments programme of privatisations accompanied by mass layoffs began a decade ago in northeast Chinas little-visited Dongbei region. The Dongbei literally Eastnorth was post-war Chinas manufacturing heartland. It consists of the three provinces to the north and east of Beijing and Hebei. Historically known as Manchuria, the region was occupied by Japan from 1931 to 1945. Many of its industries date to this era and were redeveloped with Soviet help in the 1950s. Now that stability - if not necessarily economic growth - has returned, China seems ready to roll it out to the rest of the country in 2016. Privatisations are at the top of the agenda. by The three provinces of the Dongbei Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang were once major consumers of the steel produced just to the south in Hebei province. Liaoning has been a centre of electrical equipment manufacturing since the Japanese occupation. Communist Chinas first indigenous car manufacturer, First Auto Works, was set up with Soviet help in Jilins provincial capital Changchun in 1953. Heilongjiang sits atop the Daqing oilfield Chinas largest and is the home of many petrochemical plants. All these heavy industries used to be state-owned. No more. Most of the Dongbeis large SOEs were privatised between 1997 and 2005. They werent so much sold off to private investors as simply given away. Perceived as hopelessly inefficient, many were sold for the nominal price of one yuan. OPINION: The rise of everyday freedoms in China The Dongbei privatisation wave began in Liaoning after a 1997 visit from former premier Zhu Rongji. A bastion of state ownership, Liaonings capital city Shenyang became famous as the birthplace of thousands of red capitalists former government officials turned factory owners. Most of Heilongjians leading SOEs were sold to private investors in 2004. Then in 2005 the Chinese government sold off 816 SOEs in Jilin province in just one year. China has experienced many waves of SOE reform since its 1978 opening to the world, but the Dongbei wave is the one that most resembles the 1990s sell-offs in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, when communist bureaucrats became billionaire oligarchs overnight. Rolling out reforms The national rollout of the Dongbei model of SOE reform was put on hold amid worries of industrial collapse when the 2008 global financial crisis hit China. Now that stability if not necessarily economic growth has returned, China seems ready to roll it out to the rest of the country in 2016. Privatisations are at the top of the agenda. OPINION: Is the yuan safe? Though ordinary workers may have much to lose from SOE reform, top managers in places such as Guangzhou and Shanghai are chomping at the bit for the opportunity to take over their companies. In Hebei and the Dongbei provinces, SOE reform has been all about cutting losses. In central and southern China, its all about capturing gains. Chinas profitable non-financial SOEs are reputed to be sitting on massive piles of undistributed profits. Considering that these firms are government-owned and government-controlled, they have been remarkably dividend-averse. Though the central government has demanded higher dividend pay-outs in recent years, these have not necessarily been forthcoming. The privatisation of Chinas SOEs is about much more than just reducing capacity in coal and steel. As China makes the transition from rapid growth to a new normal, easy profits are becoming harder to find. Privatisations offer a secure way to make big money in a slowing economy. Well-connected managers who are also high party members will reap the benefits. And it will be the ordinary workers who will pay the price. Salvatore Babones is a comparative sociologist at the University of Sydney. He is a specialist in global economic structure. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Gunmen on motorbikes attack village near Madagali in Adamawa state, killing mourners and setting houses on fire. Boko Haram fighters have killed at least 18 people at a funeral in northeast Nigeria, residents and a police official have said. The attackers shot at mourners and set houses on fire after arriving on motorbikes in the village of Kuda near Madagali town in Adamawa state on Thursday evening, witnesses said. At least 10 people were injured in the incident, one witness told the Associated Press news agency on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. Resident Moses Kwagh told the Reuters news agency that people waited until three hours after the attack and then counted 18 womens bodies. Some women were still missing, he said. When we said that Boko Haram is still in this place, some people sit in Abuja and claim that there is no more Boko Haram but see what has happened, Kwagh said. READ MORE: Can Boko Haram be defeated? Othman Abubakar, a police spokesman, said on Friday that the number of dead could rise. State lawmaker Emmanuel Tsamdu told Reuters: I have yet to get the details on how it happened and the real number of people killed. I have sent hunters to the area to get me the details because people are afraid to go to the village. Kuda is close to the Sambisa Forest, a vast colonial-era game reserve where Boko Haram fighters hide in secluded camps to avoid the Nigerian military. The village was previously attacked by Boko Haram in February. READ MORE: Muhammadu Buhari I havent failed against Boko Haram Under President Muhammadu Buharis command and aided by Nigerias neighbours, the army has recaptured most of the territory seized by Boko Haram, but the armed group still regularly stages attacks. Recent attacks in southeastern Niger bordering Nigeria killed more than 20 soldiers and displaced tens of thousands, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation in the region. Boko Haram pledged support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) last year. The Nigeria-based groups nearly seven-year-old violence has killed about 20,000 people, forced more than two million from their homes and spread into neighbouring countries. Henrique Alves denies claims but quits as tourism minister after ex-Petrobas executive says he got $400,000 in bribes. Brazils tourism minister has resigned, less than two months before the country hosts the Olympics. With the resignation of Henrique Alves on Thursday, the government of interim President Michel Temer has lost its third minister in a month to a probe of state oil company Petrobras. The resignation followed an investigation into alleged bribery on the part of Transpetro, a Petrobras subsidiary. The Listening Post: Brazil Behind the Dilma Rousseff impeachment story A day earlier, Sergio Machado, previously a Petrobras executive and a former senator from Temers party, alleged in a plea bargain testimony that Alves received more than $400,000 in bribes. Denying the accusation, Alves announced on Twitter that the contributions were made to his campaigns through official channels and were declared to election authorities. In his letter of resignation, Alves said:, I dont want to create awkwardness or any kind of difficulty for the government. Alves resignation, so close to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, adds to the upheaval at the tourism ministry due to the constant change of ministers and secretaries that was caused by Brazils political crisis. Machados testimony also linked Temer to campaign funds sought from corruption schemes at Petrobas. Temer said it was irresponsible, ridiculous, mendacious and criminal to suggest, as Machado did, that he had sought campaign funds for his party from the corruption scheme, the first direct link implicating Temer in the scandal. We will not tolerate affirmations of that nature, Temer said in a hastily scheduled public address. The Listening Post: Brazils Petrobras scandal Dilma Rousseffs Watergate? A foolish suggestion like that can confound the governments work. But I want to affirm that nothing will hinder our desire, mission and aim of doing what the president must do right now. A fiscal reform that proposed a 20-year constitutional cap on public spending was revealed on the same day, but the plea bargain testimony with its bribery allegations was the main headline in Thursdays newspapers. The accusations provide more fodder for suspended President Dilma Rousseff and her allies, who accuse Temer and his party of mounting the impeachment process against her in order to distract from their own roles in the corruption scandal. Rousseff faces a trial in the Senate on unrelated charges of breaking budget rules. If she is convicted in mid-August, as many analysts still expect, Rousseff will be permanently removed from office and Temer would serve out her mandate until the 2018 elections. British PM and opposition leader in rare show of solidarity come together to pay respects to murdered pro-EU campaigner. British Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn have jointly paid tribute to the slain Labour MP Jo Cox, and have called for greater tolerance in public debate. Cameron and Corbyn laid bouquets on Friday in the northern village of Birstall, where Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two, was shot dead a day earlier. Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance, we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities, Cameron said. With only a week until a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU, which has split the country in two and sparked fiery debate on both sides, Cameron said it was time to stand back. Killing of MP Jo Cox halts Brexit campaigning in UK Many commentators have questioned whether the killing could be linked to the referendum, which has stoked tensions by touching on issues of national identity and immigration. She was taken from us in an act of hatred, in a vile act that has killed her. Its an attack on democracy what happened yesterday. Its the well of hatred that killed her, Corbyn, the leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said. Both sides have halted campaigning as a mark of respect with only a week to go until the knife-edge vote on June 23. Cox, a former aid worker and pro-EU campaigner, was an advocate for Syrian refugees. Police arrested a 52-year-old man, named by media as local Thomas Mair, in connection with the murder. US advocacy group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that Mair, who had lived in Birstall for decades, was a dedicated supporter of National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organisation in the United States. The advocacy group said he had spent over $620 on reading material from the National Alliance, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people. The group also said Mair had purchased a handbook with instructions on how to make a gun, noting that witnesses told British media the attacker used a gun which appeared old-fashioned or home-made. However, Al Jazeeras Barnaby Phillips, reporting from Birstall, said his neighbours told him Mair was a soft-mannered man who expressed no interest in politics. If there were any dark corners, they were extremely well-hidden, Phillips said. He enjoyed his voluntary work teaching English to foreigners who settled in this area. Violence blamed on move by troops to prevent former M23 fighters from leaving camp for demobilised rebels in southeast. At least nine people have reportedly been killed in clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after government soldiers prevented former rebels from leaving a camp for demobilised militia groups. The fighting erupted on Wednesday at a camp in Kamina, in the countrys southeast, that houses ex-fighters from the Rwandan-backed M23 group. The M23 fighters belong to the minority Tutsi ethnic group and are closely tied to the Tutsi in neighbouring Rwanda. They have participated in rebellions against DRC President Joseph Kabila in 2012 and 2013. International human rights groups say the M23 has been responsible for widespread war crimes. Q&A: Who are DR Congos M23 rebels? Reuters news agency quoted Lambert Mende, a government spokesman, as acknowledging the two groups had clashed but also saying that the soldiers had not killed anyone. Protesters killed one camp officer with a machete, Mende said. One of the ex-fighters said that government troops killed 10 of the demoblised fighters and that the demonstration they held to demand their return home had been peaceful. According to the Bill Clinton Foundation for Peace, a human rights NGO in Kinshasa, six former fighters and three soldiers were killed. Rights groups have criticised humanitarian conditions in the countrys camps for demobilised fighters, where reports of starvation and disease are rampant. The DRCs east has been unstable for two decades. The region suffered two wars between 1996 and 2003, in which nine African countries were involved and millions were left dead. Fears of another eruption of violence are on the rise in the DRC as the country enters a contentious election period, during which Kabila will attempt to hold on to power for a third term. Thousands took to the streets last month in nationwide protests against Kabila. The protests broke out when the countrys Constitutional Court ruled that the president could remain in a caretaker capacity beyond the expiry of his second term in December. Opposition groups have accused Kabila of seeking to delay the poll in attempt to extend his mandate for another term. Memo signed by 52 State Department officials says targeted military strikes necessary to stop Assads truce violations. More than 50 US diplomats have signed an internal document critical of the governments policy in Syria and calling for military strikes against President Bashar al-Assads government. The dissent channel cable was signed by 51 mid to high-level State Department officials involved in advising on Syria policy. The document calls for targeted military air strikes against Assads government, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, which broke the story first on Thursday, citing copies of the cable. US President Barack Obama has thus far authorised strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other US-designated armed groups in Syria. READ MORE: Syrias Civil War explained Military strikes against the Syrian government, however, would mean a major shift in the Obama administrations reluctance to intervene directly in catalysing regime change. The US has stationed about 300 special operations forces on the ground in Syria, training moderate Syrian rebel groups and targeting ISIL but not the Assad government. Officials said the cable is unlikely to alter Obamas current policy on Syria, as the White House remains opposed to deeper US military involvement in the conflict, Reuters news agency reported. The US diplomats document was revealed on the same day that John Brennan, the CIA director, told a congressional hearing that Assad is in a stronger position than he was a year ago, thanks to Russian air strikes. Brennan said on Thursday that ISIL, also known as ISIS, remains formidable and resilient despite the US-led international coalitions efforts to defeat it militarily, adding that the group has tens of thousands of fighters around the world far more than al-Qaeda had at its height. Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the groups terrorism capability and global reach, he said. In fact, as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda. Meanwhile, on the ground fighting continues unabated in several parts of Syria. Government air strikes At least seven people have been killed in government air strikes on rebel-held areas in Syrias northern city of Aleppo in recent days, according to a monitoring group. About 70 fighters were also reportedly killed in battles around the city, the group said. The attacks came just hours after Russia declared a two-day ceasefire in Aleppo. Elsewhere, Russian fighter jets continued to strike Syrian rebels some backed by the US near al-Tanf, in southern Syria. READ MORE: Opinion The death of the Syrian peace process Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington DC, said these air strikes raise serious concern in Washington about Russias intentions. We will seek an explanation from Russia on why it took this action and assurances this will not happen again, a US official told Reuters. The US has consistently refused to join forces with Russia in Syria against ISIL ever since Russia launched its campaign of air strikes in September 2015, accusing it of acting solely to prop up Assad. The US has called on Assad to step down. The leaders of Europes biggest far-right parties have gathered in Austrias capital, Vienna, to join forces against the European Union, radical Islam and asylum seekers. Hainz-Christian Strache, the leader of Austrias Freedom Party, warned refugees on Friday that Europe was ready to send them packing as he addressed a cheering crowd of about 2,000 people gathered at a convention centre. We will save you on the high seas, Strache said. But we will send you back to the harbour where you started out. He accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of causing irreparable damage to Europe by opening German borders to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing war in the Middle East. We are not against Europe as our opponents are always saying. We want another Europe, a better Europe, one of nations, values, culture and identity, Strache said. The new fascism comes from the left and from radical Islam. READ MORE: Welcome to the world of Europes far-right Marine Le Pen of Frances National Front expressed hope that Britains June 23 vote on whether to remain a member of the European Union would give their cause new momentum. I support the referendum in the United Kingdom because I want all the countries in the EU to have this choice, Le Pen said. But even if we dont get Brexit, it will present a huge new problem for the European Union which has pledged to give Britain special rights if it stays that other countries wont have. So this could be the beginning of Europe a la carte. Al Jazeeras Jonah Hull, reporting from Vienna, said it was no coincidence that the gathering was taking place in Austria. This was a country that just a month ago came within an electoral whisper of being the first country since the Second World War to elect a far-right head of state, he said. Held under the slogan Patriotic Spring Cooperation for Peace, Security and Prosperity in Europe, the gathering also included politicians from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Northern League of Italy among others. READ MORE: Right-wing nationalism and scapegoating migrants Populist, anti-immigration parties are on the rise across Europe as high unemployment and austerity, the arrival of record numbers of refugees, and recent attacks in France and Belgium deepen voter disillusionment with traditional parties. In neighbouring Germany, where far-right parties have struggled to gain traction in the post-war era, the AfD has won double-digit support in a string of state elections and seems poised to enter the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin next year. One of the five who went missing last year reveals he and a colleague were abducted and held by mainland authorities. One of five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing in mysterious circumstances last year has said he had been held for more than eight months by Chinese authorities. Lam Wing-kee announced on Thursday that he was arrested in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen and that his colleague, Lee Bo, who went missing from Hong Kong in December, had also been abducted. Following months of speculation about the circumstances surrounding the disappearances, Lam called a surprise press conference just two days after being released. Lam said he was taken on a 14-hour train journey to the eastern city of Ningbo following his arrest. There, he was kept in a small room by himself, and repeatedly interrogated about the selling of banned books on the mainland. Causeway Bay Books, the store at which the five men worked, had specialised in publishing and selling gossipy books about Chinas leaders, including President Xi Jinping. At the time I was terrified I didnt know how theyd treat me, he said in Hong Kong. I couldnt believe this was happening. If I myself, being the least vulnerable among the five booksellers, remained silent, Hong Kong would become hopeless. It took me much courage and two sleepless nights to consider, but I decided to share the whole story with you, and tell the whole world that this incident is not only about myself or the bookstore, its about the core values that Hong Kong people need to safeguard. Suspicions about China The disappearances have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using tactics that erode the one country, two systems formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997. Al Jazeera Florence Looi, reporting from Beijing, said that despite China saying none of its officials were involved in the abductions, there were always suspicions that Chinese officials were involved. What Lam has said has once again heightened fears of Chinas interference in Hong Kongs affairs despite promising it a high degree of autonomy when it took back the former British colony in 1997, she said. READ MORE: Opinion Hong Kong and China: A special relationship Two of the five abducted are foreign passport holders, and there are fears that Chiina is overreaching its legal rights. Four of the men Gui Minhai, Lui Por, Cheung Chi-ping and Lam gave details of their alleged offences to Chinas Phoenix Television in February, saying they had been detained for illegal book trading in mainland China. But Lam said this interview had been scripted by Chinese agents and that he had been forced to say what they demanded. Concerted operation Amnesty International, the UK-based rights group, said in a statement that Lam had exposed what many have suspected all along: that this was a concerted operation by the Chinese authorities to go after the booksellers. Lam said he was barred from calling his family or contacting a lawyer during his detention, while being monitored 24 hours a day. He was later transferred to Shaoguan, a city in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. The Hong Kong government said in a statement that the police were reaching out to Lam and would take appropriate action. Chinese authorities have declined to clarify key details of the disappearances but have said previously that law enforcement officials would never do anything illegal. Wang Chaoye, an official of Chinas main representative office in Hong Kong, declined to comment on Lams testimony when contacted by Reuters news agency. Conviction comes 14 years after religious violence that judge described as one of the darkest days of civil society. An Indian court has handed down life sentences to 11 people over the massacre of dozens of Muslims in western Gujarat state in 2002, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the states chief minister. The court also sentenced on Friday another 12 suspects to seven years in jail, over the murder of 69 Muslims, who were hacked and burnt to death in a residential complex in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, among them women and children. Modi the Messiah Another was given a 10-year term for rioting and arson. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, arguing that those targeted were all innocent people. Judge P B Desai on Friday described the religious violence as one of the darkest days of civil society in Gujarat and urged the government not to commute, shorten or otherwise alter the sentences. He had earlier ruled that the massacre at the Gulbarg Society complex was a spontaneous attack, rejecting claims of a pre-planned conspiracy against Muslims. Why 2002 Gujarat riots still matter The massacre at the Gulbarg Society housing complex was one of the single worst losses of life in the week-long violence, which left more than 1,000 people dead. Several Muslim families had taken shelter in the complex when it was stormed by a mob angered by the deaths of Hindus in a train fire. Zakia Jafri, whose husband was killed in the massacre and who has campaigned for those responsible to be brought to justice, said the sentences were too lenient. After all the horrible things they did to so many people, they still gave such flimsy sentences, Jaffri told reporters. Government officials convicted More than 100 people have already been convicted over the riots, including one of Modis former state ministers who was jailed for instigating some of the killings. The issue has long dogged Modi, who was accused of turning a blind eye to the violence as head of Gujarat state. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in 2012 by a Supreme Court-ordered investigation. The violence was triggered by the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire on February 27, 2002 that was initially blamed on Muslims. Hindus bent on revenge rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in one of Indias worst incidents of religious violence since independence from Britain and partition in 1947. Haider al-Abadi says security forces have retaken most of Fallujah and only small pockets of ISIL remain within city. Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says Iraqi forces have retaken most of Fallujah from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as clearing operations are under way to flush out the armed groups remaining fighters in the city. The government lost control of Fallujah in 2014, months before ISIL, also known as ISIS, took Iraqs second largest city, Mosul, and swept across large parts of the country. We promised you the liberation of Fallujah and we retook it. Our security forces control the city except for small pockets that need to be cleared within the coming hours, Abadi said on Friday in a brief address on state TV. Fallujah has returned to the nation and Mosul is the next battle, Abadi also said on Twitter. Daesh will be defeated, he added, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL. PM Al-Abadi: Fallujah has returned to the nation and Mosul is the next battle, Daesh will be defeated pic.twitter.com/rNhHKMfYfF Haider Al-Abadi (@HaiderAlAbadi) June 17, 2016 Earlier on Friday, Iraqi forces said they had entered the centre of Fallujah, nearly four weeks after the start of a US-backed offensive to retake the city 50km west of the capital, Baghdad. The counterterrorism service and the rapid response forces have retaken the government compound in the centre of Fallujah, the operations overall commander, Lieutenant-General Abdulwahab al-Saadi, told the AFP news agency. The Iraqi flag is now raised on top of the building, symbolising government control. Commanders said their forces had met limited resistance from ISIL fighters during the push into the city centre. This is a very significant development, said Al Jazeeras Omar Al Saleh, who has reported extensively on the conflict in Iraq. It is a big moral boost for Iraqi soldiers. Matthew Henman, from the Janes Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said that even with the breakthrough, it would take much longer to completely get rid of ISIL in Fallujah, and prevent future attacks. He also said that if the fight over Fallujah wraps us quickly, then more troops would be realigned to help the government push against ISIL in Mosul. Government troops and Shia units known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces are leading the campaign to retake the Sunni city from ISIL. They are supported by US-led coalition air strikes. Al Jazeeras Saleh said the death toll from the fighting so far is based on estimates by medical sources from the city of Fallujah. They say it is in the hundreds, he said. READ MORE: Militias take turns to torture civilians in Fallujah Although the Iraqi government previously said it had a particular strategy to establish safe corridors for civilians in the city centre to leave, many have been reluctant to go for fear of how they may be treated by the Shia units. Thousands have fled the city and its surrounding areas since the military offensive was launched on May 23, but the UN said that tens of thousands are still inside the city last week, the UN said up to 90,000 people were believed to be inside Fallujah, in a significant revision of a previous estimate of 50,000. Many escaping the fighting have been detained and kept at detention facilities, with reports of abuse and violations by government forces and Shia fighters. The UN says detention facilities lack basic services, including medicine and food. The humanitarian crisis in Iraq has been dubbed one of the worlds worst by the UN. Since the beginning of the present conflict in 2014, more than 3.4 million people have been internally displaced and 2.6 million have fled Iraq. Officers say suspects possible far-right links are a priority line of inquiry as UK leaders pay tribute to murdered MP. UK police investigating the murder of opposition MP Jo Cox have said the suspects possible far-right links are a priority line of inquiry for detectives. Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two, was shot dead on Thursday in the northern village of Birstall, near the city of Leeds. The suspect, named by British media as local Thomas Mair, was arrested near the scene in connection with the killing of the Labour MP. Police said counter-terrorism officers are also involved in the investigation into the attack which occurred as Cox arrived for a meeting with constituents. West Yorkshire Police Temporary Chief Constable Dee Collins said police were also looking into the suspects link to mental health services. We are also aware of the inference within the media of the suspect being linked to right-wing extremism which is again a priority line of enquiry which will help us establish the motive for the attack on Jo, Collins added in a statement. Its the well of hatred that killed her The murder of Cox, a pro-EU advocate, has left Britain in shock and campaigning for the June 23 referendum on European Union membership has been suspended as a mark of respect. Earlier on Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn jointly paid tribute to the slain MP, and called for greater tolerance in public debate. Where we see hatred, where we find division, where we see intolerance, we must drive it out of our politics and out of our public life and out of our communities, Cameron said from Birstall, where he and Corbyn laid bouquets at the scene where Cox was shot. With only a week until a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU, which has split the country in two and sparked fiery debate on both sides, Cameron said it was time to stand back. READ MORE: Killing of MP Jo Cox halts Brexit campaigning in UK Many commentators have questioned whether the killing could be linked to the referendum, which has stoked tensions by touching on issues of national identity and immigration. She was taken from us in an act of hatred, in a vile act that has killed her. Its an attack on democracy what happened yesterday. Its the well of hatred that killed her, Corbyn, the leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said. Cox, a former aid worker, was an advocate for Syrian refugees. US advocacy group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that Mair, who had lived in Birstall for decades, was a dedicated supporter of National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organisation in the United States. The advocacy group said he had spent over $620 on reading material from the National Alliance, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people. The group also said Mair had purchased a handbook with instructions on how to make a gun, noting that witnesses told British media the attacker used a gun which appeared old-fashioned or home-made. However, Al Jazeeras Barnaby Phillips, reporting from Birstall, said Mairs neighbours told him the suspect was a soft-mannered man who expressed no interest in politics. If there were any dark corners, they were extremely well-hidden, Phillips said. He enjoyed his voluntary work teaching English to foreigners who settled in this area. Campaigning for June 23 referendum suspended after pro-EU campaigner Jo Cox, 41, is shot dead in northern England. Campaigning for Britains EU referendum scheduled for next week has been suspended for a second day as the nation reels from the murder of a popular pro-Europe MP. On Thursday, Jo Cox, a 41-year-old former aid worker and pro-EU campaigner known for her advocacy on behalf of Syrian refugees, was killed outside a library where she regularly met constituents in her home village of Birstall, in northern England. Witnesses told local media that the Labour MP had been repeatedly shot and stabbed. Following the attack, both sides in Britains June 23 referendum on leaving or staying within the EU said they were suspending their campaigns, while David Cameron, the prime minister, pulled out of a planned rally in Gibraltar. The Stronger in Europe camp said it was suspending all campaigning for Thursday and Friday, while a spokesperson for the rival Vote Leave group, which is backing the so-called Brexit, said their battle bus was returning to headquarters. READ MORE: British opposition MP Jo Cox dies after being shot Thursdays murder overshadowed a by-election victory by Coxs opposition Labour Party on Friday morning in the London district of Tooting. Given the horrific events of today and the shocking death of Jo Cox, I do not intend to make a speech, the newly elected MP Rosena Allin-Khan told a subdued counting centre. Jos death reminds us that our democracy is precious but fragile, we must never forget to cherish it. Earlier on Thursday, dozens gathered outside the Houses of Parliament in a vigil to remember Cox, including Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was flanked by tearful party colleagues. Whats happened is beyond appalling. We are here in silent memory of her loss, said Corbyn. She was a fearless campaigner, and a voice for the voiceless. We feel shaken, said Fatima Ibrahim, 23, an activist with Avaaz. On the quaint streets of Birstall, the scene of the attack was cordoned off and police could be seen examining a shoe and a handbag. Mourners left flowers nearby in tribute. Police said an investigation was under way to determine the motive of the murder, the first killing of an MP since Ian Gow was murdered by a car bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army in 1990. Far-right connections There were some indications that the man named by British media as the attacker, 52-year-old Thomas Mair, may have had extreme right-wing leanings. One witness, cafe owner Clarke Rothwell, told the UKs Press Association that the attacker had shouted Put Britain first! repeatedly during the attack. Britain First is the name of a far-right anti-immigration group, which released a statement after the attack saying it was obviously not involved and would never encourage behaviour of this sort. READ MORE: Poor reporting, media illiteracy fuel Islamophobia in UK Mairs brother, Scott Mair, told The Daily Telegraph that Thomas is not violent and is not all that political. He has a history of mental illness, but he has had help, Scott Mair said. Following the attack, commentators have questioned whether the tone of the EU referendum campaign had stirred up ugly currents. Before the suspension of the campaign, polls had indicated the result of the referendum could be on a knife-edge following an uptick in support for the pro-Leave side. READ MORE: Muslims face worsening environment of hate in UK As the news of Coxs death broke, her husband Brendan issued an impassioned appeal for unity against hatred. She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now, he wrote. One, that our precious children are bathed in love and, two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her. Students from underprivileged backgrounds suffer as universities continue to teach courses in French rather than Arabic. Rabat, Morocco When Widad Houmaid, 20, earned good marks in high school, she decided to enrol in a biology class at Hassan II University in Casablanca. There was only one problem; Moroccan university professors teach science in French. Houmaid, a graduate of Moroccan public schools where maths and science are taught in Arabic, does not speak French. She is now struggling in her biology class. You have to speak French to get the professors respect, and to get their attention, she said. Moroccan science professors, she added, are failing their Arabic-speaking students. For help, Houmaid relies on YouTube videos like this one in which a science course on thermodynamics is taught in Arabic. READ MORE: Moroccos teachers battle urban-rural education divide The language debate in Moroccan education dates back to the 1980s, when public schools switched from French, the teaching language established since Morocco was under French colonial rule, to Arabic. I did 12 years in Arabic, three years of French, and now I have to go back to teaching people in Arabic. You need to have 'Google translate' in your head. by Ait El-Maati, teacher Despite the switch at school level, Arabic did not become the teaching language at universities, particularly for maths or science. This was mainly due to a shortage of qualified teachers who spoke Arabic. The switch was not without hurdles. According to Mohamed Melouk, a professor of research methodology and curriculum development at Mohammed V University in Rabat, the abrupt switch from French to Arabic caused problems for pupils. Students can work with any mathematical formulas, they can break down any computers or computer programme. But in terms of communication, the mastery of language, they are still poor, said Melouk. If you give them the means, the instruments to communicate, they would go further. Last December, Rachid Belmokhtar, the national education minister, made a controversial proposal to a go back to French for the teaching of maths, science, and physics studies in secondary schools. The move was vetoed by Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, whose moderate Islamist political party strongly supports continuing teaching in Arabic. However, Belmokhtars proposal, which got the backing of the Moroccan King Mohammed VI, was approved in February by a council of ministers. Accordingly, the switch back to French for maths and science will be implemented over the next 15 years. Mohammed Ait El-Maati, 22, studied geology in Mohammed V University and is training to be a high school science teacher at Centre Pedagogique Regional, or CPR, a teacher-training school in Rabat. He recalls having trouble understanding the lectures and had to translate terminology from Arabic to French. But Ait El-Maati gradually figured it out and excelled in school. Now, in yet one more language reversal, he will be using Arabic once again to teach in high school since the new decision will not be effective before 2030. I did 12 years in Arabic, three years of French, and now I have to go back to teaching people in Arabic. You need to have Google translate in your head, said Ait El-Maati, laughing. I dont have problems teaching students, but I only have a problem understanding this system. Why are they doing this? Moroccan education officials blame students language difficulties on big class sizes and teachers who lack skills. According to a UNESCO report published in 2015, during the period from 2011-2014, the average student/class ratio for primary level was around 28-29 students per class. It has been increasing steadily at university level from 33 in 2001 to 38.4 in 2014. In Morocco, more than 1,600 hours of French is offered [through high school] so students should be good in French, Lahcen Daoudi, the minister of higher education, scientific research and training, told Al Jazeera. That is not a problem of hours of language learning, it is a problem of quality of work that is put in. Two years ago, the Faculty of Science at Mohammed V University in Rabat started offering a beginner French class for students lagging behind in the language. Many students need the help, according to Asmaa Badhadi, 18, who is studying journalism at Institut Superieur de lInformation et de la Communication in Rabat. The test made for students who dont speak good French was so easy. It was like choosing la maison or le maison, but people still didnt pass the test, said Badhadi. Nationwide, there were about 185,000 students enrolled in science programmes, according to government figures. But 85 percent of the students at the University of Hassan II Mohammedia the countrys most prestigious engineering school said they struggle to be fluent enough in French to succeed in their studies, according to a 2014 study published in the Journal of Research & Method in Education. A quarter said they have a lot of trouble understanding the French language, and 60 percent reported some problems with understanding the language. Only 5 percent of all Moroccans obtain university degrees and one reason, university professors say, are challenges with language proficiency. There are a lot of people who, after the first week, drop out of university because of this issue, said Nabila Guennouni, a second-year student in the computer science department at Hassan II University. Wealthier parents have the privilege to enrol their children in private primary schools, that grants them much more exposure to the French language. In private schools, science and maths are taught both in Arabic and French, and French as a language class is taught from first grade. In public schools, however, students start learning French in fourth grade. You mess with the linguistic policy, you create a private system Whats the rationale behind this policy? said Nabil Belkabir, the cofounder of UECSE a student-led movement to improve education. Complicating matters even further is a new government plan to give English a larger place in education. English will now be introduced starting in the fourth grade. I think it would be better if the whole system was in English for scientific studies, said Oumayma El-Jahsani, an engineering student at CPGE Moulay Youssef, a school in Rabat. Because even after you study in French, when you do research, sometimes you find books only in English. According to Ben Saga, the director of the information and orientation division of the higher education ministry, the priority now is to have English language in higher level education, especially for PhDs and masters students. It is very important for us to have this for scientific research, since the majority of it is in English, he told Al Jazeera. Our PhD students find it difficult to have direct access to scientific research in the world if we only have Arabic or French. So for us, it is very important to have this. Many Moroccan students say they like the new English language requirement, as they view fluency in the English language as an advantage, not only in school but also in the job market. English will be helpful for all because its easy and we can work with it, said Nassim El Garni, a third-year mathematics and computer science student at Mohammed V university Others arent so sure, seeing it as merely the continuation of the problems that have arisen with making French so necessary. Is it possible for a country to develop if it speaks the language of another country or if it not capable of speaking its own language? asks Hamza Alioua, spokesman for the UECSE and a second-year student at the Hassan II University. Jennifer Kwon spent several months in Morocco as part of an SIT Study Abroad programme. This story was produced in association with Round Earth Media which is reclaiming international news. Soukaina El Ouaai contributed reporting. Reinhold Hanning jailed for five years for his role in killing of 170,000 people in one of the last holocaust trials. A German court has convicted a former SS guard for complicity in the mass murders at the Nazi-run Auschwitz death camp, capping what is expected to be one of the last Holocaust trials. The accused is sentenced to five years jail for accessory to murder in 170,000 cases, the court ruled on Friday, in the case of 94-year old Reinhold Hanning. The court said Hanning was aware that in Auschwitz, innocent people were murdered every day in gas chambers. An estimated 1.1 million people were killed in Auschwitz, and 90 percent of those killed were Jews. Auschwitzs conspiracy of silence Hanning showed no reaction as the judge, Anke Grudda, read her justification for the verdict and sentence. You were in Auschwitz for two and a half years, performed an important function You were part of a criminal organisation and took part in criminal activity in Auschwitz, she said. Several elderly Auschwitz survivors testified at the trial about their own experiences, and were among 58 survivors or their families who joined the process as co-plaintiffs as allowed under German law. It is a just verdict, but he should say more, tell the truth for the young people, said Leon Schwarzbaum, a 95-year-old Auschwitz survivor from Berlin. Shamed He is an old man and probably wont have to go to jail, but he should say what happened at Auschwitz. Auschwitz was like something the world has never seen. During his four-month trial, Hanning admitted serving as an Auschwitz guard. He said he was ashamed that he was aware Jews were being killed but did nothing to try to stop it. Hanning said during his trial that he volunteered for the armed wing of the Nazi party, called the SS, at age 18. He served in Auschwitz from January 1942 to June 1944 but said he was not involved in the killings in the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Despite his age, Hanning seemed alert during the four-month trial, paying attention to testimony and occasionally walking into the courtroom on his own, though usually using a wheelchair. Though there is no evidence Hanning was responsible for a specific crime, he was tried under new legal reasoning that as a guard he helped the death camp to operate, and thus could be tried for accessory to murder. An unverified letter alleged Chavez and Brazilian construction companies funded Ollanta Humalas campaign in 2006. A Peruvian prosecutor has said that the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and two Brazilian construction companies may have bankrolled Perus President Ollanta Humalas campaign before taking office in 2011. An informant gave prosecutors a letter mentioning around $2m in investments in Humalas first presidential bid a decade ago, which was signed by Chavez and addressed to Humala. The letter has not yet been authenticated. Burn any evidence, brother, for the good of us all. This is revolutionary, socialist aide, said the letter, as read by prosecutor German Juarez in a televised hearing on Thursday. Perus election: Media, money and manipulation Juarez is in the process of investigating first lady Nadine Heredia for possible involvement in undeclared campaign contributions. She has also been barred from leaving Peru. No charges have been filed yet, according to Heredias lawyer. After losing the 2006 presidential elections, Humala distanced himself from Chavez during his successful 2011 campaign. Humala has denied taking any money from Chavez. Another informant alleged that construction companies Odebrecht SA and Grupo OAS, both tangled in a vast corruption scandal in neighbouring Brazil, gave Humala and Heredia hundreds of thousands of dollars. They also paid the salary of an adviser close to Brazils Workers Party to help with Humalas 2011 campaign, Juarez said. University scholarships for female South African students who stay virgins are unconstitutional, a government commission has ruled, after a local municipality introduced the scheme earlier this year. In late January, the uThukela municipality, in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), awarded maidens bursaries to 16 students on condition they refrained from sex until they graduated. Virginity is not intrinsic to the task of studying. by Commission for Gender Equality An investigation by the Commission for Gender Equality concluded on Friday that the study grants were unlawful. The commission said that a bursary contingent on a female students virginity is fundamentally discriminatory. It goes against the ethos of the constitutional provisions in relation to dignity, equality and discrimination. One of the scholarship conditions was that during their holidays the students would be subjected to supposed virginity tests traditionally conducted by elderly women. The tests have been severely criticised by rights groups and dismissed by medical experts. Virginity is not intrinsic to the task of studying, the commission added, giving the municipality 60 days to respond to its recommendation that the scholarship scheme should be closed. The size of the grants varies, but can be worth several thousand dollars a year. Heavy criticism Municipality mayor Dudu Mazibuko told the AFP news agency in March that the scholarships were an effective way to curb the spread of HIV and control teenage pregnancies. But womens rights activists have condemned the initiative, arguing that not only it undermined civil liberties, but was also counter-productive and short-sighted in the larger struggle against HIV/AIDS in the country. Sisonke Msimang, a policy development and advocacy consultant for the Sonke Gender Justice project in Johannesburg, told Al Jazeera in January that the scholarship was a terrible idea [that] had so many layers of ridiculousness. Being sexually active and seeking an education have nothing to do with each other, Msimang said. South Africa is home to 6.4 million HIV positive people, the highest in the world. In 2014, medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said 25.2 percent of KZNs adult population was HIV positive, compared to the national average of 17.9 percent. Women in KZN were also disproportionately affected by the virus, MSF said. Organisers describe ban as a flagrant violation of the constitution and say they will take legal action. Authorities in the Turkish city of Istanbul have banned an annual gay pride march planned for later this month, citing security and public order fears. The ban, which was angrily denounced by the Istanbul pride organisers, came after ultra-nationalist and conservative groups said they would not allow degenerates to hold such events on Turkish soil. The Istanbul governors office said in a statement on Friday that the June 26 march had been banned out of concern for public order and safeguarding security. The order means anyone taking part in the parade in defiance of the authorities risks facing intervention by the security forces. READ MORE: Water cannon used to disperse Istanbul gay pride parade In recent days, hardline groups had vowed to do what is necessary to stop Istanbuls gay pride march. Dear state officials, do not make us deal with these. Either you do what is needed or we will do it, Kursat Mican, Istanbuls head of Alperen Hearths, the youth group loyal to the far-nationalist Great Union Party, told reporters. Until 2015, the gay pride march had been held on 12 occasions largely without incident, growing into the largest such event in a Muslim country with thousands taking part in a celebration of diversity. Last year, however, the parade was banned by the governorship hours before the event. Soon after, it was shut down through police intervention for the first time in its 13-year history. Flagrant violation The organisers of the march, in a statement on their Facebook page, denounced Fridays ban as a flagrant violation of the constitution and the law. They said that the event had until 2015 been held on the last Sunday of June every year since 2003 to raise our voices against the violations experienced throughout the year and express our demands for equality, freedom and legal status. The marchs organisers also accused the governors office of failing in its duty to protect the rights of citizens to exercise their rights and vowed to launch legal proceedings. Activists are planning a week of events from this weekend culminating in a gay pride march on June 26 that traditionally follows Istanbuls famed shopping street Istiklal Caddesi and finishes in Taksim Square. However, Turkey has been hit by a string of attacks this year, including a deadly suicide bombing on Istiklal itself that killed three Israelis and an Iranian and was blamed on armed groups. Like last year, the march is also scheduled to take place during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Homosexuality has been legal in Turkey throughout the period of the modern republic and was also legalised in the Ottoman Empire from the mid-19th century. But gays in Turkey regularly complain of harassment and abuse in a largely conservative Muslim society where open displays of same sex love are strongly frowned upon. US Congress urged to make it harder for people to buy weapons like the one used in Sundays killings in Florida gay bar. US President Barack Obama has met the survivors of Sundays mass shooting at a gay bar in Florida and relatives of the 49 people killed there and said that the United States must act to control gun violence and fight what he called homegrown terrorism. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Orlando on Thursday, four days after a US-born gunman claiming allegiance to various armed groups carried out the deadliest mass shooting in recent memory. I held and hugged grieving family members and parents, and they asked, Why does this keep happening?, Obama said. He urged Congress to pass measures to make it harder to legally acquire high-powered weapons like the semi-automatic rifle used in the attack at the Pulse nightclub. INSIDE STORY Orlando shooting: Who defines terrorism? Im pleased to hear that the senate will hold votes on preventing individuals with possible terrorist ties from buying guns, he said. Obama, who has visited mass shooting victims families in towns from San Bernardino, California, to Newtown, Connecticut, since he has been president, later laid flowers at a memorial for the victims of the attack on the nightclub. Al Jazeeras Patty Culhane, reporting from Orlando, said: After each mass shooting, there has been talk that the US Congress could impose some restrictions on guns only to see them fail. But, supporters of gun control hope that the fact that there have been so many mass murders, this time will be different. Contentious issue The Senate leadership has promised that there will be votes on two bills: one to expand background checks on all gun sales, the other to ban people on the no-fly list from buying a gun. But it is not clear the bills have the votes to pass. Furthermore, Paul Ryan, the leader of the opposition Republicans and Speaker of the House of Representatives, said he has reservations. As the FBI director just told us the other day, and I think he said it publicly as well, if we do this wrong like the president is proposing, we could actually blow our ongoing terrorist investigations, he said. So we want to get this right. However, our correspondent said that many of the people she had spoken to did not think that the tragedy would lead to any change at all in gun laws. The president has warned if Congress doesnt act, there will be another massacre, she said. Well find out early next week when the Senate takes up the issue. Attack revelations It was reported on Thursday that during the shooting rampage, the attacker, Omar Mateen, exchanged text messages with his wife, posted on Facebook and placed a phone call to a television station. Police killed Mateen, 29, a US citizen born in New York to Afghan immigrants. READ MORE: Outpouring of love in Orlando The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility for the Orlando attack but US officials have said that they do not believe Mateen was assisted from abroad. John Brennan, CIAs director, told a US Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday that the agency had not been able to uncover any direct link between Mateen and fighters abroad. A married couple also claiming allegiance to ISIL, also known as ISIS, shot dead 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December. Temperatures approach record June highs around the Four Corner States, with at least 400 homes and businesses evacuated. Wildfires are burning in four US states as temperatures are threatening record highs, with mass evacuations having taken place in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. A blaze known as the Dog Head fire broke out in rural New Mexico on Wednesday, around 50km southeast of Albuquerque. Torrance County Sheriff, Heath White said his office was evacuating about 200 people. The fire has burned through timber in central parts of the state, pushing smoke towards cities more than 160km away as flames continued to spread. Meanwhile, 400 homes and businesses have been evacuated in southern California as hot and windy weather feeds the flames. Santa Barbara County Fire Department Public Information Officer David Zaniboni said the main concern was keeping everyone safe from the encroaching flames. We want to get this fire out. We have wind and high temperatures expected, Zaniboni said. With wind and low humidity, its a recipe for disaster when it comes to wildfires so we want to get on this thing as fast as we can. The Sherpa Fire, as its called, is located along the Pacific coast. Two state beaches and some ranch land have been evacuated, and the 101 Freeway had to be closed on Wednesday and Thursday. Arizona has suffered likewise. It was reported that Navajo County officials issued pre-evacuation orders as the Cedar Creek Fire approaches Show Low, Pinetop-Lakeside, McNary, Fort Apache and the Hon-Dah communities. The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings across the southwestern states, including California, Nevada and Arizona. It has predicted temperatures around 48C in the coming days in Phoenix. The all-time June record stands at 50C, set on June 26, 1990. We ask OECD chief Angel Gurria, and Swiss Sen. Andrea Caroni debates expert Dylan Matthews on Universal Basic Income. As UK citizens prepare to vote next week on whether to remain part of the European Union, what impact will a potential Brexit have on the global economy? In this weeks UpFront, we ask Angel Gurria, the secretary-general of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, about the EU referendum and the OECDs 2016 Economic Survey on the US economy. This interview was recorded prior to the killing of British MP Jo Cox. In the Reality Check, we look at how economic sanctions often cause more harm than good. And in the Arena, we debate the pros and cons of Universal Basic Income with Swiss Senator Andrea Caroni and expert Dylan Matthews. OECD chief: Brexit is bad from every single angle As Britons decide whether to stay or leave the European Union, those outside of the UK are asking what a potential Brexit would mean not only for the UK, but also the global economy. The OECD has warned of the consequences of a potential British departure from the EU, saying the UK economy would suffer a major negative shock, resulting in an economic fallout for other countries within the OECD. In this weeks Headliner, Mehdi Hasan speaks to OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria about what a potential Brexit would mean for the world economy. Frankly, its bad from every single angle, Gurria says, Everybodys looking at it from different angles and the one common thread is its negative, its negative, its negative, its negative. Gurria also believes that a Brexit would have a knock-on effect in Europe and in the world. The OECD secretary-general also discusses inequality and a new economic survey on the US economy. The US is moving along, it should stay the course, but that it has a number of very important challenges, mostly having to do with productivity, Gurria says. Editors note: This interview was recorded prior to the tragic killing of British opposition MP Jo Cox. Reality Check: Economic sanctions can kill too As far back as ancient Greece, governments have tried to stop their enemies and bring about change via blockades, embargoes and even economic sanctions. While there are times when such sanctions have worked and do work, studies have shown that the majority of sanctions are unsuccessful in their intended purpose and sometimes cause great harm to those affected. In this weeks Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan looks at how most sanctions do more harm than good. Is it time for Universal Basic Income? What if the government gave every citizen a minimum cash payment, paid right to their bank account every month? Thats the premise behind Universal Basic Income, or UBI. Earlier this month, voters in Switzerland overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would have provided a universal basic income grant to all. However, other countries such as Canada, the UK and Namibia are considering similar measures. Proponents of UBI say such income would help with rising unemployment and fight inequality and poverty, but opponents argue that the initiative would encourage people to quit their jobs and in turn, would have a negative impact on the economy. In this weeks Arena, Andrea Caroni, senator and vice president of Switzerlands Free Democratic Party who campaigned against Universal Basic Income, debates with Dylan Matthews, a journalist at Vox, who has written extensively in favour of UBI. Follow UpFront on Twitter @AJUpFront and Facebook. 2005 .. AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him But I Think He's a Non-Believer by Constance Daley Death of a Thug The Life and Horrors of Suharto by Andreas Harsono ___________________________ This Just In Sierra Club: McCain Ducked All 15 Key Votes On Green Laws (AR) A Work By AR's T.S. Kerrigan Is Chosen As 'Best Poem' By Wordpress Site Murder At Mile 63 The Deadly Assault and Bush Administration Cover-Up by S. Eben Kirkesby and Andreas Harsono 5427 14th St. West, Bradenton, FL 34207 $6.99 Fish Fridays! Manatee Co.'s Only 24-Hr. FREE Wi-Fi Paid Advertisement On Native Ground AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008 HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies: WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008 AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008 CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE] Receiving Wide Coverage Round 2: Right now, the score is MetLife: 1, FSOC: 0. But the government is looking to even the odds. MetLife won a major victory in federal district court this spring when a judge threw out its "systemically important" label, ruling that the Financial Stability Oversight Council fell short in proving that the insurer deserved the designation. The government appealed the decision in April, and regulators filed their first detailed brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Thursday night. The council, which is represented by the Justice Department, called the lower court judge's ruling "profoundly mistaken." For those keeping tabs, MetLife is represented in the case by Eugene Scalia, son of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and he has racked up quite a slate of wins against financial regulators over the past decade. Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters Wall Street Journal Making lemonade: Falling interest rates have one "potential bright spot" -- borrowers are purchasing new homes and refinancing in higher numbers than expected. But low interest rates are still a problem for banks, especially those with lots of long-term loans and mortgage-backed securities. Bottleneck approaching: Visa and MasterCard said they'll speed up the certification process for merchants adopting chip-reading technology for credit cards. Persona non grata: Stealing Federal Reserve secrets will get you barred from the banking industry and sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rohit Bansal, formerly of Goldman Sachs, learned that lesson the hard way. FASB finally done: Accounting standards-setters have completed their long-brewing rule that will require banks to record anticipated losses faster on loans gone bad. Financial Times Warm fuzzies: Impact investing which focuses on monetary returns as well as social or environmental good is hot, hot, hot these days with everyone from Pope Francis to John D. Rockefeller's heirs getting involved. When it comes to results, your mileage may vary. Case closed: HSBC has agreed to a record $1.6 billion settlement in a shareholder lawsuit involving the purchase of U.S. subprime lender Household International before the meltdown. The acquisition has a reputation for being "one of the most misconceived of the pre-crisis era." Elsewhere DAO hack: The Decentralized Autonomous Organization, which controls millions of dollars of the digital currency Ethereum, suffered what appears to be a devastating attack early Friday morning. Later, one cryptocurrency news site reported that the hack had been fixed. F is for 'formal complaint': CNBC obtained a list of more than 180 phrases that will get an internal email flagged by the Goldman Sachs compliance department. Standard expletives apply, as do some goodies like "formal complaint," "don't worry about the losses" and "sure bet." Saber-rattling: Heads of some of the financial services trade groups are praising a plan by House Republicans that would repeal a cap on debit card fees paid by merchants. Their op-ed appears in The Hill. As JPMorgan Chase gears up for the launch of the merchant-friendly Chase Pay wallet, it's taking the opportunity to freshen its approach to P-to-P mobile payments. Additionally, the bank's Early Warning/clearXchange P-to-P venture is gathering more momentum, giving Chase another reason to tweak its QuickPay service to make it easier to enroll, setup contacts and handle payments. "Customers made $20 billion in P-to-P transactions through Chase QuickPay last year more than double what any fintech company reported. Mobile and digital usage is growing among all our demographics," said Gavin Michael, head of Digital for JPMorgan Chase, in an email to PaymentsSource. Through an update that's expected to be complete by the end of June, consumers will be able to enroll in Chase QuickPay through the Chase Mobile app instead of having to go online and enroll in a browser. The new process is designed to accommodate the 75% of QuickPay transactions that are already done through the Chase Mobile app. Also, the screens and flows will be streamlined and made more intuitive. Consumers will be able to choose directly from their phone contacts, rather than punching in the information, and will be able to see images of their recipients if they are already saved in their contact list. Additionally, QuickPay settings will be added to the My Setting page in the Chase Mobile app. Chase is making these updates to address a fast-growing digital market, and the move toward real-time transfers on the clearXchange network, a bank-led consortium that includes Bank of America, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and other institutions. Bank of America and U.S. Bank have announced real-time functionality for person-to-person payments on clearXchange, with most of the initiative's remaining participants expected to follow suit in the next few days. Chase has not made a formal announcement, but went live with real-time person-to-person transfers on the network on Monday. "Real-time P-to-P is rolling out to other clearXchange banks in the near future this will represent 60% of all U.S. consumers with mobile banking apps," Michael said. The QuickPay enhancements were designed specifically for Chase. Early Warning's members typically develop their own digital payments initiatives that can be used along with clearXchange, which allows account transfers to be directed to a recipient's email or mobile phone number. Chase anticipates a large addressable market. More than 70 million Americans currently make mobile P-to-P payments and that is projected to reach to 125 million by 2020, up 78% from today, the bank said. And Chase P-to-P volume continues to grow customers made $20 billion in P-to-P transactions through Chase QuickPay last year. The bank is on track to have 40% year-over-year growth around Chase QuickPay. Early Warning did not comment by deadline for this story. As other member banks announce real-time P-to-P functionality, it enhances the venture's quest to take the lead in the development of faster payments processing in the U.S. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference in New York, Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said many of the "larger banks" will "recommit" to the future of Early Warning's clearXchange. "It is a bank-to-bank, very easy to use, at least from our perspective, generally free way for person-to-person payments to happen in real time," Shrewsberry said. "I don't know why anybody would use any other way to do it, frankly, if the bank was offering it for free, because I'm safe, I'm secure, it's easy, I'm there." There are several payment providers with significant scale that are positioning themselves to be the preferred platform for faster payments, including FIS, most debit networks and ACH providers, said Tim Sloane, vice president of innovation at Mercator Advisory Group. "Each participant has a different existing constituency and each have different technical and business problems in making the conversion to anything like real time," Sloane said. "Of course the major sticking point is unlikely to be problems in the network; the major challenge will be associated with the banks that receive and send real-time payments since most implement account management technology [core systems] that are incapable of operating in real time." Pricing will be interesting to watch, said Sarah Grotta, director of the debit advisory service at Mercator. "Consumers say they are willing to pay for P-to-P, but with non-FI solutions in market offering services for free, that's an uphill battle," Grotta said. U.S. Bank charges $6.95 for real-time payments, though the bank did suggest it was flexible to adapt to the actions of the other banks. "The three banks that [are] going to be out in the next few days" on clearXchange. "Likely they'll come out free and if they do then we'll back down. I'll be disappointed and I'll be a martyr about it, because I'll take the opportunity for us to, as a banking industry, to have value-based processing and capability," said Richard Davis, U.S. Bancorp's chairman and CEO, at the Morgan Stanley event in New York. Kristin Broughton contributed to this story. WASHINGTON At first blush, the image of Sen. Elizabeth Warren as Hillary Clinton's vice president might be enough to send bankers fleeing to the hills. The Massachusetts Democrat has proven to be a powerful force in advancing Wall Street reform, including successfully creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If she were just one step from the White House, her power and prestige would presumably grow. Or would it? Some argue that as vice president, Warren would have less influence than as a top member of the Senate Banking Committee. While she'd be more visible as vice president, she may also have to toe the line in a Clinton presidency. "She might well be more constrained," said Mark Calabria, director of financial studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. "You cannot just go your own way as VP." To be sure, it's still unclear if Clinton would pick Warren as a running mate or if Warren would accept an offer if it were made. Moreover, it's by no means clear whether a Clinton-Warren ticket would prevail against the presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Yet the pressure for Clinton to choose Warren is growing. Several progressive groups have argued that selecting the former Harvard law professor is a way to bolster support among progressives, many of whom backed Clinton's rival in the primaries, Sen. Bernie Sanders. "The most strategic way for Hillary Clinton to unite Democrats and fend off Donald Trump's attempts to woo general election voters is to keep the volume high on big progressive ideas," Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a press release Friday. "These big ideas should be reflected in the vice presidential pick and the Democratic platform as well." In the latest Bloomberg Politics national poll, more than a third of likely voters backing Clinton said she should pick Warren. But the question remains if that happens and Clinton were to win the presidency would that be good or bad for bankers? It ultimately comes down to how Clinton and Warren would choose to define the vice presidential role. Oftentimes, vice presidents are marginalized and relatively unimportant unless they are needed in an emergency. But in recent years with Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney the role has proven very influential. Some progressives believe Warren would only accept the nomination in return for holding some power. "Given Sen. Warren's record on financial reform I think that if she were asked to be the vice president, it would almost have to be an ask focused on having her lead fights for greater accountability for Wall Street and to ensure the financial system works for everyone and not just the big banks," said Neil Sroka, communications director for the Democratic political action committee Democracy for America. A spokesperson for Warren declined to comment. Nominations As vice president, Warren could also have an outsized role in helping to select personnel, including the heads of the federal regulators when their terms expire. "Warren could attempt to manage the personnel vetting in a much, much deeper level than anything we have seen since Dick Cheney during the first term of the most recent Bush administration," said Brandon Barford, a partner at Beacon Policy Advisors. Of course, Warren will have a role in a theoretical Clinton administration's personnel choices even if she isn't vice president. From her perch on the Banking Committee, Warren can rally other Democratic senators to oppose any administration appointee she sees as insufficiently committed to financial reform. Warren took a lead role in opposing the nomination of Antonio Weiss to a spot in President Obama's Treasury because she viewed him as too close to Wall Street. Still, as vice president, she could have even more of a say. "Getting her way, in terms of getting the people who she thinks are 'the right people,' confirmed as regulators is enormously important," Barford said. But others cast doubt on how influential Warren would be compared to others inside Clinton's inner circle. "I would anticipate at this point in the cycle former Secretary of state Clinton has an idea of who she wants to slide where," said Ed Groshans, an analyst at Height Securities. "Warren can have some input into that process, but I would anticipate that Hillary Clinton's team already has a list of names for each significant role that they want to tap to fill those shoes." Dodd-Frank At the same time, some observers argued that making changes to the Dodd-Frank Act would be easier if Warren were no longer in the Senate. "There are enough senators on the Democrat and Republican sides who are more moderate in enabling legislation to get through," Groshans said. "If Sen. Warren were to be vice president, I think we would see movement" on a reform bill. But a Democratic financial services lobbyist who spoke on condition of anonymity said the battle lines have already been drawn on Dodd-Frank, with or without Warren in the Senate. Still, other items might be easier to move with her in a different role. "It's a question of what is the next thing?" the lobbyist said. "Without her in the Senate I think there is a possibility where you could see senators work more cooperatively to address a problem that doesn't do any harm to Dodd-Frank." And it's unclear if Warren would be able to better advance her own agenda as vice president. "Elizabeth Warren would have more press coverage if she was running as the VP, but I look to the practical impact of powers of the vice presidency and they are limited," said Isaac Boltanksy, a policy analyst at Compass Point Research & Trading. The Clinton Question The larger issue hanging over all of this is whether Clinton even wants to pick Warren. It's notable that Warren did not endorse Clinton or Sanders during their primary battle and is already working hard to defeat Trump. Warren and Trump have engaged in several fights over Twitter during the past few weeks. Warren also hails from a state with a Republican governor. If she were to win as vice president, her temporary replacement would undoubtedly be a member of the GOP, something that could theoretically affect the balance of power in the Senate. And many suggest Clinton isn't too keen on Warren. "Does she want somebody who could potentially upstage her?" the lobbyist asked. "Do you really want your vice president to get a bigger applause than the president?" Still, Clinton may look at the poll numbers versus Trump and decide she needs to shore up support among progressives. "There is no person, including the Democratic nominee for president, who has more influence over Democratic voters and activists than Elizabeth Warren," the lobbyist said. Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is the target of a new TV ad campaign that alleges he is courting potential donors for a run as governor of Ohio by enacting a plan that would benefit trial lawyers. The ads appear to be the work of Lincoln Strategy Group, a political strategy firm based in Phoenix, which has been tied to allegations of voter fraud and accused of sending its operatives to public events featuring Cordray. In one TV ad, Cordray's face is superimposed on a cartoon body surrounded by bags of money while a narrator states: "Running for office is extremely expensive, so Richard is using his immense power at the CFPB to make a new regulation that will massively benefit Richard's biggest potential donors." The ad is referring to the CFPB's May proposal to restrict the use of arbitration clauses. Some firms have portrayed the plan, which would allow consumers to bring class-action lawsuits against banks, credit card companies and other financial firms, as a giveaway to plaintiff's attorneys. The ads generally seek to undermine the credibility of the agency and portray Cordray as using his role to further his political ambitions. Cordray's five-year term ends in mid-2018 and he is barred from campaigning for office while he serves as the CFPB's director. Cordray, 57, has never said that he plans to run for governor of Ohio when current Gov. John Kasich's term expires in 2018. But there has been speculation that Cordray is considered a possible Democratic candidate. "Director Cordray is solely focused on his work leading the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," said CFPB spokesman Sam Gilford. The ads are ostensibly the work of a group calling itself Protect America's Consumers and are running this month in Indiana, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The group says on its website that the "advertising blitz will expose the rotten activities of the CFPB." Yet digging deeper into the group yields connections to another Republican political organization. A search of the domain names found its website is owned by Dan Centinello, an executive vice president at Lincoln Strategy Group, a political strategy firm in Phoenix. Centinello worked on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, among others, according to his bio on the firm's website. Nathan Sproul, the founder of Lincoln Strategy Group, was accused in 2012 of submitting possible fraudulent voter registration forms in Florida when he worked for Romney's presidential campaign (the group was then known as Strategic Allied Consulting). Multiple calls to Lincoln Strategy Group were not returned. There is some evidence that executives at Lincoln attempted to confront Cordray directly. During a May 5 field hearing on the arbitration proposal in Albuquerque, an audience member identified as Chuck Bowman asked Cordray if the plan was tied to his political ambitions. Consumer advocates, including Karl Frisch, an executive director at the progressive group Allied Progress, say Bowman is, in fact, Chuck Coolidge, a principal of Lincoln Strategy Group. Judging from a review of video of the hearing and Coolidge's social media accounts, Coolidge bears a striking resemblance to Bowman. "Director Cordray, wouldn't you agree with some of your panelists that this arbitration rule would increase class actions and pad the pockets of trial lawyers?" asked the bearded man at the hearing. "I would like to ask the governor if he plans on renouncing trial lawyer support for attorney general races or governor's race in Ohio." Steve Gates, who is listed as a spokesman for Protect America's Consumers, could not be reached for comment. Protect America's Consumers is listed as a 501(c)(4) organization, though it is not registered with the Internal Revenue Service, based on a search of exempt groups. 501(c)(4) nonprofits must be operated exclusively to promote social welfare and are prohibited from engaging in political activity, according to IRS guidelines. However, an exempt group can set up shop and start functioning while it is waiting for exempt status or even before it has applied for exemption. Gates said in a press release on the group's website that the response to the ad campaign "to save the CFPB through reform has been hugely positive." "Americans demand that people who are in charge of huge sums of their money answer to the people they elect," he said. "This is why America works." Frisch, the Democratic strategist, has sought to rebut the allegations of Protect America's Consumers by creating his own opposing website. Frisch said the founders of Protect America's Consumers are political operatives who have created campaigns for the coal industry and voter registration. "If you think about what their current effort is, this is a dark-money group that is attacking the head of a federal agency for a campaign [for Ohio governor] that doesn't exist on donors that don't exist," Frisch said. "They're throwing everything they can at a wall and hoping something sticks." Other TV ads allege that the CFPB's headquarters in Washington cost more than a Las Vegas casino, a longtime claim of GOP lawmakers based on a revamping of the agency's building after it took it over from the now-defunct Office of Thrift Supervision. (Cordray has said the building was a "dump" badly in need of repair, a view shared by many who visited it prior to its remodeling.) The ads also say the bureau faces dozens of discrimination complaints by female and minority employees. Last year, American Banker reported that there was a spike in employee bias complaints against the bureau. I have a pet peeve against all attempts to rewrite history that goes well beyond the usual disdain for those who speciously boast of 20/20 hindsight. Thus as soon as I read that the American born shooter in the Orlando nightclub incident* was 29, I knew what to expect in our current political environment. Age 29 means the individual's parents came to America from Afghanistan sometime before mid-1987. Many people seem to have forgotten some basic facts from that period. Others are disregarding what they do know because it is not helpful to their current political goals. Consider that in 1986, most Americans saw the Mujahedeen not as religious fanatics but as an army of Davids taking on the invading USSR Goliath with the assistance of US made Stinger missiles instead of a slingshot and rocks. Nor was this view confined to conservatives. Remember "Gunga Dan" Rather's trip to Afghanistan during which he shed all his self-proclaimed journalistic objectivity to go on a raid with the Mujahedeen? Consider that in 1986 the idea that the Mujahedeen would in a few years lead to the Taliban, Al Qaeda and ISIS was nowhere to be found. Indeed, the watershed events in 1979, the overthrow of the Shah and the seizure of the Grand Mosque tended to be seen by many as aberrations when, in fact, they marked the start of a strong counterrevolution to the decades of secularization by governments across the region that had looked to western style socialism as the model for the future of the region, Consider that in 1986 some Americans were still dismayed by the Carter administration's reluctance to admit the deposed Shah of Iran, except briefly for medical treatment, after he was overthrown. Perhaps even more Americans were embarrassed at how we had abandoned allies in Southeast Asia a few years before that. Stories about refugees attempting to flee Vietnam in overcrowded and unsafe boats were in and out of the news all through the late 70s and the 1980s. Resettling those who had suffered Communist persecution because of their interactions with Americans plus finding home for the many illegitimate children of US Servicemen was widely considered a debt of honor. By the mid-1980s, some 50% of the Afghan population was displaced by what had become for the United Sates a surrogate war with the USSR. Assisting those people was seen as an extension of such debts. That there was a vast gulf between the affluent, Western-educated and often secularized Persians allied with the Shah and the fundamentalist Afghani tribesmen was not seen as a consideration. After all, many of the refugees from American wars in Southeast Asia were also poor, uneducated and unfamiliar with urban life. Consider that in 1986, most international actions, including international terrorism, were still being analyzed through the lens of the Cold War. The consensus on that was the Soviet Union might collapse and Germany reunify in another 30 to 40 years or so. Of course, the smart money in 1986 was also on how a progression of septuagenarian "western style" reformers -- Yuri Andropov. Konstantin Chernenko and Andrei Gromyko -- into Soviet leadership should be taken as a sign the Soviet ship of state knew it had to correct its course. Can sinking beneath the waves in five years be considered a course correction? Consider also that in 1986, it could be difficult and was extremely expensive to make a phone call to the capital cities of much of the third world from the West, never mind smaller cities and towns. Snail mail could take weeks. Only a few people on the cutting edge of technology understood there were about to be great changes in international communications capability. Because wireless systems are cheaper to build than landlines, communication abilities in lesser developed nations have exploded while services such as Skype have brought the costs down. Today, an immigrant from halfway around the world can call, e-mail or text home every day as well as stay in touch through the social media. Immigrants can also stream news from back home, download movies, videos and books from their native lands and even shop for native groceries on-line. Each wave of immigration has produced a handful of alienated members in the second generation, One key difference from the past is that communication developments since 1986 make it much easier for terrorists to locate and recruit their preferred cannon fodder -- disaffected, unstable, angry, violence prone young people seeking either redemption or glory. I often imagine what might have happened had the anarchists of the late 19th and early 20th century had Internet capabilities. In 2016 a lot of people on the political right who regularly decry the way the political left loves to rewrite history in pursuit of current political goals seem to be falling to the same urge. In their desire to score political points on the war on terror they are overlooking that only the Almighty Himself knew in 1986 what a yet to be born second generation Afghan Americans might do in 2016, and then only if the theological concepts of double predestination are, indeed, part of the Almighty's grand plan. I worry that the United States in 2016 bears an uncomfortable similarity to the Soviet Union in 1986. The list of nations that have been restored to greatness under a gerontocracy is short. Yet the names being considered for leadership in today's America are of the same age as the Soviet leaders back in 1986. Those Soviet leaders were fixated on aggrandizement and ignored the real reasons for the internal economic stagnation inside their nation. They also affected a false sense of prescience that is rife among our current Presidential candidates. While our candidates talk about hot button issues like Islamic terrorism and immigration, and play to an increasingly polarized population, there is one uncomfortable fact that is being almost completely overlooked. Due to the falling birth rates/family formation among the young and the retirement of the Boomer generation, there is now only 2.1 workers for every person collecting Social Security. That cannot be sustained. *Since many mass murderers actively seek notoriety, I try to deny it to them by not using their names but only identifying information. There is a quick and easy way to ease what Americans say is their growing anxiety over a Trump, Sanders, or Clinton presidency. Just give Americans the option to recall via a national referendum any future sitting president they clearly believe is taking the country in a wrong or dangerous direction or consistently violating the Constitutional limits on his or her power. This is hardly a revolutionary idea. Californians in 2003 recalled their unpopular governor Grey Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger in his place. Just this last March New Jersey newspapers urged state voters to remove Governor Christie for purportedly neglecting his gubernatorial duties. Congress does have the constitutional authority to remove a president, but only if the president is found guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors via the woefully cumbersome and ineffective impeachment process. In 1951 US Senator Robert Hendrickson (R,NJ) proposed a constitutional amendment establishing a presidential recall. Currently sitting in House and Senate committees is a petition submitted by former legislative aide Gregory D. Watson of Austin, Texas calling for an amendment establishing a procedure by which voters can remove a president by means of a nationwide recall election. A presidential recall option would serve as a powerful counterbalance to an office gradually morphing into the autocracy our founders warned against. Historians point out that most presidents since Truman have engaged in wars in the Middle East, Kosovo and Vietnam without the Congressional approval the Constitution specifically demands. In 2014, President Obama announced he would circumvent the new Republican House and Senate majorities anticipated opposition to his immigration and gun control initiatives through constitutionally questionable executive actions using his pen and phone. The Wall Street Journals Kimberly Strassel worries that President Trump would succumb to the Obama Power Temptation to not only legislate via executive action but also direct government agencies to intimidate the political opposition much as the IRS did against the Tea Party a few years ago. Attorney General Loretta Lynch hinted the White House might use the RICO Act, created to fight mobsters, to silence critics of the administrations climate change stance. Karl Rove claims a President Hillary Clinton would ratify this new post-constitutional order by using unilateral executive power to raise taxes, change healthcare policy, and grant citizenship to those living in the US illegally if Congress refuses to act. Is it any wonder 69 percent of Americans told Gallup they think big government is the biggest threat to their future? The presidential recall option will transform our citizens from voters who select a president every four years and hope for the best into political watchdogs proactively monitoring the actions of presidents and the huge administrative apparatus implementing their directives to insure they are lawfully performing their duties at maximum efficiency. Senator Hendrickson's recall plan called for a national vote held on a single day to retain or remove the sitting president whenever two-thirds of the state legislatures petition for such a vote. If the nation votes out the sitting president, the Speaker of the House would complete the recalled presidents term. In the California system voters choose the sitting governors replacement from a slate of candidates at the same time they are actually voting on whether or not to remove the current governor. Working out the recalls details is childs play compared to the job of getting adopted the constitutional amendment that would create the Presidential Recall Option. Two-thirds of the House and Senate must approve the amendment and send it on to the states in the hope that three-quarters of the state legislatures ratify the amendment. Polling agencies should begin the process by asking Americans if they would favor the Presidential Recall Option. If Americans overwhelmingly support such an amendment, Congress will probably not resist its creation, especially if the amendment exempts the then-sitting president from a recall vote. (A 2013 Harvard University Institute of Politics survey found that 52 percent of young Americans would vote to recall the sitting president, Barack Obama.) Our 2016 presidential hopefuls can demonstrate their earnest desire to make government more accountable by enthusiastically endorsing in their campaign speeches and the debates the creation of a Presidential Recall Option. Clearly, it is time that Americans engage in a national conversation about this important new means of empowering all citizens and enhancing our democracy. Sociologist/Futurist Michael G. Zey, Ph.D, books include Seizing the Future, Ageless Nation, and the forthcoming Envisioning America's Future. He is a Professor at Montclair State University's School of Business. His website is www.zey.com. It seems that the gig economy has even reached the precincts of the terrorism industry. Maybe ISIS should be called Terror 3.0, if one considers the progression of modern terrorism from the bad old days of the 1960s and 1970s. The likes of the Irish Republican Army, the Baader-Meinhof Group, and the FALN might be defined as Terror 1.0. The IRA and its 60s brethren used age-old terror tactics, setting off bombs from a safe distance and generally kidnapping and killing their victims discreetly in order to avoid capture. Then we saw al Qaeda innovate by adding the suicidal perpetrator factor, flying airplanes into buildings to inflict mass casualties. The latest contribution by the demonic murderers intent on making a political (or religious) point is facile use of the Internet and social media to spawn actions by lone wolves. Thus, ISIS might be considered the third iteration in post-World War II terrorism. ISIS (or ISIL, the variant our president bizarrely prefers) seems to have adopted a business model consonant with the times. Joining the likes of Uber, Airbnb, and Zipcar, the entrepreneurial jihadists are simply keeping up with their more productive peers in the West who actually create useful stuff. And why not? The Uber and Airbnb inventors build efficiencies into the services they provide by utilizing the incredible power of the Internet, smart phones and other communications devices. Shouldnt the dealers of death and mayhem exploit those same efficiencies? Whatis.com defines a gig economy as an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements. What an apt description of todays Islamic terrorists. What is a more short-term engagement and temporary position than a suicide-embracing martyr in the cause of Allah willing to inflict horrific casualties on soft targets in the West (and, for that matter, everywhere else)? It seems that the Omar Mateens and Syed Rizwan Farooks of the world -- so-called homegrown terrorists -- are the natural byproduct of this new independent economy. So lets call their brand gig terrorism. It is interesting to note that both Mateen and Farook reportedly met their mates online. And in both cases (although at this point it is only alleged in the case of Mateens wife) these spouses were complicit to one degree or another in their husbands murderous plots. These purportedly self-radicalized terrorists use the Internet to satisfy even the romantic needs in their lives. Uber often makes the point that it is not a taxi company, but rather a technology company that facilitates peer-to-peer transactions between people needing a taxi service and people able to provide that service. Uber simply furnishes the software to make those direct interactions possible. The companys current valuation of over $60 billion after only five years of existence points up the tremendous value it created in the efficiencies it has produced. In much the same way, ISIS provides the infrastructure, or spiritual software, one might say, to animate disaffected youths far away from Iraq or Syria to exact Allahs revenge on infidels. ISIS does not need to micromanage their actions, just as a taxi company does not need to closely oversee the Uber drivers services. But are these really lone wolves in the new terror paradigm? No more than Uber drivers are lone wolves. While commenting on President Obamas recent speech about the mass shooting in Orlando, in which Obama characterized Mateens actions as resulting from the influence of the Internet, former Ambassador John Bolton astutely observed to Fox News that terms like self-radicalization and lone wolf falsely connote a sort of spontaneous combustion. They imply that a homegrown terrorist is a normal human being one day and then suddenly and inexplicably becomes a violent, psychotic killer the next, with no outside direction or overarching ideology influencing them. Bolton points out that Obama ascribing this lone wolf label to Mateen so soon after the attack and long before the FBI has had adequate time to gather evidence, seems to be an effort by Obama to divorce Mateens actions from the larger global Islamic ideology. Of course, this effort to immunize Islam from the violence perpetrated in its name is folly. Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear will think Obama a fool for trying. Or hopelessly naive. Or even nefarious. It is just such efforts to deflect from the truth about the global jihad being waged by sizable elements of the Islamic umma that has given such political opportunity to Donald Trump. What even his detractors will admit is that Trumps popularity has largely been fueled by his willingness to call it like he sees it. The American people have suffered through seven and a half years of being lied to about everything from healthcare options and costs under ObamaCare, to data about an allegedly roaring economy, to the supposed benefits of uncontrolled borders and an influx of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens. Now Obama tries to convince us that Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam, and that Omar Mateen was not directed by outside forces. We have had enough. We are thirsting for the truth, and Donald Trump, in his own inimitable style, is offering buckets of it. These homegrown terrorists may be independent operators in the new gig terror environment, but they are still agents of the same ideology that has been waging war against us at an accelerating rate since the Iranians overran our embassy in 1979. If President Trump assumes office, he will need to find a way to deal with these homegrown terrorists. He might consider consulting with the new titans of our sharing economy for recommendations on how to limit the appeal of gig terrorism. William F. Marshall has been an intelligence analyst and investigator in the government and private sector for 30 years. Presently he is a Senior Investigator for Judicial Watch,Inc. Though the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution forbids it, Barack Obama seems to be running for a third term as President of the United States. In his address on June 14, 2016 the president concentrated more on a fiery attack on Donald Trump than on the external enemy to the United States and the civilized world, the forces of Radical Islam. a phrase he still refuses to name. By criticizing Trump rather than directly condemning and correctly naming an enemy whose claim to legitimacy is based on that religious extremism associated with Radical Islam, President Obama has made Trump a more plausible presidential candidate than he is to many U.S. citizens, who otherwise find him unacceptable. Whats in a name? That which we call Radical Islam (RI) would stink as sourly as if the phrase was not used. This is not a war over words, or a semantic problem, but a question of ideological religious belief. The use of words RI will not really alienate any government, group, or individual prepared and willing to fight Islamist terrorism. Josh Earnest, White House spokesperson has explained that the president has become frustrated by talking points critical of him. But critics are right on this issue of Islamist jihadist terrorism. No sensible person paints the 1.3 billion Muslims in the world with a broad brush or implies that the democratic countries of the world are at war with their religion. There should not be a call for discrimination against Muslims because of their faith. But the crucial point in the issue is the religious component of current terrorist activities and threats. There is no magic in the phrase Radical Islam as President Obama suggested and the label in itself achieves nothing, and does not deter terrorism. Nevertheless, it is the correct description of the enemy, those who justify their terrorism through proclamation of adhering to or claiming to be implementing their extremist form of Islam. It is open to discussion as to whether there is a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West, but it is essential to grasp two essential points. As Bernard Lewis argued One is the universality of religion as a factor in the lives of the Muslim peoples, and the other is its centrality. There has been considerable discussion among scholars and commentators on the rationale of the terrorists. Are they radical extremists who have little religious affiliation but who use the religion of Islam to justify their murders, or are they individuals acting in the name of and on behalf of their version of Islam? Perhaps the most perceptive statement on this perplexing issue comes from Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi in the UK, in his book Not in Gods Name, Sacks argues When terrorist or military groups invoke holy war, define their battle as a struggle against Satan, condemn unbelievers to death and commit murder while declaring God is great, to deny that they are acting on religious motives is absurd. The recent incidents in the U.S. and France illustrate the sagacity of Sacks comment. Action on the basis of religious motives has two facets. One is the well-planned organized attack by religiously ideological terrorists of which ISIS and the Caliphate State and al Qaeda stand out amid the multitude of other Islamist groups. They are acting out of a conscious struggle against Western nations and societies that their religion has decreed are immoral. The other is an operation by a lone wolf or members of a small group with little serious knowledge of Islam even if they are observant. They claim to act in the name of or on behalf of their religion, even if they are really propelled by a search for a cause to give them a personal identity or to justify their innate hatred. Communism, socialism, nationalism no longer inspire the true believer, but Islam is at hand to fight against Western imperialism, gays, Jews, and Israel. All the Muslim terrorists, like those who acted on 9/11 in the U.S., claim they are acting on behalf of the true faith and against enemies of Islam. This was true of Mohammed Merah, who attacked the Jewish school in Toulouse. France on March 2012, and was linked with al-Qaeda. The murderers on January 7, 2015 of 17 at Charlie Hebdo in Paris, and at the Jewish supermarket, were avenging the Prophet Muhammad. The killers of 130 killed and hundreds injured in Paris and Saint-Denis on November 13, 2015 acted in conjunction with ISIS. Now again in June 13, 2016, at Magnanville, about 35 miles from Paris, a 25-year-old French-born Muslim Larossi Abball killed two political officers, one the deputy head of a police station who was stabbed to death and the other his 36-year-old partner, who had her throat slit in front of their 3-year-old son. The killer declared in a video that Allah was the greatest, and pledged allegiance to the ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al Bagdadi. Abball was answering the call to kill infidels at home with their families. The nightmare in France is not over. On June 14, 2016 a Muslim man with psychiatric problems stabbed a 19-year-old woman in Rennes, France, telling police he had heard voices ordering him to make a sacrifice for Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month that began on June 6. The U.S. has suffered by the incidents in San Bernardino on December 1, 2015 and the attack on June 12, 2016 on the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The two killers in San Bernardino were home grown terrorists who posted a pledge to ISIS. The attack on Orlando, with 49 dead and 53 injured is the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. The act of hatred in Orlando by the 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a New York-born Afghan-American, was inspired by Islamist radicalism. The term radical extremism is important because it stresses the motivation behind the deed and planning of murderous acts, and a version of religious beliefs and culture that seeks to destroy Western civilization. Understandably, the term may disturb political leftists who remain unaware of the existential challenge to their values and culture. But it is a reminder that the struggle against Islamist jihadism has to be fought. The real task should be finding the most effective ways to wage that struggle. On the heels of the terrible Orlando terrorist attack came another tragic, albeit predictable, assault: the obligatory vilification of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Indeed, before officials could even confirm the final death toll at Pulse, cries erupted from celebrities, politicians, and left-wing activists alike for tighter restrictions on Americans ability to access firearms. These so-called appeals to reason ran the gamut of hysteria, from incoherent rants against the National Rifle Association/Republicans/white males, to one Huffington Post author demanding that we ban every single gun within U.S. borders until we get our f*cking problems figured out. I have never understood this approach. For starters, the logic falls flat -- the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history happened in gun-free zones, and I am unsure why more laws will deter mass murderers (who are particularly adept at ignoring laws). Nor is it clear if tighter gun laws will actually solve the problem of gun violence; studies designed to answer this question, in addition to their predilection for bias, are usually oversimplified and conflicting. Perhaps most confounding is how gun control advocates view firearm ownership itself. Specifically, they tend to forget the authority for individual rights to firearms is constitutionally enshrined in twenty-seven words: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. (Note: In fairness, some argue there is no individual right to own a firearm, and instead insist that the Second Amendment is only a guarantee to a collective defense administered by each citizens state via the well regulated Militia. That interpretation, in my opinion, is dubious -- why would the Framers guarantee a states ability to defend itself against the federal government, only to then grant the federal president power over the same Militias in Article 2?). Take, for example, the recent decision in Peruta v. City of San Diego out of the Ninth Circuit, which held there is no Second Amendment right to carry a concealed weapon in public. The case dealt with a California law requiring concealed-carry applicants to provide a particularized reason as to why they needed to carry a concealed weapon. The statute stood as a part of a much larger, more invasive regulatory scheme, including a prohibition on carrying loaded firearms on the person or in a vehicle in any public place or on any public street, as well as a prohibition on carrying unloaded handguns openly on the person in a public place or street. Imagine, for a moment, if the same restrictions were placed upon the First Amendment. What if Americans had to provide a particularized reason before publishing an article, or saying a prayer in public? What if there was a cap as to how many words a newspaper could print, as is the case with limiting ammunition and magazine capacity? What if citizens were subject to a background check prior to organizing a peaceful demonstration? Some might argue the Second Amendment is different; that an armed citizenry, if unchecked, would lead to a spike in violence and loss of life. This may be true, but pointing to a risk of harm as justification to suspend constitutional rights is patently un-American, even by liberals' standards. When the National Security Agencys PRISM program came to light, did the left forsake the Fourth Amendment in favor of the extra security provided by the surveillance state? As the blood dried in Paris following the attack on Charlie Hebdo, did the left question the legitimacy of the First Amendment and censor our art, speech, and culture to avoid provoking the Islamic State? Did the left deny Yaser Esam Hamdi due process of law and the right to an impartial tribunal under the Fifth Amendment solely because his being free risked threatening American safety? Of course not. Such constitutional guarantees were viewed as unyielding and uncompromising. Americans understood, without question, that the blessings of the constitutions provisions form the bedrock of American exceptionalism, and required no explanation or defense. Why, then, is the Second Amendment treated so differently? Why does the left narrowly interpret the words shall not be infringed into virtual meaninglessness (as the Ninth Circuit did) but, in Roe v. Wade, broadly define life, liberty, or property to encompass the outright murder of unborn children? How can the left consider commerce among the several States to include crops planted, grown, harvested, and consumed on a single family farm, as was the case in Wickard v. Filburn, but then contend the right to keep and bear arms contemplates not even a right to possess a firearm? For reasons beyond my understanding, today's liberals remain fixated -- indeed, obsessed -- with arbitrarily singling out and destroying the one constitutional guarantee that is perhaps the most valuable: an assured means to defend against tyranny. Currently, millions of people on social media are cautioning Muslims and members of the LGBT community not to see one another as enemies, lest we undermine our values as a free and open society. They may not realize it, but included in those values is the sanctity of the Second Amendment. Like every other constitutional guarantee, the individual right to keep and bear arms is a mainstay in our republican form of government. And like the Second Amendment, when other constitutional freedoms are vigorously enforced, the result can be sometimes heartbreaking and unfair. That is, however, the cost of living in a truly free society, and we owe it to the victims and their families in Orlando, as well as every other place guns have killed, not to betray this simple truth. Thomas Wheatley is a law student at the Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Va. Email him at tnwheatley@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter at @TNWheatley. Washington Times: You cant make this up sometimes, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said at a press briefing Thursday on Capitol Hill. Mr. Trumps admonition came after several weeks of chiding from fellow Republicans who decried his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., and who said his attacks on a federal judges ethnicity were unbecoming. Mr. Ryan had called it the textbook definition of a racist comment. The Republicans, honestly, folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone. But you know what? I think Im going to be forced to. I think Im going to be forced to, Mr. Trump said on Wednesday. Our leaders have to get a lot tougher. And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Dont talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet to the leaders. Because they have to get tougher. They have to get sharper. They have to get smarter. We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself. Ill do very well, Mr. Trump insisted. GOP observers said Mr. Trump is playing with fire. Most people respond better to charm and subtle persuasion than they do to threats, and most victories are won by team efforts versus lone wolves, said Fred Malek, a White House veteran who serves as finance chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Trump certainly knows this from his success in business, and why would he think its different in politics? Mr. Malek said voters want Mr. Trump to step up and be an inclusive leader. But the maverick candidate began his campaign on the other side of the spectrum, accusing Mexico of sending rapists and other bad elements of its society to the U.S. His approach appeared to work in the GOP primary, with his criticism of fellow politicians as stupid and all talk, no action earning him fans from alienated conservatives and moderates alike. That has led to an uneasy relationship with the Republican National Committee, as well as GOP lawmakers nationally whove had meltdowns over his brash brand of politics, concerned that he is tarnishing the party and its chance of retaining control of Congress in the November election. This week Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Richard Armitage, who served as deputy secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration, announced they were jumping ship and couldnt support Mr. Trump. We all know that Barack Obama was nominally a lawyer at some point in his past not a good one, by anyone's account, but he was one. Assume for the moment that Barack Obama had as his client The Muslim Brotherhood, or CAIR, or Hamas, or any one of dozens of organizations dedicated to taking down the United States. Could he possibly have done a more effective job of hiding his client's actions or intentions while they went about conducting criminal operations unmolested as he has for seven years? Could he have been more successful at misdirecting and obfuscating and lying about their intentions and deeds than he has already been? Though not every lawyer shares a client's philosophy, the zeal with which an attorney does his job can sometimes be proportionate to his identity with the client's goals and objectives. The president certainly is a zealous fellow when it comes to radical Islam. We know he won't call it "radical Islam," claiming that that is a distraction or a talking point. Perhaps the real reason is that he doesn't believe that what the Islamists he supports are doing is radical at all. Maybe the actual issue is that he believes in and supports their efforts to infiltrate and subvert the United States. That would explain an awful lot, wouldn't it? For seven years, we have heard how the president "doesn't get it" and is in over his head, is naive, and countless other excuses. None of this has ever been the problem. He gets it. He simply gets it with regard to his own agenda, his own end game. It's the American people who continue not to get it. The president is in bed with the enemy. It is ironic that so many of those who are angry that the president won't say "radical Islam" themselves won't openly say that he is and always has been the patron of radical Islamists, and he protects them for that reason. Until we admit this, and see him for what he is and what he has been doing consistently and with determination, we enable him to succeed. The president points to his limited efforts to eradicate certain violent Muslims through drone strikes and minimal military operations, as if this proves he is "one of us" and is working to protect the United States. Muslims attack other Muslims all the time, but they are all still Muslims. If the president chooses to assist certain factions he favors against certain others, this is hardly being done to protect the United States. If that were his objective, he wouldn't be freeing a significant number of homicidal Muslims as well, who are back on the job killing Americans. He is barely lifting a finger militarily or internationally, regardless of what he says. However, he is moving heaven and earth domestically, where the actual invasion and conquest is actively going on. People who recognize that we have seen increasing levels of terroristic violence across the country committed in the name of Islam by its perpetrators want the president to name the threat for the simple reason that his failure to do so, when viewed with all the other things he has done to protect and promote Islamists to weaken our military, our national government, and our security, tells them that he is in league with them and that he will not betray them while he repeatedly betrays us. He refuses to identify them because he is their strongest supporter and their most steadfast protector. His unwillingness to admit that there is any Islamic component at all to the terror, even when the terrorists say it happily, tells us that he is willfully misdirecting us from the truth, even when that ensures that more Americans will die. Throughout this week, we have seen news reports of FBI analysts, whose work was to connect the dots, having their files erased of all Muslim suspects who were actively plotting against us. We have heard of how the FBI's hands were tied, and the new rules required that they drop their surveillance of Muslim suspects against whom concrete evidence had not yet been found and how those suspects went on to commit mass murder, including this week in Orlando. We have heard how employers and neighbors of Muslims who engaged in terrorism here were afraid of saying anything against the terrorists because they were Muslim, including both Orlando and San Bernardino. Our government has vowed to punish those who express legitimate fears about Muslims behaving suspiciously, which the government deems Islamophobia rather than domestic or national security. That is, our government has vowed to punish Americans who have the audacity to object to their own destruction. How would any of this be different if we had an openly Muslim president and a pro-Muslim, pro-sharia government? None of this is new, and it continues to be the policy of this administration right up to the last couple of days, when the Department of Homeland Security has come out with new prohibitions on words that might offend those who most want to destroy this country. Words like "jihad" and "sharia" are banned by government fascists who control speech and thought. There was a simultaneous story this week about a 25-year-old Syrian immigrant, Laila Alawa, who is one of 15 members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council Subcommittee on Countering Violent Extremism and who is rabidly anti-American and an anti-white racist. She seems fine with Islamic violent extremism, declaring that 9/11 changed the world for good. It is the committee on which she serves that advocated censoring those words that might offend Muslims. Those who work within this administration to harm the United States in the name of Islam have been serving at the president's pleasure, or with his blessing. If that were not true, he would purge the government of all such anti-American and pro-Islamist enemies of the country. He doesn't. Their numbers grow steadily. This is his administration. These are his surrogates. They are the vehicle by which his policies, his goals, and his beliefs are being put into effect. He is one of them. There is no other explanation for them populating our government at every level, but particularly the highest ones. Those who most vehemently represent the president's views are rewarded with the opportunity to destroy this country from within, along with complete immunity from punishment or retribution for expressing their desire to do just that. Naturally, an armed citizenry is a substantial obstacle to our overthrow. It is for this president and his party members a rather happy coincidence, therefore, that we have just experienced both an Islamic victory on our soil, about which the president has vowed to do absolutely nothing, and the use of a gun, about which the president has vowed to do everything in his power. It is at times like this that his priorities and goals converge and are laid open to be seen unmistakably. Americans must pay the price for what was done to them. It is our rights, but not those of the invaders and traitors, that must be slashed. It's time we admit the obvious. Radical Islam isn't radical to this president. It's simply a means to an end. Our end. This doesnt happen very often: the head of the CIA making a fool of his president. But that is what happened yesterday as CIA Director John Brennan testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Less than 48 hours before his testimony, President Obama had tried to soothe the nations concerns in the wake of the Orlando jihad massacre, as IBD summarizes: Obamas remarks came after a meeting with his National Security Council, during which he spent a significant amount of time detailing all the many successes his strategy is having against the Islamic State (which Obama calls ISIL instead of ISIS), progress that he thinks is being obscured by recent terrorist attacks in the U.S. committed in the name of ISIS. Here are the relevant parts of Obamas statement. We are making significant progress. ... This campaign at this stage is firing on all cylinders. ... ISIL is under more pressure than ever before. ISIL continues to lose key leaders. ... ISIL continues to lose ground in Iraq. ... ISIL continues to lose ground in Syria as well. As ISIL continues to lose territory, it also continues to lose the money that is its lifeblood. ... ISIL is now effectively cut off from the international financial system. ISILs ranks are shrinking as well. Their morale is sinking. ... The flow of foreign fighters -- including from America to Syria and Iraq -- has plummeted. In fact, our intelligence community now assesses that the ranks of ISIL fighters have been reduced to the lowest levels in more than 2-1/2 years. Obama went on to say that lone actors, like the Orlando terrorist, or small cells of terrorists are very hard to detect and very hard to prevent. And the best way to deal with this threat, he went on to argue, is with stricter gun-control laws. Perhaps his startling honesty contradicting this pabulum was because Brennan was under oath. Or perhaps it was because with just over half a year left of the Obama presidency, Brennan is thinking ahead to his own legacy, and putting some distance between himself and the terror debacle brewing with ISIS planning even bigger strikes and our security apparatus hampered by political correctness that shuts down following leads involving Islam (as in the case of the many warnings received about Omar Mateen). Whatever the reason, Brennan did not mince words (full text here): Damien Paletta and Alan Cuillison hit the high points of the testimony in the Wall Street Journal: Unfortunately, despite all our progress against [Islamic State] on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the groups terrorism capability and global reach, Mr. Brennan told the Senate Intelligence Committee. (snip) The groups foreign branches and global networks can help preserve its capability for terrorism regardless of events in Iraq and Syria, Mr. Brennan said. In fact, as the pressure mounts on [Islamic State], we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda. He said so-called lone-wolf attackers are an exceptionally challenging issue for the intelligence community, citing Mr. Mateens attack in Orlando as an example. Acting on the inspiration of Islamic State but without its direction, such attackers can case a target and prepare an assault without triggering any of those traditional signatures that we might see when a foreign terrorist group sends its members on a mission, Mr. Brennan said. Those individual actors, either acting alone or in concert with some cohortsit really presents a serious challenge, he added. Whatever the reasons for Brennans honesty in debunking his bosss claims, the nation is left with a commander in chief who does not want to see or act on the obvious threats we face. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, himself a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (in 1984 for his anti-apartheid activism), has nominated a mass murderer of Jews for the honor he holds. Long known as an anti-Israel activist, Archbishop Tutu has proposed a moral monster of a terrorist, Marwan Barghouti the architect of scores of terror bombings of Israeli civilians in the Second Intifada. Israel National News reports: South African archbishop and prominent anti-Israel campaigner Desmond Tutu has joined other activists in nominating imprisoned Palestinian arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti for the Nobel Peace Prize. Tutu tabled the nomination in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Monday - cited by Al Arabiya - in which he hailed the Fatah-Tanzim commander as a symbol of the "struggle for freedom, [which] constitutes a clear signal of support for the realization of the Palestinian peoples inalienable rights, including to self-determination." (snip) In his letter, Tutu characterized Barghouti's actions as fighting "for freedom and peace," and - even more ironically - hailed the mass-murderer as "an active advocate and defender of democracy and human rights, include women's rights, and of pluralism, both religious and political, in a region and a world that desperately needs such advocates. Barghouti is currently serving 5 life terms for his role in mass murder of innocent Israelis. No doubt this move by Tutu is intended to build pressure for his release, unrepentant though he is. Of course, the Nobel Peace Prize has already been disgraced by its award to Yasser Arafat in 1994, another murderous monster. But at least that prize had a shred of rationale to it, because it was jointly award to Shimon Perez and Yitzhak Rabin as well, for their efforts at peace talks. Barghuoti has no such leavening. Tutu is a disgrace. But there can be no assurance that the Nobel Committee will not add to his disgrace with their own, and award a prize. Hat tip: Clarice Feldman During the debate about the Iran deal a year ago, one of Obama's/Kerry's arguments ran essentially as follows. Sanctions were no longer sustainable. European companies were so eager to do business with Iran that their governments would drop the sanctions anyway. America's unilateral sanctions wouldn't be able to dam the roaring torrent of upcoming business activity with Iran. The U.S. dollar would collapse as the world's reserve currency, and the world economic order as we know it would come to a screeching, catastrophic end. Fast-forward to the present: Secretary Kerry is no longer busy warning us that "sanctions dont just sting in one direction ... [rather, t]hey also impose costs on those who forego the commercial opportunities in order to abide by them. ... [Other countries] will not join us if were demanding even greater sacrifices and threatening their businesses and banks because of a choice we made and they opposed." Rather, he frantically flies to European capitals, tearfully begging companies there to start doing business with Iran and not to worry about non-nuclear sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iran. He humbly prostrates himself before Iran's foreign minister, assuring him that the Obama administration does everything in its power to get Iran all the business it wants (and he's sure right about that!). How did it come to this? Obama's and Kerry's dire warnings of the inrush of European business into Iran, and of futility of U.S.-only sanctions, did not materialize. In fact, European companies are eyeing with caution the remaining sanctions and are in no rush to invest in Iranian projects. So Kerry and Obama deliberately lied, or else they deluded themselves. Either way, they now need a way out and they seek it by making their false prophecies come true. It is understandable that politicians lie and engage in spin. They cannot abide the thought that they were proven wrong. But there are different ways to save face. It is one thing to invent excuses out of thin air. Yet aiding, abetting, and strengthening the enemy, as done by Obama and Kerry, so as to prove that their warnings of Iran's insurmountable diplomatic and economic strength made capitulation to Iranian demands necessary and inevitable is a different thing entirely. It is a face-saving step too far. Stepping out of reality into the rapidly expanding landfill of polling data biased against Donald Trump reveals what a disaster is taking place when it comes to surveying the public's actual opinion -- rather than the desired liberal narrative -- about the 2016 general election. Public Policy Polling (PPP) has released yet another state poll on the Trump versus Hillary Clinton match-up, this time for Virginia . Yesterday's article examined a range of PPP's state-level polling data in the Trump v. Clinton cage match, revealing some apparently serious liberal bias. The Virginia poll just adds to the concerns. The proverbial "tell" in these types of data sets is how respondents answered the question regarding their presidential vote in 2012. If the poll is representative of the public, the relative percentages of Obama 2012 versus Romney 2012 voters surveyed should approximate -- within reason -- how the state in question actually voted in 2012. But if there are significant deviations between the poll's composition and the 2012 results, the cause either needs to be fully explained by the pollster, or we default to the assumption of a bias. PPP's Virginia poll, representing "one of the most important swing states in the country," claims the following: The Presidential race in Virginia is pretty tight. Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump 42-39, with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 6% and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 2%. In a head to head contest Clinton's lead remains 3 points at 48/45. Clinton's benefiting from Democrats in Virginia (83/8) being more unified around her than Republicans (76/5) are around Trump. But with independents Trump's up 42/29. When asked who they voted for in the last presidential election, 50% of respondents said Obama while just 41% said Romney, for a 9% Obama (read: liberal) edge. But Obama only won the state by 3.9% in 2012 , meaning there appears to be at least a 5% liberal bias in the survey composition. Remove that bias favoring the Democratic candidate, and Clinton's lead disappears -- leaving Trump likely leading by 2% or more in Virginia, depending on the potential presence of other compounding biases in the poll. Then there is the latest edition of Reuter's Polling Explorer from June 14, supposedly showing Clinton up by 8.5% over Trump, 39.1% to 30.6%. But of the 1,481 respondents, 642 (43.3%) are Democrats, 493 (33.3%) are Republicans, and 206 (13.9%) are Independents, with 138 (9.3%) "members of another party." A 10% bias of Democrats over Republicans is 9% above the past two-month average of actual party affiliations. Remove that liberal bias, and now the race is a statistical tie. Even worse, when asked who they voted for in 2012, 582 (39.3%) said Obama and just 355 (24.0%) said Romney. Thus, since the national results in 2012 only had Obama ahead of Romney in the popular vote by 3.9%, we conclude this suggests a 11.4% liberal bias in the survey composition. Based on this built-in bias, it appears Trump may actually be ahead of Clinton by nearly 3% at the national level once the bias is corrected for. Finally, there is a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday -- and conducted June 11-15 -- that claims Clinton is up 9% over Trump in the head-to-head. No demographic data was released with the poll, which should raise a red flag. With what information we can tease out of the information provided, significant flaws are apparent. Based on the data for "All Adult Americans" surveyed on issues such as the major problems facing the nation, as well as Obama's approval rating and whether the nation is headed on the right track or not, it is clear that the ratio of Democrats:Republicans in the poll was a remarkably high 2:1! For interested readers, the general math behind such calculations is described in my previous article . Moving on to the head-to-head match-up among registered voters, solving the available polling data with a 3-equation system solver reveals that the Trump versus Clinton poll appears to be comprised of about 46% Democrats and 36% Republicans, for a 10% Democrat bias. Yet again, remove the clear bias, and Clinton's lead is gone. This isn't surprising, given the source. Serious concerns have been raised previously over the possible political motivations behind liberal bias in Ipsos polling. Overall, in all polls seen to date at the state or national levels, systematic liberal bias is clear. In some cases, Democrats are being polled at apparent 2:1 ratios over Republicans, and in all situations, once the polling bias is removed, so is any Clinton lead. Almost exactly a century ago at the great naval battle at Jutland, David Beatty said There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today after two of his battleships exploded under German gunnery and incompetent seamanship by his sailors. Well, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody newspapers today as well. The New York Times runs an editorial on The NRAs Complicity in Terrorism, but the Orlando mass murderer Omar Mateen isnt a member of the NRA. He is a member of the Democratic Party, who voted for Obama twice, and worked as a subcontract security man for Homeland Security under Obama appointee Jeh Johnson. The New York Times professes total confusion as to Mateens motivation, while the same day Senator Charles Johnson, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, described how Mateen had made over 16 calls in the four hours after the shooting inside The Pulse, while the police outside were presumably trying to decide who ordered the pepperoni and who the anchovies on their pizza while victims bled to death inside. Several of Matteens calls were specifically pledging his loyalty and service to ISIS, speaking to law enforcement at 911, and he made several postings of the same pledge to ISIS on his five accounts on Facebook. Meanwhile The Wall Street Journal helpfully offers what it calls a primer headlined Assault Weapons Explained. Such a feature could have been most useful with all the intentional confusion in terminology introduced by progressive politicians if their reporter had the least idea what he was talking about. I tried to help the Journal with a Letter to the Editor: I am the former Commanding Officer of the Army Marksmanship Training Unit at Ft Irwin CA. That is our National Training Center. We know a little bit about explaining various weapons. First your reporter: The guns generally identified as assault weapons are semiautomatic rifles that operate on the same principles as semiautomatic handguns. If he means generally identified by those with political agenda including opponents of the 2nd Amendment from Obama to Clinton etc., and almost every media figure around including your reporter, well yes. But weapons experts totally disagree. Its so elementary even a primer should get it right. Assault weapons are weapons that allow automatic fire, which specifically the AR 15 is disabled to prevent. Hence the AR 15 is not an assault weapon. It sure LOOKS scary though. And in an age in which Orwellian redefinition of reality by the artful redefinition of words has become an art form for politicians and media people, what does it all matter anyway? As a working journalist, sometimes published in your paper, I can assure you it matters to those of us of the old school. Does it still matter to you? I didnt get an answer and they didnt run the Letter, but they did run a whole editorial presumably to clarify the previous mixup. This got it wrong again. So I sent them this: You got the description of the weapon used in Orlando wrong in the Assault Weapons Explained news primer. Now you got it wrong on the Editorial Page. In an Editorial today called An Assault Rifle Education It says: there are 10 million AR 15 rifles like the one used in Orlando. The Washington Post said 2 days ago: The gun the Orlando shooter used was a Sig Sauer MCX, not an AR-15. And that is The Wall Street Journal not some Extreme Left house organ like The New York Times. Perhaps that explains the remarkable study by the Poynter Institute showing a huge and continuing fall off in newspaper circulation. Newspaper declines accelerate, latest Pew Research finds, other sectors healthier The 13th annual Pew Research State of the News Media Report documents another year of alarming declines for newspapers the worst since the 2008-2009 recession. Other sectors did much better, with revenues actually growing robustly both for cable channels (up 10 percent) and network news (up 6 percent for evening shows and 14 percent for mornings). Cobbling together newspaper data that is less current and available than it once was, Pew estimates that the industry lost 7 percent of daily circulation in 2015 and 8 percent of ad revenues. Which makes perfect sense to me. What good is a newspaper if what it contains on the statistically biggest shooting of Americans by a murderer in history is dead wrong, and has to be corrected to even make sense of it? Newspapers were where all the wild reporting and rumor mongering used to go to die. One could expect to find early TV and radio reports inaccurate and be relieved to find good summaries and time lines in the paper. Now thatThe Washington Post actually carries in a lede: President Obama said in an interview that future instability stemming from climate change can lead to dangerous ideologies. Im even afraid to trust the weather forecast. As a former executive at The New York Times Company in another century, another millennium and another world, I have a stronger obligation to good journalism. Let them die. There isnt enough decent reporting left in them to be worth resuscitation. Time to find new ways with new media. And at this point we dont have much choice More than 50 mid and high level State Department officials have signed a "dissent channel cable" urging the Obama administration to change its Syria policy and start taking military action against President Assad's forces in order to affect regime change. A dissent channel cable is a confidential State Department forum for employees to express opposing views. While this is not unuisual, the number of officials and the strong criticism of White House policy is unprecedented. Wall Street Journal: The complaint filed by the State Department officials wasnt unusual, current and former U.S. officials said, but the number of diplomats actively opposing a major White House position was. Its embarrassing for the administration to have so many rank-and-file members break on Syria, said a former State Department official who worked on Middle East policy. These officials said dissent on Syria policy has been almost a constant since civil war broke out there in 2011. But much of the debate was contained to the top levels of the Obama administration. The recent letter marked a move by the heart of the bureaucracy, which is largely apolitical, to break from the White House. The internal cable may be an attempt to shape the foreign policy outlook of the next administration, the official familiar with the document said. President Barack Obama has balked at taking military action against Mr. Assad, while Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has promised a more hawkish stance toward the Syrian leader. Republican candidate Donald Trump has said he would hit Islamic State hard but has also said he would be prepared to work with Russia in Syria. The cable warns that the U.S. is losing prospective allies among Syrias majority Sunni population in its fight against the Sunni extremist group Islamic State while the regime continues to bomb and starve them. Mr. Assad and his inner circle are Alawite, a small Shiite-linked Muslim sect and a minority in Syria. In Syrias multisided war, the regime, Islamic State and an array of opposition rebel groups are all battling each other. Failure to stem Assads flagrant abuses will only bolster the ideological appeal of groups such as Daesh, even as they endure tactical setbacks on the battlefield, the cable reads, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. Although Islamic State is losing ground to multiple, U.S.-backed offensives in Syria, Iraq and Libya, Western diplomats say they worry the group has embedded itself so deeply in the population that it will be a major influence for years to come, eventually going underground as its quasi-army is defeated. One can understand the frustration of being forced to continue supporting a policy that has clearly failed. But how does overthrowing Assad bring us closer to defeating ISIS? The many factions in the Syrian civil war fighting Assad will be even more difficult to unite to form a "transitional government" than the parties in Libya. And Libya is now a failed state with no government to speak of and ISIS running wild. Why would the diplomats expect anything differently in Syria? US attacks on Assad would risk conflict with Russia. Would it be worth that risk to overtrhow Assad? Even if the US-backed and other "moderate" rebels would unite to join the fight, why would Russia stand idly by and allow their number one client in the region to fall? Iran is supplying most of the ground forces for Assad via Hezb'allah. Going to war with the Lebanese terrorist group would almost certainly mean attempts to carry out mass casualty terror attacks on US soil. These diplomats are privy to information not available to the public, so for them to call for such a radical change in policy could mean that the rebels are nearing the end of their ability to resist and desperately need air support. Russian bombing has been severe and, while killing a lot of civilians, also takes out rebel positions. As the rebels weaken, Assad's forces advance. This is especially true in Aleppo which is mostly held by the rebels but is being systematically razed to the ground by bombings and shellings. The fall of Aleppo would be a huge blow to the rebellion and American prestige. But Obama seems paralyzed and won't act. Feeble attempts to step up the bombing campaign against ISIS have had no impact on their strength. A military victory by Assad over the rebels with Iran's and Russian support would only strengthen both in the region. But it would be a pyrrhic victory. Assad would rule over a pile of rubble that used to be a country. And with half the population displaced by the war, there won't be many people left to rebuild it. President Obama has had the Stars and Stripes lowered 66 times since 2009, exceeding George W. Bush's 58 and Bill Clinton's 50 times of ordering the flag to be lowered. Obama has ordered the flag to be lowered more times than any president in history. This traditional symbolism of significant death in America may be serving a small psychological role in the big picture of destroying the Republic. The supreme American military commander is prowling the bounds of treason and/or dissociative mental disorder in his refusal to name our sworn, lethal enemies and fight back against them. However, he has a history of special willingness to literally bring down the symbol of the American pride he disavows and the exceptionalism he denies. Notwithstanding a history of anti-military bias, the new sensitive guy in the White House seems comfortable emotionally symbolizing the accelerating ease with which Islamic terrorists kill Americans, as he touchingly mourns and feels our pain and multifariously works to make us less safe. The lowered flag placates an emotional need created by the vast project to terminate our bordered constitutional republic: 1) demilitarization and paralysis in response to Islamic terrorism; 2) opening borders legal and illegal to Islamics who, according to the CIA, will commit terrorist attacks; 3) disarming loyal Americans to make them more and more defenseless. Somehow, it took the president five days to order the lowering of the flag for five Tennessee military service members who were also killed by an ISIS-linked terrorist named Muhammad Abdulaziz. The honor was granted only after an outcry from the American people. Despite his penchant for lowering the red, white, and blue, the denier-in-chief has been reluctant to do so for fallen military. In the president's imagination, historical America has already been defeated. All that is left is her comeuppance. This is well served by bringing in aliens who will not defend the Constitution, and by paying reparations to the world in the currency of American blood. For the president, Old Glory need never fly again except at half-staff, and every day is a funeral for America. Thirteen state GOP attorneys general have sent a letter to the Democratic AG's who are investigating ExxonMobile for fraud in climate change research, telling them that if minimizing the danger of climate change is fraud, so is exaggerating the peril. They threaten to prosecute climate alarmists for making spectacular claims of disaster that have not materialized. Washington Times: If Democratic attorneys general can pursue climate change skeptics for fraud, then also at risk of prosecution are climate alarmists whose predictions of global doom have failed to materialize. The cuts both ways argument was among those raised by 13 Republican attorneys general in a letter urging their Democratic counterparts to stop using their law enforcement power against fossil fuel companies and others that challenge the climate change catastrophe narrative. "Consider carefully the legal precedent and threat to free speech, said the state prosecutors in their letter this week, headed by Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. If it is possible to minimize the risks of climate change, then the same goes for exaggeration, said the letter. If minimization is fraud, exaggeration is fraud. The letter comes as Exxon Mobil fights off subpoenas by two prosecutors Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude E. Walker for decades worth of climate-related documents and communications with academics, universities and free-market think tanks. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and California Attorney General Kamala Harris have also reportedly launched probes. The 17 attorneys general 16 Democrats and one independent announced at a March 29 press conference that they had formed a coalition, AGs United for Clean Power. We think this effort by our colleagues to police the global warming debate through the power of the subpoena is a grave mistake, said the letter. The name of the coalition itself shows that the attorneys general have taken the unusual step of aligning themselves with the competition of their investigative targets, namely the solar and wind energy. If the focus is fraud, such alignment by law enforcement sends the dangerous signal that companies in certain segments of the energy market need not worry about their misrepresentations, said the GOP letter. Democrats have denied that the effort violates Exxons free-speech rights. Schneiderman spokesman Eric Soufer said in a statement that, The law is clear: the First Amendment does not give any corporation the right to commit fraud. We learned that the drug that killed Prince is a favorite of Mexican cartels. I don't mean that they consume it or pass it on to their families. They like it because we consume it, as we read in the New York Times: The drug that killed Prince has become a favorite of Mexican cartels because it is extremely potent, popular in the United States and immensely profitable, American officials say. Law enforcement and border authorities in the United States warn that Mexican cartels are using their own labs to produce the drug, fentanyl, as well as receiving shipments from China. Then the cartels distribute the substance through their vast smuggling networks to meet rising Americandemand for opiates and pharmaceuticals. It is really the next migration of the cartels in terms of making profit, said Jack Riley, acting deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration. This goes to the heart of the marketing genius of the cartels. They saw this coming. Marketing genius? These cartels know supply and demand better than we do. What can we do? The wall is a start because it would close the easy routes into Arizona. It would force the cartels to send their shipments by air or into Texas by the Gulf of Mexico. It would increase the risk for the cartels. At the same time, supply always finds demand, specially when the supplier is making so much money. After all, why do you think that El Chapo is so rich? He became wealthy supplying our demand for all of these drugs. We could militarize portions of the border, specially the wide open routes currently used. I have always supported that because it establishes the fact that we are serious about the matter. In fact, a military presence may be more significant than the wall. We could start another campaign to point out the risks of consumption and Prince's death could become the face of that campaign. Last, but not least, It would be nice to have a president who connects the recreational use of illegal drugs with border violence and kids showing up at the border. Or someone who can remind the user that he or she is funding the mindless killing south of the border or the destruction of small countries like Guatemala. In the meantime, the cartels will continue to be marketing geniuses because they supply our demand for this stuff! P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. Donald Trump said this week that if the GOP doesn't "man up" and support everything he says, he will freeze out the RNC and run his campaign alone. Trump was angry that so many Republicans condemned his attack on the Hispanic judge and publicly opposed his ban on Muslim immigration. He said Republicans should either support him or "keep quiet." Washington Times: You cant make this up sometimes, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said at a press briefing Thursday on Capitol Hill. Mr. Trumps admonition came after several weeks of chiding from fellow Republicans who decried his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., and who said his attacks on a federal judges ethnicity were unbecoming. Mr. Ryan had called it the textbook definition of a racist comment. The Republicans, honestly, folks, our leaders, our leaders have to get tougher. This is too tough to do it alone. But you know what? I think Im going to be forced to. I think Im going to be forced to, Mr. Trump said on Wednesday. Our leaders have to get a lot tougher. And be quiet. Just please be quiet. Dont talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet to the leaders. Because they have to get tougher. They have to get sharper. They have to get smarter. We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself. Ill do very well, Mr. Trump insisted. GOP observers said Mr. Trump is playing with fire. Most people respond better to charm and subtle persuasion than they do to threats, and most victories are won by team efforts versus lone wolves, said Fred Malek, a White House veteran who serves as finance chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Trump certainly knows this from his success in business, and why would he think its different in politics? Mr. Malek said voters want Mr. Trump to step up and be an inclusive leader. But the maverick candidate began his campaign on the other side of the spectrum, accusing Mexico of sending rapists and other bad elements of its society to the U.S. His approach appeared to work in the GOP primary, with his criticism of fellow politicians as stupid and all talk, no action earning him fans from alienated conservatives and moderates alike. That has led to an uneasy relationship with the Republican National Committee, as well as GOP lawmakers nationally whove had meltdowns over his brash brand of politics, concerned that he is tarnishing the party and its chance of retaining control of Congress in the November election. This week Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Richard Armitage, who served as deputy secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration, announced they were jumping ship and couldnt support Mr. Trump. Trump is in his own universe when it comes to his toxic, bigoted comments. He believes that the "stronger" his insults, the more support he will get. But he doesn't realize, or care much, that Republican politicians have to exist in a different universe - the real world where making racist comments actually has a downside. He can't expect support for his outbursts, nor can he expect GOP politicians to "keep quiet" when silence, to many voters, means assent. As big as the disaster that is looming in November for Trump and the GOP, it would be nothing compared to what would happen if Trump booted the party from his campaign. Already underfunded with little organization, he would be buried by the Democrats in a disaster unprecedented in American political history. With every major issue or event, the media and the pols scramble for the words to frame the story in terms they see as beneficial to their point of view. Unvarnished truth is generally cast aside because it doesn't lead the listener to the desired conclusion. This process of shaping the story to fit the agenda is called " crafting the narrative ". Obama's narrative on terrorism is to remove any reference to Islam. Never mind that almost every incident of terrorism is inspired by and executed (no pun intended) by followers of Islam. Hillary's narrative on illegally receiving and sending classified information via her unsecured, personal email server is "none of the emails were marked 'classified'." Never mind that classified material is always marked either "CONFIDENTIAL", "SECRET", "TOP SECRET", or with the special designations that go with material that is more sensitive than top secret. So it is true that the material she received and sent did not carry the specific word "CLASSIFIED " as a marking. She has created a "narrative" to cover her butt while fully intending to conceal the truth. The recent horrific slaughter of innocents in the Orlando nightclub has the "narrative" generators in full action mode. The liberals are calling the Orlando massacre a result of insufficient gun control. The Obama sycophants are scrubbing any reference to Islamic terrorism out of any releases given to the press. The Fort Hood shooting narrative was that it was "workplace violence". No reference to Islam until years later. The narrative on the IRS targeting of conservative groups was just "the sloppy work of low-level agents". And so it goes. On and on the truth is shaded and obscured to fit the agenda for the moment. Judge Andrew Napolitano wrote a recent article on how citizens face severe penalties when being less than truthful to the government, but, the government is free to lie to Americans with only the ballot box to sanction the liars. What will it take for us to get consistent and reliable truth from those in power? I, for one, am weary of "narratives" that package the issues of the day. We deserve better -- but I don't know how to go about getting it. Maybe we should adopt a narrative of "throw the bums out" and get some term limits to ensure they go. No one uses Tommy guns anymore. Today's thugs sling lead at one another with their plastic wonder-guns across playgrounds and parks, with poor accuracy and less style. Desperados, the demented, and the depraved appear to have settled on the ubiquitous black rifle as their favorite fashion firearm. Even Chicago, America's Free Fire Zone, hasn't seen anyone mowed down with the fabled Chicago Typewriter in decades. It is a puzzlement. After all, the Tommy is an all-American weapon, an iconic symbol of American independence and ingenuity. General Thompson intended it to sweep trenches clear of enemy soldiers, but the Germans, rather inconsiderately, threw in the towel before development work was complete. Yet the general persevered, in due course bringing forth the Thompson Model 1919: genuine American walnut and intricately tooled, highly polished steel. Able to carry up to 100 rounds of .45 ammunition and spit them out at the rate of 600 per minute (1,200 in early models). One hundred lumps of lead just less than half an inch in diameter loosed in a few seconds an outlaw's dream weapon. As the saying goes, the Thompson made the '20s roar. Public Enemy Number One, John Dillinger, used it (ineptly), as did Bonnie and Clyde (although Clyde favored the much more powerful BAR); "Baby Face" Nelson; and, of course "Machine Gun" Kelly. It starred in the Kansas City Massacre (which left a two-bit thug and the officers transporting him dead), failed to kill Capone at his headquarters in the Hawthorne Hotel (ten cars, a Tommy in every car, and still they missed him), and helped make Capone boss of Chicago with the St.. Valentine's Day Massacre. Service in World War II, Korea, and even Vietnam cemented its reputation as a pre-eminent man-stopper, the weapon any savvy warrior would chose for vicious close-quarters combat. It even had its own television show: the exuberantly violent Untouchables. (The Thompson was the star; Robert Stack and Co. were just there to carry it around.) It had looks. It had power. It had fame, and it was style. It has disappeared, abandoned for a contraption of plastic and alloy that fires a round only half the size of the .45. Have the 'bangers and jihadists lost their minds? The grim truth is that the Thompson, like its contemporaries the BAR and the Lewis gun, is a one-dimensional firearm. It was designed to end violent confrontations swiftly and decisively. It is an instrument of war and of law enforcement, with few benefits to offer the civilian shooter. It's not a hunting rifle (although a WWII vet once told me how he used one to hunt deer in Germany), and a .45 pistol is more convenient for personal defense. In addition, the Thompson is heavy, high-maintenance, expensive, and rare. Military surplus models, being true sub-machine guns, are also subject to special licensing requirements and hefty fees. Like the Scotch Capone once smuggled in from Canada, the Thompson is not for those with faint hearts or thin wallets. In many ways, today's black rifle, or, to use its proper name, the modern sporting rifle (MSR), is the antithesis of the Thompson. It is lightweight, requires only moderate maintenance, and can be manufactured and sold at a reasonable price. It is capable of exquisite accuracy and is almost infinitely flexible. Adjustable stocks allow the rifle to be lengthened or shortened according to the size of the shooter or the situation. Changing to a different caliber means changing out the barrel and some internal parts rather than buying a whole new rifle. Indeed, an MSR can be configured to hunt most anything in North America, from paper targets to prairie dogs to wild boar to deer and elk. (I don't know whether anyone hunts bear with an MSR.) Needless to say, it can also stop a home invasion cold. Perhaps most importantly, pulling the trigger fires just one bullet, rather than the torrent a Thompson would unleash. Yes, pulling the trigger rapidly will fire the rifle rapidly, but rapid fire is seldom accurate fire. Few of us have the skills of Ed McGivern, who could empty a revolver in less than a second and hit the target with each shot. Rather like the musket of our Revolutionary forbears, the MSR performs two basic functions reliably and well. It can put food on the table and defend home and hearth. While Google and Apple have been battling it out on the operating system front for years, more recently, the battle has changed somewhat. Android and iOS are still in competition for your smartphone, but Google and Apple are now also in competition for other and newer devices like your watch and even your TV. Over the last year or two both Google and Apple have brought to market devices which run a TV-tweaked version of their respective operating systems. For Google, this is Android TV and for Apple, this is tvOS. While Google was first to market with their Android TV debut device, the Nexus Player, a recent report out of Apteligent notes that on the face of it, the tvOS-running Apple TV is winning the first rounds of this latest battle. At least in terms of usage, as based on Apteligents monitoring of the two platforms during May, Apple TV owners use their devices twice as much as Android TV consumers use their devices. Interestingly, when you dig further into the results, as Apteligent has, the levels of usage is not so clear-cut. It seems that while Apple TV owners use their devices far more on weekends (with an increase of roughly 30% compared to the weekday levels of usage) than Android TV, it seems Android TV owners are using their devices more consistently throughout the weekdays and weekends. One of the reasons Apteligent suggests for the more consistent levels of use by Android TV owners, is that a number of Android TV devices are actual TV sets which come with the platform built-in. An aspect Apteligent suggests leads to a more consistent, ongoing experience for its users. As a result, Apteligent also expect the levels of usage between the two platforms to become less as time goes on and as more manufacturers come to adopt Android TV as an interface for their sets. Advertisement Another possible reason as to why Android TV device owners could be more consistently using their devices might actually be the stability of the apps. According to the Apteligent findings, Android TV apps are about twice as stable as Android apps for smartphones and tablets. Apteligent notes that the crash rate during May for Android TV apps was as low as 1.5-percent. Which is considerably lower than the 3-percent Apteligent attributes to apps crashes for smartphones and tablets running on Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) during the same period. As such, the Apteligent findings do suggest that Android TV apps are more stable than their mobile counterparts and further suggests that one of the reasons for this, is that Android TV devices do not have to deal with certain connectivity issues, like switching from Wi-Fi to a cellular signal. Although, one of the more controversial aspects of the report is that Apteligent draws on the removal of the Nexus Player as further evidence that Googles focus is increasingly leaning more towards OEMs built-in TV options, like those on offer from Sony, Sharp, RCA and so on, instead of their own endorsed standalone options. Of course, this is quite similar to the way in which the mobile side of Android operates and yet Google does still proceed with releasing Nexus smartphones. Not to mention, there is also new standalone units coming in from third-party manufacturers as well. Whether it is the case that Google is less interested in a Nexus-branded Android TV set remains to be seen, although with no current Nexus Android TV device on the market, clearer indications of whether Apteligents suggestion is true or not will come through when Google does announce its Nexus lineup for 2016 later in the year. Before Lenovo announced the new Moto Z and Moto Z Force at their event last week in San Francisco, there were a number of leaks about the two devices. One of those leaks was in regards to the Moto Mods, and it was a camera module built by Hasselblad. As we now know, that camera module was not officially announced at Lenovo Tech World. Although we did have a few other Moto Mods announced that were made with other companies. Like Incipios offGRID 2200mAh battery pack, and the JBL Moto Mod that adds a speaker to the back of the Moto Z. Now, Hasselblad has just sent out invites to a June 22nd event, where they may announce this new Moto Mod. The picture on the invite shows what appears to be a Moto Mod camera module, which is leading everyone to think that is what we may see next week. The invite shows the outline of a camera, which could be a typical camera, but it could also be this rumored and leaked Moto Mod. The leak that we saw before Lenovo Tech World of this Hasselblad Moto Mod did feature a dedicated shutter button as well as a full-sized flash. However it did not look as high-quality as what this teaser is showing us. Advertisement For those that may be unaware of Hasselblad, they are a company out of Sweden that manufacturers medium-format cameras. They also make photographic equipment and image scanners, although they are a bit less popular in that area. Hasselblad is known best for their classic medium-format cameras that they have producing since World War II, which ended in 1945. Hasselblad could put together a pretty awesome camera for the Moto Z and Moto Z Force, and itd be something that most photographers would be excited about. Although the price would likely be much higher than the Moto Mod prices weve already seen which range from $50 to $200. Making it a tough sell for Lenovo and Motorola. The Moto Z and Moto Z Force are due to launch on Verizon this summer, with the Moto Z heading to Motorolas website and other retailers in September. Verizon Wireless has started rolling out the June security update for Samsungs Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+, both of which were launched late last year by the South Korean consumer electronics giant. According to the information provided by big red, the incoming update will optimize device performance, resolve known issues and apply the latest security patches on the two devices. While the new software for the Note 5 comes with software version MMB29K.N920VVZW2BPF2, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ will see a bump to software version MMB29K.G928VVZW2BPF2 after the installation of the latest update. Verizon has not released a detailed changelog for the incoming update, but says that it gives you the most up to date Android. Thankfully for users though, earlier in the month, Samsung had posted a few more details regarding its June security patch. According to that particular announcement, the companys latest update incorporates all patches up to the June 2016 Google Security Bulletin, alongside nine vulnerabilities and security holes that are patched up by Samsung itself. So all said and done, users of the two smartphones will at least be happy to know that their devices are now secured with the latest security patches available. Users of the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+ should also know that neither Samsung nor Verizon have said anything about any new features being rolled out as part of the latest update. Advertisement Its heartening to see smartphone vendors taking the issue of security comparatively more seriously these days, what with cyber-security becoming an increasingly important issue among netizens worldwide. Earlier this month, Verizon had actually rolled out the June security update for Samsungs latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, both of which were unveiled back in February at the Mobile World Congress trade show in the Spanish city of Barcelona. While Samsung hasnt always been credited with being the fastest off the blocks in rolling out updates to its devices, the company is one of the very few OEMs alongside the likes of Sony, LG and HTC to have officially announced that it will follow Googles monthly security update schedule. Xiaomi has been one of the most active smartphone manufacturing companies this year. This company has not only introduced quite a few smartphones, but theyve also released some smart gadgets as well. Xiaomi had introduced devices like the Mi 5 (their flagship), Mi Max, Redmi 3, Redmi Note 3, Redmi 3 Pro, etc. The company had also introduced the Mi Band 2 fitness tracker, and their first drone, the Mi Drone. Having that in mind, the Android-based MIUI 8 OS had also been introduced earlier this year, along with the Mi Max phablet. The MIUI 8 is a significant step up from MIUI 7, which is always good to hear, and consumers are looking forward to a stable version of Xiaomis newest OS. Now, were not here to talk about MIUI 8 in specific, but rather MIUI in general. The OS has been criticized in China for its advertising policy, let us elaborate on that. MIUI basically shows ads, yes, thats right, youll get to see ads in Xiaomis OS, but its not as bad as you think, not even by a long shot, but it seems like it is bothering people. Now, Xiaomis CEO, Lei Jun, was answering questions live yesterday, and has answered a couple of questions regarding MIUI ads. The companys CEO basically said that users dont hate advertising, they just hate annoying kind of ads, which is kind of true. Lei Jun has also mentioned that MIUI 8 comes with a lot less ads, which is something to look forward to. Advertisement Now, you have to keep in mind that Xiaomi doesnt exactly earn a lot of cash from the smartphone business, their devices are quite affordable, even the more expensive ones, so advertising in the OS itself might be Xiaomis way to compensate for that. It is weird to see ads in an OS though, thats for sure, and quite a few people certainly have a problem with that, though it seems like MIUI 8 will ease up on the ads, so maybe thats a way to silence critics, at least to an extent. The stable build of Xiaomis newest OS is expected to arrive soon (its in beta currently), stay tuned for more info. Every year, the three largest tech companies (Microsoft, Google and Apple) hold their developer conferences typically all at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, although Google opted to return to Mountain View this year. Apple was the last to hold their developer conference this year, which kicked off this past Monday. Their keynote was jam-packed with all sorts of announcements, although no hardware debuted at the keynote. Google, on the other hand, held their developer conference last month. During their keynote, they announced a slew of updates and new products too. While they did unveil some new hardware, they didnt actually make it available, or even show it in person to the press that was there. Now that we have both Google and Apples developer conferences for 2016 under our belt, whos was better? Lets break it down and find out. Well start with the desktop platform. For Apple, they announced that Mac OS X was being renamed to macOS to coincide with their other platforms. They also detailed the next version of the desktop OS, which is named Sierra. Apple brought in a ton of new features with Sierra which is available as a developer preview now with the public beta starting next month. Most of the features that Apple announced only really affects those that use a Mac and an iPhone, like Universal Copy and Paste. A cool feature, which allows you to copy something from your iPhone and then paste it on your mac, or vice versa. Pretty cool, actually. What did Google announce for Chrome OS? Not much. The only real announcement from Google I/O in regards to Chrome OS was actually the fact that Google Play is coming. Which means that about a million Android apps are making their way to Chrome OS. Its a pretty big deal, and its going to make Chrome OS a much better platform overall. Advertisement Then theres Android vs iOS. Google actually announced Android N fairly early, as far back as March. But they did detail quite a few changes to Android N that werent already mentioned. Android N is in beta form now and will be available in Q3. Weve covered Android N extensively already, but some of the bigger features include multi-window support, revamped notifications, keyboard themes, better performance and new emojis. Just to name a few of the features in Android N. With iOS 10, which Apple showed off this week, we got a lot of features that Android has actually had for quite some time. Apple revamped the lock screen, allowing you to see your notifications on the lock screen now. They are also putting out an updated iMessage, which has a lot of features from Allo which Google debuted at Google I/O last month. Siri also got enhanced, we got a new Apple Music app and much more. Over on the TV side of things, Google was actually pretty quiet. The only real announcement from Google I/O was actually the Xiaomi Mi Box which will be launching at some point this year, and running on Android TV. Apple, on the other hand, put out a few changes to tvOS which runs on the Apple TV, but they were mostly small ones. Arguably the biggest was Single Sign-On. If youve ever used an app like WatchESPN where you need to login through your cable provider, you know how much of a hassle that can be when using the app on a Roku, Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV set-top box. Now thats all changed. You just sign into your cable provider once and its all set for every other app on the Apple TV. Its a small feature, but definitely one that is going to be popular. Advertisement Then theres the wrist. Google announced Android Wear 2.0 at Google I/O, which brings a ton of new features. With Android Wear 2.0, Google brought standalone apps to your wrist, as well as basically an entire redesign of the interface. But there was also handwriting. So you can easily handwrite a message onto your wrist. Google also got a bit more into fitness this time around with Google Fit. Apple announced basically the same things for watchOS 3 and the Apple Watch. So the Apple Watch is getting handwriting later this year with watchOS 3. Additionally, Apple announced the ability to unlock your Mac from wearing your Apple Watch. Sounds a whole lot like the Smart Unlock the Android has had for almost two years now. Like Google, Apple also is improving the fitness features of their watch in watchOS 3. In respect to all of the developers and engineers at both Google and Apple, these updates and changes are in no way small. But they both just seemed like me too. Especially when it came to the smartwatch front. Where Android Wear 2.0 and watchOS 3 seemed to be basically the same, aside from different terminology used on each platform. Admittedly, Apple did do quite a bit more when it comes to the living room, but well likely see more out of Android TV later this year with the Nexus hardware announcement. iOS also added a ton of features that Android has had for quite some time. However, when it comes to the desktop, Apple definitely has Google beat. Where macOS is definitely much more advanced than Chrome OS even before Google I/O and WWDC took place this year and it also is seeing a much bigger update. Sure Android apps coming to Chrome OS is still a big deal, but its just apps, really. Advertisement So who had the better developer conference? Thats tough to say. Each ecosystem got plenty of updates that are going to keep their users happy. But since this is an Android site, well have to side with Google here. The one thing that Google had over Apple, is Google Assistant. Sure Siri saw a few updates come its way at WWDC, but Google Assistant is still so much further ahead than Siri in almost every aspect. Additionally, the Google Home product that Google unveiled is an area that Apple basically skipped out on, at WWDC although that may get announced with new hardware later this year. While Apples WWDC did seem like it featured a bunch of me too updates to their platforms, it was still a pretty big conference for them. Google had a bunch of those updates too though. Nothing that either company announced was particularly new. It just goes to show that the tech industry has hit a plateau, and no company really knows where to go next. Virtual Reality seems to be the next big thing, and its something else that Apple also skipped out on entirely. However, Apples mantra isnt to be first, but to release a new product when they feel its ready and when they feel the market is ready for it. Take a look at the iPhone or iPad, they werent the first smartphones or tablets, but were arguably one of the best in those categories (remember the T-Mobile G1, aka the first Android smartphone, launched a year later) when they launched. Advertisement Neither developer conference was really all that spectacular, but they had something for everyone. Its important to remember that these are developer conferences, so the majority of the announcements here are going to be geared towards developers. Hence the reason why we havent seen much in terms of hardware at WWDC or Google I/O in the past few years. Even Microsofts BUILD has been pretty quiet, in terms of hardware. Its a place where these companies update all of their platforms and release developer previews. Having said that, the battle between Android N and iOS 10 coming later this year, is definitely going to be an interesting one, with new Nexus hardware and iPhones coming as well. Last week we discussed whether it was worth upgrading from the OnePlus 2 (after upgrading already from the OnePlus One) to the OnePlus 3. At the time, the latest OnePlus installment had yet to be announced, so much of the details of the latest device had yet to be confirmed. That has all changed now though as OnePlus has lifted the curtain on the OnePlus 3. And to be quite honest, it looks to be a pretty nice smartphone. On paper, the OnePlus 3 comes touting pretty much the best-in-class specs. There is a whopping 6GB RAM included, as is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. Storage is set at 64GB, although there is no option to expand. Fast charging is included by way of Dash Charge (which sounds more like a detergent than anything else). There is also a 16-megapixel rear camera, as well as an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) and the prodigal OnePlus son has returned, NFC. So on paper, this is a powerhouse smartphone. It is not really a 2017 flagship killer and thankfully OnePlus has not touted anything of the kind this year, but for right now, it is a spec contender. One which can stand among the best smartphones of 2016 and does even outclass one or two in certain departments. However, and this is a big however, on paper is a very small part of providing a good service/product to consumers. While most of the spec battles and comparisons will be fully in favor of the OnePlus 3, when it comes to after-sales, OnePlus is anything but a performer. In fact, this is what fueled much of the talk last week on whether it was worth upgrading to the OnePlus 3. After all, there was never any doubt that OnePlus would cram all the specs under the sun into the OnePlus 3, but that is not always enough. Both the OnePlus One and the OnePlus 2 did the same thing and offer consumers a spec-heavy smartphone at an affordable price. However, after owning both the One and 2 and using them solidly as a daily driver, the best advice that can be offered to anyone thinking of switching over to OnePlus for the first time, is beware the aftercare. Specifically, beware of updates. Advertisement This is and has always been a major hurdle for OnePlus. At the time of launch, the OnePlus One came with the added benefit of having Cyanogen OS installed by default. This meant the device came with software which was extremely user-centric. An approach which effectively guaranteed a stable and excellent software experience, as well as routine and regular updates. Although before the OnePlus Ones life cycle ended, Cyanogen and OnePlus unceremoniously fell out and as a result, OnePlus Ones coming off the production line started to emerge running on the companys own recently (at the time) developed OxygenOS. And there is where the real update issues began to surface. From this point on and following the initial OxygenOS roll out, updates were very random and certainly not routine. This all occurred during the time in which Lollipop was beginning to roll out through other manufacturers. As a result, owners of the OnePlus One will remember they had to wait quite a significant time before Lollipop did arrive on their Ones. Although, when it came to Lollipop, OnePlus was pretty much in line with Cyanogen with Android 5.0-based versions of both OxygenOS and Cyanogen OS rolling out around the same time. To be clear, this was not exactly a timely roll out as both Cyanogen OS and OxygenOS were rather late to the Lollipop game, with their updates arriving April 2015 which was a year and a month after the One had been announced (April 2014), ten months after the One became available (June 2015) and six months after Lollipop had been introduced (October 2014). Advertisement Of course at the time, OnePlus was let off any major criticism as OxygenOS was a new operating system and one which was largely understood to be a product of what was essentially a skeleton development crew (by comparison). As such, once the OnePlus 2 was announced, it was naturally assumed update cycles would be greatly improved with the second-generation device. However, they were not. If anything the update cycle seemed to be as bad, if not worse with the OnePlus 2. This was a smartphone which was first announced in July 2015 (note three months after the One received Lollipop) and one which became available (sort of, as it was invite-only) in August of 2015 and naturally, running on Lollipop. By this time, Marshmallow had already been introduced at Google I/O in May and this was followed by the full unveil in September and the code being uploaded to AOSP in October. From this point on, the race to Marshmallow began with a number of manufacturers in December all beginning to tout their various OTA ETA dates. OnePlus was no exception with the company stating they would release Marshmallow for the OnePlus 2 within three months (of the December date). Which put the ETA at and around March 2016. Fast forward to March and on literally the final day of the month OnePlus did make a build of Marshmallow available, but this was defined as an experiment build, a community build and one which had to be sideloaded by the user. So while OnePlus at the time, claimed this was just in time (clearly referring to their earlier promise), the reality is that it was not what was promised. There was no final version, no OTA and those who opted to wait for the official, final and OTA version had to wait until June of this year. Which was eleven months after the unveil (July 2015), ten months after the phone became available (again, in a limited invite capacity), thirteen months after Marshmallow was first debuted at Google I/O, nine months after Marshmallow was formally introduced, eight months after Marshmallow hit AOSP and six months after the OnePlus announced a three month ETA. Coincidentally (or not), one week before the release of the OnePlus 3. Advertisement Now it is clear that OnePlus product (hardware) cycles are shortening, as the 2 became available in August and the 3 is now available in June, but the software update cycles are not, which could be seen as a clear indication of where their priorities lie. They can bring a whole new smartphone to market in a shorter turnaround time (good for them), but cannot turnaround a major update in a timely manner (not good for device owners). While the 2 and the 3 both took about six months to roll out their next major software updates, the time-frame between the One receiving Lollipop and the 2 being released was three months. In contrast, the time-frame between the 2 receiving Marshmallow and the 3 being released was one week. Which does clearly indicate an emphasis being placed on the hardware aspect of the business. Which in truth, should not be the case. At this point, OnePlus needs to start focusing more on the software side of things and ensuring that its already-established customer-base is getting as good of a product after purchase, as they do at the point of purchase. Things are a little different this year though. In addition to the 3 becoming available to buy earlier in the year (June compared to August), the next Android flavor, Android N has also become available earlier. The developer previews have been rolling out for months now (and the latest of which rolled out this week) and it is largely expected that the final release of N and the OEM-ready version will be available very soon, certainly earlier in the calendar year than it has been over the last couple of years. Advertisement This does almost guarantee that the OnePlus 3 will likely receive its update long before April-June of next year (or when the OnePlus 4 comes through), but so will every other manufacturer device. The issue OnePlus will face is whether they can provide the update in a quicker turnaround phase than in previous years. Most OEMs will likely be looking to have Android N either rolled out or in the process of rolling out before the close of 2016 and based on prior experience with OnePlus, it seems highly unlikely they will be able to match those times. This is in spite of OxygenOS being one of the most lightweight and stock-like versions of Android currently on the market. So while many will currently be in the process of deciding on whether to buy the OnePlus 3, the one unspoken aspect during the launch that should be taken into consideration is updates. It is very easy to offer a great product at the point of purchase and OnePlus does offer great products for sale, but as the market becomes more saturated with viable (and affordable options), manufacturers do need to start finding new ways to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. Companies like LG and Motorola have gone the modular route while Samsung has gone the Edge route and HTC has gone the VR route, OnePlus does not have any of these USPs. In fact, if OnePlus does not pick up the update pace this time around, then they could actually negatively differentiate themselves from the pack, as a company who is too slow at providing major updates. A differentiation which has already started to take effect with some consumers. Now is the time for OnePlus to change that perception before it does begin to stick. If you need any further details on OnePlus updates, just ask a OnePlus X owner how they are enjoying Marshmallow. Theyre not. Vernees latest smartphone, the Thor which is a 4G smartphone, has been turning quite a few heads. This smartphone is priced at $99, but the specs that are included are not in that price range. Were looking at specs that you would expect from a smartphone around 3-4 times that price. The Vernee Thor is also a somewhat small smartphone, foregoing the typical larger is better mantra that most smartphone makers have been using lately. But the big question is, does the Vernee Thor stack up? Is it worth $99? Well lets find out in our review. Specs Advertisement When talking about specs, were looking at a smartphone with a 5-inch 1280 x 720 resolution display. This is powered by MediaTeks MT6753 processor, which is an octa-core 1.3GHz Cortex-A53 SoC and that is paired with the Mali-T720 GPU. Vernee has also tossed in 3GB of RAM along with 16GB of storage. However there is a micro SD card slot, allowing you to expand storage to about 128GB. Camera-wise, were looking at a 13-megapixel camera around back which features an f/2.0 aperture, LED Flash and can shoot video at 30 frames per second. The front-facing camera is a 5-megapixel shooter. Dimensions for the Vernee Thor are 70.3mm x 142mm x 7.9mm, and it weighs in at about 140g. Vernee sells the Thor in both black and gray colors. We have two SIM card slots here, both are micro SIM. As far as band support, the Vernee Thor supports: Advertisement GSM 900/1800/1900 WCDMA 900/2100 LTE 800/1800/2100/2600 Advertisement When it comes to software, the Vernee Thor is running stock Android 6.0 Marshmallow. There are a few added in features, but for the most part it is stock Android. Of course, well talk more about that in the software section of this review. The Thor also includes proximity, light, accelerometer, and fingerprint sensors. Along with GPS and A-GPS for location tracking. For WiFi connectivity we have 802.11 b/g/n. In the Box Advertisement Inside the box, Vernee packs the Thor right on top, so its the first thing that you see. When I first opened the box, the first thing I thought was that it looked a lot like the Nexus 5, if you gave it a fingerprint sensor. It even has that soft-touch plastic back. Beneath the Thor lays the packet of paperwork, as well as the micro USB to USB Type-A cable and wall adapter. There is no SIM ejection tool included because the back cover pops off of the Vernee Thor which allows you to access the SIM card slots and micro SD card slot. However the battery is still non-removable. Display Advertisement As mentioned, this is a 5-inch 720p or HD display here, its an IPS display so it does get nice and bright. While outside, and in direct sunlight, the display on the Thor was still very visible. Of course, you did need to turn the display all the way up, but you kinda expect that when it comes to being outside in direct sunlight. The Thors display does also get pretty dim. Making it great for using in dark rooms without damaging your eyes. This is a 720p display, but remember that it is also just 5-inches diagonal. Which means it is still pretty pixel dense. We werent able to see individual pixels in day-to-day use, however if you look hard enough, youll definitely see them. The blacks in the display are actually fairly dark, but still not as dark as an AMOLED panel would provide. The colors are pretty accurate, and Vernee gives you the option to adjust the display to your liking. In the settings you can choose from a few different modes including Standard, Vivid, and User Mode. Now User Mode allows you to adjust just about every aspect of the display to your liking. While the display looks good, the digitizer could use some work. For the most part it was pretty good. However, we did notice while playing Stack, that sometimes there is a delay between when you touch the display and the device actually recognizing it. It is still pretty quick, but it is noticeable in games like that. For the most part, we didnt experience any issues though. We did have a few issues in typing, however that was likely due to the phone being much smaller than most other smartphones, and just takes a little bit to get used to. Advertisement Hardware & Build Quality For a smartphone that costs just $99, you dont really expect a whole lot from it. But Vernee has done a great job at giving us a decently built device at a crazy low price. The Vernee Thor is a pretty small device, coming with a 5-inch display and pretty small bezels as well. They also included a fingerprint scanner on the back, something you dont see often with these $99 smartphones. The frame is plastic, but it is the soft-touch plastic material, which is good for a few reasons. One, and probably the most important reason, is that it gives you some extra grip for holding onto the device. It also doesnt leave many fingerprints on the back. Finally, it keeps the cost down for Vernee, allowing them to add better internal specs. Which is what theyve done. Advertisement The back of the device is removable, which you will find the dual SIM card slots and micro SD card slot beneath it. Unfortunately, the battery is not-removable. But that shouldnt be an issue anyways, as the battery is still quite good and lasts quite a while. On the back side, you have your 13-megapixel camera with LED flash below it. And below that is the fingerprint sensor. The speaker is also on the back, toward the bottom of the smartphone. On the right-hand side, we have a volume rocker and power button with the 3.5mm headphone jack up top and the micro USB port on the bottom. Now with the back being removable, this does make the Vernee Thor feel a bit cheap. Seeing as the back is flimsy, which is quite common for removable backs, but that also means that when you hold the device in certain ways, you can hear it creak a bit. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it will turn some people off. Vernee has taken to using three capacitive buttons on the front. The home button is a square and is in the middle with a button on either side indicated by a dot. Unfortunately, these cannot be remapped, so your menu button is on the left side and back is on the right. You access recents by long-pressing the Home button. Where the two capacitive buttons on either side of the home button are not labeled as either menu or back buttons, it would be nice for Vernee to allow us to remap these to our liking. For instance, Id rather have the back button on the left side and the right button be the recents button. The build quality is not what you would expect from something that is competing with the Galaxy S7, HTC 10, Meizu PRO 6, or Xiaomi Mi 5. But the Vernee Thor is not competing with those. Coming in at a much lower price tag, the Vernee Thors build quality is actually fairly decent. Of course it has its quirks, but so does every other smartphone out there. Fingerprint Reader Vernee did put a fingerprint reader on the back of this smartphone, and they probably shouldnt have. The fingerprint reader is really pretty bad. More often than not, I have to resort to using the pattern to unlock the device, as it doesnt recognize my finger about 9 out of 10 times. Thats a stark difference from the other fingerprint scanners weve used, like the Meizu PRO 6, Leagoo Shark 1 and many others. While the Thor is running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and does support the Fingerprint API, its much more of a hassle than its worth. Now this could be fixed, or at least made a bit better, with a software update, but right now, its hard to tell. Performance Powering the Vernee Thor, we have a MediaTek MT6753 processor, which is a 1.3GHz octa-core processor. Its a fairly popular processor among cheaper Android handsets like the Vernee Thor. And that is due to how well it actually works. The MT6753 here is paired with the Mali-T720 GPU along with 3GB of RAM, which gives the Thor some pretty respectable performance, overall. Obviously this isnt going to compare to anything running the Snapdragon 810 or Snapdragon 820 from Qualcomm, but then again, I wouldnt expect it too. While using the Vernee Thor, everything seemed to be nice and snappy. There werent any noticeable slowdowns at all, throughout the system. And with 3GB of RAM there is definitely enough space to keep all of your favorite apps and games open without the smartphone needing to reopen it when you want to jump back into that app. Inside, there is 16GB of storage by default. Now out of the box, youll have around 11GB of storage that you can actually use. Thats pretty common for smartphones with 16GB of internal storage. Dont forget that there is a micro SD card slot available as well, for expanding this storage. And since it is running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, we also have Adoptable storage available. Benchmarks When it comes to benchmarks, the Vernee Thor didnt give us any real surprises. We ran Geekbench 3, AnTuTu and 3D Mark on the Vernee Thor, and the scores were pretty predictable. Thats actually a good thing, as it shows that there isnt anything funny going on behind the scenes (like cheating in benchmarks). You can see the results below. Network & Phone Calls Typically, we put in a T-Mobile US SIM card into the phone that we are testing. We did that with the Vernee Thor, but for some reason it wouldnt connect to the network at all (not even the voice network). Based on the bands the Thor supports, we should get 2G on T-Mobile. But since the phone wouldnt recognize the SIM card at all, we spent most of the review period without a SIM card inside. Thus we were unable to test phone calls as well as data speeds. However, we were able to make some calls over WiFi (using Google Voice through Hangouts), and the experience was basically what youd expect. Sound & Speakers The speaker on the Thor is on the back of the phone. Typically this placement means that the speaker wont be as good as youd hope. When holding the device in your hand, the sound can get a bit muffled. The same thing happens when you place it down on a table or desk. The speaker, on the bright side, is pretty loud. Now this speaker isnt going to compete with the speaker found on the HTC 10 or even the Samsung Galaxy S7. But it is quite good. There are a few settings that are available for enhancing the sound from both the speaker and the headphone jack, here on the Vernee Thor. We have BesAudEnh which enhances the audio for the earphone or headphone jack. Then we have the BesLoudness for boosting the volume of the speaker. Finally we have BesSurround which offers two modes, Music Mode and Movie Mode. During our review process, we had BesLoudness enabled and BesSurround set to Music Mode. Our experience with the speaker has been quite good. Not only is the speaker nice and loud, but the mids are nice and clear as well as the lows having plenty of bass. Great for those that love bass-heavy music. Battery Life Keep in mind that our battery life experience as well as benchmarks were done without a SIM card inside, as well as on WiFi only the entire time. Having said that, battery life appeared to be pretty good. We werent able to kill the phone in a full day, and could easily squeak out about 4 hours of on screen time if we really tried. We consistently got between 2 and 3 hours of on screen time each day. Which was pretty decent. It would likely be different if it were connected to a network. Having said that, we did run PC Mark on the Vernee Thor as a battery benchmark. And the Vernee Thor did really well. Putting up better times than most of the phones weve recently reviewed. Including the HTC 10, Creo Mark 1, Meizu PRO 6 and a few others. Thats something that we definitely like to see. Theres no fast charging technology included here. Which means the Thor does charge a bit slower, but that isnt necessarily a deal breaker though. Seeing as the Thor does have a somewhat small battery, rated at 2800mAh capacity. It doesnt take long to charge it from 0 to 100%. Software In terms of software, what we have here on the Vernee Thor is pretty minimal. Vernee is running a mostly stock Android experience here for their users. And thats something we are definitely a fan of. The Thor is running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which is currently the latest version of Android. Theres really just a couple of apps pre-installed on the Thor, aside from the typical apps and Google apps that are always there. These include a Backup & Restore app, which as the name says, allows you to backup and restore your content pretty easily. The other app is the FM Radio. By plugging in a pair of headphones, youll be able to listen to your local FM radio stations. This is a feature that is very popular in emerging markets, which is where the Thor is targeting. Vernee has also included a Turbo Download mode. Allowing you to use both your WiFi network and mobile network to get the fastest speed possible for downloading files and such. Its a simple, but very useful feature. Keep in mind that because this is using both your mobile network and WiFi network, that you may incur data charges if you dont have an unlimited data plan. We also have the ability to schedule when the phone will turn off and back on. This way you can have the phone turn off at night when youre asleep and let it boot back up in the morning before you wake up. The reason why rebooting your smartphone is a big deal, is because it can make things faster. So if you ever notice that your smartphone is slowing down, just do a simple reboot and youll likely notice a difference. While Vernee did essentially just take AOSP and slap it onto the Thor here, thats not necessarily a bad thing. It does appear that Vernee did do some work with the software here, as it does feel quite optimized. The overall experience on the Thor is very fast. Animations are nice and fast likely due to different settings in the Developer Settings as well as switching between apps. The entire OS feels very fast. Something we are always happy to report, especially on lower-end smartphones such as the Vernee Thor. Camera On the back of the Vernee Thor, we have a 13-megapixel shooter with an aperture of f/2.0. This is fairly good in terms of specs for a smartphone that costs just $99. The real question is about how well the processing of the pictures are. And fortunately, this is another box that the Thor checks. Many of the pictures we took with the Vernee Thor during our time with it, came out quite nice. The Thor does well outside, and even in direct sunlight, it doesnt appear to blow some objects out, like other smartphone cameras do in its class. When it comes to low-light and indoor pictures, the camera still works quite well. Its not going to stack up to what you get out of the LG G5, Samsung Galaxy S7 or the HTC 10, but for what youre paying for, its actually really good. As far as the camera UI goes, were looking at a pretty minimal UI. On the right side there is your shutter as well as record button for video. Theres also your settings on the left side of the record and shutter buttons and gallery on the right. Its pretty simple, making it easy for anyone to use. Especially important given the target audience of the Vernee Thor here. The Good The price of $99 Size, being a 5-inch smartphone its small but not too small Build quality Camera The Bad No support for US Carriers (this is pretty much expected, given that it is a smartphone out of China, but still needs to be mentioned). Fingerprint sensor is almost useless. Capacitive buttons are not customizable. Final Thoughts The Vernee Thor isnt the smartphone for everyone, but it is a smartphone that will do just about anything you need it too without paying an arm and a leg for it. There are a few issues with the Thor here, but most of them arent deal breakers aside from the Fingerprint scanner issue. Hopefully Vernee can fix that issue up in a future software update or two (we did get one during our review process, but it didnt change how accurate the fingerprint sensor was). Should You Buy the Vernee Thor? I would say that you should buy the Vernee Thor if you arent a hardcore user. If you just need a phone that can check your email, use to browse Facebook, Twitter, etc., and even play a few games. Then this is a good smartphone to pick up. But if youre looking for an alternative to a flagship smartphone that costs around $600+, youre going to be disappointed. Samsung has, for years now, always had one important trick up their sleeves when it comes to smartphones and tablets; Super AMOLED displays. Ever since the original Galaxy S burst on to the scene way back in 2010, Samsung has used their Super AMOLED displays to great effect in their smartphones and more recently in their Android tablets. Being able to produce such a key component for your own devices of course gives any company an advantage in their particular field, but Samsung doesnt just produce AMOLED panels for their own devices, but for other companies as well. Now, a recent report has surfaced giving Samsung 30 percent market share in the small and medium active mode organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display market. This new report comes from IHS which puts Samsung Electronics at 30.6 percent market share where sales were concerned and that Samsungs displays accounted for 14.4 percent of the global total. That 30.6 percent figure was trailed by Japan Display at 17.1 percent, LG Display with 12.9 percent and Japans SHARP with 8.9 percent and Taiwans AUO wth 4.9 percent. New World Electronics, BOE and Innolux completed the list with less than 5 percent market share apiece. The Chinese market appears to be what has spurred on Samsungs growth in this sector, which grew 20.2 percent year-on-year netting to South Korean giant $2.96 Billion in sales of displays alone. In terms of quantity however, Samsung managed to ship 90.15 Million units during Q1 2016, a jump of 60.16 percent over the previous year during the same period. Advertisement Despite the fact that the user-facing products from Samsung are mostly smartphones and TV sets, Samsung makes a lot of money from their component business, not only by creating their own components but also or other manufacturers around the world. Samsung has even started to sell their curved AMOLED displays out to Chinese companies such as Vivo, which might seem risky, but again still puts lots of money in Samsungs pocket. Regardless, these new figures will no doubt be music to Samsungs ears and as the firm becomes better and better at creating their flexible AMOLED displays, theyll be able to ship more units and, in the long run, make more money. This years election in the United States has easily been one of the most divisive and uproarious in the countrys history. It comes amid outright turbulence in the face of multiple tragedies that have been sparking political battles left and right on every issue from encryption to gun control to racism to gay rights to animals and everything in between. Naturally, amid all of this, everybody whos anybody has either chosen a side on issues or been assigned a side by the mass media. Accusations and allegations are flowing just as easily as pretty words and money, even in the tech world. One company in particular, a very large one that wields a lot of influence, is refusing to choose a side. Google is no stranger to political and societal hot-button issues, but they rarely take a side or take a stand. Although theyve stood with victims of tragedy and stood up for gay rights before, there is one thing Google will not stand for, and thats allowing themselves to appear biased in an election. With Bernie Sanders out, the decision for America comes down to Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. While there are a fair number of people who see them both as unworthy of a vote, they both also have legions of followers and supporters, deep pockets and tons of influence and power. None of that seems to impress Google much; according to Eric Schmidt, the company will not be choosing a side this year or any other year. Advertisement Politics can be a very serious issue. Media giants get involved, propaganda spreads far and wide and, at times, death threats even fly about. There are more than a few obvious reasons that Google wants no part of this vicious process. The company at large tends to stick to its liberal roots on the issues, but has a policy not to take sides in issues like elections. Eric Schmidt said it best, summing everything up quite nicely; I can say with certainty were going to take a position on equality, diversity, equal treatment of people, fairness, gay rights, on other matters the company will probably not take a position. For the most part, Google keeps their nose out of the political system, but their employees have no such restrictions or obligations. Individual Google and Alphabet employees tend to be some of the biggest political contributors, despite their employer refusing to take sides in the myriad of debates. If Google was to choose a side, it could attract bad press or influence the system, but employees are only one person, no matter how much they may be getting paid or what their role may be. While some may claim that Google uses their employees as a drone army of sorts to support their own political interests, there is no solid proof at this time that such a thing is happening; as far as anybody knows, Googles employees political and activism decisions are entirely their own. While Google mostly tries to stay neutral, hot button issues such as human rights often draws their attention. Both explicitly through talks, donations and other efforts, and implicitly through their services, Google stands up on the issues they believe in, such as humanitarian laws against discrimination, as well as gun control. The internet behemoths great weight normally helps them to get things accomplished that a grassroots effort or smaller companies could never quite match. They also have the option, of course, of using their wide reach to kick off sweeping social change at the touch of a button. A while back, it was reported that Xiaomi is the number one brand in China, beating out stiff competition from the likes of Honor (which is a subsidiary of Huawei), Letv and even Silicon valley based Apple. However, a new report has surfaced on the highly popular Chinese micro blogging website Sina Weibo. The report reveals the top 10 most popular smartphones in China and the data is based on a survey done on consumers. Taking the number one spot on the list is no other than Xiaomis Mi 5. A little bit on the Mi 5, it comes with a 5.15 inch full HD display and packs the Snapdragon 820 chipset and the base model is coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of UFS 2.0 internal storage. It also comes with a 16MP rear camera that is equipped with 4-axis OIS and a 4MP front facing camera plus a fingerprint scanner on the front. It is also the first Xiaomi device to feature a USB Type- C charging port. However, the Mi 5 is not the only Xiaomi handset to make it into the list as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 and Xiaomis new phablet, the Mi Max are also listed. The Redmi Note 3 is currently the 2nd most popular smartphone in China while the 6.44 inch Mi Max took the number eight spot. Most of the devices in the list are from China-based companies such as Meizu which has its Meizu MX 5 in the list, OPPO with its OPPO R9 taking the last spot in the list and other Chinese brands such as 360 which isnt widely known in the international market. Advertisement The only non-Chinese smartphone to make it into the list is the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The device from Korean-based Samsung comes in at number five in the list. The list compiled is bound to change from time to time as China is an ever growing smartphone market, with new smartphones being launched every week. This so happens as China is the largest smartphone market in the world at the moment and its user base is expected to reach 563.3 million users by the end of this year. Xiaomi is, next to Huawei, Chinas largest smartphone manufacturer, at least in terms of market share. This company has been selling quite a few devices in China over the last couple of years, and theyve introduced a number of smartphones this year already, including four mid-range Redmi-branded devices, the Redmi 3, Redmi Note 3, Redmi 3 Pro and Redmi 3s. In addition to this, Xiaomi had also introduced the Mi 5 flagship, and the Mi Max phablet. Having that in mind, were here to talk more about the companys Redmi devices, read on. The Redmi series of smartphones is Xiaomis most popular line of smartphones, in terms of sales at the very least. These are usually Xiaomis most affordable devices, and are selling like hotcakes. Lei Jun has actually released some interesting data when it comes to Redmi smartphone, the companys CEO said that the company sold almost 110 million Redmi phones to this date, and the first Redmi device was announced back in July 2013. So, they basically managed to sell almost 110 million Redmi devices in under 3 years, which is quite impressive. Xiaomi has introduced nine variants of their Redmi devices to this date, not counting the Pro variants. So, the company basically sold 12 million units of each of those models, on average, which is quite an impressive number to say the least. Advertisement So, why are Redmi phones so successful? Well, theyre incredibly affordable and offer really solid specs and build despite that. Lets take the latest Redmi phone as an example, the Redmi 3s. This device comes with a 5-inch 720p display, 2GB / 3GB of RAM and 16GB / 32GB of native storage. The device is fueled by the Snapdragon 430 64-bit octa-core SoC, and a 13-megapixel camera is also included here. The phone is made out of metal, and a 4,000mAh battery is also a part of this package, same as the fingerprint scanner. Now, you get all this for only $106 or $136 in China (depending on the variant), which is quite affordable no matter which way we look at it. That is basically it, Xiaomis Redmi series has been on fire as far as sales go, and it will be interesting to see what will the numbers look like at the end of this year. Transfer balls: Manchester United turn to Mkhitaryan, Arsenal chase Gotze Transfer balls: Are Arsenal buying Mario Gotze? The Sun says the Gunners are in for the German international. The paper tells its readers: Arsenal are lining up a sensational 27million move for Bayern Munich outcast Mario Gotze according to reports in Germany. The Sun says Arsenal did prefer Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but hes rejected them and told Dortmund he has his heart set on Manchester United. The Sun cites its source for that as the BBC. The story appears to have some legs. Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke tells Bild the Armenian would not be extending his contract which ends next summer: Dortmund chief executive Hanz-Joachim Watzke said: We have been negotiating with Henrikh Mkhitaryan for four months for him to extend his contract with us. Now we know that it is not extended, it was never our commitment that Mkhitaryan may leave us prematurely. We have intensely discussed the question of an early transfer in all club bodies and came to the conclusion that Mkhitaryan will stay in Dortmund next season. No deal has been done. And, in any case, it was earlier this month the Sun told readers that Man United werent interested in the Dortmund man: Gunners boss Arsene Wenger is looking to wrap up a quick deal for Borussia Dortmunds 25million-rated Armenia midfielder. Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham are also keen on Mkhitaryan, 27. As Mkhitaryans agent calls Old Trafford, Arsenal turn to Gotze. The Sun continues: Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is desperate to be reunited with former Dortmund man Gotze at Anfield, but it appears the Gunners have now stolen a march on them. The Suns story contains not a single link to any of the reports it mentions. And there are other reports that Gotzes current club, Bayern Munich, are keen to get shot of him and will not include him on their roster for next seasons Champions League squad. Helpfully on the Bayern Munich website, theres a statement on Gotze: FC Bayern Munchen has demanded that various media sources cease and desist from reporting false claims. It has been reported that FC Bayern has threatened Mario Gotze by stating he would not be nominated to play in the Champions League if he remains at the club. FC Bayern Munchen AG chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge commented: This is complete fiction. It remains the case that we will resolutely defend ourselves against all false or even malicious reporting using all legal means available to us. Such are the facts. Anorak Posted: 17th, June 2016 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink (ANSA) - Cagliari, June 17 - A group of some 50 refugees from Ethiopia, Nigeria and Somalia have set up a farming cooperative in Sardinia, officials said Friday. The refugees are all former farmers who fled war and land seizures in their home countries, ending up in Italy. Their cooperative is named Warwii (Farmland) and they are growing vegetables, strawberries, and olives on abandoned land near the northeastern Sardinian village of Muros, population just over 800, after authorities granted them use of the land for six years. "We don't want to go about asking for money or charity," Warwii representative Cheikh Diankha told ANSA. "We know how to work the land and when this possibility was offered to us we jumped at it". The coop - which came about thanks to the Movida project for immigrant integration - also means a chance to learn new techniques in view of a return home when conditions permit, Diankha added. Movida has involved local chambers of commerce and Coldiretti national farmers' association in its integration efforts. On Saturday, July 11, a team of Alibi staffers joined forces to host a photobooth and raffle at Albuquerque PRIDE! We were able to raise over $150 for the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico thanks to the generous donations of festival-goers, many of whom are featured in these pictures. It was a day full of rainbows, glitter, giant man-sized butterflies and the shared purpose of supporting everyone to be exactly who they are. Many thanks to everyone who stopped by. See you next year! (ANSA) - Brussels, June 17 - The European Union will cooperate with countries in Africa's Sahel region to stop asylum seeker deaths in the Sahara Desert, EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Federica Mogherini said after meeting with the Sahel G5 group of nations Friday. The Sahel lies between the Sahara Desert to the north, the Sudanian Savanna to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Red Sea to the east. The Sahel G5 is made up of Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. "There is a shared concern with the Sahel over security and the management of borders with Libya," Mogherini said. "For us, supporting cooperation with border countries to the south of Libya - such as Chad, which has experiences to share - is fundamental". Mogherini added "the Sahel is an area of both origin and transit of migration flows... (and) putting an end to the loss of life in both the Mediterranean and the desert is a responsibility and a humanitarian duty we all share". The EU is fielding a new "regionalized support" policy in the coming months, Mogherini said. Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat said he hoped "Europe will become more active in its support" because the situation in the region is "extremely grave" given that Islamist terrorist groups have run rife in Burkina Faso and Mali, while Nigeria's brutal Boko Haram fundamentalist militia has made incursions into Chad. Also on Friday, Mogherini said she will preside over a meeting between Libya and Niger over management of Libya's southern borders. The EU foreign minister spoke after a group of five men, nine women, and twenty children died of thirst after they were abandoned by migrant traffickers in the Sahara Desert. (ANSA) - St Petersburg, June 17 - Premier Matteo Renzi said Friday that Italy is working to restore relations between the EU and Russia that were badly damaged by the Ukraine crisis. "We are working to build bridges," Renzi said in St Petersburg. "This is Italy's objective. Italy thinks dialogue is needed, not closure. "That's why today is important because we think that the reasons that bring us together and more than the ones that divide us". Renzi was speaking during a visit to a worksite of Italian firm Astaldi in the Russian city after having a private visit to the Hermitage museum. The premier is set to address the St Petersburg Business Forum later on Friday and have a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Renzi said that the Italian delegation he is leading will have signed deals worth over a billion euros by the end of the day. "Today we will sign agreements for over one billion euros," he said. "Legitimate agreements within the framework on the sanctions (imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis) because we respect the rules". The deals between Italian and Russian firms will be signed in the presence of Putin. ROME - A preview screening of a review of Mediterranean short films called "A premiere Vue" was held in Rome on Thursday evening as part of the 22nd edition of Tiber Island's outdoor cinema Isola del Cinema. The exhibition is sponsored by the Permanent Conference of Mediterranean Audiovisual Operators (COPEAM), UNINETTUNO International Telematic University, and three cinema and television schools in Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia associated with COPEAM. The project aims to promote debut works from young directors in the three countries. The short films screened during the preview were also the subject of the first episode of a show titled 'A premiere Vue', dedicated to the students' work and broadcast on UNINETTUNO's satellite and web-based educational channel. The films shown were: The Lament of the Goldfish, written and directed by Oubaid Ayari (ESAC - Tunisia); Sagar, written and directed by Pape Abdoulaye Seck (ESAV - Marrakesh/Senegal); and Ktir Kbir, written and directed by Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya (ALBA - Lebanon). Speakers during the preview evening included UNINETTUNO Rector Maria Amata Garito, Tunisian Ambassador to Italy Naceur Mestiri, and COPEAM Deputy Secretary-General Paola Parri, along with representatives from the three partner institutions. A debate on Mediterranean cinema followed the screenings. Moderated by Italian director Claudio Giovannesi, who presented his film "Flower" at this year's Cannes Film Festival, the debate also included Algerian director and screenwriter Rachid Benhadj. In confirmation of its effort to promote young talents from the southern shores, COPEAM is collaborating with RAI Cinema, which will host a selection of the best short films made by students of the three schools on its web platform RAI Cinema Channel. RABAT - Two people risk six months in prison in Morocco for breaking the Ramadan fast. The young men were caught in Gueliz in the centre of Marrakech and now face prosecution under article 222 of the criminal code banning Muslims from daytime eating or drinking during the Holy Month except when urgently necessary. A few days ago a young woman required emergency treatment in the Moroccan tourist capital after being beaten by her companions for lighting a cigarette in a gambling hall. The fact that gambling is also forbidden by Islam appeared to be irrelevant. In Zagora on the edge of the desert, where temperatures reach 40 degrees, two informal traders were arrested for drinking a sip of water in public. They now face trial along with an office worker in Rabat who was beaten up and reported by colleagues for smoking a cigarette during a work break. Syria: sources, Aleppo bombing wounds reporter, cameraman Shelling continues on the Turkish border of conflict zones (ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, JUNE 17 - A Syrian journalist and a cameraman were seriously injured in Aleppo overnight during a government bombing on the area outside the government's control, according to journalistic sources in the northern Syrian city. The sources said reporter Hadi Abdallah and cameraman Khaled Issa were transported to the Turkish border to be treated. Abdallah is known for his positions in support of the armed anti-regime revolt, and since 2011 he has followed the events in the country from various fronts. Meanwhile, fighting continues on multiple fronts. The Russian Defence Ministry reported that in the province of Damascus the ceasefire has been violated four times in the past 24 hours. Moscow accuses units of Jaysh al-Islam of having opened fire with heavy artillery on Syrian troop posts in Jobar and Haush Al-Hayat and twice on the village of Harasta Al-Basal. And at least two mortar shellings, shot from conflict zones in northern Syria, reached the Turkish border province of Kilis, according to the site Yeni Sefak, which said there weren't any wounded. The town of Yayladagi was hit. The Turkish Army responded to the fire according to the rules of engagement, as it always has in cases of this kind. Similar attacks against Kilis have been repeated frequently in recent months, killing 21 and wounding more than 80 people since January.(ANSAmed). Turkey: Gay Pride banned in Istanbul, 'security reasons' After nationalist group threats. In 2015 dispersed by police (ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, JUNE 17 - Turkish authorities on Friday banned the Gay Pride march in Istanbul scheduled for Sunday, June 26. The decision was taken by the local governor for reasons of "security" and to "safeguard public order". In recent days, some nationalist groups had threatened action against the march if it wasn't banned. Last year Istanbul's Gay Pride, in its 14th edition, was dispersed by police following a ban announced a few hours before its scheduled start. (ANSAmed). BRUSSELS - The European Union will cooperate with countries in Africa's Sahel region to stop asylum seeker deaths in the Sahara Desert, EU Foreign Affairs High Representative Federica Mogherini said after meeting with the Sahel G5 group of nations Friday. The Sahel lies between the Sahara Desert to the north, the Sudanian Savanna to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Red Sea to the east. The Sahel G5 is made up of Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. "There is a shared concern with the Sahel over security and the management of borders with Libya," Mogherini said. "For us, supporting cooperation with border countries to the south of Libya - such as Chad, which has experiences to share - is fundamental". Mogherini added "the Sahel is an area of both origin and transit of migration flows... (and) putting an end to the loss of life in both the Mediterranean and the desert is a responsibility and a humanitarian duty we all share". The EU is fielding a new "regionalized support" policy in the coming months, Mogherini said. Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat said he hoped "Europe will become more active in its support" because the situation in the region is "extremely grave" given that Islamist terrorist groups have run rife in Burkina Faso and Mali, while Nigeria's brutal Boko Haram fundamentalist militia has made incursions into Chad. Mogherini presided over a meeting between Libya and Niger over management of Libya's southern borders. The EU foreign minister spoke after a group of five men, nine women, and twenty children died of thirst after they were abandoned by migrant traffickers in the Sahara Desert. Migrants: MSF 'not our partner in Turkey', EU says Humanitarian aid will not be affected by funding decision (ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JUNE 17 - The medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is not an implementing partner for humanitarian aid in Turkey and nor has it requested funding for its activities in Turkey so its decision to no longer accept funds from the European Union and member states "will not affect humanitarian activities on behalf of refugees in Turkey", European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Friday. "The Commission takes note of MSF's decision to suspend requests for funding from EU institutions or member states," Schinas continued. "The Commission has been told that the decision will have no impact on MSF projects funded by the EU in other parts of the world. Last year European Commission support for MSF accounted for around 1% of its humanitarian aid budget, roughly 15 million euros against a total of 1.5 billion euros," he said. "As regards the question of the legality of the EU-Turkey deal, the Commission prefers the interpretations given by our 28 member states, the Council of Europe and the United Nations, which are closer to our analysis of the agreement than the interpretation made by MSF today," Schinas concluded. PARIS - The medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) will no longer accept funds from the European Union and its member states in protest against their "shameful" migration policies, International Secretary General Jerome Oberreit said Friday. The organisation intends to distance itself particularly from the deal reached with Turkey three months ago, which has led to a de facto closure of the Balkan route to migrants seeking refuge in Europe. The decison takes effect immediately and applies to MSF projects worldwide. However, it does not affect the Italian chapter of MSF, which does not receive any institutional funding. "Once again, Europe's main focus is not on how well people will be protected, but on how efficiently they are kept away," said Oberreit. The NGO claims the EU-Turkey deal sets a dangerous precedent for other countries hosting refugees, as demonstrated by last week's proposal to replicate the pact in a further 16 Middle Eastern and African countries through the so-called European Compact. "We are calling on European governments to shift priorities - rather than maximising the number of people they can push back, they must maximise the number they welcome and protect," Oberreit continued. "The EU-Turkey pact was presented as a humanitarian response and this is what we reject because in reality it is an anti-humanitarian response," MSF migration advisor Aurelie Ponthieu said. Globally 92% of MSF's funds come from private donations. In 2015 the NGO received 19 million euros from the EU and 27 million euros from member states. "I am sure we will manage to continue our projects with other forms of funding," Oberreit said. "We have funds set aside to be used in emergencies and we are working to build new partnerships in future." TUNIS - The leaders of Tunisia's four government coalition partners (Nidaa Tounes, Ennhadha, Union Patriotique Libre and Afek Tounes) have decided to withdraw their support for the current premier Habib Essid and ask him to resign. The decision was taken late Thursday night following a meeting at Nidaa Tounes headquarters. The initiative comes in the context of discussions relating to a proposal launched by President of the Republic Beji Caid Essebsi on June 2 to create a government of national unity to tackle the urgent issues facing the country and enact reforms needed for modernisation. There are now several possible political scenarios, including a vote of no confidence in parliament. Premier Essid in fact said at one point that he would be prepared to resign in the interests of the country, only then to retract his statement. 'Naples Charter', business and social responsibility in Med Signed declaration for sustainable development model in the area (ANSAmed) - NAPLES, JUNE 17 - "We're starting from Naples to relaunch unitary work for a path of sustainable growth that sees the Mediterranean as the protagonist of a development model that holds together the demands of business and their social responsibility," said Georges Dassis, president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) at the 4th edition of the Mediterranean Fair on Shared Social Responsibility in Naples. "It's a job that must be done together with national States, to face the great question of migrants and refugees in the poorer countries," Dassis said. During the expo, in fact, participants signed the "Naples Charter", a programmatic declaration to connect business and shared social responsibility. The charter will be the foundation of the proposal for the constitution of the Mediterranean Social Responsibility Forum, a platform for exchange, promotion and consistent programming with direction from the European Commission and the EESC. "The union between businesses, unions, and social associations that we represent will be a determining factor for new policies in the European Union. A change that the Naples Charter launched here will be important for the future of the Mediterranean," Dassis said. Sergio Piazzi, secretary-general of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM), said, "The support of the Naples Charter by Mediterranean parliaments aims to reshape the near future of the countries that face our sea. Important challenges await us, and Naples has all the characteristics to be a strategic place in the redefinition of a model of sustainable development that must concretely ensure business and labour". The fair's president, Raffaella Papa, said the objective of the scenarios, strategies and determining tools is "to create a culture of sustainability that goes beyond just philanthropic features to activate real processes that determine a capacity to conduct responsible business".(ANSAmed). remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Le CBD, cette molecule active du cannabis a aujourdhui le vent en poupe. Et cela est en grande partie du au fait quil permet... YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan participated in the opening of the annual DigiTech business forum. The forum is held under the patronage of the PM by the Union of IT enterprises. This event, which is being organized for the 9th time, is an important platform for presenting technological achievements, discovering new entrepreneurial and investment opportunities, contributing to cooperation and exchanging experience. The IT sector is one of the most rapidly developing sectors in Armenia. Significant progress has been achieved over the past years, Abrahamyan said. This years forum will focus on IT solutions for military industry and cyber security. YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. Liquidating the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria can make the region plunge into chaos and will not help in the fight against terrorism, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on June 17, reports TASS. "In any case, calls for overthrowing authorities in other countries can hardly be welcomed in Moscow. Moreover, liquidating a regime will hardly facilitate successful progress in the fight against terrorism. It can make the region plunge in total chaos," Peskov said. Earlier The Wall Street Journal reported that dozens of State Department officials this week protested against U.S. policy in Syria, signing an internal document that calls for targeted military strikes against the Damascus government and urging regime change as the only way to defeat Islamic State. The dissent channel cable was signed by 51 State Department officers involved with advising on Syria policy in various capacities, according to an official familiar with the document. The Wall Street Journal reviewed a copy of the cable, which repeatedly calls for targeted military strikes against the Syrian government in light of the near-collapse of the ceasefire brokered earlier this year. The State Department acknowledged the existence of the cable, which is a formal, confidential diplomatic communication, but didn't comment on its contents until top officials had a chance to review it. YEREVAN, JUNE 17, ARMENPRESS. Russian President Vladimir Putin urged at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2016) on Friday to restore relations between Russia and the European Union, TASS reports. The Russian president said at a SPIEF-2016 plenary session that Russia was ready to meet Europe halfway but this was not one-way traffic. "As the recent meetings with representatives of the German and French business circles have shown, European business wants and is ready to cooperate with our country," Putin said. "Politicians need to meet business halfway, display wisdom, far sightedness and flexibility. We need to return trust in Russian-European relations and restore the level of interaction," the Russian leader said. Russia was not the initiator of a rupture of relations with the EU, Putin said. "But, as the saying goes, we harbor no grudge and are ready to meet our partners halfway but this cannot be one-way street," Putin said. European countries could join the project of the Greater Eurasian partnership, Putin said. As the Russian leader noted, some European partners "are talking about uneasy decisions for Europe during talks on establishing the trans-Atlantic partnership." "It is evident that Europe has huge potential and the stake on only one regional association clearly narrows its possibilities. In this situation, it is difficult to maintain a balance and keep the room for a maneuver advantageous for Europe," Putin said. Best Finance Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Finance category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. Best Education Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Education category or any of the sub-category below? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. Best Arts & Entertainment Products and Services Would you like to submit an article in the Arts & Entertainment category? Click here to submit your article. Would you like to have your product or service listed on this page? Contact us. With our newly released Redes DVD, PostClassical Ensemble completes its Naxos quartet of classic 1930s films with freshly recorded soundtracks. The scores for these four films the others are The Plow that Broke the Plains, The River, and The City are among the most distinguished ever composed for film. The composers are Virgil Thomson, Aaron Copland, and Silvestre Revueltas. What is more remarkable, all four films are music-driven to a degree rarely approachable today. While sound films, The Plow, The River, and The City are famous documentaries shot without sound. This is because in the thirties sound equipment was not readily portable in the field. No ambient sound was added. Rather, the three soundtracks comprise formidably original symphonic music and sonorous blank verse narration, sans dialogue. The result is a unique but short-lived high-art genre. Redes was mainly shot without sound. Most of the ambient sound and dialogue were added later. But the films iconic sequences were without exception shot without sound, and no dialogue or ambient sound were ever added. All four films feature powerful and powerfully autonomous music tracks. The music does not merely mimic the action. Nor does it merely drive the narrative trajectory. Rather, it acquires a rare degree of autonomy. When at the end of The Plow a sad parade of cars escapes failed farms victimized by a legendary drought, Thomson supplies an ironic habanera. Coplands Sunday Traffic sequence, in The City, juxtaposes a massive traffic jam with an ebullient accelerating march. For the childs funeral in Redes, Revueltas composes a self-sufficient dirge based on a minor-key leitmotif he triumphantly reprises in the major at the films close a signature of redemption for the oppressed fishermen whose plight the film exposes. Significantly, these are not films to which music was added after they were shot and edited. Pare Lorentz recut The Plow upon receiving Thomsons startlingly original score. For The River, Thomson was part of the creative team from the start. The same was true of Copland with regard to The City. In the case of Redes, Revueltas began work on his music before seeing any rushes. Its not surprising that this unsettled Paul Strand, the films legendary cinematographer. Revueltas also had the final say after Strand and the films directors Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gomez Muriel were no longer around. It would be hard to imagine a film project that more empowered its composer. It bears mentioning that the four films influenced one another. Pare Lorentz directed both The Plow and The River, and wrote a script outline for The City. Paul Strand shot Redes and was one of four cinematographers for The Plow. Willard Van Dyke took part in The River and The City both. Aaron Copland reviewed Redes for The New York Times and we can infer that both Redes and the two Lorentz films inspired his work on The City. Copland was then off to Hollywood, where he scored five films and won an Academy Award. But none of those film scores nearly attains the caliber or impact of his music for The City. In fact, after 1940 with the full advent of sound and of more mobile outdoor sound equipment little comparable to The Plow, The River, The City, or Redes was ever again likely to materialize. I can think of rare exceptions, such as Ken Russells amazing 1983 film version of Holsts The Planets, in which not a single image is planetary. But that, too, is a silent film with music an anomaly. Naxos plans eventually to package PostClassical Ensembles DVDs as a single boxed set memorializing a landmark effort in the history of music and the moving image. All the latest Ashbourne news. Ashbourne is an historic market town in Derbyshire. Situated on the southern edge of the Peak District, it is known as the 'Gateway to Dovedale' and the 'Gateway to the Peak District'. Ashbourne is famous for the annual Royal Shrovetide Football Match, which has been played since at least 1667, although its origins may date back centuries earlier. Ashbourne became a Fairtrade town in March 2005. The popular Tissington Trail, which follows the route of the former Ashbourne to Buxton railway, starts on the edge of town. Keep up to date with the latest news from the town by signing up for our newsletter. President Nazarbayev announces tighter security laws to prevent "the spread of radical ideas". At attack in Aktobe on 5 June killed 18 people. Baptist pastor and former Soviet prisoner of conscience Yegor Prokopenko is fined for leading an Illegal meeting prayer. Astana (AsiaNews/Agencies) An 89-year-old, former Soviet prisoner of conscience has been fined by Kazakh authorities for holding an illegal meeting prayer. Yegor Prokopenko, head of the Council of Baptist Churches in Zyryanovsk (eastern Kazakhstan), was caught red-handed on 22 May in his own home celebrating Sunday Mass. Videotaped by police, he was fined 212,000 tenge (US$ 625), almost three months of an average worker's wage. This comes as Kazakh authorities intensify their crackdown on religions following a 5 June terror attack in Aktobe that killed 18 people, which might be connected to Islamic radicalism. Reacting to the attack, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev gave his government two months to tighten security legislation. Existing laws adopted in 2011 ban meetings by unauthorised religious groups, the distribution of religious literature, or talking to others about religion unless one is registered as a missionary with the authorities. These laws violate human rights as recognised by the international community and have been repeatedly criticised by rights groups. Since December 2014, 32 people are known to have been convicted for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief. A few days ago, the police fined two Protestants who attended a prayer meeting. The owner of an Atyrau gift shop was fined for offering for sale four copies of the Quran without a state licence. In December 2015, the authorities sentenced a Seventh Day Adventist man to two years in a labour camp for allegedly inciting religious hatred. His real crime was to have converted from Islam. Galym Shoikin, the head of the Culture and Sport Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee, said the recruitment of religious radicals "takes place not in mosques but at such illegal meetings. We must study how it is possible to restrict this." The Council of Baptist Churches refuses in principle to ask permission from the authorities to carry out its activities and encourages its members not to pay the fines imposed by the police. Often believers are detained for a while and their assets seized. Prokopenko, wo served a total of six and a half years in a Soviet prison, was fined three times by Kazakh authorities for exercising his right to freedom of religion. Message of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue for Ramadan. Faced with so many victims of conflict and violence "it is vital that all work together to assist those in need, regardless of their ethnicity or their religious beliefs." Vatican City (AsiaNews) - In the face of so many victims of conflict and violence "it is vital that all work together to assist those in need, regardless of their ethnicity or their religious beliefs. When to achieve this goal Christians and Muslims unite their efforts, they we heed an important command in our respective religions and show forth Gods mercy, thus offering a more credible witness, individually and communally, to our beliefs". This is the focus of a message released on the occasion of Ramadan - this year starting around June 6 - and for the final feast of' Id al-Fitr, which falls towards July 5, from the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on the theme : Christians and Muslims: beneficiaries and instruments of divine mercy. The document, signed by the president, card. Jean-Louis Tauran, and secretary of the dicastery, Mgr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, states that " A theme that is close to the hearts of Muslims and Christians alike is mercy. We know that Christianity and Islam both believe in a merciful God, who shows his mercy and compassion towards all his creatures, in particular the human family. He created us out of an immense love. He is merciful in caring for each of us, bestowing upon us the gifts we need for our daily life, such as food, shelter and security. Gods mercy is manifested in a particular way, however, through the pardon of our faults; hence he is the one who pardons (al-Ghafir), but the one who pardons much and always (al-Ghafour)". "To underscore the importance of mercy, His Holiness Pope Francis declared a Jubilee Year of Mercy to be celebrated from 8 December 2015 to 20 November 2016. In this regard he said: Here is the reason for the Jubilee: because this is the time for mercy. It is the favorable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone, everyone, the way of forgiveness and reconciliation (Homily, 11 April 2015). Your pilgrimage (hajj) to the Holy places, mainly Mecca and Medina, is surely a special time for you to experience Gods mercy. In fact, among the well-known aspirations addressed to Muslim pilgrims is: I wish you a blessed pilgrimage, praiseworthy efforts and the pardon of your sins. Making a pilgrimage to obtain Gods pardon for sins, both for the living and dead, is truly a salient custom practice among believers". " We, Christians and Muslims, are called to do our best to imitate God. He, the Merciful, asks us to be merciful and compassionate towards others, especially those who are in any kind of need. So too he calls us to be forgiving of one another. When we gaze upon humanity today, we are saddened to see so many victims of conflicts and violence here we think in particular of the elderly, and children and women, especially those who fall prey to human trafficking and the many people who suffer from poverty, illness, natural disasters and unemployment. We cannot close our eyes to these realities, or turn away from these sufferings. It is true that situation are often very complex and that their solution exceeds our capacities. It is vital, therefore, that all work together in assisting those in need. It is a source of great hope when we experience or hear of Muslims and Christians joining hands to help the needy. When we do join hands, we heed an important command in our respective religions and show forth Gods mercy, thus offering a more credible witness, individually and communally, to our beliefs. May the Merciful and Almighty God help us to walk always along the path of goodness and compassion!". by Melani Manel Perera Gnarath Pradeepaya (Lamp of Wisdom) is one of Asias oldest papers. Published weekly, it carries news about economics, politics, and social issues as they relate to the Church. Readers like it because it focuses on human affairs. Founded in 1866 by a layman, today it is owned by the Archdiocese of Colombo. Colombo (AsiaNews) Catholics and others celebrated the 150th anniversary of Gnarath Pradeepaya (Lamp of Wisdom), Sri Lankas first Catholic paper in Sinhalese and one of Asias oldest publciations. At the beginning, the paper was a simple four-page newsletter announcing Catholic Church events. Now it is a 24-page weekly, in colour, with a circulation of 30,000. Since Sri Lankan Catholic families are large, with four to six children, this can mean a much larger readership. John Fernando, a layman, founded the paper in 1866 with a staff of eight lay people and a priest. After about 20 years, the Archdiocese of Colombo bought him out. For 150 years, the paper could be picked up each Friday at parish churches or on newsstands around the country. Recently, circulation has increased by almost 50 per cent, a sign of the great interest for the universal Church. "When I arrived last year, 195 copies were sold a week. Now its 300, said Reka Denipitiya, who sells the paper in St Mary Parish in Jael (a suburb north of Colombo). This means that readers like the content and the news," she told AsiaNews. The paper focuses on the Church in all its aspects economics, politics, social issues with a clear editorial line. News are evaluated from a faith perspective. There are many articles and news related to human affairs, current issues and the pope, said Tharanga Nonis, a Catholic entrepreneur. This is what gets people to buy Gnarath Pradeepaya." Sunny Fernando has been distributing the paper for 45 years in Moratuwa (south of the capital). "When there were no modern media, the paper cost less 20 cents and was very useful in keeping people informed and educating Catholics." The papers classified pages include funeral announcements as well as personal ads by people looking for a partner. Niluka Silva found her soulmate through the paper. Born Buddhist, she began reading the weekly, converted, and eventually found a personal ad that attracted her. However, for Sunny Fernando, the paper is not just death and wedding announcements. It provides a different way to view the country, which is predominantly Buddhist. Out of a population of 21 million, 70 per cent is Buddhist, about 10 per cent is Muslim, and 7 per cent is Christian. Part of the Saudi coalition, the leaders of the UAE are about to leave the battlefield. In 15 months the Emirates have suffered at least 80 dead. Foreign Minister says the time has come for "political agreements" and to strengthen the Yemenis "in the liberated areas." But much of the country is still under the control of the Houthi rebels. Abu Dhabi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) are ready to withdraw their troops from the conflict in Yemen. After 15 months and at least 80 deaths, the leaders of the Gulf nation, part of the Saudi led Arab coalition, have stated that - for them - the war "is over". A government minister made the official announcement which was then retweeted by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, much of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, remains in the hands of the Houthi rebels. Supported by Iran, the local Shia militias were the declared target of the Saudi coalition. However, months of intense fighting and human rights violations - including the UN charge, later retracted, of provoking the massacre of civilians, especially children they have not even scratched the rebel resistance. Rather, the attacks have caused an escalation of violence and confusion, contributing to the advance of jihadist groups that have committed serious crimes and massacres, such as the assault on the hospice managed by religious sisters in Aden in the south. Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister for Foreign Affairs said that "our standpoint today is clear -- war is over for our troops, we're monitoring political arrangements (and) empowering Yemenis in liberated areas. His intervention took place in the context of a meeting with foreign ambassadors and senior officials, including Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The latter is also deputy supreme commander of the Armed Forces; the intervention in Yemen is the first outside of national boundaries in the history of the country. Since January 2015, Yemen has been the scene of a bloody civil war pitting the countrys Sunni leadership, backed by Saudi Arabia, against Shia Houthi rebels, close to Iran. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against the rebels in an attempt to free the capital For Saudi Arabia, the Houthis, who are allied to forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, are militarily supported by Iran, a charge the latter angrily rejects. Groups linked to al Qaeda and jihadist militias linked to the Islamic State group are active in the country, which adds to the spiral of violence and terror. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) sources at least 6,400 people have been killed, although some sources say the real number is nearly 10 thousand and 16 thousand wounded. The United Nations, which has promoted peace talks in Kuwait so far without any results, warns there is a strong risk of a "humanitarian catastrophe" in Yemen. The dispute involves Iranian assets frozen by the US, which the US Supreme Court said can be used to compensate US citizens harmed by Iranian-sponsored terrorism in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Tehran rejects the claim, saying that the confiscation violates a 1955 US-Iranian friendship treaty. Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) Iran has filed a lawsuit against the United States at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest UN judicial body, over seized Iranian assets. The US Supreme Court ruled that US$ 2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must be paid to American victims of terror attacks blamed on Tehran. Iran argues that Iran and Iranian state-owned companies are entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of the US courts. Hence, the US action constitutes a violation by the Government of the United States of America of the Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights between Iran and the United States of America which was signed in Tehran on 15 August 1955 and entered into force on 16 June 1957. The US Supreme Court blocked frozen Iranian assets in April to be paid out to survivors and relatives of those killed in attacks blamed on the Islamic republic. These included the 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. The decision affects more than 1,000 Americans. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced late Wednesday that "Iran has officially lodged a complaint with the international court and we will pursue our case until we get a result." "The American courts have illegally decided that these funds must be given to Americans and the families of victims killed in Lebanon," he said, quoted by Iranian media. "It remains unclear what these Americans were doing in Lebanon, and how this affair concerns Iran." After years of embargo, Iran obtained a partial easing of Western economic sanctions in exchange for an agreement on its controversial atomic programme. Iranian authorities say it is for civilian purposes, but others, like Israel, believe it designed to build a nuclear bomb. Despite the agreement, the United States has kept in place a range of sanctions against Irans ballistic missile programme, as well as over its military support for Shia groups in the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syrias Alawi-controlled government and Yemens Houthi rebels. European banks with US branches have been slow to pick up business opportunities in Iran, fearful of US law. Washington has banned the use of the US dollar with Iran, preventing new deals. This has helped Irans right-wing faction, and undermined moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis reform programme. In Tuesday's filing, Iran rejects the US designation as a major state sponsor of terrorism. For Rouhani, Iran and Iranian state-owned companies are entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of the US courts. What is more, Tehran wants back the money the Americans stole. The UN court, which recently marked its 70th anniversary, will now have to decide whether it has jurisdiction in the case. Here's How Sex Work Can Improve Your Neighborhood Trending News: Why A Local Brothel Could Be A Good Thing (Really) Why Is This Important? Long Story Short Long Story Because we always knew prostitution would have a happy ending.The sex industry has always been perceived as dirty, but what if having a brothel in your neighborhood is a good thing? New research suggests that might be the case. What would you do if a brothel moved next door? For a lot of people it would involve taking down license plates, letterbox dropping the neighborhood and calling the police. Sex workers dont make good neighbors. Or so were told. But what if thats not the case? A story on The Conversation penned by Emily Cooper, a lecturer in human geography at the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom, and Paul Maginn, an associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Western Australia, asked exactly that question: what if sex work is actually good for your neighborhood? And they answered it with some hard research that cuts through the stigmatization of sex work. RELATED: Is Paying For It Always Wrong? In particular it references studies from the UK that highlight how the presence of sex workers can generate positive outcomes in the community. Research by Sarah Kingston of Lancaster University shows how sex workers and their clients provide passive surveillance against criminal activities and will report crimes. And thats before you take in the positive economic impacts special massage parlors have shown remarkable resilience in the face of recession. Elsewhere, Coopers own research focused on massage parlors in the residential communities of Blackpool, a seaside town northwest of Manchester. Conducting 53 in-depth interviews with locals over an 18 month period, Cooper found that the sex parlors were an object of affectionate curiosity, while the 24 hour presence engendered a feeling of security. Its these sorts of findings that skewer the common narrative that the sex industry is something that attracts only criminality. And its a narrative that only serves to alienate sex workers. Very few residents in Coopers study explicitly stated that they would like to see the sex industry removed. Of course, Coopers story brings everything back to the importance of legalizing sex work. Criminalizing anything of course drives it underground, while countless studies have illustrated that legalization provides protection and better protection. Read the entire Conversation story here. Own The Conversation : Do such results have any chance of getting traction? The stigma associated with sex work seems too great.: In that case, I'll be applying for a small business loan.: Atlanta's sex trade was worth an eye opening $290 million in 2007 alone. The recent flurry of US firms increasing salaries for associates, which began with hikes of 12.5 per cent hikes at Cravath Swaine & Moore, has not gone down well with some clients.Bank of America is one such client, which according to the Wall Street Journal, has written to a number of law firms on its roster to advise that while it respects the firms rights to make their own business decisions it not expect to bear the costs.The bank is not the only client concerned that it may be hit with higher fees in order to fund lawyers pay hikes. CorpCounsel.com quotes Lilly Hughes, GC of Public Storage: "As rates percolate, this might give more opportunity to smaller regional and mid-size firms.The large US law firms say that they need to increase pay for associates in order to attract and retain the best talent but clients, already keen to reduce costs, may decide to take on more work in-house or pass work to smaller firms as a result.International law firm Clyde & Co has been named the best law firm for transport, shipping and maritime law by the 2016 Asian Freight, Logistics and Supply Chain Awards. The event took place in Shanghai on Tuesday. Hogan Lovells has launched a new app to help businesses navigate the legal landscape in Indonesia.How to Indo is accessible on iPhone and Android devices and includes information on M&A, financing arrangements, restructuring and disputes.The app is available free from the relevant app stores.A UK parliamentary investigation into the path to the failure of retailer BHS has been told that Olswang gave credibility to the eventual new owners when it was sold last year.The retailer, sold by Top Shop chief Sir Philip Green, was bought for 1 by Retail Acquisitions but has since gone into administration with a large hole in the firms pension fund.Green told MPs that the involvement of Olswang reassured him that the buyers owner Dominic Chappell in particular were credible.Other firms involved in the deal include Linklaters , Nabarro and Eversheds which have all given evidence to the enquiry. According to Jack Delosa, founder of entrepreneur educational institute The Entourage, employers can promote innovation through intrapreneurs: workers who take full ownership of their role and responsibilities while thinking creatively about their function and the value they bring to the firm. A traditional employee comes to work, watches the clock, gets their pay and is relatively disengaged, he said. An intrapreneur comes to work because they believe in the vision of what the organisation is trying to achieve. They come to work because they care about their customers or if theyre in HR they care about the people in the organisation. This group of workers can even share some of the risk-taking characteristics of entrepreneurs, Delosa added, although this may be limited by the structure of the organisation. There are certain political dynamics in play in any existing corporation so for me intrapreneurship is not necessarily about thinking like an entrepreneur its thinking more innovatively about your role. Although intrapreneurs have a tendency to want to try new things without requiring prior data to back up their decision, they will need to do this within the guidelines of the organisation. This type of attitude is vital to bring innovation into a firm, Delosa said. However, most organisations will fail to achieve this because they use analogical reasoning: the belief that something will work in the future because it has worked in the past. The true entrepreneur and intrapreneur will instead use principle reasoning, examining what is true today and then expanding on those foundations. Elon Musk is one such example, he noted. Rather than looking at what was in place yesterday as a perimeter for whats possible tomorrow, people such as Elon Musk look at what was achieved yesterday and build out from that point. This doesnt mean making wild uncalculated guesses about the future, Delosa added. Great innovation is often the result of both good and bad judgment from the past which you only learn through experience. To foster this kind of creativity, Delosa said that firms can back up new ideas with praise and rewards. When you give people permission to think creatively and to behave creatively and truly back it up thats when you start to see creativity flowing. If employees do make a mistake, dont jump down their throats but recognise this as an essential step along the path to learning more and innovating within the firm, he added. LYNNE HAULTAIN Hi, Im Lynne Haultain and welcome to Up Close. We talk about science as revealing and describing the immutable laws of nature, and the laws of men, the structures of our societies, and the frame through which we judge and rule. But what's the interplay between science and law? How do they influence each other and where and when do they compete or come into conflict? According to our guest in this episode, the relationship between them tests certainty, judgement, and progress in very revealing ways. Sheila Jasanoff is the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard Universitys John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a leading thinker and writer on science and law. She's in Melbourne as a guest of the Melbourne Law School. Sheila, welcome. SHEILA JASANOFF Thank you very much, Lynne. I'm happy to be here. LYNNE HAULTAIN Lovely to have you. Well, let's talk about this interplay between science and law. In a number of your writings, you have teased out a number of strands around this interplay. But let's talk about initially, the way in which science and law are characterised, and how they confer power and create influence both in... By Mike Lee, Professor in Evolutionary Biology (jointly appointed with South Australian Museum), Flinders University Michael Lee (Flinders University & South Australian Museum), CC BY-NC-ND One of the enduring controversies in evolution is why snakes evolved their long, limbless bodies. The prevailing theory is that they evolved from lizards and are really just an extreme type of legless lizard. And as many long-bodied lizards are burrowers, there is a widespread view that snakes developed their serpentine bodies underground. But a study of a primordial four-legged fossil snake published this week suggests it was aquatic. This suggests snakes lost their legs and elongated their bodies underwater, for eel-like swimming, before crawling ashore aeons later. The fossil in question is one of the most exquisite and controversial fossils of modern times. Dubbed Tetrapodophis (meaning four-legged snake), it lived alongside the dinosaurs in what is now Brazil, about 120 million years ago. Amazingly, almost every single bone is preserved in this tiny worm-sized fossil, including four small but perfectly-formed legs. What the fossil says This little creature was previously thought to be a burrower, and indeed looks a bit like a worm. But the study by our team suggests it has the wrong body shape for digging: the tail is too long and the legs too delicate. Conversely, Tetrapodophis possesses a range of adaptations characteristic of aquatic animals, including seals, sea turtles and ancient sea-lizards such as mosasaurs and dolichosaurs. Many wrist and ankle elements were made of cartilage rather than bone, and the limb joints were poorly developed. Such weak limbs are often found in aquatic animals where buoyancy helps with support. The hands and feet were also surprisingly flipper-like, with a thickened first digit strengthening the leading edge like the front edge of an aeroplane wing or turtle flipper. Alessandro Palci and Michael Lee (Flinders University & South Australian Museum) A sea serpent Tetrapodophis therefore has many hallmarks of marine habits. It wasnt a little earthworm, but rather a Lilliputian sea serpent. Intriguingly, there are other archaic fossil snakes that are unequivocally marine, such as the two-legged Pachyrhachis with its paddle-shaped rear end. And a recent reptile evolutionary tree proposes that the nearest relatives of snakes are not burrowing legless lizards, but the ancient sea lizards discussed above. This kinship is supported by aquatic adaptations that we found shared by Tetrapodophis, Pachyrhachis and sea lizards. All of this is consistent with the view that snakes evolved from aquatic lizards, losing their legs and elongating their bodies for eel-like swimming. This idea was more widely touted in the past but had recently fallen out of favour. But there remain some important potential difficulties with the aquatic theory. Today, snakes are tremendously successful on all continents except Antarctica. If the earliest snakes were marine, how and why did they struggle ashore? There are also some other primitive snakes that were unquestionably terrestrial, such as Najash from Argentina, which also still has two little legs. The mangrove sea snakes from north-east Australia might solve this mystery. These modern snakes are not closely related to the archaic fossil marine snakes, yet their lifestyles might have been very similar. Mangrove sea snakes inhabit the intertidal zone and are equally adept crawling on land and swimming in the ocean, so if the first snakes had similar habits, a permanent shift into land (or into the water) would have been relatively easy. This ecological plasticity would explain why many early snakes appear to be terrestrial and many others aquatic. It might also explain why Tetrapodophis has some worm-like traits, and some sea serpent traits, leading to debates about where it lived. A controversial single specimen The ongoing interest in Tetrapodophis raises other important issues. There is only a single specimen of this potential link between lizards and snakes, making it priceless and utterly unique. The fossil deposits where it was found have been scoured extensively for decades, so it is unlikely another one will surface anytime soon. Its thus far more important than Archaeopteryx, the famous dinosaur-bird intermediate, which is known from 11 specimens. Yet, the provenance and curation of this most important fossil remains highly problematic. While Tetrapodophis was being studied, it resided in the Burgermeister-Muller-Museum in Germany, but documents to demonstrate that it was legally exported from Brazil have not been forthcoming. The specimen is also privately owned and only on loan to that museum. While there has been a firm promise that it will be available in perpetuity for scientific study, enforcing this might be challenging, and it could easily disappear back into a private collection at any time. It is widely conceded that science is facing a reproducibility crisis. For scientific studies to be verifiable (i.e. repeatable by others), there should be open access to the primary data upon which those claims are based. For palaeontologists, this means fossils especially pivotal ones must be available for all scientists to examine in perpetuity, enabling independent confirmation (or refutation) of published observations. This is best achieved by making sure all studied fossils are owned and curated by a recognised museum. It is worrying that a fossil that is arguably ten times more important than Archaeopteryx could someday easily vanish from science without a trace. Mike Lee receives research funding from The Australian Research Council Alessandro Palci receives funding from an ARC grant. Originally published in The Conversation. Hey everyone. I am new here. Hope all are doing good. Happy to see many people around me and I like to make new connections too.. Will meet you all soon. 1. Unemployed Sponsor I was made redundant from my employer last month. This was not based on my performance at all as I got my PR from their sponsorship as well (I worked for them about 3.5 years under RSMS visa). It's just how the market is out there and I'm actively looking for a job but if any of you is job hunting should know that it's really competitive out there. So as a sponsor, I have a duty to support my husband and I have disclosed that I got savings to support my husband while I'm looking for job in my Stat Declaration. But I'm not too sure if that would be sufficient. 2. Cancellation of Student Visa There is work restriction on Student Visa and I'm unemployed. After loding Partner Visa, my husband hadn't had enough money to even pay his tuition fee or cancellation fee for his erolment. The college he goes to charges cancellation fee for the full amount of tuition fee and $100 late payment penalty fee applies every week. So we had to cancle his student visa and go on to BVE then obtain work permit. We attended DIBP yesterday, apparently, this has to be all in wirting so we did send them an email with form 1008 attached. Hi all,This is my first post after weeks and weeks of browsing number of posts here. I'm in WA.So, we lodged 820 - Partner Visa application via online. I'm PR and my husband is Korean Citizenship and he's currently on Student Visa Subclass 572. We uploaded most of docs to the application.QuestionsI was wondering if any of you had been in a same or similar situation with me and been granted for a visa? Please give me some tips as to how you handled this?I appreciate for your adivce in advnace. A rival to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, the GT Rs 4.0-litre V8 is expected to develop around 580hp; will make its debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The hotly anticipated Mercedes-AMG GT R has been officially teased ahead of its world debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this June. The offical teaser comes after images of the GTR were leaked online. When it eventually goes on sale internationally, the new two-seater is expected to be a key rival to Mercedes' Stuttgart neighbour Porsche and its highly rated 911 GT3 RS. It'll be built on the same assembly line as the GT and GT S at the carmaker's Sindelfingen factory in Germany. Four dimly lit photos reveal that the new model's design will be an evolution of the already muscular exterior of the regular GT. Images of the test mules seen internationally indicate that the car will receive a number of functional aerodynamic upgrades aimed at improving airflow to and from the engine bay, as well as increasing the downforce acting on the front and rear axles for improved stability and cornering speeds. The car will also be lighter than its less powerful siblings with the car expected to make use of carbonfibre components in areas such as the bonnet, rear wing and boot lid. Although the GT R is yet to undergo certification at the hands of the German Transport Authority, AMG insiders hint that the weight of the car has dropped by almost 60kg, suggesting it will hit the scales at around 1,520kg in production trim. By comparison, the smaller but less powerful 911 GT3 RS has a kerb weight of 1,420kg. The weight-saving touches will continue inside, with the GT R to receive a lightly reworked version of the standard GT S dashboard and manually operated seats, among other changes. Mercedes-AMGs latest model will be powered by a more heavily tuned version of the GT and GT S twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine. New performance-enhancing features will include a revised inlet manifold, extra boost pressure and a more free-flowing titanium exhaust system. This is expected to boost output to around 580hp. Mercedes will follow-up the hardcore AMG GT R with an even more powerful version under the companys Black Series sometime next year and a roadster body style sometime in 2018 to complete the five model line-up. kWh NHTSA Instead of making the plug-in hybrid powertrain more efficient or increasing the capacity of the battery, the Japanese manufacturer has rewritten the rulebook by introducing a solar roof option for the Toyota Prius PHV (a.k.a. the Toyota Prius Prime in the United States). Ladies and gents that love eco-friendly runabouts, please put your hands together for the worlds first production vehicle equipped with a solar roof.Oh wait, scrap that. If my mind serves me well, the third-generation Toyota Prius also offered a solar roof option. It was rubbish, though, because the sole purpose of its photovoltaic cells was to power the ventilation fan while the car is stationary. This time around, the solar roof is a bit more multilateral.The reason why its more than just the sum of its parts is that the solar panels integrated into the roof also feed the usual suspects that gorge on electricity, including the lights and the 8.8battery pack.Sadly, there is no official info at the moment on how the solar roof improves driving range. All I can tell you is that the Japan-spec 2016 Toyota Prius PHV can travel up to 60 kilometers (37.2 miles) on a full charge. Another thing I can tell you is that efficiency goes up by up to 10 % when the solar roof option is ticked from the list.The 2016 Toyota Prius PHV with the solar roof will go on sale in Japan and Europe later in the year. As for the United States, I am the bearer of bad news. Because the photovoltaic cells are laid on reinforced glass sheeting, the solar roof wouldnt pass the rollover crash test of the. These being said, it isnt known when or if Toyota will switch to laminated glass sometime in the future. If it wont, then thats that. CDI In America, they usually put big V8 engines in their professional drift machines. But over in Scandinavia, they do things a little differently.Meet team Black Smoke Racing. Some of you might be acquainted with them already, since they've been drifting old Mercs for a really long time. Their latest project looks like a C63 AMG Black with a locomotive engine. But the build is as interesting as the sideways capacity of the car.Speaking of which, we highly recommend that you watch the two videos below. It's no wonder that hundreds of Finns gathered in an empty parking lot in the middle of the forest just to check out Black Smoke Racing.Getting back to the build, we have to mention that this C-Class wagon is not actually a C63 Black Series, and is in fact based on the S203 generation model. The 2001 Mercedes has been equipped with all the cosmetic parts from the W204 Black Edition Coupe body kit.You have to admire all the work they put into the car so that you would be fooled into thinking it's a 2012 C-Class facelift. We wouldn't have noticed anything were it not for the curvature of the back end, which doesn't match the angular taillights.As for the engine, it doesn't belong to the C-Class either. It's an OM648, the 3.2-liter inline-6 that used to be offered on the 2002 to 2005 E320 CDI and S320of those same years. It's made from cast iron and is pretty much indestructible.Mods include custom pistons, custom injectors, Holset Hx50 Billet + Holset HE221W Billet. The transmission consists of a TEXracing T101 4-speed manual. Besides that, Cameron is also the gentleman who decided to let the British public determine whether out of the EU is better or not for the UK in a referendum that will be held on June 23. Its funny when you think that Cameron believes that its right to remain in the EU, yet he is the first prime minister of the United Kingdom to veto a treaty of the European Union.The In/Out referendum, however, is much more important than a European treaty designed to preserve the euro. With the referendum, the PM puts his money where his mouth is. More to the point, Cameron and his government will come crashing down if the men and women of Britain want out.This isnt the only consequence (or benefit, depending on which side youre on) well see if Britain steps out. But this is autoevolution. Here, international politics are eyewash. However, something caught our eye. That something is a picture that popped in my Facebook newsfeed, an image featuring David Cameron and two gentlemen you might be acquainted with: Jeremy Clarkson and James May.The post reads: Chatting to Jeremy Clarkson and James May . We all agree Britain is stronger in - vote Remain on 23rd June. Cameron isnt BSing, you know. The former Top Gear head honcho, the chap with the wooly hair who shouts when hes driving sideways, is known for its pro-EU view on the matter. Jeremys rallying call to remain in the EU strikes the chord of more people than David Cameron has supporters, if Im honest.James [May] and I only agree on three things, which is that sandwich spread is delicious, that the old Subaru Legacy Outback was a good car that we should stay in Europe, declared the former BBC asset. The Tory leader, on the other hand, made a blunder of the meet-up, mentioning something about Top Gear . Happily, however, the UK prime minister shrugged off the embarrassing moment like a pro. Still, the men and women who will vote on June 23 will have the last laugh, not David, not Jeremy, nor James.Where is Richard Hammond? Is he in with the Out crowd or something? We're here to give you a pair of pixel manipulations coming from Carwow (they've came up with a larger selection), which show what could happen if the Circuit de la Sarthe would be the land of our dreams.Since Porsche seems ready to dominate the LMP1 category for the second year in a row during this weekend's race, we'll start with the brilliant 918-917K mashup you can find below.Perhaps the strangest part about this Zuffenhausen melange comes from the difference between its two parts. We'll remind you the 917 allowed Porsche to grab its first overall victory on the French track, back in 1970 and 1971. Nevertheless, the version we "have" here is the Kurzheck evolution of the original (you can just add a "K" at the end of the numeric designation), which stands for short tail.On the other hand, the 918 Spyder hasn't even received a motorsport incarnation. That's even stranger when you consider that the LaFerrari has become the FXX K, while the McLaren P1 was gifted with a GTR version, one that many owners enjoy giving the road legal treatment As for the second Le Mans rendering we have here, it's impossible to say "Le Mans" without thinking of Mazda 's thunder strike soundtrack 787B. And since the Japanese automaker is reviving the Wankel engine, the RX-Vision concept being used in the process was the natural choice.Sure, contraptions such as the ones mentioned above would have to race in the LMGTE class, but this would only amplify the spectacle below LPM1 level. But such a need is another story for another time. We're talking about the piece of footage at the bottom of the page, which takes us to Switzerland. As you know, this is a country that can easily give you the impression you were wrong to believe money don't grow on trees.Case in point with the Ferrari dealership in this video, which, at the time when the footage was recorded, saw no less than ten LaFerraris sharing a room. To put things another way, we're dealing with 9,500 hybrid hp (metric system aficionados should make that 9,630 PS). Oh, and let's not forget the not-so-hybrid horses around the LaFs, as they're not exactly slow either.So, why are these Maranello halo cars stored in such a manner? Well, not all LaFerrari owners like to hoon their machines all day long. After all, these gas-electric Prancing Horses need serious maintenance. For instance, if you don't drive yours for more than a week, you'll have to charge it. Sure, the LaF is not a plug-in hybrid, but you wouldn't want to find out the costs associated with the servicing operations that follow a flat battery moment in such a hypercar.And certain owners can go to great lengths in order to make sure they don't cross that electron juice line, as shown by the Paris street charging moment we recently showed you.Those who also prefer other go-fast brands shouldn't fret. This clip also includes all sorts of other high-velocity machines, from a full carbon Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, to a McLaren 675 Longtail dressed in an eye-catching hue dubbed Napier Green. To put things bluntly, your ten minutes will be time well spent. Photo of Hyundai Tucson courtesy of Hyundai. Hyundai Motor Co. is recalling 81,000 2016 model-year Tucson compact SUVs because of faulty secondary hood latches, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported. The recall covers vehicles manufactured from May 19, 2015 to March 14 of this year. If the primary hood latch has been released, and the vehicle is driven, the secondary hood latch may not adequately secure the hood to prevent it from opening while the vehicle is in motion, NHTSA said on its website. This condition increases the risk of a crash. Hyundai dealers will replace the secondary hood latch, free of charge, to address the problem. The recall is expected to begin July 15. Vehicle owners can reach Hyundai customer service at (855) 371-9460. Hyundais number for this recall is 145. The Air Force is investigating the nighttime collision of two F-16s over Jefferson County, Georgia on June 7. Both pilots, from the 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Air National Guard, ejected safely and were found shortly after the accident. Crews were dispatched to look for the wreckage of the fighters in the dense woods underlying the Bulldog Military Operations Area. One jet was found early on, while it took until the following afternoon to find the wreckage of the second. The collision occurred about 9:15 p.m. There were no injuries on the ground. During a detailed press conference, officials asked area residents to report finding debris from the aircraft, but to refrain from touching anything. The main wreckage is in a couple-hundred-square-yard area, but we are finding wreckage as far as three miles away, the wing commander said in an Augusta Chronicle report. It will take until we find it. I dont have a guess two days, two weeks. We are prepared for the long haul. The pilots, instructors with combat experience, were flying routine but complex training maneuvers with night vision goggles, officials said during the press conference. EgyptAir Flight 804s cockpit voice recorder has been found and is being delivered to investigators following Wednesdays finding of the airliners wreckage in the Mediterranean. A salvage team working off a ship had to take tedious steps to retrieve the recorder as it had been damaged in the crash. The vessels equipment was able to salvage the part that contains the memory unit, which is considered the most important part of the recording device, officials said in a Reuters report. The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it will join Egyptian and French investigators in the probe, according to Reuters. Two vessels are still searching for the flight data recorder, which is expected to emit signals until around June 24. The Airbus A320 dropped from radar en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board on May 19. Search teams have found debris in the search area and picked up signals from the recorders on June 1. It took until this week to find the main wreckage of the jet as the ocean floor is about 12,000 feet deep in some areas. The mission of awwwards is to create the biggest community of web designers and developers on the Internet, as well as our platform, we also host conferences all over the world in iconic cities, where attendees can see inspiring talks from leading fi 17 June 2016 11:12 (UTC+04:00) Armenian armed forces have 23 times violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan on the line of contact over the past 24 hours, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry reported on June 17. Armenian armed forces stationed in the Dovegh and Barekamavan villages of Armenia's Noyemberyan district opened fire at the positions of the Azerbaijani armed forces in the Kemerli and Gaymagli villages of the Gazakh district. Azerbaijani positions, located in the Aghdam village of the Tovuz district underwent fire from the positions located in the Mosesgeh village of Armenia's Berd district. Moreover, Azerbaijani positions underwent fire from the positions located near the Chilaburt village of the Terter district, Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district, Horadiz village of the Fizuli district and from the nameless heights in Goranboy and Khojavand districts. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Anita Rodriguez, painter and adobe plasterer from Taos, will be at Page One Books at 3pm on Sunday, June 19, to talk about and sign her memoir of stories and recipes, Coyota in the Kitchen: A Memoir of New and Old Mexico. The book is described as such: "This book of stories and recipes introduces two eccentric families that would never have eaten together, let alone exchanged recipes, but for the improbable marriage of the author's parents: a nuevo mexicano from Taos and a painter who came from Texas to New Mexico to study art. Recalling the good and the terrible cooks in her family, Anita Rodriguez also shares the complications of navigating a safe path among contradictory cultural perspectives. She takes us from the mountain villages of New Mexico in the 1940s to sipping mint juleps on the porch of a mansion in the South, and also on a prolonged pilgrimage to Mexico and back again to New Mexico. Accompanied by Rodriguez's vibrant paintingsincluding scenes of people eating on fiesta nights and plastering an adobe churchCoyota in the Kitchen shows how food reflects the complicated family histories that shape our lives." Rodriguez is an award-winning painter who is also widely known as an enjarradora, or plasterer and finisher of adobe buildings. Her family on her father's side goes back 10 generations in her beloved Taos valley. Her art training began in childhood, and she eventually went to Colorado College for formal training. She lives in Taos. 17 June 2016 11:32 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli The European Union can give a mandate to Azerbaijan in the autumn of 2016 to start the talks on the new strategic partnership agreement. Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev told reporters, noting that currently, the discussions on the new agreement continue between the two parties in a positive vein. Mammad-Guliyev also pointed out that Azerbaijan and the representatives of the World Trade Organization (WTO) expect to hold a meeting in Geneva in early July. "All the documents have been submitted to the WTO office and we are waiting for an answer," he said. "If such a meeting is held, Russia and Saudi Arabia can also join it." Relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are continuing, new meetings are planned at the level of the EU committees and subcommittees, the deputy foreign minister emphasized. Azerbaijan has become a country of direct priority to the EUs strategy in its wider neighborhood since the last enlargement of the European Union in 2007. Although over the past year, the bilateral relations between the two sides saw tense period, still Azerbaijan affects Europes interests, mainly in a regional energy strategy. The cooperation of Azerbaijan with the European Union is very unique due to the already existing relations and good economic opportunities. The EU and Azerbaijan could cover the areas where they have overlapping interests, particularly energy trade. In geostrategic terms, Azerbaijan is set to see its importance due to the perspective role to act as a bridge between Europe and Asia. Currently, the bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of the partnership and cooperation agreement, which was signed in 1996 and came into force in 1999. -- Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 12:06 (UTC+04:00) By Nigar Abbasova Baku hosted an event dedicated to the 90th birthday of the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Elizabeth II on June 16. British Ambassador to Azerbaijan Carol Crofts, addressing the event, emphasized the dynamically developing relations between the two countries in all spheres. She underlined that the UK is the biggest investor in Azerbaijan. Touching upon the issue of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the ambassador also pointed out that the UK government hopes for its peaceful settlement. Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev in his turn congratulated the Queen Elizabeth II on her birthday. "The UK is Azerbaijan's main partner in the spheres of economy and energy, he said, noting that the total volume of the UK investments in Azerbaijan amounts to $20 billion. Azerbaijan's deputy foreign minister expressed hope that the relations between the two countries will develop in the non-oil sector as well. Mammad-Guliyev also voiced gratitude to the UK for its support to Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The UK can use its influence to move the process of the conflict's settlement forward, he said adding :"We hope the UK will play a more active role in this issue." Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II became the longest reigning queen on September 9, 2015, after she exceeded the reign of Queen Victoria which had lasted from June 20, 1837 to January 22, 1901. The queen took to the throne on February 6, 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI. The UK and Azerbaijan enjoy cooperation in different spheres such as education, trade, tourism, ICT, as well as other infrastructure and transit projects. The cooperation in energy sector is currently the primary factor of the bilateral economic relations between the two countries. Azerbaijan cooperates with the United Kingdom in the field of exploration and transportation of oil and natural gas from the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. BP as a leading oil company which has launched its operations in Azerbaijan in 1992 participates in the main production sharing agreements such as the Contract of Century (Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli) and the Shah Deniz project. Turnover between the UK and Azerbaijan totaled $169.5 million in January-April 2016, some $166.9 million of which falls to a share of imports from the UK. The United Kingdom is considered to be the largest foreign direct investor in Azerbaijan followed by the U.S. and Japan. The United Kingdom recognized the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan on 26 December 1991. The diplomatic relations between two countries were established on 11 March 1992. The British Embassy was opened in Baku in September 1993 and the Azerbaijani Embassy in London in January 1994. -- Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 13:15 (UTC+04:00) The president made the remark as he received Senator of the Kingdom of Belgium, chairperson of PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, rapporteur on human rights in Azerbaijan Alain Destexhe in Baku on June 17, Azertac reported. The head of state expressed his confidence that the race would be interesting for visitors and create good opportunities for them to better familiarize themselves with the country and get more information about development processes in Azerbaijan. Destexhe congratulated the head of state on the start of Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe in Azerbaijan. Emphasizing the increasing interest in Formula 1 races around the world, Alain Destexhe said his country would also host the European Grand Prix. He said he visited Azerbaijan to monitor the repeat parliamentary elections in Constituency No. 90 in Agdash. Baku today hosts F1 competition for the first time with the 2016 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe. The all-new Baku City Circuit promises to be the fastest street track the sport has ever seen, and while drivers have thus far only been able to walk and drive it on simulators, one thing is clear - it promises to be a race like no other. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 17:39 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced that Azerbaijani Armed Forces will conduct land and maritime tactical exercises on June 19-24. The exercises will be held in the framework of the training plan for 2016. Defense Minister, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov will lead the military exercises involving about 25,000 military personnel, more than 300 tanks and armored vehicles, 100 rockets and artillery units, up to 40 units of military aircraft and more than 30 air defense systems. Moreover, Navy ships and special units will also participate in the exercises. The training will take place in the polygons on the frontline area and Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. Furthermore, the Navy Forces will practice in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. The main objectives of the exercise will be improving of commanding skills over military units and subjects, increasing the level of operational coordination and cooperation between combat elements in complex military environment. New technological tools and weapons of Azerbaijani Armed Forces will be widely used during the exercise days, also live firing will be performed. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 11:45 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli Latvia proposes Azerbaijan to consider the possibility of cooperating in environmentally friendly technologies, food industry, pharmaceuticals and health tourism. Latvia's Transport Minister Uldis Augulis made this remark during the 6th meeting of Azerbaijan-Latvia intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation in Riga. The minister noted that Azerbaijan is an important economic partner of Latvia. The priority areas of cooperation between the two countries, according to the Latvian minister, include joint investment projects, increasing the volume trade turnover, effective use of international transportation corridors, communication in the spheres of education, agriculture, construction, tourism and health. He pointed out that Azerbaijan is an important partner of Latvia in the spheres of transit and logistics in South Caucasus. Latvia, in turn, is an important transportation artery and an integral part of the new Silk Road and the North-South transportation corridor. Azerbaijan's Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov, for his part, said that the relations between Azerbaijan and Latvia are expanding, noting that the cooperation with Latvia, which is a member of the European Union, is important for us. Mammadov emphasized that the socio-political situation in Azerbaijan creates favorable conditions for attracting foreign investments and opens great opportunities for cooperation with Latvia's state and private structures. Following the discussions, the two sides signed the final protocol. The document said that the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Latvia are based on the principles of mutual respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the two countries. The document said that the import, export and sale of goods and services produced on Azerbaijan's occupied territories, including in Nagorno-Karabakh, on Latvian markets, as well as any economic activity of Latvian companies on those territories is illegal, according to the international law and Azerbaijan's law. The products manufactured on Azerbaijan's occupied territories won't be allowed to be delivered to Latvia without receiving a certificate from Azerbaijan's relevant structures. Azerbaijan-Latvia relations are developing yearly and reciprocal visits play huge role in taking bilateral relations forward. Latvia recognized Azerbaijans independence in 1992. Bilateral diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1994 and the Azerbaijani Embassy in Latvia began to function in 2005, and the Latvian Embassy in Azerbaijan was opened a year later. Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with Latvia within regional organizations, including the Union of the Baltic States. Latvia considers Azerbaijan to be Europes main source for energy resources in the Black Sea-Caspian region. Azerbaijan-Latvia trade turnover amounted to $2.04 million in January-March 2016, this is 5.9 percent more than in the same period of 2015, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee. Starting this May direct flights between the two countries have been launched, thus promoting and improving relationship between the two counties. -- Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 17:19 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli Azerbaijan will host the 7th Azerbaijani-Russian interregional forum this December. This decision was made at the meeting of Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev with his Russian counterpart Alexey Ulyukaev in Moscow. During the meeting, Mustafayev said Russia has invested $3 billion in Azerbaijans economy so far, adding that Azerbaijans investments in the Russian economy exceeded $1 billion. Azerbaijan and Russia signed more than 170 documents, including over 50 in the economic sector. Currently, almost 600 companies with Russian capital operate in Azerbaijan. The minister also noted that Azerbaijan and Russia have great potential for the development of cooperation in the areas of agriculture, machine building, pharmaceutics and others. Mustafayev spoke about the strategic decisions made by the Azerbaijani president to develop entrepreneurship, about various projects implemented in the country, and Azerbaijans sustainable economic development. Speaking about the regional ties, the minister noted the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the main threat for the development of the regional cooperation. Armenia keeps under occupation 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, ignoring the UN Security Council's four resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied lands. Ulyukaev, in turn, noted the importance of effective using of the existing opportunities for the development of bilateral relations. The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia amounted to almost $739.8 million in January-May 2016, $609.6 million of which accounted for the import of Russian products, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee. Azerbaijan and Russia are tied by firmly based ties, which were officially established in 1992. The Azerbaijani-Russian cooperation is completely based on the principles of mutual respect and good neighborly relations. The cultural relations between the two countries are also highly evaluated. Russia and Azerbaijan established an active and productive dialogue on many important issues in the foreign economic and political agenda. The southern neighbor is one of the largest importers of Azerbaijani agro-products. The country exports fruits, vegetables and melons to Russia. After the deterioration of relations with Turkey, Russias demand in Azerbaijani agro-products increased. Azerbaijan has entered the top 3 suppliers of agricultural products to Russia among the CIS countries, after Moscow imposed anti-Turkish sanctions. -- -- Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 09:34 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Ismayilova The Russian Information and Cultural Center in Baku held its next meeting at educational museum under the Azerbaijani Education Ministry, Trend Life reported. The main topics of the meeting were the role of museums in the education of youth, as well as experience of Russian and Azerbaijani teachers. Director of the Museum Lala Bayramova led participants on a tour of the museum. Particular interest was given to a section dedicated to educator Aleksey Chernayev - the author of the first Azerbaijani manual "Native speech". Aleksey Chernayevskiy was an outstanding Russian and Azerbaijani teacher. The school No. 1 in Gobustan bears the name of prominent teacher. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 10:47 (UTC+04:00) "Baku City Circuit looks to be an unusual track and so far simulations have had to be done using surveyor's maps rather than detailed track scans," said Chief Technical Officer at Williams Pat Symonds as he was interviewed by the official website of Baku City Circuit. "Perhaps the most notable feature of the 6km anticlockwise street circuit is the flat out section from turn 16, through the start-finish line and up to turn one, where we expect cars to be reaching speeds in excess of 320kph. The first sector consists of a number of 90-degree turns before the start of the second sector with a series of relatively sharp corners in quick succession from turns seven to 12," he said. "The circuit then opens up to finish sector two before another 90-degree left-hander leading on to a long straight. It's too far ahead for accurate weather forecasts, but normally in June maximum temperatures are in the mid-high 20s with the record highest average temperature for this month being 39C. Statistically we expect dryer weather than we see in Bahrain in April, with a total of 8mm rain for the whole of the month of June and only two days of wet weather being the norm. In Formula One we always enjoy a challenge and even in these days of sophisticated simulations a new circuit such as Baku will always throw up some surprises. It's our job to get on top of the unexpected and rapidly learn the nuances of this new track," he added. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 12:15 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Ismayilova The Indian embassy in Baku and the Art of Living in Azerbaijan have announced an Open Air Yoga Session in Baku on the occasion of the International Day of Yoga 2016. The event is organized with the support of Azerbaijan's Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Administration of the State historical-architectural reserve Icheri Sheher. All are coordinately invited to join the Yoga Session by the Art of Living, Baku to celebrate the 2nd International Day of Yoga at 78 Kichik Qala, Icheri Sheher on 21 June 2016 at 6.15 pm. The yoga mats are limited. You may like to bring along your own mat, the message reads. The interested are asked to confirm participation at Telephone No: 012-5646354, 012-5646344 or by sending an email to [email protected] Yoga is a 5,000 year old Indian physical, mental and spiritual practice. The word "Yoga "means union of the individual consciousness or soul with the Universal Consciousness or Spirit. The international Yoga Day is celebrated annually on June 21 and was declared to be internationally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on December 11, 2014. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his UN Address suggested the date of June 21, as it is the longest day of the year in Northern Hemisphere and shares special significance in many parts of the world. --- Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 10:30 (UTC+04:00) By Fatma Babayeva The Southern Gas Corridor project will be implemented according to the schedule and will be finalized in 2019. The statement was made by Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev during an interview with Italy's AGI news agency. Aliyev noted that first gas to Turkey will arrive in 2019 and to Italy in 2020. A lot will depend on the speed of solving some issues in Albania, Greece and Italy, he said, adding that a lot of permits and construction licenses have to be obtained. Energy Minister went on saying that gas reserves of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field, which is the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor, are enough for both domestic consumption and for exports. Europe is the most reliable market for Azerbaijani gas, Aliyev said by reminding that the European Commission, in turn, wants to diversify the sources and routes of gas supply. He further underlined that the Southern Gas Corridor will create about 40,000 jobs. Ten billion cubic meters of gas will be transported via the Southern Gas Corridor annually, and the supply will increase to 16 billion cubic meters, six billion cubic meters of which will be supplied to Turkey, Aliyev added. Azerbaijan has enough promising gas fields along with the Shah Deniz field, according to the minister. For instance, reserves of the Absheron field reach 400 billion cubic meters. If the gas supplies to Europe are successful at the first stage, then Azerbaijan will increase the volume by using the countrys other fields, he noted. The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It will stretch from Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea to Europe by passing through Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy. The SGC is comprised of three main pipelines. The existing South Caucasus pipeline will be expanded with a new parallel pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia. In addition, with the construction of Trans-Anatolian and Trans-Adriatic routes, the pipeline network will be further expanded to the EU. The SGC is one of the biggest construction projects of our times with a value of $40 billion. The realization of this pipeline project will contribute to enhancing the EUs energy security and diversification of its gas supply routes. In addition, it will boost gas competition in the European market. --- Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 17:28 (UTC+04:00) By Nigar Abbasova Export agreement on the Russian Gazproms gas supply to Georgia will not have any influence on the fuel supplies of Azerbaijans SOCAR Company, Trend quoted Mahir Mammadov, director general of SOCAR Energy Georgias as saying. Gazprom and Georgias Gazko+ Company signed a contract for commercial supplies of Russian gas to Georgia on June 16. The volume of gas in the second half of the year is expected to be at the level of 100 million cubic meters. The contract is effective from July 1 through December 31, 2016. Mammadov underlined that the agreement will not affect SOCARs supplies as the effective agreement between Azerbaijan and Georgia covers the period till 2030 and specifies the volumes. The volume of annual export of gas which is extracted from Azerbaijan oilfields by own resources without the participation of foreign companies to Georgia amounts to 2 billion cubic meters. Moreover, Georgia annually gets 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas extracted on offshore Shah Deniz field. SOCAR is deeply involved in the energy market in the neighboring South Caucasus republic. SOCAR Energy Georgia was established in 2006. The company's activity includes retail and bulk selling of fuel in Georgia, importing of petroleum and liquid gas, construction of oil terminals and warehouses. The network of petrol stations of SOCAR Georgia Petroleum, a daughter company of SOCAR Georgia Petroleum has been expanding increasingly both in Tbilisi and all regions of Georgia. The first petrol station of the company was opened on April 25, 2008. Currently 144 stations (105 Petrol stations (20 combined CNG and Petrol), 8 CNG and 1 LPG) are operating in the country. SOCAR is involved in exploring oil and gas fields, producing, processing, and transporting oil, gas, and gas condensate, as well as oil and chemical products in domestic and international markets, and supplying natural gas to the industry and the public in Azerbaijan. The company invests billions of dollars annually in transportation infrastructures and is involved in projects designed to increase Europe's energy security through diversification of natural gas. Azerbaijan has long been one of Georgias largest trade partners, with trade turnover between the two countries reaching $1.35 billion in 2014. Azerbaijan mainly exports petroleum, petroleum oils and gases, gypsum, anhydrite, plaster and other products to Georgia. -- Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 10:58 (UTC+04:00) Iran purchased 61 percent of its totally imported goods during the first two months of current fiscal year (March 20-May 20) from five countries - China, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Turkey and South Korea. China was the main exporter of goods to Iran in the mentioned period. Beijing's exports accounted for 21.4 percent of Iran's total imports in terms of value. Iran imported $1.175 billion worth of goods from China during the 2-month period, according to the latest statistics released by Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI). China exports to Iran witnessed a fall of 20 percent in terms of value, according to the report. Iran also imported $1 billion worth of goods from the UAE (39 percent fall), which marks 18.3 percent of Iran's total imports' value. Russia, Turkey and South Korea exported $420 million, $396 million, and $347 million worth of goods respectively to Tehran. Iran's imports from Russia recorded a huge rise by 494 percent year on year. South Korea exports to Iran indicated a decrease by 40 percent, meanwhile imports from Turkey registered a fall by 23 percent. Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands and Italy were also European countries which took place among top exporters of goods to Tehran in the first two months of current fiscal year. Germany was the sixth top goods exporter to Iran with $292 million worth of exports (indicating an increase by 15 percent), followed by India($280 million, 31 percent fall), Switzerland ($251 million worth of goods, 27 percent fall), Netherlands ($145 million, 93 percent increase), and Italy ($141 million, two percent increase). Iran imported $5.5 billion worth of goods during the first two months of its current fiscal year (March 20-May 20), which indicates a 13.5 percent decline, compared to the same period of preceding year. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 11:36 (UTC+04:00) Turkey intends to normalize the relations with Russia by mid-August 2016, the Haber7 newspaper reported June 17 citing diplomatic sources. Ankara doesn't need mediators for this purpose, said the report. The newspaper said that according to the road map worked out by Turkey on normalizing the relations with Russia, Turkish officials will take part in all official events to be held in Russia by mid-August. The relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated after the incident with Russian SU-24 bomber. Following the incident, Russia's President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on taking measures for ensuring the country's national security and special economic measures against Turkey. Earlier, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the occasion of Russia Day. In his letter to Putin, Erdogan said he wishes the Russian-Turkish relations to reach a "deserved level". --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 14:59 (UTC+04:00) By Fatma Babayeva Russia and Iran could reach an official agreement on the transition to the mutual payment in local currencies. The statement was made by Hossein Yaghoubi Miab, General Director of International Cooperation Department of Irans Central Bank on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on June 16, reported Ria Novosti. Shifting trading to local currencies aims at reducing the dependence of both countries on the U.S. dollar. Iranian Central Bank has already proposed the relevant mechanism to the Russian Central Bank regarding how to make the best use of the national currencies in mutual payments. Now, Russian side is studying the proposal and will provide their assessment on it. Once, the Russian side agrees, the central banks of the two countries will conclude an agreement, he said by emphasizing that it is expected to take place soon. Miab further said that Moscow is looking forward for signing this deal, as soon as they finalize studying the proposal submitted by Iran. In its turn, Iran also aspires to this agreement, Miab said by stressing that both countries will benefit from this deal as it means lower currency risks. Economic and political relations between Russia and Iran date back centuries. Their ties cover fields such as trade, energy sector, military, agriculture, telecommunications, transportation, nuclear and many others. Currently, the two countries are keen to expand cooperation in various fields including nanotechnologies, power plants and other new investment projects. Russia exported $420 million worth of goods to Tehran during the first two months of current Iranian fiscal year (March 20-May 20). Iran's imports from Russia recorded a huge rise by 494 percent year on year. Tehran and Moscow has identical positions on some regional issues including the ongoing crisis in Syria. --- Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 17:04 (UTC+04:00) By Fatma Babayeva Iranian oil sector is attractive for many foreign companies which plan investing in Iranian oil industry in the near future. Shell and Total have already begun purchasing Iranian oil. In the meantime, Total, Shell and Wintershall are holding intense negotiations with the Iranian government about investing in the Iranian oil production. Also, Gazprom is in talks with the Iranian government on the same issue. The statement was made by Behrooz Abdolvand, Managing Director of German Consulting company DESB GmbH focusing on Iranian energy market and an expert on the Caspian region to Trend news agency on June 16. Abdolvand noted that besides the mentioned companies other international oil majors are also interested in making investments in Iranian oil fields. Iran ranked fourth in the world in terms of proven oil reserves, which amounted to 21.7 billion tons at the beginning of 2016, according to BPs latest statistics. Managing Director believes that current low oil prices will not prevent foreign oil companies from investing in Iran. Against the background of the crisis in Nigeria and the sharp decrease of oil production in Canada foreign investors will invest in the Iranian oil sector, because of the comparatively low production costs there, he noted, adding that OPEC is currently reducing overcapacities of 100,000 barrels per day and by end of 2016 it is planned to reduce overcapacities of another 60,000 barrels per day. The expert expects Iran to continue increasing its oil production in the future. Iran has the capability to increase its production in a short period of time by 4.5 million barrels per day, and another 2 million barrels per day is also possible in case that the necessary investment is made, he said by emphasizing that the countrys overall production capacity could be boosted by 6.5 million barrels per day. In April 2016, the country reached the pre-sanctions level of oil production, whilst in May, oil production in Iran grew by more than 89,000 barrels per day - up to 3.562 million barrels per day, according to OPECs monthly report. Iran will reach the pre-sanctions volume of oil production at 4 million barrels per day by July and to pre-sanctions export levels of 2.2 million barrels in one or two months or by the end of the summer, according to the countrys officials. Lifting western sanctions opened new opportunities for Iran to revitalize its long stagnated energy industry. Recently, Hungarian MOL Group also requested to import 30,000- 40,000 barrels of light crude from Iran, reported Mehr news agency on June 16. However, the country is not ready to ship light crude to Hungary at the moment. Earlier in June, BP also expressed willingness to invest in development of certain Iranian oil fields. France, Britain, Spain and Italy were traditional customers of the Iranian crude before western sanctions were imposed. Nevertheless, in the post-JCPOA period, a number of East European countries also have made proposals to purchase oil from Iran on the basis of spot or long-term contracts. Iran's crude oil sales to Europe are expected to surpass 300,000 barrels per day once the all contracts that the Islamic Republic recently signed with international companies come into force. --- Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 16:50 (UTC+04:00) By Fatma Babayeva Turkey will build an industrial zone in Iran in accordance with the MoU signed between Istanbul Chamber of Commerce and Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA). The Turkish side is ready to facilitate the presence of Turkish investors in Iran, said Mohsen Jalalpour, Head of ICCIMA on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, Mehr news agency reported. The initial investment for the industrial zone will amount to $10 billion, he said, adding that the Turkish investment will be accompanied by technology transfer. Iran has proposed seven locations to Turkey, according to Ali Yazdani, Iranian Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade. The Turkish side will visit these sites in the near future and develop the design and infrastructure of the industrial zone. Currently, there are seven free trade-industrial zones and many special economic zones in Iran, which act as a tool to attract foreign direct investment and promote non-oil exports of the country. These zones enjoy custom and tax exemptions over inflow and outflow of goods and commodities and many other privileges. Yazdani emphasized that the envisaged industrial zone will be active in various fields including industry, textile and food products. The realization of the project on industrial park will serve to enhance economic cooperation between Iran and Turkey. The two countries enjoy very close trade and economic relations. In 2012, the trade between them amounted to $21.9 billion. Nevertheless, due to the western sanctions, this figure fell below 10 billion in 2015. Now, banking and financial transactions have become much easier as most of the sanctions against Iran were softened. Turkish officials recently announced that Turkey plans to triple trade with Iran to $30 billion in the coming years. Additionally, Turkey is not rich with hydrocarbon reserves and imports large amount of natural gas from Iran. --- Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 17 June 2016 16:29 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov The Azerbaijani government plans to apply Tax Free system for the incoming visitors taking into account the rise in tourist flow to the country. The testing of the system has already been launched. Relevant documents have been submitted for approval, and currently this system is in the test mode, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes told Trend on June 17. To use the Tax Free system in Azerbaijan, the value of goods purchased at one electronic invoice shall not be less than 300 manats ($200) including the value added tax (VAT). The goods should be exported from the country within 90 days of the date of purchase. VAT payment is returned back only in this back. The VAT rate for all goods is set at 18 percent in Azerbaijan. Thus, 20 percent of VAT amount will be deducted as the payment for services, and the other 80 percent will be refunded to the applicant. To benefit the Tax Free service it is necessary to shop Tax-Free goods at specific Tax Free shops. Then, passport is to be produced for filling an electronic tax invoice. The signed and stamped tax invoice will include the amount of the paid VAT and its last return date. When leaving the country, a visitor should present to airport customs his electronic tax invoice together with passport. In the end, the customs tax invoice should be presented to an authorized bank. The refund can be made both in cash and non-cash (after 10 days) way. Overall, approximately 52,000 people benefit each day from Tax Free shopping around the world. Tax Free shopping services are available from more than 320,000 stores in 52 countries worldwide. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. The winner of Mono equipments Dec-A-Doughnut Competition is coffee shop owner Berris Evans from Pontypridd, South Wales. Launched on the silver anniversary of National Doughnut Week, Monos Dec-A-Doughnut is in aid of The Childrens Trust. The competition wanted professional and amateur bakers to design a doughnut. Judges were looking at overall design, creativity, colours & textures and originality. Evans owns coffee shop Caffi Cariad in Pontypridd. She said: My childhood memories of doughnuts were having them at the beach freshly cooked in front of you, so a beach scene was my inspiration. The bikini top was made from traditional jam doughnuts, the boat from a finger doughnut, the flip-flops were made by slicing a finger doughnut through the middle and the floats were covered mini-doughnuts. The judges felt Evans entry completely captured the true essence of the competition by demonstrating great creativity, skill, humour and imagination in a beautifully executed and colourful design. Evans was presented with a Teddy Bear Mixer by Mono sales executive Christian Trubey. The supermarket chain threw away the equivalent of 119m meals last year, with bread and sandwiches among the most commonly discarded items. Tesco dumped approximately 59,400 tonnes (t) of food in the last year. Fresh bread, fruit and pre-packaged sandwiches are the items thrown away most. Food waste from Britains biggest supermarket increased last year to 59,400t, the equivalent of 119m meals. The rise seen by Tesco came despite a series of initiatives to tackle the problem, including donating huge quantities to food banks. The figure is a 4% increase on 2015 the supermarkets beers, wines & spirits aisles and bakeries were blamed for the rise. The amount wasted was the equivalent of one in every 100 food products sold by Tesco during the last financial year. Chief executive Dave Lewis said: When I arrived at Tesco, we were the only UK retail company to publish our food waste data. What the data shows is that its clear where we need to focus our efforts nearly three years after we announced it, we are still the only UK retailer publishing our data. Last week a 12-strong bakery team at Tesco, Chester formed a syndicate and scooped 1m between them. Homeowner's Associations and What you Should Know Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Most real estate searching undertaken by people interested in having a primary or second home in Puerto Vallarta (or Nayarit), tends to center around the size of the home, number of bedrooms, the neighborhood, and of course, the price. When something is finally found that fulfills the criteria, few, unfortunately, bother to include an investigation regarding how the homeowner's association (HOA) functions. But they should. They don't because many people are not familiar with what a HOA is and what its responsibilities may entail. The single-family dwelling is still the most common form of home ownership in the U.S. and Canada, where HOAs are not, in most cases, necessary. But in Puerto Vallarta the condominium is king and the preferred form of secondary home or vacation ownership. Why? They are easy to take care of, to lock-up and leave during the summers, maintenance fees are less, matter of fact, the overall cost is usually much less. But the other side of condo living is you are now sharing your home, or at least your common areas and perhaps a wall, floor and/or ceiling, with others. There needs to be a system in place to ensure common areas are well maintained and paid for, that everyone respects the rules in place and the privacy of the other owners. The mechanism for this is the homeowner's association. Before anyone makes an offer on a property it very much would be worth their while to investigate the HOA, to ensure the condominium project is being run efficiently, properly, and in compliance with state condo laws. If there are problems, it's better to find out beforehand rather than later on. Unfortunately, the information isn't always easy to come by. The listing real estate agent can assist with this by organizing a meeting with the property manager or administrator, and perhaps one of the board members may be available to talk to you. Perhaps I should have prefaced this by saying there are always going to be some problems going on within the HOA - it is the nature of the beast. So don't go looking for a perfect scenario. What you mostly want to do is confirm ahead of time what you are getting involved with and then decide if you're okay with it. Here's some sample questions you could consider asking: Is there a good administrative system in place? Is there a manager or administration company you can talk to about the building? You should ask to see a copy of the property by-laws (regimen de condominios) to better understand what the rules are for owners. Is there a board and do they meet regularly, taking minutes of the meetings? How are common expenses billed and charged? Is the electricity billed separately for each unit? How are fees billed (annually, quarterly, monthly), and is everyone paying their fees regularly? Are there any problems/disagreements or even legal issues internally or with the past developer? You can get a pretty good idea of how well the HOA is being managed by just walking around the property and checking how well everything is being maintained. Poor maintenance and condition of the building probably means poor management and a weak board and HOA. Garry Musgrave has written a couple of books about condominium HOAs in Jalisco and about condominium law, and he writes, Garry has written book about condominium HOAs you can purchase on Amazon.com. It makes a very good guide for anyone involved with HOAs, and set you in the right direction for properly setting up your condo regimen. And what if you have already bought and now discover there are problems with your HOA? Well, remember, as I wrote above, there will always be some problems, what's important is the severity of the problems. First, you should educate yourself about what best policies are for the operation of a HOA. Ask questions, both to the administrator and board, but perhaps other people at other developments who have ample experience in the operation of HOAs. Secondly, consider getting involved yourself by serving on the board. The worst guy at the annual general assembly is usually the one who loves to complain but never bothers to help out by serving on the board. It's my opinion that if you haven't served, you really don't deserve to complain much. If you want something to be done, then perhaps you have to do it yourself by getting involved. Other points to keep in mind: If you have a weak administrator, you need to have a strong board. But that will mean board members putting in a lot more time than they may want to, or should. It can also lead to board members having too much control. Prime candidates for this are successful retired corporate-types who are used to running their own company, but don't have the company anymore, so they take over the homeowner's association! If you have a strong administrator you'll have to pay more, but it will make the job of the board much easier. In my opinion this is how it should be done, with the board just providing direction and oversight. Unfortunately, for small projects, this often is challenging. Checks and balances. You have to have systems in place to ensure that the administrator, management and board are doing their jobs properly. The administrator and accountant shouldn't work for the same firm - as they need to audit one another. Do all you can to avoid lawsuits. Usually the only one's to win are the lawyers. People can get very hot-headed, for some reason, when it comes to HOAs. It's a little like road-rage, but now inside the condominium structure. Owners have to understand that they have no choice, they are neighbors and are stuck living near and with one another. So the nicer you can be to each other, the higher the degree of success and compliance you'll have regarding HOA matters. A poorly run HOA can take away from the pleasure of owning, put some owners against others. Your best bet is to get a great administrator who can keep people in line and ensure that day-to-day operations are done correctly. Advertiser Disclosure We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence. Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover. How We Make Money The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you. The Camping World Stadium will remain a Pulse night club advocacy center through Wednesday. Family Assistance Center will stay open through Wednesday 94 familes have been helped so far City encourages those who need help to call the hotline During a news conference Friday, Mayor Buddy Dyer encouraged those in need to visit the stadium this weekend while they still have so many providers in one facility simultaneously. But then late Friday afternoon, the city of Orlando announced the center would stay open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. each day. The city opened the family assistance center on Wednesday, following the nightclub shooting that killed 49 and injured more than 50. Since the center opened, 125 families, some 370 people have been helped through various agencies. The goal is to provide free services for victims of the attack, their families, Pulse employees and those who were there, along with first responders. So far, 200 free airline tickets have been provided, and 85 compensation claims have been made for assistance with funeral arraignments, burials and medical claims. "If you know a friend or a family member who was affected please encourage them to come down and seek help. All of our services are confidential. This is a supportive and safe environment for everyone and anyone." Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said. Services provided at the center are confidential, and the media is not allowed in. Dyer encouraged anyone who did not feel comfortable coming to the center to call the family assistance hotline at (407) 246-4357. Although they will be open through Sunday, they ask if anyone else needs assistance, even transporting family from across the country or from Puerto Rico, to please come by for help. The stadium will be open Saturday, June 18 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and again Sunday, June 19 from noon to 8 p.m. Millions of dollars in donations are coming in for the OneOrlando Fund to help victims and their families. "We're trying to figure out the best way to get direct support to the victims and their families and not the go-betweeners," said Dyer. The city has reached out to the man behind the OneBoston fund, who will visit Orlando to provide city leaders with some direction. Dyer stressed that officials are trying to be as transparent as possible when it comes to the money raised through the fund. A section of Greenwood Cemetery has been designated a memorial site. Some of the victims of the Pulse shooting will be buried there. "We have offered a section of Greenwood Cemetery, which the city owns, to any of the families that would like to have their loved one buried here in Orlando, said Dyer. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden also promised to help the families. They visited with the families Thursday during a trip to Orlando. They also thanked the first responders and had a message for the Orlando community. There is compassion, and empathy and decency and most of all there is love, said Obama. Thats the Orlando weve seen in recent days and thats the America we have seen. Let me clarify for those with any creeping suspicions: Roy G. Biv is/was not a real person. The name is a rather misleading arrangement of letters that stands for the colors of the rainbow . Dont be ashamed if this is news to you. If youre like me, the acronym has been seared into your brain since childhood, and you may or may not have made a fool of yourself in the workplace after exclaiming what an interesting guy Mr. Biv was. Even though he wasnt a real dude, Roy G. Biv has made a significant impact on the way artists approach their work. Artists Jamie Brunson, Robert Townsend and Fausto Fernandez will display their colorful creations on Friday, June 24, at the Roy G. Biv Opening Reception at the Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe. They use color as their visual language to communicate directly through our senses, experimenting with oil paint, watercolor, collage techniques and more. All ages are welcome to this free event. (Monica Schmitt) Jamie Brunson, Robert Townsend and Fausto Fernandez use color as the visual language of artistic ecstasy with watercolors, oil paint, collage techniques and more. Runs through 7/10. The artists in Turner Carrolls Roy G. Biv exhibition all use color as the visual language of artistic ecstasy. Fernandez, a Mexican artist now living in the U.S., places layer upon layer of color, embellishing his paintings with diamond dust glitter, to magnify and reflect the chromatic effect. Undeniably influenced by the festive use of color in Mexican culture, he collages colorful flowers; draws energetic lines with crayon, and his works emerge as a triumph of colorful beauty. Fernandezs works were recently featured in the touring museum exhibition, Beauty Reigns: Baroque Sensibilities in Contemporary Art. Likewise, Townsend uses explosive color and celebratory themes in his hyper-realistic watercolors. Candy and lollipops, polka dots, and modernist analog clocks, all express the child-like excitement of color. Townsends colorful pop works are included in top museum collections such as the Getty Museum and the Frederick Weisman Art Foundation in California. Brunson is more of a pure colorist, and she uses deep hues and bold shapes to achieve meditative transcendence. Brunson has received numerous art residencies, and her works are included in the American Embassy in Doha, Qatar, and museums throughout the U.S. These three artists, like artists since the beginning of time, use the universal language of color to communicate directly through our senses, on the most powerful level. A Port Arthur police officer charged with DWI following an off-duty single-vehicle crash in April has been accepted into a pre-trial diversion program, allowing him to avoid a conviction if he meets the conditions of a probation-like agreement, a prosecutor said. The program has been offered to dozens of first-time drunken drivers in Jefferson County since early 2015, first assistant DA Pat Knauth said. It is not extended to people who have a previous criminal conviction, and suspects must also sign a confession that can be used against them in any subsequent drunken-driving arrests, Knauth said. Texas DPS State Highway 105 between Batson and Moss Hill, west of Sour Lake in Liberty County, has reopened, after a three-vehicle wreck resulted in the death two people, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Stephanie Davis. Luke Jordan Harpole, 32, of Cleveland, and a 7-year-old boy were pronounced dead at the scene by Justice of the Peace Cody Parish. They were both passengers in a white Ford F150 pickup truck involved in the crash. The driver of the Ford, Jarod Lawrence Johnson, 40, of Cleveland, was flown by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston with serious injuries. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate After questioning a trial judge's decision to allow Crystal Boyett's 2015 manslaughter trial to move forward without having a physician determine her competency, justices on Beaumont's Ninth Court of Appeals must decide whether to set aside her conviction. Boyett, 42, of Kirbyville, was convicted in April 2015 and sentenced to 20 years in the killing of two Lumberton sisters and an unborn baby in a February 2014 car crash. She filed an appeal this past December. In the appeal, Boyett claims that Hardin County District Judge Steve Thomas did not ensure she was competent to stand trial. Boyett's attorney James P. Spencer II argued on Thursday that a licensed physician should have been appointed to make a medical determination of Boyett's mental ability. "My concern here is the (trial) judge's role," Justice Hollis Horton said during the hearing. "The judge has a responsibility to make sure people being tried are competent to stand trial." Three days into her 2015 criminal trial, Boyett's attorney, Glen Crocker, requested an emergency competency hearing, claiming his client was mentally unfit to understand the charges against her. An informal hearing, which Thomas presided over, convened outside of the jury's presence. Charlotte Bush, Boyett's sister, testified that Boyett suffers from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. Boyett was involuntarily committed to a Louisiana psychiatric hospital, where she spent two weeks in 2013, Bush testified. A family friend also testified that Boyett's mental illness manifested in odd physical behaviors, like "ticking noises" she made during the trial. Justice Charles Kreger said on Thursday a low threshold exists to raise competency issues, which includes whether a defendant has the ability to consult with an attorney with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and if the defendant has a rational and factual understanding of the court proceedings. According to state law, a defendant is presumed competent to stand trial unless proved otherwise "by a preponderance of the evidence." Bruce A. Hoffer, an assistant district attorney in Hardin County, dismissed Boyett's competency claims Thursday as "trial strategy." Hoffer said Boyett's attorneys never presented an expert witness at the informal hearing, therefore failing to meet the burden of proof that she was not competent to stand trial. In her appeal, Boyett, who has been in a state prison in Central Texas since last April, also asserted that her constitutional right to testify on her behalf was violated when Crocker prevented her from addressing the jury. Spencer said Crocker faced "a cruel dilemma" in deciding not to allow Boyett to testify. Crocker believed Boyett to be incompetent, making it his ethical obligation to prevent her from taking the stand, according to Spencer. Another point raised on appeal during Thursday's hearing was whether Boyett should have been granted a continuance because Hardin County prosecutors allegedly waited until less than three weeks before trial to produce 4,200 pages of medical records, which Spencer said contained information that could have cast doubt on Boyett's culpability. According to court testimony, Boyett was driving over 120 mph on Feb. 3, 2014, when she crashed her red Camaro into the back of a small SUV carrying Connely Sterling Burns, 20; her unborn son, Tyson; her 15-year-old sister, Courtney Sterling; and the girls' mother. The two sisters and the baby were killed in the collision. The girls' mother, Dawn Sterling, was severely injured and missed her daughters' funeral. Michael Sterling, the girls' father, was present at Thursday's hearing, but declined to comment until after the judges rule on Boyett's appeal. Boyett was not in court on Thursday. BScott@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/BrandonKScott This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Before Orion heads to Mars, the NASA spacecraft has made a pit stop in downtown Houston. The space agencys next signature spacecraft arrived for an exhibition at Comicpalooza on Wednesday morning. The Orion mock-up is being developed to one day take humans to Mars. In the meanwhile, the vehicle showed up at Comicpalooza to give space junkies a close-up look at the design. READ MORE: 10 things to know before you go to Comicpalooza But even if you miss Orion at the festival, you might catch the 22,000-pound spacecraft traversing the citys busy highways. NASA touted the models arrival at Comicpalooza by documenting the journey from the Johnson Space Center to the George R. Brown Convention Center. The hefty saucer-shaped vehicle was lugged by an 18-wheeler onto I-45 to its final destination downtown. NASA live-tweeted the modules trip with the hashtag #SpotOrion. The spacecraft arrived safely, seeming to avoid any of the usual traffic jams, at about 9:30 a.m. Check out Orions road trip to downtown Houston in the gallery above. The CDC reported three infants born in the United States had Zika-related birth defects, according to The Hill. Here are four takeaways: 1. The CDC also reported three other cases in which women had miscarriages or terminated pregnancies with infants who had birth defects, which Zika caused. 2. Last month, the CDC reported the first case where a baby was born with Zika-related birth defects. 3. Every reported case has involved a mother contracting the virus abroad, according to the Associated Press. 4. However, the Associated Press cautioned there could be cases of people contracting Zika in the continental United States this summer. More articles on quality & infection control: Muhammad Ali dies from septic shock 4 things to know about the infection that killed the legendary boxer Legislators voice concern over 'unstoppable superbug' making its way into US: 5 notes Physicians, healthcare executives weigh in on value-based care 6 survey findings Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, of Aurora-based University of Colorado School of Medicine, shares his experience developing medical student entrepreneurial education programs, according to Physician's Money Digest. Here are five things to know: 1. Dr. Meyers noted most medical students lack an entrepreneurial mindset. 2. Medical school's demanding schedule often doesn't leave room for non-clinical subjects. 3. Dr. Meyers advised medical student entrepreneurship should involve "networks, resources, mentors, experimental learning and industry-academic knowledge exchange." 4. Faculty members expect proof of concept for any experimental ideas medical students propose. 5. Dr. Meyers said biomedical or clinical innovation and entrepreneurship education will not be a mandatory part of medical school, so entrepreneurial medical students will have to go the extra mile. Recent articles: 10 of the best stories on ASC leadership in 2016 so far Employed vs. self-employed: Who has higher job satisfaction levels? 6 survey findings FastMed, TouchCare partner on telemedicine services: 5 points Pioneer Community Hospital of Scott in Oneida, Tenn., will close its doors on June 26 at 8 a.m., WBIR reported. The hospital, which is part of Magee, Miss.-based Pioneer Health Services, is the only one in Scott County. Hospital CEO Tony Taylor notified the state earlier this month about a potential closure. The announcement comes on the heels Pioneer Health Services filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. Pioneer owns hospitals in Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia. It acquired Scott County Hospital in March 2013 after the hospital's first closure in 2012. Mr. Taylor predicted the facility would close this month if the State Survey Agency could not help survey the surgery department, which Mr. Taylor said would garner the revenue needed to stay open, according to WBIR. Steve Leeds, PharmD, a hospital employee, said all 100 employees including Mr. Taylor found out about the closure on Thursday, and many of their questions were left unanswered. "First thing I thought of was tell me this isn't happening again," Dr. Leeds told WBIR. "I've worked at the hospital here for 30 plus years. If the hospital closes there will be patients dying, and we want to keep the hospital open just for that reason alone." The closest hospital Jamestown (Tenn.) RegionalMedicalCenter is 39 miles away, WBIR reported. More articles on healthcare finance: Viewpoint: Declining charity care levels drive concerns about hospital 340B eligibility 5 health systems with strong finances White House announces state budgets for opioid abuse treatment Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, S.C., has named Bradley S. Talbert CEO, The Herald reports. Here are four things to know about Mr. Talbert. 1. He succeeds Bill Masterton, who took a job at a teaching hospital in Louisiana. 2. Mr. Talbert joins PMC from Coastal Carolina Hospital in Hardeeville, S.C., where he has served as CEO. PMC and CCH are both part of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare. 3. Previously, he was market vice president of business development and COO of Tenet's Hilton Head Hospital in Hilton Head Island, S.C. 4. Mr. Talbert earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., and a master's degree in health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. More articles on executive moves: New CEO tapped for West Virginia University Health System: 5 things to know 9 latest hospital, health system CEO moves UVA Medical Center names new COO: 4 things to know Cuba has a successful healthcare model with quality, access and outcomes better than the majority of counties around the world. In fact Cuba considers healthcare one of their major exports; Cuba exports approximately $8B of professional services carried out by its physicians and nurses each year, with 37,000 professionals working in 77 countries. Now that Cuba is opening to Americans, a recent trip offered an exciting opportunity to better understand how they've created such a successful model. This week review of their healthcare system was eye-opening and demonstrated some ways in which Cuba has developed this model of care. What is interesting is that Cuba's success in healthcare seems less about them creating a better delivery model for care but more about developing a model that creates better adherence to basic standards of care. The delivery model is efficient but the adherence is more impressive. Here are some examples: 1. Segmentation of assets and labor. The structure of the health system builds upon the base level of primary care, with primary care physicians or family doctors distributed within the neighborhoods. The next level is the polyclinic, which coordinates the majority of outpatient specialty activity. The third level is single specialty tertiary hospital locations, which are distributed in the major cities. This segmentation model may promote more customized care for the population but doesn't seem to take advantage of scale economies, particularly in the tertiary hospitals, which is important for clinical and financial performance. Organizing the population by acuity and disease outweighs the clinical and financial benefits of consolidation. This balance is likely the opposite in most US markets. 2. Access. With over 67 physicians per 100,000 population, Cuba has the best access to physicians. The physicians, particularly family doctors, are located in neighborhoods, living within a mile or less of their patient base. The physicians know the families, friends, behaviors and risk factors for their neighborhoods. While access to physicians is impressive, there were accounts of family doctors entering homes unannounced to observe health and environmental factors of their "patients". These unannounced visits, while common in Cuba, may not be as welcome in the US given privacy requirements of our population. 3. Behavioral adherence. Because of communism, Cuba has complete control over the behavioral and health standards it places on its populations. Cuba unequivocally follows basic clinical care guidelines for prevention, diagnosis and treatment. For example, Cuba's immunization coverage for measles is 99%, compared to the US average of 91% and the world average of 84%. When there's an outbreak, the system quickly moves into homes and the work place to tend to health, behavior and environmental needs (e.g. water, sanitation, cleanliness). It is unlikely the US can move toward more direct control over its population's behaviors given our democratic republic heritage. That said, there is precedence in the US for regulating health precursors, such as pollution, smoking and car safety. Is it unrealistic to assume that one day calorie, exercise and gun violence will fall under similar regulations? 4. Government control. The Cuban government controls the supply of healthcare services by organizing the medical training and deployment of physicians and providers across the country and the demand for services through paying for the access to and use of services for the population. This model allows an orchestrated balance of supply and demand. When there are shortages or surpluses on either side of the supply/demand equation, the government can use its power to affect a more optimal balance. Given the complexity of the US health system, it is unlikely we achieve this orchestrated balance. It is more likely as the trade restraints are lessened, Cuba moves more toward the US model of consumerism and choice for both supply and demand of services. These and other attributes have helped Cuba develop an impressive model of healthcare, in which a small country, isolated from much of the world. As Cuba opens its doors, it will be interesting to see how the healthcare system remains strong, given other opportunities for trade. Perhaps Cuba becomes a healthcare destination, perhaps Cuba builds upon its professional services export model, perhaps Cuba accelerates its investments in research and innovation. Regardless of the approach, I am hopeful that Cuba continues its journey developing the best care model for adherence and outcomes known throughout the world and we can continue to learn from them. 1 Frist, B. Cuba's Most Valuable Export: Its Healthcare Expertise. Forbes. June 8, 2015. 2 Source: World Health Statistics 2015, World Health Organization The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker's Hospital Review/Becker's Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump released his "Healthcare Reform to Make America Great Again" plan March 2, calling for less government oversight of healthcare and letting the free market sort out costs. Here are 15 things to know about Mr. Trump's healthcare reform plan: 1. Mr. Trump intends to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Trump wants to completely eradicate the healthcare reform law, particularly its individual mandate that requires all individuals above a specific economic threshold to purchase health insurance. Though he has previously supported the ACA provision requiring payers to cover people with pre-existing conditions, he did not mention this in his March proposal. "Our healthcare is a horror show," Mr. Trump said at the sixth Republican debate in January. "Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it." 2. His plan will leave 24 million Americans uninsured. Upon repeal of the ACA, 24 million people will lose healthcare coverage by 2021, more than doubling the number of uninsured Americans, according to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation analysis. His proposed replacement initiatives only cover 5 percent of all the individuals who would lose coverage. 3. CRFB predicts high costs to repeal and replace the ACA. An estimated $550 billion over the course of 10 years would be required for Mr. Trump to repeal and replace the ACA. When taking into account effects on the economy, the price tag changes to $330 billion, according to a bipartisan Committee for Responsible Federal Budget analysis. 4. He wants to convert Medicaid to a block grant program. A block grant program would involve the federal government allotting each state a fixed amount of yearly funding, according to CRFB's fiscal report analysis. The analysis states the grants could save or cost the government money, depending on their size, which Mr. Trump has not disclosed. 5. He wants to allow insurers to sell plans across state lines. He proposes that by "allowing full competition in this market, insurance costs will go down and consumer satisfaction will go up." 6. Mr. Trump wants to make insurance premiums tax deductible. Mr. Trump argues since businesses are able to deduct payments for insurance premiums from their taxes, individuals should also be able to take those exemptions. "As we allow the free market to provide insurance coverage opportunities to companies and individuals, we must also make sure that no one slips through the cracks simply because they cannot afford insurance," Mr. Trump's plan reads. 7. He thinks healthcare is a universal right. According to a Politico article, Mr. Trump has frequently said all Americans should receive access to healthcare, and the government should make sure no one is "dying on the streets." His belief in universal healthcare conflicts with his wish to eliminate the ACA mandate requiring all individuals above a certain economic threshold to purchase health insurance. 8. He intends to establish health saving accounts. Mr. Trump wants to grant Americans the option to contribute to tax-free health saving accounts, making them a part of an individual's estate. This means individuals would not be penalized for transferring assets to heirs or to other family members. 9. He will require price transparency from insurers. "Individuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedure," his plan reads. Mr. Trump especially wants physicians, clinics and hospitals to provide transparent information. No other details are provided in his health reform plan as to how he hopes to accomplish this. 10. Mr. Trump wants to remove barriers for international pharmaceutical companies wishing to enter the U.S. market. If international pharmaceutical companies offer reliable, safe and cheaper products, Mr. Trump thinks Americans should have the option to purchase them. "Though the pharmaceutical industry is in the private sector, drug companies provide a public service," his plan reads. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has proposed similar ideas. 11. He wants stricter laws on providing care to undocumented immigrants. Mr. Trump says enforcing immigration laws and cutting fraud will lift economic pressures off Americans. Stricter immigration laws would assist job creation and reduce the amount of people on Medicaid, his plan states. 12. Mr. Trump sees a need to reform mental health programs. In his plan, he states America needs to reform its mental health programs and institutions. "Families, without the ability to get the information needed to help those who are ailing, are too often not given the tools to help their loved ones," his plan reads. His plan also states Congress is developing "promising" reforms that should receive bipartisan support. 13. He said other reform could be considered. If other plans present lower costs, more certainty and financial security for Americans, Mr. Trump said in his health reform plan he will consider them. 14. Critics of Mr. Trump's plan say it is simply another Republican healthcare proposal. "The fact that his healthcare 'plan' is clearly cribbed from worn-out and false GOP talking points proves that Trump is just another Republican politician who wants to take healthcare away from millions of Americans without offering any substantive alternative," Democratic National Committee Communications Director Luis Miranda said in a statement, according to Reuters. 15. The GOP is not sold on Mr. Trump's plan. Republicans are hung up on Mr. Trump's inconsistencies in terms of healthcare policy, making them doubt the assumed Republican nominee, according to The Hill. For example, Mr. Trump promised to insure all Americans, but his plan does not state any overarching expansions. He has also said he wants to protect patients with pre-existing conditions, but does not mention it in his plan. Woodbury, N.J.-based Inspira Health Network could lay off 67 employees next month due to a pending partnership venture, The Daily Journal reports. Denver-based DaVita Kidney Care, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners, is slated to join Inspira Health Network in southern New Jersey. Under the deal, DaVita will gain majority ownership of three Inspira dialysis centers in Vineland, Millville and Bridgeton, N.J. This pending partnership means dialysis service personnel in Bridgeton, Millville and Vineland could lose their jobs by Aug. 10, according to the report, which cites notices filed with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The state notified 67 Inspira employees this month. Inspira spokesman Greg Potter told The Daily Journal Inspira is looking to offer new positions to the affected employees. "We are working to place them within our joint venture with DaVita," Mr. Potter told the publication. "We anticipate that we'll have placements for all these employees. We're looking to keep them with us." More articles on leadership and management: Via Christi to eliminate 70 positions, add 80 more 5 tips for managing, strengthening resilience Study finds company share prices suffer when female CEO appointments are publicized here's why Stay in the know with Becker's Hospital Review's weekly roundup of the nation's biggest healthcare news. Here's what you need to know this week. 1. Orlando Health's response to America's deadliest shooting at nightclub Forty-nine people were killed and 53 were injured in a shooting at Pulse, an Orlando, Fla.-based LGBT nightclub early Sunday morning. A SWAT team killed the gunman, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, at the scene. Orlando Health, a six-hopsital system with two affiliated hospitals, led the emergency response. 2. MedPAC issues June report to Congress The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission released its June 2016 report on Medicare payment policy to Congress, in which it gives a status report on the Medicare Advantage and Part D drug programs. 3. CMS' proposed rule for hospitals: Reduce antibiotic use or exit Medicare On Monday, CMS released a proposed rule change to its Conditions of Participation which would, among other changes, require hospitals to implement antibiotic stewardship programs in order to participate in Medicare and Medicaid. 4. Brigham and Women's nurses set date for strike The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents 3,300 nurses at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, voted Monday to authorize a one-day strike, The Boston Globe reports. 5. Accidental Zika infection at Pittsburgh lab A lab worker from the University of Pittsburgh accidentally stuck herself with a needle while working with the Zika virus, resulting in what appears to be the first known Zika infection occurring in a laboratory, according to The New York Times. 6. NYC budget includes $700M boost for public hospitals New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council agreed on an $82.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2017, and the biggest new spending item is a $700 million funding boost for the city's public hospital system, according to Bloomberg. 7. 2 hospital EMTs resign after live-stream shows them ignore 911 call Two emergency medical technicians employed by UniversityHospital in Newark, N.J., live-streamed a fast food run to WhiteCastle, which showed them ignoring an emergency call while waiting for their food, according to a News 12 report. The incident occurred on June 9. They have since resigned. 8. Scientists identify superbug in Rio Olympic water venues As if concerns regarding the safety of traveling to Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics weren't high enough due to the Zika virus outbreak, two new unpublished academic studies suggest there may also be a dangerous drug-resistant "super bacteria" in the city's beach water and lagoon where various events are to be held, Reuters reports. 9. Ascension Wisconsin to close hospital Ascension Wisconsin, part of St. Louis-based Ascension, will close 30-bed Wheaton Franciscan-Midwest Spine and Orthopedic Hospital and Wisconsin Heart Hospital in Wauwatosa on July 8. Employees at Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital in Elko and union members picketed Thursday over staffing issues, according to an Elko Daily Free Press report. The workers, represented by SEIU Nevada, were protesting for safe staffing practices for themselves and the community they serve. They claim the emergency department is understaffed. They also want the community to join in the coalition to solidify solutions, including political solutions at the upcoming state legislature where they will advocate for safe staffing ratios, according to the report. In a statement, NNRH said it respects SEIU Nevada's right to assemble. However, because it is in active negotiations with the union and must respect the confidentiality of the bargaining process, it declined to comment on Thursday's demonstration, according to the report. The hospital further stated there have been eight meetings between itself and the union since January, including two this week. More articles on workforce and labor management: Sacred Heart physicians reach tentative labor agreement, cancel picket Hundreds of nurses apply to work in Minnesota as Allina strike looms Dartmouth contract with New Hampshire Hospital set to expire: 5 things to know Aetna Better Health of Nebraska is fighting the state in court after officials denied Aetna's bid to share in a $1 billion contract covering some 230,000 long-term Medicaid recipients, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. In a complaint filed Tuesday in the Lancaster County District Court, Aetna asked the decision be overturned on the grounds that one of the insurers, Tampa, Fla.-based WellCare, is less established and unqualified based on its current legal issues in other states and outsourcing to India. Additionally, Aetna claims the state's decision process violated the law and was flawed, since two reviewers were unfamiliar with Medicaid and the review process was too short. The decision "jeopardized the state of Nebraska's ability to satisfy the basic needs of hundreds of thousands of its most vulnerable citizens," Aetna's attorneys told the Lincoln Journal Star. A share in the contract would make Aetna plans accessible to Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program recipients under Heritage Health, Nebraska's new managed care program. The plan aims to cover approximately 230,000 recipients under single plans as opposed to separate physical and behavioral health plans. State officials disagreed with Aetna's arguments, saying officials impartially chose which insurers would be best for Nebraskans. WellCare provided a statement regarding Nebraska's decision, saying the payer "has more than 30 years of experience in coordinating managed care for low-income children and families, the disabled and seniors. In recent years, it has become standard practice for unsuccessful bidders to protest the results of large procurements. The state of Nebraska conducted a fair bidding process, and we expect this to be validated in court. We remain focused on preparing to serve Nebraskas most vulnerable citizens and on being a transparent and accountable partner to the state." Six insurers applied and three were chosen. Aetna controls plans for more than 100,000 Medicaid participants in Nebraska and has been in the state for five years. This article has been updated with a statement provided by WellCare. The previous version did not have WellCare's statement. The following insurers made headlines this week. They are listed below, beginning with the most recent. 1. With $25M raised, digital insurer League plans to expand in Seattle, beyond Digital health insurance provider League expanded its footprint in North America after receiving $25 million in its first round of investor funding. 2. Cigna opens 24/7 hotline in wake of Orlando shooting Bloomfield, Conn.-based Cigna opened a 24/7 telephone help line to anyone affected by the shooting at Orlando, Fla.-based LGBT nightclub Pulse. 3. Aetna recognizes 2 employees who died in Orlando shooting Hartford, Conn.-based Aenta responded to the deaths of two of its employees and a third employee who was wounded in a shooting at Orlando, Fla.-based LGBT nightclub Pulse. 4. Premier Health hospitals no longer in CareSource's Just4Me network Dayton, Ohio-based CareSource dropped Dayton-based Premier Health from its Just4Me health plans, effective Aug. 1. 5. Memorial Hermann Health System, UnitedHealthcare launch ACO Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System and health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare formed an accountable care organization. 6. John Hancock to raise long-term healthcare policy rates 20% Boston-based John Hancock Financial confirmed its hiking rates for plans covering individuals' in-home and nursing home care by about 20 percent. 7. UnitedHealthcare to reimburse kidney donors' travel expenses UnitedHealthcare said it will pay up to $5,000 to kidney transplant donors for lodging and travel expenses, effective January 2017. 8. SAG and AFTRA to merge health plans Hollywood-based Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists plan to merge their two healthcare plans to cover more than 65,000 members. 9. BCBS of Tennessee cautions customers of phone scam BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee enrollees, beware: You might be the subject of a phone scam. The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorizations for two in-vitro devices that diagnose the Zika virus. Cypress-Calif.-based Focus Diagnostics and Hamburg, Germany-based Altona Diagnostics requested the authorizations on behalf of their in-vitro diagnostic devices. As a result of Zika's threat to the public health and national security, the Department of Health and Human Services felt circumstances justified the authorizations. HHS also granted the authorization because there are no approved alternative diagnostic devices for Zika currently available. The authorization allows for Altona's RealStar Zika Virus RT-PCR Kit and Focus' Zika Virus RNA Qualitative Real-Time RT-PCR test to be used for individuals showing clinical signs and symptoms of Zika, along with individuals who have recently traveled or had a history of residence in a geographic region known to have active Zika virus transmission. While both devices detect RNA from Zika in the blood, Altona's device can also diagnose through urine samples. More articles on supply chain: Medtronic inks deal with Canary Health, enters pre-diabetes market FDA strengthens warnings for two diabetes medications: 4 things to know FDA finalizes symbols for device labels Dr. John Hurlbert, of University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, plans to start a new spine program at the University of Arizona in Tucson, according to Calgary Herald. Here are five things to know: 1. Dr. Hurlbert commented he's moving to the United States to start a similar spine program to the one he co-founded at the University of Calgary in 1997. 2. Dr. Hurlbert commented the University of Arizona offers great opportunities for teaching and research. 3. He served as the University of Calgary spine program's first spine surgeon. 4. By heading to the United States, he said he will leave room for another surgeon at the beginning of his or her career to rise up the ranks at University of Calgary. 5. The University of Calgary's spine program now includes 11 spine surgeons and 15 neurosurgeons. London, Ontario, Canada-based Ortech Systems launched phiDB lite, a patient-reported outcomes platform. Here are five things to know: 1. The platform will help orthopedic surgeons gather patient-reported outcomes within two weeks. 2. With the platform, practices will be able to compare providers as well as show patients their progress. 3. Practices can also leverage the platform to include patient-reported outcomes in their bundled payment reports. 4. Ortech created the platform in response to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recommending providers across all specialties obtain patient-reported outcomes. 5. The phiDB lite package includes: Outcome questions that match AAOS-recommended criteria Online clinic module capturing patient-reported outcomes data Self-serve module collecting patient-reported outcomes data from patients Automated patient-reported outcomes status report Automated site benchmark reports Implementation within two weeks of approval "Deciding what to measure used to be a hurdle for orthopedic practices. Now that AAOS has provided guidelines on what to measure, orthopedic practices are assured their data will support quality improvement," said Michael Barr, vice president of Ortech Systems. "This was Ortech's cue to streamline PROMs collection, so any practice can operationalize quickly." Brexit could lead to disruption of trade links, re-introduction of customs controls and loss of millions of pounds in aid funding which would impact the economy and affect security, it has been claimed Brexit could have serious economic and political implications for Northern Ireland, the Republic, and Anglo-Irish relations, according to a new report. The disruption of trade links, re-introduction of customs controls and loss of millions of pounds in aid funding would impact the economy and affect security, it was claimed. British Influence, which published the report, said: These are issues that have only been considered on the periphery of the referendum debate until very recently, and yet represent some of the most serious, considering the potential effects Brexit could have on the peace process and north-south cooperation. Those who argue for the UK to leave the EU have for the most part dismissed the Irish dimension of Brexit as either irrelevant or inconsequential a worryingly passive stance. Considering the seriousness with which people on both sides of the Irish border are taking the possibility of the UK voting to leave, Brexit advocates need rapidly to reconsider that stance and begin providing answers for these legitimate concerns. According to the think tank, the economic consequences for Northern Ireland include an exposed economy left isolated from its second biggest market and more reliant on a poorer and preoccupied UK. The potential loss of foreign direct investment, which has seen some 800 international companies set up in the region, was also highlighted, as were claims the business community could be disadvantaged. The ending of the European Arrest Warrant may also make it more difficult to extradite terror suspects, while the loss of crucial EU funding for cross-border projects could disrupt the peace process, the report said. British Influence additionally argued that a vote to leave the EU could have ramifications south of the border, where the economy is still recovering from the downturn. A Brexit could be the kind of shock that causes real difficulties, the report said. While both countries would continue to trade, the volume presently 30% of Irelands imports, totalling some 27.86bn was likely to be impacted, the group claimed. Agriculture prices may also be forced down, as the UK would no longer be subject to the Common Agricultural Policy. And there could also be consequences for broader relations between the UK and Ireland, which have improved immeasurably in recent years, partly down to mutual membership of the EU. The report said: No doubt the British and Irish Governments would seek to maintain their current strong relationship, and it is to be hoped that they would succeed. But Britain and Ireland would have chosen profoundly different paths, and there would be no guarantees that the current relations would remain as they are. The report came after former Irish president Mary McAleese warned a Leave vote would cause turmoil and radically alter relations between the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Ms McAleese also claimed Irelands peace and prosperity would be in danger if Britain voted to leave the European Union next week. Canadian-owned Bambardier received certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration as well as the European Aviation Safety Agency that its CS100 model met safety requirements Bombardier has won regulatory approval from the US and European aviation authorities for its CS100 passenger jets. The CSeries planes, which are part-made in Belfast, are scheduled to have their first commercial flight next month. The Canadian-owned plane and train-maker received certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration as well as the European Aviation Safety Agency that its CS100 model met safety requirements. That certification is needed before the newly developed aircraft can enter operation. Bombardier, which employs more than 5,000 staff here, secured a deal in April to sell 75 of the CS100 jets to Delta Airlines, with the potential for a further 50 orders. However, it revealed in February that the company was cutting 1,080 jobs in Belfast over the next two years. Earlier this month, IAG boss Willie Walsh told the Belfast Telegraph he was having discussions with Bombardier boss Alain Bellemere about buying a number of the planes. At the International Air Transport Association AGM in Dublin, he said other orders, including deals with Delta Airlines and Lufthansa subsidiary SWISS, were also encouraging. This week, Belfast City Airport boss Brian Ambrose said the CSeries passenger jets could open up a direct route from the city to the east coast of America and the Middle East. The narrow-body passenger planes are fuel-efficient and potentially give small airports greater reach across the world. The news came after former Bombardier Northern Ireland chief executive Sir Roy McNulty said the "worst is over" for the manufacturer and insisted it would weather a storm of job cuts and losses. Bombardier in Belfast, officially known as Short Brothers plc, recently announced a pre-tax loss of $339m (235.6m), which it said had wiped out profits made over the past 10 years. The south coastal town of Hove is the top hotspot for young professionals buying homes across England and Wales, a report has found. Didsbury in Manchester, Clifton in Bristol, central Cardiff, Jesmond in Newcastle, Sheffield and Reading were also among the most desirable places for professionals aged between 25 and 44 years old to buy a property, according to Lloyds Bank. Lloyds said that for the second year in a row, the BN3 postcode, which covers Hove, was identified as the most popular place for young professionals to buy a home. The BN1 postcode in Brighton was also on the list of hotspots. Brighton and Hove have particular attractions for the young and ambitious, with a diverse population as well as the availability of independent shops, bars, restaurants, music venues and commuter links to London, the report said. Looking across the country, the postcode of CF24 in Cardiff, which includes Cathays, Roath and Splott, was named as the top hotspot for young professionals in Wales. In the north west of England, the postcode of M20, covering leafy Didsbury, with its boutiques and bars, was the top place to attract well-heeled younger workers. The postcode of BS8, covering Clifton, with its grand Georgian and Victorian architecture nestled close to Bristol city centre, was named as the south west's top hotspot for young professionals. Lloyds' review looked at Land Registry house sales in the year to February 2016 and also used analysis of different sectors of the population by marketing consultancy CACI to make the findings. Lloyds Bank mortgage director Mike Songer said: "Young professionals tend to have a professional or university qualification, are in well paid jobs and enjoy an urban lifestyle without the hustle and bustle of living in the city centre. "Our research shows that aspiring young urbanites choose to settle in areas which give them the best of both worlds - attractive suburbs offering good amenities and quality of life, which are within easy reach of a larger city centre - and in many cases they are prepared to pay a premium to live there." The young professional hotspots list was also crammed with areas of London, including Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Battersea, Streatham, Fulham, Putney, Hampstead, Paddington, Brixton and Tooting. The three most expensive areas for young professionals all command an average house price in excess of 1 million - Hampstead, where the average price is 1,318,492; Paddington, where it is 1,220,198; and Fulham, with a typical home there costing 1,088,131. Mr Songer continued: "With a third of London's population in the 25 to 44 age group it is not surprising many of the most popular areas with this group are in the capital." The research also found young professionals face paying a premium to live in their desired area - paying 88,000 more typically for a home in the postal district hotspots than a property in the wider town or city where they are located. But among the exceptions is BN3 - the most popular postal district in the survey, where the average house price is 33,972 lower than in the whole of Hove. In other areas of London the price premium is considerably larger. In the W4 district of Chiswick, for example, the average house price of 866,492 is 390,388 higher than in local area district of Hounslow. And in the N1 area of Islington houses are trading at an average premium of 267,891 compared with the Islington borough generally. Even outside London young professionals face hefty prices for a home in the most popular areas. In Didsbury, homes trade at a premium of 106,383 compared with Manchester generally. In Clifton, the average house price of 397,599 is 132,163 higher than in Bristol generally. Fired up: Gods of Egypt looks the part but fails to deliver Benevolent King Osiris (Bryan Brown) is poised to crown his self-doubting son, Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), the new ruler of Egypt in front of an adoring throng, including his wife Isis (Rachael Blake) and Horus' lover, Hathor (Elodie Yung), the goddess of love. At the last minute, Osiris' jealous brother Set (Gerard Butler) gatecrashes the ceremony, murders the old king and seizes the throne. "Behold the fate of those who stand in my way," bellows Set, who demands that gods and mortals bow before him. Horus attempts to avenge his father, but Set is too powerful and rips out his nephew's eyes. Humble pickpocket Bek (Brenton Thwaites) and slave girl sweetheart Zaya (Courtney Eaton) set forth to overthrow Set by stealing back Horus' peepers. The plan goes tragically awry and Bek enters into a dangerous pact with Horus to complete his mission, aided by the rightful king's grandfather, Ra (Geoffrey Rush), who shoots fiery bolts from his watchtower in the heavens. Gods Of Egypt is a morass of oiled pecs, posturing and tiresome showdowns between exiled heroes and otherworldly creatures. The Oscar winner is believed to have accepted an invitation to visit Social Bite, a sandwich shop that feeds, trains and employs homeless people Leonardo DiCaprio is expected to follow in the footsteps of George Clooney and visit a Scottish social enterprise cafe later this year. The Oscar winner is believed to have accepted an invitation to travel to Edinburgh in support of Social Bite, a sandwich shop that feeds, trains and employs local homeless people. The Hollywood star will also speak at the Scottish Business Awards during his first visit to Scotland. Clooney paid a visit to Social Bite last November and launched an appeal to help homeless people and fund an aid convoy carrying food and clothing to travel to refugee camps across Europe. It received so many donations that Social Bite said surplus funds would ensure free hot meals and drinks can be provided to the homeless community in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen for a year. Fans lined Rose street in the Scottish capital last year to welcome Clooney who took time to chat to the crowd and posed for selfies with Social Bite staff before speaking at the Scottish Business Awards. Founded by Josh Littlejohn, around a quarter of the staff at the social enterprise have previously been homeless. DiCaprio, who won an Oscar for his role in The Revenant, is also an environmental campaigner and charity activist. Miss Great Britain, Zara Holland, is taking part in the new series of Love Island Miss Great Britain Zara Holland has been stripped of her title after having sex on ITV2 show Love Island Miss Great Britain Zara Holland has been stripped of her title after having sex on ITV2 show Love Island. Miss Great Britain Zara Holland has been stripped of her title after having sex on ITV2 show Love Island. Former Miss Great Britain Zara Holland will remain on ITV2's Love Island despite being stripped of her crown, ITV has said. Holland was "de-crowned" by Miss Great Britain after scenes showing the 20-year-old having sex were broadcast on Wednesday. ITV said Holland, from North Ferriby in Yorkshire, was told about the development off camera. "She is now back in the villa and has chosen to remain in the show," a spokesman said. He added: "With new participants going in and out of the villa we didn't feel it was fair for Zara to hear the news from a third party." Love Island presenter Caroline Flack criticised the decision to strip Holland of her title. She tweeted: "Feel even more sorry for Zara now she's been de-crowned. She's a very sweet girl. What even is 'Miss GB'? Are we living in the dark ages?" Holland has expressed regret over her antics with 24-year-old scaffolder Alex Bowen. In Thursday's episode, she said: "You know when you're in the moment and it just happens. That's really not like me at all. Why couldn't we have just gone to sleep?" Bowen is the former boyfriend of Loose Women star Vicky Pattison, the winner of I'm A Celebrity in 2015. The Miss Great Britain organisation said the move was taken with "deep regret". Its statement added: "We pride ourselves on promoting the positivity of pageants in modern society and this includes the promotion of a strong, positive female role model in our winners. "The feedback we have received from pageant insiders and members of the general public is such that we cannot promote Zara as a positive role model moving forward. "We wholly understand that everyone makes mistakes, but Zara, as an ambassador for Miss Great Britain, simply did not uphold the responsibility expected of the title." The organisation tweeted a message to further explain its position. "To be clear, we have no problem at all with sex - it is perfectly natural," they said. "We simply can't condone what happened on national TV." Holland will be replaced for the remainder of the year by runner-up Deone Robertson, who had been crowned Miss North Lanarkshire. The organisation said it will meet Holland on her return to the UK from the Love Island house in Majorca "to fully explain our decision and will wish her the very best going forward". The premise and purpose of Love Island is for the contestants to find romance, and the show has been performing well in the ratings. Salma Hayek makes no secret of the fact she felt great empathy for her latest incarnation, a woman pining to become pregnant in new fantasy-horror Tale Of Tales. "My character is obsessed with being a mother. She's having trouble having children and she's deeply sad and lonely because of this, and I could empathise with her because I didn't have my child until I was 41," says the Mexican-born actress, who is mum to eight-year-old Valentina (her husband of seven years, billionaire businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, also has three other children). "I understand the fear she was going through: is this going to be a possibility for me in my life or not?" The movie's directed by the acclaimed Italian film-maker Matteo Garrone, whose previous credits include The Embalmer, First Love and TV series Gomorrah, but Tale Of Tales marks his first English language film. "Anything he proposed I would've done and I will do in the future. I feel so lucky I got to work with him," says Hayek, in that melodic, husky voice. "I have a lot of Italian friends who are actors and it was always the ongoing joke that he usually gives the leading roles to real people, he doesn't work with actors. "It was everybody's dream to work with Matteo, so they were very jealous," adds the star, looking conservatively glamorous in a black cardigan over a dress strewn with small swans. Her character, Queen of Longtrellis, is so determined to have a child that she follows the advice of a sorcerer and devours the heart of a sea monster. "When I read that scene, I thought this is not even going to make it to the film," recalls Hayek, laughing. "I don't know how Matteo managed to do something that is so grotesque yet elegant at the same time, and emotional. "Every take we would do, he would say, 'Okay, now I want you to do this with desperation, now with love. Do it with hope, with sadness'. I didn't know there were so many ways to eat a heart." The film is inspired by the fairy tales of Giambattista Basile, an Italian academic, courtier and soldier whose work comprised more than 50 stories, weaving the sublime with the shocking, and influenced the Brothers Grimm. "The book it was based on was written in the 17th century, but all the conflicts of the characters are very relevant today and Matteo just takes it to the grotesque and the unimaginable, both psychologically and visually," continues Hayek. Garrone, who also co-wrote the screenplay, has noted that choosing which tales to include, followed an "invisible thread". "It involves three stories about women, each at a different stage in life," notes the 47-year-old director. "But what struck us even more was the capacity of these tales to capture some contemporary obsessions: the powerful desire for youth and beauty, the obsession of a mother who would do anything to have a son, and the violence that a girl must deal with to become an adult." Hayek agrees: "It's incredible that this author was writing about the obsession with keeping beauty and plastic surgery back then. All the conflicts for women are very relevant today. So even though it's a period piece, it feels very modern." Given the actress' flawless complexion, it would appear she's found the secret to eternal youth. She looks 35 but turns 50 in September. "I'm actually very excited about it," she exclaims. "Turning 30 was kind of shocking. I really liked turning 40 and now I'm super-excited about turning 50. "When I was younger, I thought it was scary - you think you're done with your life by 50, but I'm very fulfilled with what I've done in 50 years." Raised in an affluent family in the oil rich coastal city of Coatzacoalcos, Hayek was sent to school in the US, before returning to Mexico to study at university. In her early 20s, she was cast in the title role in the popular telenovela Teresa, eventually moving to Los Angeles to pursue her career in 1991. Following bit parts, she landed her big break in Robert Rodriguez's Desperado, opposite Antonio Banderas, in 1995. Rodriguez also cast Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn, alongside George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino the following year - and she hasn't stopped since, with over 60 acting credits to her name. "I'm very happy. I feel so energetic and I'm very excited to discover that I still have so much curiosity and so many things to look forward to in my life. "My life turned out to be better than I thought it was going to be when I was 20, so I think it's a really exciting time," states the star, who executive-produced the hit US TV series Ugly Betty and spent almost a decade bringing her passion project Frida to the big screen. The biopic earned multiple award nods, including a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Hayek, who's currently filming The Hitman's Bodyguard, while two new movies, the adult animation Sausage Party and comedy Drunk Parents are in the offing. She's also looking to produce more - "we have something in development with Amazon, but let's see if it makes it to the screen, because sometimes you develop and it doesn't make it through" - but despite her success, it's surprising to hear that she doesn't actually relish the process. "I really don't like producing," Hayek reveals with a shrug. "But I think it's important to do it, so I'm continuing on that path." First Minister Arlene Foster today urges readers of the Belfast Telegraph to vote Leave in the EU referendum "to take back control of our future". The DUP leader said her belief that a Leave vote in next Thursday's run-off was correct had grown throughout the course of the campaign. >>Read: Arlene Foster writes exclusively for the Belfast Telegraph<< Writing in today's Belfast Telegraph, Mrs Foster said that as a believer in devolution, "decisions should be as close to the people as possible". She also claimed the EU was instead pulling power and decision-making away from people - and that Northern Ireland would be able to make more decisions of its own if it was outside the EU. "A return of powers would not simply flow to London but to Belfast, too," she wrote. The First Minister, who first indicated she was pro-Brexit in February, said EU law had acted against Northern Ireland's interests. She claimed the Azores ruling - which means Stormont must pay for tax cuts through reductions to Northern Ireland's block grant from Westminster - had made it more difficult to devolve corporation tax. She also said "EU rules for ports" will hurt Belfast Harbour. British port authorities lobbied earlier this year for the rejection of the EU Port Services Regulation due to fears that it would harm their business and workers. The regulation introduced rules on the transparency of public funding and the market access of port services. But the First Minister said: "It was opposed by our government and our MEPs. It is happening anyway." She said that Northern Ireland "has done better" from EU money than other UK nations but said the country was now receiving less than it had in the past. And she said the trading benefits of being in the European Union were now "more of a promise than a reality." And the former Enterprise Minister said her experience in that position had encouraged her to believe that Northern Ireland businesses could go after opportunities in the future. She hit out at what she called the "scare stories" of the Leave campaign and said its treatment of Northern Ireland had filled her with "deep frustration". "What has angered me the most has been the purported threats to our peace," she said. William, Duke of Cambridge looks on as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, signs a book of condolence at the US Embassy in London yesterday morning Crowds gather at Belfast City Hall to remember those who died in the Orlando massacre Crowds gather at Belfast City Hall to remember those who died in the Orlando massacre A row erupted after members of a council were accused of being reluctant to pen a letter of condolence for the victims of the Orlando massacre. Fermanagh and Omagh District Council was asked to write to the US Consulate to express its sympathies over the mass shooting in a gay nightclub. The argument started after several councillors said the letter should not be written until guidance was taken on the circumstances in which expressions of sympathy should be made. After deferring the decision for 24 hours, the council eventually agreed to send the letter to the US Consulate on the basis that a protocol was drawn up to deal with future requests. Independent councillor Josephine Deehan, who had requested a letter of condolence be sent, said she was "dismayed at the reluctance of some councillors to send this letter". "A number of members said, 'We can't just be writing letters willy-nilly'," she explained. "I felt some responses were very insensitive. "I am grateful that the letter is now going to be sent, but I am puzzled and very upset that a simple suggestion to send a letter of condolence could become so controversial." Ms Deehan added she was also unhappy with the decision to draw up a protocol for sending letters of condolence. "I don't want to subscribe to some hierarchy of atrocity," she said. "We have suffered from acts of atrocity right here in Omagh and, of course, right across Northern Ireland. "I just wanted the people of Orlando to know that we were thinking of them. "Sometimes, you have to exercise good judgment and assess each situation as it arises. "It is crazy that red tape is going to get in the way of common humanity." UUP councillor Victor Warrington said that the Orlando massacre, which saw 49 people shot dead at the gay nightclub, was a tragedy, but that "tragedies happened every day". He insisted his comments were not insensitive and that he was merely pointing out that the council did not send out letters of condolence to "every tragedy in the world". "I wasn't opposed to a letter being sent," he said. "I was just suggesting that council protocol be checked because there are tragedies every day of the week. I was seeking clarification." DUP councillor Raymond Farrell told the Impartial Reporter newspaper: "Where do we draw the line with this? We are hearing of massacres, of mass murders taking place in different places around the world. Do we go down the route of writing to everybody who has suffered?" In a statement, the council said that widespread sympathy was expressed for the people of Orlando during the discussion on the matter. In November, the council sent a letter of condolence to France following the Paris terror attacks without debate. A well-known Ballymena loyalist who once tried to burn down a Catholic church has admitted possessing 67 Viagra tablets he bought over the internet. Darren Gilmore, from Francis Street in the Harryville area of the Co Antrim town, yesterday appeared at Ballymena Magistrates Court, where a defence barrister said the tablets used to treat erectile dysfunction were for his client's own use. District Judge Des Perry told the 40-year-old loyalist that he should be aware of the risks of obtaining such tablets over the internet from "some Canadian chemist". Gilmore pleaded guilty to possessing Viagra without a prescription and which had been imported in contravention of the Medicines Act. He also pleaded guilty to possessing herbal cannabis and amphetamine, commonly known as speed, on the same date - September 8 of last year. The defendant was given an absolute discharge on the Viagra charge and was fined a total of 250 on the other charges. Defence barrister Stephen Law said his client's offending had "considerably tailed off". Gilmore's criminal record includes intent to supply drugs. He was also jailed for an attack on The Church of Our Lady in Harryville in the 1990s. The incident saw loyalists picket the chapel which they said was in response to the Orange Order being banned from marching through the mainly nationalist village of Dunloy nearby. In 2014, Gilmore blamed the UDA for an early morning arson attack that targeted his home on Francis Street. Gilmore, his partner, and their three children managed to escape injury after he was able to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher. At the time, he said he believed the UDA had a "vendetta" against him. First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness, First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones and Senator Ian Gorst, Chief Minister of the Government of Jersey Political leaders from across the British Isles are to hold talks in Glasgow today. While the 26th meeting of the British-Irish Council will discuss issues surrounding social inclusion, the summit is being held with less than a week to go until the UK's membership of the European Union is decided. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly warned that a vote to quit the EU against the wishes of voters north of the border could spark a second independence referendum. While polls in Scotland consistently show a majority in favour of remaining in Europe, across the UK several polls have put the Leave campaign ahead. Ms Sturgeon will host the summit, with politicians from the UK and Irish governments, the devolved administrations from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and leaders from Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man all due to take part. The British-Irish Council was established in 1999 as part of the devolution process in a bid to promote " positive, practical relationships among the people of the islands and to provide a forum for consultation and co-operation". Plans are well under way for Northern Ireland's first joint faith school. The Belfast Telegraph revealed last year that senior clerics from all the major churches had been in negotiations to create a new category of school that would be mixed in terms of religious intake but preserve a faith ethos. Now it has emerged that two small primary schools in Co Londonderry will come together to form the first joint faith school in Northern Ireland. Desertmartin Primary and nearby Knocknagin Primary intend to merge under the joint management of the Roman Catholic Church and Church of Ireland. Parents of pupils of both schools are currently being consulted about the proposal. Clerics from the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist denominations told Stormont's Education Committee in February 2015 that joint faith schools will be a new type of school founded on a common Christian principle. Rev Trevor Gribben said the Transferors' Representative Council - which comprises clergy from the three main Protestant churches - said then that they had received expressions of interest from a number of schools about becoming mixed denominational. He did not wish to name any schools but gave the example of a village where both a controlled and a maintained primary school had become unviable in terms of numbers. Knocknagin Primary currently has 53 pupils, while Desertmartin has 23 pupils. Both schools have worked closely together on shared education projects for 10 years and have taught classes jointly in the past. The clergy behind the negotiations had been inspired by a school in Liverpool, Hope Academy, which was formed in 2011 by merging Catholic and Anglican schools. It is a joint faith school sponsored by Liverpool Hope University, the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool. The main categories of schools in Northern Ireland are currently the controlled sector, the Catholic maintained schools, integrated schools and Irish medium schools. Jim Clarke, the chief executive of CCMS, said that they were "committed to pursuing the concept of joint faith schools and were very supportive of the project in Knocknagin and Desertmartin". Dr Peter Hamill, from the Church of Ireland Board of Education, has been assisting the schools. "The churches want to preserve high-quality education," he said. "They see that can be done very well in a faith ethos, where Christian values are being maintained." From left to right, Jonny Irwin, Gary Dempster, Kenny Armstrong, Gary McKeown and Nigel McKeown posing for a photo on Mont Blanc (Alex Garrett/PA) A group of intrepid Northern Ireland supporters swapped the sun-kissed beaches of the French Riviera for the highest mountain in the Alps. The five Ballymena friends took a cable car up Mont Blanc en route from Nice to Lyon. They braved snow at the formidable peak - and were rewarded with spectacular views when the weather lifted. Jonny Irwin said: "Suddenly it just cleared and the view was absolutely tremendous. It was a beautiful place. "Everybody else was lying on the beach and we wanted to do something a bit different." He said somebody died the day before gliding off the mountain. They arrived at the top following a knee-trembling climb in a near-blizzard. But the weather changed and Mr Irwin declared: "It was a fantastic experience." The disgraced student PSNI officers caught cheating in their police exams should have been sacked on the spot, a member of the Policing Board has said. More than 50 trainee police officers have received written warnings and ordered to restart their training after they were caught sharing and memorising exam questions ahead of assessment. The revelations have caused massive embarrassment to the PSNI. Chief Constable George Hamilton has been criticised by members of the Policing Board for his handling of the scandal. They claimed the sanctions imposed by the PSNI were "inadequate". Mr Hamilton insisted, however, that he had acted in "good faith and with integrity" and that his actions "have been proportionate and appropriate in all the circumstances." The scandal was uncovered following a complaint from a whistleblower just hours before a squad of student officers were due to graduate from the PSNI's training college at Garnerville last week. Just 20 members of the squad were allowed to graduate the following day. The other 18 have been ordered back to week one of training. A second squad, due to graduate in July, was also caught up in the scandal with all but two of its members back-squadded to week one. In total, 54 officers were given a written warning and ordered to restart training. During a special meeting of the Policing Board yesterday to discuss the scandal, board members told the Chief Constable that the sanctions imposed on the cheating officers were inadequate. Some members insisted that the students should have been dismissed from the recruitment process altogether. Other board members criticised the decision to allow last week's graduation to proceed before a full investigation had been carried out. "If there is evidence that someone has cheated then they should not be police officers," said Policing Board member Ross Hussey. The UUP man added: "You join the police to be a law abiding member of society with integrity. If you have cheated in your examinations to become a police officer then you should not progress". Policing Board chairwoman Anne Connolly said members consider this "to be a very serious matter which has caused reputational damage to the PSNI." "The integrity of officers is not negotiable and public confidence in the PSNI relies on officers acting with the highest levels of professionalism in all that they do at all times," she added. Mr Hamilton said that when he became aware of the cheating allegations he considered all the information available to him, "including the early and fulsome acceptance of responsibility by the students concerned, while acknowledging the negative impact their behaviour was likely to have on community confidence." "I concluded that the student officers had, at best, demonstrated extremely poor judgment and their behaviour was a breach of the student officers' Code of Ethics. As Chief Constable I am deeply disappointed by the actions of those student officers who have acted in a way that is not in keeping with the standards I expect from aspiring police officers," he said. The Chief Constable said the behaviour and ethical standards of those involved will be closely monitored. "I stand by my own judgment on this matter and fully appreciate the views and concerns expressed by the Policing Board." A review of the examination process within the police training college will be undertaken. Judge Corinne Philpott was described as a 'trailblazer' Tributes have been paid to Northern Ireland's first female County Court judge who has died at the age of 62. Judge Corinne Philpott QC, the Deputy Recorder of Belfast, died on Thursday evening. Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan, the region's most senior judge, said she had paved the way for others. Sir Declan said: " Judge Philpott was a dedicated and passionate member of the judiciary in Northern Ireland. "She was a trailblazer." A former Queen's University graduate, Judge Philpott was called to the Bar in December 1977 and took silk in December 1993. She was a Deputy County Court judge from 1993 until April 1998 when she became the first woman in the jurisdiction to be appointed a County Court judge. She was also Recorder of Londonderry for six years from 2002 until 2008 and was made Deputy Recorder of Belfast four years ago. Sir Declan added: "She was the first female County Court judge in Northern Ireland, and the second female to take silk in this jurisdiction. "She was compassionate to those who came before her and had an innate sense of justice and fairness. "Her wit, hard work and dedication to the courts, justice and the most vulnerable people in society will leave a huge void. "We will all miss her terribly." Irish fans are gathering in Bordeaux ahead of their side's clash with Belgium on Saturday A man who left Ireland when he was nine and dreamed of playing for the Republic is in France for Euro 2016 as part of his 60th birthday celebrations. Columb Starrett, who lives in Bicester in Oxfordshire, left Holywood in County Down with his family more than 50 years ago. When asked if he will be cheering for Wales against England, he said: "Yeah, no two ways." He joined English and Welsh fans in a very wet fan zone in Bordeaux for the sides' big match. Mr Starrett turns 60 in October, and he told the Press Association: "I wanted to be with the Irish fans watching the Euros. This is the start of the celebrations. "I've always wanted to play for Ireland. I think if I'd stayed in Ireland I'd have been playing for Ireland. That was my ambition." His nephew Phil Starrett, 49, who lives in Souldern in Oxfordshire, is also backing the Republic. "I'm Irish. That's why I've got the Irish jersey on," he said. Phil Starrett, who was born in Singapore and grew up in Germany, added: "I'm here with my uncle celebrating his 60th birthday watching the mighty green army and having the craic." Irish fans are pouring into wine capital Bordeaux ahead of their side's game against Belgium on Saturday. Friends and family of a 20-year-old student who was stabbed to death in the street have marched against knife and gang crime in his memory. Trainee electrician Lewis Elwin was stabbed in the back in Tooting, south London, in front of horrified parents picking up their children from school. Scores of mourners gathered in Penwortham Road, where Mr Elwin was killed, on Friday to take part in a march before his funeral. They carried anti-knife and gang placards and wore T-shirts bearing his name and picture as they walked along the street behind the funeral procession. Mayor of Wandsworth Richard Field and Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who was elected Tooting MP in the early hours of Friday, both joined the protest. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who lives nearby, also attended the funeral at St Boniface Church, Tooting. Mr Elwin's older brother, Byron Douglas-Letts, said: "Lewis was loved by so many people. "This (protest) is what needs to happen as a community. "Youths need to be given something to do, give them something to be passionate about and a job they can be passionate about." He added: "Lewis was very, very determined and aspirational. He was a loving, caring guy. "Sometimes he made wrong decisions but that doesn't mean he should lose his life." He added: "We have all been young before and understand how difficult it is finding yourself but you're not alone and there are opportunities." Mr Elwin was training to become an electrician at college. "I'm a qualified electrician and he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his big brother," Mr Douglas-Letts added. Mr Elwin's coffin was carried in a white horse-drawn carriage covered in flowers. Floral tributes, photographs and messages carpeted the pavement where he died on April 18. Family friend Nina Petrie said: "Young people please put down your guns, please put down your knives - life is for living. "Gangs are not your family - gangs are prison and death." Another friend Noel Williams said: "I think it's important to remember Lewis for his inspirations and where he wanted to go in life. "He was a young man trying to change himself for the better." A 19-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder and police have appealed for any witnesses to come forward. Anyone with information can call police on 020 8721 4005, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111. The charity is offering a reward of 10,000 for information leading to the conviction of the killer or killers. Politicians from Northern Ireland have paid tribute to murdered MP Jo Cox. DUP MP Nigel Dodds - who was the target of an IRA attack in a Belfast hospital 20 years ago - described it as "truly shocking and horrific". "We know only too well the kinds of dangers faced by public representatives and therefore we can sympathise more strongly, knowing how family, friends and the community feel at this terrible time," he said. The mood in Westminster yesterday was "very dark" the MP explained. "Everybody's devastated, they can't take it," he said. Ms Cox is the first MP to be murdered in office since 1990, when Ian Gow became the last to die at the hands of republican terror groups. He was killed by an IRA car bomb at his Sussex home. Sir Anthony Berry MP died in the 1984 IRA bombing of the Tory conference at Brighton's Grand Hotel. The IRA also claimed the life of Ulster Unionist MP Robert Bradford, shot dead aged 40 in a community centre in 1981. Expand Close Jo Cox PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jo Cox The INLA also murdered Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Airey Neave, whose car was blown up at Westminster in 1979. Mr Dodds said yesterday's attack had brought back memories of when the IRA opened fire on the children's ward where he was visiting his sick son in the Royal Hospital. "It's hard to believe that 20 years have passed - it seems like yesterday," he added. "Jo Cox was someone who was full of life and energy, who was just new into Westminster and had a great career in front of her. To see that all just taken away in seconds in this attack is just appalling." SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: "The shadow of violence has once again been cast over democracy. But it is the spirit, the passion and the unimpeachable character of people like Jo and her husband, Brendan, that makes us stronger than those who carry out this kind of brutality." UUP MP Danny Kinahan said: "Whilst any of us who go forward into elected politics recognise that often we will be at the receiving end of frustration and abuse, nobody, including MPs, should be subjected to violence." Expand Expand Previous Next Close Jo Cox during a House of Lords versus House of Commons tug of war this year PA Police at the scene in Birstall, West Yorkshire, where the Labour MP was shot and stabbed PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jo Cox during a House of Lords versus House of Commons tug of war this year And Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, said: "I remember the day the Rev Robert Bradford was murdered, and the shock and devastation that inflicted on his family." Mr Donaldson, who himself was the target of a murder plot, added: "This murder is an assault on democracy in the UK, which we must all stand together to resist." Revellers at London's Pride festival have been warned to be extra vigilant in the wake of the Orlando club massacre. Members of the LGBT business community met with police chiefs to discuss security issues after the gay nightclub shooting in Florida ahead of the parade on June 25. Lone gunman Omar Mateen, 29, left 49 people dead and dozens of others wounded in the massacre at Pulse in the Florida city on Sunday. Met Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the threat level has not risen since the "shocking" attack but warned people to stay alert. "The public should take reasonable caution," he added. "There will be more people, it is more likely people will come out to show solidarity, to show they are not scared and we would encourage that. "We have looked at the intelligence and there is nothing to say that there is someone out there wanting to attack London or the Pride march." Michael Salter, chairman of Pride, said a "huge" number of people are expected to attend this year's festivities to show solidarity with the LGBT community. "I think people are feeling a great sense of unity and solidarity with other LGBT people across the world," he added. "Londoners want to make sure they are even more out and proud, which is why Pride is so important. "There's a determination that people should be able to live as their true selves. "People shouldn't have to change their lives because they are worried about a promotion at work, bullying at school or violence in the streets." He added: "I'm hoping that there will be huge numbers of people coming to the events - not just to pay their respects to the Orlando victims but for LGBT community in the UK." Jeremy Joseph, owner of London gay clubs G-A-Y and Heaven, described the shooting as "my worst nightmare come true". "It's been the most surreal week of our lives. Waking up on Sunday morning, my biggest nightmare had come true," he said. "As a venue we were always told that there will be an attack, so it's a question of not if but when. "It doesn't matter that it happened in Orlando, it's that it's happened." He added: "We also have to think about the fear there is in London of something like this happening here - people do need reassuring." Candles laid at a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh MP (centre) attends a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire Candles laid at a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire Candles laid at a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire A vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire A vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attends a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale attends a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale attends a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (centre) and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale attend a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale attends a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale attends a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire First Minister Nicola Sturgeon attends a vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire A vigil in George Square, Glasgow, for the Labour MP Jo Cox who was shot and stabbed to death in the street outside her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday June 17, 2016. See PA story POLICE MP. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire Vigils have been held across the UK in memory of Labour MP Jo Cox as people were urged to honour her legacy by building a world with "more love and less hate". Former Labour leader Ed Miliband was among those to lay flowers in Parliament Square where people including Ukip leader Nigel Farage and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby gathered to remember the 41-year-old. Several hundred people, including Commons Speaker John Bercow and Labour former deputy leader Harriet Harman, paused in reflection near the Houses of Parliament, where Mrs Cox had worked as an MP since being elected in May last year. Speaking to those gathered, Mr Miliband said: "We remember her as a fighter for justice in everything that she did. We remember her as somebody who showed no fear in the face of danger, and we remember her too as somebody of the greatest warmth, the greatest generosity and the greatest compassion." He added: "Let us pledge to honour her memory every day by building a world where there is more love and less hate." Around 300 people including local MP Stephen Kinnock gathered in Castle Square, Aberavon, Wales to remember Mrs Cox. Vigils have also been held in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Addressing the crowd in George Square, Glasgow, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale paid tribute to someone she said was "the very definition of a moral crusade, wrapped up in humour and love". A vigil is due to be held in Belfast at midday on Sunday outside the City Hall, the Labour Party in Northern Ireland said. Roy Sheppard has been sentenced to 18 months in prison in Cambodia A 77-year-old British man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison in Cambodia for sexually abusing three boys. Roy Sheppard was sentenced by a provincial court in the north-eastern province of Siem Reap for indecent acts committed against three boys aged 12 to 16 years old. Action Pour Les Enfants, a non-governmental organisation that combats the sexual exploitation of children, said Sheppard was arrested in October after complaints were received from the boys' parents. It said it was unclear if he would serve his sentence, since he was at large after being released on bail for health reasons. Poverty and poor law enforcement have made Cambodia a magnet for foreign paedophiles, but the government has cracked down on sex offenders in the past decade. Sheppard was also ordered to pay a total of 12 million riel (2,000) in compensation to the three victims and be deported from Cambodia after he finishes his sentence, Action Pour Les Enfants said. The European Union has extended some of its sanctions targeting Russia over its annexation of the Crimean peninsula for another year. For two years, the 28-nation EU has imposed ever more punitive measures on Russia to protest what it calls "the illegal annexation of Crimea and deliberate destabilisation of Ukraine". The sanctions target imports from the peninsula and investment there, among other measures. The announcement came one day after EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg. After the EU first imposed sanctions two years ago, Moscow retaliated by banning imports of meat, vegetable and dairy products from the EU, a blow to many of the bloc's members. Mr Putin called on European leaders to improve ties with his country despite the sanctions. Speaking at Russia's top economic conference Mr Putin said the European Union should "show flexibility" and consider the interests of EU investors who want to do business with Russia. Western leaders and company executives went to Russia's St Petersburg Economic Forum this year after a two-year break. Mr Putin had a meeting with the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday and other international executives, telling them that Russia is open to Western investment despite the strained ties with the West. Mr Putin said Russia does not need a new Cold War and that the country's policy is "aimed at cooperation and search for compromise". He criticised the West for ignoring Russia's legitimate interests. He said there is no reason for Nato's continued expansion, and noted that the US-led Nato missile defence plans pose a threat to Russia. He said the missile defence programme is continuing despite the disappearance of the Iranian nuclear threat, which had been named as the main reason for it. Mr Putin added that the Western policy of unilateral actions will undermine global stability. He called for searching for a balance of interests to strengthen international security. He repeated his accusations that the West had been backing a forceful ousting of Ukraine's former Moscow-friendly president. He insisted that Russia's annexation of Crimea was rooted in what he described as a coup in Ukraine. The murder of Labour MP Jo Cox is all the more shocking because of its apparently random nature and, at this early stage, the lack of any potential motive. The hard-working MP was shot and stabbed in broad daylight outside a constituency surgery in west Yorkshire. A 52-year-old local man, described by some as a loner, was arrested soon afterwards. Mrs Cox's husband, Brendan, has urged people to unite to fight the hatred that killed her. Self-evidently, it was a hate crime, but what sparked that hate or what caused her attacker to do this is not immediately clear. She is the first MP to be killed since the IRA murder of Ian Gow, but before that there were a number of other MPs killed by republicans, including Airey Neave, Sir Anthony Berry and the Rev Robert Bradford. These were political killings in the strict sense of the word, being part of the IRA campaign to terrorise the British establishment in pursuit of its aim to create an united Ireland by force. In that respect those murders were more understandable - though equally heinous - than that of Mrs Cox. The fact that she was a woman and a mother-of-two only adds to the horror of her death. Quite rightly, politicians have laid aside their differences and even halted campaigning on the EU referendum in reaction to the murder. The death of an MP in this manner is an attack on everyone and society as a whole. We elect MPs as our voices in Parliament and place on them the burden of legislating for almost every facet of our everyday lives. Parliamentary democracy is one of the cornerstones of life in the UK - some might even argue that it is the keystone. It offers the freedom of expression to all who hold lawful beliefs and empowers the public to decide who should be the Government of the day based on the policies the parties put before the electorate. Jo Cox was a fervent believer in democracy and the power of parliamentarians to help ordinary people, not just in the UK, but wherever aid was needed. She worked with charities in such diverse places as Darfur, Afghanistan and Uganda, and the horrors she witnessed there influenced her career. Her death may make other MPs consider additional security measures when going about their work and should harden our resolve to have zero tolerance for those who kill for whatever reason. Next Thursday, the United Kingdom will make an historic decision about its future. I have listened to the arguments on all sides of the debate and have reached the conclusion that the right answer is to vote to leave the EU and to take back control of our future. It is a conclusion I have arrived at after full and careful consideration. It is a step I believe to be right, and I want to set out why I have reached this decision. Firstly, there is the matter of the democratic principle. I am a devolutionist and believe decisions should be as close to the people as possible. The European Union is pulling power and decision-making further away. A return of powers would not simply flow to London, but to Belfast, too. I believe in accountability. The decision-makers should have to answer to their voters. The unelected European Commission plays the central and decisive role in EU policy and law-making. European Court rulings can have far-reaching consequences for us. The process of getting agreement between 28 countries and the use of qualified majority voting has given us a cumbersome process in which our interests can be - and often are - harmed. This is not theory. Take just the most recent example - the new EU rules for ports. This will harm Belfast Harbour and jobs. It was opposed by our Government and our MEPs. It is happening anyway. The European Court of Justice Azores ruling was a practical barrier to achieving the devolution of corporation tax to Northern Ireland. These decisions - made by others for us - affect our futures in ways we cannot see and cannot alter, because we are not in control. When criticism is made, you either get denial, or an easy assurance that "it can be reformed, some day". However, those who present themselves as reformers have no timetable, no allies, no track record of success, no agreed proposals and no strategy to achieve it. Meanwhile, those who want to push towards a new superstate have already produced their plans and want to create more common institutions, like an EU army. The golden opportunity to change was refused in the recent renegotiation. Secondly, we have the matter of costs and benefits. The UK as a whole has been a net contributor. The difference between what we pay in and get back has quadrupled in the last four years. In the past, Northern Ireland has done better, but three matters need to be considered. What we receive has been declining. For example, in 2014/15, we received 433m for agriculture and structural funds. In 2015/16, this fell to 321m - a drop of 112m, or 25%. As the UK is a net contributor, it may have had an EU label when it came here, but it was still ultimately UK money. In the short and medium-term, the costs will continue to rise. The EU mid-term review of its budget has been held back until after our referendum. Why? Most likely because, with an overspend of 24bn and a migration crisis still to deal with, the EU will need even more money. The UK would be expected to pay at least 2bn to fill the financial black hole. Alternatively, it will cut the existing budgets. In future, five new countries are queuing to join the EU and, as they do, the costs will increase and budget move more eastwards. The primary benefits of our membership of the EU are presented as trade. It was sold to people as a common market, rather than a common state. However, this has become more of a promise than the reality. The UK has a huge trade deficit with the EU. Globally, the EU is falling behind. The only continent with worse growth than continental Europe is Antarctica. The EU is not just holding us back, but many other countries, through its waste, bureaucracy and the straitjacket of the single currency. Thirdly, I see the opportunities. Many commentators have asked how, as a former economy minister, I support voting to leave? It is because of my experiences that I believe it is the right choice. I have been across the world and I have seen the opportunities that are out there for the taking. I have seen Northern Ireland businesses take them up. This fills me with confidence and the will to go after them. I have also seen how power flowing down works best. The last Assembly produced its best-ever jobs record. This was not a coincidence. We were given the powers and we did something with them. This is how it will be for the UK. Our economic success in the future will be driven by what we do when the powers and monies flow back to us. I intend to use any powers and monies that flow to Northern Ireland to benefit us all. This is why I am convinced that taking control of our future is the way forward for Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. I must admit my resolve in this has grown and grown as the EU referendum campaign has developed. The Remain campaign as a whole, and how it has treated Northern Ireland in particular, has been the source of deep frustration on my part. The Remain campaign has spread so many scare stories that I could fill every page of the Belfast Telegraph in response. However, what has angered me the most has been the purported threats to our peace because that is what it is - our peace. It is not the possession of one party, one government, or one campaign. What has driven the process forward has been about the primacy of the ballot box. Our constitutional future will be decided only by the ballot box. With devolution, people in Northern Ireland have more power over their elected representatives than ever before, and we now have both a Government and an Opposition. This referendum holds true to that principle. Finally, there is one threat to our peace process and one threat alone: those paramilitary organisations that remain intent on killing. They are a threat that our security forces deserve our praise and support for combating each and every day. It is deeply offensive to present the people of Northern Ireland as ready to return to violence in the blink of an eye - especially over a democratic vote. I know, I trust and I wholeheartedly believe we are better than that, and those who have made such claims should know better, as well. I believe in the people of Northern Ireland. I believe in the businesses of Northern Ireland. I believe in what can they can achieve. This is why I reject the absurd predictions and exaggerated threats. This is why I look to our future and the opportunities after June 23. This is why I am asking you to vote Leave. Bangladesh police on Friday ended a week-long security crackdown amid bitter complaints that due process had been thrown aside. The operation has been finished; our police force arrested 194 militants in the current spell. Besides, we have arrested a big number of criminals across the country, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told BenarNews on Friday. A police statement on Wednesday said over 11,000 suspects had been arrested in the crackdown thus far. Police stopped releasing overall figures thereafter. The operation was launched June 10 following the brutal murder of the wife a counter-terrorism police officer in Chittagong. Suspected militants have hacked to death at least 36 people in Bangladesh, including bloggers, secularists, LGBT activists, teachers and members of minority religious groups since February 2013, and Bangladesh has come under international criticism for failing to prevent or solve those murders. On Thursday, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement urging Bangladesh authorities to focus on investigating the killings. After a slow and complacent response to these horrific attacks, Bangladeshs security forces are falling back on old habits and rounding up the usual suspects instead of doing the hard work of carrying out proper investigations, said Brad Adams, HRWs Asia director. The government has an obligation to put an end to these murders and hold the perpetrators to account, but it must do so through proper procedures set out in its own criminal code as well as in international law. We have not arrested a single innocent person Meanwhile, opposition leaders claimed thousands of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) members had been arrested in the sweep. BNP Joint Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi put the number at 3,000, according to media reports. The police have resorted to its old practice of arresting the leaders and activists of the opposition parties in the pretext of detaining the real criminals. Most of the people arrested in the drive are innocent opposition political workers and common people, Mahbubur Rahman, a member of the BNPs standing committee, told BenarNews. Khan rejected the allegations. We have not arrested a single innocent person. All the people arrested are either wanted in cases or have criminal records, he said. He said the 194 arrested militants were from banned groups such as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Hizbut Tahrir, Ansarullah Bangla Team, and Allahar Dal. On Friday, he added, police picked up two former aides of JMBs notorious Bangla Bhai from the port city of Chittagong. They were identified as Zulfiqar Ali, 40, and Md Alauddin, 31. Siddiqul Islam, also known as Bangla Bhai, established a reign of terror in the greater Rajshahi area, openly executing people and the hanging them upside down. He was executed in March 2007 for terror attacks in different parts of the country. Professor Mizanur Rahman, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, told BenarNews that police should not call people criminals unless they had been found guilty in court. Unless someone is convicted in court, she or he must not be branded as criminals, he said. He said he had visited the overcrowded Dhaka central jail on Thursday and found conditions there inhuman. An Indian man hides his face as he is escorted by security personnel to be sentenced for his role in the 2002 massacre in Gujarat, June 17, 2016. The families of 69 Muslims massacred in northwest Indias Gujarat state during one of the worst religious riots more than 14 years ago plan to challenge the sentences handed down Friday against 24 Hindus. Eleven men were sentenced to life in prison, one was handed a 10-year jail term while 12 were jailed for seven years for the killings in Gulbarg Society, a Muslim residential pocket in state capital Ahmedabad, on Feb. 28, 2002. The prosecutor and attorneys representing victims families had asked the court for death sentences or life imprisonment for the 24 men who were convicted on June 2, the same day 36 others were found not guilty. Standing by the sentencings, the court said: They are not a menace to society, the accused can be reformed. The victims families plan to appeal to the High Court to get stronger sentences. I am absolutely not satisfied, Imtiyaz Pathan, who witnessed the killings of 10 family members in the attack, told BenarNews after the sentences were announced. Life sentences for the 11 were expected, but the punishment to the other 13 convicted of rioting is too little, he said. The massacre in Gulbarg Society, a complex of about 30 bungalows and 10 apartment blocks, was one of the single worst losses of life in the week-long riots which left more than 1,000 people dead. The families of those killed claim members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that ruled the state were conspirators in the attack that came a day after a mob set fire to a train loaded with Hindu pilgrims, killing 59 people. Current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then Gujarats chief minister, was accused of complicity during the riots, but was acquitted in 2013 due to lack of evidence. Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain Congress party leader Ehsan Jafri, who was hacked and burned to death while he tried to reason with the mob, also expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict, saying, Life sentence should have been awarded to all the accused, not some of them. Jafri, who saw her husband being killed, is fighting the last legal battle against Modi and 59 senior policemen over negligence of duty in relation to the riots. Jafris son, Tanvir, said although the sentencing did bring about some sense of closure, it remained to be seen why many of the accused were acquitted and some of those convicted given lighter sentences. We are going to appeal the judgment. There have been several oversights, he told BenarNews, adding that he was shocked that the court did not see evidence that the attack on Gulbarg Society was part of a conspiracy. How is it possible that all the people in a mob of around 100 people were acting alone? The very fact that there was no one to stop them from killing Muslims proves that a bigger conspiracy was afoot, he said. The office of the police commissioner is a stones-throw away from Gulbarg Society. Just minutes before the attack, the commissioner had visited Gulbarg Society and assured my father that help was on its way. But despite several phone calls, not a single policeman came to help us while we were being attacked, he said. Activists shout slogans as they are confronted by police during a protest outside Kerala House in New Delhi following the rape and killing of a student in the southern Indian state of Kerala, May 4, 2016. A day after police in south Indias Kerala state claimed a major breakthrough with the arrest of a migrant laborer in the brutal rape and killing of a lower-caste woman on April 28, a court on Friday sent the accused to 14 days judicial custody. A Special Investigating Team (SIT) of the Kerala police arrested Ameerul Islam late Thursday, two days after taking him into custody for questioning and ending a nationwide manhunt that lasted nearly 50 days. Police said Islam, 23, a native of northeast Indias Assam state who was picked up in the neighboring Tamil Nadu state, confessed to killing the 30-year-old Dalit law student who was found dead by her mother at their home in Keralas Perumbavoor town. Reacting to news of the arrest, the victims mother, Rajeshwari, said Islam should be hanged. He should be dealt with in the manner in which he assaulted my daughter, and after that he should be hanged to death. Not a single woman in the country should ever be made to undergo what my daughter underwent, Rajeshwari told Indo-Asian News Service. The historically marginalized Dalit community, which forms the lowest rung of the Hindu caste hierarchy, continues to be subject to violent attacks in India. The badly mutilated body of the woman, whose name is being withheld as it is illegal to name victims of sexual crimes in India, bore 38 injury marks including less than 10 stab wounds and her intestines had been gutted, according to the post mortem report. The incident triggered outrage across India for its stark resemblance to the infamous gang-rape and killing of a paramedical student on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012. The accused was working as a daily laborer in Perumbavoor for about seven months, and lived 200 meters from the victims house. On April 28, he had an altercation with the victim, following which he raped and murdered her under the influence of alcohol and then fled the state, a police official who was not authorized to talk to the media told BenarNews on condition of anonymity. Suspect kept moving The official said nabbing Islam was not an easy task. We analyzed as many as 2.5 million phone calls during our search for the suspect. We were tracking all phone calls made in the region in the last five days running up to the crime, he said. P.N. Unnirajan, the districts superintendent of police, said the suspect did not stay in one place. The accused boarded a train to Assam the next morning. From there, he moved to West Bengal and then to Tamil Nadu, all the while monitoring the developments (in Kerala), Unnirajan told The Hindu. It was [because of] an extensive probe that the accused was tracked down and finally taken into custody, Additional Director General of Police B. Sandhya told reporters, adding that the police are collecting more evidence to strengthen the case against Islam. Sandhya said the DNA samples from the victims nail clippings and saliva matched the suspects. ein Google-Unternehmen Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern. neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke. Nicht personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung werden u. a. von Inhalten, die Sie sich gerade ansehen, und Ihrem Standort beeinflusst (welche Werbung Sie sehen, basiert auf Ihrem ungefahren Standort). Personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung konnen auch Videoempfehlungen, eine individuelle YouTube-Startseite und individuelle Werbung enthalten, die auf fruheren Aktivitaten wie auf YouTube angesehenen Videos und Suchanfragen auf YouTube beruhen. Sofern relevant, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auerdem, um Inhalte und Werbung altersgerecht zu gestalten. Wir verwenden Cookies und Daten, umWenn Sie Alle akzeptieren auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auch, umWahlen Sie Weitere Optionen aus, um sich zusatzliche Informationen anzusehen, einschlielich Details zum Verwalten Ihrer Datenschutzeinstellungen. Sie konnen auch jederzeit g.co/privacytools besuchen. A new procedure developed at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) may revolutionize the culturing of adult stem cells. In their report that has been published online prior to its appearance in the August 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, the team describes generating and expanding airway stem cells from the sorts of tissue samples collected during routine treatment of lung disorders. The overall approach appears applicable to several other tissue types, including skin and the linings of the gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts. "This new methodology opens up new avenues for research in any airway disease, such as asthma or COPD," says Jayaraj Rajagopal, MD, of the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, senior author of the report. "While in the past we could only expand stem cells for a few generations, now we have the ability to generate enough cells to last multiple laboratories for years of experiments. Our system is also very simple, avoiding the complexities of former culture systems and making it more accessible to many labs." Many hypotheses had been suggested to explain the limited ability to maintain stem cells in culture - including a loss of the telomeres that protect the end of chromosomes and cellular senescence, a form of aging that puts a halt to growth. Rajagopal's team focused on a cellular signaling pathway known to regulate cell growth and the critical process of differentiation, in which cells become more specialized and lose their ability to give rise to other types of cells. Activated by proteins such as TGF- and bone morphogenic protein (BMP), the pathway transmits signals to the nucleus by means of intracellular proteins called SMADs. The researchers investigated whether inhibiting SMAD pathways could foster the expansion of cultured adult stem cells by preventing differentiating. In a series of experiments, they first confirmed that both TGF-/BMP and SMAD signaling were active in differentiated cells but not in adult stem cells. After showing that blocking SMAD signaling could prevent the differentiation of airway stem cells from mice, they found that blocking both TGF- and BMP pathways allowed the expansion of many generations of airway stem cells. They were able to generate human airway stem cells from samples taken during bronchoscopy, a procedure routinely used for diagnosing or monitoring airway disorders. Remarkably, the investigators were also successful in generating and maintain airway stem cells from some samples of sputum, the fluid expelled from the respiratory tract during a cough. "If we could find ways to induce cough samples containing larger numbers of stem cells, our technique would represent the least invasive way to obtain any stem cell from any organ, and if we could improve the procedure to yield stem cell cultures from 100 percent of sputum samples, we could acquire samples to study lung disease in the laboratory with less invasiveness than a blood draw," says Rajagopal. "We also found that the same methodology works for many tissues of the body - from the skin to the esophagus to mammary glands. Many of these organ tissues cannot currently be cultured, so it remains to be seen whether scientists in these areas will be able to grow stem cells from samples acquired from other minimally invasive procedures, including the collection of secretions. If all this becomes possible, it would represent a big step forward for personalized medical approaches to disease," he says. An associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Rajagopal elaborates that the ability to maintain and expand populations of adult stem cells will improve the modeling of disease processes, allow screening of potential therapeutic drugs with cells derived from individual patients, and enable the creation of human "knockout/knockin" cellular models using the powerful CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology. "In many diseases - lung diseases in particular - the mouse is a very poor model of human disease, so this ability really opens up new horizons to apply human genetics to human lung cells and disease models." He adds that this technology should improve the safety of stem-cell-based therapies by removing the risk of contaminants introduced by mouse cells that are traditionally used to support airway stem cells in culture. While the new procedure maintains the function of adult stem cells through many generations, eventually they do begin to deteriorate, which makes reducing or even eliminating this loss of function is an important next goal. "We have lots of ideas and collaborations in place to try and sort out ways to make these cells nearly perfect," Rajagopal says. "The problem may be genetic or epigenetic, and the MGH has considerable expertise in both of these areas of investigation." Source: Massachusetts General Hospital Youth unemployment remains one of the most significant challenges facing South Africa, with young people three times more likely to be unemployed than their elder counterparts. The latest youth unemployment and health report from Statistics South Africa revealed that of the 19,7 million young people in the country, only 6,2 million were employed. While most sectors do not have enough jobs available to fill the demand of young job seekers, others struggle to find workers qualified for the jobs they do need to fill. Furthermore, in a low-income economy such as South Africa, many cannot afford the time to upskill through tertiary institutions due to the pressing need to provide for themselves and their families. The South African government has identified the tourism and hospitality sector as a major creator of jobs and has encouraged young citizens to consider a career in tourism. As of July 2015, the government has even put into place various training and skills development programmes to enable young people to enter the tourism industry. Educate24 is an online portal that offers courses on a wide variety of subjects across all the major industries, and included is Introduction to Customer Service. The course is designed to explain the importance and benefits of good customer service, how to determine what customers needs and expectations are and how to deal with unhappy customers. The course is written simply and clearly, to suit the needs of people at any skill level. It can be done in just six weeks, or less, depending on the pace of the student. It is also affordable so people from different economic backgrounds stand to benefit. For employees or job seekers in hospitality, having a proven soft skill such as customer service is invaluable. Not only will learning such skills help make job seekers more employable but showing the initiative to acquire a qualification despite a possible lack of opportunities in the formal tertiary education sector, can make the difference when a potential employer is flooded with CVs. South Africas hospitality sector is poised for significant growth over the next few years due to the growing tourism numbers. Despite economic uncertainty, PricewaterhouseCoopers released statistics that said the total number of foreign visitors to South Africa is steadily rising each year. In addition to the growing number of opportunities, the hospitality industry is also well-resourced to offer meaningful work and career development opportunities to employees. There are many entry-level jobs available with plenty of room to grow professionally and personally. For young South Africans unsure of which industry to join, or how to move further up their career ladders, online courses such as Educate24s Customer Service course, is a solid way to ensure they are a step ahead and are able to show a skill set that makes them the ideal candidate. With South Africa's Cannes Lions judges already settled in the French Riviera's glitziest city (or flying their way in as you read this), we caught up with them all for a final check-in before judging gets underway, on what they're most looking forward to from the world's largest gathering of global advertising professionals. The eight day-long Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is regarded as an annual highlight on the calendar of creatives the world over. Heres what our nine-strong South African judging contingent is most looking forward to They want it all Emma Carpenter is creative director at Accenture Interactive South Africa. As a first-timer to Cannes, shes looking forward to absolutely everything, particularly the mobile-related events, as well as the first day of meeting the other jury members, the press conference and of course the awards ceremonies. Shes hoping for a complete sensory overload of creative inspiration. Nathan Reddy, chief creative officer and founder of Grid Worldwide Branding and Design, loves the feeling of being in Cannes, as he always comes back home feeling like he can take on the world creatively, so hell be looking for a mix of a few things to twist his brain again. Sunset in Cannes. Manjik 123RF.com Suhana Gordhan creative director at FCB Africa and member of the Loeries board, is looking forward to every aspect of Cannes Lions and is already experiencing massive FOMO before it starts, as she sees Cannes as a place for overstimulation. Its a giant jellybean bowl of inspiring people with great stories to tell. Shes looking forward to being totally immersed, and some of the speakers on her must-see list are: Will Smith; directors Alejandro Inarritu and Oliver Stone; David Copperfield; CNN anchor and host Anderson Cooper; Brian Chesky cofounder and CEO of Airbnb; David Droga; FCBs own global chief creative officer, Susan Credle; and Facebook Africas Nunu Ntshingila. Marc Taback, CEO of Initiative Media South Africa, is also looking forward to talks by Anderson Cooper, David Copperfield, Gwyneth Paltrow and Will Smith. That Iggy Pop celeb swagger Rob McLennan, creative founding partner of King James II says that sadly hell miss most of the talks as the film jury is the last to stop judging during the seminar week, but he says, Id cut off parts of myself to see Iggy Pop. Eoin Welsh, chief creative officer of Havas Worldwide Johannesburg agrees with McLennan on that Iggy Pop FOMO. Jonathan Beggs, chief creative officer for Saatchi & Saatchi, shares the sentiments that the most amazing presentations at Cannes are often not by ad people, which is why hes looking forward to hearing about innovation from the people and companies who are at the cutting edge, as well as seeing what the big agencies, networks, media owners and clients have to say. Thats why hell definitely catch Kate Stanners (Saatchi & Saatchi Global ECD) and the networks New Directors Showcase but youll also find him in the queue for Iggy as well as Brian Eno, Alejandro Inarritu, Spike, Will, and Gwyneth. The judging and the young 'uns Thats where the celeb hype ends, with Fran Luckin, chief creative officer of Grey Africa, looking forward to the judging process most of all. She loves judging and deems it the best way to experience Cannes, as she gets to meet some of the worlds top creative people and sit with them for five days talking about ideas, learning so much. Jenny Glover, executive creative director for TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris, is not a fan of the big celebrity talks either. She prefers to snoop around the talks that happen in the smaller rooms, as there are always incredible speakers sharing great ideas, without the flash or sweaty queues and has watched a few of her personal heroes in these informal sessions. Thats why, like Beggs, she always goes to the new directors showcase, because its an excellent way to see emerging talent and view experimental film styles. She adds that Cannes affords you the best overview of the global industry, so she tries to see not just the winning work, but also as much of the shortlisted work as possible. Little wonder those of us not attending are positively green with envy, but fear not as following the happenings on Biz is the next best thing to being live in Cannes. Click here for the full Cannes Lions content programme and watch this space for exclusive insights as the 2016 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity unfolds. Mrs Cray, the digital inspiration assistant for the creative community, is to be revealed at Cannes Lions by Pl-atform. The new automated tool aims to inspire creatives during brainstorms, expanding people's thinking by making it easier for them to come up with ideas. It will be showcased at the Lions Innovations start up village on Tuesday 21 June. The concept started out less than two years ago as a board game when Pl-atform was asked to devise a way to train junior staff at other agencies to make them more creative. The board game helped originate marketing ideas that brands invested $2m in and Mrs Cray is the digital embodiment of the highly successful game. Mrs Cray uses unprecedented algorithmic data management and visualisation to revolutionise the way in which the creative community can discover images, words, places, objects, technologies and emotions when exploring creative briefs. The tool uses speech recognition, instantly processing and understanding the needs of its users through several artificially intelligent methods. Mrs Cray will then crawl the internets greatest APIs to seek out data in galleries, books, social media, museums to deliver a single board of inspiration. The inspiration assistants in-built learning processes mean that Mrs Cray will evolve and learn over time, always improving to meet the needs of the creative community. Founder, Ravi Ruparel comments, We arent aiming to replace anything or anyone in the industry, just assist it with new tools. Mrs Crays combination of speech recognition, natural language processing, APIs and machine learning algorithms simply display images with links to assist during the creative process. It is quite incredible that in 99% of brainstorms in meeting rooms that the most advanced piece of technology is a coloured pen. There arent many sites that you can literally just talk to! Creative assistant, Sophie Finch adds, The tool allows your brain to do less unnecessary thinking and more creative thinking. Concerning neuroscience, the easier you can make it to focus on the connections, as opposed to working out what should be on the board, the better the idea you will come up with. Having some creative assistance should lead to a better idea. At Cannes, a visit to Mrs Cray could inspire creatives in less than five minutes to make 2016 insanely powerful for their brands. In addition to a web-accessed service, the team has developed a prototype Mrs Cray box that will connect directly to your meeting room screen and display ever changing content to provide inspiration based on the conversations taking place. Register your interest at www.mrscray.com or to view, click here. For more: Steinhoff confirmed on Wednesday it is the mystery buyer of a controlling stake in UK retailer Poundland. The Financial Times reported Poundlands shares jumped 23.7% to 195.8 pence on Tuesday after traders were tipped off that Investec handled a single off-market trade of 40.9-million shares at 195p apiece, a premium on the 155p it was trading at on the London Stock Exchange. Warburg Pincus, Poundlands 15.3% shareholder, which floated the retailer two years ago at 300p a share, was rumoured to have been the seller. But Poundlands board was said to be in the dark as to the identity of the buyer. The Financial Times speculated that Steinhoff or Brait would be the likely buyers. Steinhoff, which recently moved its primary listing to Frankfurt Stock Exchange after acquiring Pep Stores from Brait, has a market capitalisation of about 20bn and employs 105,000 people. Poundland has been seen as a natural fit for retail tycoon Christo Wieses plans to expand Pep into the UK. "The board of Steinhoff notes the recent share price movement in the share price of Poundland and confirms that it is considering a possible offer for the entire issued share capital of Poundland," the furniture retailer said in its statement. "This announcement has been made without the consent of Poundland. A further announcement will be made when appropriate in due course." Under the London Stock Exchanges rules, Steinhoff has until 5pm on July 13 to announce a firm intention to buy out Poundlands minority shareholders. Steinhoff International, after revealing itself as the mystery buyer of a sizeable stake in UK retailer Poundland, had by Thursday snapped up 23% of the discount store chain. Outgoing Poundland CEO Jim McCarthy poses for a photograph in a store in London, the UK.Picture: Reuters/Stefan Wermuth That again set the scene for a spirited bid for a European retailer Steinhoffs third in six months and only two weeks after it gave up on Frances Darty. The South African furniture conglomerate, in a race to expand offshore, is mulling an all-cash offer for Poundland. On Wednesday, Steinhoff confirmed it was the secret buyer of a 15.3% stake sold by private equity group Warburg Pincus in Poundland, adding that it was keen on a takeover. However, it said it was acting without the consent of Poundland, suggesting talks had been far from agreeable. "They are essentially making a hostile bid," said Wayne McCurrie of Momentum Asset Management. "It does not look like (Poundlands) management is supporting their bid so they are buying in the open market," he said. On Wednesday, Poundlands management told shareholders not to take any action. Steinhoff played a similar card in its pursuit of electronics retailer Darty, bagging up a 20.4% stake in a few weeks after months of pursuit against rival Fnac which eventually won over the Darty board. In March Steinhoff also walked away from a face-off with UK retailer Sainsburys for Home Retail Group, owned by catalogue retailer Argos. McCurrie said it showed maturity that Steinhoff did not overpay for the businesses, despite the muscle they stood to gain in the competitive retail space, which is being threatened by online shopping. Steinhoff already has a strong presence in Europe where it generates almost 60% of its revenue. Its international brands include Conforama and UK-based Harveys, Bensons for Beds and Cargo. A full buyout of Poundland would give Steinhoff 900 new discount stores across Britain, Ireland and Spain after Poundland bought the 99p chain. Competing in the discount space would be familiar terrain for the group which bought Pepkor from now Steinhoff chairman Christo Wiese for R62.8bn in 2014. On Thursday Poundland reported underlying pretax profit of 37.8m in the year to March from 43.7m in 2014-15. Profits were hurt by poor Christmas trading and a spike in costs relating to its 55m acquisition of the store chain. Outgoing Poundland CEO Jim McCarthy was mum on the Steinhoff interest. The timing of Steinhoffs potential bid was interesting, Chris Gilmour, analyst at Absa Wealth and Investments said. It was less than two weeks before the Brexit vote on June 23, which will determine whether the UK will stay in the EU. "This may make the consideration for Poundland a little bit cheaper," Gilmour said. Steinhoff chairman Wiese understood the discount market well, he said, having previously owned Poundstretcher, a value retail chain. Poundstretcher, however, struggled to keep up with larger rivals Poundland and B&M and Wiese sold it around 2009. On Wednesday, Wiese told Reuters that he fully supported Steinhoffs bid and that he believed Poundland would be a "good fit". With Reuters Customers still prefer to shop in bricks-and-mortar stores in SA, but this pattern of consumption is being disrupted and reconfigured by the internet. Innovations in the information and communication technology (ICT) space, as well as the accessibility of cellphones and data, are forcing businesses to be more dynamic and fluid when catering to their customers. Speaking at the Consumer Goods Forum conference in Cape Town this week, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said new technologies and social media were affording more freedom and greater power to customers all over the country. Ramaphosa said ICT allowed for the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs, who could compete with well-known businesses, some of which have been slow when it comes to the uptake of technology. "At a time of persistent difficulty in the global economy as well as our own, consumer-focused businesses must be responsive to the financial pressures under which consumers find themselves. But, we also know that times such as these also produce new opportunities that arise from often deep-seated changes in consumer behaviour," he said. "Ultimately, it is about remembering that informed, satisfied consumers are the most important stakeholders in any enterprise," Ramaphosa said. Few well-established domestic companies in the fashion retail sector have an interactive web offering or an online store. New entrants have seen a gap in consumers looking for the convenience of online shopping. Web-based fashion retailers that now dominate online include Superbalist, Zando and Spree. All three were launched after 2012. The share of internet users in SA who plan to make purchases online is nearly twice as high as the share of those who already buy over the internet, according to a report prepared by Research and Markets. In 2016, e-commerce sales in SA are predicted by several sources to grow at a double-digit rate and break the threshold of 1% of total retail sales. While only about half of SAs population has internet access, and just one-third of internet users made purchases online in 2015, the demand for online shopping services is growing, the report shows. The perception that emerging markets are no longer a source of future growth for retailers is a dangerous retail myth that needs to be dispelled, global consumer insights company Nielsen told the world's top consumer goods companies' CEOs at The Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) earlier this week. Emerging markets are large and growing, and their consumer purchasing power is growing faster than in developed markets. Your CFOs might not like this advice, but now is a good time for global retailers to invest in emerging markets like South Africa, where the weak rand is favourable for investment, said Steve Matthesen, global president of retail of Nielsen. Citing Nielsen research, including results from the companys latest global retail study, which was released globally this week, Matthesen said the reality was that global retail growth was slowing, but that emerging markets on average were growing twice as fast as developed markets in the retail space. According to WorldBank World Development Indicator data in 2014, consumer purchasing power was growing by 7% in sub-Saharan Africa compared to 3% in North America. Regardless of spending power, consumers around the world are looking for more than just a good bargain. Nielsens new retail study finds the current global trend for consumers across both emerging and established markets is for consumers to factor in food freshness and quality, convenience and stock availability before looking at price. Population attributes Matthesen said the positive prospects for retail growth in emerging markets were driven by a number of population attributes, including that they are younger, more urban, and relatively wealthier. Currently, 24% of consumers in emerging markets are millennials, two-thirds will live in urban areas by 2020, and 3.2 billion will be middle class by 2050. The populations in the emerging markets, including India, China and Africa, were also growing faster than in more developed economies in Latin America, The Caribbean, North America, and Europe. Young people in these markets often moved directly to mobile, many never having owned a desktop computer, therefore retailers would be wise to consider developing mobile shopping platforms, he said. Matthesen cautioned global retailers against rushing into emerging markets with only a short- to medium-term plan. A consistent long-term perspective is required and you cant wait for economies are good before you enter - you need to get involved upfront and think ahead about how you will target complexities in these economies. For instance, you cant simply go in and market the lowest priced goods to all consumers. In countries such as India or South Africa, with vast income inequality, you have to think equally about catering to low-income and high-income consumers. Another myth Matthesen said another myth that prevailed was that consumers preferred bigger stores, but, globally, there was a trend towards smaller and more convenient stores and online shopping for certain products that are well suited to e-commerce, such as baby goods. Matthesen said that conventional wisdom dictated that consumers wanted large stores to find everything in one trip, and that it was more efficient for retailers and yielded advantages in economics. But, the reality is that lots of people are just buying for dinner that night, moving towards fresh food away from preservatives, which implies more frequent shopping at smaller stores. Especially in emerging economies, not everyone has a car or food storage and fridge space. Globally, he said, shoppers now make 2.5 trips per week for fresh produce. Even in the US, large stores are being outpaced by smaller stores and the size of stores is dropping. The 60th annual Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit is taking place in Cape Town this week and ends today, 17 June. Scores of CEOs of both global and local fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies are joining the Global Summit the first of its kind on the African continent to debate issues such as sustainability, food safety and security and global environmental practices. Read more at www.theconsumergoodsforum.com and www.tcgfsummit.com. In the second part of the conversation with Lonmin CEO, Ben Magara, he gets back to basics with a look at sustainability, safety and what the future holds for the platinum industry. With the share price and the company reputation battered by the combination of the Marikana events, the severe downturn in the commodity cycle and the six-month industry strike in 2014, there were few options open to Magara. The company couldnt spend its way out of the problem. Everybody had to sacrifice something: the unions had to concede to the loss of 6,000 jobs, senior managers were retrenched and directors had to take a haircut on their fees. Ben Magara chatting to Caroline Digby from the Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry. Safety Safety is a priority. Emotion rushes to his face when he speaks of the horror of his first day as a young team leader when the man leading the shift before him was killed only metres away from him by a roof collapse. The determination not to see people die under his leadership has driven him ever since. Perhaps that is one of his strengths. His own life experience as a child growing up in a rural area without appropriate infrastructure, means he understands where his workers come from. He is able to imagine himself in the inhumane living conditions of the old hostels or the shacks that many turned to in post-apartheid years and find them wanting and a cause for action. He participates actively in collaborative industry initiatives such as the Courageous Conversations process and the tripartite safety initiatives, which have lead to a dramatic fall in the fatal injury rates. But, one can still hear the deep regret in his voice when he acknowledges that even now neither Lonmin nor the industry has achieved zero harm. The collaboration on safety is, he says, an example of what could be done to drive greater collaboration in addressing the big social challenges in the mining belt. The reality he says is that the R1bn a year the industry spends on social and labour plans in that area has to be brought back to defend the mining licence or risk losing it so sub-optimum outcomes are frequently the result. Community engagement Lonmin has made changes including the creation of employee share option schemes (ESOPs) and a community shareholding with the Bapo Ba Mogale, who now hold a material 2.2% of the stock. While this might sound insignificant to those outside the industry, he points out that this is worth many millions of dollars. US not Zim, he quips. The problem is that in current circumstances the company cannot pay dividends so the trust and belief in the companys future value has to be built. He meets with that community as he would with all other material shareholders and explains the quarterly results, the progress and the future outlook. While they wait for the return of profitability and a flow of dividends, procurement options with benefits flowing back to the community have been opened up. Questioned about the success of past community funding initiatives, he admits that some have seen significant amounts of money disappear without impact. On the failure to implement past plans for housing he points to the fact that this cyclical industry has to learn to save during the good times to smooth out the inevitable downturns. Critical to ongoing success is that stakeholder engagement teams understand the mining process and experience the conditions, he says. But, it is also critical that line management understand the expectations of communities, participate occasionally in engagement sessions and offer suggestions when it is the impact of mining processes that are under discussion. On migrant labour, housing and water affairs On the issue of migrant labour Ben acknowledges the challenges, but insists that the solution is not simply to stop employing people from distant places as that would have a significant economic impact on the Eastern Cape and Lesotho and other labour-sending areas. In the 50km zone around the mine, the company has stepped up its focus on addressing the societal issues. The remaining single sex hostels were converted and upgraded. A partnership was created with government whereby the mine provided land and government provided cash to create new housing not a mining compound, but a place where miners could live side by side with workers from other sectors of the economy. Asked about the challenge of mining in South Africas arid North-West Province, Magara talks about ensuring that grey water and water captured in the rock dams on their properties can be repurposed for industrial use. If it comes to a war over who will use the drinking quality water, the community will win every time, he says. Does platinum have a future? With the need to curb emissions caused by growing populations that want transport into the future, it is only the PGMs that can provide effective catalysts capable of delivering good performance at high temperatures. With that in mind and the growing use of fuel cells in energy generation he is confident that there is both the market and the resource to last a long time. Magara lights up when questioned about Lonmins turnaround: "I am very pleased with the positive momentum because results matter, a profitable and thriving business is essential for sustainability and employment of future generations and should create shared value for all stakeholders". Its clear that for him most things start with respect; respect for his own deeply held beliefs and value systems; respect for all of the people who work for and with him; and, respect for the stakeholders around them. He cant change the past or wave a magic wand to recreate the platinum pot at the end of the rainbow of pre-Marikana days, but Ben Magara shows up with passion and purpose and a desire to contribute to a different future. If you missed the first part of Ben Magara's conversation, click here. Southern Africa offers the best mining investment opportunities, where Botswana is the easiest place to do business, and West Africa has the easiest access, according to panellists at a discussion at The Junior Indaba held in Johannesburg recently. And despite the commodity downturn, exploration in some parts of the continent are continuing, they say. South Africa is still in the mix, says John Murphy, managing director, The Mineral Corporation. South Africa and Southern Africa are well endowed, relatively unexplored and offer limited cover. Panel member, Wickus Botha, Africa mining & metals leader, Ernst & Young, agrees. Clients have not stopped calling us about new projects in South Africa and Africa, and this is because assets have become available now that the majors are concentrating on their core business only. Funding and regulation However, he says, while the interest is there, the closure rate is not great. The real barrier is funding, and then overcoming a backlog of conceptualised deals and closing them quickly. Another key obstacle is the uncertain regulatory environment in which the country currently finds itself. Exploration is taking place in our neighbouring states because clients see an open and enabling regulatory regime that is responsibly managed, says Botha, for whom West Africa is another favourite because it is easy to access. Murphy explains that it is also necessary to understand that the exploration process is extraordinarily long-winded, where the systems processes, people, environment, infrastructure and the right regulatory environment have to be nurtured. Stable environment To generate the investment for exploration, the environment needs to be stable. If we are to attract investment, we need a transparent and consistent regulation - and that is governments job, says John Bristow, chief operating officer, Incubex Minerals. For him, Botswana is the cleanest and easiest place in work in Southern Africa at the moment. While South Africa has so much untapped potential, a good stable environment is needed for the sector - junior or major. The mineral tender system in this country is dismal and it can take 18 months to process." Time ripe for junior miners Generally, in Africa, now is the best time to get into the junior mining market, says Botha. Currently less than one percent of the majors revenue is from this region. Africa is dominated by the juniors because they know how to operate in Africa. Murphy adds to this, saying that the more the majors back away from exploration, the sooner they will exit the industry as it is a key factor in the economic development of the sector and region. If exploration falls away, then soon we will all be junior miners. Technology and disruption The panel also discussed the impact of technology on the industry. In the next five to 10 years technology will disrupt and fundamentally change the industry. Look at what technology has done to other industries and how it is changing society, says Botha citing the often-cited examples of Uber and Airbnb. Consumption patterns will change are changing, and society will have less need for bulk commodities, as a result of technologies such as 3D printing, which is changing the world. Sacha Backes, senior investment officer:mining, International Finance Corporation agrees with him. It is imperative that we talk about technology and disruption. Will we find an Uber technology that takes the iron ore out of the ground? And if so, when in a decade or sooner? However, he is of the opinion that the future of mining remains in infrastructure and big cross-border projects. I do not foresee technology making a difference here. Barloworld's commitment to youth development is reflected in all aspects of the business. The company is involved in several youth development initiatives in South Africa. The Rural Education Access Programme (REAP), supported by Barloworld, grants bursaries to young people from low-income families enabling them access to a quality tertiary education. 1. Supporting Enactus innovative model for youth entrepreneurship Through Enactus South Africa, Barloworld is committed to fuelling the spirit of entrepreneurship in young people. Enactus is a competition where young leaders come together to share and showcase their innovations with others from around the world. These are initiatives to tackle socio-economic challenges in their communities. Rural Education Access Programme (REAP) helps young people from poor rural communities to access tertiary education. Through REAP Barloworld provides assistance to students from poor rural areas to access varsity education and also lobbies government institutions such as the National Skills Fund (NSF) and National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to provide bursaries and student loans to needy students. Barloworlds Training Outside Public Practice (TOPP) programme is an alternative route for chartered accounting students to qualify as chartered accountants. This practical programme builds the skills of future leaders and addresses the current shortage of skills in our country. Graduates of the TOPP programme often take up permanent jobs in the company. Teachers are the lifeblood of a good education system. Barloworlds partnership with TEACH SA encourages teaching graduates to volunteer two years of their time to teaching in poor performing schools, focusing on English, maths, science and technology. TEACH SA aims to improve the standard of education in the country. Barloworld supports the Thandulwazi Maths and Science Academys initiatives to improve the quality of maths and science teaching and learning in Gauteng schools. This is done through Saturday school classes and in-service training programmes. Barloworld is one of the organisations that LEAP has partnered with to improve the academic performance of learners in six non-paying school fees schools in Jane Furse, Ga-Rankuwa, Diepsloot, Alexandra, Langa, Gugulethu, Delft, Philippi and Crossroads. 6. Rewarding young talent with bursaries Barloworlds efforts to facilitate access to tertiary education are aimed at empowering individuals, breaking cycles of poverty, addressing the skills shortage and contributing to country competiveness, leading ultimately to economic growth and development. Barloworld offers bursaries on an annual basis to students from previously-disadvantaged backgrounds. Barloworld Equipment runs a graduate training programme for artisans and use simulated machines as part of the training at their world-class training academy in Isando. Frankfurt, Germany: Embattled auto giant Volkswagen unveiled on Thursday plans to launch more than 30 all-electric models by 2025 as it seeks to reposition itself as a leading player in environmentally sustainable modes of transport. Norsk Elbilforening (Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association) via Wikimedia Commons VW, currently entangled in a global engine-rigging pollution scandal, said in a statement that it plans to launch "more than 30 fully electric models" by 2025, which would account for annual sales of between two and three million vehicles or 20-25 percent of the group's global sales. A strategic re-think Presenting what he described as the "key building blocks in the new group strategy," chief executive Matthias Mueller said VW aimed to "transform its core automotive business or, to put it another way, make a fundamental realignment in readiness for the new age of mobility." VW would focus on "the most attractive and fastest-growing market segments," he said. "Special emphasis will be placed on e-mobility. The group is planning a broad-based initiative in this area: it intends to launch more than 30 purely battery-powered electric vehicles over the next ten years," he said. VW, which has so far not been particularly active in the electric car sector, estimated that such vehicles "could then account for around a quarter of the global passenger car market." The strategic re-think has become necessary in the wake of VW's deepest-ever crisis after it came to light last September that it had installed emissions-cheating software into 11 million diesel engines worldwide. It has already set aside 16.2 billion euros ($18.2 billion) in provisions to cover the potential costs of the scandal. But experts believe the total cost could come out much higher. Size is not the goal VW, which owns 12 brands in all, ranging from Volkswagen to Audi and from Porsche to SEAT, has abandoned its long-cherished goal of becoming the world's biggest car manufacturer, ahead of Toyota. "Size is not a goal in itself," said CEO Mueller, who was parachuted in to steer the group out of crisis, actively distancing himself from the philosophy of his predecessor Martin Winterkorn. Ride-hailing division Another part of VW's "Strategy 2025" would be to set up a brand new "cross-brand mobility solutions business," Mueller announced. The new division would "develop and acquire offerings tailored to customer requirements - centering on and starting with ride-hailing, ie. on-demand mobility services." Volkswagen already secured its first foothold in the ride-hailing segment at the end of May, when it invested in a strategic partnership with on-demand mobility company Gett, it said. "In a rapidly expanding market, Volkswagen's aim is for the new mobility solutions business unit to generate sales revenue in the billions by 2025," with the overall market for such services forecast to be around 35 billion euros, Mueller said. VW gearing itself for profitable growth In order to be able to finance such ambitions, VW aimed to "gear itself systematically to generating profitable growth," which meant improving efficiency and profitability, the CEO continued. "Over the coming years, we will do all we can to continuously create value for our shareholders based on a solid financial position," said finance chief Frank Witter. VW said that its operating return on sales stood at 6.0 percent in 2015 and that "the aim is an increase to between seven and eight percent by 2025." Mueller said VW planned to "realign" its components business, which currently accounts for around 67,000 employees at 26 locations worldwide. "The relevant activities are to be systematically combined across all brands and strategically realigned," he said. VW also planned to become a "global champion" in the commercial vehicles business, where it owns the Scania, MAN and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brands. Investors still sceptical But analysts at DZ Bank said they remained sceptical. They estimated that VW would have to achieve efficiency improvements of up to eight billion euros in order to attain its profitability goals. "The details are still missing," the analysts wrote in a note to investors. "The announced steps need time to become visible in VW's reporting. Without any additional details on planned measures as well as on Dieselgate, we stick to our sceptical view on VW," they concluded. Investors also seemed unconvinced and VW shares were among the biggest losers on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Thursday, shedding 2.5 percent, while the overall market was down by 1.1 percent. Source: AFP Cloud computing technologies and services in South Africa have gained popularity over the past few years. Local businesses are using cloud services because maintaining their own infrastructure is costly, and they hope to boost efficiency, lower costs and simplify their technology investments. A substantial number of these local businesses, however, are storing sensitive information relating to clients, employees or the business itself, as well as using it for day-to-day operations. This is particularly true of businesses involved in industries such as finance, healthcare and retail, as they house highly confidential customer data, and can face huge penalties should this data be compromised. Public disclosure in the event of a breach is now a legal requirement, which could result in lost revenues as well as customer confidence, says spokesperson from MWR Infosecurity. Incorporating security into business models This creates an environment where you could seriously see companies losing business if they are repeatedly compromised. As a result, most businesses will (hopefully) be forced to consider and incorporate security into their business model. However, lack of awareness of security issues is probably a major contributor to why businesses dont take security as seriously as they should. From what Ive seen, security is not necessarily a major concern in South Africa and the few companies that do try to take it into account just dont have an adequate background to address security properly, explains the spokesperson. He says this could result in them focusing on the wrong things; the high-profile attacks that litter the headlines, and not the real threats themselves. You may find that they simply assume that a cloud provider would take care of security without ever checking up on that, or assuming that there is no way a third party would be able to manage security better than they do. However, if a South African company ever wants to compete in the international market, theyll be judged according to the same standards as foreign businesses and that means they need to give the same attention to security, he adds. Almost like mobile security Security of cloud infrastructure is also a concern because it is being shared with other users. I read an article a while ago about ransomware encrypting a companys entire system which resided mostly on the cloud. If you are sharing infrastructure with someone else, you need to secure your host because you dont want their problems to become yours. Alternatively, another client for the same cloud provider may be malicious, at which point an insecure cloud service could be something of a gold mine. He believes cloud security is almost like mobile security, its one of those things that get a lot of media attention in the form of cloud security is important but without a real exploration of what cloud security is. Much in the same way as mobile security, if you look at the Verizon Data Breach Report or similar, this is just how companies are now getting breached. Companies are still getting compromised through users and their workstations. Until the world at large starts focusing on how organisations are really getting compromised, we will keep throwing money at blinkenboxes that solve problems we dont have. In terms of securing the cloud, he advises to consider actual security, not merely regulations, though they may help drive the minimum standard. He also believes that technical issues would probably be a major concern, including: One interesting theme took centre stage during panel discussions at the recently concluded World Economic Forum on Africa in Rwanda: that what the continent needs as much as roads, dams, power plants, is a way to embrace technology and infuse digital transformation in all sectors. Gordon Graylish It was interesting because when questions such as how can we diversify our economies and how can we improve efficiency or how do we prepare our young generations to have jobs were asked, the answer from a lot of different players including politicians, think tanks, investment organisations and the private sector was the same: embrace the third industrial revolution - the digital transformation revolution. With a 350-million strong middle and upper class currently expected to jump to 430-million by 2020, in a 1.3-billion continent by that time, the private and public sector strongly concurred that technology will have a significant impact in modernising African governments - in effect creating what I call the next-generation governments. Its encouraging that this revolution is already being stirred in small offices and houses across Africa that have wholly embraced mobile communications. Thanks to Kenyas pioneering M-Pesa, Africa is leading the mobile money revolution and this has already had a noticeable impact on the continent in expanding financial inclusivity. Internet of Things But mobile technology alone is not enough. The next logical step should be to harness technology for industrialisation, agriculture and social transformation. The world is entering one of the most exciting eras of technology. Everyday objects are becoming part of an integrated system of smart devices that are changing the way we live. Opportunities are endless in smart energy power grids, smart cities, smart agriculture, building secure government services and developing a vibrant globally competitive technology industry. Beyond getting more people connected to the internet, making things smart and connected in Africa will allow governments to create opportunities that enhance productivity, improve service delivery, support real-time decision-making, solve critical societal problems, and deliver innovative user experiences. These opportunities have the ability to fuel GDP, create new jobs, and boost economies. I was encouraged to see that the political will to use ICT for economic and social growth abounds in Africa. For instance, over the last decade, Kenya has experienced substantial growth in the ICT sector that is now worth Sh138bn in GDP. In addition, Kenyas public service outlets, Huduma Centres, anchored on e-government, have increased efficiency and even won Kenya a United Nations award. The Rwanda government on the other hand saw a 20% increase in VAT collections from 2014 to 2015 after introducing e-fiscal devices, while the Nigerian government saved more than $1bn through the introduction of digital IDs for public servants. Data gathering, analysis As governments continue to use ICT, they will gather a lot of data, and in the modern world, data is the new oil. The next big thing will be for governments to analyse this data, which will then help in detecting trends, increasing efficiency, reducing costing and, as it were, opening new business opportunities in transportation, power supply, agriculture, social welfare or even security provision. The private sector is ready to help governments digitise operations. Indeed, there are already efforts towards this. Smart Africa, the African Development Bank and Intel Corporation, for instance, are finalising a Digital Government Blueprint. This is a framework that will provide guidance and systematic steps for governments to tap the power of ICT and build digital infrastructure that will help transform how they operate and deliver services to their citizens. With such a blueprint, there is no room for guess work. It will enable governments to develop a national ICT policy aligned to the national priorities of the country and provide a measurable plan to enable everyone to participate in the digital economy and reap its benefits. The best starting point is automating internal government, whether external services or internal operations. Second is developing an electronic ID system at the national level, which provides the foundation for securing identities, protecting privacy, and enabling trusted e-services. Cashless societies The other critical area is having an interactive government portal with an open application programme interface (API). Here, a government can partner with the private sector to develop additional secure services through an open API. The government should then create cashless societies through digital payments to reduce the cost of doing business and increase revenues by having visibility of all transactions. The Nairobi County Government in Kenya has successfully digitised payments for parking and licences. This has not only increased collections, but also reduced physical interactions that encourage corruption. Last, but not least, are e-government services like e-tax, licenses and registrations, e-parking, smart city services, digital signatures, and more. The e-government portal will provide high quality, timely and accurate data and services in a secure yet transparent and accountable manner. It was not surprising that the recent AfDB annual general meeting in Lusaka would also amplify ICT. In fact, the African Development Bank and World Bank Africa have changed their priorities to transformation through ICT, as a catalyst of economic growth, sustainability and equality and created special funds to invest in the digital transformation of Africa. AfDB announced a $5bn fund focused on opening opportunities for 50-million young people in Africa through skills development and job creation in agriculture, industry and ICT sectors. With the current political goodwill, I believe a smart Africa can be achieved by harnessing the ICT revolution. Samsung Electronics said on Thursday, 16 June, it had agreed to buy US cloud computing company Joyent - the latest in a series of start-up acquisitions aimed at strengthening the South Korean giant's software capacity. The purchase of the San Francisco-based firm would provide Samsung with its own cloud platform to support its main mobile business and connect with Samsung household appliances such as TVs, refrigerators and air conditioners, a company statement said. Samsung did not disclose the value of the deal, which remains subject to customary closing conditions. It would be Samsung's third recent acquisition of a US startup, following that of mobile payment tech firm LoopPay last year and, in 2014, of SmartThings which connects and controls home appliances via mobile handsets. Samsung has been searching for ways to boost profits as growth in the global smartphone market slows, and has been actively pursuing tech startups, including those in the artificial intelligence field. Almost all Samsung's mobile handsets are powered by Google's Android software and past efforts to develop and promote its own software platform have largely fizzled out. Source: AFP Vodacom must pay half the money it will give to Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate into a trust account pending the outcome of arbitration, the High Court in Pretoria ruled on Tuesday, 14 June. Discussions between the cellular giant and Makate over remuneration for his idea are continuing and an amount has not yet been agreed on. A date has to be determined for arbitration amid a dispute over the sharing of the Vodacom payout. In May, Christiaan Schoeman and a company, Raining Men Trade, approached Vodacom, wanting it to set aside half the payout. They turned to the high court in June to prevent the money from being paid into the account of Umika Gopichund attorneys, whom Makate had nominated to hold the Vodacom payout. Schoeman and Raining Men Trade also wanted the right to decide who would represent Makate in discussions with Vodacom. Schoeman and other investors, including his former wife, Wilma, through Raining Men Trade, paid Makate's legal fees in the fight with Vodacom. Schoeman said on Tuesday outside court that he and other funders paid R2.9m towards Makate's bill. "We're seeking to recoup our share of the profits." Makate in his affidavit denies signing an agreement with Raining Men and that he would share half of the payout, implying the funders were demanding more than 50% of the payout. He said he had signed a contract with a company called Black Rock. However, he said he cancelled the funding arrangement and claimed Schoeman fully accepted this cancellation. Makate had developed "serious concerns" about the identity of his funders, and their ability to pay the legal costs and indemnify him in the event of an adverse costs order. Pretoria High Court Judge Neil Tuchten on Tuesday ordered that "50% of any payment" made to Makate by Vodacom be held in the Umika Gopichund Attorneys trust account. He also ruled that Makate held the right to elect his representative in talks with Vodacom. Nazeer Cassim, senior counsel for Schoeman and Raining Men Trade, had argued in court that the Gopichund law firm was established in May "and it would appear that UG Attorneys is a special purpose vehicle created at the instance of Makate to hold the funds in trust". Gilbert Marcus, senior counsel for Makate, argued that Schoeman's application had been "absolutely stillborn at its inception" and attempted to vary the Constitutional Court order. In April the apex court ruled that Vodacom must negotiate with Makate within 30 days and pay him for using the Please Call Me idea, which allows cellphone users without airtime to send an SMS requesting a call back from another user. Source: Business Day The world is a big old place and sometimes one of the biggest travelling challenges can actually be deciding where to venture to next. When you're choosing between the Caribbean coastline of Belize, the lush tropical lands of South East Asia or the cosmopolitan pull of East Coast America, which one do you pick? Yet, for us, theres always something about Europe. Call us old school, but that winning formula of bedazzling Mediterranean coastlines, vintage Hollywood glamour meets hipster chic cities and food thats so good it makes you want to cry yourself to sleep when you cant eat it anymore, kind of gets us every time. Europe just does something to you, it gives you a feeling, like this is the kind of travel experience youve always been searching for. Call us philosophical, but a trip to Europe really does change who you are as a person, and we can prove it Youll see cultures and traditions youve never experienced before With approximately 50 countries that make up the continent, thats a whole lot of different cultures to get your head around, each one with its own beliefs and traditions. Did you know that, for example, the locals of Budapest take to the Szechenyi Baths each day for a friendly game of chess, or that the residents of Ashbourne, a small market town in Derbyshire, England, celebrate Shrovetide every Pancake Day an annual game of rugby that takes over the town and pits the Northern vs Southern residents against one another? From the 24 hour ravers of Berlin to the matriarchal mothers of Italy, each country is entirely different from the next, and only by travelling and immersing yourself fully into each culture can you truly appreciate just how varied and incredible Europe really is. Youll taste food that will blow your mind You seriously havent lived until youve eaten a bona fide, home-cooked pizza from Italy, tiny and tasty Dutch pofferjes, Spanish tapas or Hungarian goulash. Literally, the list of European dishes is endless, and again it comes back to the fact that each country within Europe is so completely different to the next. Leave the weight worries at home and just go forth and eat taste everything, from the glorious to the gruesome and all thats in between, then wash it all down with a rejuvenating aperol spritz or cheap but delicious French plonk. Youll hear a whole load of new languages Cmon, admit it, everyone wishes they could speak another language theres just something so innately attractive about someone speaking a tongue that isnt your own. And whilst a trip to Europe isnt going to suddenly make you a bilingual whizz kid, it will make you more sensitive to other languages, and even pick up a few key words and phrases along the way. The golden key to doing this? Actually make an effort. Everyone knows the Europeans have killer English language skills, but they will respect you so much more as a visitor to their countries if you actually make the effort to speak to them in their mother tongues, irrespective of how terrible you sound. And in doing this, you, in turn, become more receptive to new languages. So go on, challenge yourself, if nothing else youll pick up a few new words along the way. Your definition of old will be redefined Were not just talking old, like 500 years old, were talking oooolllllllddddd, as in thousands of years old. The Pantheon, the Acropolis, the Colosseum, Stonehenge, The Pyramids (okay, so in Africa, but close to Europe) all these buildings are literally steeped in history, and give you a sudden and very clear insight into what life was like back in the (very old) day. Suddenly you get an appreciation for our modern-day world and luxuries, and at the same time realise how very transient and quickly we each exist on this planet. Deep thoughts aside, these ancient and monumental structures and just fundamentally cool; they make history come alive, and they make you wonder with amazement how such complex structures were built without modern-day advancements like electricity or transport. Your ocean goals will reach new heights If youre travelling from a country like Australia, youre naturally going to be a little sceptical in believing Europe can offer ocean magnificence in the same scale as youre used to. But oh how Europe will surprise you! Take it from someone whos travelled extensively the colour of the water in the Greek Islands and the clarity and beauty of the Adriatic coast of Croatia, is like nothing youve ever seen before. Dont underestimate the power of the Mediterranean and the quality of Europes beaches, they are quite honestly spectacular the kind of beauty and ocean colour you dream about on a rainy afternoon wishing for escapism. Youll walk straight into a real-life movie set If youre a sucker for all things cinema, or HBO for that matter, you wont have reason to complain. Europes cities have provided real-life movie sets for some of the silver screens biggest blockbusters a whole heap of the Bond movies, The Bourne Ultimatum, the Harry Potter franchise, every Richard Curtis film ever (think Notting Hill, Love Actually), The Godfather the list goes on, and on, and on. And how can you forget Croatia and its now-legendary relationship to Game of Thrones? Just walking along the city walls of Dubrovnik gives you tingles, for all the right reasons. Youll meet people with incredible stories to tell Behind every face is a story, some good, some bad, some unbelievable. War, progression, the ever-fluctuating economy all these factors are contributing players to Europes story, and, in turn, form part of the story of Europes residents. Take the time to speak to locals and listen to what they have to say listen to the stories recounted from when the wall fell in Berlin, when the Croatian War of Independence finally ended, the continuing temperamental nature of the Greek economy, and get to know the real history of Europe, as told by the people who lived through, and continue to live through, these significant events. What will amaze you the most is the resilient nature of the human race, and the ability to find peace and happiness despite the greatest of adversities. Youll have experiences you cant get anywhere else in the world Where else in the world can you haggle for goods in the bazaars of Istanbul, get lost amongst the vines on a wine-tasting tour in Florence, spend lazy days on deck cruising the azure waters of the Greek Islands or soak up the apres vibes after a hard day hitting the snowy slopes of Austria, all within a few hours flying of one another? Europe offers the kind of unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences you cant get anywhere else in the world the kind of experiences youll reminisce about when youre old and grey, storytelling to your grandchildren. Because you never know what opportunity it could lead to Travel is so much more than just getting on a plane, exploring a few different countries then returning home. If you see it as an opportunity, its one of the biggest things you can do in your life, which can have the biggest influence on you and your path in so many different ways. You could fall madly in love, you could meet your best friend for life, you could get chatting to a local, get offered a job and stay forever, or come across a project that piques your interest and end up volunteering for the next few months. Travel is what you make it, and if you see your trip to Europe as an opportunity, thats exactly what it will be. Let Europe open your eyes, fill your heart and leave you with memories that will last a lifetime. Corny as heck, but you know its true .. This article first appeared on Contiki six-two Toyota recently teamed up with the Department of Health and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to run a series of activations at busy taxi ranks, facilitated by Primedia Outdoor. With an MC and DJ on site to whip up excitement, Toyota reached out to taxi owners, drivers, mechanics and association members, to build and enhance brand awareness while promoting health and wellbeing. The activation sought to promote the Toyota Sesfikiles quality, durability and reliability, and emphasised the benefits and importance of using genuine Toyota parts. It also steered potential new clients to consultants from Toyota Financial Services and Toyota dealer networks. To drive home the message that Toyota cares about their customers wellbeing, the brand teamed up with the Department of Health and ILO to encourage taxi owners and drivers, as well as the ranks commuters, to have a health screening performed on site. The Department of Health and ILO provided free services from blood pressure and glucose testing, through to screening for HIV and TB, with confidential test results and counselling. Many taxi drivers wake up at 4am and end work at 8pm, seven days a week so they have no time to consult a clinic, points out Sizwe Mahlangu, National Taxi Operations Manager for Toyota South Africa. During one-on-one sessions with Toyota representatives, individual taxi drivers, owners and mechanics were able to get accurate information and voice their own feedback, ensuring that they felt valued by the brand. Giveaways of branded t-shirts and key-holders brought more people to the activation area and left them with a tangible reminder of Toyota. The activations were held at fourteen busy ranks across the country. The events were very successful, on two counts, says Mr Mahlangu. From a business perspective, we were able to engage closely with our core customers, giving us the chance to correct a lot of false notions and ideas around our vehicles and services. It was useful to hear what people were saying about our products on the ground. And then from a health perspective, many people were given access to important health services. The Department of Health was very happy with the number of people reached, particularly given the stigma that still accompanies HIV testing. Toyota, the Department of Health and the ILO rolled out a particularly worthwhile series of activations, and we are proud to have played a supporting role, says Peter Lindstrom, Sales Executive for Primedia Outdoor. WASHINGTON: The grim news for newspapers: digital is doing little to rescue them from their deepening woes. Reeling from weak circulation and ad revenue, the traditional newspaper world faces an ugly picture while social media and tech firms benefit from the shift to digital, a Pew Research Center study released on Wednesday found. Average weekday newspaper circulation - print and digital combined - fell seven percent in 2015, the greatest decline since 2010, Pew's annual "State of the News Media" report found. Although digital circulation gained a slight two percent, that amounted to just 22 percent of total circulation, and online subscriptions have done little for the overall revenue picture, Pew said. It found that total 2015 advertising revenue among publicly traded newspaper companies declined almost eight percent, reflecting weakness in digital as well as print. To make matters worse, newspaper newsroom employment fell 10 percent last year, the biggest drop since 2009, the researchers found. "Newspapers had a near recession-level year," Pew researcher Jesse Holcomb said. Major tech companies are reaping most of the revenues from online news, Pew found. "There is money being made on the web, but news organizations have not been the primary beneficiaries," the report said. Total digital advertising spending grew 20 percent last year to around $60bn, a higher growth rate than in 2013 and 2014, Pew said. "But compared with a year ago, even more of the digital ad revenue pie - 65 percent - is now swallowed up by just five tech companies," the report said, naming Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter. "Increasingly, the data suggest that the impact these technology companies are having on the business of journalism goes far beyond the financial side to the very core elements of the news industry itself." Facebook took in some 30 percent of digital display ad revenue last year, or $8bn, according to Pew. Google accounted for 16 percent. Some news publishers still make profits "but it's a mixed picture," while a handful of digital companies "are sucking up the oxygen," Holcomb said. Part of the reason for the revenue shift is due to how people discover news - often by happenstance on social networks or by searching online - the researcher added. "Our relationship with news is in a state of change," he said. "Most people who say they get news on a platform like Facebook are not necessarily looking for news, news is just one of the things they stumble across." Since the Newspaper Association of America stopped reporting revenue figures for the newspaper industry as a whole in 2013, Pew tracked data from the seven publicly traded newspaper groups, which owned some 300 dailies at the end of last year. The data accurately tracks the sector even though a majority of newspapers are privately held, the research firm said. The picture was more nuanced elsewhere in the media industry. Some digital news startups appear to be generating revenues and profits, although data has been spotty, Holcomb said. "Even among these promising digital news startups, there is a feeling of uncertainty," he said. "The market hasn't become clear nor has the business model," he added. "These companies are still experimenting, they are still pivoting. There are some superstars, but it's not entirely clear if there is a wider path to profitability." Those digital news operators include BuzzFeed, Vox Media and Business Insider. Although several have raised capital from investors, as private firms they are not required to report financial results. In television, network broadcasters increased ad revenue by six percent in the evening and 14 percent in the morning. Cable news channels were projected to increase their revenues by 10 percent and experience profit gains, Pew said. It also found radio remains an important news source for around 25 percent of Americans, and is getting some help from digital technologies and podcasts. But overall radio revenues were flat in 2015, with a three percent decline in traditional AM/FM spot advertising offset by gains in digital and off-air advertising, the report said. Source: AFP There are many reasons to invest in Africa and even more reasons to believe in Africa, international delegates were told at the Consumer Goods Forum global summit in Cape Town, 15-17 June 2016. The global CEOs of Coca-Cola, Nestle, Tesco, Walmart, Pepkor, Pick n Pay and many other luminaries, were present to discuss the disruption that digital has brought to the retail supply chain, as well as food security and investment in Africa. Image by 123RF A surprise visit was made by South African deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who dropped into the conference unannounced and was quickly slotted into the programme. Ramaphosa spoke about Africa as the next growth pioneer in the world, noting that Africa was an enormous market, containing seven out of 10 of the fastest growing economies in the world. Africa is open for business, Ramaphosa emphasised to the CGF summit delegates, many from Europe, Asia, the United States and South America, with a sprinkling from Africa. 800 delegates from over 365 companies from 40 countries made the trip to Cape Town for the 60th annual CGF summit, held in Africa for the first time. Complex continent Ramaphosa continued: Africa is a complex continent. There are great opportunities Africa is not only rising, but it is a continent that is consuming and will be consuming more and more as the years go by. He emphasised that Africa needs to replace its current system of exporting commodities. We have all realised that we have to move to changing that system and exporting finished goods, open up manufacturing Ramaphosa was accompanied by keynote speaker, Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola. Kent was extremely bullish on Africa and encouraged retailers and manufacturers to take a long view of the continent. His presentation was aptly entitled: Reasons to believe in Africa: The rise of the bright continent. Kent highlighted all his reasons to believe in Africas bright promise: Rising life expectancy. Growing GDP and Africas middle class. Childhood mortality rates down: malaria deaths down by more than 60% since 2000; HIV-Aids mother to child transmission being eradiated. Armed conflict and death down. Africa is leveraging mobile. Africas start-up community is expanding. Better governance has led to better outcomes. Billions are being invested in infrastructure. Sound monetary policies mean acute poverty has declined. 80% school enrolment. Small improvements in Africa are yielding exponential results, Kent said. Technology will help transform society, especially education Africa has thousands of flourishing entrepreneurs. Commodity prices are lower, but they are not here to stay. They will improve. Nothing is ever a straight line. Africa optimist Africa has 1.1 billion people, 14% of the worlds population and speaks 2000 languages, but suffers from bad press which tends to focus on the rich menu of poverty, corrupt leaders and abuse, said Pepkor chairman, Christo Wiese, whose Shoprite Group has made successful inroads into Africa and who describes himself as an Africa optimist. The media dont always have the resources to offer a broader perspective with context, so readers are left with certain perceptions that imply a backward continent, Wiese said. This wonderful, continent of contrasts has many positives to admire and gives us hope for the future, he said, setting context for international delegates: Many outsiders with limited exposure to Africa, see it as a single, amorphous land mass. It is not a country, it is a continent. A complicated quilt of 54 countries with a complicated history in various stages of development. It is the second largest continent after Asia. You can fit China, India, the US, Argentina and the whole of Europe into Africa and still have space left. It is enormously rich in natural resources. The population of 1.2 billion people is expected to grow to 4 billion by the end of the Century (making up 36% of the expected 11 billion global population in rest of the world). In fact, 80% plus of worlds population will live in Africa and Asia, demographers tell us. You must make a clear distinction between the continents potential and realities when planning on doing business in Africa. Africa is a continent in transition. We are still moving to creating a business environment that may be taken for granted in other parts of the world. Africa is expected to have the worlds largest working population by 2034. Africa is urbanising at a fast rate. This urbanisation will lead to a rapid growth in consumption by both households and businesses in more advanced economies. Wiese said Africa would have to overcome significant infrastructural shortcomings as it was dwarfed by a lack of sustainable electricity supply, but that billions of dollars were being invested in energy projects to increase sustainable electricity supply. What had not improved, was the endless red tape and bureaucracy, graft and corruption. We need to eliminate entrenched corruption. He also said less than 20% of all African trade was intra-African as Africa simply does not trade with each other. Wiese said retailers and manufacturers needed to take a long term view if they wanted to do business in Africa and urged investors to also invest in improving African business and communities, not just merely repatriate the profits to their home country, as there is a constant outflow of capital from the country. His advice for other business leaders and investors: Select with care the countries you want to do business with. Do thorough research and chose those countries with a positive development outlook. Make very sure that Africa is where you want to be, the rewards will be great, but so will the risk. You need staying power if you want to be successful on this continent. Things change. Commodity markets suffer, but the drought will end, things will flourish again, Wiese said. Coke has invested $130 billion start-up capital investment in Africa. We can make a difference. Kent explained that Coca-Cola is a founding investor (along with Airbus and Richard Branson) in a company to provide low orbit satellites to provide 4G internet to anyone with a small antennae, specifically, schools in Africa. Access to technology will transform the continent. This is what Kent believes can work in Africa: Believe and invest. Scale what works. Leverage core capabilities. Seek out complimentary partners. Innovate relentlessly to overcome challenges. The IGD Retail Analysis, Insight presentation, June 2016, entitled: The future of grocery retailing in sub-Saharan Africa, was released at the summit. In one table, the report outlined how retailers and suppliers could take advantage of opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. Everyone should be setting the vision for the future and what transformation should look like. This needs to be designed in a way that will work responsively whatever transpires, the report stated. To get to this future, IGD listed five points: The region will integrate more. Economic growth will create opportunities for cooperation, as African nations are encouraged to trade on the continent, and not just internationally. One solution is the free trade area proposed between SADC (SA Development Community) in Southern Africa and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African and the East African Community. Such cooperation could drive imports by an average of 60% by 2020, says IGD. Income growth and an emerging consumer market. Africas emerging middle class is the subject of controversy as the true size was debated at the CGF summit this week. At issue is whether size and spending power correlate. Any growth in spending power from this influential sector, will help drive volume and value growth in the longer term, IGD emphasised. Fast-paced urbanisation. While rapid urbanisation will put a strain on infrastructure and resources in African cities, the opportunities it will create, will hopefully outweigh the negatives. Young and growing populations. The fact that Africa is the continent with the youngest population in the world (World Bank: Africas median age will be 25.4 years in 2050), provides long term growth opportunities, in an aspirant consumer base and a ready workforce. Increasingly connected consumer base. There are shining examples of innovation in Africa, driven by technology development. IGD explains: A corollary of rising internet penetration rates, mobile phone ownership and regional travel is that Africans are increasingly connected to global trends. This is encouraging consumers to become more aspirational, brand-conscious and loyal to those brands they like. Wiese concluded his presentation with an apt African quotation (D. Montano, 1985), about doing business on the continent: It doesnt matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you had better be running. After 22 months of rehabilitation work, IOM has handed over to local authorities the rehabilitated market in the Ngebengewe district of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). Image by 123RF The market is located at an important intersection between a mostly Muslim enclave and the mixed (Christian and Muslim) 5th district. This area has seen some of the fiercest fighting since December 2013. Reopening the market is important to both communities as it symbolises a return to normalcy and security in the area. Madame Solange, representing female vendors at the market said: We have been waiting for this day for months. This market is really important for us women. We live here in the neighborhood and grow our produce here. Going to other markets to sell our goods is expensive and dangerous. Going to other markets to buy food has also been difficult. People from all communities use our market it is a space where they can meet and chat. It will be great to also have our market functioning normally. Hopefully, many of our neighbours will see this as a sign of peace and decide to come home. The market rehabilitation is part of IOMs European Union-funded Community Stabilization Programme. The project was chosen by the community and the rehabilitation, albeit often interrupted by insecurity in the area, was carried out through on-the-job training programmes by local young people. Over 300 young people participated in the rehabilitation and gained experience as carpenters, brick-makers and in general construction. The Community Stabilization Programme has been running since March 2014 and will continue in areas outside Bangui until August 2017. The last wave of flood rendered over 1000 people from 12 villages under Thandwe township homeless in south Arakan, said a government official. One monastery, two Dhama halls, one shrine temple and a primary school building along with 45 residential houses from Ray Kauk village under Thandwe township were washed away by the flood water. Similarly another affected village named Parite reported the complete damage of 111 residential houses (out of total 115 in the village). The severely affected villages including Shwe Lay, Pauk Taw, Chaung Gon, Aouk Netmaw, Ray Kout, Parite, Su Boke,Bura Maw, Chin Dwin are situated on the bank of Tahtay Chaung creek. The excessive water flow in the creek inundated the villages causing massive landslides and damages of crops & domestic animals. An affected villager claimed that the flood situation worsened because of a government sponsored hydropower project, which is under construction for some time on the Tahtay Chaung creek. Late report narrates that 8 houses in Ganan Daung village under Ann Township were collapsed due to the landslide on 10 June. Similarly, in Kyauk Khout village under Minbya township, 34 houses were destroyed by tornado, rendering 100 villagers homeless. The affected villagers are demanding urgent reliefs as well as shelter-homes in the State. They also asked the authority to start preparatory works for the coming months, where more rains as well as another few waves of flood may emerge. Dengue places enormous costs on countries in Southeast social, economic and human. It is estimated that of the 2.5 billion people at risk of getting dengue, more than half, 1.8 billion, live in the Asia Pacific region. In a public statement released to promote awareness and to combat the deadly mosquito borne virus, organisers said that ASEAN countries planned a range of activities. The Philippines will revitalize the 4 oclock habit, a Department of Health campaign inciting community members to search and destroy mosquito breeding places every day at 4:00 p.m. Vietnam plans to hold it 3rd ASEAN Dengue Day In Hanoi, on June 14, focusing on The Hanoi Call for Action on Combating Dengue. An official ceremony will take place on June 15, with a parade through the streets of Hanoi. Malaysia, plans to launch an educational video and copies to be distributed to schools, a number of seminars and public information sessions on prevention and disease will also be held. Singapore, Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) and National Environment Agency (NEA) has exhibitions in public hospitals to highlight the dangers of dengue fever. A scientific seminar and symposium will also be held to share research information. Ms Aya Tabata, the director of the Stop Dengue, Protect your Family campaign said in an earlier interview with Karen News estimates by Thailands Public Health Ministry had documented that 141 people had died and as many as 141,375 cases of dengue fever were recorded for 2015. Ms Tabata said public awareness campaigns played a crucial part in the control of dengue. If people are made aware of what they have to do and when they need to do it and can understand the information it can have a massive impact on curbing the mosquitoes breeding. As part of the ASEAN Dengue Day awareness activities, Thailand will organize a competition in partnership with the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of Thailand, the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Education and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Country-wide, Thai school children will be asked to submit drawings linked to dengue, prevention, disease and education. Indonesia has plans to target primary healthcare doctors in a scientific education meeting and will also be involving communities in educational sessions and competitions to demonstrate their role in the fight against dengue. Ms Tabata warned that school students are a high risk group. Research shows that school students are a high risk group. Thailands Ministry of Healths Department of Disease Control found that as of July 27, 2015 39,597 people had been diagnosed by a Thai hospital with dengue fever. The MoH statistics found that almost one in two of those infected were school students, a staggering 42.8% in 2015. According to the matriculation examination results for the 2015-16 academic year announced on 11th of June, only 17 out of 86 students from migrant schools based in Mae Sot had passed. The poor results have raised questions among migrant teachers about the existing matriculation system as they say it has become too challenging for migrant students. U Naing Naing Tun, secretary of the Burmese Migrant Teachers Association told Karen News that they are concerned about the system as the pass rate is also dropping at a national level. The passing percentage of the matriculation results for the whole country has dropped. In my opinion, the matriculation system needs to be reviewed. Students from the border area are not familiar with the education system in Burma, this matriculation exam is a challenge for them. In the current academic year, 86 students from Hsa Thoo Lei and Thwe Thit high schools in Mae Sot took the exam in the Myawaddy examination centre. Naw Paw Ray, chairperson of the Burmese Migrant Workers Education Committee (BMWEC) said. Last year, the passing percentage of the matriculation results was 28%. But this year results drops to 22% and students who also received distinctions also decreased. Out of 86 students, 12 from Hsa Thoo Lei School and 5 from Thwe Thit School, a total of only 17 students passed the matriculation exam. In 2014-2015 academic year, 125 students from migrant schools took the exam and 33 students passed the exam. Since 2012-2013 academic year migrant schools have started to join the government examination center back in Burma. Only 8 students passed the exam in 2012-2013. In 2013-2014 academic year 126 students took the exam and 36 students passed, according to BMWEC. Naw Paw Rey said that the exam results havent improved and students also have less interest in the exam. According to the matriculation results announced by Ministry of Education for the whole year, the passing rate for this year stands at 29.92%, a drop from 37.60% last year. The primary reasons behind Bop Htaw Education Empowerment Programs, or Bop Htaws, move back to Burma are the donors preference to support programs within Burma, the convenience of student travel during rainy season and the broad opportunities for students to participate in hands-on training through other organizations. Our Bop Htaw school aims to train students to become qualified teachers with critical thinking skills. We also provide English skills such as level four and up to advanced level. If the students chose to study such skills in Rangoon city, it would be very expensive. Therefore, I think it is a great opportunity for them to study here because they do not have to spend much money but they are trained under a well-developed curriculum and hands-on training, said Mi Pone Han, the program coordinator of Bop Htaws second-year program. The program began in 2000 and runs over two years. The program requires the applicants to hold a high school completion level from state-run schools or MNEC run schools. The applicants from Mon teacher groups must have carried out teaching at respective schools for 3 years. The second-year Post-Ten program started its 2016-2017 academic year on June 1, at its new location in Thanbyuzayat Town. We have acquired English, teaching and critical thinking skills. We can now improve the students English here. We can also teach efficiently because we have been provided with teaching training, said Lawe Nyan, a former student of Bop Htaw. The students that have completed the program have gained employment at Mon National schools, at the MNEC, whilst some are working at Bop Htaw. Bop Htaw has graduated about 300 teachers and over 100 of them are teaching. Many are studying abroad with scholarships or working for NGOs and private companies. The program caters for 15 schoolgirls and 8 school boys. It is easier for us to travel since the school has moved here. After we finish the second year, we will teach at respective schools as teachers. Then, we will apply for scholarships and study abroad, said Mi Layih Gakho, a second-year student, at the Bop Htaw. Childs Dream supports the major budget requirements for the 2016-17 two year study program. Previously, in first year, the students have been required to study at Bop Htaw in Nyisar, the New Mon State Party (NMSP) controlled-area. The second year saw the students study in Sangkhlaburi Town, Thai-Burma border. MNEC has 138 schools, including Bop Htaw Empowerment Program, 3 high schools, 16 middle schools and 89 primary schools. The decision to ban the film was met with ridicule by the Prince Sao Kya Seng's nephew, Khun Tun Oo, a prominent Shan politician and former political prisoner. The story focuses on Sargent who became the princess of Hsipaw also known as the Mahadhevi Dhusandi and her marriage with the prince who was jailed when General Ne Win launched a coup d'etat in 1962. As the film, which is the first to explore the events surrounding Burma's 1962 coup, shows Sao Kya Seng disappeared after his arrest under circumstances that have never been fully explained. Government officials have deemed that the themes explored in the film are too sensitive, this despite the fact that more then 50 years have elapsed since Sao Kya Seng's arrest. They blocked the film from being screened as part of this week's Myanmar Human Rights Film Festival. An official from the Ministry of Information's (MOI) 15-member film review committee told the AFP news agency that screening the film could cause difficulties. In an interview with the BBC Thida Tin, the deputy chairman of MOI's film review committee, said: "We were worried and afraid that unnecessary problems could arise because of this [film] while we are working on achieving national reconciliation." He went on to claim that the film was banned for the sake of "national unity and also the stability of the country and of our people". These claims did not sit well with Sao Kya Seng's nephew, Khun Tun Oo, a prominent Shan politician and leader of the Shan National League for Democracy (SNLD). He said: Its irrational that this film will destroy unity. This film is based on a true story. He added: The person portrayed in the film is still missing. No one knows whether he is dead or alive. He left his daughters when one daughter was only 5 and another was only 7. Its unreasonable that the film will damage unity. It is just an individual right. Thus, it means there are no rights. Has there been any national unity? If there has not, how can this film destroy unity? Mon Mon Myat, one of the Myanmar Human Rights Film Festival directors, explained in a speech on the festival's opening night that the festival had been started in 2013 to show the situation in the country. She said: A film festival is a measurement of our current political situation. Through this film festival, we can show to what extent [what] we can do and how much media freedom we have obtained. We have obtained human rights to a certain extent in our country. But, in reality, there are still rules and limitations concerning the military and the religion, She concluded by saying: I want to express my sadness in not being allowed to screen this film. The air-conditioned units feature a living room with a flat-screen TV, a kitchen with a dishwasher and a microwave, a washing machine, a safety deposit box, and a private bathroom with a hairdryer and free toiletries. A fridge, an oven and stovetop are also provided, as well as a kettle and a coffee machine. The size of the place was excellent - it was like being at home. The location is also perfect, with a beautiful park and the water across the street and the beach and another park only a block away. Stores, restaurants are within minutes. It could not have been more convenient. Show more Show less Located in Boston, 5.6 km from JFK Presidential Library & Museum, The Ashmont Guest House provides accommodation with a bar, free private parking, a shared lounge and a garden. Located around 8.2 km from Boston South Station, the guest house with free WiFi is also 8.5 km away from Boston Convention Exhibitors Center. The property is allergy-free and is situated 8 km from Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Beautiful place, very cozy and clean. We more than appreciated the a/c since it was so hot outside. Hosts we noce and quick to answer out questions. Show more Show less Each review score is between 1-10. To get the overall score that you see, we add up all the review scores weve received and divide that total by the number of review scores weve received. In addition, guests can give separate subscores in crucial areas, such as location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value for money and free Wi-Fi. Note that guests submit their subscores and their overall scores independently, so theres no direct link between them. You can review an Accommodation that you booked through our Platform if you stayed there or if you arrived at the property but didnt actually stay there. To edit a review youve already submitted, please contact our Customer Service team. We have people and automated systems that specialise in detecting fake reviews submitted to our Platform. If we find any, we delete them and, if necessary, take action against whoever is responsible. Anyone else who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team, so our Fraud team can investigate. Ideally, we would publish every review we receive, whether positive or negative. However, we wont display any review that includes or refers to (among other things): Politically sensitive comments Promotional content Illegal activities Personal or sensitive information (e.g. emails, phone numbers or credit card info) Swear words, sexual references, hate speech, discriminatory remarks, threats, or references to violence Spam and fake content Animal cruelty Impersonation (e.g. if the writer is claiming to be someone else) Any violation of our review guidelines. To make sure reviews are relevant, we may only accept reviews that are submitted within 3 months of checking out, and we may stop showing reviews once theyre 36 months old or if the Accommodation has a change of ownership. An Accommodation may choose to reply to a review. When you see multiple reviews, the most recent ones will be at the top, subject to a few other factors (what language a review is in, whether its just a rating or contains comments as well, etc.). If you like, you can sort and/or filter them (by time of year, review score, etc.). We sometimes show external review scores from other well-known travel websites. We make it clear when weve done this. Guidelines and standards for Reviews These guidelines and standards aim to keep the content on Booking.com relevant and family-friendly without limiting expression of strong opinions. They are also applicable regardless of the sentiment of the comment. Contributions should be travel related. The most helpful contributions are detailed and help others make better decisions. Please dont include personal, political, ethical, or religious commentary. Promotional content will be removed and issues concerning Booking.coms services should be routed to our Customer Service or Accommodation Service teams. Contributions should be appropriate for a global audience. Please avoid using profanity or attempts to approximate profanity with creative spelling, in any language. Comments and media that include 'hate speech', discriminatory remarks, threats, sexually explicit remarks, violence, and the promotion of illegal activity are not permitted. All content should be genuine and unique to the guest. Reviews are most valuable when they are original and unbiased. Your contribution should be yours. Booking.com property partners should not post on behalf of guests or offer incentives in exchange for reviews. Attempts to bring down the rating of a competitor by submitting a negative review will not be tolerated. Respect the privacy of others. Booking.com will make an effort to obscure email addresses, telephone numbers, website addresses, social media accounts, and similar details. The opinions expressed in contributions are those of Booking.com customers and properties and not of Booking.com. Booking.com does not accept responsibility or liability for any reviews or responses. Booking.com is a distributor (without any obligation to verify) and not a publisher of these comments and responses. By default, reviews are sorted based on the date of the review and on additional criteria to display the most relevant reviews, including but not limited to: your language, reviews with text, and non-anonymous reviews. Additional sorting options may be available (by type of traveller, by score, etc.). Translations disclaimer This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) today this week commemorated the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD 2016). The commemorations were held at the Kweneng village of Thamaga on Friday under the theme: ICT (Information and Communication Technology) entrepreneurship for social impact. The theme is in line with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)s work in unlocking the potential of ICTs for young innovators and entrepreneurs; a statement from the BIH reads. The theme also encompasses start-ups and technology hubs as drivers of innovative and practical solutions for catalysing progress in achieving international sustainable development goals. As part of the commemorations, BIH hosted a three-day innovation, Business and technology workshop for schools and SMEs in Thamaga. The company mobilized clients of its technology entrepreneurship development programme First Steps Venture Centre (FSVC) to form part of the workshop, a statement from the Botswana Innovation Hub reads. In addition, Botswana Innovation Hub registered company ConceroTel sponsored provision of WIFI for the duration of the event. The company is also expected to provide a size month mentorship to Thamaga Youth who are providing Internet services in the village. Meanwhile another BIH registered company IT-IQ has sponsored at Internet Computing fundamental training course for primary school teachers at Thamaga and surrounding areas. ICT is one of BIHs focus sectors and participation is the WTISD 2016 advances the companys mandate of fostering entrepreneurship and technology transfer to develop star up companies and add value to existing ones. BENGALURU (PTI): The inaugural flight of India's indigenous basic trainer aircraft, Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40), would be undertaken in Bangalore on Friday and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar would witness it. The inaugural flight of HTT-40, designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, is likely to take place at 09.15 AM at the HAL Airport in Bangalore. The sortie is expected to take place for about 25 to 30 minutes, HAL officials told PTI. Aimed at being used for the first stage training for all flying cadets of the three services, HTT-40 had made its maiden flight after much delay on May 31. Officials said detailed design phase of HTT-40 was launched in August 2013 with HAL's internal funding and was completed in May 2015 and from there it has taken 12 months to fly the first prototype. Indian Air Force is expected to procure seventy HTT-40 aircraft. HAL has said that the programme aims to achieve its operational clearance by 2018, and towards this the company will be manufacturing three prototypes and two static test specimens. Designed to meet the current demands of the Air force, there is also a provision to include weapons for the trainer aircraft. According to officials, the indigenous content on HTT-40 is close to 80 per cent with about 75 plus systems out of the total 90 on the aircraft sourced from local players and sister divisions of HAL. HTT-40 aircraft weighs about 2,800 kg and has Turbo Prop engine of 950 hp class. ROME (BNS): Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has bagged a contract to build seven new surface ships for the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces. The contract for four corvettes, one Landing Platform Deck (LPD) and two Off-shore Patrol Vessels (OPV) is worth around 4 billion euros ($4.47 billion), the shipbuilder announced on June 16. While Fincantieri will be the prime contractor, defence conglomerate Leonardo-Finmeccanica will supply the shipbuilder with the latest generation of naval systems, including combat system, and sensors for the seven new vessels. "Leonardo will be responsible for the integrated supply of the new naval units' combat system, main radars and on-board sensors and defence sub-systems, including 76/62 medium calibre and 30mm small calibre weapon systems, the anti-torpedo protection system, the Thesan mine avoidance sonar and, in cooperation with MBDA, the missile system," the company said. The supply also includes long-term, integrated logistics support activities, it added. Qatar will deploy the new naval ships for maritime surveillance and patrolling duties in territorial waters and in the exclusive economic zone. Construction of the ships will begin in 2018. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A Crown attorney has asked that a man who burst into a First Nation gaming centre with a gun and fired a shot toward an employee receive six years in prison. Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup pointed to a number of on-reserve gaming centre robberies in recent years and the need for a sentence that would deter other potential robbers. Gaming centres have large amounts of cash and little security, he said. They might as well have a red and white bulls-eye painted on them, Lonstrup said in Brandon provincial court. Sentencing began on Thursday for William Eagle, 22, whod previously pleaded guilty to robbery with a firearm and disguise with intent to commit crime. Lonstrup described how Eagle and two other suspects entered the gaming centre at the Canupawakpa Dakota First Nation shortly after midnight on June 17, 2014. In court, Lonstrup played a video that showed Eagle following the two other suspects into the VLT room while holding a shotgun which he then pointed at the unarmed security guard. In response, the guard put up his hands and fled out of another door and down a hallway. Eagle followed, all the while pointing the gun at the guard, then fired a shot toward the retreating man. Eagle had told the guard not to move, or hed be shot. The guard later shared what hed thought at that moment. He heard the discharge the first thing that went through his head was that he knew he was working and supporting his family. He didnt know who would do that if he was gone, Lonstrup said. However, Eagle intentionally shot toward the floor near the guard, which is backed up by the fact that wadding and pellets were found on the carpet. A woman had also fled out through the door prior to the guard. Meanwhile, Lonstrup said, the two other suspects one armed with a knife went to the cashier office where they grabbed $2,480 cash, cigarettes and an envelope. The cash and envelope were hidden in a spot known only to employees, highlighting the fact that Eagle was a former gaming centre employee with inside knowledge. All three suspects had worn disguises, and blue rubber medical gloves to presumably avoid leaving fingerprints. But in the end, it was the gloves that led to the arrest of Eagle and a co-accused. A person doing yard work found the discarded gloves months later, and the DNA of Eagle and another suspect were lifted from them. Eagle has sent 316 days in remand, and Lonstrup agreed that 474 days credit (1.5 to one) could be deducted from the six years in prison he proposed. Defence lawyer Bob Harrison asked that the minimum four-year sentence be imposed, minus remand time, for his client, who has no prior criminal record. Judge John Combs has reserved his decision and plans to deliver it next Thursday. Cassidy Eagle is charged with robbery with a firearm, wearing a disguise to commit crime and carrying a weapon for a dangerous purpose. He has a court date on Friday. ihitchen@brandonsun.com Twitter: @IanHitchen Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Even the most hardened politicians succumbed to the pain of global tragedy this week. Hit first by the shooting in Orlando on Sunday, then by the beheading of another Canadian hostage in the Philippines on Monday, and by the slaying of a British MP on Thursday, Parliament Hill reeled with shock and outrage. The business of Parliament kept a frantic pace, however, driven by the governments wish to pass the assisted dying bill as soon as possible. The bill spent the week caught between the will of the House and the new-found determination of the Senate. Less noticeable were several moves to rejig policy in a way that could affect everyday lives in Canada. Here are three ways politics mattered this week: PENSION PROBLEMS: Federal and provincial finance officials have been burning the candle at both ends this week in the hopes of finding a compromise that would see the federal Liberals keep an election promise to expand the Canada Pension Plan. The federal goal, as vaguely outlined in speeches and documents, is to substantially increase the retirement payout to the next generation of middle-class retirees. Fewer people will be covered by private plans, and those who are covered will often have less generous benefits than todays retirees. But theres an open question about whether governments need to step into the breach. The price of an expanded CPP is higher premiums for employers and employees today. Some provinces have yet to be convinced that the higher price is worth paying right now, especially since there will be a political backlash from small business as well as conservatives who would rather see individuals take control of their own personal finances. Maybe after the federal and provincial finance ministers hash it out Monday in Vancouver, the public will see some hard numbers and be better able to engage in an informed debate about whether our retirement savings our adequate and if not, whether an expanded CPP is the best solution. GIRL POWER: MPs of all stripes voted 225-74 to slightly change the words to the national anthem this week so that it would be gender neutral. But that wasnt the biggest move MPs made to reflect the role of women in public life. The Status of Women committee had all-party support for its recommendation to subject every single government initiative to a gender-based analysis before it gets the green light. The committee wants legislation that would make the analysis mandatory. Minister Patty Hajdu seems open to the idea. The implications for regular people could be big or small, depending on how seriously the government takes the idea. With the governments plan to spend $60-billion on infrastructure, for example, how would a gender analysis affect a program that would normally create jobs that overwhelmingly go to men? Committee member and Liberal MP Sean Fraser says a gender analysis would encourage the government to improve training for women in the skilled trades. But what would happen if instead of shaping women to fit the program, the government shaped the program to fit women? CANADIANS ON THE TELLY: The government, via the CRTC, has put in place its first policy building block to rescue local news. The broadcast regulator will require private English-language TV stations to air at least seven hours of local news every week double that for big-city stations in Toronto and Vancouver. French-language stations will need to carry five hours of local news. Where will the money come from? Mainly from shuffling around parts of existing pots of money already put into community programming by the networks. Big companies such as Bell, Rogers and Quebecor can take some of the $156 million currently spent on community programming for local news production instead on condition they keep all their stations open. Independent stations will see what is new money to them, but comes from the existing community fund. The CRTC order is only the first piece of the puzzle the government is working on. It sees a crisis in local news, not just in television but in print and digital media as well, and is actively looking for solutions on all fronts. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Romanias prime minister says hes hopeful the visa spat between his country and Canada will be resolved soon because otherwise, his country may not support the Canada-EU free trade deal. Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos discussed the biggest ongoing irritant between Canada and the European Union in an interview with The Canadian Press this week during his visit to Ottawa. Ciolos said he emerged from talks with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confident the travel restriction can be lifted in the coming months. But if that doesnt happen, Ciolos said his country wont be able to support the trade deal, known as CETA. Romania will have difficulty to support an agreement that creates this negative discrimination for its citizens, Ciolos said in an interview at the Romanian embassy. Based on the discussions I have had with Prime Minister Trudeau, I am confident we can together find a solution in order to avoid this. Canada imposed a visa requirement on Romania and Bulgaria, but the EU insists on visa-free travel for all 28 of its member countries and has repeatedly pointed to its September 2014 joint declaration with Canada affirming that. It does not appear likely that Romania or Bulgaria could block final ratification of the trade deal, but the issue remains a formidable speed bump in the long-running saga to finalize the pact, which has been seven years in the making. We think that Romania is ready, technically speaking, to comply with all the expectations in this direction, Ciolos said. I hope that in the next months we will be able to find a solution in order to give to Romania the political possibility to fully support CETA. Even if Romania and Bulgaria oppose the free trade deal, it is still expected to win approval of the European Parliament, which would mean as much as 90-per-cent of the deal would come into force under what is known as provisional implementation. Ciolos said he wants to see CETA in place because he helped negotiate it as the EUs former commissioner for agriculture. So you can imagine that personally as prime minister of a EU member state, I want to be able to support this agreement together with others, he said. Marie-Anne Coninsx, the European Unions ambassador to Canada, has also linked the free trade deal to the visa situation. She has called the visa an irritant which should not be there and has said it is regrettable the problem could not have been solved sooner. EU and Canadian politicians have said they expect CETA to come into force sometime in early 2017. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. VANCOUVER Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government is concerned about the ballooning cost of housing in Vancouver but must ensure that any action it takes doesnt harm markets elsewhere in the country. Speaking before a housing roundtable attended by local members of Parliament, developers and experts on Friday, Trudeau said the federal government has to be very, very thoughtful about approaching the affordability challenge in a way that allows Vancouver to continue to flourish. Theres no question that concerted, thoughtful effort is going to be needed to address the situation but we have to be very wary of unintended consequences. He said he has been speaking with British Columbia Premier Christy Clark and local mayors about solutions, and asked for suggestions about where he should be nudging provincial and municipal governments to take direct action. Trudeau did not comment after the closed-door roundtable, but Vancouver Quadra MP Joyce Murray said the meeting is a strong signal that the prime minister is seizing the issue. He committed to taking action when we figure out what makes sense from all we heard, but he also was very clear about the urgency of the situation. She said Trudeau heard from 25 people with a range of perspectives, including those who represent homeless and low-income people, developers with ideas on increasing supply and others who believe tax policy must be overhauled. Tom Davidoff, director of the University of British Columbias Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, said the free market wants to build denser housing in Vancouver, but zoning policies too often limit land use to single-family homes, which are unaffordable for most Canadians. Its an outrageous abuse of power that provides a giant subsidy to rich guys who dont make a living here, he said referring to foreign buyers. The problem is that local homeowners love the status quo and politicians are terrified of them. The federal government could pressure mayors by tying transit funding to density, or by forbidding cities from having such restrictive zoning, Davidoff suggested. He said many in the meeting expressed concern that Canada has become a destination for wealthy foreigners to launder money through real estate. Providing bargain-basement taxes for rich people who dont live in the country is nuts, he added. I think the prime minister heard that loud and clear, he said. I really do expect federal action both on taxes and on land use. Andy Yan, acting director of Simon Fraser Universitys City Program, said he hopes Trudeau got the message that housing prices have risen while incomes have stayed flat in Vancouver. One of the most powerful things he did was begin to listen. I think thats one of the first steps, to actually understand the problem before coming up with solutions, Yan said. Speaking earlier Friday on CBC Radio, Trudeau said overseas money is playing a role in fuelling superheated markets such as Vancouver, where the average price of a single-family detached home is $1.5 million. Trudeau said officials are examining Australias decision to tax homes owned by foreigners, but warns federal measures to curb offshore ownership in Vancouver or Toronto could harm other regions of the country where overseas investment can be beneficial. How do we make sure we are helping people (in Vancouver) in exactly the right and targeted way? Trudeau said. That is where the kind of collaboration we havent had for 10 years between the federal government and different orders of government is so important to work on together. Most Vancouver homeowners know the inflated housing market must be stabilized because the current trajectory doesnt have any good outcomes, he said. But any action must not completely devalue people whose retirements and equity are tied to their homes, the prime minister said. Trudeau also toured a new Microsoft development centre in downtown Vancouver with Clark and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson on Friday. Robertson said afterwards that the province must take the lead on addressing real estate issues. But he said the federal government can take action, including creating incentives to build more rental housing, social housing and co-ops. Robertson said any measures to deal with the housing affordability crisis could take years to have an effect, but that Vancouver needs decisions soon. Were seeing, certainly, a response from the federal government to the urgency, he said. Im hopeful, given the attention theyre paying to us now, that were going to see some movement. Follow @ellekane on Twitter. Already have an account? Log in here LAVAL, Que. - Valeant Pharmaceuticals says it will expand its Canadian manufacturing and export capacity by spending a total of $27.5 million on plants in Manitoba and Quebec. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. CALGARY The senior psychiatrist with the Canadian Armed Forces says strides have been made in reducing the stigma of mental illness in the military but some soldiers still suffer in silence. Col. Rakesh Jetly, whos also mental-health adviser to the surgeon general, says one of the positive legacies from Canadas role in Afghanistan could be the militarys rethinking of how it deals with mental-health issues. Jetly said depression rates in the Canadian military are a little higher than in the general population at about eight per cent. But the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder has doubled to 5.4 per cent from 2.7 per cent in 2002 an increase 100 per cent attributable to the Afghan war. Col. Rakesh Jetly, the chief psychiatrist for the Canadian Forces, does an interview on PTSD and the health of Canadian soldiers in Calgary, Thursday, June 16, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland Jetly said the majority of military personnel can now see a mental-health professional within a day in a crisis situation and a psychiatrist in less than a month, while for many Canadians it can take up to nine months. The system by no means is perfect, but its pretty, darn good, Jetly said in an interview. He also said theres overwhelming data that shows military members who have a mental illness, such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, are much more likely than a civilian to seek care. Were more resourced than any town or community in Canada. Im always careful when I say that the point is Canada has too little. But despite more ready access, there are soldiers who still wont seek help, Jetly said. I think that tough guy, suck-it-up kind of culture has changed, but self-stigma is still an issue. Some people who can be kind and caring about a colleague may not afford themselves that same kindness. Jetly also cautions that its not just active military personnel who may be struggling with their mental health. Theres this stereotype of this big, strong, strapping soldier whos kicking down doors. There are people who do that, but when we look at PTSD, its not about this big guy whos dangerous and running amok, he said. You might have female nurses that were in the (hospital) exposed to people who have been blown up. Theres clerks (who work) in the morgue. It can be many, many people. Jetly believes Canadian society is at a point where mental illness can be demystified and treated like any other illness. But he acknowledges that for military personnel, coming forward could still have an impact on their careers. One of the biggest barriers to care is what is it going to do to my career? You cant guarantee that its not going to impact your career. You cant guarantee bad knees, migraines or a bad disc problem isnt going to affect your career either. Research released by National Defence last year showed that soldiers with mental-health conditions, especially those with Afghan war illnesses, are far more likely to be declared unfit for military service. Almost 70 per cent of them can expect to be mustered out within 10 years of deployment. The conclusion came from a review of medical files belonging to more than 30,000 troops who deployed as part of the nearly 12-year Afghan campaign. Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 16/06/2016 (2323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. VANCOUVER A British Columbia First Nation has launched a court challenge to overturn the National Energy Boards recommendation that the federal cabinet approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The Squamish Nation, whose traditional territories span a large swath of B.C.s south coast, filed an application for judicial review on Thursday in Vancouvers Federal Court of Appeal. It seeks to quash the NEBs decision and refer it back for reconsideration. The nation asserted in the documents that the NEB had an obligation to determine whether the Canadian government discharged its duty to consult and, if necessary, accommodate the band. Ottawa needs to hear loud and clear that they cant just run roughshod over aboriginal rights and title. That era has come and gone, said Chief Ian Campbell in an interview. Trans Mountain, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Canada, wants to triple the capacity of its existing pipeline from oilsands near Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C., to 890,000 barrels a day. The NEB undertook a two-year review that heard from 35 indigenous groups and 400 interveners before issuing its report and positive recommendation, subject to 157 conditions, in May. Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government has delayed its final decision on the $6.8-billion project until December to allow for additional indigenous consultation. The Squamish Nation said its traditional territory covers 6,732 square kilometres, including parts of Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster and all of North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Whistler and Squamish. These boundaries encompass Howe Sound, Burrard Inlet and English Bay. The nation said in the court documents that the project would include a substantial expansion of infrastructure and shipping in these areas, including a new pipeline along a new route to a terminal in Burnaby and a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet. It said Trans Mountain did not consult with the Squamish Nation in any way about the location of the project in its traditional territories. Campbell said the potential for a spill from increased tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet poses a grave risk to his bands traditional fishing and marine activities. Not enough research has been done on the behaviour of diluted bitumen spills, he added. A spokeswoman for Trans Mountain, the only named respondent, said the company is currently reviewing the notice of application. The NEB confirms in its report that Trans Mountain has met the expectations with regards to Aboriginal consultation and there is sufficient evidence about the fate and behaviour of oil, said Ali Hounsell in a statement. Ultimately, the NEB weighed all the evidence and recommended the federal government approve the expansion. The Squamish Nation granted conditional approval to a liquefied natural gas project in Howe Sound in October. The agreement means Woodfibre LNG must meet a number of environmental and cultural conditions issued by the First Nation. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation in North Vancouver has also mounted a court case arguing the energy boards process of reviewing Trans Mountain was unlawful. The board streamlined the process to meet time limits set by the previous Conservative government and ditched oral cross-examination in favour of written questions and answers. The NEB was unable to comment Thursday. It has previously said that the evidence was thoroughly tested and the projects impact on aboriginal interests was carefully considered. Should the project proceed, Trans Mountain would be required to continue its consultation with potentially affected indigenous groups throughout the life of the project. Follow @ellekane on Twitter. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Foam chickens. Backpacks. Lip balm. Cufflinks. Baby bibs. Fake tattoos. The list reads like a bad yard sale but its actually just a few of the promotional items on offer from various government of Canada departments and agencies. Conservative Arnold Viersen, the rookie Alberta MP for Peace River-Westlock, requested a comprehensive breakdown of promotional materials through an order paper question in the House of Commons. A woman takes a photograph while holding a Canadian flag during a citizenship ceremony in Vancouver, B.C., on July 1, 2009. The Immigration department spent $36,300 on some 330,000 Canadian flags, more than enough for every single immigrant to the country in 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck The response this week in both official languages weighed in at 199 pages, headlined by Heritage Canadas $1 million spent between Nov. 4, 2015, when the new Liberal government took office, and April 22 of this year. The Heritage booty includes three million temporary tattoos, four million pins and 1.5 million paper flags. Farm Credit Canada, a self-sustaining Crown corporation that returns an annual dividend to Ottawa, spent $644,000 on promotional items that ranged from spongy stress-ball chickens, pigs and cows to winter jackets, barbecue sets and pocket knives. Spokesman Trevor Sutter said agri-business has been booming and credit competition intense in recent years, and promotional items are just part of the farm finance game. He also noted the Crown corporation earns back about 17 per cent of the cost of promotional goods through discounted sales to employees and partners. Considering its tourism marketing mandate, Destination Canada was a relative promotional piker, spending just $168,622 the biggest single item being $31,000 on calendars for 2016. And most government departments either spent nothing at all or a tiny fraction of the big players. Viersens office said the MP hadnt yet fully digested the order paper response and wasnt prepared to comment Thursday. Heres a breakdown of some of the more notable listed items: Lips are sealed at the Canadian Security Establishment with their promotional lip balm (500 units, $810), while 300 CSE Rubik cubes keep wits sharp, a bargain at $2,445. For nervous nukes, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission spent $1,509 on Nuclear Watchdog fidget toy dogs and $420 on colour-changing mood pens. What else could bring tears of gratitude to a librarians eye than Library and Archives Canadas 4,000 promotional eye glass wipes? Health Canada bought 644 baby bibs to help promote immunization. The Immigration department spent $36,300 on some 330,000 Canadian flags, more than enough for every single immigrant to the country in 2016. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions spent $20,400 on 425 Fugitive backpacks for a clean getaway. Among the $149,328 in promotional items purchased by the diplomats at Global Affairs Canada were neck ties, cuff links and tie tacks but also Canada-logo temporary tattoos, perhaps for a bit of street cred. Finance Canada spent $427 on promotional cuff links for 12 male ministers attending a finance ministers meeting, and $23.38 on a brooch for the lone female minister. Cathy Bennett, Newfoundland and Labradors finance minister, might want to check the math on that one as it appears she received just 66 cents on the mens dollar. Follow @BCheadle on Twitter Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. OTTAWA Canadians suffering intolerably from non-terminal medical conditions can no longer seek medical assistance to end their lives, thanks to a restrictive new federal law enacted Friday shortly after appointed senators bowed to the will of the elected government. Bill C-14 was given royal assent less than two hours after senators voted 44-28 to accept the controversial legislation, which limits the right to assisted dying to those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable. The Senate had amended the bill to include those who arent terminally ill, but the Commons voted Thursday to reject the change. Rather than kill the bill outright or insist on the amendment and bounce it back to the Commons once again, a majority of senators gave up Friday and accepted the governments version of the bill. I am convinced the government is making a serious and cruel mistake by taking away the right to medically assisted dying from a group of patients, those who are not terminally ill and yet suffering terribly, said newly appointed independent Sen. Andre Pratte. But the government will answer to the people for that error and hopefully in the not too distant future the courts will remedy that mistake I believe we have worked well and done all that we could to warn the government of its error. Some other senators, who are morally opposed to assisted dying and would have preferred an even more restrictive law, also voted for the bill in the belief that a law governing assisted death is better than no law at all. Non-terminally ill Canadians have had the right to an assisted death since February, when the Supreme Court gave the government an additional four months to craft a new law in response to its landmark Carter decision a year earlier that struck down the ban on assisted dying. In the interim, the court allowed those who met the eligibility criteria laid out in Carter to seek judicial approval for medical help in ending their lives. In Carter, the Supreme Court directed that medical assistance in dying should be available to clearly consenting, competent adults with grievous and irremediable medical conditions that are causing enduring suffering that they find intolerable. The Trudeau government has taken a much more restrictive approach in C-14, which allows assisted dying only for consenting adults in an advanced stage of irreversible decline from a serious and incurable disease, illness or disability and for whom natural death is reasonably foreseeable. People facing years of excruciating suffering won the right to assistance in dying in the Carter decision, said Josh Paterson, executive director the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, a plaintiff in the Carter case. The governments bill will trap patients in intolerable suffering and takes away their hard-won charter right to choose assistance in dying. Independent Liberal Sen. Serge Joyal, who authored the amendment to delete the near-death proviso, tried one last time Friday to remedy what he sees as a fatal flaw that will eventually lead to the legislation being struck down as unconstitutional. He moved an amendment that would have seen the bill enacted except for the reasonably foreseeable death provision, which would have been suspended until such time as the Supreme Court ruled on its constitutionality. That amendment was defeated by a vote of 42-28, with three abstentions. Nevertheless, numerous senators continued to urge the government to refer the bill to the top court, to test whether its restrictive eligibility criteria complies with the charter of rights and the Carter decision. Clearly, this bill will be challenged, said Conservative Senate leader Claude Carignan, arguing that its immoral to force grievously ill individuals to launch expensive court challenges that could take years before theyre resolved by the Supreme Court. If the federal government doesnt take it upon itself to test the constitutionality of the new law, independent Liberal Sen. Terry Mercer argued that some desperately ill individual and his or her family will have to go through hell and likely go broke to determine if they have the right to an assisted death. Weve done that to them today, he said. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has repeatedly rejected referring the bill to the Supreme Court. And in a joint statement Friday with Health Minister Jane Philpott, she reiterated her contention that C-14 is consistent with the charter of rights. The legislation strikes the right balance between personal autonomy for those seeking access to medically assisted dying and protecting the vulnerable, the ministers said. It gives dying patients who are suffering intolerably while in decline on a path toward death the choice of a medically assisted death. The Canadian Medical Association, which has strongly supported C-14, said it was pleased that historic federal legislation on medical aid in dying is now in place. Already have an account? Log in here HALIFAX - Nova Scotia's population is the highest it has ever been, with Ottawa attributing the increase mainly to new immigrants, including Syrian refugees. We need your support! Local journalism needs your support! As we navigate through unprecedented times, our journalists are working harder than ever to bring you the latest local updates to keep you safe and informed. Now, more than ever, we need your support. Starting at $4.99/month you can access your Brandon Sun online and full access to all content as it appears on our website. or call circulation directly at (204) 727-0527. Your pledge helps to ensure we provide the news that matters most to your community! Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. EDMONTON The federal government is cutting Alberta an initial cheque for about $300 million to help pay for firefighting costs and support to evacuees following the destructive wildfire in Fort McMurray. Veterans Affairs Minister and Alberta MP Kent Hehr said the advance payment from the federal-provincial disaster assistance agreement will be in Albertas hands by early July. This is the quickest turnaround ever getting money out the door to support the rebuild of a community that has been affected in the way that Fort McMurray has, Hehr said Friday after a meeting of federal and provincial ministers in Edmonton. The money is just a first instalment, said Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larrivee. At this point, in terms of what is eligible, we expect (the total) will be in the range of $615 million. There likely will be some unexpected expenses along the way, she said. I want to thank the federal government for their tremendously swift response and support and for their commitment today to expedite the advance payment. Hehr said the payment is based on a preliminary audit of damage caused by the fire. Alberta has already said that the cost of fighting the blaze and fixing the damage will run into the billions of dollars. Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said many of Albertas costs will be 90 per cent covered by Ottawa. He added some expenses such as the environmental cleanup of contaminated ash and debris are still being tallied and the total assistance under the program could go higher. It will take some time to calculate the damages caused and then, under the formula, the way in which the costs are apportioned, he said. Whatever is required to be paid under the formula will in fact be paid. Nor will the assistance program be the provinces only source of federal funds, Goodale said. There are other government initiatives, in terms of what Services Canada will do, what the employment department will do, what infrastructure can do and so forth, all in addition. There will be a whole range of other government departments federally and provincially involved in this process to bring the maximum relief effort possible. The federal government is also providing $90 million to match relief donations made to the Red Cross in May. Alberta is spending $30 million to match donations made in the province. The two governments are now working together with the Red Cross to figure out the best use for those matched funds. The fire was burning away from Fort McMurray when high winds on May 3 caused it to make an abrupt about-face and race towards the city. More than 80,000 people had to leave their homes as the flames cut through several neighbourhoods. About one-tenth of the citys buildings were destroyed. Residents started returning earlier this month. Many found their homes still standing, but others were faced with a wasteland of ash and toxic debris. Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960 Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. FREDERICTON An Ontario-based company that pays people to donate blood plasma a practice banned in two provinces is set to make New Brunswick its next centre of operation, fuelling an ongoing ethical debate. Canadian Plasma Resources is looking to western and Atlantic provinces, including New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, after legislation in Ontario shuttered their two clinics in Toronto in 2014. Paid plasma donations are also not allowed in Quebec. Company CEO Barzin Bahardoust said at least 80 per cent of plasma protein products in Canada are imported from jurisdictions that compensate plasma donors. So to me the compensation is not really an ethical question as long as the donor is informed and consents and the patients that receive these products are aware of where they are coming from and how they are manufactured, he said. Donors can give plasma once a week, and Canadian Plasma Resources gives them either a charitable tax receipt or a reloadable gift card in the amount of $25. But the issue of paying people for their donation raises an ethical question and is stirring some strong opposition. The idea of commodifying a part of a person in this way is quite repugnant, said David Coon, leader of the New Brunswick Green party. Coon supports maintaining a voluntary system of blood and plasma donation through Canadian Blood Services. The same holds for organs, tissue, for sperm, for eggs and this would be a dramatic departure from that if New Brunswick permits this to go ahead. Both Ontario and Quebec have outlawed it and for good reasons in my opinion, he said. New Brunswick Health Minister Victor Boudreau said he welcomes a Canadian Plasma Resources clinic as long as it meets all the regulations set by Health Canada. There are other provinces, Manitoba allows paid blood plasma clinics as does Saskatchewan and there are other provinces in discussion with Canadian Plasma Resources as well, Boudreau said. Coon wants the issue debated in the legislature, but Boudreau said theres no need for that. There is no law in New Brunswick that prevents itWe currently purchase plasma that was paid for in the U.S. I find it a little hypocritical if were saying we cant pay Canadians to collect plasma, but we can pay Americans to collect plasma, he said. But Francoise Baylis, a professor and Canada Research Chair in bioethics and philosophy at Dalhousie University in Halifax said there are many, including the World Health Organization and the Krever Commissions report on Canadas blood system that would disagree with Boudreaus stance. Is this same government prepared to start paying people to donate their organs because we have lots of Canadians that could benefit from organs, same as we have lots of Canadians who would benefit from blood and plasma? Where do you want to draw the line? Baylis asked. I am a defender of the altruistic system and I would not support the payment for anything whether it be sperm, eggs, blood, plasma, etc. The World Health Organization has argued for 100 per cent voluntary, non-remunerated donations by 2020. Why would Canada be pulling in the opposite direction? Baylis said. In 2014, Deb Matthews, who was Ontarios health minister at the time, said legislation to prohibit paid donations was intended to preserve the integrity of the provinces voluntary blood and plasma donation system. Blood plasma is the yellowish fluid that remains after red and white blood cells and platelets are removed. Fresh plasma is used for transfusions while processed plasma is turned into a variety of pharmaceutical products. Plasma collected in Canada is sent to the United States for processing and then purchased back from American companies as end products. Canadian Plasma Resources now has a clinic in operation in Saskatoon. Bahardoust said a New Brunswick clinic, likely in Moncton, would have 30 donation beds and create 40 full-time jobs. Bahardoust said he has not asked for any financial assistance from New Brunswick, but has been dealing with Opportunities New Brunswick which often provides payroll rebates for new jobs created. We are hoping that we will qualify, but nothing has been finalized at the moment, he said. Bahardoust said once a site is selected it should take about six months to get it ready and get approval from Health Canada. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. LANGLEY, B.C. When air cadet Richard Knopp was helping to build a replica World War One biplane with other volunteers, he imagined what it was like to sit in the pilots seat 100 years ago. Knopp learned to fly a modern aircraft last summer and the 18-year-old realized his predecessors cockpit was much more narrow and lacked a glass shield, leaving the pilots with nothing but goggles for protection. Its hard to imagine doing that. You stick your head out the window of the car and you feel that (air), then imagine going twice as fast and 3,000 feet up. Hows the wind up there going to feel? he reflected while gazing at the biplane inside a Langley, B.C., airplane hangar. A flight museum in Langley, B.C., unveiled a replica of a First World War fighter plane on Friday June 17, 2016, with plans for it to soar over Vimy Ridge on the infamous battle's 100th anniversary. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tamsyn Burgmann It was like seeing history come alive. Knopp joined other volunteers Friday for the unveiling of one of two replicas they constructed as part of a World War One commemoration project called Wings of Courage. A squadron of former Canadian military pilots is planning to fly the biplanes over the Vimy Memorial in France next year, on the infamous battles 100th anniversary. The pilots are honouring Canadas heroism and loss in a bloody clash that saw more than 10,000 Canadians killed or wounded in April 1917. We want Canadians to pay close attention to the sacrifices that were made 100 years ago, said Tim Joyce, president of Sound Venture Productions, which partnered on the project with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. It was funded in part by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage. We have a whole generation of Canadians who have no living memory of the First World War. Our project is aimed at creating a legacy to resound through generations from here on in. The primary role of the fighter pilot during World War One was to protect reconnaissance planes passing over enemy lines to collect intelligence for maps, he said. Joyce announced that the groups were gifting the fully functioning replica 1916 Sopwith Pup biplanes to the Canadian Museum of Flight in Langley. A large garage door lifted slowly to the skirl of bagpipes, revealing the red-and-green painted craft to a small crowd of enthusiasts. Two separate small planes soared above the tiny airfield in celebration. About 20 adults and six teenaged Royal Canadian Air Cadets are still constructing the Pups, named Phyllis and Betty after two sisters of Joe Fall, one of the historic fighter pilots. They are replicas of the planes that the pilot from Nanaimo, B.C., flew when he was recorded as shooting down 36 planes during the war. The story that we got was the pilot was always accused of being a womanizer, and of course he went along with the story and wouldnt admit they were his sisters, lead builder Ray Fessenden said with a chuckle. Fessenden, a helicopter mechanic, said it took a lot of time and head scratching to build the copies, because the team began with only a very basic structure obtained in Missouri. Parts, including aluminum tubing and sheet metal, were trucked to B.C. last November, he said. The originals were mostly made of wood and the design itself was simple, he noted. Fessenden, 72, said he plans to travel to Vimy next year if his health holds up. Ill just be happy to see these things flying. Its the satisfaction of being a Canadian, he said. These were flown by Canadian pilots and I look at the sacrifice that was made in that area in World War One. I think, Would I want to be there? Absolutely not. So (Ill feel satisfaction) just in recognition of those guys who were there. Follow @TamsynBurgmann on Twitter Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Last week was Festival Mondial de la biere in Montreal and being the beer geek I am, I went. Some of you are saying, But Cody, youve written about your trips to Montreal several times already! Yeah, I have but this time its all about the festival. My original intent was to showcase the top beers at Mondial that you can find in Manitoba, but honestly, Central Citys Red Racer IPA doesnt need any more publicity at this point. Its almost always sold out at local Liquor Marts and vendors, and not only that, the Red Racer we get in Manitoba is several months fresher than the stuff they get in Quebec. Mondial de la biere is one of the largest beer festivals in the world, with an attendance of more than 100,000 each year. This year the festival happened to be going on during Montreal Formula One Grand Prix, so I really wouldnt be surprised if attendance soared past 150,000. Mondial had special imported beers from as far away as Brazil and local beers from local brewpubs as close by as a few blocks down the street. Some of the non-Quebec breweries that made an appearance at the festival include Beaus Brewing out of Ottawa, Bomber Brewing out of Vancouver, Rogue Ales out of Oregon and a good amount of Labatt/Molson subsidiaries such as Labatts Goose Island and Mill Street as well as Molsons Mad Jack, Creemore Springs, Granville Island and Rickards. To me, it was the Quebec variety of beers that lured me in. While Unibroue no longer makes an appearance, Quebecs super popular breweries Trou du Diable, Dieu du Ciel, Brasserie Dunham and Les Trois Mousquetaires all had hopping beer stations with very long lines. But once you paid $4 in tickets to get a four-ounce sample of a Belgian style saison, India Pale Ale or cask barley wine, its just all worth it. What made it even better is that two great friends actually had their own beers being sampled at the event. My buddy Alex, who took me on a craft beer trip all over southern Quebec on Saturday, collaborated with the new brewpub Brasserie Harricana to create a rich, hop forward double IPA simply called 42 easily one of the top beers of the festival for me. It was floral, with lots of fresh pine and citrus notes, very reminiscent of a West Coast style IPA One of my other friends, David, a popular beer podcaster/blogger in Montreal, has his beer La King Cogne Rye IPA on tap at a Quebec Oktoberfest booth. David recently wrote an article in Quebecs go-to beer magazine Bieres et Plaisirs discussing the top beers hes had in his life. He said Half Pints Le Temps Noir was the best outside of Quebec beer he ever had in his life all thanks to me, as I introduced it to him three years ago. My absolutely favourite beers and treats I had at Mondial has to be the Barleywine Germanique Cask by Les Trois Mousquetaires, a delicious, creamy, raisin/dark fruit sweetness of a barley wine that just loves to tingle your palate and belly at the exact same time. Saint-Maurice by Trou du Diable was an amazing saison that ended up being a great refresher between beers, a bit carbonated, fairly light yet citrusy and tasty. Theres far too many beers from Brasserie Dunham to list that I fell in love with, but their Lassemblage No. 1 and No Tahoma Farmhouse Saison were frequently sampled by me. Aside from food, Mondial de la biere also had a great selection of food carts and stands ranging from gourmet pretzels, bison sausage, fresh cheese, barbecue, fresh baguettes and, of course, poutine! On the weekend Mondial also hosted Master Class seminars featuring people in the brewing industry discussing their craft, how craft beer has changed and even how wild and experimental strains of yeast are becoming more popular in the industry. The main seminar I went to was about finding the right hops in times of hop shortages by Brett Porter, the brewmaster of Goose Island Brewing. One thing I learned is that if you are home brewer or have a brewery/brewpub, become friends with the local hop farmers because theyre always wanting to produce hops that the brewers absolutely want, even the experimental varieties. To me, Montreal has a true beer culture but Winnipeg is quickly developing a craft beer scene that will influence a smaller craft beer scene here in Brandon eventually. Next weekend, June 24-25, Flatlanders Beer Festival is taking place in Winnipeg at the MTS Centre. The most exciting thing about Flatlanders this year is that all the new breweries that are opening up this summer are going to be using the beer festival to showcase the beers that they will be brewing once Winnipeg City Hall gives them the green light. Those new breweries include Barn Hammer, Nonsuch, One Great City and Torque. Barn Hammer is the only brewery of the four that is now brewing beer at their brewery site, while the others are still doing test batches. Ive had the pleasure of sampling early batches of Barn Hammer and Torque beers in the past and we are in for a real treat. Festival tickets range from $39.95 and $49.95 and can be purchased at Winnipeg Liquor Marts or through Ticketmaster. Finally, Coast to Coaster has been a huge success this year, to the point that some beers disappeared off the Liquor Mart shelves only a day or two after the event launched. If your local mart doesnt have the beer in stock anymore, I recommend checking out the Keystone Motor Inn or Victoria Inn vendors in Brandon, as well as the grocery stores in Austin, Carberry and Onanole. Cody Lobreau is a Canadian beer blogger who reviews every beer he can get his hands on as he believes that he should try every beer twice to get an understanding if its truly good or bad. BeerCrank.ca Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 17/06/2016 (2322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. I finally made it to the Prairie Firehouse for lunch a couple of weeks ago. And the waiting was on purpose, as I usually like to give any new place a few months to sort out the inevitable kinks that occur during the opening days of its existence. Anyway, Id heard mostly good things, and the reports grew increasingly more positive as time progressed. So when a friend suggested lunch out, I said, Sure. Lets go to the Firehouse. And am I ever glad we did! I was impressed by the inventive options on the food menu, and how very seriously they took my severe sesame and nut allergies, with the server reporting back about three times before we got things squared away as to what I was and wasnt going to be able to have and how theyd accommodate me. That, in and of itself, would have prompted me to go back, which I did just three days later with my mom. But what was extra impressive was the wine list. A wonderful selection of some of my favourite beverages and the prices were so reasonable. I was amazed! With that lunch, which was a delicious red pepper pesto chicken panini, I had a glass of the Trivento Golden Reserve Chardonnay from Chile (a lovely Chard Id not tried before but which I very much enjoyed). A nine-ounce glass was $13, which is pretty standard. But its when I got looking at the bottle prices that I was more than pleasantly surprised. You see, the Trivento sells for $19.99 at the Liquor Mart. And the Firehouse price for a bottle of the stuff was $34. And thats terrific especially when many places sell wine at more than double, sometimes even triple, the shelf price. Ive both lamented and lambasted proprietors many times for gouging their customers on wine, a sentiment shared by many of my wine-writing colleagues across the country. Anyway, it wasnt only the Trivento that was, in my opinion, a bargain. The subtle and elegant Quails Gate Chasselas, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris blend from the Okanagan wasnt available by the glass, but it, too, was $34 a bottle. It sells at the Liquor Mart for $18.99. And so it went. Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon $38 at the Firehouse, $22.99 at the Liquor Mart. The Post House Black Mail Merlot $34 at the Firehouse, $18.73 at the Liquor Mart. Frescobaldi Nippozzano Riserva Chianti Rufina $35 at the Firehouse, $19.99 at the Liquor Mart. The beautiful Meiomi Pinot Noir, $41 Firehouse, $25.99 Liquor Mart. Francis Ford Coppola Directors Cut Zinfandel, $51 Firehouse, $35.99 Liquor Mart. And to my delight, the Sophora Sparkling Rose, $35 Firehouse, $19.99 Liquor Mart. There were many more wines to choose from, but you get the idea. Basically, owner/operator Anna Dumas has added about $15 to her cost for the wine. And that, in my experience, is a rarity. This impressive wine list is absolutely delightful, and will prompt me to make regular trips to Firehouse to enjoy their spacious deck during the summer months. It was created, with plenty of input from Dumas, by Westmans only sommelier, Kate Wagner Zeke, whos my good friend weve known each other since we were 11 years old! Dumas, who has completed her Level 1 sommelier training, said her pricing was an honest attempt to make a profit but to not to rip off her customers while doing so. I did some research on corkage fees in Brandon and noticed that if you bring in your own (wine), its $20, so I thought if I went $5 under that, then it would make it even more appealing to people and encourage them to try new wines, Dumas said. And that was kind of my motivation behind it. The more I can encourage people in Brandon to drink good wine, the happier I am. And anything we offer by the glass, we offer people samples of as well so that they can taste it ahead of time and make sure theyre happy with the glass, so that were not pouring them a glass of wine theyre not going to drink or not be happy with or be upset with us because we poured it for them. Dumas is also allowing people to bring in their own wine for a $15 corkage fee, although with the fabulous selection she has, thats not going to be necessary very often. Im more than happy to accommodate Id never say no to a guest and I want to make every experience that they have at the Firehouse to be unique and fun and enjoyable, she said. And if that means bringing their own wine, then Im fine with that. To be fair, The Dock on Princess also has a reasonable wine selection at a fair markup, and The Dock supports the BYOW program, too. As well, its corkage fee is $15, although Dumas is right in that most other establishments at the few places that allow patrons to bring their own wine seem to charge a $20 corkage fee. But again, I urge you to try her selection, because its truly diverse and wonderful. And this is kind of a good news/bad news tidbit: Im in love with the current food menu I had a beautiful creamy seafood linguini when I visited there with my mother and am obviously crazy about the wine list. But Dumas plans to change up her establishments food, cocktail and wine offerings every six months May 1 and Nov. 1 to keep things fresh and innovative. Its going to be like a new restaurant every six months, she said. Anyway, for me, Prairie Firehouse has become THE place in town for wine. Congratulations to Dumas and her crew for providing an inventive and inviting experience. Ill see you again soon. Diane Nelson is a longtime journalist and former Sun staffer who really likes wine. A lot. vinelines.ca Twitter: @vinelinesbdn Let Me Tell You is a new bespoke podcast series from Hosts Daniel McConnell and Paul Hosford take a look back at some of the most dramatic moments in recent Irish political history from the unique perspective of one of the key players involved. The northside of Cork city was in mourning today after the tragic death of a young Mayfield woman in the Canaries writes Audrey Ellard Walsh. Named locally as Ramona Fagan, the 22-year-old woman from Ballinderry Park had travelled to the holiday island of Tenerife with a friend earlier this week. The facebook page of a young Cork woman who died in a holiday tragedy in Spain has been flooded with messages of sympathy and sadness. The 21-year-old from Mayfield in Cork died when she fell from a balcony in Tenerife on Wednesday. She was on holiday with friends. It is believed her body will be repatriated in the coming days. The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is providing consular assistance to the family. Her distraught friends took to social media to pay tribute to her, with one describing her as a gorgeous young girl with a contagious smile, while another said she was a sweet, beautiful and genuine girl. Meanwhile, Garda Ombudsman Commissioner Kieran Fitzgerald (pictured) remains in a coma in a Spanish hospital this morning. Mr Fitzgerald, who is a native of Glin in Co Limerick, fell from a wall onto rocks in northern Spain last week and was placed in a medically-induced coma. It is understood he sailed with friends from Dublin to Galicia where he was to meet up with his wife Evelyn - the couple had planned to walk part of the famous Camino de Santiago. But soon after he arrived in Spain, he is said to have felt faint before sitting down on a low wall where he lost his balance and fell onto rocks damaging his spine. He had surgery at a La Coruna hospital, but its understood complications arose. A former RTE reporter, he was named News and Current Affairs Journalist of the Year in 1999. He was appointed to GSOC in December 2011. His family are keeping a bedside vigil at his hospital in La Coruna. Update 5.30pm Gardai are treating "very seriously" a hoax bomb threat which was made at the offices of Limerick radio station, Limerick's Live 95fm, Friday afternoon, a senior garda has said writes David Raleigh. The threat was made in a telephone call to the Dock Road studios, around 2pm. Gardai were alerted to the building and carried out a search of the offices and studios. All employees of the company were evacuated as a safety precaution. "There was a call made to the studios alleging there was a bomb in the building and we asked everyone to evacuate while we carried out a search," said Superintendent Derek Smart, Henry Street garda station. "We are taking this very seriously," Supt Smart added. A number of hoax bomb threats have been made in the city in the past month, including at a bank and a school. They followed a series of hoax alerts across Ireland and England last May. Speaking at the time, Superintendent Smart warned anyone making hoax calls were in fact committing a serous crime. "It wastes valuable Garda resources and time," he said. "It also puts the people working in see buildings under severe stress and strain." He promised Garda would "do everything in our power" to apprehend the hoax callers. Earlier Gardai are investigating a bomb threat at the offices of Limerick radio station, Limerick's Live 95fm writes David Raleigh. The threat was made in a telephone call to the Dock Road studios, around 2pm this afternoon. Gardai were alerted and are currently carrying out a search of the building. All employees of the company have been evacuated as a safety precaution. "There was a call made to the studios alleging there was a bomb in the building and we have asked everyone to evacuate while we carry out a search," a Garda spokesman said. A number of hoax bomb threats have been made in the city in the past month, including at a bank and a school. They followed a series of hoax alerts across Ireland and England last May. By Elaine Loughlin, Political Reporter Taoiseach Enda Kenny has promised he will prioritise extending voting rights to Irish people living abroad. Speaking at the Irish World Heritage Centre in Manchester this morning Mr Kenny again expressed condolences to the family of murdered British Labour MP Jo Cox. Its appropriate to pay tribute to the life and times of Jo Cox who was murdered on the street in West Yorkshire, a mother of two young children going about her business as any councillor or MP or public representative would do and to be shot down and taken away from her family and children is an appalling crime, Mr Kenny said. He said he would not be campaigning on Brexit as a mark of respect. However, he told members of the Irish community in Manchester that the government is now looking at giving a vote in the presidential elections to Irish emigrants. One of the priorities that I have asked the minister to look at and hopefully to be able to implement is the situation as far as emigrant voting is concerned in presidential elections. This is an issue that has been around for a very long time but there have been quite sophisticated advances made in terms of voting from abroad and we need to set out a terms of reference as to the conditions that would apply in terms of who should be eligible to vote. That will be a priority for the Minister for the Diaspora, Mr Kenny said adding that he would be seeking the input from Irish living abroad on the issue. He said: We will work towards assisting emigrant communities and situations abroad from Ireland in England, in America, in Australia and other areas. That means that we want to work in a closer way with the emigrant communities in Manchester, Birmingham, London, Liverpool, Scotland and so on. A man in his early 50s is due before the Special Criminal Court this afternoon, after being arrested yesterday in Central Dublin, as part of an ongoing operation targeting dissident republican activity. He was detained at Irishtown Garda Station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. Rosslare Harbour RNLI launched last night to four young men attempting a record-breaking row off the UK coast after they requested assistance in worsening weather conditions. They were brought to safety by Rosslare Harbour RNLI in a call out that lasted over six hours as the all-weather lifeboat towed the 24-foot rowing boat out of the channel and back to the safety of Rosslare harbour. The four young rowers have had to set aside their record attempt after setting off from Tower in London 10 days ago to row around the UK coast. After leaving London they came up through Bristol channel and out into the open sea. However the weather was worsening last night and they found themselves battling the elements 22 miles off the Irish coast. Conditions were fresh with a north north-westerly wind gusting 25 knots. It was then hey made the decision to contact the Coast Guard and request help. Volunteer lifeboat crew at Rosslare Harbour RNLI received the call at 6.15pm and launched in minutes. When on scene an hour later they checked if the young men were okay before establishing a tow and bringing the craft back slowly so as not to part the tow to the safety of Rosslare Harbour. The tow took six hours. The four rowers are currently being looked after in Rosslare before they decide on their next move. Commenting on the call out Rosslare RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager David Maloney said: "This call out was a good example of people recognising the importance of calling for help early when they realise they may be getting into difficulty. "The group were dealing with worsening weather conditions and a changing tide which was taking them further from where they needed to be, all while they were mid-channel on a record attempt." "If they had waited until things got worse and help was not close enough, it could have ended very differently. I have no doubt they will achieve any records they set their mind to in future." Medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders has said it will no longer seek European Union funding in protest against the EU's migrant deal with Turkey. Doctors Without Borders' secretary general Jerome Oberreit said the organisation "will no longer request funds from the EU and its member states". Investigators have started analysing the cockpit voice recorder from an EgyptAir plane that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea last month, killing all 66 people on board. An official said on Friday that the so-called "black box" arrived in Cairo from the crash site overnight. LAHORE: To improve the distribution of provincial resources and bring transparency to the budgeting process, the... LAGOS: More than 600 people are now known to have perished in the worst floods in a decade in Nigeria, according to... Canberra is taking over Foxtel's series production. First it was through the city itself in political thriller Secret City, and now it's through the talent in new show The Kettering Incident. The eight-part mystery thriller tells the story of Anna Macy, played by Elizabeth Debicki, who leaves her home town at 14 shortly after her best friend disappears. Matthew LeNevez and Henry Nixon in Foxtel's The Kettering Incident. Credit:Showcase She returns 15 years later, and theories and rumours still persist about what happened to the girl, from Anna killing her to alien abduction. While the show is set in Tasmania, the main men are played by Matthew Le Nevez, well-known for playing Dr Patrick Reid on Offspring, and Henry Nixon who both spent their school years in Canberra. Police are calling for witnesses to a crash that injured an elderly man in Canberra's south on Thursday morning. Officers said two cars collided at the intersection of Drakeford Drive and O'Halloran Circuit in Kambah about 10am. Police are seeking witnesses to a crash in Kambah on Thursday morning. Paramedics later transported a 79-year-old man to hospital. Anyone who saw the crash is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or via the Crime Stoppers website at www.act.crimestoppers.com.au. "Your days are numbered." Those are the words a Tuggeranong man charged with threatening to kill allegedly uttered after telling his partner had already paid for her funeral. The man, 51, allegedly grew angry and began to make a series of threats when he returned home to the woman and their young child after he had a few drinks with a colleague last Friday night, court documents said. He became agitated when he couldn't find his reading glasses, accusing the woman of having someone at the home while he was out. The man allegedly called her a slut and told her: "You're nothing but a two-dollar whore." Canberra's overstretched youth mental health service has been without a federal funding increase for four years, a committee has heard. Headspace is trying to stretch existing resources to cope with an rising demand for its services. Demand for the service has grown by 10 per cent each year, and is receiving 160 to 200 referrals each month Disturbingly, at-risk young people are facing a wait time of up to eight weeks to get proper help in some cases. Despite the increasing demand, Headspace has not had a funding increase since 2012 from the federal government. Deutsche Bank Chairman Paul Achleitner has become the latest global banking leader to warn about the potential fallout if UK voters decide to leave the European Union. A yes vote next week to so-called Brexit would be an "economic disaster for the UK and a political disaster for the EU," Achleitner said at a dinner on Wednesday in New York hosted by the American Council on Germany. During his speech, he drew a contrast between public opinion polls, which point to a vote to leave the EU, and gambling odds, which reflect a preference to remain politically and economically attached to the continent. Achleitner also lamented the growing strains of populism in the US and Europe and the regulatory pressures, which he said are preventing many European banks from making loans and stimulating economic activity. But he reserved his strongest words for the Brexit vote. "London bookies and the betting industry are still in the 'remain' camp," he said. "I hope they're right, because if it works the other way, it's an economic disaster for the UK and a political disaster for the EU." The Australian Securities Exchange on Friday took the rare step of rejecting an initial public offer, telling loss-making music streaming company Guvera it would not accept its shares. In a statement on Friday, the ASX said it "exercised its discretion to refuse admission, based on material contained in Guvera's application for admission". It said the specific reasons for the refusal were confidential. Blocked: The ASX has nixed Guvera co-founders Claes Loberg and Darren Herft's IPO plan. Credit:Wayne Taylor Guvera said in a statement it was reviewing its legal options and obligations and would offer more information to the market when it was more informed. It also said that the ASX has offered a meeting next week to discuss its decision. The music streaming company, which competes with Apple, Spotify and Pandora Media, said on June 1 that it planned to raise up to $100 million selling shares to bankroll an ambitious expansion in developing markets. As state after state has legalised marijuana in one way or another, big names in corporate America have stayed away entirely. Marijuana, after all, is still illegal, according to the federal government. But Microsoft is breaking the corporate taboo on pot this week by announcing a partnership to begin offering software that tracks marijuana plants from "seed to sale", as the pot industry puts it. Microsoft has teamed up with LA start-up Kind to offer software that tracks marijuana plants from "seed to sale". The software - a new product in Microsoft's cloud computing business - is meant to help states that have legalised the medical or recreational use of marijuana keep tabs on sales and commerce, ensuring that they remain in the daylight of legality. But until now, even that boring part of the pot world was too controversial for mainstream companies. It is apparent now, though, that the legalisation train is not slowing down: this US autumn, at least five states, including the biggest of them all, California, will vote on whether to legalise marijuana for recreational use. Thirty-five billion dollars. $35,000,000,000. Nine zeroes. That's how much Microsoft has paid, in Australian dollars, for the social networking site LinkedIn. Yes, LinkedIn the site that clogs up your inbox with those nagging requests to approve connections, and then when you ignore them, it sends an even more nagging follow-up. The site that once tricked a friend of mine into spamming her entire contact list, meaning that the networking she accomplished was a series of grovelling apology notes. The site packed with more crude self-promotion than a morning with Kyle and Jackie O. Even LinkedIn's slogan, "Connect to opportunity", is nauseating. But it's now worth so much that if everybody in Australia tipped in $1000, we'd still be $10 billion short. If you haven't used LinkedIn, imagine Facebook if every user had their boss looking over their shoulder the entire time, so that instead of sharing amusing distractions, they instead raved about their passion for generating shareholder value. The approach helps to identify more accurately the economically optimal setback line both now and in the future once climate change-related impacts such as rising sea-levels are taken into account. Rosh Ranasinghe, a former NSW coastal engineer, has studied the state's beaches for more than 15 years including the frequently hit Collaroy-Narrabeen stretch to develop new risk maps that can put a dollar-value per square metre of exposed properties. As coastal councils brace for another hammering of their beaches over the weekend, new research methods are emerging that could help local communities assess the threats from beach erosion. "To avoid millions of dollars of damage in the coming years, I would strongly recommend that coastal risk and [optimal setback lines] be determined urgently for at least the 15 identified hotspots in NSW," Professor Ranasinghe, now with the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in the Dutch city of Delft, said. (See below for his estimate of the most at-risk sites in Collaroy-Narrabeen.) Works at Collaroy beach earlier this month to shore up the collapsed foreshore after the recent east coast low. Credit:Peter Rae The setback line marks the region beyond which the risk of damage faced by any property is too great to justify the economic gain the property might potentially provide, he said. By extension, the formula would Indicate which protective measures, such as a new seawall, would be justified if their expected return exceeded their cost. Professor Ranasinghe said his modelling is being applied to places such as Kenya and Sri Lanka. Apart from Sydney's northern beaches, he recommends Stockton, The Entrance and Byron Bay be priority sites. A spokeswoman for Planning Minister Rob Stokes said the government's new coastal management bill including the upcoming State Environmental Planning Policy that would trigger the act addresses issues raised by the new modelling. Liberal MPs pay the company $2500 a year in taxpayer allowances for use of its voter-monitoring software. Parakeelia in turn has transferred large amounts, exceeding $1 million over three years, into party accounts, giving rise to accusations the party is profiteering from public money. Mr Shorten sharpened his attack on questions about the Liberal party's relationship to a software company that it owns, Parakeelia Pty Ltd. Bill Shorten has accused Malcolm Turnbull of "using Senator Sinodinos' defence" over the Parakeelia scandal, claiming it was "inconceivable" that Mr Turnbull, as Liberal Party treasurer, did not know about profits from the controversial software firm. Mr Shorten said it was "inconceivable" that Mr Turnbull, who businessman Ron Walker says was slated to succeed him in the company and as Liberal Party Treasurer in 2002, didn't know the arrangements between the party and the software firm. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says it is inconceivable that Malcolm Turnbull did not know about the Parakeelia arrangments when he was Liberal Party treasurer. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "Now Mr Turnbull became the treasurer of the Liberal Party. It is inconceivable that when you are the national treasurer of the Liberal Party but somehow you don't know anything about this as far back as 2002? It is inconceivable," Mr Shorten said. "How on Earth can the Treasurer of the Liberal Party be banking profits from a company that the Liberal Party owns and you don't know what's going on? "It sounds like Prime Minister Turnbull is using Senator Sinodinos's defence: 'I may have been the treasurer, I just didn't know what was going on'." More than 220,000 Australians cast ballots in the first three days of early voting for the federal election, well above the 183,000 who voted in the first week of pre-polling for the 2013 election. Experts and the Australian Electoral Commission expect up to a third of voters could avoid polling places on July 2, but early voters will be asked which eligibility criteria they meet in order to vote early. Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers told a briefing at Parliament House on Friday that the 2016 poll would be one of the largest peacetime events in the nation's history, with 5 million NSW ballot papers to be counted in a single location. In a debate that was considerably punchier than the first two, at times turning testy, Mr Shorten said an Australian plebiscite on same-sex marriage could produce an upswell of homophobia. Mr Shorten made the remarks in the third federal election debate, in which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gave the strongest sign yet a re-elected Coalition would once again try to deregulate university fees . Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has linked the planned plebiscite on same-sex marriage to the Orlando massacre and the murder of British MP Jo Cox, suggesting the campaign could "give haters the chance to come out from under the rock". "I don't believe that people's relationships and love for each other need to be submitted to a public opinion poll. And I think that we've seen two terrible events in the past week that show that hate and extremism does exist in modern societies," Mr Shorten said. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten makes a stern point during the Facebook debate in Sydney. Credit:Andrew Meares "I don't want to give the haters a chance to come out from underneath the rock and make life harder to LGBTI people or their families, to somehow question the legitimacy of their relationship." Asked by the moderator Joe Hildebrand whether he really thought that an Orlando level of hate could come out of an Australian plebiscite campaign, Mr Shorten did not downplay his previous remarks but said he did not understand why "kids whose parents are LGBTI should have to go to school and see stupid posters on the walls, or be subjected to taxpayer-funded advertising campaigns". Mr Turnbull, who supports same-sex marriage, has inherited from his predecessor Tony Abbott - who opposes it - a policy to hold a plebiscite rather than have Parliament decide the matter. Mr Shorten has pledged to introduce a bill for the Parliament to vote on within the first 100 days of a Labor government. An Australian study has found there is one trait which drastically increases a boy's chance of having close female relationships. According to a study by the Australian Catholic University's Institute of Positive Psychology and Education, teenage boys who possess high levels of empathy are 1.8 times more likely to have close female friendships than their peers with low levels of empathy. An Australian study has shown empathetic boys are more likely to have close female friendships. Credit:Getty Images The study, which was published in the Journal of Personality, involved almost 2,000 Year 10 students across 16 high schools. Participants were asked to rate their own empathy level through responding to a series of statements such as "when someone is feeling down, I can usually understand how they feel", and "I can often understand how people are feeling even before they tell me". Worse, the study finds that these sort of blind peer-to-peer shares are really important in determining what news gets circulated and what just fades off the public radar. So your thoughtless retweets, and those of your friends, are actually shaping our shared political and cultural agendas. Now, as if it needed further proof, the satirical headline's been validated once again: According to a new study by computer scientists at Columbia University and the French National Institute, 59 percent of links shared on social media have never actually been clicked: In other words, most people appear to retweet news without ever reading it. 59 percent of links shared on social media have never actually been clicked: In other words, most people appear to retweet news without ever reading it. Credit:Stocksy Nearly 46,000 people shared the post, some of them quite earnestly - an inadvertent example, perhaps, of life imitating comedy. On June 4, the satirical news site the Science Post published a block of "lorem ipsum" text under a frightening headline: "Study: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting." "People are more willing to share an article than read it," study co-author Arnaud Legout said in a statement. "This is typical of modern information consumption. People form an opinion based on a summary, or a summary of summaries, without making the effort to go deeper." To verify that depressing piece of conventional internet wisdom, Legout and his co-authors collected two data sets: the first, on all tweets containing Bit.ly-shortened links to five major news sources during a one-month period last summer; the second, on all of the clicks attached to that set of shortened links, as logged by Bit.ly, during the same period. After cleaning and collating that data, the researchers basically found themselves with a map to how news goes viral on Twitter. And that map showed, pretty clearly, that "viral" news is widely shared - but not necessarily, you know, read. (I'm really only typing this sentence for 4 in 10 people in the audience.) The researchers made a few other telling observations, as well: Most clicks to news stories, they found, were made on links shared by regular Twitter users, and not the media organisation itself. The links that users clicked were much older than we generally assume - some had been published for several days, in fact But most interesting, for our purposes, is this habit of sharing without clicking - a habit that, when you think about it, explains so much of the oft-demoralising cesspool that is internet culture. Among the many phenomena we'd tentatively attribute, in large part, to the trend: the rise of sharebait (nee clickbait) and the general BuzzFeedification of traditional media; the internet hoax-industrial complex, which only seems to be growing stronger; and the utter lack of intelligent online discourse around any remotely complicated, controversial topic. This year, ELTHAM College, an Early Learning to Year 12 school in the green wedge of Melbourne's outer north-east, initiated "Think ELTHAM", a program for young people in Grades 4-8 who live anywhere in Melbourne. Students were invited to the college to learn a new skill taught by ELTHAM College students who are in Years 7-12. Principal Simon Le Plastrier says the program, which will run again in 2017, is "a part of our commitment to the local community, and our desire to provide further learning opportunities for our young people". Principal Simon Le Plastrier believes schools have a responsibility to encourage students to be good people. Each year level at the college offers unique curriculum choices, such as its Year 9 program in which students spend four days a week at a city campus. During this time, students undertake a range of experiences and tours designed, in part, to expose them to urban environmental and community issues. The development of life skills is promoted in a safe and supportive environment and close bonds form between teachers and students. Steve Dunn, the former deputy chief executive of the NSW maritime authority, told the Supreme Court on Friday Mr Obeid called him "immediately before" he took on the job at the agency in August 2007. A former top bureaucrat has told Eddie Obeid's criminal trial the then state Labor MP did not reveal his family had an interest in two Circular Quay cafes when lobbying him about the plight of harbourside tenants. Mr Dunn said his memory was "fairly sketchy" but Mr Obeid had also made phone contact "within days" of him starting in the role. The pair had met each other while Mr Dunn was the director-general of the fisheries department and Mr Obeid was the minister. Mr Obeid, 72, is accused of wilful misconduct for failing to reveal to Mr Dunn his family had an interest in two cafes on wharves four and five at Circular Quay when lobbying Mr Dunn about the retail leases in 2007. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge. The Crown has suggested Mr Dunn was "primed to be receptive" to Mr Obeid because the pair had a rapport. The court has heard tenants on the wharves were seeking a renewal of their leases without competing in a public tender. A Queensland MP has called for further protections for domestic violence victims after one of his constituents was sued by her former partner for telling her story. Rob Pyne used a private member's statement in the early hours of Friday morning to highlight the case of Susan Prince, who performed in a social theatre piece based on the real stories of more than a dozen victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. Rob Pyne. Credit:Chris Hyde While promoting the play, which was partially funded by Arts Queensland and regional councils and toured across 17 regional Queensland towns including Mr Pyne's electorate of Cairns, Mr Pyne said Ms Prince commented in an interview that she "related to her character as she had an abusive husband". "This man, whom Susan divorced in 1983, is now taking Ms Prince to District court for defamation," Mr Pyne said. In 2011, the PNG supreme court ordered him to stand down in favour of Michael Somare, an order with which he simply refused to comply. But ONeill also possessed his own reasons for signing the deal. Australia remains [PNG]s most important international partner, it explains, providing an estimated US$460m in development assistance for 2013-2014. Australia provided an additional $556.7m this financial year to support the Manus Island detention center. IN ITS report for 2015, Human Rights Watch lists the financial inducements offered by the Australian government to make the Manus Island deal happen. The agreement with Australia, the regional power, thus provided him with international legitimacy. By promising to deliver refugee resettlement (a plan that was, right from the outset, unpopular in PNG, ONeill made himself indispensable to Canberra, on the basis of the he-might-be-a-son-of-a-bitch-but-hes-our-son-of-a-bitch principle so beloved of US presidents). There was no secret about what that meant. A few days after shaking Rudds hand, ONeill boasted that hed achieved what he called a realignment of Australian aid in PNG. Since then, Professor Jason Sharman, a money laundering expert at Griffith University, has repeatedly warned that Canberra has privileged the maintenance of the detention centre over the fight against corruption. The government sends signals, he told the Guardian, often reflecting media attention, as to what it wants investigated. Various people have flagged PNG corruption proceeds in Australia as a problem, not least elements of the PNG government and law enforcement as well as the AFP and Austrac, but the Australian government under both Labor and the Coalition has chosen not to investigate, and recently Manus has been a big reason for inaction. Two years ago, anti-corruption police issued a warrant to arrest the prime minister over a million-dollar fraud involving the company Paraka Lawyers. ONeill responded by disbanding the corruption taskforce and installing his own handpicked police chief. Last weeks student demonstration was part of an anti-corruption campaign, seeking to force ONeill to comply with basic democratic principles. But the vicious brutality of the PNG police has a context, too and, again, the links to Australia are telling. The Manus Island deal entailed a contingent of Australian Federal Police officers training the Royal PNG Constabulary (RPNGC). In late 2015, an AFP whistleblower told the ABC that the Australian government was turning a blind eye to the corruption and police involvement in extra-judicial killings, for fear that the detention centre might be closed. The RPNGC were essentially murdering people, raping people, burning villages down, he said. Hed seen local police commit horrific crimes, he explained, but his reports had been ignored by his superiors. What we soon noticed was that anything that painted the government of PNG with corruption, or the RPNGC with their brutality, murder and rape was being sanitised, he said. The AFP said it had reviewed reports from the officer and hadnt found any matters requiring further action. Its not simply that successive Australian governments, keen to keep the Manus deal alive, do not want to antagonise the PNG government. Its worse than that. In the final analysis, the Australian facility on Manus Island relies on coercion to keep asylum seekers detained. Thats why, ever since it opened, it has built a relationship with the most notorious of the PNG police units. In 2013, for instance, Rory Callinan reported: Papua New Guineas most thuggish paramilitary police unit allegedly responsible for rapes, murders and other serious human rights abuses is being discreetly funded by the Australian Immigration Department to secure the Manus Island asylum seeker detention centre. The Mobile Squad officers, who just last month beat a local man to death on the island, are receiving a special living-away allowance of about $100 a day from funding provided by the department. In February 2014, when detainees began to protest, the Mobile Squad played an important role in quelling the demonstration. As Human Rights Watch explains: During the incident, many detainees sustained injuries and one detainee was beaten to death. Police allegedly entered firing their guns when violence broke out inside the facility. This is not an anomaly. Rather, its an illustration of how an Australian program thats only possible because of the weaknesses of a post-colonial society continues to exacerbate those weaknesses. Think, for instance, of the secrecy endemic in the refugee policy. On Tuesday, Mathias Cormann boasted that barring journalists from the detention centres was a necessary element of the programs success. What effect does that have on a country like PNG where, as Freedom House says, press freedom has been eroding in recent years? Or what about the rule of the law? After the supreme court ruled the detention centre to be illegal, ONeill agreed that it should be closed a welcome adherence to the separation of powers by a politician with a dubious record of obeying such rulings. But, as Daniel Flitton recently wrote, the Turnbull government looks to have persuaded PNG to keep the camp open until after the Australian election. In other words, in the context of the struggle taking place between students risking their lives to uphold democratic principles and a regime willing to flout the courts, the Turnbull government has persuaded PNG to delay implementation of a supreme court ruling. You can read the full text of this important article here The conventional wisdom in Washington was that the court would agree to let some of the rules slide, but not all. Analysts predicted that the three judges in the case David Tatel, Sri Srinivasan and Stephen Williams would throw out an attempt by the FCC to apply its rules to cellphone data as well as regular, fixed home broadband. But in the end, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit granted even those provisions. Remind me again what these rules are for and what they look like? In a nutshell, they're aimed at making sure the internet stays an open platform and that cable and telecom companies can't use their position in the marketplace to unfairly benefit themselves and shut down competition. More specifically, the rules come in several parts. The first part contains a series of total bans on certain kinds of tactics things like blocking or slowing down the websites you're trying to reach while favouring the sites that a telco may own or have a commercial relationship with. These flatly aren't allowed under what the FCC calls its "bright-line rules". Then there's a provision that allows the FCC to investigate suspicious ISP activity, under what it calls a "general conduct standard". Essentially, if the agency thinks a certain practice may run afoul of the rules, it can go after it on a case-by-case basis. There's a part of the regulation that tries to extend these expectations to mobile phone carriers, which we've already briefly discussed. And underpinning it all, making it the case's biggest point of controversy, is the decision to regulate ISPs like legacy phone companies. Without this one move, all the rest of it comes falling down, because it's this provision that legally enables the FCC to put the other rules in writing. How did the industry try to attack the rules? And what did the court say in response? This is where it starts to get challenging, but we'll tackle this together. In order to start regulating ISPs like phone companies, the FCC had to announce that it was doing so. It basically said, "Hey, for a long time we've treated you as one kind of business, which we call an 'information service'. Now, in order to stick you with these new consumer-protection requirements, we're going to start calling you a 'telecom service'." Each kind of business lives under different rules, but the ISPs liked living under the old rules, so they tried to fight the decision to reclassify them. The industry claimed that internet access was really an "information service" because of all the features that providers tacked on to the pipe carrying your web traffic. This includes things like free email addresses, web portals and the like. ISPs and their supporters argued the FCC didn't do enough to justify its regulations. And, they said, in writing such sweeping regulations the FCC went beyond what Congress had allowed it to do when the agency was first created. A few other FCC opponents said the rules represented a First Amendment violation, basically because internet providers make "speech" when they decide how to carry internet traffic over their networks. And they also claimed the regulations would put a chill on ISPs' investment in network upgrades, resulting in a worse experience for consumers. The court decided not to take up the last of these arguments, saying it was beyond its responsibility, focusing instead on the first few. It said the FCC had the power to change how it wanted to classify different industries. And it gave a pass to the FCC's analysis that explained why the rules were necessary, using a legal doctrine known as 'Chevron' that typically affords "expert" agencies a degree of leeway. You said many people thought the rules for mobile carriers were going to be thrown out. What happened? Suppose the court had upheld the part we were just talking about reclassifying internet providers but rejected the FCC's attempt to extend the rules to mobile carriers. We'd be living in a very interesting world. Your internet usage on your PC and laptop would be covered by net neutrality, but the mobile data on your smartphone or tablet would not. And more and more people are shifting to mobile meaning that this divergence in regulation would become increasingly apparent. That's not what will happen now. The court ruled that the FCC can indeed apply the same rules to mobile phone carriers as to providers of cable internet, creating a single regime across different technologies. ISPs had argued that mobile internet access is fundamentally different from wired internet access. It belongs, they said, in a special category under FCC rules that gets them out of having to obey the reclassification affecting wired internet providers. The court disagreed, essentially saying mobile data does fall into the same category as regular, fixed internet. What happened to the First Amendment argument? The First Amendment challenge to the FCC goes something like this: in carrying speech-like content over their networks such as videos or blog posts, ISPs can be said to be "speaking" when they agree to transmit that content. Any rules that infringe on their ability to do that amounts to an attack on free speech. What's more, ISPs sometimes make editorial decisions about what content to provide to consumers, which makes them a bit like newspapers. The court disagreed. Telephone networks carry other people's speech, but that by itself doesn't make phone companies First Amendment "speakers", the judges ruled. And, it said, newspapers are different from internet providers in that newspapers are constrained in what they can fit on the page, whereas internet providers aren't limited in "the range of potential content they can make available to subscribers". Even if an ISP really did decide to "curate" the sites a customer could see on the internet, the court said, it wouldn't, by definition, be an internet provider anymore because a true internet provider gives users access to all points on the web. A 22-year-old man has been charged and placed behind bars following the alleged abduction of a two-year-old girl in Dandenong North on Friday. Police received reports that a girl had been taken from her mother, while they were on Carlton Road about 8.50am. A man is being questioned over the alleged abduction of a two-year-old girl in Dandenong North. "The person who took the child, a 22-year-old man, is believed to be the child's father," Victoria Police spokeswoman Natalie Webster said. Ms Webster said the man left the area with the child in a white Holden station wagon. "The vehicle was sighted in Murrumbeena and a pursuit was then initiated," she said. "Police continued to follow the car. However, it had a minor collision and got stuck in traffic on Malvern Road, Malvern East, about 11.30am." Ms Webster said police arrested the man, of no fixed address, and the child was recovered safe and well. He was interviewed by detectives and charged on Saturday afternoon with offences including evading police, reckless conduct, threats to kill, theft of a motor vehicle and dangerous driving. A man who stabbed the mother of four of his children to death in broad daylight offered to plead guilty to her murder, but on one crucial condition that prosecutors drop evidence he was the one with the knife. As Craig McDermott, 40, sat stony-faced in the Supreme Court dock on Friday, his lawyer called on Justice Jane Dixon to consider the"meaningful" offer his client made before his trial, as a sign he accepted responsibility for Fiona Warzywoda's death. Fiona Warzywoda, who was murdered by former partner Craig McDermott. McDermott's offer can now be reported after a jury last month found him guilty of murdering Ms Warzywoda, 33, outside a Sunshine shopping centre at lunchtime on April 16, 2014 the day after a court denied him access to the four children they had together. Defence counsel John Desmond told the court on Friday his client had been prepared to plead guilty to murder had prosecutors conceded he did not have the knife when he first confronted his ex-partner. Before his dismembered limbs began floating to the surface of the Maribyrnong River last year, few people outside Brendan Bernard's circle had heard of him. The 32-year-old Melbourne man's short life had been marked by hardship, and he had struggled with drug addiction and periodic homelessness. But on Friday there were cries of glee in the Victorian Supreme Court as Mr Bernard's housemate, Matthew David Brennan, and two other men, Con Spaliaras and Edward Lionel "Nippy" Hill, were found guilty of Mr Bernard's murder. A woman wept, and family members embraced as the jury announced its unanimous verdict. While the high tides off the coast Bali have subsided in recent days, tourists have been warned to stay alert at beaches and seaside tourist venues with more big waves expected next week. After WAtoday this week published terrifying footage of giant waves hitting popular coastal venues on the island, tourists from Western Australia made contact to tell about the frightening scenes they encountered. The dangerous tides damaged buildings in the southern region and left two tourists dead in Sanur. The unusual spring tide left renowned restaurant The Rock Bar at Ayana Resort deserted and damaged, while patrons at Ku De Ta, the most popular hub for Australians partying in Seminyak, were repeatedly sprayed with water from massive waves during one onslaught last week. Pregnant women are being advised to consider postponing travel to Indonesia with the Australian government updating its travel advice to warn the country is experiencing sporadic transmission of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The virus has been linked to a surge of microcephaly - a devastating birth defect that has seen thousands of babies in Brazil born with unusually small heads and often severely compromised. On its smart traveller website, the Australian government says it advises all travellers to Indonesia to protect themselves from mosquitoes. London: British Prime Minister David Cameron's high-stakes decision to let the British public decide whether the country stays in the European Union looks increasingly like a bad bet, with his party veering into civil war, the polls pointing toward an exit and the Conservative leader's job appearing ever more precarious. Just a week before Britain votes, the prime minister's hope of settling once and for all the country's long-simmering European question with a resounding vote to stay in the EU may be out of reach. Surveys show the country is almost exactly divided, with momentum in recent days for "out." If Britain does vote to leave - a scenario popularly known as Brexit - analysts say that Cameron would probably be forced to resign, perhaps within hours of the result. Hong Kong bookseller disappearances spark widespread anger and alarm Beijing: One of the five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing late last year has provided an explosive account of his detention and mistreatment by Chinese authorities in the case widely regarded as the most serious violation of Hong Kong's autonomy by Beijing since its handover from British rule. In a gripping press conference on Thursday, two days after his return to the city, Lam Wing-kee described an ordeal which included being accosted by 11 people after he crossed the mainland border into the southern city of Shenzhen in October, being blindfolded on a cross-country train ride to coastal Ningbo, and coming under sustained interrogation while being held incommunicado in a small room for months. "I was handcuffed and my eyes were covered," Mr Lam said of the train ride. "It took about 13 or 14 hours. I noticed I was taken to Ningbo because I glimpsed the station when we got off the train." First, in what seems like politics as usual, Mr O'Neill has been able to ensure that the one body that can dislodge him more or less instantly has remained supine. But what if something else is going on? Is it possible that Mr O'Neill's current problems with allegations of corruption are a mere sideshow and not the main game? THOSE of us who have watched events play out in Papua New Guinea over the last several months have, I suspect, believed that we were observing politics as usual in the land of the unexpected. The members of parliament who ought, by any normal standards of behaviour, to have tossed him out of office have remained resolutely fixated on the contents of the trough in which their snouts are busily snuffling up public money. At least one member has been honest enough to admit that as long as they can carry on in this way Mr O'Neill will remain essentially impregnable. Just to double down on keeping his parliamentary base under firm control, formal sittings have been suspended and will not resume until it becomes constitutionally impossible to remove Mr O'Neill in the run up to the next scheduled election. Second, the Royal PNG Constabulary has been effectively neutralised by the judicious appointment of a sympathetic Commissioner who, in turn, has been able to play on existing divisions within the force to disrupt and disable those honest officers who are still trying to pursue the corruption allegations against Mr O'Neill. The recent shooting of university students is symptomatic of an ill disciplined force more intent on neutralising a perceived threat to public order than to preserving the democratic right of citizens to protest against political actions they dislike. Third, if recent reports are to be believed, the PNG Defence Force is quietly being infiltrated by large numbers of recruits whose primary allegiance may not necessarily be to an abstract concept like the nation state of PNG but to a much more real and tangible entity, being their highland homeland and, of course, its leaders. If this is actually happening, then it must be with the knowledge and consent of those doing the recruiting and this, one might reasonably infer, could not happen without the senior officers knowing about it. Such a strategy in relation to the composition of the Defence Force could prove to be a master stroke in the long run. It is a tried and tested approach in Africa, where ensuring that the military has strong tribal links to the political leadership ensures that the army, at a minimum, remains neutral in any political conflict. At best, it gives an entrenched regime an armed group of enforcers to suppress dissent and keep social order. Having the army composed primarily of wantoks overcomes one of the principal problems with trying to exert control over such a diverse country as PNG, because it allows the government to reliably project military power across the country. Potential opponents remain divided along traditional lines while the army is a unified, disciplined force whose members have a vested interest in maintaining the political status quo. Fourth, with effective control of the public service, police and army in its hands, the government is able to ignore or otherwise sideline the judiciary. Basically, a court can issue whatever orders it likes to no real effect if the coercive arms of government choose not to enforce them. There have already been allegations that some judicial officers may be compromised. If this is true, then the task of ensuring their acquiescence to the government's will becomes so much easier. It is therefore possible that Mr O'Neill is actually pursuing a much more sophisticated strategy to entrench himself and his cronies in power than any of us may have previously imagined. If so, he is simply using the well proven African model for subverting critical state institutions and disempowering potential political opponents. There is the appearance of democracy where none actually exists. Of course, critics might well say that I am quite delusional and seeing a Machiavellian conspiracy and plotting at a level of sophistication that simply cannot exist in PNG. Despite this, I think that the scenario I have outlined is at least plausible. The veracity or otherwise of my speculations will become evident over the next 12 to 18 months. For what it is worth, my prediction is that Mr O'Neill and his closest parliamentary supporters will be easily returned at the next election and he will once again become prime minister, creating a government based upon mutual self interest and, perhaps, some judicious blackmail as well. Far too many people in positions of power and influence are now far too compromised to be able to plausibly resist either inducements or threats. As the police say, once you are bought you stay bought. If I am right, PNG will fall under the control of a cabal of mostly highlander MP's, whose primary allegiance will be to the pre-eminent "big man", whose judicious distribution of the perquisites of high office will ensure that they and others remain firmly under his influence if not outright control. Of course, their wantoks will prosper, while the others languish, but this is truly the Melanesian Way. I hope to be proved completely wrong, but fear that I will not be. In an address on state-run Iraqiya television, Mr Abadi said security forces had fulfilled their promise by returning the city "to the homeland", adding that "pockets" of resistance remained. Thousands of civilians fled across the Euphrates River as Iraqi forces raised the national flag over the government complex in Fallujah and seized complete control of other key buildings including the hospital. Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has proclaimed victory over the Islamic State in Fallujah after a day of rapid advances that drove militants from the city centre on Friday, the most significant development in a four-week offensive to retake the city. "They are in control of a portion of the city," US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters at the Pentagon. "It's too early to say all of the city." Iraqi security forces celebrate in central Fallujah, Iraq, after fighting against the Islamic State militants. Credit:AP Fallujah's fall to the Islamic State in late 2013 marked the start of the group's rise in Iraq. Its ability to keep hold of the city, around 65 kilometres to the west of the capital, Baghdad, has been seen as a major test of the Islamic State's staying power. At the same time, the city's recapture is critical for a government trying to reassert territorial sovereignty and launch an offensive on the jihadist group in Mosul, to the north. "While the capture of Fallujah would inflict a heavy blow on Islamic State, it is quite early to declare a victory there," said Nihat Ali Ozcan, a strategist at the Economic Policy Research Foundation in Ankara, Turkey. "The battle to retake larger Mosul will be even more difficult, and could prove to be a real challenge." The offensive against Fallujah began on May 22, and while much of the fighting in surrounding villages was carried out by Shiite militias with Iranian military advisers, the assault on the city itself fell to Iraqi government forces backed by air support from the U.S. and allies. St Petersburg: President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he accepted the United States was still the world's only superpower, saying he was ready to work with whoever won the White House. Mr Putin's comments follow a rocky period in US-Russia relations, which have been undermined by disagreements over issues such as Ukraine and Syria. The Russian president reiterated criticism of what he said was the misguided role of the United States in Ukraine's affairs and said he did not want to be told how to live by Americans. He opposed what he cast as US efforts to prevent Russia repairing its relations with the European Union. Latest News Westpac joins Home Guarantee Scheme Help for home buyers starts mid-2023 CBA-owned stockbroker acknowledges court decision relating to systemic compliance failures A total remediation of $6.5 million has been paid to affected customers Banning trail commissions would have dire consequences on the mortgage broking industry, brokers have proclaimed, with some admitting they would consider leaving the sector.Kim Hall, director of Smart & Simple Mortgage and Finance Consulting on NSWs Central Coast, who attended the FBAA National Tour yesterday, told Australian Broker she is concerned by Steve Westons caution that trail commissions could be banned under ASICs remuneration review. Especially because she doesnt believe upfront commission will be adjusted as a result.At present, broker remuneration is a mix of upfront commission and trail commission. Abolishing trail commission would essentially be a cut to total remuneration, as I dont believe there is any proposal on the table to increase upfront commissions to compensate for the amount of trail that would be lost if it were banned, Hall said.I think its fair to say that an overall cut to remuneration would be a concern for anyone regardless of which industry theyre in.Mardee Thomas, mortgage broker at 1st Street Home Loans in Sydney said axing trail commissions would have harmful effects on consumer outcomes.I think the biggest issue will be that it will promote mortgage churning, whereby brokers will move a client from one lender to another for the purpose of obtaining additional remuneration, with little-to-no regard for what is in the clients best interests, she told Australian Broker.But because of this, however, Thomas said she doesnt believe ASIC will ban trail.According to Hall, there is a false perception that trail commission is income for nothing.Unfortunately there is a perception that trail is money for nothing, its not, its deferred remuneration paid on a monthly basis for continuing to look after that client on an ongoing basis.Good brokers invest a lot into the ongoing client relationship, they are often at the clients beck and call well after the loan settles, and they also invest a lot into their business to continually improve the client experience.Hall told Australian Broker she would even consider leaving the industry if there were any drastic changes recommended by the review.Depending on the actual outcome of the review, exiting is a possibility if the numbers no longer stack up. But thats the same as any industry; people do not stay in business if its no longer viable, she said.Thomas told Australian Broker that she would consider adopting a fee-for-service model to remain in the industry.I definitely wouldnt consider leaving the industry as I really enjoy what I do and work with a wonderful group of people, though I believe we would then have to implement a fee-for-service for our clients requirements regarding ongoing support. A judge has ruled that a New York man fatally poisoned more than a decade ago by his wife will not have to stay buried in a plot she owned and is poised to be buried in after she died in prison over the weekend. Authorities say 48-year-old former Weedsport resident Stacey Castor died Saturday morning. She was convicted of killing her husband with antifreeze and trying to kill her daughter in a similar fashion. Castor was serving 51 years to life in a state prison when she died. Stacey Castor was convicted in Onondaga County Court in 2009 of killing her second husband, David Castor, in August 2005 and trying to kill her daughter, Ashley Wallace, with an overdose of prescription drugs and vodka in September 2007. Castor was never charged in the death of her first husband, Michael Wallace, but Onondaga County prosecutors introduced evidence that she poisoned him, too, as they built their case against her in the death of her second husband. Michael Wallace, 38, was thought to have died from a heart attack on Jan. 11, 2000 in Weedsport. But after the death of David Castor, investigators in Cayuga County exhumed the body of Michael Wallace and ruled his death a homicide caused by ingesting ethylene glycol. A state Supreme Court justice ruled Wednesday that the family of her husband, David Castor, can move his body from his Owasco plot to another plot in Clay, near Syracuse. The ruling also allows his gravestone to be destroyed, which memorializes him as "Husband of Stacey R." Wallace is also buried at the same cemetery in a plot Stacy Castor owned. latest news October 3, 2022 Dee Gambit Hundreds if not thousands of new and returning TV shows and movies are released every month your options of what to watch are endless. Variety, they say is ... In 1707, England and Scotland put aside their quarrels and, along with Wales, were united as a new nation called Great Britain. Britain began to focus on building its colonies, and New York saw great growth over the next century. The city of New York began the 1700s with 4,983 residents. By 1790, it would have nearly seven times that many people. Meanwhile, more European settlers were coming to the southern parts of New York, along the Delaware and Hudson and on the shores of the Mohawk River. Most of the people who came to the colony were settlers looking for a new life in the New World, but many were not. The Dutch had allowed slavery, but now the British actively encouraged it, and thousands of Africans were kidnapped into slavery and brought to New York by traders. By the middle of the century, a third of the people who came to the colony were African slaves, and they made up a quarter of those living in the city of New York and the surrounding area. Another group, however, came to escape slavery: The Tuscarora, people from the Carolinas related to the Iroquois, had been in a war with European settlers there. Many were killed, but many others were captured and sold to the plantations in the islands of the Caribbean as slaves. In 1722, a large group of Tuscarora came to the Longhouse asking for help and a safe place to live. The Iroquois welcomed them, and the Five Nations became the Six Nations. The Tuscarora were called The Little Brothers of the Cayuga and made a town for themselves between the lands of the Oneida and the Onondaga. During the 1700s, European-style homes began to be built in the Iroquois towns, as the longhouses slowly disappeared, along with the old technologies and old ways of dressing. Before the old ways were gone, however, the Iroquois finally had the chance to unite with their British brothers of the Covenant Chain against their old enemies. In 1754, the two nations united against the French and Algonquin and, when the French and Indian War ended seven years later, France had been defeated and Canada, too, was a colony of Great Britain. The next war, however, had an unhappy ending for the Longhouse. When the American colonies revolted against Britain, the Iroquois were divided over which side to support, or whether to stay out of it entirely. After the French and Indian War, the Iroquois had made an agreement with the British government, the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, which placed a line just east of the Finger Lakes region. The eastern side was British and the western side was Iroquois. But settlers ignored the line and built farms on Iroquois land. There was serious fighting between Indians and Europeans, though most took place west of New York. The British promised the Iroquois, that, if they helped them win or didnt fight at all, the treaty would be kept when the Revolution was over. The Patriots made the same promise. Some Iroquois came in on the British side, others sided with the Patriots and many stayed neutral. But, when the war ended, the United States rewarded the veterans of its own army with land, and, in New York, that land, the Military Tract, was two million acres taken from the middle of the Longhouse. The Onondaga and Cayuga were given reservations in the middle of the Tract, but most of that, too, was later taken from them. But, if most of the land that made up the Longhouse is gone, the People of the Longhouse are still here, and each of the Six Nations has its own government that makes agreements with New York State and the U.S. government. And wherever land has changed hands, the names that remain provide clues to our history. Our state was named for the Duke of York, and its capital for the Duke of Albany, and towns with names like Kingston also show the influence of England on our history. And if a town was settled by the Dutch, it, too, may have been named for a prominent political figure like Peter Stuyvesant, or for the people who settled it, like the van Rensselaers, or for a place back in Holland like Amsterdam, Breuckelen or Haarlem. But often, settlers kept the Iroquois and Algonquin names by which those places had been known for thousands of years. There are also many towns, especially in the Mohawk and Genesee Valleys and out to the Niagara Frontier, that have Iroquois names because they were towns of the Longhouse, like the Mohawk village of Canajoharie or the Seneca town called Cheektowaga. Newer towns with newer names have stories to tell as well, and it doesnt take much digging to find out that there have been far more than four nations involved in building New York into what it is today. Its not all history, either: People still come to New York today, just as they did 400 years ago, from other countries and other lands. As youve read, there have often been difficulties and broken promises as new people have come to this region over the past four centuries. People were not perfect then, and they are still not perfect today. But among the stories of quarrels and misunderstandings, there are also stories of welcoming, and of people working together to do their best. That is history. The story of the future is yet to be told. Research News UB, VCAMP partner to accelerate health care software startups By JULIE MOLENDA The Buffalo Institute for Genomics and Data Analytics (BIG) at UB is partnering with VCAMP, a private venture fund-backed digital health accelerator, to form a lean startup health care software venture accelerator that will assist in the universitys regional economic development efforts. This partnership is a great example of how UB can leverage its extensive resources world-class faculty, specialized facilities and equipment, and well-trained students to support the new startups in our community, says Christina Orsi, associate vice president in UBs Office of Economic Development. Its about much faster, responsible access, adds David Thiemecke, managing director of VCAMP. The partnership streamlines processes for startups to engage with world-class resources in Buffalo at a much earlier stage. With BIG as a partner, health care, safety and wellness software startups can build on tomorrows tools and expertise, says Brian McIlroy, BIG executive director. BIG will offer in-kind packages that include leading-edge capabilities and consulting services, secure high-performance computing, storage, visualization, networking and health care data that will improve the companies growth potential. VCAMP plans to recruit five to 10 pre-seed-stage health care, safety and wellness startups per year to Buffalo for a 14-week accelerator program to determine the validity of their software products. VCAMP provides a new way for our communitys health care delivery system to solve problems and innovate, Thiemecke says. Successful pilot outcomes complete a key step in the life of young, high-growth companies before they begin to scale. The accelerator program also will create UB-sponsored opportunities for undergraduate and graduate student internships and expert mentoring, bringing the startup culture deep within the UB experience. This partnership builds on UBs support of entrepreneur activity by offering students hands-on experience with startups and making New York State Hot Spot or STARTUP NY tax incentives available to the VCAMP companies. This is one of many exciting new partnerships UB is forming to accelerate the growth of technology startups, Orsi says. Interested startups, investors, mentors and corporate partners can contact VCAMP at info@vcamp.co or visit its website. VIP Polymers is pleased to announce the appointment of Craig Burkitt as its new marketing manager. With previous experience in the automotive, and more recently the building industry with Ridgeons, Mr Burkitt brings experience of a sector that is a highlighted area of growth for the company, notably with the VIPSeal range of flexible couplings. Mr Burkitt said: VIP Polymers is a highly respected brand within the pipeline, tunnel and rail industries both in the UK and overseas. Ive been very impressed with the manufacturing facilities at the Huntingdon site and Im looking forward to working on building the brand across the various product ranges. The Welsh government needs to urgently engage with the construction sector regarding how the UK-wide apprenticeship levy will be invested back into training and skills in Wales, according to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) Cymru. Responding to a statement from the Minister for Skills and Science on apprenticeships, Ifan Glyn, director of FMB Cymru, said: The Welsh Labour government committed to a 100,000 apprenticeship target over this Assembly term, which is a laudable ambition that recognises the need for more skilled workers in Wales. Whats key about this ambitious figure is that quantity does not come at the cost of quality, which means providing proper funding for apprenticeships. Unfortunately, the Welsh construction sector is in limbo over how much financial support there will be for training over the next five years, as the Welsh government is still unclear about how much funding it will receive from Westminster as a result of the UK-wide apprenticeship levy. Though this owes much to the manner in which the UK government has imposed this new levy, there is urgent need for a commitment from Welsh government that funding levels will at the very least be maintained, as the current situation is creating the kind of atmosphere which businesses hate most one of uncertainty. Mr Glyn asked for assurances from the Welsh government that every penny received through the new apprenticeship levy is funnelled back into funding training, so that the industry can secure the high quality apprenticeships that it needs. He reported that SMEs are concerned that if the level of funding on offer from Westminster is less than anticipated, the quality of training will be sacrificed in order to maintain numbers. Higher taxes, trash pickup? Many special questions await voters Nov. 8 They're sometimes easy to miss, but many South Jersey communities have special questions before voters on their Nov. 8 ballots. The Onondaga County Sheriff's Office has identified the victim in a deadly crash in the town of Skaneateles. Deputies said 81-year-old William Blewett, of Skaneateles, was killed Wednesday after his truck struck a utility pole on New Seneca Turnpike. Blewett was driving a dump truck westbound on New Seneca Turnpike between Lucinda Drive and Knightsbridge Road at around 12:06 p.m. when the truck left the road, struck a culvert and became airborne, investigators said. According to the sheriff's office, Blewett was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of the crash is under investigation. US-based on Friday said it had witnessed a 250 per cent year-on-year growth in bringing new sellers on board, as it looks to tap into the booming e-commerce market in India. The company, which is making multi-billion dollar investments in India, has about 85,000 sellers on board. We started with 100 sellers three years ago and now we have about 85,000 sellers growing at 250 per cent year-on-year and adding nearly 90,000 products a day, an India spokesperson stated. Amazon, which competes with the likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal, has cut its commissions by 25-30 per cent across categories such as mobile phones, PCs, electronic devices and personal care appliances. We think these revised rates can significantly help sellers to perform even better and succeed in their business. In addition, we continue to innovate and offer best in class services such as Fulfilment by Amazon, Easy Ship, Seller Flex, etc, to help them with fulfilment/logistics, so that they can focus on their business, the spokesperson said. Flipkart, on the contrary, had recently increased its commissions across key segments and asked sellers to bear the costs of logistics in case of returns. Recently, Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos had said the company will invest $3 billion in India. This is in addition to the American e-commerce giants $2-billion infusion in 2014, taking its total investments here to over $5 billion. The funds will be channelled towards enhancing customer and seller experience, Amazon India managing director Amit Agarwal had told PTI. India is a key market for Amazon and we will work towards continuing to reduce operating costs for sellers backed by good logistics and fulfilment capabilities, he had added. Indian exports of automobile components declined in 2015-16, after five years of growth, down 3.7 per cent to $10.8 billion against $11.2 bn in FY15, when these grew 10 per cent. Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app. Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006. Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more. Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them. 26 years of website archives. A consortium of Indian state-owned oil firms, including Oil India (OIL), Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Bharat Petro Resources (BPRL), has signed a final sale-purchase agreement (SPA) with Russias national oil company Rosneft to acquire 23.9 per cent stake in its subsidiary, JSC Vankorneft, that operates the Vankor oil field in East Siberia. The Centre on Friday asked the Maharashtra government to quickly auction the Rs 6,000-crore of assets attached as part of the probe into payments scam-hit National Spot Exchange (NSEL), to refund the investors. Bengaluru-based online income tax returns filing service has raised $12 million in series A funding led by Ravi Adusumalli of SAIF Partners. The company plans to utilise the funds to hire top tier engineering talent from Silicon Valley as it looks to build out its product portfolio. wants to hire 100 engineers and put in place a leadership team as it plans to expand its services beyond helping people file their income tax returns. It will soon roll out products for consumer and business taxation, tax savings and Investments. Binny Bansal, chief executive officer of Flipkart, has brought back key hand as head of categories, as he looks to strengthen his leadership team and fend off an attack from rival Amazon. WASHINGTON These weeks were destined to be the last chance for Brexit, as the days dwindle down to the historic June 23 British referendum on leaving the European Union. The fierce arguments pro and con have been mutually mustered; the strident voices on both sides are now even more strident; and the rest of Europe is looking at "this royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle," with all the understanding George Washington might have drummed up for Benedict Arnold. Those who are FOR Britain's exit from the E.U. that "bureaulith" of Brussels that, in its formative years, was the butt of many jokes including being accused of insisting that condoms be of uniform size (the Italians complained they weren't large enough) essentially are arguing for Britain's "sovereignty." Not for them to forget that their little islands once constituted an empire on whose shores the sun never set! The anti-Brexit forces, not surprisingly, are English bankers, industrialists and most of the diplomats. This is no longer 1940, they argue, when Britain "stood alone." In today's world, every nation stands alone only at enormous risk. As the Financial Times editorialized this week: "The gains from pooling sovereignty speak for themselves. Britain joined the E.U. as the 'sick man of Europe.' Now its economic performance is among the best." Too bad, of course, that so much of the public conversation this week has not had to do with Brexit. Too bad that our airwaves have been dominated by still another horrific slaughter of innocents in America, this one in Orlando. Too bad -- because this new self-inflicted tragedy knocked Brexit off the front pages just when readers needed most to understand it, but also because Orlando had NOTHING at all to do with Brexit. Yet, I now find myself begging to disagree with myself. (I often do.) For when I think more deeply, I realize that Brexit and Orlando are actually two RELATED problems. Ones, moreover, that we foolish humans ignore at our peril. Think of this wisdom-challenged relationship in terms of two outstanding questions. First, why did 29-year-old Omar Mateen sweep into an LGBT club in the early morning hours of June 12, shooting like a madman and killing 49 innocent people? While mental instability and an inordinate hatred of outlier groups surely are part of the explanation, the fact that he was of Afghan heritage and at least claimed before he died that he identified with ISIS and Osama bin Laden should not be ignored. He was born in America, of Afghan refugees. But please note that his Afghan-born father, Seddique Mateen, only hours before the "Saturday Night Slaughter," posted a video on Facebook called "Provisional Government of Afghanistan." In it, Dad was dressed in Afghan army fatigues and pretending to be the Afghan president, ordering the police and intelligence to immediately arrest almost the entire American-approved government and get rid of them. The play's the thing. Second, what does all of this have to do with the fact that the British vote on whether to remain in the E.U. may sever Britain from the organization of 28 European member-states begun with great patience and wondrous hope after World War II? E.U. secretaries-general have told me repeatedly when I have visited Brussels headquarters: "The E.U. means there will be no more wars within Europe. It will be impossible with so many economic and financial ties between nations." Only one catch: Even though Britain, in its present agreement with the E.U., chose NOT to take part in the controversial Schengen agreement, by which national borders are abolished and people move freely from one nation to another, it still is being overwhelmed by immigrants, drawn by its blooming economy, by metropole London and by still-superior English laws and institutions. The problem is that Britain has thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Omar Mateens. The north of England smaller cities like Birmingham and Rotherham is overwhelmed by Pakistanis. If policies are to be judged by the empirical evidence we have at hand, then the story here is not a pretty one. British newspapers are finally telling the story of the 1,400-or-so English teenagers groomed, beaten, raped and sold as sex slaves, many by Pakistani immigrants. The events of last New Year's Eve in Cologne are also engraved in most European and British minds now. That was the night when refugees kindly taken in by Germany assaulted, raped and robbed hundreds of women in the very shadow of the city's sacred cathedral. It never stops: In the next step, Muslim "educators" are trying to take over schools in the north of England where they can have only Muslim education. Even in America, little-known, but dangerous new carriers of the radical Islamic thematic keep suddenly appearing, as out of nowhere. In Orlando itself, The Washington Times reported, radical Islamic scholar Sheikh Farrokh Sekaleshfar spoke earlier this year at the Husseini Islamic Center. In a 2013 speech he urged that gay people should be killed, according to Islamic law. "Death is the sentence," he reportedly said that day. "We know. There's nothing to be embarrassed about this. Death is the sentence. ... Out of compassion, let's get rid of them now." And, of course, there are the Omar Mateens, with his automatic gun, and of course, his dad, all dressed up and no place to go. There is no question from all the polls and surveys, from all the interviews and politicians, from the extreme hatreds involved that uncontrolled immigration, particularly when it involves cultures with institutions as different as Christianity's and Islam's, is at the root of both the Brexit fears and many of the repeated gun attacks in America. Is Britain going to leave, or is it going to stay? Is America going to take charge of its out-of-control immigration and its sick gun mania, or is it going to keep killing itself? A California-based start-up founded by an IIT-Delhi alumnus has been acquired by information technology giant . The firm, Wand Labs, develops messaging technology for applications. It was founded in 2013 by Vishal Sharma, who earlier was vice-president, products, at Google. The terms of the acquisition have not been revealed. It takes a step ahead in strengthening its position in combining the power of human language with advanced machines. This acquisition accelerates our vision and strategy for Conversation as a Platform, which Satya Nadella introduced at our Build 2016 conference, David Ku, corporate vice-president, information platform group, Microsoft, said. India-born chief executive officer (CEO) Nadella, during the Build conference in March, told thousands of developers that he envisages a technological future where computer software can learn human language enabling natural conversations with people. Wand Labs founder Sharma said it was an exciting time to be working in the area of semantics and conversation which Nadella has termed as the core of the future. Microsoft executive Ku said Wand Labs technology and talent would strengthen Microsofts position in the emerging era of conversational intelligence where we bring together the power of human language with advanced machine intelligence, connecting people to knowledge, information, services and other people in more relevant and natural ways. Describing Sharma as an experienced leader and entrepreneur in the field of search and knowledge, Ku said, Wands expertise around services mapping, third-party developer integration and conversational interfaces makes it a great fit to join the Bing engineering and platform team. One of the ways of reviving Nokia's beleagured factory in Tamil Nadu could be the Centre allowing defreezing of the factory by arriving at some conclusion on the income tax dispute, says a senior Tamil Nadu government official. Kolkata-based Infrastructure today completed its share swap deal with BNP Paribas, whereby Equipment Finance would become a 100% subsidiary of Infrastructure and BNP Paribas would acquire 5% stake in Srei Infrastructure. The company had announced the deal in December 2015. Amid demands from shareholders for bonus shares from Tata Groups crown jewel, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Chairman Cyrus Mistry on Friday saw one investor asking for sikkas a play on rival Infosys chief Vishal Sikka. Mistry, who brushed aside concerns that a lot of volatility prevailing in world markets could impact TCS, replied with a smile to each suggestion from shareholders at the companys annual general meeting, but gave only the customary answer the board will consider. The $110 billion, salt-to-software Tata Group derives half its revenues from outside India. Amid worries about volatile financial markets, the Tata group chairman also expressed hope that the rupee would remain stable on the back of the countrys improving macroeconomic fundamentals. The Indian economy is doing well and our current account balances are well. At least, I look forward to a stable rupee going into the future. We cant say exactly what will happen, he said. Many shareholders expressed concern over management compensation, while specifically pointing to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer N Chandrasekarans nearly Rs 36-crore package, nearly 460 times the median remuneration. The board is totally cognisant of the benchmark salary structure within the industry and has applied those. We think we have applied them appropriately, Mistry said. Several shareholders also asked for issuance of bonus shares while referring to the low amount of capital funds as compared to the cash balances and reminding the management about the approaching golden jubilee (50th year) of the firm. One of them even invoked the name of rival Infosys chief executive and asked for a few sikkas (meaning coins) from the company. Mistry said smilingly the board will consider such suggestions. He acknowledged that there is a lot of volatility in the world and Tata Sons largest company by profits, TCS, has multiple income streams spread across geographies and verticals to take care of the same. Calling Brexit exit of Britain from the European Union (EU) as an important question, Mistry declined to answer specifically about its impact. A referendum is due this month in the UK to decide whether Britain stays in the EU or not. Mistry further said he does not see any impact on the company's operations in Tamil Nadu as a result of the state government's decision to allow IT employees to unionise. On the USD 940 million claim by US-based Epic Systems alleging theft of trade secrets, Mistry said believes it has not misused any intellectual property of the American firm and is currently awaiting a judgement. Replying to a question on the lower provision despite the suit, Mistry said, "In the opinion of the company's legal counsel, the jury award is not binding, and it's currently assessed on the low possibility of the event." He sees the UK-based Diligenta, TCS' bet to expand in the insurance business, as having a good future from the long term perspective. JSW Steel, on Friday, said a US district court has released its subsidiary USA INC (JSWUSA) from any further liability to MM Steel in return for a payment of $54.8 million (around Rs 368 crore). "On June 16, 2016, the district court entered an order releasing USA INC from any further liability to MM Steel under the judgement in return for a payment of $5,48,52,478.24," said in a BSE filing. It further said: "This payment has been made and JSWUSA intends to seek review of the Fifth Circuit's decision by filing a petition for writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, which if successful, could result in the refund of part or all of the funds paid to satisfy the judgement." In December 2015, a district court in the US had asked a JSW Steel subsidiary to pay a $156 million (Rs 1,040 crore) fine, as it confirmed an earlier ruling by a jury in an antitrust case filed by a local steel distributor. MM Steel had sued its competing distributors and steel manufacturers, including JSW Steel, in 2012, claiming that its rivals had conspired to deprive it of supplies and that the manufacturers had knowingly joined the plot, the court document showed. MM pulled the shutters down on its business in 2013. Shares of JSW Steel were trading 0.10% lower at Rs 1,404 apiece on the BSE. After witnessing a slowdown in the last few years, there are signs of revival for Indian auto-component industry. German auto component and service major will reinforce its supplier base in the Indian market. The company aims to to reach 100 million euros worth of export from India by 2017. This was announced on the occasion of the India Supplier Day. At present, is exporting to the tune of 35 million euros from India. To achieve this goal, ZF has initiated the campaign Wind of Change. has withdrawn the order to relocate the office of the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to LNJP Hospital campus following protest by the faculty of Maulana Azad Medical College, associated hospitals and an umbrella body of doctors. "As mentioned in email dated June 11, no insult of the learnt members of the faculty was intended vide the aforementioned order and no attempt to decapitate the institution was ever conceived," said . "The faculty of Maulana Azad Medical College have wrongly interpreted the said order and are considering that it would lead to interference in day to day working of medical professionals." "In view of aforesaid, the order dated May 31 stands withdrawn with immediate effect," said a fresh order issued to this effect. Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital is governed under the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC). As per the old order, the office of the DGHS was proposed to be moved to the building block of LNJP in which its Medical Superintendent's office is located. The faculty of MAMC, associated hospitals along with representatives of Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) had objected to the decision and had written to Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung in this regard. Sentences of life imprisonment were given on Friday to 11 people in the Society massacre case during the ethnic violence in Gujarat of 2002. The court also sentenced 12 to seven years in jail; one man got 10 years. WASHINGTON The federal government does not have accurate data on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, and guessing is no longer good enough at a time when LGBT issues are grabbing headlines, lawmakers said this week. If youre not on paper, youre invisible when it comes to the federal government, said Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-California. He was speaking in support of a bill, sponsored by Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, that would require that the government let people voluntarily designate their sexual orientation or gender status on federal forms that collect demographic. Grijalva and Becerra were joined Thursday by about 20 other lawmakers and by Laverne Cox, the transgender actress who plays a transgender inmate in the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black. We know that it is not always safe to identify as LGBT, Cox said. But she noted that the bill would only allow identification, not require it, and that it includes language mandating confidentiality for individuals who do identify themselves to the government. People can confidentially disclose whether they are LGBT, Cox said. I think thats a very important aspect of this legislation that people should know about, so that we should be safe, we can just get data to tell a more inclusive picture of who we are. The LGBT Data Inclusion Act would require that any federal agency that collects information through a survey that includes demographic data reported by an individual or reported by a person for a household as in the Census would allow people to include their LGBT status on the form. It also requires that any government report using that demographic data include sexual orientation and gender identity information. A Census Bureau official said Friday that the agency does not take a position on legislation. But advocates said having that data could help LGBT individuals in everything from education policy to workforce development. In a time where many Americans are still struggling economically, the data that we do have suggest that LGBT people are more vulnerable to poverty, said Laura Durso, senior director at the Center for American Progress, during a briefing on the bill earlier this month. But we really dont know the best ways to serve the community and what the contours of what the economic insecurity looks like, she said. These types of data would help make sure that the economic recovery is working for everyone. Durso said the bill is important because you really dont count if you?re not counted a sentiment echoed by many of the speakers at Thursdays event in the shadow of the Capitol. Seems to me we ought to show up on a census, said Rep. Sean Maloney, D-New York, who is gay. The bill has 80 cosponsors in the House, including Arizona Democratic Reps. Kyrsten Sinema and Ruben Gallego, and supporters are hopeful that it will pass if not in this Congress, then in a future one. This legislation is so simple, Becerra said. It simply says, Lets just keep tabs of all of our different communities, so that when we make decisions in an institution like this where policy is so important we know were making it based on the right information, he said. Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar said on Friday that the increased number of terrorist encounters show that the country's intelligence has "increased" and counter terrorist network is "tightening". "More encounters means we are neutralising more, our intelligence has increased, our counter terrorist network is now tightening up," he told reporters here. He said, "If you see the ratio of security forces martyrdom... To terrorists deaths (it) is now in the favour of the security forces at the rate of 1:4.3/4.4." The number of terrorists' neutralised was more than 50 now, whereas only 12 security forces personnel had lost their lives. Stating that the loss of security forces should further reduce, he said "our efforts are towards it." Parrikar was responding to a question on whether the increased number of terror encounters was because of increased vigil or more attempts of infiltration. The Defence Minister was here to witness the inaugural flight of India's indigenous basic trainer aircraft, Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) designed and developed by HAL here. A militant was killed on Friday in an ongoing encounter with security forces in Sopore in north Kashmir's Baramulla district. Pointing out that most incidents of terror infiltration and encounters take place before winter, Parikkar said either they were not noted earlier or probably they were not taken "very seriously". Claiming that the country used to lose almost a soldier for a terrorist, Parrikar said "now you see yesterday's report. Four terrorists on the border trying to infiltrate were killed. In three days, two attempts have been neutralised." Four militants and a soldier were killed as the Army, on Thursday, foiled an infiltration bid, the second such attempt in three days, in Tangdhar sector near the Line of Control in Kashmir. The University of Mumbai (MU) will declare results of the Third Year Bachelor of Arts (TYBA) examination on June 20, 2016. It will be available on the official website of the varsity, mu.ac.in, most likely in the afternoon. Asserting that a diversified commercial engagement between India and Thailand would greatly benefit both the economies, Prime Minister on Friday said ample avenues for manufacturing and investment exist between both nations, which can pave way for regional economic prosperity. Addressing a joint statement with his Thai counterpart Prayuth Chan-ocha, Prime Minister Modi said trade and commerce flows are an important lifeline of the interdependent world and raised the pitch for business stakeholders to take lead in tapping the emerging business opportunities in both countries. "Excellency and I agree that a more diversified commercial engagement between us would not only benefit both our economies. It would also enable greater regional economic prosperity. In this context, we welcome the first meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Business Forum to be held later on Friday," he said. "Alongside trade, there are also ample avenues for greater manufacturing and investment linkages. We see a particular synergy between Thai strengths in infrastructure, particularly tourism infrastructure, and India's priorities in this field. Information Technology, pharmaceuticals, auto-components, and machinery are some other areas of promising collaboration," he added. Prime Minister Modi called for an early conclusion of a balanced Comprehensive Economic and Partnership Agreement and dubbed it as a 'shared priority' between India and Thailand. "Prime Minister and I are fully aware that smooth flow of goods, services, capital and human resources between our economies needs a strong network of air, land and sea links. We have, therefore, prioritised completion of India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway; and early signing of the Motor Vehicles Agreement between our three countries," he said. The Prime Minister said connectivity is also an area of priority for India's development, asserting that improving access to Southeast Asia from India's Northeastern States would benefit people of both the countries. "Stronger connectivity is essential not just for expanding bilateral trade ties. It also brings our people closer and facilitates enhanced science, education, culture and tourism cooperation. Next year, to commemorate the seventy years of establishment of our diplomatic relations, we will celebrate Festival of India in Thailand, and Festival of Thailand in India. This year, India is also celebrating 125th birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, the architect of Indian Constitution," Prime Minister Modi said. Prime Minister Modi also extended an invitation to Thailand's Crown Prince Royal Highness Vajiralongkorn to India. "India has always deeply appreciated the warmth and affection of the Royal Family of Thailand for India. Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has been a frequent and very welcome visitor to India," Prime Minister Modi said. "We look forward to welcoming her in India again later this year. We also look forward to the honour of receiving His Royal Highness Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn in India at his earliest convenience," he added. The Thai Prime Minister earlier met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after being accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Accompanied by his deputy, five senior ministers and a 46 -member business delegation, the Thai Prime Minister arrived in New Delhi on Thursday for a three-day visit aimed at reviewing bilateral relations. The Thai Prime Minister, who was received by Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on his arrival, is visiting the country on the invitation of Prime Minister Modi. Uttar Pradesh chief Nirmal Khatri is reportedly unhappy with party high command's decision to drop him on charges of non-performance. The Congress, which has suffered a setback in the recently held state assembly polls, is making all efforts to ensure that it improves its tally in Uttar Pradesh this time. According to sources, Khatri is upset after being informed that he would be replaced by a new chief in the coming days. Khatri earlier skipped the party's meeting presided over by Ghulam Navi Azad in Lucknow citing health issues. Reports suggest that grand old party is likely to appoint former union minister Jitin Prasada as the new Uttar Pradesh chief. The electorally important Uttar Pradesh goes to polls in 2017 and the move is being done with the aim to woo Muslims and Brahmin voters in the state. Prasada, known to be a good organisational leader, is close to vice-president Rahul Gandhi. President Pranab Mukherjee, who is currently on a two-day state visit to Namibia, on Friday paid homage and tribute to Namibia's martyrs at "The Heroes' Acre", the official war memorial of the country. Escorted by soldiers of the Namibian armed forces and accompanying Namibian dignitaries, the President placed a wreath at the base of the war memorial. The visiting dignitary and his accompanying delegation observed two minutes silence as a mark of respect for the heroes of Namibia's independence struggle. Officials also briefed the Indian president on the historicity and significance of the war memorial. Thereafter, the Indian delegation left the venue and headed towards the venue where the president would address the business community. Built less than 10 kilometers outside Namibian capital Windhoek, Heroes' Acre was opened to the public for the first time on August 26, 2002 and according to official sources here, operates for the purpose of fostering a spirit of patriotism and nationalism, and to pass on the legacy to the future generations of Namibia. The Heroes' Acre monument is situated south of Windhoek on the B1 road to Rehoboth. It is built as a symmetric polygon with a marble obelisk and a bronze statue of the Unknown Soldier at its centre. The site contains parade grounds and a grandstand for 5000 people. It is the burial site of 174 tombs, not all of which are occupied. When it was first opened, nine heroes and heroines were identified. For each of them, a tombstone with a name and a picture has been erected, although they are not buried here. The nine heroes are: Kahimemua Nguvauva (1850-1896), chief of the Ovambanderu, was wounded May 1896 in the Battle of Sturmfeld and after his surrender executed by the Germans. Nehale Lya Mpingana (died 1908), king of Ondonga, defeated the settlers of the Dorsland Trek in 1886, and German colonial forces at Fort Namutoni in 1904. Samuel Maharero (1856-1923), paramount chief of the Herero people, led the uprisings against German colonialism that resulted in the Herero and Namaqua War of 1904-1907. Hendrik Witbooi (1830-1905), king of the Nama people and fighter against the colonial oppression of the German Empire in German South-West Africa. Jacob Morenga (1875-1907), successor of Hendrik Witbooi as Nama Chief, used the fortress of Khauxanas to wage a guerrilla war against the Schutztruppe of Imperial Germany. Mandume Ya Ndemufayo (1894-1917), last king of the Kwanyama, led his people into battles with British, Portuguese, and South African colonial forces. Lipumbu Ya Tshilongo (1875-1959), King of the Uukwambi and strong nationalist, resisted European cultural influence exercised via the establishment of mission stations and administrative outposts. Anna Mungunda (1910s-1959), protester against the forced eviction from Windhoek's Old Location in 1959. Set the car of a high-ranking administrator alight and was shot dead in response. Hosea Kutako (1870-1970), paramount chief of the Herero and petitioner to the United Nations for an independent Namibia. In later years, several additional people have been declared national heroes, and buried here. These are: Dimo Hamaambo (1932-2002), commander in the People's Liberation Army of Namibia Maxton Joseph Mutongulume (1932-2004), founding member of the Ovamboland People's Congress and long-term SWAPO functionary and Central Committee member Markus Kooper (1918-2005), petitioner to the United Nations Mose Penaani Tjitendero (1943-2006), first speaker of National Assembly Richard Kapelwa Kabajani (1943-2007), former cabinet minister and ambassador to Cuba John Pandeni (1950-2008), prisoner of Robben Island and later Namibian Minister Peter Tsheehama (1941-2010), People's Liberation Army of Namibia commander and chief of Namibian Intelligence John ya Otto Nankudhu (1933-2011), People's Liberation Army of Namibia commander and Robben Island inmate Frederick Matongo (1946 or 1947-2013) lieutenant colonel of the Namibian Defence Force, early participant of the Namibian War of Independence Andrew Intamba (1947-2014), first director of the Namibia Central Intelligence Service, and Namibian ambassador to Egypt Gerson Veii (1939-2015), the first opposition party member (SWANU) to be accorded a heroes' burial Mansudae Overseas Projects, a company from North Korea, was given a Namibian Dollar 60 million contract to build the 732-acre monument. The contract was awarded without any competitive tendering process, and eventually, the construction cost doubled. Namibia's corruption watchdog Insight Namibia is on record as criticising this non-transparent process. The statue of the Unknown Soldier resembles the physical features of Sam Nujoma, Namibia's founding president. Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said the negotiations to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets were "on path of coming to conclusion." Both sides hoped to wrap up the strategic order during French President Francois Hollande's visit for the Republic Day celebrations in January this year, but bargaining on price stalled a final result. "When we have waited for 15-16 years. I think we are now on path of coming to conclusion," Parrikar told reporters in the Bengaluru after witnessing the inaugural flight session of indigenously built aircraft Hindustan Turbo Trainer 40 (HTT 40). HTT-40 is a new basic training aircraft developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force. Parrikar said the two sides were yet to arrive at a decision on pricing. "It's a big purchase we have to be careful and every 0.1% savings itself is a hundreds of crores. So let the exercise be done with some patience," he said. Hollande and Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened in the troubled Rafale procurement last year, ordering government-to-government talks after commercial negotiations with Dassault had collapsed. The leaders agreed to scale back an original plan to buy 126 Rafale planes to just 36 in fly-away condition to meet the Indian Air Force's urgent needs as it faces an assertive China and long-time foe Pakistan. A special court remanded to NIA custody till June 23 of Mohsin Sheikh, who had left him his home in suburban Malwani, allegedly to join . Sheikh and two others had gone missing in December last year after another youth Ayaz Sultan's disappearance in October. Sultan had reportedly reached Syria and joined . Sheikh was arrested from Delhi in February by the local police and the case was transferred to NIA. A case was registered in Mumbai NIA against Sheikh and the local court issued production warrant against him, after which he was brought from Delhi. In the court, NIA said that Sheik was involved in instigating and influencing Muslim youths in suburban Malwani in Mumbai on the instructions of a Syria-based handler. NIA also said that he provided logistical support to another accused Rizwan during his Mumbai visit, arranged accommodation and SIM card. The remand application said that Moshin visited Hubli in Karnataka, Hyderabad and Chennai. He also took two persons with intention to make them join jihadi organisations in India having affiliations to . The court accepting the NIA's request remanded him to the agency custody for eight days. While Delhi continues trying to lobby those opposing this country's entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), its American counterpart called on all its members to support our entry. The department of electronics and information technology (DeitY), government of India today gave its final approval for setting up of a greenfield within the Infovally complex, a dedicated IT hub, on the outskirt of Bhubaneswar. Join in a unique Southwest tradition at the annual Juneteenth celebration. The Coconino County African American Advisory Council, Southside Community Association and NAUs Goldn Brown Jacks are hosting the free public event Saturday from 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. at the Murdoch Community Center, 203 W. Brannen Ave. The purpose of Juneteenth is to commemorate the late communication of the 1863 signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all enslaved persons inside of Confederate states (all states on the rebellion). In some parts of the Southwest, the news didn't arrive until June of 1865. This family-friendly event will feature activities and vendors, along with musical and educational performances that illustrate the growth and development of the black experience. When we celebrate American freedom dating back to July 1776, we should be mindful of how not everyone was able to do so up until June 1865. While times have changed since, the history remains constant. Here, with Juneteenth, we have a golden opportunity to embrace the past to better understand our future within the larger northern Arizona community, said NAU Ethnic Studies Assistant Professor, Dr. Frederick Gooding, Jr., co-founder of the NAU Goldn Brown Jacks. Grand Canyon Association to host open house at Desert View Watchtower The Grand Canyon Association will host an open house Fathers Day weekend at the Desert View Watchtower, where visitors can take a look back in the past and learn about the iconic structure located at the eastern end of Grand Canyon National Park. The open house will be from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday, June 18-19. Theres no charge to attend the open house, but the cost to enter Grand Canyon National Park is $30 per vehicle. Famed architect Mary Colter designed the Desert View Watchtower in 1932 to introduce the depths of native culture to the traveler. Today, the Desert View Watchtower is a gathering place for American Indians to gather for public cultural demonstrations, celebrations and other events. The Desert View Watchtower is one of 20 national park projects currently competing in a contest sponsored by National Geographic to award $2 million dollars in historic preservation funds. To learn more, visit VoteYourPark.org. The weekend will include cultural demonstrations by five American Indian artists including Zuni fetish carver Waldo Davis, Hopi basket weaver Iva Honyestewa, Hopi carver Edward Honyestewa, Navajo sandcast jeweler Patrick Yellowhorse and Hopi weaver Donald Dawahongnewa. There will be a Grand Canyon Association photo booth Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Also Saturday will be a living history program with park ranger Marie Malo on Desert View Watchtower architect Mary Colter from 10-11 a.m. and again from 1-2 p.m. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj (left) shakes hands with Thailand Prime Ministers wife Naraporn Chan-o-cha (right) at a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan as PM Narendra Modi looks on, in New Delhi on Friday | PTI BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Thursday said passage of the Bill facilitating the goods and services tax (GST), being hailed as the biggest indirect taxation reform, will "not benefit" the economy significantly. "I don't think is going to be a game-changer. If it comes, it is ok. If it doesn't come also it is ok," he said, speaking at the industry lobby Indian Merchant Chamber here. " ... It is not big deal for the Indian economy. There is a feeling that it will simplify the tax system, I have no objection to it," he said. It can be noted that the industry has been pegging an increase of upto 2 percentage points in the GDP growth just by the passage of this legislation, which has been stuck for many years now under two Union governments. Swamy also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had objected to the when he was the chief minister of Gujarat, and now the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha is objecting to it. "At one stage, when Mr Narendra Modi was the chief minister, he took objections and wrote a letter to the government," he said. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said earlier this week that most of the states barring Tamil Nadu have come on board on the long-pending GST Bill and expressed hope of pushing the legislation in the upcoming Monsoon Session. A US-based think tank today said the Bangladesh-India Maitree project could effectively end up in a financial mess. The coal-based power plant proposed to be built near the city of Khulna, close to the Sundarbans mangrove forest, is a joint venture between India and Bangladeshs state-owned entities. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said electricity produced from the project would cost 32 per cent more than the average electricity in Bangladesh, assuming an average plant load factor (PLF) of 80 per cent. This despite the project being heavily subsidized, "exposing investors, taxpayers and consumers to high risk and is a potential stranded asset in the making". A senior executive associated with the project, however, said the Indian government was not subsidising the project in any form. It was only providing loan through to promote Indian investment in Bangladesh, he said. The state government has identified 240 acres of land for a downstream aluminium park proposed by Vedanta Ltd. The downstream park is coming up close the site of Vedanta's aluminium smelting facility at Jharsuguda. Vedanta had proposed to establish the park at the 'Make in India' week held in February this year. This state-of-the-art plug-and-produce aluminium park will be set up across 240 acres of land, providing an exclusive ecosystem for industries dependent on as well as manufacturing aluminium conductors, extrusions, castings, foils, powder and paste. The Reserve Bank on Friday simplified the process of registration of new NBFCS by reducing the application form and the checklist of documents from the existing set of 45 documents to about eight. This has been done to make the process of registration of new Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) "smoother and hassle free", said. "Secondly, from now onwards, there would be two different types of applications for non-deposit taking NBFCs (NBFC-ND) based on Sources of Funds and Customer Interface," it added. The processing of cases for Type I - NBFC-ND applicants would be on fast track mode. As these companies will not have access to public fund and will not have customer interface, they will be subjected to less intensive scrutiny/due diligence. These companies will be prohibited from accessing public funds and having customer interface. In case these companies intend to avail public fund or intend to have customer interface in the future, they are required to take approval from . further advised that the checklists mentioned by it are indicative and not exhaustive. "Reserve Bank, may, if necessary, call for any further documents to satisfy itself on the eligibility of the company seeking registration as NBFC," the central bank said in a statement. In the event of the RBI calling for further documents in addition to those mentioned in the checklist, the applicant company must respond within a stipulated time of one month. The changes in the registration process of NBFCs is in line with the announcement made in the First Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2016-17. Two employee associations, with strength of around 3.5 lakh bank staff, will go for an all India strike on July 13. The staff, belonging to All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and All India Bank Officers' Association (AIBOA), is protesting against the Centres decision to merge associate with State Bank of India (SBI). The Department-related Parliament Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice will visit Bengaluru, Chennai and Bhopal beginning 20th June, 2016. The committee consisting of 28 MPs will be chaired by Dr E. M. S. Natchiappan. . . During the visit, the Committee will hold meeting with the representatives of recognised political parties and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state on implementation of Model Code of Conduct for Political Parties during General Elections. The members will also meet the representatives of State Governments, State Public Service Commission and Administrative Training Institute and Indian Institute of Management in the respective states, on the subject of appointment of advisors/experts in Government establishments. . . During visit to Bengaluru, the committee will visit the National Law School of India University and hold interaction with Christ University School of Law, Law Academies, Law firms including State Judicial Academy, Bar Council of Karnataka and University Law College, Bangalore University on Promotion of Legal Education and Research under the Advocates Act, 1961". The Committee will also hold meeting with State Bank of Mysore, Vijaya Bank, Aeronautical Development Establishment, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and National Small Industries Corporation on the Status of implementation of Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism, Vigilance Administration and Right to Information Act". . . In Chennai, the committee will visit the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University and hold discussions on Promotion of Legal Education and Research ". The committee will also hold meeting with representatives of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Indian Overseas Bank, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd. (BHAVINI), National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Airports Authority of India on the Status of implementation of Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism, Vigilance Administration and Right to Information Act". . . During its visit to Bhopal, the committee will hold discussion with Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL), Northern Coalfields Limited, National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC), Metallurgical & Engineering Consultants (MECON Limited), Bharat Coking Coal Limited and Oriental Insurance Company Ltd on the Status of implementation of Public Grievances Redressal Mechanism, Vigilance Administration and Right to Information Act". The committee will also visit the National Judicial Academy of India, Bhopal and hold interaction on Promotion of Legal Education and Research. . . The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan visited St Petersburg, Russia from 16-17 June 2016 to represent India at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). SPIEF is the leading economic event of Russia, drawing participation of important political leaders and some of the largest companies and global business leaders. . . The hallmark of the visit was the signing of a Sales Purchase Agreement for acquisition of 23.9 per cent stake in Vankor oil block by an Indian Consortium of Oil India Ltd., Indian Oil and Bharat Petro Resources Ltd.( subsidiary of BPCL) with ROSNEFT. This follows acquisition of 15 per cent stake in Vankor by OVL for which all formalities were completed on 31st May 2016. The signing of agreement was witnessed by Sh Pradhan and his Russian counterpart Mr Alexander Novak. . . On the first day of his visit (16 June), Sh Pradhan had meetings with Mr Igor Sechin, President of Rosneft, Mr Leonid Mikhelson, CEO of Novatek and Mr Alexey Miller CEO of Gazprom, the leading Russian oil and gas companies. He discussed broadening India-Russia cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector. The Minister briefed the CEOs on governments recent policy announcements and investment opportunities in the hydrocarbon sector, including on the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy and Small Discovered fields bidding round. . . At the SPIEF, Sh Pradhan participated in the Panel discussion on New Global Petroleum Market Realities along with Russian and Venezuelan Energy Minister. The panel discussion was moderated by Mr Daniel Yergin, who is considered a leading authority on energy, geopolitics and the global economy, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Sh Pradhan elaborated on emerging investment opportunities in the exploration and production sector. CEOs of global oil majors appreciated recent reforms in Indian hydrocarbon sector. . . On the second day of his visit to St Petersburg (17 June), Sh Pradhan had meetings with Mr Alenxander Novak, Minister for Energy of Russia, Mr Alexander Dyukov, CEO of Gazpromneft. Both ministers discussed the entire gamut of oil and gas relations between India-Russia and expressed satisfaction on the ongoing cooperation between the two countries in the hydrocarbon sector. Both Ministers agreed that cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector was one of the key areas of the time tested and Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia. They expressed happiness on the conclusion of all formalities relating to the acquisition of 15% stake by ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) in Vankorneft, a subsidiary of Rosneft of Russia. Both Ministers also discussed on further deepening the engagement, including two way investments in the sector. Sh Pradhan briefed his Russian counterpart on the issues related to Mineral Extraction Tax being contemplated by the Russian government and its effects on Indian investments. He also invited Rosneft, Gazprom and other Russian companies to invest in Indian hydrocarbon sector, including in the recently launched auction of Small Discovered Fields. . . KidsCare coverage has been restored for Arizona children who do not qualify for AHCCCS, Arizonas Medicaid program. Children whose household income is between 133 percent and 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Limit now have access to full Medicaid benefits for a minimal monthly premium. This means children in a family of four could qualify with an annual household income up to $48,600. Since July 26, all North Country HealthCare locations have been providing free, bilingual enrollment assistance for families and parents applying for KidsCare. Coverage will begin on Sept. 1. AHCCCS estimates approximately 30,000 Arizona children may be eligible to enroll in KidsCare coverage. A child can be eligible for KidsCare, even if he or she is already enrolled in another health insurance plan. Contact a certified application counselor at North Country HealthCare for more information. KidsCare offers the full array of AHCCCS benefits, including dental care. Eligible children will receive coverage through health plans contracted with the AHCCCS Administration. Parents insuring their children with KidsCare pay a minimal monthly premium depending on their household income. Monthly premiums can range from $10 for one child in a household at the lower income range, up to $70 for multiple children in households at the upper income range. Applications can be submitted online at healthearizonaplus.gov. In each of the communities it serves, North Country HealthCare has certified application counselors on hand to assist with completing online applications. To schedule a free enrollment appointment, call 522-9580 or 453-9596. North Country HealthCare serves nearly 50,000 people throughout northern Arizona, 20,000 who reside in Flagstaff and the surrounding area. North Country HealthCare accepts Medicare, AHCCCS, commercial insurance and offers a sliding fee scale based on income and family size. For more information, visit northcountryhealthcare.org A Yellow fever Vaccination facility was inaugurated by Smt Dr. Megha Pravin Khobragade, DADG (IH), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India in the presence of Shri S. Anantha Chandra Bose, Chairman and Shri S. Natarajan, Deputy Chairman, V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust at the premises of Port Health Organisation, World Trade Avenue, Port Estate. . . Shri S. Anantha Chandra Bose, Chairman, V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust in his special address thanked the officials concerned from Ministry of Health & Family Welfare for considering the request of the Port and establishing the facility within a short period. He further stated that the new facility would add a feather to the cap to the service requirements of EXIM community. Smt Dr. Megha Pravin Khobragade, DADG (IH), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, in her address stated that Tuticorin is the 35th centre in the country to provide Yellow fever Vaccination facility and would pave way to save money and time to the intending travellers from this part of the state. . . The Port Health Organisation has scheduled the vaccination for every Tuesday i.e from 11.00 AM to 1.00 PM. The charges for vaccination & issue of certificate would be Rs.300 per person. Intending travellers can avail the facility by registering themselves through; . . Email : photuticorin@gmail.com . Phone : 0461-2353341 . Fax : 0461-2353314 . Mobile : 98654-36526 . The above details have been provided by V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust. . . A few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine Judge Jed S Rakoff and Roomy Khan, a government informant, as speakers at the same conference. The democratic socialist will not abandon the US presidential race and will participate at the Democratic Party convention in July to get his message across, trying to influence the presumptive party candidate Hillary Clinton as well as the party. In a video, the Vermont senator, who no longer has a mathematical chance to win the nomination, pushes the party and his rival Hillary Clinton to adopt his progressive agenda, Efe reported. He also promised to take his agenda to the Democratic National convention in Philadelphia in July. Sanders, who met Clinton at a Washington DC hotel recently, vowed to "work" with each other in the coming weeks. He said defeating the presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump "cannot be our only goal", but the Democrats must continue "our grassroots efforts to create the America that we know we can become." "And we must take that energy into the Democratic National Convention on July 25," the Democratic self-proclaimed socialist said. He also spoke of Clinton as a partner and said he hoped to work with former Secretary of State in the coming weeks to ensure that the Democratic Party takes over the "most progressive platform in its history", and that Democrats will fight for it. "My hope is that when future historians look back to the 2016 campaign and describe how our country moved forward, they will note that, to a significant degree, that effort began with the political revolution of 2016," he concluded. Sanders then thanked his supporters, mostly students, pensioners, the unemployed and low-paid workers, as well as a "few" Democrat politicians who took his side. The Democratic National Convention, where Clinton is poised to be officially elected, will take place from July 25 to 28 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a few days after the Republican National Convention on July 18 to 21, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio, where Trump will presumably be elected. In the wake of US President Barack Obama's meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama, has urged Washington to refrain from interfering in Beijing's domestic affairs including Tibet-related issues. Stating that the 14th Dalai Lama was not a purely religious figure, but a political exile engaged in anti- separatist activities under the guise of religion, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang Lu said, "Tibet affairs are China's domestic affairs and no foreign country has the right to interfere", reports Xinhua. Lu added the meeting between Obama and Dalai Lama goes against the US acknowledgement that Tibet is an inseparable part of Chinese territory and its rejection of "Tibet independence" and anti- separatist activities. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson further said such a meeting harms China-US mutual trust and cooperation and interferes in Beijing's internal affairs. Reportedly, Obama emphasised his strong support for the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic traditions during the meeting. Firefighters have struggled to contain infernos across the western United States as experts warned that drought-striken should prepare for an unusually intense wildfire season. Forest fires are a fact of life in much of but have become far worse because of bone-dry conditions, with the Golden State gripped in its fifth year of drought. A fire in the Los Padres National Forest had expanded to two square miles (five square kilometers) yesterday, making it the "largest since 2009" in the area, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Information Center told AFP. Strong winds were hampering efforts to contain the blaze, and the operation was expected to be hindered further by near-record temperatures over the weekend in the southern half of . Los Padres, which begins about two hours drive northwest of downtown Los Angeles, is popular with hikers and campers, and evacuation orders were issued in at-risk parts of the forest. Sections of Highway 101, which links northern and southern California, were temporarily closed while oil giant ExxonMobil evacuated its refinery in Las Flores Canyon. Another fire further north burned about four square miles and caused road closures, also threatening buildings, although there were no reports of injuries. Lynne Tolmachoff, a spokeswoman for public information organisation Calfire, said America's most populous state could see its worst fire season on record this year. Meanwhile, a blaze in Warren Creek, in the northwestern state of Alaska, was raging across eight square miles of a Native American reserve, while four fires were burning up more than 40 square miles in Arizona and New Mexico. Last month, fires near Los Angeles pushed 5,000 people out of their homes in the affluent Calabasas area, a suburb which is home to many celebrities including members of the Kardashian family. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) said the southwestern United States could expect "above normal levels of significant fire potential" through at least early July. "The highest potential will be over Southern California during the first part of the summer as the past rainy season only brought 50 to 70% of normal rainfall," it said on its website. "As the summer progresses, above normal significant fire potential area will expand northward to include much of the Sierras and the central coast region." Wildfires in the western United States made 2015 the country's most devastating year since at least 1960. More than 11 million acres (4.5 million hectares), an area greater than the size of Denmark had been burned by the end of summer, according to data from the NIFC. The Bangladeshi authorities should investigate attacks on secular writers and but must stop arbitrarily arresting people without proper evidence of a crime, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. Between June 10 and 16, security forces have reportedly arrested over 11,000 people in connection with a spate of murders of bloggers with secular or atheist leanings, non-Muslims, members of the LGBT community and other progressive or liberal thinkers. Those detained should either be charged on the basis of credible evidence of criminal activities and brought immediately before a judge, or be immediately released, Human Rights Watch said. "After a slow and complacent response to these horrific attacks, Bangladesh's security forces are falling back on old habits and rounding up the 'usual suspects' instead of doing the hard work of carrying out proper investigations," the rights body said. "The government has an obligation to put an end to these murders and hold the perpetrators to account, but it must do so through proper procedures set out in its own criminal code as well as in law." The wave of targeted killings of bloggers, secularists, and religious minorities began in 2013 and has escalated in recent months. To date, more than 50 have been killed, often through machete attacks in public spaces. Many of these killings have subsequently been claimed by Daesh (ISIS) or Ansar al-Islam, a Bangladeshi militant group linked to Al Qaeda, but their involvement has not been established. The government denies the presence of both groups in the country. Resource-rich on Friday assured that it will look into "legal ways" through which its uranium can be supplied to India for peaceful nuclear use. Speaking at the State Banquet hosted in the honour of President Pranab Mukherjee, Namibian President Hage Geingob said commends India's commitment towards peaceful use of nuclear energy. "We will look into legal ways wherein our uranium can be used by India," he said. Geingob said his country had resources but cannot use them as it does not posses any nuclear weapons. "We have resources but we cannot use it we do not have nuclear weapons. But there are those who can use it. We will look into legal ways," he said. Citing a conversation with a former diplomat of India, he said it was a "nuclear apartheid" that a handful of countries wanted to dictate terms of nuclear technology. In an impassioned speech on reforms in United Nations, IMF and World Bank, the President said how can a country with 1.2 billion people and a continent with one billion people do not get representation in the United Nations Security Council. "How can it be democratic?" Geingob asked. Inviting Indian companies to invest in Namibia, Geingob lauded India's proposal of Solar Alliance, saying he appreciated the country's role in combating climate change. "In Namibia, we see ourselves as gateway to Africa. We are also in close proximity to South America which is an important partner in South South cooperation but we are ready to be gateway to Indian companies into Africa and South America," he said. "India attaches high importance to enhancing her bilateral relations with . Our two countries have been cooperating closely while making sustained efforts to realise the developmental goals of our two nations," Mukherjee said. "We share the view that reform of the United Nations and its principle organs created in the wake of the Second World War is an imperative. We agree that they need to be made more reflective of today's changed world so that they can respond more effectively to the complex challenges confronting the world today," he said in his speech. Mukherjee said Africa and India, as centres of gravity in today's globalised world, have a responsibility to work together for peace, security and sustainable development in the two continents. "Namibia is blessed with rich natural resources and an abundance of mineral wealth. Their efficient extraction and value addition using environment-friendly methods will contribute to the sustainable development of this sector of your economy. India has always been and will continue to be a reliable partner in your endeavours in this direction," he said. Friends and family members of victims of nightclub shooting outside the Orlando Police headquarters on Sunday | Photo: Reuters Republican Sen John McCain said that President Barack Obama is "directly responsible" for the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, because of the rise of the Islamic State group on the president's watch. McCain, who lost to Obama in the 2008 presidential election, made the comment on Thursday while Obama was in Orlando visiting with the families of those killed in Sunday's attack and some of the survivors. "Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaida went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama's failures, utter failures, by pulling everybody out of Iraq," a visibly angry McCain told reporters in the Capitol as the Senate debated a spending bill. "So the responsibility for it lies with President Barack Obama and his failed policies," McCain said. The gunman, Omar Mateen, killed 49 people and injured more than 50 in the attack at a gay nightclub. The 29-year-old Muslim born in New York made calls during the attack saying he was a supporter of the Islamic State. But he also spoke about an affiliate of al-Qaida and Hezbollah, both of which are IS enemies. In the aftermath of the shooting, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused Obama of putting US enemies ahead of Americans. Trump also has suggested that Obama himself might sympathise with radical elements. Democrats criticised Trump and some Republicans tried to distance themselves from his remarks. McCain is seeking a sixth Senate term from Arizona and is locked in a tight race. Questioned on his startling assertion, McCain repeated it: "Directly responsible. Because he pulled everybody out of Iraq, and I predicted at the time that ISIS would go unchecked and there would be attacks on the United States of America. It's a matter of record, so he is directly responsible." However, McCain later sought to clarify his comments, saying over Twitter: "To clarify, I was referring to Pres Obama's national security decisions that have led to rise of #ISIL, not to the President himself." Democrats quickly pounced on McCain's criticism. Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said McCain's "unhinged comments are just the latest proof that Senate Republicans are puppets of Donald Trump.onald Trump. President Barack Obama arrived in Orlando, where he will console loved ones devastated by a shooting rampage that has fueled America's culture wars and a fresh push for gun controls. Air Force One touched down shortly before 1:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) in Florida, where Obama will call for national unity and meet families whose lives have been ripped apart by a tragedy of national proportions. The massacre of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub last Sunday was the deadliest mass shooting in the history of a country that is depressingly familiar with such events. Another 53 people were wounded. "This will be, I think, an emotional trip," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. In a rare symbolic show of bipartisanship, Obama arrived with Republican one-time presidential hopeful Marco Rubio and was greeted on the tarmac by Republican Florida governor Rick Scott and Vice President Joe Biden. Obama and Biden are slated to meet emergency medical crews and hospital staff who laboured to save lives in the chaotic hours after the massacre by gunman Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old Muslim American of Afghan descent. Mateen was killed in a police raid, but his motivation and how he came to possess an special forces assault rifle remain deeply contentious. Mateen pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group in a 911 call during the attack. The IS group then claimed responsibility for the shooting, and FBI agents believe that Mateen was radicalised by following extremist propaganda online. That has prompted Republicans to call for tougher counterterrorism measures and for the Obama administration to do more to fight the Islamic State group. The White House says coalition forces and allies are making gains against the group's strongholds in Syria, Iraq and Libya. But Republican arguments were given credence by Obama's own CIA director John Brennan, who warned the group retains the ability to conduct attacks around the world. "Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach," he told senior US lawmakers. A desire to expose her students to medical anthropology in action inspired Northern Arizona University professor Lisa Hardy to partner with the Poore Clinic to give her class some real-world experience while also giving back to the community. I think one of the most important things that can happen in education is for students to understand the link between theory and how people put it into practice, she said. Hardy, who teaches medical anthropology at the university, said she was very excited to collaborate with the Poore Clinic over the last semester, and said they have a wonderful mission as the only free clinic in Flagstaff to serve the uninsured. The students talked in class about behavior, social justice, inequality and policy, Hardy said. This gave students an opportunity to experience and be exposed to what professionals do in the field. Hardy divided her class into three groups for research projects surrounding the clinic. One group focused on recruiting medical professional volunteers for the all-volunteer clinic staff, another focused on securing donors and the third group focused on data collection about patients at the clinic. Hardy said the upperclassmen and graduate level class came up with ideas to help the clinic with efficiency, including creating a brochure that outlines the requirements for volunteering as a medical professional, as well as an increase in the clinics social media marketing strategy. Hardy said in the past her class has also worked with North Country HealthCare for exposure to the healthcare field. I always have a lot of gratitude for the organizations that partner with us because it does take their time and their energy, and what they give to the students is really important, Hardy said. Eric Walden, the Poore Clinics executive director, and Peter Weiser, the clinics board president, spoke to Hardys class about the clinic and what they do in the community for medical inequities. We want to support higher education and secondary education at all levels, Walden said. We have an opportunity at the clinic to make an impact on the lives of students here. Walden said he had not received the full results from the class study, but he said clinic leaders plan to carefully consider any suggestions made to improve the clinics presence in the community. Walden said some of his interest in the project from the beginning was to support Hardy in her efforts to expose her students to medical anthropology in the real world. She makes sincere attempts to create projects that not only benefit her students, but potentially the clinic as well, he said. Kevin Shaw, a graduate student in the class, said the project gave him an opportunity to conduct a research design and analysis in a short period of time that would actually have implications in the community. As graduate students we learn a lot of theory and methodology that we might not immediately apply, he said. Its really exciting that things we study can really benefit organizations like the Poore Clinic or the patients who receive services from the Poore Clinic. Shaw said his group worked on finding ways to increase recruitment of dentists and dental professionals to volunteer at the clinic. He said ideas his group came up with included finding ways to recognize those who do volunteer, as well as streamlining the volunteer application process that many potential volunteers thought would be cumbersome. Shaw said he and his group interviewed people who already volunteered about what they enjoyed about working at the clinic and what they found challenging in order to suggest improvements for the clinic. Shaw said he learned many dentists who do volunteer enjoy the increased gratitude from the patients, as well as getting to practice the type of dentistry they might enjoy most. Breanna West, an undergraduate student in the class, said the project and the class had such an effect on her, she decided to change her plans from becoming a doctor to becoming a medical anthropologist to advocate for health equity. I want to help more people gain access to healthcare, which I believe is a fundamental human right, she said. West was in the group analyzing donations and how the clinic receives charitable donations from the community. West said most of the clinics funding comes from grants and one large fundraiser. Wests group said the clinic could benefit from an increased social media and digital presence, including an easy way to donate online. West said many people are skeptical of charitable organizations, so she said a way the class wanted to increase giving to the clinic was to show online exactly where donated money goes and what improvements are directly from community donations. West said she had also done volunteer work in Peru, but was moved by the project enough to begin volunteering at the clinic as well. Im a student in this very wealthy country, but as I was sitting in the clinic there were dozens of people in the same boat as people in Peru, she said. West said she plans to graduate from NAU in December and apply to the anthropology graduate program to continue her work with medical inequity. Former Afghan president has said Pakistan, which is not in favour of good relations between India and Afghanistan, wants "no bilateral trade and access to Central Asia for India." Karzai told BBC Urdu in an interview on Thursday that Pakistan should also become a part of the regional coalition between Afghanistan, India and Iran, but added Islamabad's condition is that Kabul should not have contacts with New Delhi, reports the Dawn. He added this will also help in improving the relationship between Kabul and Islamabad. The former president said that India wants be a true friend to Afghanistan and is helping the country to build its infrastructure and health facilities. Karzai also said that Pakistan should stop dictating about Kabul's friendship with New Delhi and respect the fact that Afghanistan is a sovereign country. He also called upon Pakistan to jointly fight terrorism, which is presently a menace for both countries. The law firm at the centre of the "Panama Papers" scandal has said it expected the prosecution of a worker from its Geneva office detained on suspicion of stealing company documents. Mossack Fonseca yesterday said in a statement from its Panama headquarters that it had lodged complaints in several jurisdictions against people believed to be "involved in the theft of information that occurred in our company". That referred to the leak last year of a massive number of documents covering nearly four decades of business by the law firm, which specialises in setting up and managing offshore companies. Reports based on the purloined documents resulted in the "Panama Papers": revelations of how many leaders, politicians, celebrities and a few criminals around the world used entities started by Mossack Fonseca to stash assets. Though offshore companies are not in themselves illegal, they can be used to engage in illegal activities such as tax evasion or money laundering. Mossack Fonseca said in its statement it was "fully confident" that authorities in the various countries would "see through the corresponding (legal) processes in a transparent and effective manner". On Wednesday, Swiss authorities announced that an information technology employee for the law firm working in its Geneva office had been placed in provisional detention on suspicion of stealing confidential documents. The spokesman for the Geneva's prosecutor's office, Henri Della Casa, told AFP that "a criminal case has been opened... following a complaint by Mossack Fonseca". He declined to comment on whether an arrest had been made. News of the detention was first given by the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, which said it had no information on whether the arrested individual was the so-called "John Doe" who has claimed credit for the unprecedented "Panama Papers" leak. Mossack Fonseca said in April that the leak was the result of a hack that came from foreign servers. Russian President signed the decree calling for the elections to the State Duma (lower house) to be held on September 18, Kremlin said. While the date of the elections was already known, the presidential decree is meant to officially launch the electoral process for the renewal of the Duma, composed of 450 deputies, Efe news reported. Initially the elections were scheduled for December 4, but the Duma itself decided in July 2015 to advance them to September 18, to coincide with municipal and regional elections to be held on the same day. The Duma's decision was endorsed by the constitutional court. Campaigning for Britain's EU referendum next week was suspended on Friday for a second day as the nation reeled from the murder of a popular pro-Europe MP at the height of a bitterly divisive debate. Jo Cox, a 41-year-old former aid worker and pro-EU campaigner known for her advocacy for Syrian refugees, was killed on Thursday outside a library where she regularly met constituents in her home village of Birstall in northern England. Witnesses told local media the petite mother of two had been repeatedly shot and stabbed. A 52-year-old man, named by media as local Thomas Mair, was arrested. Described by neighbours as a loner, there were indications that he had extreme right leanings. With just six days left before the historic vote, rival groups campaigning for Britain to leave or remain in the European Union ceased campaigning and politicians joined as one to condemn the killing. But some commentators questioned whether the murder could be linked to a campaign that has stoked high tension by touching on issues of national identity and immigration. The Times newspaper reported, on Friday, that Cox, who became the first British MP to be murdered since 1990, had "had been harassed in a stream of messages over three months". Police were considering putting in place additional security, it said, adding there was no known link between the messages and Thursday's attack. Before Cox's murder, opinion polls were pointing to the likelihood that Britain would vote to leave the EU in the June 23 referendum, a prospect that weighed on financial markets and sent the pound tumbling. The pound rose with Asian stocks today after the previous day's selloff, as investors judged the tragedy increased the likelihood of the "Remain" side prevailing. US advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Centre reported that Mair, who had lived in the area for decades, was a "dedicated supporter" of National Alliance, once the primary neo-Nazi organisation in the United States. It said he had spent over $620 on reading material from the group, which advocated the creation of an all-white homeland and the eradication of Jewish people. "Neighbours called him a 'loner' but he also has a long history with white nationalism," the Southern Poverty Law Centre said. It added that Mair had purchased a handbook with instructions on how to make a gun, noting that witnesses told British media the assailant used a gun of "old-fashioned" or "homemade" appearance. Pakistan and Afghanistan are still unable to completely resolve the gate conflict even after five days since the incident took place. A Pakistani official said, on Thursday, that an agreement had been reached after Afghan envoy Dr Omar Zakhilwal met with Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry and Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Zubair Mehmood Hayat. The official added that Afghanistan would under this agreement end hostilities and allow continuation of work on erection of the gate, reports Dawn. Post this agreement, Pakistan will also allow resumption of cross-border traffic at . The Afghan ambassador, however, said in a statement that resumption of construction work was contrary to the agreement reached at the meeting though he accepted the confirmation of a ceasefire. "Much to my disappointment it was presented as if it was agreed to in our meeting yesterday (to restart the construction work). Something that clearly was not, otherwise there would have been no need for our agreement to resolve this through talks expeditiously and amicably," Zakhilwal said. He instead claimed that the meeting concluded with an agreement on an immediate ceasefire and drawing down forces to de-escalate tensions. It was also agreed upon that a conversation at the leadership level is necessary to resolve the issue through talks and that the construction work would be halted to avoid any further incident. The envoy also threatened to quit and return to his home country if the construction work was not stopped. Hitting back at the ambassador's statement, an official accused him of twisting facts and creating confusion. Three UN human rights experts have called on India to repeal a law restricting NGOs' access to crucial foreign funding, saying its provisions are increasingly being used to "silence" groups that are critical of government's policies. "We are alarmed that Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) provisions are being used more and more to silence organisations involved in advocating civil, political, economic, social, environmental or cultural priorities, which may differ from those backed by the government," said UN Special Rapporteurs on Human rights defenders Michel Forst on freedom of expression David Kaye and on freedom of association Maina Kiai in their call to "repeal" to the FCRA. The three experts called on India to repeal the FCRA, which is been increasingly used to obstruct civil society's access to foreign funding, and fails to comply with human rights norms and standards. Despite detailed evidence provided by Lawyers Collective to rebut all allegations and prove that all foreign contributions were spent and accounted for in line with FCRA, the suspension was still applied, the UN human rights experts said in a statement issued from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "We are alarmed by reports that the suspension was politically motivated and was aimed at intimidating, illegitimising and silencing Lawyers Collective for their litigation and criticism of the Government's policies," the experts said, noting that the NGO is known for its public interest litigation and advocacy in defence of the most vulnerable and marginalised members of Indian society. The experts' call comes as India's Home Affairs Ministry suspended earlier in June for six months the registration of the non-governmental organisation Lawyers Collective, under the FCRA. The suspension was imposed on the basis of allegations that its founders, human rights lawyers Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, violated the act provisions by using foreign funding for purposes other than intended, the statement said. Earlier on Thursday, the Home Ministry issued an order saying that the central government has cancelled the permanent registration of Sabrang Trust run by civil rights activist Teesta Stelvad and her husband Javed Anand with immediate effect, it said. The government had also suspended the registration of Greenpeace India under the FCRA for six months earlier in April 2015, it added. "Human rights defenders and civil society must have the ability to do their important job without being subjected to increased limitations on their access to foreign funding and the undue suspension of their registration on the basis of burdensome administrative requirements imposed to those organisations in receipt of foreign funds," the statement said. "We strongly urge the Government to reverse its decision and embrace the invaluable contribution of the two prominent human rights defenders in upholding constitutional values in India," the experts said. "We encourage the authorities to ensure a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders and civil society, which play a critical role in holding the Government to account and buttressing the Indian democracy," they said. The UN experts noted the "outstanding national and profile" as human rights lawyers of Jaising, a former member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Grover, who was the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health from 2008 to 2014. The statement said FCRA's "broad and vague" terms such as "political nature", "economic interest of the State" or "public interest" are "overly broad, do not conform to a prescribed aim, and are not a proportionate responses to the purported goal of the restriction". The Syrian opposition should be encouraged to participate in government work to help a dialogue that can lead to new elections being held in the country, Russia's President said today. Speaking to Russia's top economic forum, Putin said that creating a new government that will have the trust of most of Syria's population is key to ending the five-year conflict. He said that this goal can only be achieved through drafting a new constitution and holding new elections. Putin said that Syrian President Bashar Assad, who visited Moscow last year, has pledged to help achieve that. "There is nothing more democratic than elections," Putin said. The Russian leader said he expects the US to work with its allies in the region to encourage the Syrian opposition to engage in a constructive dialogue with the government. "It's necessary to think about incorporating some opposition representatives in the existing government structures," he said. Earlier today, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov strongly warned Washington against striking Assad's forces, saying it would fuel turmoil across the entire region. An attempt to topple Assad's government "wouldn't help a successful fight against terrorism and could plunge the region into total chaos," Peskov said. He made the statement while asked to comment about an internal document in which dozens of US State Department employees called for military action against Assad's forces. President Barack Obama called for regime change in Syria early on in the five-year conflict, but so far has only authorized strikes against the Islamic State group and other US-designated terror groups in Syria. Russia has conducted an air campaign in Syria since last September, helping Assad's forces regain some ground. Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Maj Gen Igor Konashenkov said that the calls for a military action against Assad "can't but worry any reasonable person." "Who would bear responsibility for that?" he asked. Getting a new client on board for mutual fund (MF) investments is in itself an achievement. Asking for a separate cheque for advice offered is a bit much to expect, says Ashutosh Pandey, a Dhanbad-based independent financial advisor (IFA). Nick Cannon insists that his latest release 'Divorce Papers' is just a "creative way" to vent out his "frustrations with the media, the naysayers, myself and ultimately with the voices in my head." Talking about the latest freestyle rap, the 35-year-old rapper said that his purpose for creating 'Divorce Papers' was neither to feed "the tabloid chatter" nor to "diffuse it". The 'Gigolo' hit-maker further said that though he had apprehensions about releasing the freestyle rap, he later felt "it was necessary to clear the air and set the record straight once and for all." Speaking on his relationship with former wife Mariah Carey, Cannon reassured that he is happy for her and for all her new endeavors. "I sincerely hope the media doesn't once again try to manipulate my words or my purpose for releasing this song," E!Online quoted Cannon as saying. Cannon's freestyle is an emotional diary of his life and chronicles everything from disappointment with the media's coverage of his divorce and to his kids Monroe and Moroccan. Pronouncing the quantum of sentence for the 24 convicts in the Gulberg society massacre, a special SIT court in Ahmadabad on Friday awarded life-imprisonment to 11 accused, seven-year jail term to 12 others and a 10-year prison term for another guilty in this case. The case pertains to the massacre of 69 people, including former Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, during communal riots in Gujarat on February 28, 2002. During the hearing earlier, the defence said the eight witnesses have not been able to recognize the convicts, adding minimum punishment should be given on this basis. Appearing for the accused, Rajkot-based senior lawyer Abhay Bharadwaj had earlier said that they should be given a chance to reform themselves as they don't have past criminal records. The prosecution had sought nothing less than death sentence or jail term till death for all convicts while the defence lawyers contested that the incident was spontaneous and there were enough provocations for it. Six accused had died during the trial. Of the 24 convicted today, 11 have been charged with murder, while 13 others have been convicted for lesser offences. VHP leader Atul Vaidya is among the 24 convicted in this case. Gulberg society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT. A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan was killed in an encounter with Maoist rebels in Jharkhand's Giridih district on Friday morning. The gunshots were fired from both two sides in Patharchhapra forest area of Giridih district. Last month, from Latehar area of Jharkhand CRPF had seized 59 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) of 1 kg each along with 50 m of codex wire in Bikra forest area at the cusp of Herhanj and Manika police stations. The rebels have operated for decades across a wide swath of central and eastern parts of the country and have grown in strength during recent times. They have killed police and politicians and targeted government buildings and railway tracks in an insurgency that has left hundereds dead in the last three-or-so decades. The accused in the brutal rape and murder of Dalit student Jisha, was sent to judicial custody for 14 days by the Perumbavoor Court today. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said earlier today that the investigation team has received full information about the accused, who is reportedly a migrant labourer from Assam. "The police are questioning him, we will soon get his version of the events that led to the murder. Kerala was waiting to catch hold of Jisha's killer. This is definitely a feather in the cap of Kerala Police," he said in a series of tweets. The Police also reportedly recovered the knife he used to murder Jisha. According to reports, Kochi Police reports state that DNA test has confirmed that Ameerul Islam, is indeed Jisha's killer. Speaking to media, ADGP B. Sandhya said that the arrest of the culprit has been recorded. "He won't be produced before media as an identification parade is due. Preparation of remand report evidence gathering, medical examination and other formalities will follow," she said. The Kerala High Court had last week rejected the plea for a CBI probe into the case, stating that the new SIT had been set up in the case The 29-year-old law student was brutally raped and murdered on April 28, in which her body sustained at least 30 injuries, including on her private parts. The rape garnered major attention as it was during the state polls, in which the opposition took on the UPF Government for showing a lackadaisical attitude towards the probe into the matter. Reports suggest that Pakistan benefitted the most in the death of Afghan Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was killed in an airstrike by the U.S. forces in Balochistan province last month. An article published in The Diplomat cites several instances to state that Pakistan is the biggest beneficiary of Mullah Mansour's death. Though Pakistan is widely believed to be supporting the Afghan Taliban movement by providing them with weapons, money, training and sanctuaries, reports suggest that Islamabad wanted get rid of Mansour. Reports state that there was a fall out between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Mansour in recent months. The fact that the Taliban leader was killed while traveling back from Iran to Pakistan raises many questions that he had been trying to establish a closer relationship with Tehran due to a worsening relationship with the Pakistani intelligence establishment. According to reports, Mansour also moved his family to Iran in order to reduce his dependence on Islamabad. Another example why Pakistan would benefit from his death is because of his failure to reunite the Taliban, which had split into two factions following the death of founding leader Mullah Muhammad Omar. Splinter Taliban group led by Mullah Rasool moved to southwestern Afghanistan and opposed Mansour's leadership of the group. The present Taliban chief Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada is well positioned to reunite the splinter Taliban group as he hails from the same Noorzai tribe as that of Rasool. On the other hand, Mansour was from the Ishaqzai tribe. In addition, Akhundzada is famous for being a religious leader rather than a military or political leader. This makes him well positioned to unite the Taliban on a religious basis. It is said that Akhundzada's lack of political or military skills will also benefit Pakistan, as his deputy Sirajuddin Haqqani will likely to be running the political and military affairs of the Taliban. Haqqani also heads the notorious Haqqani Network, which is believed to be the closest of all Afghan insurgent groups to Pakistan's ISI. Reports, therefore, suggest this will lead the Pakistani intelligence to have more control over the day-to-day operations of the Taliban. Another position where Pakistan could be benefited is disruption of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) following Mansour's death. Pakistan's failure to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table has led to pressure from the United States and Afghanistan. And the pressure from Washington became intense when its Congress decided to block U.S. funding for a sale of F-16s to Islamabad. Reports, however, suggest that Pakistan can use this opportunity as an excuse for not bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table and claim that that the militant group is going through a leadership transition as a result of which they do not want to enter peace talks. But some reports also suggest that by providing information on Mansour's whereabouts to Washington for the airstrike, Pakistan might have won some much-needed goodwill with the U.S. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain the plea of a 92-year-old convict in an honour killing case, asking him to surrender before the police. Putti, a resident of Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, was convicted in the case dating back to 1980 by a trial court and was awarded life sentence two years later. He challenged the order in Allahabad High Court, which upheld the trial court's order earlier this year after a 34-year-long wait. Putti, however, refused to budge and approached the apex court seeking leniency on the ground of his advanced age. Two other convicts in the case died during trial. The Afghan security forces shot dead a suicide bomber in eastern Nangarhar province before he could carry out an attack. The suicide bomber was shot dead in Kot district earlier today. The bomber was suspected of targeting the Afghan National Police and Afghan Local Police forces, Provincial Security Chief General Zarawar Zahid quoted a statement issued by the provincial government media office as saying, reports Khaama Press. Zahid added that the suicide bomber was shot dead after he was identified by the security forces in Janjal Ghhodi area. However, no militant group has claimed responsibility of the bomber so far. The Taliban militants and insurgents loyal to ISIS terrorist group are actively operating in a number of remote districts of Nangarhar province, and Kot district is one of them, including Achin, where such radical elements have their presence and conduct insurgency activities. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is presently on a three-day visit to India, called on his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House here on Friday. Both leaders led delegation-level talks after the meeting. "Together with Thailand. PM @narendramodi receives Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha at Hyderabad House for talks," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted. "Enhancing a wide ranging partnership. The two Prime Ministers lead the #IndiaThailand delegation level talks," Swarup said in another tweet. Boosting maritime ties and enhancing cooperation on combating militancy are likely to feature prominently during the talks. The discussions on education, science and technology and people-to-people contacts are also expected to figure during the bilateral engagements. The Thai Prime Minister earlier met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after being accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. "A Rashtrapati Bhvn recep'n for the visiting dignitary. Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha is welcomed by PM @narendramodi," Swarup said. Accompanied by his deputy, five senior ministers and a 46 -member business delegation, the Thai Prime Minister arrived in New Delhi yesterday for a three-day visit aimed at reviewing bilateral relations. The Thai Prime Minister, who was received by Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on his arrival, is visiting the country on the invitation of Prime Minister Modi. Prayuth will also address events organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The Thai Prime Minister will also visit Bodh Gaya, a prime Buddhist pilgrimage, before heading back home on Saturday. This is Prayuth's first visit to India. Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra had visited India in January 2012 when she was invited as chief guest for India's Republic Day celebrations. 'The Nanny' star Ann Morgan Guilbert, who was widely known as Millie Helper in the 1960s sitcom 'The Dick Van Dyke Show,' recently passed away at the age of 87 after battling cancer. Her daughter Nora Eckstein confirmed the news, reports Variety. Fran Drescher took to the social media to pay tribute to her longtime colleague, tweeting, "Such a great actress! I thank you Annie. Thank you for all the laughs! May you be cracking them up in heaven!" Guilbert, who is survived by her two daughters, actress Hallie Todd and Nora Eckstein, had appeared on several popular shows like, 'My Three Sons,' 'The Alfred Hitchcock Hou,' 'I Dream of Jeannie,' 'The Partridge Family', 'American Style' and 'The New Andy Griffith Show'. Recently, the late television actress appeared in a recurring role on HBO's 'Getting On' and the CBS comedy, 'Life in Pieces'. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Advisor on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, has said Islamabad is not breaching any agreement by constructing a gate on the Torkham border. Aziz, who was addressing the National Assembly, said Islamabad will go on with the project to make effective border management possible. He claimed that Islamabad had informed the Afghan authorities about its intention to build the gate, adding the construction work had started back in November 2014. "When Afghan authorities expressed their reservations, we took them into confidence and told them that the gate is constructed inside Pakistani territory," Dawn quoted Aziz as saying. Aziz further said such border management steps will help both countries in their combined efforts to combat terrorism as "unregulated movement allows infiltration of terrorists and smugglers". The Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs also talked about regulating all other border crossings with Afghanistan in near future. The recent murder of a 16-year-old girl in Pakistan's Abbottabad for helping her friend escape to marry according to her own will has yet again brought to the fore the gruesome incidents like honor killings and killing for refusal of marriage proposals besides exposing the fact that there is no existence of any law in the country which would punish the perpetrators of these crimes. The girl Ambreen was last month taken from her home to an abandoned house drugged, killed and placed in the backseat of a parked van on the behest of a 15-member Jirga. The van was then set on fire. The recent cases of honor killings, forced marriages, acid throwing and killing for refusal of marriage proposals in the country is a testament to the fact that criminal justice system has become dysfunctional and failed to protect citizens from the brutal and tyrant actions. The life and honour of females in Pakistan today is cut short with no fear of punishment by the perpetrators. A recent article published in The Nation highlights several such incidents and the woes of the feminine gender in Pakistan. 21-year-old Maria Sadaqat, a female school teacher, was tortured and set on fire by the school principal along with five others after she refused a marriage proposal. The perpetrators sprinkled kerosene oil on her at her house in Murree. Sadaqat, who succumbed to her injuries at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on June 1, is not the only victim of such barbarity. Despite countless incidents of such inhuman activities across the country, it is quite regrettable that no action has been initiated yet to bring the perpetrators to book. In another gruesome incident, a 16-year-old girl of Bheel community was killed after being sexual assaulted by the son of a police constable when she went into the farmland in Khipro town of Sanghar in Sindh. The people from her community and the civil society activists have been staging protests for the perpetrator's arrest. In the latest case of honour killing in Karachi metropolis, Sumaira, 16, was murdered by her brother in April. He slit her throat with a kitchen knife after he found her talking to a man on her mobile phone at the doorstep of her home in Orangi Town. Though countless incidents of sexual assault and honour killings occur in rural areas of Sindh, only few are being reported. The article suggests that the only way to control this atrocious and vicious crime of killing innocent girls is through speedy justice and severe punishments to the offenders. Other Asia, led by India, is anticipated to be the main contributor to oil demand growth in 2016 OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report Crude Oil Price Movements The OPEC Reference Basket averaged $43.21/b in May, representing a gain of $5.35 over the previous month. ICE Brent ended up $4.31 at $47.65/b, while Nymex WTI rose $5.67 to $46.80/b. The ICE Brent-Nymex WTI spread narrowed significantly to 85/b in May from $2.21/b the month before. World Economy World economic growth is forecast at 3.1% for this year, after estimated growth of 2.9% the year before, both unchanged from the previous month. OECD growth in 2016 remains at 1.9%, slightly below the 2.0% seen in 2015. The forecast for the major emerging economies remains unchanged. China and India continue to expand this year at a considerable level of 6.5% and 7.5%, respectively. Brazil and Russia, however, are forecast to remain in recession this year, contracting by 3.4% and 1.1%, respectively. World Oil Demand World oil demand growth for 2016 remains unchanged from the previous report at 1.20 mb/d to average 94.18 mb/d. Other Asia, led by India, is anticipated to be the main contributor to oil demand growth in 2016. Similar to 2015, transportation fuels, supported by healthy vehicle sales and the low oil price environment, are projected to provide the bulk of expected growth. The 2015 growth estimate was also left unchanged at 1.54 mb/d to average 92.98 mb/d. World Oil Supply The forecast for non-OPEC oil supply in 2016 remains unchanged, with a contraction of 0.74 mb/d expected to average 56.40 mb/d. The downward revisions in Canada, Brazil and Colombia broadly offset upward revisions in the US, UK, Russia and Azerbaijan. Non-OPEC supply growth in 2015 was left unchanged at 1.47 mb/d. OPEC NGLs and non-conventionals are expected to increase by 0.16 mb/d to average 6.29 mb/d this year. In May, secondary sources show OPEC crude oil production decreased by 0.1 mb/d to average 32.36 mb/d. Product Markets and Refining Operations The high level of inventories in light and middle distillates, along with the approaching end of the spring maintenance season, offset the potential impact from events in Canada and France. This caused margins to edge lower in the Atlantic Basin, despite stronger gasoline demand in the region. Meanwhile, in Asia, refinery margins showed a slight recovery on the back of stronger regional gasoline and gasoil demand amid a peak in refinery maintenance. Tanker Market Sentiment in the dirty tanker market was generally weak in May. VLCC and Suezmax spot freight rates declined on the back of light tonnage demand and increased tanker availability. However, Aframax spot freight rates improved. Clean tanker freight rates declined on average, as a result of low freight rates reported for West of Suez. In May, global chartering activities dropped and sailings from the Middle East, and OPEC more broadly, were lower month-on-month. Stock Movements OECD commercial oil stocks rose slightly in April to stand at 3,046 mb. At this level, OECD commercial oil stocks are around 338 mb above the latest five-year average, with crude indicating a lower surplus of 194 mb and products broadly flat at 144 mb. In terms of days of forward cover, OECD commercial stocks stood at 66.4 days, some 7.1 days higher than the five-year average. Balance of Supply and Demand Demand for OPEC crude in 2016 is projected at 31.5 mb/d, unchanged from the last report and 1.8 mb/d higher than last year. For 2015, demand for OPEC crude is also unchanged, averaging 29.7 mb/d, which represents a decline of 0.1 mb/d from the previous year. Estimate for 2015 Demand for OPEC crude for 2015 remained unchanged from the previous month to stand at 29.7 mb/d, representing a decline of 0.1 mb/d from the 2014 level. All quarters remained unchanged. 1Q15 fell by 0.8 mb/d, while 2Q15 and 3Q15 remained flat versus the same quarters last year. 4Q15 rose by 0.4 mb/d y-o-y. Forecast for 2016 Demand for OPEC crude for 2016 remained unchanged from the previous MOMR and is projected to increase by 1.8 mb/d to average 31.5 mb/d. Within the quarters, both 1Q16 and 4Q16 were revised down by 0.2 mb/d and 0.1 mb/d, respectively, while 2Q16 was revised up by 0.1 mb/d. 3Q16 remained unchanged. 1Q16 and 2Q16 are expected to increase by 1.0 mb/d and 2.1 mb/d, respectively, while 3Q16 and 4Q16 are both projected to increase, rising by 2.2 mb/d and 1.8 mb/d, respectively. Powered by Capital Market - Live News Delay in regulatory approvals may reduce pharma exports' growth by half Export of pharmaceutical products from India is likely to cross $14. billion (bn) mark this year and may reach about $20 bn by 2020, thereby registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about eight per cent, according to an ASSOCHAM-TechSci Research joint study. However, growth in pharmaceutical products' exports from India may decline by almost half i.e. from the level of CAGR of about 15 per cent clocked during 2010-14 to about eight per cent during 2015-2020 on account of delay in regulatory approvals in top markets of the US, Russia, Africa and others, highlighted the study titled 'IPR in pharmaceuticals: Balancing, innovation and access,' jointly conducted by ASSOCHAM and TechSci Research. Consolidation of pharmacy players is leading to an increase in pricing pressures for generic companies existing in the US market which is expected to result in decline in year-on-year growth of pharmaceutical exports from India over next five years, highlighted the ASSOCHAM-TechSci Research study. Besides, a steep decline in currency in emerging markets like Africa, Russia, Ukraine and Venezuela is expected to add woes to drug manufacturing companies that supply pharmaceutical drugs to that region and are unable to generate high revenues on account of selling their drugs at a low priced currency. India is the largest supplier of medicine to the US. Pharmaceutical exports from India to the US rose from $3.4 bn in 2013 to $3.7 bn in 2014, mainly due to increasing demand for high quality generic drugs in the market. However, growth rate for exports of pharmaceutical products from India to the US is declining, due to increasing US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) scrutiny on the quality of pharma products coming from drug manufacturing plants located in India. In order to boost growth rate of exports to the US, Indian companies will need to leverage their compliance to the USFDA regulations. The exchange rate crisis in the country is affecting pharmaceuticals market in Russia. As such, stabilization of currency is of utmost importance in generating revenues through exports. In addition, many Indian companies are operating through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Program (PBP) and hospital tenders, for supplying vital and essential drugs, for which prices are then regulated by the Russian government. Similarly, India's exports of pharmaceuticals to Africa are being affected due to port delays and prolonged custom valuation. Pharmaceuticals' exports are a major factor contributing to growth of this industry in India with the US and few fast growing markets like Brazil, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and in South-East Asia emerging as the main export markets for generic drugs, said Mr D.S. Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the study. India's pharmaceutical industry has transformed from being mainly a generic manufacturer to providing complex drug formulations to foreign markets thereby registering a significant growth, said Mr Rawat. Pharmaceutical market in India is being driven by rapid socio-economic changes, rising sedentary lifestyle amid people and expected growth in number of people suffering from obesity, diabetes, cardiac problems and other related ailments, he added. Further, with a view to benefit and drive the growth of pharmaceutical research and innovation in India, the ASSOCHAM-TechSci Research study has recommended for data protection to be introduced as an Intellectual Property Right. It has also suggested for digitisation of IPR for pharmaceuticals in India to strengthen online processing and maintenance of information database thereby making the process more systematic and convenient. Though it would require allocation of more personnel for patent examinations and training sessions to be organised as part of resource development module, the study has emphasised that efficient management of IPR filings would help in building a stronger IPR framework in India. India's pharmaceutical market may reach $20 bn this year and about $55 bn by 2020 from about $18 bn as of 2014 thereby clocking a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 22 per cent. Pharmaceutical sector in India will register higher growth during the course of next five years (22 per cent) as compared to a CAGR of about 14 per cent clocked by the sector during 2010-14. Powered by Capital Market - Live News The Department-related Parliament Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice will visit Bengaluru, Chennai and Bhopal beginning 20th June, 2016. The committee consisting of 28 MPs will be chaired by Dr E. M. S. Natchiappan. During the visit, the Committee will hold meeting with the representatives of recognised political parties and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state on implementation of Model Code of Conduct for Political Parties during General Elections. The members will also meet the representatives of State Governments, State Public Service Commission and Administrative Training Institute and Indian Institute of Management in the respective states, on the subject of appointment of advisors/experts in Government establishments. During visit to Bengaluru, the committee will visit the National Law School of India University and hold interaction with Christ University School of Law, Law Academies, Law firms including State Judicial Academy, Bar Council of Karnataka and University Law College, Bangalore University on Promotion of Legal Education and Research under the Advocates Act, 1961. The Committee will also hold meeting with State Bank of Mysore, Vijaya Bank, Aeronautical Development Establishment, Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and National Small Industries Corporation on the Status of implementation of Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism, Vigilance Administration and Right to Information Act. In Chennai, the committee will visit the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University and hold discussions on Promotion of Legal Education and Research . The committee will also hold meeting with representatives of Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), Indian Overseas Bank, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam (BHAVINI), National Thermal Power Corporation, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and Airports Authority of India on the Status of implementation of Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism, Vigilance Administration and Right to Information Act. During its visit to Bhopal, the committee will hold discussion with Gas Authority of India (GAIL), Northern Coalfields Limited, National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC), Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC), Metallurgical & Engineering Consultants (MECON), Bharat Coking Coal Limited and Oriental Insurance Company on the Status of implementation of Public Grievances Redressal Mechanism, Vigilance Administration and Right to Information Act. The committee will also visit the National Judicial Academy of India, Bhopal and hold interaction on Promotion of Legal Education and Research. Powered by Capital Market - Live News The matter relating to violations of law, criminal offences and default in payments to investors on the platform of National Spot Exchange (NSEL) is engaging the serious attention of the Government. Investigations and other enforcement measures are being taken by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police, Enforcement Directorate (ED), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Financial Intelligence Unit - India (FIU-IND) and Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). The progress of these activities is being monitored in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA),Ministry of Finance through Review Meetings. So far, eleven such meetings have taken place. The last such Review Meeting was held on 06 June 2016 under the Chairmanship of Shri Shaktikanta Das, Secretary (Economic Affairs),Ministry of Finance. The latest status with regard to some of the important aspects of the case and the key decisions taken in the Review Meeting are as under: Government of Maharashtra has issued fifth Gazette notification on 17 March 2016 for attachment of 151 properties worth Rs. 358.46 Crores approximately. Till date, five Gazette notifications have been issued in respect of attachment of assets worth Rs. 6115.25 Crores approximately. MCA is working on the merger / amalgamation of NSEL with Financial Technologies (India) (FTIL). Bombay High Court had granted extension of time up to 15 February 2016 to MCA for taking final view on the draft order of the amalgamation. MCA issued the final Order on 12.2.2016 for the merger of NSEL with FTIL. Hon'ble Bombay High Court, however, has restrained the Government from notifying the final Order dated 12 February 2016 in the Gazette. In the review meeting, MCA was requested to take quick action and ensure that the case is handled on priority. Further, it was advised that a senior officer should visit Mumbai to follow up on the Court case. The Enforcement Directorate had filed a prosecution complaint before the City Civil Court And Additional Sessions Judge, Greater Bombay on 30 March 2015 against NSEL and 67 other accused persons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). The prosecution complaint details money trail amounting to Rs. 3721.22 crores. The next date of hearing is on 7 July 2016. It was pointed out to the Directorate that the violation of PMLA is a serious offence and therefore, the Directorate should be more proactive and take effective action quickly. FIU-IND passed an Order on 4.11.2015 under section 13 of the PMLA imposing a penalty of Rs. 1.66 crores on the NSEL for non-compliance of the Act. NSEL has gone in appeal in the PMLA Tribunal against the Order passed by Director, FIU-IND. Besides this, Show Cause Notices have been issued to officials / Directors concerned of NSEL. FIU-IND was advised that all out efforts may be made to ensure realisation of the penalty at the earliest. As decided in the previous review meeting, Government of Maharashtra is working on proposals for providing additional manpower for Economic Offence Wing of Mumbai Police which is investigating the NSEL case on an urgent basis; augmenting the number of Designated Courts under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (In Financial Establishments) Act, 1999; and deployment of full time competent authorities for dealing exclusively with NSEL related work. Action has been initiated by the Government of Maharashtra to auction attached properties. The State Government was advised that it may closely monitor the progress of the investigation / prosecution by the EOW, Mumbai Police with a view to expediting the refund of the lost investment of public. The auction of attached properties needs to be expedited and the money realised may be returned to the investors at the earliest following the due procedure. SEBI has appointed empanelled auditors to conduct detailed inspection of books of five brokers of the erstwhile Forward Markets Commission whose names figure in the list of offenders received from EOW, Mumbai Police. SEBI was asked to get the audit of the books of brokers carried out in a comprehensive manner and expedite necessary action under law. Powered by Capital Market - Live News The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)on Friday said the besieged Syrian town of Al-Waer received food, health, education and other emergency supplies, the first aid to reach the location's desperate population in over three months. Catering to the needs of 37,500 people, this means that 16 out of 18 locations surrounded by warring factions on Thursday received critical assistance since relief operations kicked off in February, Xinhua news agency reported. Pending government approval, OCHA said a second convoy is scheduled to provide additional supplies to Al-Waer's estimated population of 75,000 people in the coming days. The remaining two besieged towns of Arbin and Zamalka, in rural Damascus, are also set to receive aid shortly though no indication as to when or whether operations will take place was given by OCHA. Adequate humanitarian access is considered a vital component for the resumption of Syria peace talks seeking to broker a political end to the five-year conflict. Negotiations between warring factions have been on hold since April this year as a result of the concerning security and humanitarian situation in the country at war since 2011. --IANS py/vm After wowing the audiences across the world, the award-winning documentary, "Awake: The Life of Yogananda", an unconventional biography of the eminent Indian Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda, is releasing in India on June 17. Narrated by the veteran actor Anupam Kher, the film is releasing a week ahead of the Inernational Yoga Day which is celebrated on June 21. The movie is releasing in major cities including Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chandigarh. Written and directed by Academy Award nominated director Paola Di Florio and Lisa Leeman, the film features interviews of eminent personalities, including George Harrison, Ravi Shankar and Krishna Das. "India holds very special place in my heart. I went there for the first time to film 'Awake: The Life of Yogananda'. I was a bit of sceptic at the time and could not have imagined that the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda would completely change my life," said the director Paola Di Florio. "The documentary is an unconventional biography of Paramhansa Yogananda who brought yoga and meditation to the West in the 1920s and also authored the spiritual classic 'Autobiography of a Yogi' which sold millions of copies and is a go-to book for seekers, philosophers and Yoga enthusiasts," she added. -- IANS mg/lok Film: 'Awake - The Life of Yogananda'; Co-directors: Paola Di Florio and Lisa Leeman; Voiceover: Anupam Kher; Rating: **1/2 This biopic, directed by Paola Di Florio and Lisa Leeman, celebrates the life of Paramahansa Yogananda. It is an inspiring, fascinating and informative documentary that is affectionately told. But, it falls a little short in explaining Yogananda's spiritual inclination. For the uninitiated, Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal G, was an Indian yogi and guru who introduced yoga and meditation to millions of westerners in the early 1920s. Narrated in a non-linear manner, the film encapsulates the spiritual master's life, right from the time he was in his mother's womb till his death in 1952 and beyond. It does so by explaining how his teachings have influenced his followers even after his death. The arc of the narrative reveals how Yogananda, after the death of his mother, finds his spiritual guru in Benaras and later settles in Ranchi, where he receives his divine calling; to travel to the US to teach yoga. It further reveals that the Yogi was reluctant to travel yet was dutiful. After reaching Boston, he realised that the ideal place for him to make an impact in the US was by being in California. And so, he soon set up his centre there. Most of the talking heads are his admirers who testify his belief in yoga as "science of the soul and cosmic senses" rather than mystic art - a "philosophical system" with meditation as its main tool. John Lynn, an oil tycoon, emphasises it further by saying, "meditation is the catch word". There is ample cultural context as well. The acceptance of a brown skinned foreigner preaching the science of religion in an advance society versus resentment and suspicion. The film also tactfully reveals how Yogananda though being a supporter of Gandhi, refrained from his ascetic extremes. The visuals, layered over a first-person voice-over narrative delivered by actor Anupam Kher meshes a series of; black-and-white re-enactments, elementary 2D animation, archival footages - print, radio and television along with interviews of those who knew Yogananda well and those who study his teachings today. Packed with random generic visuals, the film is designed like the documentaries of the 1980s. Anupam Kher's weak and limp voice further highlights this. The dramatisations, though sober, come from the talking heads like author Deepak Chopra, Krishna Das, Brother Vishwananda, Sri Daya Mata, Anita Goel, Andrew Newberg, author and journalists Phil Goldberg, Stefanie Syman and Robert Love and yoga guru Bikram Chaudhary. Overall, this film will specifically appeal to Yogananda's followers. And though it is not quite hagiography, it is almost hard not to get caught up in the film's admiring tone. --IANS troy/rb/vt In Egypt there is a saying, "Why did you choose this bitter remedy?" And the answer is, "I chose it because the alternative was even bitterer." If it were up to me, I'd still choose Clinton than Trump. The Daily Caller, by Eric Owen Getty Images/YASSER AL-ZAYYAT, Getty Images/Joe Readle, Getty Images/YASSER AL-ZAYYAT Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton harshly criticized three countries for directly funding terrorists who are actively seeking to attack the United States and Western Europe. The governments of this trio of nations have contributed between $16 million and $40 million to the Clinton Foundation. Clinton sharply denounced the three countries Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar in a speech in Cleveland on Monday. It was her first public speech after Saturday nights terrorist massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Efforts to defeat ISIS on the battlefield must succeed, Clinton said. But it will take more than that. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee then identified three areas that demand attention if America is to thwart future terrorist attacks. The third of these areas, Clinton said, is the prevention of efforts by ISIS and other international terrorist networks to recruit in the United States and Europe. "For starters, it is long past time for the Saudis, the Qataris and the Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organizations, Clinton declared. And they should stop supporting radical schools and mosques around the world that have set too many young people on a path towards extremism. The governments of all three of the countries which Clinton blamed for funding terrorism have contributed very lavishly to the Clinton Foundation. (RELATED: Persian Gulf Sheiks Gave $100 Million to Clinton Foundation) The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has given the Clinton Foundation an unspecified amount between $10 million and $25 million, according to the nonprofits records. The State of Kuwait has donated between $5 million and $10 to the Clinton Foundation. The State Of Qatar has given the Clinton Foundation between $1 million and $5 million. The Clinton Foundations impact would not be possible without the generous support of our donors and grantors, the Clinton Foundation explains. Their generosity makes our work possible and we thank them. Hillary Clinton did not mention the prodigal donations to the Clinton Foundation from the Saudis, the Qataris and the Kuwaitis when she criticized them this week. In 2015, the annual budget of the Clinton Foundation was over $223 million, according to The Washington Post. While Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, Clinton Foundation officials used an obscure New York state charity board filing to disclose that the nonprofit received nearly $17.7 million in donations from foreign governments. (EXCLUSIVE: Cryptic NY Filing Revealed Clinton Foundation Foreign Donations) During Clintons tenure as Secretary of State, the foundation operated in at least 29 countries, including places that contained rampant corruption such as Nigeria, Uganda, Ukraine, Haiti, Mozambique, China and South Africa. A British man was on Friday sentenced to 18 months in prison by a Cambodian court, for sexually abusing three underage boys. Roy Sheppard, 77, was convicted of committing "indecent act" against three boys between 12 and 16 years old, in violation of the law on suppression of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, Xinhua news agency quoted a child protection NGO Action Pour Les Enfants (APLE) as saying. The NGO assisted police in a probe leading to the arrest and conviction of Sheppard. The court also ordered his deportation from Cambodia after he served his jail term and fined him $1,000 in compensation to each of the victims. Sheppard was arrested in October last year after ppolice received complaints from the parents of the victims. Later, he was released on bail for health reasons. Cambodia launched an anti-paedophile operation in 2003 in a bid to end its reputation as a haven for child sex offenders. Since then, dozens of foreigners have been imprisoned for child sex crimes. --IANS ask/py/vt Saint Petersburg, June 17 (IANS/AKI) 'Brexit' will impact financial markets but it is Britons who risk the most if they vote to leave the European Union in a referendum on June 23, Italy's Premier Matteo Renzi warned on Friday. "Those who are at greatest risk are the citizens, even if in an initial phase there would be financial turbulence," Renzi told an economic forum in St Petersburg, Russia. Renzi however played down recent opinion polls suggesting 'Brexit' could prevail in the upcoming referendum in which immigration and the economy are key issues. "I think the British are most serious-minded than the surveys suggest," he said. Whatever the outcome of the referendum in Britain, the 60-year-old European Union risks implosion unless it changes, Renzi said. "Europe needs a new burst of energy and not just to react to events...it needs to re-start or it is finished." Renzi also said Europe and Russia needed to "become good neighbours again". The stalemate over sanctions imposed on Moscow after its annexation of Crimea "could be overcome" if the Minsk accords were fully implemented, Renzi stated.--IANS/AKI rn Actor-filmmaker Sunny Deol, whose long-awaited film "Mohalla Assi" is yet to see the light of the day after facing a censor board hurdle, on Friday said that CBFC should only be allowed to certify a film and not try to stop it from releasing. After fighting against the censor board, filmmaker Abhishek Chaubey's "Udta Punjab" finally got released on Friday. However, "Mohalla Assi", directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, has not been issued any certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) due to the use of abusive words in the film. Asked whether "Mohalla Assi" makers are planning to go against CBFC's decision after the release of "Udta Punjab", Sunny said: "The film should have released till now. It will definitely get released some day. The producers are fighting for it. There is nothing in it which needs to be censored. We should not try to stop a film's release. "From the creative point of view, we always feel that our film doesn't get to face any problem but then there is a board sitting there to correct us. If they are correct or not, this war has been going on since long time. There is no conclusion to this war." Talking about the certification issue of "Mohalla Assi", Sunny said: "I feel end of the day after the film has been made, they (CBFC) should only give certificate to the film and not stop its release. What they should see is that if the film is a fictitious one or not. "We should imply censorship on the internet and television which people misuse a lot in order to say anything to anybody." Sunny, who was last seen on the big screen in "Ghayal Once Again", which will have its world television premiere on Zee Cinema on June 26, said currently he is working towards his son's debut film. "Right now, my priority is working towards my son's film. I'm working that out," added Sunny, who has two sons - Karan and Rajvir. Apart from acting in "Ghayal Once Again", Sunny also directed the film. He says both the jobs have their own aspects. "I think direction is tougher because there you have to command a whole army. As an actor, you do your work and you do something wrong, then the director is there to stop you," Sunny said. The "Gadar" star is currently working in films like "Bhaiyyaji Superhitt" and the remake of Marathi film "Poster Boyz", in which he will be seen alongside his brother Bobby Deol. --IANS sas/nn/vm The National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislative body, on Friday voiced strong dissatisfaction after some US lawmakers met the Dalai Lama in Washington. "The meeting went against the US commitment that Tibet is a part of Chinese territory and it does not support 'Tibet independence'," said a statement issued by the NPC's Foreign Affairs Committee. The meeting also breached basic norms of international relations and constituted an interference in China's internal affairs, it said. US House Speaker Paul Ryan, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and some lawmakers met the Tibetan leader on June 14. The Dalai Lama lives in India along with thousands of Tibetans. --IANS ahm/mr Citizen journalism, often seen as a more democratic form of journalism where the public contributes to the reporting, analysis and dissemination of news, sometimes leads to outright cyber bullying, warns a study. Citizen journalism allows the ordinary citizens to witness events, document them on their mobile phones and share them on social media. It has also become an increasingly important news source that often sets the tone of how an event is perceived by the world, the study said. "Common within this type of citizen journalism is that it is perceived as truth to at least the same extent as ordinary journalism," said sociologist and criminologist Agneta Mallen from Lund University in Sweden. The credibility of the video is often enhanced by poor film quality and shaky image, thus allowing the viewers to become less critical of the source. "Another problem with citizen journalism is that it opens the door to cyber bullying," Mallen noted. In a study, she analysed a video clip that circulated a few years ago under the name "Crazy Granny", which shows an elderly woman who looks as if she is trying to sneak away without paying for her taxi fare. The clip has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and in hundreds of comments the woman is defamed and ridiculed. "The comments against the old lady were extremely harsh. Many of them were sexist and encouraged violence. Furthermore, from the comments it was possible to determine the woman's identity and address," Mallen noted. She read the taxi driver's police report against the woman and got a completely different story than the one told in the video clip. It turned out that the woman was not at all trying to avoid paying for her taxi fare, but rather the conflict was about her accidentally spilling on the seat of the taxi, and the fact that the driver wanted her to pay damages before letting her leave. The police classified it as an accident and immediately closed the preliminary investigation. "But the damage was already done. The woman was humiliated in a massive cyber bullying campaign and never received any redress. She was also subjected to a virtual punishment for something she did not do," rued the researchers. The study was published in the Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention. --IANS ng/rt/gb/vt A 100-year-old woman recently got a new lease of life after being successfully implanted with pacemaker at a hospital here. Phoolwati Gaharwar suffered from recurrent spells of unconsciousness following a fall from her bed. Tests revealed that though there were no external injuries, her cardiac electrical system was affected. According to doctors at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, her condition required an urgent implant of pacemaker for normal functioning of her heart. However, her advanced age posed a challenge with doctors predicting only a 50 per cent chance for her surviving the surgical procedure. The doctors decided to implant pacemaker and also indicated to the family members the challenges associated with patients at advanced ages. "The decision to implant the pacemaker was imperative as she was suffering with recurrent unconscious spells. The fact that despite her age she had no co-morbidities to complicate her condition, further helped us," said Aparna Jaswal, Senior Consultant (Electrophysiology) Fortis Escorts. "We implanted a single chamber pace-maker and she is back on her feet and fine," Jaswal added. "We are very thankful to the doctors for allaying our fears about my grandmother's ability to withstand the surgery and for giving her a new lease of life," Nishant Gaharwar, the patient's grandson, noted. --IANS rt/gb/vt Assuring "full support and protection", the Bangladesh government has beefed up the security at the Ramakrishna Mission in Dhakha after a staff member there received a death threat from suspected Islamic State militants in the country. Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup said in a statement here that the Indian high commission in Dhaka "had contacted both the Bangladesh police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and have been assured of full support and protection". "We are also in a direct conatact with the Ramakrishna Mission in Dhaka," Swarup said, adding that the Bangaldesh government has strengthened police presence around the office of the Indian sprituality movement. This comes a day after a priest of the mission filed a complaint with police that he recieved a letter from the Islamic State Bangladesh chapter threatening his life. The letter, according to the Daily Star, reads: "You are Hindus, Bangladesh is an Islamic country. You cannot preach Hindu religion in the country. Go to India. Otherwise, you will be hacked to death." Bangladesh has launched a nationwide crackdown against the militants after targeted killing of minority leaders continued unabashed across the country. Recently, a volunteer of a Hindu monastery, Nityaranjan Pandey, was hacked to death in a series of such killings in Bangladesh. Pandey was associated with Sree Sree Thakur Anukulchandra Satsang Ashram in Pabna Sadar, Rajshahi, of Bangladesh. --IANS sar/vt Senior representatives of foreign missions, including Britain, Canada, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the US, as also tge European Union (EU), gathered here on Friday to reaffirm their strong commitment to equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersexed (LGBTI) citizens. "We are not asking for any special rights for LGBTI citizens but basic human rights," said EU delegation to India counsellor Thibault Devanlay. Devanlay talked about his own sexuality saying: "I was open as a gay man when I joined the ministry and was harrassed by my boss. The entire administration fought for my rights and not for my boss." Spanish Political Counsellor Beatriz Lorenzo said that she was shocked to see the 2015 "reports that 40 percent people below the age of 17 had committed suicide because they were homosexuals". "There is 80 percent acceptance of LGBT community in Spain. A lot has been done and there is a lot that needs to be done. A lot of trans-phobia and homophobia needs to change," she added, at the event hosted by the American Center here. From criminalization of homosexuality to legalization of same sex marriage, many countries have been able to provide the community a right to be treated without discrimination. "In 2009, gender neutral marriage became legal in Norway," said Norwegian Head of Political Affairs, Baard Hjelde. "Since 2001, Germany has been granting almost equal rights to same sex couples," said German Secretary of Industrial Affairs Bjorn Grozinger. "Legislation to allow same-sex marriage in Britain was passed in 2014," said British Deputy High Commissioner Jess Dutton. All delegates expressed their condolences to those impacted by the deadly nightclub shooting that took place on June 12 in Orlando, Florida. "At home, and increasingly abroad, many countries support, organise, or participate in events to celebrate the diversity of their citizens, to reduce discrimination and misinformation about the LGBTI community," said US Deputy Chief of Mission Michael Peletier. "Diverse celebrations will foster a sense of community and belonging, and help to advance human rights for all throughout the world," Peletier concluded. --IANS mg/rn/vm The European Union has lifted its ban on fish imports from Sri Lanka, an official said on Friday. Director of Government Information Ranga Kalanssoriya said the ban was lifted after a recent high-level discussion with the EU, Xinhua news agency reported. The EU imposed the ban in October 2014 for Sri Lanka's failure to prevent local fishermen from violating international fisheries laws and the island country's human rights issues. Sri Lanka's seafood exports were severely hit and continued to decline since the EU ban took effect. Sri Lanka is one of the largest exporters to the EU of high-value fishery products such as swordfish and tuna. According to the EU Commission, Sri Lanka exported to the EU countries 7,400 tonnes of fish worth $94 million in 2013 and over 5,000 tonnes of fisheries products valued at $62.99 million in 2014. --IANS ask/py/vt One of the largest charities helping migrants across Europe said it will no longer accept funds from the European Union and its member states in protest against the "shameful response" to the refugee crisis. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has long called for the creation of safe routes into the continent and joined countless other humanitarian organisations condemning the deal made with Turkey to detain and deport asylum seekers in Greece, the independent reported. Jerome Oberreit, the charity's International Secretary General, said: "For months MSF has spoken out about a shameful European response focused on deterrence rather than providing people with the assistance and protection they need." "The EU-Turkey deal goes one step further and has placed the very concept of 'refugee' and the protection it offers in danger." An estimated 8,000 people, including hundreds of unaccompanied children, are currently trapped on Greek islands under the terms of the EU-Turkey deal, which will see them deported if their asylum applications fail, without legal aid. MSF said their plight shows the "human cost" of the controversial agreement made in March, which is seeing migrants held for several months in overcrowded camps, where fights, fires and violent protests have broken out. The number of people crossing the Aegean Sea in smugglers' boats has steeply declined since the new rules came into force but asylum seekers, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, continue to arrive. Most of the almost 3,000 deaths recorded this year have been in a succession of disasters on the central Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy. Proponents of the EU-Turkey deal, which the European Commission is considering replicating across more than 16 countries in Africa and the Middle East, argued that it aimed to reduce drownings at sea. "Deterrence policies sold to the public as humanitarian solutions have only exacerbated the suffering of people in need," Oberreit said. "There is nothing remotely humanitarian about these policies. It cannot become the norm and must be challenged. "MSF will not receive funding from institutions and governments whose policies do so much harm. We are calling on European governments to shift priorities -- rather than maximising the number of people they can push back, they must maximise the number they welcome and protect." A spokesperson for MSF said its refusal of European state funding would take immediate affect and apply to its projects worldwide, condemning the unacceptable "instrumentalisation of humanitarian aid". The charity accused the EU of setting a dangerous precedent attempting to force people to stay in the countries they are desperate to flee, sparking border closures leading back to Isis territory near Azaz in Syria, where 100,000 civilians are trapped between the closed Turkish border and front lines. "Europe's attempt to outsource migration control is having a domino effect, with closed borders stretching all the way back to Syria," Oberreit said. "People increasingly have nowhere to turn." The organisation has treated an estimated 200,000 people in Europe and in boats on the Mediterranean Sea over the past 18 months and is working with refugees across the continent, as well as in the Middle East and Africa. As well as running clinics at borders and in refugee camps, it operates three search and rescue ships in the Mediterranean that picked up more than 1,300 in just 36 hours last week. The MSF said its rejection of EU funding would not affect patients, and that its activities are already 92 per cent privately-funded. MSF received 19 million pounds from EU institutions in 2015 and another 37 million pounds from member states, as well as working in partnership with Britain and nine other countries. --IANS py/vt usuncut.com A journalists recent Facebook status update destroying the myths about the Orlando shooter is quickly going viral. Che Brandes-Tuka, a scholar, international human rights campaigner, and organizer who works as a journalist for TeleSUR English, ran through the known details of Omar Mateen the 29-year-old who carried out a massacre at an Orlando nightclub that left 49 people dead and 53 others wounded and shredded the myth that he was an Afghan terrorist with ties to ISIS: So after a couple of days of reports and testimonies, we know the following about the Orlando shooter: He was a child of immigrants, born and raised in the United States. He pledged allegiance to Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda AND ISIS, 3 organizations that are de facto at war with each other, showing he was ignorant about all 3, let alone politics in the Middle East in general. He knew practically nothing about Islam and according to his wife, father and community he was not religious in the slightest. Brandes-Tuka pointed out that according to all available evidence, Mateens attack was rooted not in a desire to carry out an act of terrorism in the name of radical Islamic views, but rather as the result of letting hate take over his life and working for an employer with a long background of abuse and domination: He struggled with his toxic masculinity, had an alcohol problem and beat up his wife for which he was never charged. He was racist towards Blacks, Latin@s and other minorities and in the shooting killed predominantly queer people of color. Despite his own alleged queer inclinations, he was a homophobe in a country where still 1 in 5 LGBTQ people are victims of hate crimes and there are more than a 100 anti-LGBTQ bills (from anti-gay marriage to bathroom bills) pending in dozens of states. He idolized the NYPD, one of the countrys most well-known and cherished institutions that has an army bigger than ISIS, is known to indiscriminately and disproportionately spy on Muslims and which engages in systematic violence against Blacks, Latin@s and other minorities. He beat juveniles in detention centers over the head for a living as he worked for and got his training from the private security firm G4S, which is not only one of the foremost stakeholders in the Prisonindustrial complex, but is also invested in mass deportations as it runs immigration detention centers and participates in the occupation of Palestine, training other mass killers in Israel to target and imprison Palestinians. Brandes-Tukas viral post also touched on Americas troubling addiction to guns, the prevalence of mass shootings in recent history, and undue attention paid to violent, hateful, and close-minded viewpoints. He staged a mass shooting in a country that has seen a 1,000 mass shootings in the last 1,200 days. So basically he was ignorant, self-conflicted, racist, sexist, homophobe, had a sick admiration for authority and was obsessed with guns and violence, eventually acting upon all of that. Sorry folks, but your supposed Islamic radical terrorist from Afghanistan is as American as apple pie made with homegrown apples and baked in an American made oven. French fashion brand Marie Claire is foraying into the Indian market, and will soon launch a pret collection aimed at the 20 to 40 years old women. Marie Claire has come exploring the Indian markets with a tie-up for ready-to-wear clothing with Indian manufacturing and marketing giant Epic Brands Pvt Ltd. The line's launch will take place on June 22. Marie Claire and its Indian partner have big plans for the country's market with its offerings which are suited for smart and stylish won. "The products that you are about to discover will give you a taste of the new brand platform to be fully revealed in the fall season. It has been designed to inspire the women in you, now," Stephanie Ertzbischoff, Brand Licensing Director, Marie Claire, said in a statement. Its pret line will showcase "the vivacious ensemble exclusively created by Marie Claire design team for India". "Indian Women are smart and full of life which matches the brand's identity and thus, we see Marie Claire has a great opportunity to grow in India. "We look forward to achieve a good market share in India and achieve the revenue of in excess of Rs 3 billion in next five years," Ertzbischoff added. Marie Claire will cater to the ready-to-wear women category initially which would include short shirts, tops, skirts, trousers, crop tops, tube tanks, tunic, jumpsuits and maxi dresses etc. The price point would start from Rs 999 to Rs 9,999. Amiteshwar Grover, Director, Epic Brands Pvt Ltd, said: "By 2020, we see Marie Claire as top three choices among female consumers when they are looking for classy French styling, great quality and perfect fit." The brand will start to operate with an exclusive brand outlet and multi-brand outlet from 2017 onwards and will initially start with tie-ups with only reputed online fashion stores to market their products. By 2020, plans include 20 exclusive stores and 200 multi brand outlets for Marie Claire in India. --IANS rb/vt A former senior Gujarat police officer, R.B. Sreekumar, on Friday said he was disappointed by the verdict on the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre that left 69 people dead. "The verdict is disappointing and sad," Sreekumar told the media here. "Look, 69 people lost their lives and just 11 have been given life imprisonment. This is wrong," said Sreekumar, who hails from Kerala and lives in Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Sreekumar was the Additional Director General of Police in Gujarat when the incident took place. A special court in Ahmedabad on Friday gave life imprisonment to 11 of the 24 persons convicted in the massacre of 69 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, at the housing society. Twelve convicts got jail for seven years and one was sent to prison for 10 years. Sreekumar said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by R.K. Raghavan, formerly of the Central Bureau of Investigation, which probed the case functioned as a "special immunization team" to give then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi a clean chit. --IANS sg/mr India and Thailand on Friday agreed to deepen their security engagement and defence partnership as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a double entry e-visa for Thai nationals to facilitate their visit to the Buddhist circuit. Addressing the media here with visiting Thailand Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha following delegation-level talks, Modi said India and Thailand were aware that rapid spread of terrorism and radical ideology poses a common challenge to both countries. He said that close security partnership would help the two countries secure their people from such threats. "Beyond terrorism, we have agreed to further deepen our security engagement in the fields of cyber security, narcotics, transnational economic offences and human trafficking," Modi said. Prayut Chan-o-cha, who arrived in India on Thursday, met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj earlier in the day. He was given a ceremonial reception on the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan in the morning. Prayut Chan-o-cha is accompanied by his wife and a high-level delegation including Deputy Prime Minister, several cabinet ministers, senior officials and business leaders. This is his first visit to India after assuming office of Thailand Prime Minister in May 2014. In his statement after bilateral talks, Modi said that smooth flow of goods, services, capital and human resources needs a strong network of air, land and sea links. "We have, therefore, prioritised completion of India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral highway and early signing of the Motor Vehicles Agreement between the three countries," he said. Modi said that India was celebrating 150th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution, and the document will be translated into Thai language. "I am also happy to announce that to welcome more tourists from Thailand to India, and to help them enjoy their visits to Buddhist sites in India, we will soon facilitate double entry e-tourist visas for citizens of Thailand," he said. He said Festival of India in Thailand, and Festival of Thailand in India will be held next year to commemorate 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations. Modi described Thailand as "a trusted and valued friend and one of our closest partners in Southeast Asia." He said the two countries had also agreed to forge a close partnership in "defence and maritime cooperation". He said the partnership will be shaped by "sharing of expertise and experiences, greater staff exchanges and more exercises, cooperation on counter-piracy on seas, deeper engagement in naval patrolling and building linkages in the field of defence research and development and production". Modi said there was particular synergy between Thailand's strengths in infrastructure, particularly tourism infrastructure and India's priorities in this field. Information Technology, pharmaceuticals, auto-components, and machinery were some other areas identified for enhanced collaboration. "We also see early conclusion of a balanced comprehensive economic and partnership agreement as our shared priority," Modi said. He said that a more diversified commercial agreement between the two countries would benefit the two economies while bringing greater regional economic prosperity. The joint statement issued after the talks said that both sides will also be renegotiating a new bilateral investment treaty. It said that Thailand Prime Minister invited Indian investments under the cluster development policy. India offered Thailand indigenously developed GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation services, which provides advanced navigation and location assistance. The statement said two leaders reiterated their strong support for the reform of the United Nations. "The Thai side acknowledged India's credentials for permanent membership of the UN Security Council," it said. Prayut Chan-o-cha invited Modi to visit Thailand, which he accepted. The Thailand Prime Minister also met some Indian business leaders in the capital. He will visit Bodh Gaya in the second leg of his visit before returning home on Saturday. Officials said that extensive people-to-people contacts were central to the India-Thailand relationship. In 2015, more than one million Indian tourists visited Thailand and over 100,000 Thai tourists visited India. There have been regular coordinated patrols between the two navies, annual exercises between the two armies and also the first ever table-top air exercise between the two air forces. India has been participating in multilateral Cobra Gold exercise held in Thailand as an 'Observer Plus' country. --IANS ps/rn/vm India will launch 20 satellites in a single mission on June 22, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said. According to the Isro, at 9.25 am that day, the Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will lift off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with 20 satellites. While the rocket's main cargo will be India's 725.5 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation, the other 19 satellites weighing around 560 kg are from the US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia as well as one satellite each from Sathyabama University, Chennai, and the College of Engineering, Pune. The rocket will blast off from the second launch pad with a total payload of 1,288 kg. The whole mission will get over in around 26 minutes. The images sent by Cartosat satellite will be useful for cartographic, urban, rural, coastal land use, water distribution and other applications. The 1.5 kg Sathyabamasat from Sathyabama University will collect data on green house gases.The 1kg Swayam satellite from Pune will provide point-to-point messaging services to the HAM radio community. Jamia Millia Islamia on Friday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tehran's National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NIGEB) for academic cooperation. Jamia Millia Vice Chancellor Talat Ahmad said that the academic collaboration between the two partnering institutions would open new opportunities for young researchers working in the frontier areas of genetic engineering and biotechnology and the research outcomes would impact the global society favourably. "The impetus given by the government towards internationalisation of would yield positive dividends in the years to come with India emerging as a major hub in the world," Ahmad said. The MoU will enable the two institutions to jointly undertake research activities in the frontier areas of genetic engineering and biotechnology, a Jamia Millia statement said. --IANS akk/pgh/vm The West Bengal government will conduct a probe into the purported Narada sting footage controversy, where a number of Trinamool Congress leaders were allegedly shown receiving wads of currency notes, Chief Mminister Mamata Banerjee announced here on Friday. "If anybody is guilty, he will be punished. I have asked the chief secretary to order a probe," Banerjee told media at the state secretariat Nabanna. Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee said city Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar will conduct the inquiry. --IANS ssp/ahm/vm A 68-year-old man died while watching Hollywood horror movie "The Conjuring 2" at a cinema hall in Tamil Nadu, late on Thursday, police said. The incident occurred during the night show at Sri Balasubramaniar Cinemas in Tiruvannamalai town. G. Ram Mohan, a native of Kadapa district in Andhra Pradesh, suffered chest pain and fainted towards the climax of the movie. H. Prasad, who was accompanying Mohan, took him to a nearby hospital but he died even before reaching the hospital. The doctors asked Prasad to take the body to Tiruvannamalai Government Medical College Hospital for autopsy, but he did not reach there. He was believed to have left for Kadapa along with the body. Police launched an investigation and approached their counterparts in Andhra to trace the body. The duo had reportedly gone to Tiruvannamalai on a business trip. --IANS ms/ahm/vm A married young Hindu woman was forcibly married to a 56-year-old Hindu man in Pakistan's Tharparkar district on the orders of a jirga -- an elders body. Wadia Bai Meghwar and her cousin Suresh had contracted a marriage of their free will in a Karachi court on May 4, 2016. However, a few days later, a notable from Thar's Arbab family took Wadia from her home, promising to marry the couple in a traditional wedding. "But instead of handing her to me, her brother, Gayanchand Meghwar, married her off to an old man," said Suresh, who identified the other man as Chetan Meghwar and estimated to be 56 years old. Inspector General (IG) Sindh A.D. Khawaja, taking notice of the incident, ordered an inquiry and recovery of the woman, reported Dawn. "The girl's brother and other relatives have been arrested in a raid on Friday, and an investigation into the matter is underway," said DSP Mithi Bilawal Haq Mehar. He added that senior police officials have ordered the young woman be recovered and produced in court as soon as possible. Local activists called for a thorough inquiry into the Jirga and the Hindu woman's forced remarriage, demanding severe action against all those involved under the recently-enacted Hindu Marriage Act and other laws to save the young girl. Pakistan has become the first Muslim country to give Hindus the right to register their marriage officially. The bill was passed in February by the assembly in Sindh - home to most of Pakistan's three million Hindus. Activists say that without such a law, Hindu women were targets of forced conversions, abduction and rape, and widows lacked rights. The National Assembly is considering a wider law recognising Hindu marriages. Pakistan's other main religious minority, Christians, have a colonial-era law recognising their marriages. However, Hindus have never had any legal framework to register their unions until now. --IANS ahm/rn/vm Nine cities in eastern China are to host the second Day of Yoga (IDY) celebrations from June 18-26 June, with the theme "9 Cities, 9 Days bringing 9,000 Chinese Yoga lovers closer to India". The Consulate General of India in Shanghai along with municipal/city governments of Shanghai, Wenzhou, Wuxi, Zhenjiang, Taizhou, Yiwu, Shaoxing, Yangzhou and Ningbo would be jointly organising the largest ever celebration of the Day of Yoga (IDY) in the eastern China region from June 18 to 26. A series of yoga promotion events are being organised in the eastern China region with participation of at least 1,000 yoga lovers at each of the nine cities. Under the aegis of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), a senior Indian yoga teacher has been flown in from India to demonstrate hour-long yoga sessions according to the Common Yoga Protocol, as referred in a press statement from the Indian mission in Shanghai. In Shanghai, three special events have been organised. They would begin in the morning of June 21 at the Jing'an Park. Jing'an leadership and several consuls general have confirmed their participation. The event is likely to be attended by nearly 1,000 yoga lovers from across the Jing'an district. The second event in Shanghai has been aimed at the young college-going fraternity of the Shanghai University of Electricity and Power, with over 300 students participating in a special session. A special photo exhibition chronicling the history of yoga along with special postures and their health benefits (as detailed in the Common Yoga Protocol), would be inaugurated for a week's display at the Shanghai Library. During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China in May 2015, a joint Yoga-Taichi session was conducted at the Temple of Heaven in the presence of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Modi. The practice of yoga is immensely popular in eastern China region with thousands of Yoga clubs promoting the ancient Indian practice of yoga, it said. This nine-day schedule would mark the largest celebration of second IDY in mainland China in terms of scale, size and level of participation, it said. India and China jointly co-sponsored the resolution adopting the IDY in the United Nations in December 2014. The resolution also received an unprecedented 177 co-sponsors from the 193 member states of the United Nations, establishing a record in the United Nations General Assembly for any Resolution of such nature. The National Human Rights Commission has called for a report from the Odisha government over the death of woman and her son due to lack of medical facilities at a health centre in Cuttack district. According to the commission, which took cognizance of the issue through media reports, Bharat Nayak of Cuttak district lost his ailing wife and his 24-year-old son in quick succession -- on May 10, and May 11, 2016, respectively. His son could not be shifted in time to a Government Hospital with proper facilities in Cuttack, as he had no money to afford treatment at a private hospital. The commission observed that Bapi, the son of Bharat Nayak, was suffering from spinal disorder. His condition continued to deteriorate as the health centre was not equipped to treat him. His father took him to Cuttack but returned as he could not arrange more than Rs one lakh required for the treatment. "Even as the body of his wife, who died due to heart attack, was lying at his home, Bharat was looking for divine intervention to save his son," said the commission. The man took his son to a nearby temple, even as his wife's body was on a funeral pyre with the assistance of Rs 2,000 from the State Government. "On hearing this, some local people persuaded Bharat to take his son back to the Health Centre where he eventually died, even as Rs 3,000 was arranged through Red Cross to shift him to Cuttack for treatment," said the commission. The Commission observed that the incident raises serious concerns about the prevailing healthcare facilities in Odisha. "The commission has issued a notice to the Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Odisha calling for a report on the condition of the health services in the State and about the non-availability of the ambulance services at Athagarh Health Centre," said the statement from NHRC. --IANS rup/rn/vm Thailand on Friday said it would further facilitate investments by Indian firms in the Southeast Asian nation and resolved to increase Thai investments into India, following the first meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Business Forum here during the ongoing visit of Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha. "I am ready to waive rules that are obstacles so as to facilitate Indian business. Thailand would like Indian investors to come and invest in our priority sectors like information technology, pharmaceuticals, auto-components, and machinery," General Chan-o-Cha told a gathering of business leaders from both countries at an event here hosted jointly by the three industry chambers FICCI, CII and Assocham. "Besides, there are many opportunities for Indian business in the wider Asean (Association for Southeast Asian Nations) region. Thailand can be like a forward base for Indian investors to Asean," the Thai Prime Minister, who is on a visit to India, said. The Thailand Prime Minister, who held delegation level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in the day, invited Indian investments under the country's cluster development policy. The joint statement issued after the talks said that both sides will also be renegotiating a new bilateral investment treaty. The India-Thailand Joint Business Forum has recommended a target of doubling bilateral trade from the current $8 billion level to $16 billion in the next five years. Following its first meeting the forum said it would explore trade in new products and services. In a bid to attract more tourists from Thailand, India on Friday announced that it will facilitate double entry e-tourist visas for Thai citizens. Thailand is also interested in development of the Buddhist tourist circuit in India, Chan-o-Cha told the business meeting. Besides, "food processing, hospitality and health care, which are areas of Thailand's expertise, it is interested in cooperation with India," he added. --IANS bc/rn This is how the 2002 case in which a special court on Friday sentenced 11 of the 24 convicts to life imprisonment for the killing of 69 people, including Congress MP Ehsan Jafri developed through these many years. February 2002: During the Gujarat riots, a Hindu mob attacked the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad in which 69 people were killed. Among the deceased was former parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri. November 2007: The Gujarat High Court dismissed a petition of Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri, seeking the court's directive to the police to register a complaint against the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others for their alleged involvement in the . March 2008: The Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a further probe into 14 Godhra and post -Godhra communal riot cases. The SIT was asked to investigate the incidents that occurred in Godhra, Sardarpura, Gulberg Society, Ode, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya, Deepla Darwaza and the one in which three British nationals of Indian origin were killed. August 2010: The Supreme Court permitted the SIT to conduct further probe on the complaint of Chief Minister Narendra Modi's and 62 others involvement in the riots, by Zakia Jafri. March 2010: The trial was put on hold because of the resignation of the special prosecutor and his assistant. Both had alleged bias on the part of the trial judge and also accused the SIT of not properly coordinating their efforts with them. March 2011: Gujarat Deputy Inspector-General of Police Sanjiv Bhatt, who claimed to have spilled the beans on Modi's alleged controversial orders to the police on the eve of the 2002 communal riots, appeared before the SIT. February 2012: The SIT in a summary closure report says there was no prosecutable evidence against Narendra Modi, who was among 62 persons named in an omnibus complaint filed by Zakia Jafri and the Citizens for Justice and Peace. March 2012: The Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court rejects Zakia Jafri's plea to making public the SIT report. December 2013: Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court rejects the petition of Zakia Jafri against the closure report of the SIT, giving a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister. December 2013: Reacting to an Ahmedabad trial court verdict, R.K. Raghavan, head of the SIT appointed by the Supreme Court to go into Gujarat riots, says SIT's stand has been vindicated. November 2014: The trial in the Gulberg Society case resumed following the Supreme Court's directions to conclude it in three months. November 2014: The Supreme Court asks the Sessions Court to complete the trial in the Gulberg case, one of the nine cases connected to the 2002 post-Godhra riots, in three months. August 6, 2015: Supreme Court grants three-month extension to Ahmedabad court to complete trial proceedings in the case. June 2, 2016: A Special court convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 others. June 17, 2016: A Special SIT court sentenced 11 of the 24 convicts to life imprisonment, one man to 10 years and 12 others to seven years in jail. In search of space for political dissent in the trouble-torn Kashmir Valley, 23-year-old Saba Nazki and a bunch of youths have started a tabloid -- "Mizraab" -- exclusively for students to give vent to their creative expressions in the form of stories and illustrations. When Nazki flew back in 2014 after completing her graduation from Delhi University in English honours, she said there was "no space" in the Valley for intellectual creativity as existed in the national capital where art, theatre and writing used to be her daily fare. The first issue of the 16-page fortnightly "Mizraab", funded by local newspaper "Kashmir Observer", is a collection of students' writings, illustrations and poetry. "Kashmir not only has beautiful landscapes but is also rich in terms of art and literature. And it is so unfortunate that we do not have any space for expression. Kashmir is poetic. Students here need polishing and a platform for expression. Thus, Mizraab," Nazki, who never intended to be a journalist, told IANS. Titled appropriately, "Mizraab", a Persian-origin Urdu name for fiddle-stick or the plectrum with which musical instruments like the sitar or rabaab are played, is a platform to stir the hidden creative minds of the valley. "Mizraab for me is to instigate art and channelise intellectual space. In Kashmir, even student politics is mostly banned. We need to create our own space," said Nazki, the founding editor. Pursuing her masters in English literature from Kashmir University, Nazki has involved fellow students, invoking in them the sense of writing. The first edition published earlier this month is a mix of Kashmir's art, culture, history and linguistic treasure. For example a column, "With Love, To Aga Shahid Ali", remembers the life and works of the renowned Kashmiri-American poet. It also has illustrations by students of music and fine arts. There is a column called "Til-waer", which literally means an oil-dispenser, but is a phrase in Kashmir used for a woman who wanders from door-to-door. "Tilwaer" will be a collection of words and brain-picking idioms and phrases no longer used in spoken Kashmiri. The idea is to recollect "with a tinge of sarcasm, humour and wit" the lost linguistic treasure of Kashmir. "Dancing in Wilderness -- of longings, divinity and catharisis" creates a link between Kashmir's ancient women poets like Lalla Ded and Habba Khatoon and their present-day counterparts like Naseem Shafai -- the first Kashmiri woman to win the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2011. However, Nazki said the tabloid is not only about art, literature and culture. "Art and culture is only the prism. I intend to showcase Kashmir's life in various ways," she said, adding that the tabloid uses art as a metaphor. "It includes satire and showcases conflict as well." She said she got 2,500 copies printed for the first edition. All of them were distributed to students free of cost. But from the next edition, each copy will be priced at Rs 5. (Ruwa Shah can be contacted at ruwa.s@ians.inwill@cvradio.com
If youre a pet lover and/or in need of clothing, houseware, furniture, etc. youll probably find what you need at the 11th Annual Four Paws Rescue Rummage Sale. The sale is Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 227 West 400 North in Logan. Shannon Syrstad explains the purpose and mission of the organization.
4 Paws Rescue is one of the largest non-profit animal rescue groups here in Northern Utah. Its a private shelter and we accept cats and dogs, kittens and puppies based on space, of course. Everyone is spayed or neutered and vaccinated. And then we find loving homes to adopt these animals, says Syrstad.
She says its all volunteer run with individuals who have other full-time jobs. But theyre still able to adopt out between 400 and 500 animals a year, including an adoption partnership with PetSmart.
Syrstad explains, We actually rotate between the Logan and Layton PetSmart stores. So if you go to our calendar on our main website at 4paws.petfinder.com there will be a calendar that will let you know whether were going to be at the Logan store or the Layton store.
And I try to keep that as most update as I can. But we do have cats every Saturday at the Logan PetSmart. Its just the dogs that rotate between the Logan and Layton PetSmart stores.
If you would like to donate to the rummage sale you can do so through Friday night. Again the location for the sale is 227 West 400 North in Logan.
In featuring these stories about non-traditional fathers we wanted to ask the locals what made their dad so special. We spoke to people at the Summerfest Arts Festival and heres what they said.
Hes my role model, said Lee Shaw from Pocatello. Hes the biggest inspiration I have in life.
Addy Russell was at the Summerfest with her friends Kennedy Reese and Izzi Rudd. She said, Hes really special because he helps me with sports.
I feel like I can talk to him about anything, Reese said.
Rudd said, Hes just super funny and always makes me happy when Im really not happy.
When Henry Olsons little sister Jane was thinking about how to answer, he jumped in and said, He earns money for our family and he builds a lot of stuff.
Jessica Larsen from Smithfield said, My father has always been there for me when Ive really needed him.
Jane Olson got excited when she thought of what she wanted to say about her dad. She said, I like fishing with him.
Big brother Henry Olson had a lot to say about his dad and said, I was gonna do a campout with scout camp. And hes coming with me to sleep there with me.
Shenny from Providence said, My grandpa lives on a ranch in Montana and hes always there for me.
How creative he is and hard working, said Joseph Maughan.
Hagen Smith said, Hed do anything for his family, thats what I like about my dad.
Uhm, that he lets me eat candy, said Lindsey Buckley.
Chloe Buckley whispered in her moms ear, He gives her tons of hugs.
Hes always making people laugh doing funny things, said Luana Mortensen.
Theodore Dunn said, I like him when he plays with me.
Frankie Dunn said, He tells jokes.
Knox Dunn tried his best to tell us what he liked about his dad in his toddler-talk.
Gabriel Dunn said, Hed always take time for us.
And Aramis Dunn said, Uhm, I dont know.
To all the dads out there regardless of how you came to be, be you fathers, grandfathers, uncles or just a man who decided to step up to the plate, KVNU News wishes you a happy Fathers Day.
Richard Armitage is one of the most prominent Republican foreign policy experts to not back Donald Trump. | Getty
Exclusive: Armitage to back Clinton over Trump
Former Reagan and Bush appointee is highest-ranking Republican to break ranks for Hillary.
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
06/16/16
Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state under George W. Bush, says he will vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, in one of the most dramatic signs yet that Republican national security elites are rejecting their partys presumptive nominee.
Armitage, a retired Navy officer who also served as an assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, is thought by Clinton aides to be the highest-ranking former GOP national security official to openly support Clinton over Trump.
If Donald Trump is the nominee, I would vote for Hillary Clinton, Armitage told POLITICO in a brief interview. He doesn't appear to be a Republican, he doesn't appear to want to learn about issues. So, Im going to vote for Mrs. Clinton.
Dozens of Republican foreign policy elites have already declared their unwillingness to support or work for Trump, though far fewer say they would cast a ballot for Clinton. The latter group includes Max Boot, a prominent neoconservative military analyst and historian; Mark Salter, former longtime chief of staff to Republican Sen. John McCain; and retired Army Col. Peter Mansour, a former top aide to retired Gen. David Petraeus.
More national security heavyweights with conservative credentials could emerge in opposition to Trump in the coming months, though. Several retired generals, some with strong Republican connections, are privately alarmed over Trumps candidacy and are debating whether to say so publicly. One retired general who served in a senior command role during the Obama years said former generals and officers are wary of the political fray, but that he expects a group of them probably will try to energize something.
One former senior commander, the retired four-star Marine Gen. James T. Mattis, even recently considered joining the 2016 presidential race as an independent candidate, at the behest of a group of anti-Trump Republicans that includes Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, who discussed the idea with Mattis over dinner in Washington in late April. Kristol says the general gave the idea serious consideration. Mattis has never declared a party affiliation but is widely believed to lean Republican.
Armitage declined to say whether he has ever voted for a Democrat in a presidential election. In 2008, he advised the campaign of Republican John McCain. In 2012, he gave at least one interview critical of GOP nominee Mitt Romney, though he did not say how he planned to vote.
Armitage gained national prominence in 2006 when he admitted to revealing the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame to the columnist Robert Novak after her husband, Joe Wilson, publicly challenged Bush administration claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He has called the act foolish and unintentional, and was never charged in the ensuing federal investigation.
Armitage told POLITICO Thursday that he didnt know whether more Republicans might soon back Clinton. But he added that many of his conservative friends with national security backgrounds are confused by the choice before them and unsure about what to do.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) Federal authorities have rejected a request by an irrigation company in southeastern Idaho to build a dam on the Bear River.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday voted to deny Twin Lakes Canal Co. license application for a 109-foot-high dam with a 10-megawatt powerhouse.
While we recognize the potential benefits of the Bear River Narrows Project, we conclude, consistent with staffs findings, that the projects unmitigable adverse impacts outweigh its benefits such that we must deny the application, the commission wrote in a 19-page decision.
The commission cited the popularity of the area among hikers, campers, wildlife watchers, river-based anglers, whitewater kayakers and tubing enthusiasts in its decision. The report cites the canal companys estimate that the area draws more than 55,000 recreation day visits a year, about 47 percent of those for angling and 38 percent for whitewater boating and tubing.
The canal company, which began the attempt to get a license for the project more than a decade ago, said the proposed reservoir would have provided irrigation water to about 230 farmers and ranchers.
We dont know whether we will appeal or not, said Twin Lakes Canal Co. President Clair Bosen. We will look at our options and make a decision.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/06/obama-radical-islam/487079/
What Obama Actually Thinks About Radical Islam
The president does not suffer illusions about the pathologies afflicting the broader Muslim world.
JEFFREY GOLDBERG JUN 15, 2016 GLOBAL
It is not a new practice for critics of President Obama to question his commitment to the fight against Islamist terrorism, but Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has cast doubt on Obamas commitment to this struggle in uniquely florid and bizarre ways. On Tuesday, he claimed that Obama prioritizes Americas enemies over the American people; on Monday, he insinuated that Obama is sympathetic to the Islamic State terror group. (Read the previous sentence again and ask yourself: How has it come to this?)
Trumps recent statements about Obama grow from a neurotic belief in the presidents malevolent otherness: On ISIS, Trump said, Obama doesnt get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands. Barack Obama, to Donald Trump, is, and will forever be, the Manchurian PresidentManchuria, by way of Kenya, with a detour in Raqqa.
The Obama Doctrine
It is true that Trumps critique of Obamas handling of terrorism is, among other things, analysis-free and comprehensively unserious, but it is also true is that there are non-hysterical critiques to be made, and not only critiques that concern Obamas reluctance to describe the threat as one posed by radical Islam (a reluctance the president addressed on Tuesday). Critics to Obamas right fault him for prematurely withdrawing American troops from Iraq, and for not doing enough to prevent Syria from becoming a safe haven for ISIS. His reluctance to involve the U.S. more systematically in the Syrian civil war, the argument goes, has allowed jihadists to fill the vacuum created by the absence of the worlds sole superpower. Some critics on the right also argue that Obama blanches when confronted by the ugly truth about Muslim dysfunction and extremism; political correctness, in this view, hamstrings the president, and makes him obtuse. Critics to Obamas left, on the other hand, argue that he is killing too many people, particularly through the use of drone strikes, and that his policies are distressingly of a piece with those of his Republican predecessor. The over-militarization of the so-called war on terror, that argument goes, exacerbates a problem that has already been hyped by Islamophobic fearmongers.
Over the course of many conversations with Obama about the Middle East, terrorism, Islam, and the role of religion in fomenting extremist behavior, Ive developed at least a partial understanding of his thinking on these subjects. Suffice it to say that I find neither the rights nor the lefts interpretations of Obamas policy and rhetorical predispositions to be particularly satisfying or comprehensive.
Obama, in my reading, does notcontra his right-leaning criticssuffer illusions about the pathologies afflicting the broader Muslim world. If anything, his pessimism on matters related to the dysfunctions of Muslim states, and to the inability of the ummathe worldwide community of Muslimsto contain and ultimately neutralize the extremist elements in its midst, has, at times, an almost paralyzing effect on him. The president has come to the conclusion (as I outlined in my recent Atlantic cover story, The Obama Doctrine) that the underlying problems afflicting Islam are too deep, and too resistant to American intervention, to warrant implementation of the sort of policies that his critics, including his critics in foreign-policy think tanks, demand.
Obama sees the problems affecting parts of the Muslim world as largely outside American control.
Early in his first term, Obama believed (rather too naively, in my opinion) that he could, in fact, make a substantive difference. He delivered a speech in Cairo that was meant to reset relations with Muslims, but was also meant, he later told me, to challenge Muslims to cease manufacturing excuses for problems of their own making. He told me recently, in reference to the Cairo speech, My argument was this. Lets all stop pretending that the cause of the Middle Easts problems is Israel. We want to work to help achieve statehood and dignity for the Palestinians, but I was hoping that my speech could trigger a discussion, could create space for Muslims to address the real problems they are confrontingproblems of governance, and the fact that some currents of Islam have not gone through a reformation that would help people adapt their religious doctrines to modernity.
He gave the Cairo speech in 2009. By 2012as the revolutions of the Arab Spring were curdling, and as Libya drifted toward chaos, despite a partial U.S. interventionObama developed strong antibodies to what I call the Carly Simon Syndrome, which is an affliction affecting American policymakers so vain that they probably think Islamist extremism, and everything else, is about them. Obama, unlike many American analysts, does not suffer from this delusion. He sees the problems affecting parts of the Muslim world as largely outside American control. At its best, this belief keeps him from rushing into disasters not of Americas making; at its worst, it keeps him from taking steps that stand a chance of making things better.
Again and again in our conversations, Obama spoke about the Arab and Muslim worlds in ways that ran counterdramatically counterto the caricature of his views as advanced by critics. At one point, he suggested, to my surprise (Im not immune to the power of these caricatures) that far too many Arab Muslims, in particular, have given themselves over to hatred and violence. He contrasted these Middle Easterners with young people in East and Southeast Asia (and in Africa and Latin America as well), by saying, They are not thinking about how to kill Americans. What theyre thinking about is How do I get a better education? How do I create something of value? Obama went on to say that if America is not engaging these young Asians because if the only thing were doing is figuring out how to destroy or cordon off or control the malicious, nihilistic, violent parts of humanity, then were missing the boat.
I do not persuade peaceful, tolerant Muslims if Im not sensitive to their concern that they are being tagged with a broad brush.
It is not only Obamas seven-year war against jihadist organizations that calls into question Trumps claim that he is working to advance the interests of ISIS (or, to put it another way, if Obama is indeed an ISIS agent, hes doing a very bad job of it). It is also his publicly and frequently articulated demand, made of all Muslims, to fight harder against those who refract their faith through the prism of arid and merciless textual literalism. There is ... the need for Islam as a whole to challenge that interpretation of Islam, to isolate it, and to undergo a vigorous discussion within their community about how Islam works as part of a peaceful, modern society, Obama told me.
He immediately pivoted from this statement, though, by addressing Donald Trumpnot by name, but his target was obvious. I do not persuade peaceful, tolerant Muslims to engage in that debate, he said, if Im not sensitive to their concern that they are being tagged with a broad brush.
This represents the core of Obamas anti-Trump argument. John Brennan, the CIA director, described to me the tightrope Obama walks on Muslim extremism this way: The goal is not to force a Huntington template onto this conflict. Brennan was referring to the political scientist Samuel Huntington, who posited the existence of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West.
The fundamental difference between Obama and Trump on issues related to Islamist extremism (apart from the obvious, such as that, unlike Trump, Obama a) has killed Islamist terrorists; b) regularly studies the problem and allows himself to be briefed by serious people about the problem; and c) is not racist or temperamentally unsuitable for national leadership) is that Trump apparently believes that two civilizations are in conflict. Obama believes that the clash is taking place within a single civilization, and that Americans are sometimes collateral damage in this fight between Muslim modernizers and Muslim fundamentalists.
In one conversation, parts of which Ive previously recounted, Obama talked about the decades-long confrontation between the U.S. and communism, and compared it to the current crisis. You have some on the Republican side who will insist that what we need is the same moral clarity with respect to radical Islam that Ronald Reagan had with communism, he said. Except, of course, communism was not embedded in a whole bunch of cultures, communism wasnt a millennium-old religion that was embraced by a whole host of good, decent, hard-working people who are our allies. Communism for the most part was a foreign, abstract ideology that had been adopted by some nationalist figures, or those who were concerned about poverty and inequality in their countries but wasnt organic to these cultures.
He went on to say, Establishing some moral clarity about what communism was and wasnt, and being able to say to the people of Latin America or the people of Eastern Europe, Theres a better way for you to achieve your goals, that was something that could be useful to do. But, he said, to analogize it to one of the worlds foremost religions that is the center of peoples lives all around the world, and to potentially paint that as a broad brush, isnt providing moral clarity. What its doing is alienating a whole host of people who we need to work with us in order to succeed.
There is no point in trying to convince Americans that what is happening is not happening. But neither is there a point in encouraging hysteria and division.
Does Obama go too far in avoiding the terms radical Islam or violent Islam? This question represents a not-unreasonable basis for an interesting debate. However, given the realities of the battlefieldthat most of the fighting against ISIS is done by Muslim-majority states, and Muslim organizations, and that the leaders of these entities would rather not see the U.S. overgeneralize its description of the fightthen it seems to me, at least, that Obamas semantic prudence is justifiable.
Donald Trump, I believe, is not capable of making the sort of analysis Obama has made about the splits within Islam. Nor has he refuted Obamas analysis in a cogent fashion. But this is not Trumps main sin; his main sin is to refuse to listen to experts on counterterrorism, including experts in the U.S. military and intelligence community, who argue that he is helping ISIS by demonizing Muslims. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the so-called caliph of Islamic State, argues that there is no place in the West for a devout Muslim. Donald Trump often gives the impression that he shares this view, and that he is advancing the cause of ISIS, by endorsing its premise that the struggle in which it is engaged is, in fact, civilizational.
None of this is meant to be an argument that Obama does enough, or does enough of the right things, in the struggle against ISIS. I could (and will!) write a critique of the administrations tactical approach, particularly as it relates to Syria. And Obama could bring more emotional intelligence to bear on this problem: He is eloquent in condemning the fearmongers, but he sometimes fails to acknowledge the legitimate fears of non-racist, non-paranoid Americans who would prefer not to be killed by terrorists acting in the name of Islam. The United States is under intermittent attack from an organization called the Islamic State, which, as Graeme Wood has pointed out in this magazine, represents one, extreme, branch of Islam. There is no point in trying to convince Americans that what is happening is not happening. But neither is there a point in encouraging hysteria and division.
Privately, Obama expresses the deepest loathing for ISIS and other radical Islamist groups. ISIS, he has noted, stands forquite literallyeverything he opposes. Nevertheless, his approach to the challenge of Islamist terrorism is sometimes emotionally unsatisfying; it is sometimes insufficient to the challenge; and he himself is sometimes too fatalistic about the possibility of change in the Middle East.
Donald Trumps approach, on the other hand, is simply catastrophic.
When is hurricane season? Here's what you need to know in South Texas
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Greg Stunz, chairman for Fisheries and Ocean Health and director of the Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation, was among researchers with the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi who traveled to Southern California to study mako sharks for the 29th season of Shark Week.
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Researchers with the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi traveled to Southern California to study mako sharks for the 29th season of Shark Week.
By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times
Sequels are iffy, but not when sharks are in the mix.
Researchers with the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi traveled to Southern California to study mako sharks for "Return of Monster Mako," slated for the 29th season of Shark Week. Experts from the institute's Center for Sportfish Science and Conservation went on a seven-day expedition to study the sharks for the sequel to last year's "Monster Mako," which had more than 3 million viewers, according to a university news release.
The show will air at 8 p.m. June 26 on the Discovery Channel. An encore screening of the sequel and question-and-answer session with shark experts will be at 6 p.m. June 29 in the Harte Research Institute Room 127 at the A&M-CC campus.
In "Return of Monster Mako," the Harte Research Institute crew, including Dr. Greg Stunz, monitor makos, which grow to more than 10 feet long and weigh more than 1,000 pounds, the release states.
"We are very pleased that the Discovery Channel has such confidence in Dr. Stunz and his team that they have continued to call on him for his scientific expertise," said Larry McKinney in the news release. McKinney is the institute's executive director.
Twitter: @CallerBetty
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Four people were found hidden in a storage compartment of a tractor-trailer Tuesday, June 14, 2016.
SHARE
By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times
Border Patrol agents found six undocumented immigrants in unsafe conditions Tuesday evening at the checkpoint near Falfurrias, according to a news release.
In the first incident, agents found two undocumented immigrants in the trunk of a Chevy Malibu after asking the driver, who was visibly nervous while approaching the checkpoint, to open it. The temperature inside the trunk was 101.2 degrees, according to the news release. The driver and his female passenger in the Malibu, both American citizens, were arrested.
In a separate incident, agents discovered four illegal immigrants hiding in a storage compartment in a tractor-trailer. Agents found the people in the compartment when a K-9 unit alerted them to inspect the vehicle. The driver, a Mexican citizen, was arrested.
Twitter: @Caller_Fares
SHARE Contributed Photo Jim Gray, former Ingleside city manager
By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times
After meeting in executive session for nearly two hours Tuesday night, Ingleside's city council voted to terminate its contract with City Manager Jim Gray.
The council voted 5-2 to sever ties with Gray with a 30-day notice. Council members John Schack and Ben Tucker voted against the motion.
Gray had been Ingleside's city manager for nearly nine years.
"The council is ready to make a change and the city's financial situation is the best it has been in years," Gray said. "I appreciate all the opportunities Ingleside has given me and I will be looking for other opportunities."
Twitter: @Caller_Fares
Natalia Contreras contributed to this report.
SHARE
A bridge, the very thing designed to connect communities, has instead been used to further illustrate a wide chasm in our world.
On hearing the news of the Orlando shooting, I was struck with a profound grief. The senseless taking of so many lives, especially young people, created such a profound feeling of pain and grief. I ached for the victims, for survivors, for their families, and for their friends. However, I also ached for our nation and world to once again witness someone willfully taking so many lives. As information began to unfold, the focus changed from an act of terror to an act of hate targeting the LGBT community.
In the days following the shooting, three of my four children were traveling, one to New York and two to San Francisco. On instinct, I immediately told my children to stay far from any Gay Pride events. I worried for their safety fearing similar acts of hate and terror. For a short period of time, I was able to feel the fear that mothers of LGBT persons must feel in many cities at many times.
The Harbor Bridge lighting is used to express sympathy, such as for Police Chief Floyd Simpson's passing. It is also used for awareness, such as for Breast Cancer. In this instance, the lighting is able to achieve both. This was an attack in America, but on the LGBT community. If any other community in America had been attacked, I believe we would recognize that. An attack at a school would likely cause the bridge to be lit burnt orange or maroon. An attack on police officers would likely cause the bridge to be lit blue. A catastrophe in a fire causing the loss of many firefighters, would likely cause a red Harbor Bridge. I don't think anyone would question and disregard these communities and suggest red, white and blue.
My original intent in requesting and funding the rainbow light was to express condolences and concern for all those hurting because of this attack on the LGBT community. However, the outrage by a small number of people in our city and a request to not recognize this attack for what it is makes me proud that this act of sympathy, empathy and respect can also stand to bring awareness. Hopefully those who see the rainbow this weekend will be aware that 49 people lost their lives because of their perceived LGBT status, that the LGBT community and their families are subject to this hate on a regular basis, and that no other community would have to fight for recognition in the wake of such a heinous act.
| BY Ricki Green |
How will Australia perform at Cannes this year? In the lead up to the Festival, Campaign Brief will be showcasing the work we hope will impress the judges
J. Walter Thompson, Sydney
Parkinsons disease, a progressive nervous system disorder, has no cure and one of the most effective treatments for the illness involves a deep brain stimulation surgery that requires the patient to lie awake while surgeons operate on the brain. One patients experience with this procedure became the center of J. Walter Thompson Sydneys The Lucky Ones campaign for Parkinsons NSW. Filmed live at the Westmead Private Hospital, the spot begins with a jarring visual of surgeons drilling into a patients head, accompanied by a voice over. As the camera pans to the other side of the sheet, we learn that the patient himself is the one narrating the spot. Its a confronting and compelling film that helped Parkinsons NSW encourage donations in the lead-up to World Parkinsons Day in 2016.
J. Walter Thompson, Sydney
Parkinsons disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that has no cure. This campaign for Parkinsons NSW, dramatises how the disease mixes up the messages your brain sends to the body, making even the simple everyday tasks difficult. It asks people to donate to parkinsonsnsw.org.au to help end this suffering.
J. Walter Thompson, Sydney
J. Walter Thompson, Sydney
J. Walter Thompson, Sydney
Weve all forgotten to take the washing out of the machine or hung it out to dry only for it to rain. No-one likes doing the laundry twice, so to lighten the load and help Australian families spend more time with the kids, OMO created Peggy, the worlds first smart peg. Peggy has inbuilt sensors that combine real time weather data from your own backyard, with national data from a weather API to determine, through the Peggy mobile App, the perfect time of the day to do the laundry, how long it will take your clothes to dry and alert you when rain is on the way. There are also many environmental benefits, such as never having to rewash your clothes and encouraging families to line-dry rather than wasting energy using in-house dryers. Sentiment for Peggy has been overwhelmingly positive. The campaign gained nationwide news coverage in Australia and 18 other countries. Peggy was also picked up by tech sites globally, generating over 170 pieces of earned coverage and over 70 million earned impressions in the first week alone. More importantly, over 7000 Australian families registered in just the first two weeks, describing how Peggy would help them take the chore out of washing.
J. Walter Thompson, Sydney
| BY Ricki Green |
Finch has announced that Australian comedy director Sam Hibbard is joining its roster.
Hibbard has done great work for Dominos, Nandos, Cadbury and Subway. He also directs for other brands that arent FMCG.
The former art director come writer come creative director has a vast number of years experience in advertising, having worked for TBWA Sydney, Grey London, The Glue Society and Fallon London before he signed with Somesuch in the UK as a director.
| BY Ricki Green |
Matt Gill, group CD, Healthy Thinking Group is Australias representative on the Health & Wellness Lions jury. Gill, along with most of the Australian and NZ jurors, is reporting exclusively for CB.
We are now at the half way point of the judging and the town is getting busier and busier. Other juries are turning up as the festival is staggered over two weeks and Its going to hit fever pitch. There will be celebrities doing talks and pop stars arriving. I noticed Gwyneth Paltrow is here and someone said Coldplay arrive soon (awkward). Ive been told there have been near to 45,00 entries across all categories, I havent been asked here because Im good at maths but at an average of 500 Euro a pop thats quite a bit of cash. No wonder Lions is such a well oiled machine and the biggest event of the year.
Today we have been working out the shortlist and I believe there will be a press conference to announce it in the morning. Today was the longest so far spending a total of 14 hours giving the work the attention it deserves before we make our final calls.
Over the last few days I have seen some inspirational and clever work. Some of my personal favorites included a bike that has been altered to give it multiple sclerosis, highlighting what its like to live with that condition.
A bunch of people who have breathing difficulties and are helped to improve their breathing through Nebulizers and singing. They became a choir and performed at the Apollo theatre in New York. Another idea I really liked was a simulation of migraines through augmented reality so non sufferers can experience what its like to live with that condition. There was also some great work to help stop bullying in Australian schools, certainly a problem that is worldwide as well.
Ive also laughed a lot with talking testicles telling us how they had lost an old friend Lefty to testicular cancer. Even in the breast cancer category where its hard to show women how best to examine their-selves for lumps, because of censorship of boobs in certain media how do you get around that? Man boobs.
Theres been emotional campaigns as well with a couple of really nice entries, one for Autism where a young girl tells as how she sees herself vs how people perceive her. Also tackling the problem in some cultures of unborn girls being aborted. There was an exhibition in Hong Kong displaying the first pictures of the girl which was also their last. Another case study that stood out was for organ donation, in this case someone getting the eyes of a father whos wish was to see his new born grandchild and the recipient made that come true.
Off to bed now and looking forward to the last day in the judging room before the festival begins and the delegates and clients arrive.
| BY Ricki Green |
Creative production company Radical Orange has announced the launch of its own dedicated travel video channel ANYDOKO, devoted to the visual experience of travel.
The channel which operates at www.anydoko.com and on Facebook and YouTube features original content in the form of video series and travel guides created by the ANYDOKO team. The video series focus on varying topics from the best street food in Hawker Style to cinematic travel pieces in This Is.
Radical Orange is an innovator in the travel content space with director Vikash Autar specialising in travel content and directing travel series for Malaysia Airlines, Tourism Australia and Tourism Malaysia.
Autar has spent the past 6 months shooting travel series in Europe and Asia for the channel.
ANYDOKOs first video about Dutch Snacks has been extremely well received, gaining over 155,000 organic views and over 2,200 organic shares on Facebook in just 5 days.
ANYDOKO was created to be an outlet of creativity for the Radical Orange team. The goal is to keep on creating great travel content and offer brand integration for interested brands.
Visit the website at www.anydoko.com.
Visit the Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/anydoko
Similar to pudding cake, this simple dessert consists of two delicious layers: a warm and saucy strawberry bottom and a tender orange-flavoured cake on top. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream Slices of fresh berries, chunks of graham crackers and velvety cream cheese give these pops a nice, satisfying texture. Bonus: The cream cheese drastically slows down melting time, making these frozen treats ideal for a super-hot day. Buttermilk makes this cool no-bake custard wonderfully tangy and creamy. The flavour of the berries is key, so use local in-season fruit.Layer upon layer of crisp pastry, rich white chocolate custard and fresh berries make an impressive dessert for company.For more delicious dessert recipes, visit our Baking and Desserts channel
Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 10:22PM
We reported a few days ago that Apple was letting you get rid of some of its native apps. But that isnt the entire truth. You wont actually be deleting the apps. According to Craig Federighi, Apples senior vice president of software engineering, that what they mean by deleting is removing these apps from your home screen and getting rid of associated user data. These apps wont be deleted because they are baked into iOS so the application binary stays there. Federighi clarified these facts at The Talk Show Live hosted by Apple blogger John Gruber. According to Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunchs editor-in-chief, these apps are part of apples [sic] signed binary and when you redownload they just add the associations back. From our understanding, its like hiding apps in Android that you dont want to use but theyre still there, theyre just not visible to you.
Source: TechCrunch
Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 8:00PM
In a surprise move, Google has released a replacment keyboard for iOS that integrates swipe functionality, access to search, emoji and animated gifs. As Google explains it, "Searching and sending stuff on your phone shouldnt be that difficult. With Gboard, you can search and send all kinds of thingsrestaurant info, flight times, news articlesright from your keyboard. Anything youd search on Google, you can search with Gboard. Results appear as cards with the key information front and center, such as the phone number, ratings and hours. With one tap, you can send it to your friend and you keep the conversation going."
I've been using Goard for few days on my iPhone 6S Plus and my iPad and find it to be more versatile than many third-party keyboards including iOS's stock keyboard. If you already like Google services, this one's a no brainer and worth checking out.
Friday, June 17, 2016 at 1:41PM
This morning, Microsoft officially opened the Microsoft Canada Excellence Centre (MCEC) a new, first-rate facility in the heart of downtown Vancouver that will bring together the best and brightest minds from Canada and around the world.
The MCEC will allow Microsofts presence in Vancouver to grow to more than 750 positions. It will inject $90 million in direct investment in the city annually. Across the province, it will have an estimated economic impact of $180 million each year.
Vancouver is becoming a global centre for technology, and were committed to helping grow Canadas innovation economy. said Microsoft President, Brad Smith. Our new development centre will bring talented Canadians together with leading talent from around the world to help develop the technologies of tomorrow.
The centre with its close proximity to Microsofts global headquarters, gives the companys local developers and interns the opportunity to collaborate on projects as part of a diverse team of professionals. The Seeing AI research project is one recent example of Microsoft interns and developers collaborating with those based at Microsofts headquarter in Redmond, Washington. The research project, being developed to help the visually impaired, was introduced this Spring by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
The centre will serve as yet another gateway between British Columbia and the world. said the Hon. Christy Clark, Premier of British Columbia. This is further evidence of the talent and potential that Vancouver and the B.C.s thriving tech sector have to offer, and were pleased that Microsoft has made such a strong commitment to the future of innovation in this province.
The MCEC will house developers from the Vancouver region, across Canada and around the world, as they bring to life new technologies and applications ranging from apps (Skype, OneNote, MSN) to gaming products (Gears of War), interactive television app (NFL for Xbox and Windows 10), mixed reality (Microsoft HoloLens) and ground-breaking accessibility products (Seeing AI).
Its no coincidence that Vancouvers nation-leading economy is also the home to world-class tech talent filling 75,000 technology jobs with another 15,000 expected in the next three years, says Mayor Gregor Robertson. Vancouvers diverse and entrepreneurial tech ecosystem is a big draw to leading global companies like Microsoft who, time and time again, choose Vancouver as a centre of innovation and excellence.
Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Premium subscribers also enjoy interactive puzzles and access to the digital version of our print edition - Today's Paper.
Two downtown Beatrice businesses will soon change locations, though both will stay within the heart of the city.
Lammel Plumbing, currently at 321 Court St., will move to 200 N. Seventh St., the current site of the Beatrice Daily Sun. Lammel owners Todd and Soni Hydo recently purchased the building and plan to move to the location sometime this year.
Soni Hydo said the plumbing business outgrew its location, and needed room for storage.
We ran out of space here, she said. We have three different levels and have stuff on every level. We just want and need more space.
She added having a parking lot will be a welcome addition to the business.
Were excited to have our own space and a bigger space for a new showroom, Soni Hydo said. Well also have a parts counter to pick up parts.
Additionally, the couple hopes to lease the two-story portion of the building to another business.
Meanwhile, the Beatrice Daily Sun will move its offices to 110 S. Sixth St., the previous location of Wells Fargo Advisors. The Daily Sun, which also serves as a distribution hub for various newspapers and print products in southeast Nebraska, is currently searching for an additional site to serve its distribution needs.
Lammel Plumbing offers residential and commercial plumbing services and excavation work. The company was founded in 1946 and was previously operated by Todds parents, John and Rita Hydo. Recently, Todd and Soni purchased the business.
The couple had been looking to expand for some time. The building at 200 N. Seventh St. features approximately 15,000 square feet of space.
Staying in downtown was an added bonus for the Hydos, which Michael Sothan, director of Main Street Beatrice, said is a common desire for many businesses.
One of the big things is downtowns proximity to different amenities, he said. Its a community in its own right. There are restaurants close to you and a variety of different services.
Remaining in downtown was also important to the Daily Sun, which has owned the 200 N. Seventh St. site since 1952, though the company didnt move into the building until renovations were completed in 1963.
The changes to the newspaper industry since 1963 are remarkable, said Daily Sun Publisher Patrick Ethridge. The days of giant machines and assembly lines have given way to computers and technology. We needed a more modern and efficient location, while Lammel needed more room. Its a win-win for everyone.
Since the Daily Sun was founded in 1902, the business has always operated within the downtown vicinity.
We looked at several options, but at the end of the day downtown Beatrice is where we wanted to stay, Ethridge said. Im excited that Lammel Plumbing found a business location they can grow and expand into, and Im excited for the Daily Sun staff to have new offices that better fit our needs.
The Daily Sun plans to move into its new office space in early August, with its distribution center also relocating during that time.
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.
Homestead Days activities at Homestead National Monument of America begin Friday, June 17, 10 a.m. at the Homestead Education Center with a variety of demonstrations of traditional arts, crafts and skills necessary for homesteaders.
In addition, two speakers, Audrey Kalivoda and Ellen Kuhl, will be featured at the Heritage Center.
Audrey Kalivoda's film "Kansas: The Center of it All" will show at 2 p.m. The film brings alive the history of our neighbor to the south, Kansas, its landscapes and communities.
Artist-in-residence Ellen Kuhl, a painter, sculptor and weaver from Stamford, Nebraska, will present a special program at 3 p.m. based on her time spent working on her art at Homestead National Monument of America.
During her presentation on June 17, Kuhl will discuss how living in the plains has influenced her art. Examples of drawing, painting, weaving, photography and pottery will illustrate the close relationship of creation and the artist.
We are delighted to have these special speakers for Homestead Days at Homestead National Monument of America," said Homestead Superintendent Mark Engler in a press release. "Kansas history is rich with homesteading; and the artist in residence program helps us look at the monument in new ways, keeping the Homestead story fresh and alive."
The results of the National Entrance Screening Test - NEST 2016 has been declared. Candidates who have taken up the NEST examination 2016 can check their results on the official website of NEST 2016.
How to check NEST 2016 results?
Candidates can log on to the official website of NEST.
Click on the live link 'NEST 2016'
Candidates have to provide roll number or application number and date of birth to access their result
On successful submission of the above details in the space provided, the results will be displayed on the screen.
Candidates are required to take a print out of their results for further reference.
NEST 2016 was held in the month of May by National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar and Department of Atomic Energy Centre for Excellence in Basic Science, Mumbai University. Candidates who have cleared NEST 2016 examination can apply for the 5 year integrated M.Sc progrmme in basic sciences at the NISER.
About National Institute of Science Education and Research
A primary objective of the Institute is to train and nurture human resources in the Sciences for the knowledge economies of the future. NISER recognizes that modern scientific research is carried out in interstices amongst fuzzy domains and blurred boundaries. This entails encouraging a new scientific culture where members of our community attain to an intellectual agility unconstrained by the limitations of disciplinary conventions from the past. Faculty and Students will be given generous material support in the pursuit to realize this objective. Time and conversational space will be devoted to nascent propositions and hypothesis and the significantly small student-faculty ratio, an eventual full strength of 2000 students and 300 faculty, manifests the Institutes investment and hope in the future.
The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Pune is recruiting for the posts of Professor and Demonstrator (Editing). Eligible candidates can grab this opportunity by attending the walk-in interview on June 25 and 26.
Job details:
Total number of posts: 7
Name of the posts:
Professor (Direction): 1
Associate Professor (Acting): 1
Assistant Professor (Acting): 1
Assistant Professor (Direction): 1
Assistant Professor (Cinematography): 1
Assistant Professor (Editing): 1
Demonstrator (Editing): 1
Educational qualification:
Demonstrator (Editing): Candidates who wish to apply for this position should be class 12 pass or equivalent from a recognized university or board.
Candidates should be well aware of the working of NLE system such as AVID and FCP.
As far as other professor posts are concerned, the candidates should hold a graduate degree with Master's in the related subject from a recognized university or institute.
For more information, applicants can check official website of FTII Pune.
What will be the selection procedure?
Candidates will selected based on their performance in the interview.
Application fee:
Rs 500/-
Important points:
Candidates should come to the campus of Film and Television Institute of India, Law College Road, Pune
The interview will take place between 11.00 am to 1.00 pm
Important dates for FTII Pune jobs:
Candidates will have to attend the walk-in interview on June 25 and 26.
About FTII Pune:
The Film and Television Institute of India is designed for a new generation of storytellers: visual and performing artists who share a passion for motion pictures and want to earn authentic knowledge of film making by involving themselves in making their own projects in a hands-on, intensive program.
FTII students are not lost in large classes. As an explicit policy, FTII limits class size, to make individual attention and interaction among students and instructors possible and fruitful. All students are encouraged to meet faculty one-on-one for consultation throughout their course creating an environment that promotes personal development and learning.
Sen. Deb Fischer said Thursday she will consider pending gun control proposals with an eye toward preventing terrorists from acquiring access to weapons while protecting 2nd Amendment and due process rights.
On Monday, the Senate is expected to vote on a number of proposals, including ones designed to prevent suspected terrorists from acquiring guns and imposing mandatory background checks for gun purchases through online dealers and at gun shows.
Those votes come in response to a Senate filibuster mounted this week by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.
On other topics, Fischer said that Donald Trump has "tapped into the frustration and anger" that she also hears when she is traveling throughout Nebraska.
Trump has "a pretty good understanding where people are," the Republican senator said during a telephone conference call from Washington.
Fischer said she will support Trump as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but that does not mean she always will agree with him.
"You don't have to agree with everybody all the time," she said. "I have supported (candidates) that I have not fully agreed with."
In the wake of the terrorist attack that left 49 people dead at a gay bar in Orlando, Fischer said "the focus should be on terrorism," and specifically on home-grown terrorists who are inspired by the Islamic State.
The Obama administration needs to "step forth with a plan and a strategy" that deals with radical Islamic terrorists, she said.
Asked about Trump's rhetoric in the wake of the Orlando attack, including his comments on Twitter that prompted some criticism from Republican leaders in Washington, Fischer said she wishes the media would pressure presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to be more open.
Clinton has not held a formal press conference for almost 200 days, she said, and ought to be available "when she is not so scripted."
On another topic, Fischer said she would hope that this week's Air Force decision to allocate more than $50 million to construction of extensive runway repairs at Offutt Air Force Base would secure retention of the 55th Wing at the base at Bellevue.
"I certainly will do my best to make sure they remain there," she said.
A special legislative committee has asked Gov. Pete Ricketts for emergency funding to hire and train additional corrections officers for Nebraska's prisons.
"Between numerous recent incidents of violence against correctional staff, along with high staff turnover and the regular use of mandatory overtime, action needs to be taken immediately to assure Nebraskans that these lapses of security will not be tolerated -- not one more day," the 11 members of the Department of Correctional Services Special Investigative Committee said in a letter sent to the governor Thursday afternoon.
The letter followed a morning meeting between the committee and prisons Director Scott Frakes, and some moments of frustration with him by two members: Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus and Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers.
Senators have been trying to get Frakes to say how much money is needed to fix the system, and he continues to put them off while doing analyses and studies.
In their letter to Ricketts, committee members said the state employees union blamed the June 10 escape of two inmates from the Lincoln Correctional Center on understaffing there.
High levels of turnover have led to large amounts of overtime and have overextended prison staff, putting them and the community at risk, senators said.
Ricketts' office is reviewing the letter, said spokesman Taylor Gage.
"As Director Frakes said earlier this week, the fugitive convicts were able to escape because Corrections staff failed to follow procedure, not because of overtime or staffing," he said.
The prison was fully staffed at the time of the escape, and neither of the two employees officials said failed to follow procedure was working overtime, Gage said.
The director is preparing his first two-year budget request since taking office and is looking at the department's needs, he said.
At the committee meeting, Ombudsman Marshall Lux gave senators an email his office received from a prison employee, saying the prisons have been critically understaffed for at least six years. Very little has been done to solve the problem, said the employee, who Lux did not name.
Lack of staff allows inmates to pay attention to gaps in security and then take advantage of them, the employee said.
A large problem is the department's failure to pay correctional officers for experience, the email said.
"We need to have pressure from everyone to have the governor reopen the contract with the union immediately to give corrections step raises ...," which reward employees for longevity, additional education, etc. "We cannot wait until the new contract to solve this problem."
Overtime and lack of experience contribute to the problems, the employee said.
"Guess how attentive employees are on the second half of a double shift," the employee told the ombudsman.
"It is time for a change in thinking before we become so short of help we have to lock down institutions."
At the Thursday meeting, Schumacher said the cost of fixing problems in Nebraska prisons could take $100 million -- or much more -- for staffing, programming, facilities and parole needs.
But senators are still in the dark as to exactly what the department needs. And Frakes, who has been in the director's position 16 months, continues to tell them he'll let them know about budget needs in September, when analyses and studies are complete and the request is due.
"We should have all the metrics, all the numbers that we need at this point to bring our prison system up to snuff," Schumacher said. "We're not getting that."
Someone wants to delay the budget information because it would have a significant impact on spending, and any lowering or raising of taxes, he said.
Presumably Schumacher was talking about Frakes' boss, Ricketts.
Omaha Sen. Bob Krist told Frakes he expected to see a budget that detailed how the department was going to fix each problem. And he hoped the director was in charge of his own budget, he said.
Frakes was hired to fix the state's prisons, said Schumacher.
"You've got a lot of training, a lot of experience. You came with high expectations, the endorsement of many of us who are on the committee, because you knew your stuff," he said.
It's time now to give the Legislature straight talk, he said. Still, Frakes said he's not prepared.
"I hear the word 'stall,'" Schumacher said.
Chambers got up and left the committee meeting, upset that Frakes was leaving after about 25 minutes, apparently because he had to go to a budget meeting.
"I'll come back after this part of the charade is over," Chambers said after telling Frakes he and others should be fired over the escape incident.
But Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks told Frakes many people at the meeting feel positive about him.
"I think you're in a tight spot," she said. "My feeling is your hands are tied."
Lincoln Sen. Kate Bolz said she feels the recent escape was related to a stressed system in which there is overcrowding, understaffing, inexperience.
All systems have weaknesses and flaws that will be discovered and exploited, Lux told the committee. And stress on those systems can lead to catastrophic failures.
"I do not believe that reassigning a warden and firing a few overworked employees at LCC is going to address the real problem," Lux said. "The real problem is much bigger than that."
Toyotas next Prius plug-in hybrid will be an even more fuel efficient car thanks to a rooftop solar panel that will recharge its batteries.
The cells will charge the vehicle even when parked and can supposedly boost fuel efficiency by as much as 10%, allowing for longer EV running times. Additionally, the solar panels can also supply electricity to a number of accessories and systems such as lights, power windows and even air conditioning.
Customers in the US however wont get to initially enjoy these benefits as the technology will only be offered in Japan and Europe. After a while, as stated by chief engineer Koki Toyoshima, the Japanese automaker will bring the panels to the US as well.
The main issue is that the panels themselves are laid on top of reinforced glass sheeting that doesnt pass stringent rollover crash tests carried on in America, and according to Toyoshima, Toyota has yet to succeed in laminating the photovoltaic cells in a resin that wont shatter in case there is a serious crash and the car rolls over.
As reported by Autonews, the automaker is currently at work on a solution to introduce the solar panels in the US during the cars lifecycle the model is called the Prius Prime in the US (Prius PHV in Japan), where the plug-in version is set to arrive this fall.
We would like to introduce this, at least in the lifetime of the current model, said Toyoshima during the cars Japan debut. It should be possible to do a lot of charging this way in places like California or Arizona.
Toyota has yet to announce if the solar panels will be a standard feature on the car or an optional extra.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photo: Bill Everitt.
Drivers are being urged to watch where they park for the annual Fathers Day car show, taking place in City Park on Sunday.
The City Park parking lot will be closed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to accommodate the event.
Park visitors are advised that vehicles and vendors will be located in the grass area adjacent to the parking lot and surrounding the childrens playground.
There are also some lane and parking restrictions in the surrounding area.
Traffic routes will be maintained in the downtown core as participants make their way into the park with their vehicles. However, lane and parking restrictions are in effect from 6-10 a.m. along:
Leon Avenue (north side)
Water Street (east side)
Lawrence Avenue (south side)
Abbott Street (west side)
Motorists are advised to be aware of the increased traffic in the area and traffic control personnel.
On-street parking along the west side of Abbott from Lawrence to Leon will be restricted from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Public parking will be available at the Library plaza parkade, 1360 Ellis St., and Chapman parkade, 345 Lawrence Ave. Accessible parking will be available in the City Park parking lot.
Photo: Kelowna RCMP
A Moncton man who was missing in Kelowna has been found by the Kelowna RCMP.
Denis Marc Savoie, 28, was visiting Kelowna from Moncton, N.B., but his friends or family hadnt heard from him since May 26.
He was last seen in Kelowna on May 1 and was reported missing on June 6.
Kelowna RCMP confirmed Thursday that Savoie has been located safe and sound.
Photo: UBC Okanagan
Endangered whale species and the marine traffic that threatens them can co-exist, UBC research shows.
Each year more than 8,000 commercial ships cross through the critical habitat and foraging ground of several species of large whales, says Lael Parrott, associate professor of Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences at UBC's Okanagan campus.
Although ship traffic poses many potential threats to marine life, its actually one of the ways of transporting commercial goods with the lowest carbon footprint.
What our study shows is that reducing ship traffic speed in sensitive areas can significantly reduce the risk of lethal collisions between vessels and whales, protecting both marine life and their habitats.
Parrott and representatives from Parks Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and industry and environment sectors used a computer model to simulate the movement of boats and whales in the St. Lawrence River, an important shipping route in North America.
After looking at a number of factors, the group agreed speed reduction provided the greatest gain for marine conservation efforts while having the least impact on shipping operations.
The study has resulted in recommendations for speed reduction being adopted by more than 80 per cent of ships transiting the whales main foraging ground in the Saint Lawrence River estuary.
Decreased speed has reduced the overall risk of lethal ship-strikes on whales by about 40 per cent.
This is an excellent example of how science combined with a collaborative decision-making process can achieve a very positive outcome, says Parrott.
Parrotts study, published in Solutions, was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Swashbucklers will fly the Jolly Roger on the 'seas of the Okanagan this Saturday for the annual Boat of Hope fundraiser.
Children with special needs and their families will join local skippers for a day of pirate adventure in support of Variety The Childrens Charity.
The boats will set sail from the downtown marina dock to treasure stations in Okanagan Lake, while marauding pirates bent on stealing the treasure give full chase, all en route to Treasure Island at Kerry Park.
The public is welcome to run the rig on land, as well as enjoy the epic pirate water battle that traditionally wraps up the aquatic adventure.
Kristy Gill, Varietys executive director, says each year hundreds of kids participate in the event.
The day is a wonderful opportunity to play games, have fun and enjoy a barbeque in the park. For us at Variety, it is also an important fundraising opportunity for us to continue helping children with special needs.
Donations to Variety help the charity step in where health care ends to provide direct support to children in Kelowna with special needs. Funding is available for medical care and services, mobility and communication equipment and therapies, and education and experiences that foster development.
Since its inception the Boat for Hope has raised over $1.2 million thanks to sponsors, such as the Kelowna Yacht Club, Pharmasave, Mustang Survival, Boys & Girls Club of the Okanagan, Downtown Marina, The Jammery, 103.9 Juice FM, Kal Tire, Nesters Market, Investors Group Financial Services, Read Jones Christoffersen, The Cotton Candy Lady, and the Kelowna Firefighters Charitable Society.
Donations in support of Boat for Hope can be made through Pharmasaves B.C.-wide scan and donate campaign or online.
The parrrty gets underway at 1480 Mill Street on Saturday, June 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Photo: Contributed
The Vancouver Police Department has issued a new policy for interacting with transgender people after it was rebuked by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal over its treatment of a trans woman.
The department says the policy was created with respectful criteria for the identification of trans people and its officers will receive training around the new procedures.
The changes come after the tribunal awarded Angela Dawson $15,000 for injuries to her dignity, feelings and self-respect after officers referred to her by her legal name, Jeffrey, and a male pronoun and refused to allow her post-surgery care while she spent a night in jail.
A 17-minute video entitled "Walk With Me," outlining the difficulties many trans people go through in daily life, was developed by the department and will be shown to all VPD employees.
The department says the policy has been endorsed by both the Trans Alliance Society Board and the City of Vancouver's LGBTQ2 Advisory Committee.
The department's director of planning, research and audit, Drazen Manojlovic, says the policy strikes a balance between officers' legal responsibilities to verify identities, while being respectful of a trans person's right to be referred to by the name and gender they have chosen.
Photo: NewsKamloops.com
The year was 1944. The Second World War raged in Europe and the Pacific. Theresa Walker was 13 years old and attending a school in Mission.
Then, her life abruptly changed. Her father came home from the army and told her mother hed met someone else and wanted a divorce.
Even though she loved school, the ensuing family turmoil meant that her school days were over probably for good. At the time, I was caught in the middle as they were divorcing, Walker recalls. My Dad was very traditional, from Germany, and thought it was great that I could stay home but my Mum didnt like the idea of me leaving school.
At first, Theresa felt lucky to not have to go to school anymore, but she soon realized shed made a terrible mistake. I had to stay home while my school friends stayed together and then I had to watch them grow up and out of my life, she said.
Years later, her lack of education hit home in a different way. When her own kids had homework to do, she remembers trying to help them, but she couldnt provide any useful guidance.
Over the years, shed always thought about going back to finish school, but recently after she underwent laser eye surgery for glaucoma, she realized shed better get started before it was too late. A year ago, Walker started attending Street School, a continuing education program offered through Kamloops-Thompson School District.
When I first started, I wondered if Id get through I was nervous about it, Walker explained. Sometimes I even hid from my math teacher when he came into class, but now that Ive completed my courses I know it was all worth it.
Seventy-two years after she initially left school, Walker has a high school diploma. At the age of 85 she is the ultimate senior student. In fact, the Kamloops resident is the oldest graduate the school district has ever had. Her journey has been an inspiration not only to herself, but to her classmates as well. But she said she actually looks to the much younger graduates with admiration because she could not have done what they are doing at their age.
I had to wait until this point in my life to come back and finish school," she said.
At her graduation ceremony, Walker got a standing ovation when her name was called, but she said she was really just concentrating on carefully walking up to the stage as she didnt have her cane with her that day. So whats next for her as she looks forward to her 86th birthday at the end of June? Its simple: I wish I could learn enough to learn about absolutely everything.
NewsKamloops.com
Photo: Getty Images
A man wanted on a Canada-wide warrant was arrested in downtown Kelowna Thursday afternoon.
The man, who was not identified, was among four men stopped at Water Street and Bernard Avenue.
Const. Jesse O'Donaghey said the plainclothes division stopped the four men Thursday afternoon.
He said two of those were well known to police, while the other two were being evasive as to their identity.
One of those two was eventually cleared while the second was taken into custody.
"He had an outstanding Canada-wide-parole warrant out of Ontario," said O'Donaghey.
"He is believed to be associated with the Crips gang."
Police were seen removing several items from inside a vehicle.
The man remains in police custody.
The other three men were released.
Photo: Carmen Weld
A cyclist is shaken, but OK, after she was struck in downtown Kelowna.
According to witnesses at the scene, the group of cyclists were heading southbound on Richter Street, at Bernard Avenue, when a man in a orange Ford Mustang cut them off, turning right on to Bernard.
The light had just turned green and the cyclists were heading southbound in the far right lane.
As the young woman on her bike entered the intersection she struck the side of the Mustang turning in front of her, causing her to lose control, spin around and land on the pavement.
The driver of Mustang then fled down Bernard and did not stay on scene.
One witness who was waiting to cross Richter at the light tells Castanet the cyclist almost ended up underneath the car, and that the driver didn't even seem to notice the cyclists as he took the right-hand turn.
Fortunately multiple witnesses were on scene and wrote down the Mustang's licence plate number, which is described as a bright-orange Ford Mustang with black racing stripes.
Anyone who witnessed the incident and did talk to police is asked to call Kelowna RCMP at 250-762-3300.
Photo: David Ogilvie
UPDATED: 8 p.m.
Highway 97 has fully reopened in West Kelowna this evening after a pedestrian fell at Butt Road.
Despite previous reports that the pedestrian was struck, emergency personnel who were on scene say the woman tripped on uneven pavement and hit the ground.
Paramedics were seen providing medical care to the pedestrian lying in the crosswalk before she was rushed to hospital with unknown injuries.
Northbound traffic on Highway 97 was reduced to single-lane, but has now reopened.
Rollins Follow Rollins 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
With electronic ignition, fuel injection and more computing power than the space shuttle, todays cars and trucks never backfire. Our politicians with less horsepower and far less memory often still do.
The latest may be British Prime Minister David Cameron who, during his 2015 reelection campaign, promised British voters a referendum on whether the United Kingdom (UK) should remain in or exit out the 28-nation European Union (EU).
Back then, the idea looked like a winner and, indeed, Camerons Conservative Party rode it to victory. Few pundits, however, thought British voters would ever choose to leave, or Brexit, the worlds largest democratic union and second largest economy.
Now, however, leaving is a real possibility. Recent polls show the June 23 referendum neck-and-neck and Camerons winning promise last year looks like a warm beer this year. He had hoped the threat of a referendum would force the EU to grant the UK special status on tough issues like immigration and the EUs costly Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP.
It didnt and, win, lose or draw June 23, wont. But now he and the UK is stuck with something no one really wanted.
Caught in the middle are UK farmers. Like their American counterparts, most are, by birth and disposition, political and economic conservatives. British journalist Nigel Farndale, who writes for the right-leaning weekly The Spectator, recently described UK farmers as TBC, True Blue Conservative, the stiff backbone in Camerons body politic.
But, noted Farndale in a Feb. 28 column, [T]he Brexit debate is leaving our True Blue farmers deeply conflicted. On the one hand, without EU subsidies, many of them would go out of business. On the other, their Tory [Conservative] instincts tell them that subsidies are a socialist idea, the opposite of free trade, and therefore plain wrong.
Farndale, a former Yorkshire farm boy himself, urged farmers to vote to leave the EU because it makes financial sense.
Just to continue paying farmers the same [CAP] subsidy as they are getting now, he explained, would cost the British taxpayer half as much, because, at present, we pay 6 billion [$8.5 billion] a year into the CAP, but our farmers get only 3 billion [$4.3 billion] back.
As such, he added, British farmers are effectively subsidising their competitors: the French, by far the biggest beneficiary of the CAP, receive three times as much.
Few things fire up UK farmers more than the idea that French farmers are getting the upper hand in anything. Farndales math, though, failed to stoke indignation in the English countryside. On June 14, Farmers Weekly, the respected UK ag publication, released poll results that showed 46 percent of those questioned said the interests of British agriculture would be best served by the UK remaining in the EU, while more than a one-third (35.5 percent) indicated it would be better to leave.
The reason UK farmers would vote to stay in the EU, noted the magazine, is that only 17.1 percent of farmers polled thought financial support for farming todays CAP payment level would remain at broadly similar levels in the event of Brexit, while 44.5 percent thought it would not....
In short, UK farmers may be conservative in name and ideology but, thank you very much, theyre not trading their rock-solid EU subsidies for vague promises of equal payments from London.
Liberal politicians and left-leaning UK farm leaders agree; all say that tomorrows bird in-hand EU subsidies will be worth far more than todays cheap talk by Londons squawking crows.
Or, as reported by Farmers Weekly, Former NFU [National Farmers Union] president Sir Peter Kendall, who is campaigning for the UK to remain part of the EU, said, leave campaigners were taking farmers for fools.
Well, someone is going to look foolish after the Brexit vote June 23 and, if the growing leave trend continues, that someone will be Conservative Party leader David Cameron and his ah-we're-not-ready-to-leave conservative farm backers.
American farmers might take note because sometime and maybe that sometime is 2016 you get exactly what you ask for even when you werent serious when you asked.
Photo: Twitter
Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran took to social media Thursday to host a virtual town hall.
He discussed what's working well in the city and where it could improve. The discussion took place using the hashtag #ImagineKelowna.
This is an exciting time to imagine Kelownas future, said Basran.
The Twitter town hall is one way the community can come together at the same place and time and take part in a compelling conversation to share their vision with me on the future of our city.
Read more.
Photo: Carmen Weld
The Kelowna RCMP jumped into action Thursday night to quickly put out a small grass fire and catch the person responsible for allegedly setting it.
According to Kelowna firefighters on scene, one or two young men were seeing lighting the grass on fire on the southbound side of Harvey Avenue in Kelowna, between Burtch Road and Capri Street.
RCMP rushed to the scene and were able to put out the small-grass fire with a fire extinguisher, at the same time as they arrested at least one person they believe was responsible.
The Kelowna Fire Department says the fire was put out by police before they even arrived, but a crew stayed to ensure the fire was fully extinguished.
The fire remained in the grass and did not spread to nearby bushes.
Castanet will have more details as they become available.
Photo: Contributed
Update: 8:05 a.m.
At approximately 6:40 a.m. Brooklyn was found safe at a friend's residence in Chase.
Search And Rescue teams from the Shuswap, Kamloops, Vernon and Williams Lake areas assisted the RCMP in searching for Brooklyn throughout the night.
Chase RCMP are searching for a nine-year-old boy who went missing on a bike ride.
Brooklyn was reported missing by his family on Thursday after going for the ride. He told his parents he'd be back before dark.
Police are seeking the help of residents in searching their yards, outbuildings, pools, shrubs and properties.
Brooklyn is First Nations, four feet nine inches tall and weighs about 90 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing black cargo shorts and a blue, long-sleeve shirt with beige stripes. He has grey running shoes and a blue bicycle helmet.
His child's mountain bike is predominantly green with blue as well as some white and black.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or the Chase RCMP at 250-679-3221.
Photo: File photo
Several suspected drug dealers are facing numerous potential charges following a successful undercover RCMP project.
The project took place over two months and involved the Kelowna RCMP Downtown Enforcement Unit (DEU) as well as undercover operators from other jurisdictions.
Const. Jesse ODonaghey says during a period of ten days, over the months of April and May, undercover operators posed as buyers to purchase drugs from dealers.
All together, investigators arrested a staggering 39 suspects alleged to have sold a variety of illegal drugs including heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine to the undercover officers, said ODonaghey. As a result, the 39 suspects face as many as 59 counts of trafficking in a controlled substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
The suspects were either held in police custody and taken before the Courts or released and expected to appear in Court on later dates facing their potential charges, based on any prior convictions.
Update: 8:50 a.m.
Fire Chief Jason Brolund says crews responded to what appeared to be an out-of-control campfire near Nancee Way, early Friday morning.
He says it appears the blaze spread to nearby grass but did not grow to any substantial size.
An investigation was conducted, however the cause was undetermined as to whether the blaze was originally a campfire or intentionally set.
There is currently an open burning ban in place, but campfires are permitted in West Kelowna.
The investigation has been turned over to the RCMP.
West Kelowna Firefighters were called to a small grass fire on a hillside near Nancee Way, about midnight Friday.
Witnesses tell Castanet they saw a man in the area moments before the blaze ignited, and wondered if the fire had been intentionally set.
A woman says she thought it was a campfire and yelled to see if there was anyone nearby. When no one answered she called 911.
Fire crews were quick to respond according to witnesses, and the flames were extinguished.
Castanet will have more information as it becomes available.
Photo: City of Kelowna
The City of Kelowna will be taking over a portion of Kerry Park Monday for geotechnical drilling and testing.
This work is necessary to obtain information about the physical properties of the soil and condition of the retaining wall for detailed design and cost estimates for the design of a future redevelopment of Kerry Park.
"The city has had a concept plan since 2012 or 2013 for an enhanced Kerry Park. We're doing details of that this year, so, as part of that, in order to know the ground will hold up to what we are planning, we do some geotechnical exploration," said Andrew Gibbs.
Gibbs said an engineer will test the holes to determine what materials are in the ground and how strong those are.
"We will be looking at the retaining wall to see if we need to do anything with that to make sure it will also hold up."
He said work should take place in the park itself to minimize impact to the walkways around the park.
Key features of the Kerry Park concept plan include:
Continuity along the waterfront with respect to pedestrian and bicyclist mobility
Upgraded infrastructure for programmed events and activities
Coordination of the waterfront walkway with the entrance to the new pier and marina.
Timing of the redevelopment of Kerry Park is contingent on available funds.
Photo: UBCO
Student debt looms over many Canadians but according to a UBC Okanagan professor, higher education should be free for all.
Assistant Prof. Christopher Martin has concluded that borrowing money unfairly narrows a students choice while in school.
Martin's research focuses on educational equality and social justice.
He recently attended a debate in London, England, where educators discussed whether western democracies have an obligation to better fund post-secondary education. There the UBCO professor proposed higher education should be viewed as an essential service, and, therefore, free for all.
An entire generation of liberal democratic citizens is now burdened with worrying levels of debt, said Martin. Debt-financed higher education puts an unreasonable burden on citizens, restricting the kind of life they can pursue.
He argued high levels of student debt are incompatible with the basic aim of higher education, "which is to provide students with the knowledge and understanding they need to feel successful in life."
According to Statistics Canada, at the time of graduation, 43 per cent of college students, 50 per cent of bachelor students, 44 per cent of masters students and 41 per cent of doctorate students relied on government or non-government student loans to fund their education. Other sources of funding included private, family and bank loans to finance their education.
Higher education should be available to all because it is necessary to live a good life and move society forward, he said. It is unjust because students who are well off dont face the same kinds of constraints around educational choices as someone who borrows money in order to go to school.
Of those who graduated in 2009-2010, the average student debt included $14,900 for college students, $26,000 for bachelor and masters students and $41,000 for doctorate students at the time of graduation.
UPDATED: 7:25 p.m.
The fire has been contained and firefighters are on scene mopping it up, according to the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department.
UPDATED: 4 p.m.
Fire crews are on the scene of a wildfire in the South Okanagan.
Witnesses said the fire is burning south of Kaleden off Highway 97 between White Lake Road and Highway 3A.
According to the BC Wildfire Management Branch, the fire is burning within the Kaleden Fire Department's jurisdiction.
The local fire department is on scene, along with a three-person provincial attack crew.
The fire is said to be a Rank 1 smoldering grass fire. It's moving slowly.
This fire was reported just as crews in West Kelowna were extinguishing a small two hectare blaze which forced the evacuation of nine homes on Scott Crescent.
Send you photos, video or news tips to [email protected]
Thailand: Asia Cement wants mine issue resolved
17 June 2016
Asia Cement Plc has set up talks with the Industry Ministry to try to resolve its revoked licence to operate a limestone mine, reports the Bangkok Post.
Asia Cement was granted a licence to operate a limestone mine in Nakhon Si Thammarat province in 1997, expecting the mine would help increase its cement production to meet rising demand in the south.
However, in 2015, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's Forestry Department issued an order announcing the area was a conserved forest where no activities were allowed, especially mining.The legal problem has caused huge losses for the company, said Chat Hongtiamchant, director-general of the ministry's Department of Primary Industries and Mines.
The order automatically nullified the licence granted to Asia Cement and allowed the government to withhold the deposit of BHT300m (US$8.5m) the company had put down as a guarantee during the licence application process.
"The government and Asia Cement have set up legal teams to negotiate and seek solutions that are acceptable to both sides," Mr Chat said.
"Asia Cement and the ministry have discussed this issue. We hope to solve this problem."
Mr Chat said the legal problem was not the only issue that had forced the company to stop mining operations in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Asia Cement wants to quit the mine because the demand situation has changed, making it unlikely the company would break even financially if it continued with the plan, he said.
Mr Chat said Siam Cement Group, the country's largest cement producer, had expanded its cement business by increasing production capacity at its factories in Thung Song district in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
The expansion increased regional cement supply to 6Mta while demand remains at only 2Mta. Asia Cement's legal team is due to meet senior department officials soon to seek compensation. The company is Thailand's fourth-largest cement producer with production capacity of 3Mta. It has had a huge cement plant in Saraburi province since 1993.
Published under
In light of continued developments, primarily since 2008, there exists in these United States a Legal System which operates on a proved Two Tiered approach to justice rendered, which primarily benefits Democratic Elites and Woke Ideological Virtue Signalers, representing their co-dependent wards, to the expressed exclusion of normal hardworking American citizens: What is your suggestion in remedying this widespread injustice and, if not corrected, its existential outcome for our Constitutional Republic?
Complete overhaul the Department of Justice and their enforcers - the FBI - to reflect a far more honest justice system to keep patriots remaining calm.
Disband the FBI, and request that congress investigate all unethical and non patriotic practices to partially right the wrongs of a distrusted and politically weaponized "Department of Justice."
State agency would publish information about tuition, graduation rates, student loan debt, employment records of North Carolina campuses
Sen. Chad Barefoot, R-Wake, speaks before the House Committee on Education-Universities about a proposal that would provide employment and salary information to prospective undergraduates prior to their enrollment in a North Carolina college or university. (CJ Photo by Kari Travis)
Completion rates within the expected number of semesters for the degree sought.
Transfer rates of students to other institutions.
Percentage of students receiving financial aid, by type of aid.
Average and median amount of loan debt upon student graduation, by major.
Average and median salary, by major.
Percentage of graduates employed within six months of graduation, by major.
Percentage of graduates enrolled in graduate school within six months of graduation, by major.
RALEIGH - A House committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would require the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority to inform college applicants about the possible outcomes of a degree at any of the state's public or private colleges and universities. Senate Bill 536 , "Students Know Before You Go & Central Residency," stipulates that the NCSEAA must provide the following information to prospective undergraduate students."Next to buying a house, a person's college education is probably the second most expensive thing that they will purchase," Sen. Chad Barefoot, R-Wake, the bill's primary sponsor, said Tuesday before a meeting of the House Committee on Education-Universities. "We have ... great institutions, both public and private, in North Carolina, and we just want to make sure that our students and their parents - while they're applying for financial aid - have good information on the degree programs that they are seeking from those institutions."The information would be made available to college applicants through an NCSEAA website, where data about the state's projected employment needs and salary ranges also would be published. All data would be pulled from the U.S. Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.In addition to these measures, the bill also includes provisions that would streamline the state's process for confirming a student's in-state public tuition and scholarship qualifications. Under current law, individual University of North Carolina institutions are responsible for determining if an applicant qualifies as a state resident, and is eligible for special financial assistance. Under the proposed new rules, the NCSEAA, with input from the UNC system, the North Carolina Community College System, and North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, would be responsible for verifying an applicant's status as a resident and tuition qualifications. S.B. 536 , which passed the Senate in April of last year, now will be sent to the House floor for a June 15 vote.To read more news about higher education and the impact of student fees on tuition rates at public universities in North Carolina, click here
Ted recently posted an article about the current job market and the intricacies of finding a qualified candidate for current jobs. No Men Need Apply. I was not planning on posting this but I already had it in the family Grandpa Diaries folder and thought it would add context to Ted's excellent article on the changing job market. To be honest the technology has moved on past my level within a year or two after I retired, so I would not be up to speed now.
I have been retired since 2004 but I just received notification through LinkedIn about the position. I received an email from LinkedIn about a new job posting. I see where my old job is open again. At first I thought it was a joke, since I haven't updated my profile on LinkedIn, and the picture is an old picture from my office in Tampa in 1974. I only use LinkedIn to keep up with old work colleagues that are not on Facebook or still working and must maintain a professional persona.
Do you think it could have been the picture that threw them off? I completed the application and hit the submit button along with a current profile picture taken just before I retired.(See bottom). My biggest problem was listing any of the over 50 former workmates most of whom are still employed at ROK as a reference. Some of those guys are known to tell the truth. To see their response you may want to hit the submit button at the bottom of this job posting.
HERE IS THE JOB POST ON LinkedIn
Weapons from the former Libyan military's stockpiles were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya, to the Port of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, both in Syria.
The weapons shipped during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG's, and 125 mm and 155mm Howitzers.
The deadly and shocking attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission that saw four Americans - including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens - slaughtered by jihadists occurred just weeks after the weapons shipment.
Although the news media and Democrats believe government control of guns owned by Americans is politically necessary, what may be equally important is the investigation into the President Barack Obama-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton illegal weapons deal in Libya that helped to arm the Syrian-based Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The thinking in 2012 was that the fall of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad made a U.S.- Muslim terrorist alliance worth the few negative news stories or Republican criticismshe added.U.S. intelligence documents released to a government watchdog has confirmed the suspicions that the United States and some of its so-called coalition partners had actually facilitated the rise of al-Qaida in Iraq (AQII) which became ISIS as an effective adversary against the government of the Syrian dictator President Assad In addition, ISIS members were initially trained by members and hired contractors from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at facilities in Jordan in 2012. The original goal was to weaken the Syrian government which had engaged in war crimes against their own people, according to a number of reports The non-profit, non-partisan Judicial Watch - a group known for its investigation of government corruption and abuse - had obtained more than 100 pages of previously classified documents from both the US Department of Defense and Hillary Clinton's poorly run State Department through a federal lawsuit.One of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents declared that President Obama and his counterparts within the anti-Assad coalition considered the establishment of a Salafist organization in eastern Syria in order to hasten the downfall of the Assad regime. "And this is exactly what the supporting powers to the (Syrian) opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime," said the DIA report, which had been formerly classified until its release.The contents of that document had been submitted by the Obama White House to the U.S. Central Command (CENCOM), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its directorates, as well as to the State Department.Military intelligence officials had also warned that any further damage caused by the Syrian civil war might have an adverse effect on the fragile government in neighboring Iraq. The intelligence analysis predicted that such a situation could lead to al-Qaida in Iraq (AQII) returning especially in the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Ramadi.The DIA report also predicted that ISIS would declare a caliphate through its affiliation with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, including members of what the Obama administration terms "core al-Qaida." to differentiate it from offshoots such as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is creating havoc in Yemen and North Africa.The now declassified documents appear to confirm that the U.S., the European Union and other nations viewed Muslim extremists in ISIS as "a strategic asset toward regime change in Syria." As a result, parts of Iraq have been in chaos since ISIS began to cross the Syrian border in early June 2014.The documents obtained by Judicial Watch also provide the first official documentation that the Obama administration was well aware that weapons were being shipped fromweapons training Syrian-rebels Benghazi to rebel troops - including members from ISIS, the Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist terror groups - in Syria. An October 2012 report confirms:said political strategist Mike Baker.Baker noted.
For three weeks in May, five anthropology majors and their professors, Dr. Arlie Tagayuna and Dr. Murl Dirksen, interacted with the people and culture of Liberia. They were part of a larger Lee University team effort, which was organized by Dr. Carolyn Dirksen, director of the Center of Excellence, and which was featured in a previous press release.
The academic purpose of the trip was to record the distresses caused by a 14-year civil war and the Ebola pandemic by hearing and collecting survival stories, aiding in the needs assessment of the Phebe Gray orphanage, and studying a traditional rural African village.
The cultural experience of civil war and disease were made a reality to the students in a number of ways. The group was housed in the guest quarters of the Samaritan Purse Ebola Treatment facility where they heard from doctors and staff that ran the center.
At the orphanage the students interviewed the staff who operate the childrens home and learned how, during the disaster, every minute of every day was a matter of prayer and faith and taking special precautions of washing hands, washing and more washing. In the bush village, the goal was ethnographic research, understanding the way of life of a bush village, by spending time with the elders, youth and experiencing daily life.
These types of field schools are part of the anthropology program at Lee, but this was a unique international trip and students were specifically selected for the research project. Two of the team of anthropology students had already lived and worked in sub-Sahara Africa. Rachel Richards had spent two years in a village in Mozambique and Spencer Smith had been in rural Sierra Leone for two summers.
Although not in Africa, Barbara Curran had lived in East Timor with Youth With A Mission, and Georgia Wright and Abigail Christopher had been with Dr. Dirksen on the Colorado archaeological excavation. Ms. Christopher was awarded a Ledford Summer Research Fellowship from the Appalachian College Association to help fund her participation in the Liberia trip.
All team members were very familiar with anthropological research and the project director. Although there were certain dangers associated with this type of experience, precautions were taken to ensure physical safety.
In May Liberia had not had any new cases of Ebola in 42 days and the World Health Organization declared the country Ebola-free. Liberia had over 4,700 deaths with Ebola claiming more than 11,000 lives in the region. The teams purpose there was to learn what a series of national crises can do to people but was also to show solidarity with the people of Liberia.
As Dr. Carolyn Dirksen remarked on a nationwide radio interview, It is our moral obligation to be here. As an ex-slave colony Liberia is really part of the United States, and we must stand and support our fellow citizens as they rebuild their country. Liberian people are resilient. The students found that one major factor of national recovery and development is education, and most Liberians want more educational opportunities.
Dr. Murl Dirksen remarked, I have traveled with a lot of Lee student groups, but anthropology majors are the best to take internationally because they understand the dynamics of culture, want to engage with local people, and recognize that this is part of what they will be doing for the rest of their lives. In Liberia they were wonderful! They sincerely enjoyed worshipping and praying with fellow believers, playing with children and spending time with the orphanage staff, and sitting and visiting with the folks of the rural community.
Dr. Murl Dirksen will have two more field schools this summer continuing the excavation at Eagle Rock Shelter near Delta, Co. Also this summer, Dr. Richard Jones begins his survey and test excavations of the North River basin near Tellico. For more information on Lees anthropology program, contact Dr. Murl Dirksen at mdirksen@leeuniversity.edu
(1) Lee students Georgia Wright, Rachel Richards, Barb Curran, and Abigail Christopher are pictured here with Mercy (orphanage assistant director, center), and Rose (orphanage director, right).
(2) Richards is pictured here with a woman from the village.
For three weeks in May, five anthropology majors and their professors, Dr. Arlie Tagayuna and Dr. Murl Dirksen, interacted with the people and culture of Liberia. They were part of a larger Lee University team effort, which was organized by Dr. Carolyn Dirksen, director of the Center of Excellence, and which was featured in a previous press release.
The academic purpose of the trip was to record the distresses caused by a 14-year civil war and the Ebola pandemic by hearing and collecting survival stories, aiding in the needs assessment of the Phebe Gray orphanage, and studying a traditional rural African village.
The cultural experience of civil war and disease were made a reality to the students in a number of ways. The group was housed in the guest quarters of the Samaritan Purse Ebola Treatment facility where they heard from doctors and staff that ran the center.
At the orphanage the students interviewed the staff who operate the childrens home and learned how, during the disaster, every minute of every day was a matter of prayer and faith and taking special precautions of washing hands, washing and more washing. In the bush village, the goal was ethnographic research, understanding the way of life of a bush village, by spending time with the elders, youth and experiencing daily life.
These types of field schools are part of the anthropology program at Lee, but this was a unique international trip and students were specifically selected for the research project. Two of the team of anthropology students had already lived and worked in sub-Sahara Africa. Rachel Richards had spent two years in a village in Mozambique and Spencer Smith had been in rural Sierra Leone for two summers.
Although not in Africa, Barbara Curran had lived in East Timor with Youth With A Mission, and Georgia Wright and Abigail Christopher had been with Dirksen on the Colorado archaeological excavation. Christopher was awarded a Ledford Summer Research Fellowship from the Appalachian College Association to help fund her participation in the Liberia trip.
All team members were very familiar with anthropological research and the project director. Although there were certain dangers associated with this type of experience, precautions were taken to ensure physical safety.
In May Liberia had not had any new cases of Ebola in 42 days and the World Health Organization declared the country Ebola-free. Liberia had over 4,700 deaths with Ebola claiming more than 11,000 lives in the region. The teams purpose there was to learn what a series of national crises can do to people but was also to show solidarity with the people of Liberia.
As Dr. Carolyn Dirksen remarked on a nationwide radio interview, It is our moral obligation to be here. As an ex-slave colony Liberia is really part of the United States, and we must stand and support our fellow citizens as they rebuild their country. Liberian people are resilient. The students found that one major factor of national recovery and development is education, and most Liberians want more educational opportunities.
Murl Dirksen remarked, I have traveled with a lot of Lee student groups, but anthropology majors are the best to take internationally because they understand the dynamics of culture, want to engage with local people, and recognize that this is part of what they will be doing for the rest of their lives. In Liberia they were wonderful! They sincerely enjoyed worshipping and praying with fellow believers, playing with children and spending time with the orphanage staff, and sitting and visiting with the folks of the rural community.
Murl Dirksen will have two more field schools this summer continuing the excavation at Eagle Rock Shelter near Delta, Colorado. Also this summer, Dr. Richard Jones begins his survey and test excavations of the North River basin near Tellico. For more information on Lees anthropology program, contact Dr. Murl Dirksen at mdirksen@leeuniversity.edu.
My gas and diesel are up, it's going up again. Saudi Arabia cut 2 million barrels a day after Biden asked them to produce more. They said they did it for economic reasons. They did. The dollars they receive are worth less because of Biden and his lockstep Dems in congress printing trillions of extra dollars chasing the same amount of goods. The Saudis understand inflation and ... (click for more)
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announced Friday that 12 Tennessee communities have been selected to participate in the fifth round of the Tennessee Downtowns program. The communities selected include Ashland City, Crossville, Dickson, Gainesboro, Hohenwald, Humboldt, Lenoir City, Livingston, Lynchburg, Manchester, Wartburg and Woodbury.Tennesseans are passionate about their communities and because of the overwhelming support from our General Assembly through the Rural Economic Opportunity Act, we are able to provide funding to twice as many communities this round, TNECD Commissioner Randy Boyd said.We applaud these communities for making efforts to revitalize their downtown commercial districts, helping Team Tennessee see that its communities reach full economic potential.Thirty-four communities have participated in the Tennessee Downtowns program since its inception in 2010. Each of the 12 communities selected this round has downtown commercial districts established at least 50 years ago and have demonstrated their readiness to organize efforts for downtown revitalization. The highly competitive selection process was based on historic commercial resources, economic and physical need, demonstrated local effort, overall presentation and probability of success.Flourishing downtowns provide a sense of pride for our communities, spur tourism, promote entrepreneurship and create jobs, TNECD Assistant Commissioner of Rural Development Amy New said. Weve seen communities turn their $15,000 grants into hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of leveraged investment from both the public and private sector. With strong local leadership, the Tennessee Downtowns program can create vibrant and sustainable economies in the heart of rural Tennessee our downtowns.Tennessee Downtowns is an affiliated program of Tennessee Main Street and is a community improvement program for towns and cities seeking to revitalize traditional commercial districts. The communities chosen to participate work through volunteer committees of local citizens who participate in a two-year program supported by the National Main Street Center. They also receive a $15,000 grant to complete a downtown improvement project upon completion of the training based on the successful Main Street Four-Point Approach.Each application was supported by the communitys senator and representatives in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Independent Healthcare Properties LLC (IHP) and Morning Pointe Senior Living announce that the Commonwealth of Kentuckys Cabinet for Health and Family Services has approved two new freestanding Alzheimer's Center of Excellence campuses in Greenup and Jefferson counties. The Chattanooga-based healthcare services company is also more than 75 percent complete on Phase I of the new Morning Pointe of Danville senior campus.
The more than $12 million investment in Louisville and Russell will offer a full spectrum of Alzheimer's and memory care services adjacent to the existing Morning Pointe buildings. Each new Lantern at Morning Pointe Alzheimers Center of Excellence will feature secure courtyards, life enrichment programs, state-of-the-art technology, and professional health and wellness services. Louisvilles 52-bed Lantern building will open as soon as summer 2017. The 50-bed Russell Lantern community is scheduled for completion as early as spring 2017. Morning Pointe of Danville is scheduled to open this fall.
Officials said answering to the increasing need of aging care programs and caregiver support in Kentucky, the new Lantern campuses will feature Meaningful Day innovative therapies designed to improve the quality of life for seniors with memory loss. The program will include SimpleC Companion, an intuitive, non-drug therapy using touch screen applications to promote improved engagement and memory, and Cuddle Therapy, a recognized Alzheimers program with specially created, lifelike dolls that help residents feel a sense of calm and purpose.
With the growing number of individuals in need of Alzheimers and memory care services, Morning Pointe is expanding to provide seniors with more options and choices that enrich the quality of life, said Greg A. Vital, president and CEO of IHP and Morning Pointe Senior Living. We are continuing Morning Pointes tradition of providing senior care services for more than 15 years by expanding our services to 10 locations across central Kentucky.
According to the National Institutes of Health, an estimated five million people may be affected by Alzheimers disease a degenerative condition among the top leading causes of death in the United States. The condition frequently affects older adults a growing demographic, as the population of people aged 65 and older in the United States is expected to double by 2050 to more than 80 million, according to recent census data.
Chattanooga-based professional service providers participating in the Kentucky expansion include Neuhoff Taylor Architects PC and ETSB LLC both boasting a long track record of successful development plans throughout the Southeastern U.S., officials said.
A team led by researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory used the high-intensity, quick-burst X-rays provided by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to look at how the atoms in a molecule change when the molecule is bombarded with X-rays. This schematic shows the dissociation of a xenon difluoride molecule during the X-ray pump/X-ray probe process.
Summer blockbuster season is upon us, which means plenty of fast-paced films with lots of action. However, these aren't new releases from Hollywood studios; they're one type of new "movies" of atomic-level explosions that can give scientists new information about how X-rays interact with molecules.
A team led by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory used the high-intensity, quick-burst X-rays provided by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to look at how the atoms in a molecule change when the molecule is bombarded with X-rays.
"The LCLS gives us a unique perspective on molecular dynamics because of the extremely brief X-ray pulses that we can use," said Antonio Picon, an Argonne X-ray scientist and lead author. "We're able to see how charge and energy can flow through a system with amazing precision."
By using a new method called X-ray pump/X-ray probe, the researchers were able to excite a specifically targeted inner-shell electron in a xenon atom bonded to two fluorine atoms. After the electron was excited out of its shell, the unbalanced positive charge in the rest of the molecule caused the molecule to spontaneously dissociate in a process known as "Coulomb explosion."
"The new X-ray pump/X-ray probe technique is so powerful because it allows us to shake the molecule at one point, and look at how it changes at a second point," said Argonne X-ray scientist and study author Christoph Bostedt.
The xenon difluoride molecule is only a first step for the technique. In the future, the same X-ray pump/X-ray probe method could find a broad range of applications, such as following the ultrafast structural changes that occur in light-sensitive molecules or the flow of energy in molecules. By understanding intramolecular energy flow, researchers can better develop novel materials to harness the sun's energy, such as photovoltaics and photocatalysts.
The new technique could also help researchers address challenges relating to the protein structure determination. For pharmaceutical studies, X-rays are often used to figure out the structures of proteins, but during that process they can also damage parts of them.
"This technique lets you see how neighboring atoms are affected when certain regions interact with X-rays," said Stephen Southworth, an Argonne senior X-ray scientist.
By using an X-ray pump to excite one of the innermost electrons in the molecule, the researchers were able to target one of the electrons that is most central to and characteristic of the molecule. "This technique gives us the ability to take a series of quick snapshots to see what happens when we change a fundamental part of a molecule, and what we learn from it can inform how we approach the interactions between light and molecules in the future," said Picon.
The research, which was funded by the DOE Office of Science, involved a collaboration between Argonne, SLAC, and Kansas State University. "For these kinds of studies, you really need a team that combines world leaders in X-ray sources, particle detection and sample manipulation," Southworth said.
A search for "gym headphones" on Target's website yields 13 pages of results, but not one of the products are headphones.
Technology from Chicago-based startup AddStructure could change that, using machine learning and language processing to make online searches more efficient.
Advertisement
The technology caught Target officials' attention. Now AddStructure is one of 10 startups accepted into Techstars Retail. It's national accelerator Techstars' first retail-focused program, held in collaboration with Target.
Startups move to Minneapolis for the summer to participate in the accelerator based at Target's headquarters, said Ryan Broshar, managing director of Techstars Retail. It starts Monday.
Advertisement
About 150 mentors, including Target executives and other retail entrepreneurs, will advise the startups throughout the three-month program.
The "goal of this is to learn," Broshar said. "It's no secret Target needs a little bit more startup in it overall, so they're very excited to just have these startups and be able to help them, and by helping them they're going to be able to learn."
Techstars and Target jointly invest $120,000 into each company, $100,000 of which comes as a convertible-debt note. The remaining $20,000 is an equity investment, Broshar said.
Beyond that, the startups aren't guaranteed ongoing partnerships with Target.
The co-founders of AddStructure want to refine their product during the accelerator, learning more about the search needs of large companies and how to better integrate their technology into companies' systems, said co-founder Jarrod Wolf.
AddStructure currently has three products: Scaffold, a natural language processing system that can read user reviews and help customers find things like those gym headphones; Path, which discovers themes in user reviews and curates sets of products; and Signal, which uses product details and reviews to incorporate more conversational searches.
"The way our technology works is it'll read through all the reviews of headphones and if someone says, 'I love these headphones. I use them at the gym,' then we're able to return 'gym headphones,'" Wolf said.
Retailers buy AddStructure's products and incorporate them into their current search technologies, Wolf said. Prices vary on the products.
Advertisement
The company was founded two years ago. It has four employees, two of whom work in an office in New York City. Wolf and co-founder William Underwood met at the University of Chicago during undergrad, but Underwood started developing the technology during graduate school at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Major retailers across the board struggle with search, Underwood said, like the Target search for "gym headphones" that returns results for gym equipment and kids' toys.
"It doesn't understand that, first and foremost, I want to see headphones. It's just matching keywords," he said. "Where our system excels is in understanding the intent of the search."
AddStructure was the only Chicago-based company accepted into Techstars Retail. Other participants include MakersKit, a Los Angeles-based maker of DIY craft kits; Spruce, a Denver-based men's style consultancy, and Inspectorio, a Hong Kong-based platform for solving supply chain issues.
amarotti@tribpub.com
Twitter @allymarotti
The Federal Trade Commission will seek a review of a federal judge's ruling Tuesday that denied its request to block the merger of two major Chicago-area hospital chains.
The commission filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Advertisement
U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso rejected the FTC's objections to the combination of Downers Grove-based Advocate Health Care and Evanston-based NorthShore University HealthSystem. The commission had argued the pending merger was anticompetitive and could increase health care costs.
Alonso's full written ruling wasn't immediately made public because it contains confidential business information. The judge held a six-day hearing in April on the FTC's challenge.
Advertisement
asachdev@tribpub.com
Twitter @ameetsachdev
Armando Garcia drives a forklift as he and George Valdez unload a trailer June 16, 2016, at Pastorelli Foods in Chicago's Fulton Market district. The food business is searching for a new location as the Fulton Market area rapidly gentrifies. (Anthony Souffle / Chicago Tribune)
Early mornings on Fulton Market have a symphonic quality.
A woman pushing a stroller skirts around a dairy truck backing into a loading dock.
Advertisement
A bearded 20-something walking his pit bull pauses to let a forklift roll by.
Workers in long carcass-stained coats unload pallets while Google workers hunch over laptops on glass-walled balconies overhead.
Advertisement
Truck driver Jeff Altergott, who has been delivering meat to the food district for years, sits in his parked semi outside a shuttered meatpacker. Tangling with residents and office workers is nothing compared with the truck gridlock that choked the streets when food wholesalers and distributors dominated the area.
"Five years ago I couldn't even park down here," Altergott said. "It's 100 percent lighter now."
And it just keeps getting lighter.
West of the Loop, the Fulton Market meatpacking district, which for years has been transforming into one of the city's hippest places to live and work, is seeing the exodus of food companies accelerate with the unrelenting influx of hot new restaurants, tech companies and apartment units.
"We don't want to stand out in a neighborhood that is now polluted with Uber drivers," said Richard Pastorelli, president of Pastorelli Food Products, who this month announced he is selling his 12,700-square-foot manufacturing plant and moving out of the neighborhood where it has been for nearly 90 years.
Mark Nelson, principal at real estate firm NelsonHill, estimates 20 food companies have moved out since Google announced in 2013 it was moving its workforce into the former Cold Storage building at 1000 W. Fulton Market, now marketed as 1K Fulton with tag line "Work. Eat. Chill." Another 10 are in the pipeline to exit, he said.
Some are cashing in on sky-high property prices, especially those on the main Fulton Market and Randolph Street thoroughfares where retail, hotel and restaurant developers are eager to stake a claim.
Others say the neighborhood is no longer conducive to the truck-heavy business.
Advertisement
But after working side-by-side for decades, most are not sticking together as they move forward.
"The Fulton Market is splintering," said Vern Schultz, executive vice president at real estate services firm Colliers International.
Schultz, who has helped several of the food companies find new locations, had hoped to create a new wholesale district to preserve the synergies between the meatpackers.
That's what a group of produce wholesalers did 15 years ago when they left the outdated South Water Market, in what is now University Village, and formed the Chicago International Produce Market in Pilsen. The mammoth facility, built with the help of some $19.5 million in city subsidies, today houses 22 produce businesses in neat rows, where customers can do one-stop shopping and businesses can borrow product from each other if they need.
Schultz said he identified a site near Pilsen in McKinley Park, on Damen Avenue just south of the Stevenson Expressway, for a potential new meatpacking district. But FedEx Ground moved in before he could put it together, and the food companies have searched separately for their own spaces.
"It's sort of like herding cats," Schultz said. "They are very successful but extremely independent, so it's hard to get everyone to agree to something."
Advertisement
Nelson also had hoped to establish a new meatpacking district, to no avail. In 2013 his company bought a 23-acre site in Pilsen a stone's throw from the produce market and called it Pilsen Park, with the intent of leasing buildings there to the Fulton Market meatpackers looking for new digs, he said.
"What we found is that the second- and third-generation meatpacking companies, having so much money, had no interest in coming into our project," Nelson said. "They wanted to buy a property."
That's a challenge, as the industrial real estate market is tight.
The vacancy rate for industrial properties north of Interstate 290 is 5 percent, the lowest in 16 years, said Craig Hurvitz, vice president of market research at Colliers. South of the interstate, where there is more industrial land, vacancy is 10 percent, a return to pre-recession levels.
Inventory declined as some functionally obsolete buildings were torn down, but there also has been a rise in leasing as companies seek a presence close to the city. About 8.5 million square feet of industrial space was leased in the last four years, versus 6 million in the four years prior, Hurvitz said.
Many of the Fulton Market companies have moved near the Stevenson on the Southwest Side, which provides easy access to the core of the city and tends to have better buildings for food usage, Hurvitz said.
Advertisement
City data show several companies have settled into the Stevenson, Brighton Park and Pilsen industrial corridors on the Southwest Side, according to the Department of Planning and Development. Others are staying near Fulton Market but moving elsewhere in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor.
Some have left the city for nearby suburbs such as Franklin Park and Melrose Park, which have a decent number of food and cold storage facilities and still offer easy access to restaurant customers in the city, Hurvitz said.
Pastorelli, who is keeping his corporate office in the Fulton Market district, is searching for a new location for manufacturing the company's tomato and pizza sauces and oils and vinegars. The primary reason for the move is to "spread the wings" of the company, which needs a footprint three times its current space in order to replace outdated machinery, he said.
Pastorelli Foods is moving out of the neighborhood where it has been for nearly 90 years. (Anthony Souffle / Chicago Tribune)
He also feels like an industrial island. Quality Foods to his east sold its property last year to Tucker Development, which plans to develop the buildings into restaurants, retail and offices, and Bridgford Foods to his west plans to convert a portion of its space into residences.
As pedestrian traffic continues to grow, Pastorelli worries about someone getting hurt.
Pastorelli is considering the Stockyards, where cattle used to be brought to be slaughtered before refrigerated railroad cars hastened that area's demise. He also is looking at spots along the Stevenson on the Southwest Side, which is where many of his workers live. Nearby suburbs also are on the list.
Advertisement
Staying in Cook County is critical, Pastorelli said, because he relies on the inexpensive county water supply. Other important factors are to be near an interstate and have off-street loading with separation of shipping and receiving docks, to comply with food safety requirements.
He doesn't feel it's important to be near other food companies, he said. The cluster used help independent "jobbers," who would pickup product for customers, but there aren't many left anymore, he said.
El Cubano, which has operated on Fulton Market for about 30 years, has put its building up for sale and this fall plans to move to the former Bobak Sausage plant at 53rd Street and Archer Avenue, along the Stevenson.
Daniel Casimiro, a manager and son of the owner, said increasingly strict regulations in the gentrifying neighborhood including a push by the city to make it a historic landmark so as to keep the industrial character has made it too difficult to do business there.
He said he isn't upset about it. El Cubano, which sells largely to Mexican restaurants, had outgrown the facility and wants to double in size and expand to new product lines. A plan is to have a small storefront to cater to consumers who want to pick up steaks to grill.
Being near other food companies has been helpful for many years, Casimiro said, in part because El Cubano didn't have enough inventory space, so when it ran out of something it could get help from a neighbor. But once it expands, that won't be necessary, he said.
Advertisement
Others think sticking together is worthwhile.
Economy Packing, which sold four buildings in the Fulton Market district last year to a retail developer for $27 million, bought a building in the Crawford Industrial Park near the Stevenson in Archer Heights and spent nearly $4 million upgrading it, said Joseph Ferrone, chief operating officer.
Moving near other food companies was a significant factor in the decision, Ferrone said.
Pork wholesaler Amity Packing, which moved from Fulton Market in 2013, is next door, and has become an important supplier, he said. Takis Royal Foods and Columbus Meats are other Fulton Market refugees that have settled in Crawford.
Ferrone said he is thrilled with the change, which was a long time coming. The Fulton Market facilities were antiquated, with no loading docks, so they had to use forklifts to move pallets of meat from the trucks into the warehouse as fast as they could, often in extreme weather, Ferrone said.
The new facility has 20 refrigerated loading docks and separate temperature-controlled rooms dedicated to cutting pork, beef or chicken. The company, which had been doing $100 million in sales in Fulton Market, is on track to do $150 million in its first year at its new location.
Advertisement
"We feel we are in a country club," Ferrone said.
To capitalize on its heritage, Economy, which dates to 1932, has renamed its umbrella company Fulton Market, Ferrone said.
"Our goal is that we wanted to be the new Fulton Market," he said, selling every species and cut of meat customers could ask for.
Not everyone is leaving Fulton Market. The companies operating closer to the railroad tracks, in a planned manufacturing district that does not allow for retail, are more insulated from the development frenzy, Nelson said.
Some big companies, such as Nealey Foods, have not announced any plans.
But a coming city streetscape project has some people nervous.
Advertisement
On a stretch of Fulton Market, the city is planning a dedicated single driving lane defined by plants and pavers at the intersections and delineated loading zones that turn into angled parking spaces during off hours. Intersections along the corridor are designed to maximize pedestrian safety. Street furniture and bike racks are coming, as is infrastructure such as potable water and power outlets in case the community decides to bring a farmers market there. Construction should start this fall.
Several of the improvements, such as a clearly delineated space for delivery vehicles, were designed specifically to improve operations for existing businesses, Chicago Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey said. The city has said it supports the area as a meat packaging and wholesale district.
But Schultz said it's no longer a question of whether the meatpackers will go, but when. Industrial properties are selling at quadruple the per-square-foot price from five years ago, Hurvitz said.
"The big moves are coming within the next 12 to 18 months," he said.
The moves are not without nostalgia. Ferrone fondly remembers, as early as 2000, watching a woman walk out a condo that he guesses must have cost $1 million and step over "a river of chicken juice."
Some lament that the days of coexistence appear to be numbered.
Advertisement
Laron Willis, 25, smoked a cigarette outside of the restaurant Publican, watching the construction across the street where the 130-year-old Fulton Street Wholesale Market Co. building is being converted into a Brooklyn Bowl bowling alley and event space.
Willis, a restaurant server helping Publican open its new location at O'Hare International Airport, commented on the stench of animal flesh that hangs in the Fulton Market air.
Still, it has it charms. If he ever gets lost, Willis said, "I follow that smell."
aelejalderuiz@tribpub.com
Twitter @alexiaer
Owner Joel Nickson is behind the counter June 16, 2016, at his Wishbone restaurant west of the Loop. He opened the spot in 1992 but worries he will not be able to afford a new lease two years from now as the neighborhood rapidly gentrifies. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)
When Joel Nickson decided to open his second Wishbone restaurant west of the Loop back in 1992, he had hope his Southern-style cuisine was good enough to lure diners to a neighborhood more known for flophouses and quiet streets than hot restaurants.
He likes reminiscing about the years that followed, when Wishbone fed everyone from police officers and union members to Harpo Studios employees, politicians and Chicago Bulls players.
Advertisement
"We were proud of the fact that we were a real city restaurant," Nickson said.
Now, though, he worries that when his lease expires in two years, Wishbone won't be able to afford to stay. Landlords in the neighborhood are asking as much as $60 to $70 a square foot, a steep climb from the $44 per square foot he pays. "The reality is, I can't blame them," he said. "If they can get that kind of rent, it's the way of the world."
Advertisement
What's behind the increase? Demand, and plenty of it.
This particular piece of Chicago which has alternatively been called West Loop, Fulton Market or West Town has become a sought-after destination for restaurants, residential development and corporate offices. Google's relocation late last year of its Chicago office and more than 650 people from River North to six floors of a former Cold Storage building at 1000 W. Fulton Market, seemed to cement the neighborhood's trendy status.
And then Monday, McDonald's announced it will build a global headquarters on the former site of Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios, moving about 2,000 employees from Oak Brook and demonstrating that even old-school companies want to take part in the neighborhood's rebirth. The two years before its arrival are expected to be ones of seismic change.
Any hot neighborhood needs to offer the opportunity to live, work and play, and the area around Harpo offers these three "unlike any other neighborhood in Chicago," said Jason Trombley, a senior vice president and director of real estate at JLL. "It's all very exciting that everyone can see the potential."
But as with any gentrifying neighborhood, the people and businesses that have long called the area home worry that with progress come problems. Other companies are likely to follow McDonald's into the neighborhood, as well as more restaurants, stores and health clubs seeking to serve the growing base of residents and workers, but what else will that bring? Will both rents and taxes rise? Will national chain retailers arrive, changing the area's vibe and cutting into independent merchants' sales? And what about what locals say is an already dire shortage of parking?
"Sometimes what happens in a situation like this is that the pioneers that make the neighborhood what it is get priced out of that neighborhood," said Rob Katz, co-founder of the Boka Restaurant Group, which opened Girl & the Goat on West Randolph Street in 2010. "And that attracts the big-box retailers and chain restaurants and it can hurt the very character that drew people there in the first place."
"We're very excited, and we're cautious at the same time," Katz said. "When we got the news about McDonald's we literally pumped our fists. We're hopeful that this neighborhood can hang on to its soul as long as possible."
But at the same time, Katz as well as other restaurateurs say they're looking elsewhere for future restaurant projects because property prices have increased so dramatically. "It certainly made a lot of sense in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It doesn't make as much sense now," Katz said.
Advertisement
K.P. McNeill, CEO of men's and women's luxury clothing company Billy Reid, was one of the first retailers in the neighborhood when he opened a store on West Randolph Street last fall. The area had "such a great vibe" he didn't mind being on the early side, he said. Free People the first national player to commit said it plans to open a store and wholesale showroom in early February.
"I hope the authenticity of the neighborhood remains intact. That's the fear when you start to grow," said McNeill. But, he added, "
It still has that vibe, and I don't see that changing. More people working in the area, regardless of who for, is going to help it."
Developer Sterling Bay, a large landowner in the neighborhood that bought the Harpo site for $30.5 million in 2014, expected to unveil its plans for McDonald's at a community meeting Wednesday. With the ink on the McDonald's deal now dry, Sterling Bay managing principal Andy Gloor said he's using the burger behemoth's planned arrival as a lure to other potential businesses "as often as I can."
Scott Michel and Adrianne Kalyna stand June 16, 2016, in front of their condo building across the street from the former Harpo Studios in Chicago's Fulton Market district. The couple have lived in the area for 18 years and are happy McDonald's is moving into the old Harpo space, but also wonder whether the neighborhood will lose its charm. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)
Gloor said he's in talks with law and consulting firms, among others, to bring their offices to the area. Although Google and McDonald's are very different companies and corporate cultures, "they're all competing for the same people those young smart workers," he said.
Even before McDonald's announced its plans, the growth that's already occurred in the neighborhood stunned some neighborhood denizens.
Advertisement
Fulton Market has 3 million square feet of office space in development, more than 2,700 apartment units in publicly announced developments and hotels with 560 rooms, according to Shapack Partners, a large property owner in the neighborhood that in 2014 developed private club Soho House Chicago near Randolph and Green streets. A block away at the corner of Randolph and Peoria streets, Nobu Hotel, backed by Hollywood heavy hitters including Robert De Niro, will break ground Monday.
"I don't think anybody has seen this kind of change in a neighborhood before," said Terry Alexander, managing partner at One Off Hospitality, which opened The Publican on West Fulton Market in 2008. "It's one-of-a-kind for our lifetime."
Two years ago, when the CTA opened a stop at Morgan and Lake streets, Jovanis Bouargoub, owner of barbecue restaurant Porkchop, saw a big uptick in business. He said he expects a similar bump with McDonald's arrival.
Likewise, the West Randolph Street location of Nando's Peri-Peri, which just opened last year, has already become the company's best performer, said Sepanta Bagherpour, Nando's vice president of marketing.
"We like to be the first in some neighborhoods," he said. "Of course, that has some risks, but the neighborhood has such good food credentials."
Scott Michel, 65, and Adrianne Kalyna, 58, have lived across the street from Harpo Studios for 18 years. It's been quieter since the studio closed, taking with it the excited crowds that gathered under their window at 6:30 a.m. before show tapings. They were happy to hear the new tenant was commercial, rather than residential, limiting weekend traffic in their neighborhood and bringing more business for local restaurants and shops.
Advertisement
"If (residential) high-rises come here, it will change the whole character of the neighborhood," Michel said.
They love the development that's happened so far, bringing nice restaurants and more convenience while preserving the area's charm, but wonder whether that will continue.
"I think a lot of big development could bring stores that feel more corporate that just see this huge captive audience," Kalyna said.
Some residents have been concerned about development, said Carla Agostinelli, executive director of the West Loop Community Organization. "Overall, they just want to make sure the newest neighbors fit with the character of the area," she said.
Agostinelli said she thinks McDonald's arrival could help create jobs and may give area nonprofits a chance to learn from the company's philanthropic efforts, but she also worries about congestion.
"While the arrival of McDonald's is truly welcomed news, there are legitimate issues on how we manage the density," said Roger Romanelli, executive director of the Randolph/Fulton Market Association.
Advertisement
"We're approaching a park-apocalypse down here," he said. "I hope the prominence of McDonald's will open up the conversation," he said.
sbomkamp@tribpub.com
lzumbach@tribpub.com
Twitter @SamWillTravel
Twitter @laurenzumbach
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 10 (Norma Rios)
2255 Greenview Ave. in Chicago: $1,349,500 Listed on June 13, 2016 Open floor plan on main level features large eat-in kitchen with breakfast bar, double ovens and beverage refrigerator. Family room off kitchen opens to deck and professionally landscaped yard with brick paver patio. The second floor has three beds and two baths, plus a master suite with cathedral ceiling, skylights, a balcony and walk-in closet. Lower level boasts a large recreation room, additional bedroom, full bath and laundry room. Agent: Mario Greco of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff, 773-687-4696
Catch up on these recent restaurant openings and coming-soon spots:
The Finch Kitchen: The collaboration between Finch Beer Company and Folkart Restaurant Management opened June 9 in the old Breakroom Brewery location. Owners call it a modern twist on a classic taproom.
Advertisement
"We wanted to create an experience people couldn't get anywhere else," said chef/owner Matthias Merges. How? By pulling some international influences into traditional bar foods in this case, encased meats. The best example, Merges said, is the joint's curried chicken sausage on a bun served with Punjabi pickle, cilantro, yogurt and fries. 2925 W. Montrose Ave, 773-942-7949.
RELATED: FORMER INTERN TAKES OVER AS HEAD CHEF OF NOMI KITCHEN
Advertisement
Whiskey Thief: Named for the tool distillers use to extract a small spirit serving for sampling and quality control, Evanston tavern Whiskey Thief looks to bring the same attention to detail to its bar fare and drinks. When it opens June 21, find a selection of 70 bottles of whiskey, including bourbon, rye and Scotch, plus bottles from Ireland and Canada. On the food side, the menu includes a pan-roasted half chicken and a bison burger topped with cheddar and caramelized onions. 616 Davis St., Evanston, 847-859-2342.
Lark: Lakeview's newest bar and certified Neapolitan pizzeria opened its doors Thursday in the old Halsted's Bar and Grill location. Guests can dance to '80s and '90s records from 10p.m. to close Thursday through Sunday nights while music videos play on the restaurant's 13 TVs. 3441 N. Halsted St., 773-799-8968.
5411 Empanadas: There's another place to get your hands on 5411's sweet and savory Latin American-style turnovers. This location in the Southport Corridor will serve the empanadas at $2.50 a pop, alongside a drink menu of local and regional craft beers, international wines and Fernet, a classic Argentinian liquor, which is usually mixed with Coca Cola or consumed on its own. 3715 N. Southport Ave., 872-802-4835.
Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >
Furious Spoon: The fast casual, Tokyo-style ramen shop branched out from its original Wicker Park location to add a second spot in Logan Square. At the new digs, which opened June 7, you'll find 70-plus seats, a full bar and a patio. Furious Spoon also has plans to open in Pilsen and Revival Food Hall in the Loop later this year. 2410 N. Milwaukee Ave., 773-770-3559.
In case you missed it:
The Fifty/50 group's Steadfast will open this month in the Loop. The fine-dining establishment has a bar menu featuring antique and hard-to-find whiskeys.
The fourth Goddess and Grocer location is finally open in Andersonville, but unlike the other part-bakery, part-restaurant and part-market outposts, this one will serve alcohol.
You can inhale some hickory-smoked pork shoulder a short walk from world-class repositories of knowledge. Museum Campus' outdoor food court opened June 13 and is open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m through Labor Day unless otherwise noted.
Advertisement
Nonnina, a new Italian restaurant from the folks behind Piccolo Sogno, will open its Clark Street doors in late June. The eatery will be taking the place of Piccolo Sogno Due and serves as a tribute to the owners' grandmothers, chef Tony Priolo told the Tribune.
nwooten@tribpub.com
Twitter @nwootened
Chicago does not lack for pizza, but Eataly is serving a new style to add to your bucket list.
In its first move since closing Baffo in May, the Italian market has shuffled around its second-floor dining station I Salumi I Formaggi to make room for its newest offering, Pizza alla Pala. Eataly has always served pizza, of course, offering the delicate Neapolitan thin crust at food station Rossopomodoro (which remains open). But Pizza alla Pala offers a shareable alternative: Roman-style pizza.
Advertisement
Unlike pizza napoletana, pizza alla pala (also known as pizza romano) is named after the paddle it's served on, said Francesco Racanelli, a visiting baker from Eataly Italia who is overseeing the new concept. The style was born in Rome's bakeries, said Racanelli, a fifth-generation baker. "Leftovers from risen bread dough were turned into this style of pizza, to avoid waste," he said.
Grab a friend and share a Roman-style pizza. (Joseph Hernandez / Chicago Tribune)
The dough is crispy on the outside, with an airy, chewy center, a far cry from the cracker-thin style of its southern cousin. The other chief difference between the two styles is how they are cooked, as pizza napoletana is famously baked in 900-degree wood-fired ovens. Pizza alla pala bakes in relatively more gentle electric ovens, heated to 580 degrees Fahrenheit.
Advertisement
The result is the perfect blank palate for a number of toppings. Dividing the pizzas into rosse (with tomato sauce), bianche (no sauce) and speciali (seasonal ingredients), Racanelli and his team show off flavors like the tricolore ($22), a nod to the three colors of the Italian flag, topped with arugula, house-sliced prosciutto di parma, house-made stracciatella cheese, cherry tomatoes and arugula. The Eggs n' Bacon ($18) is a (delicious) appeal to American palates, a bianche version generously topped with Neuske's bacon, Flory's Truckle cheddar, baked-on eggs and black pepper.
Pizza alla pala is already served regularly at Eataly Italia, but Chicago's location is the American debut of the style, Racanelli said. Just remember to bring a friend these pizzas are big enough to share.
Eataly, 43 E. Ohio St., 312-521-8700, www.eataly.com
jbhernandez@tribpub.com
Twitter @joeybear85
The Bloody Maria ceviche is prepared with lime-marinated tuna, cucumber, green olive and red onion with a spicy celery salt rim, and is served with a shot of mezcal. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Every time I visit a Rick Bayless restaurant, I learn something. That's no idle statement when you're talking about a guy who has been feeding Chicago for more than a quarter-century.
First there was Frontera Grill, eschewing chips-and-salsa Mexican for serious Mexican cooking that took sopa Azteca and chile relleno to new heights. Then Topolobampo, demonstrating that fine-dining, regional Mexican cuisine was not only possible, but that there was also an eager market for that sort of thing. And then Bayless applied his sustainable and organic ethos to inexpensive, fast-casual food at Xoco (while opening my eyes to the thrilling possibilities of hot chocolate), and, at Tortas Frontera, applying his culinary magic to airport food. Dear God, airport food.
Advertisement
RELATED: GREAT TACOS, BEER BUT AWKWARD SERVICE AT CRUZ BLANCA
And now there is his latest, Lena Brava (alongside the cerveceria/taqueria Cruz Blanca; see colleague Nick Kindelsperger's review here), which introduces the seafood-rich region of the Baja California Norte. Having spent decades introducing palates to authentic Mexican cuisine, Bayless now turns his eye to a region that embraces fusion, whose cuisine is informed by a multitude of immigrants.
Advertisement
And Bayless, ever the culinary evangelist, preaches with enthusiasm.
"Just 22 years ago, there were five boutique wineries (in the Valle de Guadalupe area within the Baja Norte)," Bayless said. "Now there are 102. That's a fast growth rate, and now some of them are winning prizes, and that's drawing chefs to the region. Baja Norte is a desert-y, rustic environment, with a sort of Old West feel, and the food focuses on the simplicity of wood-fired cooking. And these chefs are bringing beautiful ingredients and a ton of technique into that. I don't know of a single restaurant there that doesn't have a big, wood-fired grill as its cornerstone."
My elevator pitch, for those familiar with Bayless' restaurant, is that Lena Brava combines Frontera Grill's high-energy atmosphere with Topolobampo's thrill of discovery. You'll eat well here, often raucously, and have so much fun you might not notice that conceptual doors have been opened for you.
The hiramasa laminado, from the Ice side of the menu, is prepared with yellowtail tuna, sweet-tangy-spicy chamoy, mango, shiso and bits of orange. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
The focal point of the restaurant, done in surprisingly neutral tones no riot of colors as at Frontera, no abundance of Mexican fine art as at Topolobampo is Lena Brava's massive wood-burning hearth. It's a decorative element as well as a functional one; the floor of the hearth is raised, and the pickup counter (where food is transferred from cook to food runner) is lowered, the better to view the whole operation. (The best tables are those closest to the hearth sometimes you can feel the heat on your face but the views are good wherever one sits.) And this really is the whole operation; Bayless didn't even install a gas line to the kitchen. At Lena Brava, if it's not being kissed by fire, it's not being cooked.
That said, some of Lena Brava's most inspiring dishes aren't cooked at all.
The "Ice" half of the menu (three guesses as to what the other half is called) offers an abundance of ceviches, aguachiles and laminados; ordering from each category allows you to explore the subtle and unsubtle differences among the three styles. The aguachiles are all superb (scallops in serrano-tinged cucumber-lime broth are light and lively; opah reflects Asian influence in its habanero-lime-lemongrass broth), but the revelation is the pineapple, a vegetarian dish of the fire-blackened fruit in an orange-lime broth dotted with dabs of goat cheese and a spicy hazelnut salsa macha. This dish is so stunning that on my third visit, I ordered it again.
Among ceviches, opt for the ceviche maki roll, a real multiculti appetizer; maki-roll slices of avocado, sushi rice and roasted nori are topped with Lena ceviche (which can be ordered on its own), which includes Hawaiian albacore, tomatoes, picholine olives and spicy green chili. There's a lot going on here, but the flavors are harmonious.
Laminados are composed plates starring sliced raw fish. Hiramasa, offered in mouth-satisfying thickish slices on a plate painted with a tangy-spicy chamoy (pickled fruit, spices) and sprinkled with tiny pieces of mango, is wonderful, but the surprise in this category, again, is the vegetarian contribution (chefs Lisa and Fred Despres, who do most of the heavy lifting at Lena Brava, have one vegetarian option in most menu categories), an array of sliced avocado topped with cubes of ginger-laced jicama and bold dashes of grapefruit, black pepper and habanero.
Advertisement
Oysters, always a strength at Bayless restaurants, are good here as well, pristine and ice cold; among the accompanying sauces is a shaved ice flavored with cucumber and a hint of chile de arbol, and it's terrific. Sea urchin, presented in slices that appear to be marching from its unishell home, is a major treat (and slight financial indulgence) as well. There is a classic seafood cocktail of blue shrimp and octopus that's very good, but I'll go with the Bloody Maria, a tuna cocktail with a spicy salt rim and a side shot of mezcal. (You can taste the cocktail and mezcal separately or dump the mezcal directly into the glass making it a true cocktail, I suppose and the serving is large enough that you can do both.)
Then it's on to the Fire half of the menu. Assuming you can keep your hands off the addictive tlayudas, the fire-crisped corn flatbread that tastes like buttered popcorn in cracker form, you'll find plenty of dishes to try. There are Mexican-Asian dishes such as the shrimp and pork albondigas, the ginger-scented meatballs swimming in a roasted tomato and chipotle sauce, sprinkled with anejo cheese; and regional specialties such as Oaxacan caldo de piedra, in which yellowtail, cod and shrimp and grilled asparagus gambol in a murky pasilla-chili broth.
Must-try dishes are the scallops over sweet-plantain ash and pasilla-almond salsa macha; the scallops are topped with bonito flakes, so onion-skin thin that the flakes curl, as if alive, reacting to the scallops' heat. I'd also make room for the wood-roasted black cod with sour pineapple-shiso salsa; and garlicky swordfish over rice with black garlic, avocado and cilantro.
There are three main courses sized for two or more. Chicken a la Lena has a garlic-agave glaze that gives the skin a black-lacquered sheen; the chicken is excellent, but the creamy jalapeno-garlic salsa on the side is the stuff of dreams. The tomahawk steak, a 2-pound, bone-in rib-eye, is a $90 indulgence, but it's a first-rate steak, served with a complex steak sauce the kitchen calls Mexican A1.
Whole striped bass is available in four preparations, representing a virtual tour of Mexico. "No matter where you are in Mexico," Bayless said, "they're doing a butterflied fish with the local flavors." I lean toward the Lena-style prep, which bathes the fish in a bright-green chili glaze, but there are Oaxacan (red adobo glaze), Pacific-coast zarandeado (garlic, soy, chile de arbol) and Yucatan tikin xik (achiote, garlic, habanero) versions as well.
Among sides, the richly flavored, chipotle-dusted cauliflower mash calls to mind a south-of-the-border pommes puree; butter-roasted plantains with cream, butter and house-made queso fresco are irresistible, and could serve as a dessert.
Advertisement
A free-form puffy tart comes with caramelized apples and thin stripes of tamarind sauce, topped with a globe of smoked-vanilla ice cream. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
Speaking of dessert, Lena Brava is strong in that area as well. There's a free-form, asymmetrical puffy tart with caramelized apples and thin stripes of tamarind sauce, topped with a globe of smoked-vanilla ice cream; and a soufflelike tres leches cake surrounded by lime curd, burnt meringue puffs and pistachio crema. The banana split, overflowing with buttered plantains, grilled pineapple and scoops of cajeta, chocolate and smoked-vanilla ice cream (along with cherry-cashew toffee, toasted coconut and hot fudge) is so massive that you probably should win a T-shirt if you finish it.
The beverage program is impressive, offering wines from the Valle de Guadalupe (although the sommelier is just as likely to suggest a wine from the Canary Islands), beers from next door, signature cocktails (the Awesome Blossom is my favorite, but the vodka-grapefruit Quiero Un Selfie made me laugh) and at least 100 sipping mezcals. And the Cafe Oaxaqueno, a coffee drink with mezcal, pasilla syrup and whipped cream, makes a fine liquid dessert.
pvettel@tribpub.com
Twitter @philvettel
900 W. Randolph St.
312-733-1975
Advertisement
www.rickbayless.com/restaurants/lena-brava
Tribune rating: Three stars
Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >
Open: Dinner on Tuesday-Sunday
Prices: Main courses $18-$26
Credit cards: A, DC, DS, M, V
Reservations: Strongly recommended
Advertisement
Noise: Conversation-challenged
Other: Wheelchair accessible; valet parking
Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars, unsatisfactory. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. Meals are paid for by the Tribune
Tens of thousands of you people wandered about the streets of the Printers Row neighborhood in the South Loop during the annual the 32nd annual, for Gutenberg's sake Printers Row Lit Fest last weekend, making a lively argument that the printed word is not yet dead.
There were so many books for sale and authors aplenty, many dozens of writers of every conceivable sort of style, personality, color and age. Novelists, poets, cartoonists you name it, you could find it. And all were eager to talk about their work and did so in the animated fashion of salesmen and saleswomen, which is what they are.
Advertisement
Authors want people to buy the books they've written and to read those books. It is surely getting harder every year, but they carry on, hopefully. And this all put me in mind of that character Nik Wallenda was his name who in 2014 walked a tightrope strung across the Chicago River. In just a few days this man got more attention, more ink and air time than all of the novels written here that year, all of the poems, all of the writers.
But aren't all writers risk-takers, walking the tightrope of words and imagination, risking?
Advertisement
Yes, they are. And why? For attention? For money? For immortality?
All of those things are hard to come by, no matter how good a writer might be, how powerful the words or how big the personality.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 37 Guests look through books at the This Old Book tent at Printer's Row Lit Fest. (Kristan Lieb / Chicago Tribune)
Now, I am not about to make the case that writing is as strenuous or demanding a profession as coal mining or waiting tables. But it has ever been romanticized. It was the great sportswriter Red Smith (somewhat diminished in light of the resurrection of his tone-deaf writing about Muhammad Ali, calling him "as sorry a spectacle as those unwashed punks who picket and demonstrate against the (Vietnam) war") who is credited with saying, about writing, "You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins and bleed."
And so, there on a table at Lit Fest was a new book, about the biggest Chicago literary personality who has ever lived: Ernest Hemingway, child of Oak Park and ever a large shadow on our words-on-paper world.
The book was "Everybody Behaves Badly: The True Story Behind Hemingway's Masterpiece The Sun Also Rises." Lesley M.M. Blume is the author and the book is, as Blume writes in his introduction, "the story of how Hemingway became Hemingway."
It's a wonderful book but does not always give us a pretty or admirable picture as we follow Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, from Chicago to Paris in the 1920s and into a world filled with cafes and salons and such people as Gertrude Stein, Sherwood Anderson, Ezra Pound and many others who helped and inspired the young Hemingway.
His aim was lofty, to write a "voice-of-a-generation novel that was both modern in subject and a stylistic groundbreaker." He worked very hard, and that book, "The Sun Also Rises," was based largely on the people he met in Paris and those with whom he traveled to the booze-soaked, fiesta-filled frolics surrounding the bullfights in Pamplona, Spain.
Most prominent among these was Harold Loeb, an American writer-editor who became the novel's Robert Cohn, a character who many critics cite as an example of Hemingway's anti-Semitism, and Lady Duff Twysden, a dissolute but beautiful and enticing woman who became the inspiration for Lady Brett Ashley.
Advertisement
The novel, of course, was a sensation, but not everyone was charmed by the man or his book. One member of that Paris crowd called Hemingway, "a very good businessman, a publicity seeker, who looks ahead and calculates, and uses rather than wonders about people."
MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR
And Zelda Fitzgerald considered the novel nothing more than "bullfighting, bullslinging and bull----." It was her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald already famous as the author of "This Side of Paradise" and the soon-to-be-published "The Great Gatsby" when the two first met who introduced Hemingway to his editor at the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons, calling the younger writer the "the real thing." (Hemingway would later treat Fitzgerald shabbily, and Maxwell Perkins would become arguably the most famous book editor in history, an assessment that is punctuated by his being played by actor Colin Firth in a film of his life and times, "Genius," its screenplay written by former Chicago playwright and Academy Award winner John "Gladiator" Logan. It just opened in theaters.)
There is none around who can testify firsthand to the anguish the novel may have caused those who served as unwitting models for the book's characters. But after its publication, Twysden married an artist named Clinton King, also part of that Paris crowd. Following her death in 1938, King met and married a woman named Narcissa Swift, the great-granddaughter of Chicago meatpacking tycoon Gustavus F. Swift. They lived all over the place but spent some summers here, where they became close friends of my parents. He was a gentle man and a fine painter and before his death in 1979 I asked what he thought of Hemingway.
"He was a s---," King said, simply.
No doubt he was, as this book proves, offering all manner of examples of his callous and self-consumed behavior. Even the loyal Richardson, the mother of Jack (the first of his three children) and the first of his four wives, gets a raw, sad deal. When she confronted him about having an affair he admitted to it, and then, as Blume writes, "turned the tables on Hadley; she was the one doing irreparable damage to the marriage by bringing it up."
Advertisement
In the book there is an anecdote recounting Hemingway once telling his friend and biographer A.E. Hotchner, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."
If so, then Hemingway was its most ravenous and selfish and cruel guest.
Hotchner also asked, "If you had it to do over, would you have been softer?"
"Oh, hell no," said the writer.
rkogan@tribpub.com
Twitter @rickkogan
Advertisement
RELATED STORIES:
Bitter? Moi? Marcia Clark lays into Judge Ito at Printers Row Lit Fest
Printers Row Lit Fest recap: Buzz Aldrin, R.L. Stine and more celebrate literature
'Genius' review: Colin Firth, Jude Law more average than brilliant
Watch the latest movie trailers.
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)
The weirdly touching documentary "De Palma" is catnip for cinephiles, at least those who haven't written off its subject, filmmaker and eternal provocateur Brian De Palma, decades ago as a hopeless, unrepentant, voyeuristic, Hitchcock-addicted perv.
Now 75, De Palma more or less owns up to that characterization himself. The son of a philandering orthopedic surgeon, young Brian once stalked, photographed and confronted his father and his lover in their love nest, with the future filmmaker brandishing a knife. This is one of many stories De Palma relays, in relaxed, "yeah, it happened" fashion, to the documentary's off-camera interviewers and co-directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow.
Advertisement
MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR
De Palma saw "Vertigo" at Radio City Music Hall when he was 18, in 1958. That experience, which he never really shook, set the mood and the direction for his entire life's work, though that work is far more varied than his Hitchcock-ripoff-artiste rep suggests. Without racing, "De Palma" deftly covers the full gamut of the man's films, from the early Robert De Niro collaboration "The Wedding Party" (shot in 1963) through commercial breakthroughs in the 1970s and then several more career ups and downs afterward.
Advertisement
Baumbach and Paltrow are pals with De Palma, and miraculously the implicit chumminess doesn't clog up the movie with unexamined goodwill. "De Palma" isn't afraid of drilling into the filmmaker's wormy obsessions and his adolescent prankster's streak. It also reveals De Palma to be a wry and drolly understated chronicler of his own indulgences, his constant filmmaking battles, his amusement at the bloody carnival of it all. Tales of De Palma and Nancy Allen double-dating with Steven Spielberg (hot off "Jaws") and Amy Irving evoke an entire cinematic golden age without even trying. Allen and Irving worked with De Palma on "Carrie" (1976), and for anyone old enough to remember what that film could do to a high school-age audience, the "Carrie" anecdotes are reason enough to see the documentary.
Baumbach and Paltrow do not interview De Palma experts, or critics, or anyone beyond De Palma. This is strictly the filmmaker, seated, indoors, talking to his friends, all very orderly. Meanwhile the generously interpolated clips from the likes of "Body Double" (with its insane drill-bit murder) turn the order into delirious chaos.
"I'm driven by unrealistic ideas," De Palma acknowledges at one point in "De Palma." Throughout the documentary, we hear war stories from a cackling warrior who was constantly faced with coming up with practical, filmable alternatives and solutions to crises on set. The "Potemkin"-inspired stairway shootout in "The Untouchables," for example, emerged as a replacement for a sequence screenwriter David Mamet, according to De Palma, refused to write.
Of "Obsession," his "Vertigo" homage and the first De Palma I saw in theaters (a few months before "Carrie"), the director shares some lovely, dishy gossip about star Cliff Robertson's personal, George Hamilton-esque makeup preferences, and precisely why an artificially brown leading man drove cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond crazy. "Every mistake you made is up there on the screen," De Palma says late in the film. "It's a like a record of the things you didn't finish, basically."
He made commercial hits ("Carrie," "Scarface," "The Untouchables," "Mission: Impossible") and near-misses and lots of bizarre or self-conscious disappointments. But even films as nutty as "Snake Eyes" offer sequences of such preening virtuosity, with their gorgeously sustained long takes and slithery mise-en-scene, you just have to shake your head and laugh. De Palma's currently in preproduction for his next movie. Here's hoping it's terrific.
Starting Friday, tied to the theater's "De Palma" engagement, the Music Box presents an eight-film sampler of De Palma's work. "Carrie," "Blow Out," "Scarface" and "Carlito's Way" are all on 35 millimeter; "The Untouchables" will be shown in a 70 mm blowup. The full schedule:
Friday
4:30 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. "Phantom of the Paradise"
Advertisement
9:30 p.m. "Dressed To Kill"
Saturday
8 p.m. "Scarface"
11:59 p.m. "Carrie"
Sunday
5 p.m. "Blow Out"
Advertisement
7 p.m. "Carrie"
Monday
4:30 p.m. "Dressed To Kill"
9:30 p.m.: "Blow Out"
Tuesday
4:30 and 9:30 p.m. "Body Double"
Advertisement
Wednesday
7:30 p.m.: "The Untouchables"
Thursday
4:30 and 9:20 p.m. "Carlito's Way"
"De Palma" 3.5 stars
MPAA rating: R (for violent images, graphic nudity, sexual content and some language)
Advertisement
Running time: 1:51
Opens: Friday at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.; www.musicboxtheatre.com
Michael Phillips is a Tribune Newspapers critic.
mjphillips@tribpub.com
Twitter @phillipstribune
MORE MOVIE REVIEWS:
Advertisement
'Finding Dory' review: Ellen DeGeneres voices the friendly fish in search of her parents
'Genius' review: Colin Firth, Jude Law more average than brilliant
'Princess' review: A complicated family dynamic
Watch the latest movie trailers.
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)
Not long ago I interviewed an expert in artificial intelligence and he said something that stopped me cold: "Many of the newspaper articles you see today are written by machines." My response: Excuse me while I go huddle in a corner and cry for my profession.
The future probably isn't so dire. At least in terms of how AI might be used to generate the written word. Filmmaker Oscar Sharp and technologist Ross Goodwin have been collaborating for a couple of years now, exploring the boundaries of computer-generated creativity. Their most recent effort is the short sci-fi film "Sunspring" starring longtime Chicago improviser Thomas Middleditch and made from a screenplay written entirely by a computer they dubbed Jetson. (That name has since changed.)
Advertisement
RELATED: MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR
Sharp and Goodwin tested their machine's capabilities back in April for The Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge. The resulting eight-minute film (available on YouTube) and the love triangle/workplace fever dream at its core is funny but also mesmerizingly off-kilter and, at points, weirdly poetic as if it were (as one commenter noted) a bizarro mashup of "Solaris" and "Office Space."
Advertisement
Thomas Middleditch in "Sunspring." (Oscar Sharp )
Sometimes the dialogue sounds like a random series of unrelated sentences. Middleditch (who currently stars on HBO's "Silicon Valley") is joined by actors Elisabeth Gray and Humphrey Ker, and they have all somehow made sense of lines such as, "I know it's a consequence. Whatever you need to know about the presence of the story, I'm a little bit of a boy on the floor."
Here's how that's translated by Gray's performance as she speaks to Middleditch: (Patronizingly) "I know. It's a consequence. Whatever you need to know about the presence of the story" faux conspiratorially, almost whispering to let him down gently "I'm a little bit of a boy on the floor." That last bit she says as she touches Ker's arm meaningfully. Whatever's going on (and the dialogue is indeed confounding), the performance in that moment makes clear, she's letting her allegiances be known. And Middleditch is the loser in that equation.
Actors Humphrey Ker and Elisabeth Gray in director Oscar Sharp's short film "Sunspring"
Here's how the software works, per Sharp: "It's a language engine that essentially crunches all of the input that you give it" in this case, lines of dialogue from thousands of pre-existing sci-fi screenplays, everything from "Independence Day" to "Logan's Run" "and then it tries to create output that statistically looks the same as the input."
"Oh, very much no. The computer is doing something really extraordinary. If you look at the screenplay itself and you consider that the grammatical form of the dialogue is one person addressing another or asking a question, and then look at the action description passages what people call the stage directions it's written in the grammar and style of dialogue or description. It just sounds really weird because the computer doesn't know what it's saying, it just knows how to say it, so the end result doesn't feel sensical to a human being."
In some ways, the computer's process is not unlike autocorrect. "Essentially it is trying to guess what the next letter of anything it's generating will be," said Sharp. "And at first the output wasn't legible, it was basically gobbledygook. Then the computer started to learn words, but the words were in an order so random, you couldn't speak them. What I was looking for was the day it got good enough that it had brewed its model long enough, really that when an actor saw the script, they would be able to perform it without tearing their brain in two. Because yes, that person might be asked to say strange things, but the sentence structure is that of a person speaking."
Goodwin and Sharp used their machine to generate an entire script, but neither anticipates technology replacing human writers altogether. Here's Goodwin: "You can imagine this sort of tool being used as an autocomplete or a suggestion device to break up your writer's block."
Such as: "Let's say you write a line of dialogue and you're not sure what comes next. You could theoretically hit 'complete, complete, complete' until the computer comes up with a word or line that looks kind of like something you want. And then you edit it a little bit and you move on.
"For me," he said, "this technology is about pushing fiction forward into a new domain, where we get stories that we really haven't seen before, because so much of what comes out of Hollywood and so much that we read are the same stories, recycled over and over again. And I feel like this technology can give us access to storytelling that might be a little beyond what we've experienced in the past."
Advertisement
He added: "It's not going to be, push a button and you get a screenplay. Nobody really wants that, I think. As a society, we don't like the idea of computers replacing us. I like the idea of computers augmenting writers."
The two are working on a project to generate film synopses, using the same process. Goodwin sent over a few examples, including this one: "Set in the world of study disease, the film captures the personal journey of a young boy who must rely on his father's desire to become a woman who knows the power to trust him. In an attempt to help his friends and family find himself in a tragic dark twist of fate, he is forced to confront his own demons while struggling to find a way to survive." Not bad, actually.
A footnote about the computer's name. "They decided to interview Jetson live on stage at the awards show," said Sharp, referring to the 48 Hour Film Challenge, "and he first said something very cryptic about children pulling things from the furnace and then melting them to the floor." Right.
"And then the last line of his interview was, 'My name is Benjamin.' So, he named himself."
To find out more and read up on director Oscar Sharp and technologist Ross Goodwin's collaboration, visit their individual sites: thereforefilms.com (for Sharp) and rossgoodwin.com. Btw, Benjamin's has "his" own site as well that's worth checking out: benjamin.wtf.
nmetz@tribpub.com
Advertisement
Twitter @NinaMetzNews
RELATED STORIES:
Indie comedy about abandoning cellphones filming in Chicago
Stoner comedy 'My Friend's Rubber Ducky' keeps it real
Why an unprecedented number of TV dramas are filming in Chicago
Watch the latest movie trailers.
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)
They say history is written by the winners, but after victory the vanquished continue to draw breath. Svetlana Alexievich has taken it upon herself to commit the stories of the survivors of the Soviet Empire to posterity.
In "Secondhand Time," the 2015 Nobel Laureate deftly orchestrates dozens of voices into a multilayered, maddening symphony of remembrance. Turn to almost any page of this book, and the pain, bitterness and hope of the average former Soviet citizen will ring in your ears for days after.
Advertisement
Like faithful believers in the Confederacy after the Civil War, many of Alexievich's subjects refuse to believe the fighting is finished. They boast of the great accomplishments of the USSR, break into spontaneous a cappella renditions of patriotic anthems, and rail against the shallow consumerism of the new Russia. Many openly long for Stalin's resurrection. They feel betrayed and lost in the country they thought was theirs but now feels like an entirely alien land.
It would be understandable if these were crocodile tears shed by higher ups in the Soviet establishment who lost their power and privilege after the regime changed, but the vast majority of interviewees are everyday people. It is a testament to the all-encompassing scope of the Soviet project that years after its demise many of its subjects continue to live by its precepts and spout its slogans. They do so whether they believe the words coming out of their mouths or not; such is the power propaganda in a totalitarian society.
Advertisement
Not everyone Alexievich talks to longs for the past, but whatever their views the author strives to present their words with little judgment. In one of her spare asides, Alexievich assures an unrepentant communist that her views as well as that of her disagreeing friend's will both be heard:
I promise her that there will be two stories. I want to be a cold-blooded historian, not one who is holding a blazing torch. Let time be the judge. Time is just, but only in the long term not in the short term. The time we won't live to see, which will be free of our prejudices.
What does it mean when otherwise intelligent-sounding people long for the return of one of the most brutal, repressive regimes in human history? Is it mass delusion or something more mundane? Almost everyone in these pages bemoans the absence of a greater purpose in post-Soviet times. Even those who acknowledge the utter corruption of their old way of life find little to latch onto in the new. The freedom they imagined while living under repression has turned out to be hollow and unrewarding. Faced with the unlimited choices of consumer capitalism, they wish for bread lines and the black market.
The Soviet Union has been gone for 20 years, but for the people Alexievich has gathered here and doubtless, for millions more like them the old empire will not die until they themselves do. By presenting their views, Alexievich has contributed an invaluable oral history of an era which is fast fading from collective memory. No matter how horrible Soviet life was, it was the life they knew and once it was gone their feeling of loss was valid and very real.
"Secondhand Time" shares the stories of people who feel the rug was pulled out from under them. No matter how hideous, tattered or even illusory that rug was, they felt it was theirs. The power of belief shines through many of these accounts even though the ideology they mourn was based on atheism. The many contradictions contained within their narratives only add to the resonance of what they say. The flaws and lies only serve to accentuate the complexity of the era. By letting her subjects keep their dignity, Alexievich has given us a fuller history of fall of the Soviet Empire than we had before. By letting the vanquished speak, we might know better what, if anything, was actually won.
Dmitry Samarov is a painter and writer in Chicago. He is the author of "Hack: Stories From a Chicago Cab."
"Secondhand Time"
By Svetlana Alexievich, Random House, 496 pages, $30
Architect James Crisp of Crisp Architects in Millbrook, N.Y., is a pro at designing screened porches. For clients who want to take advantage of their view, Crisp uses a solution to avoid bugs that often appear "like clockwork at 5 p.m." when clients are ready to entertain their guests. To keep views and the landscape within sight, he builds in an automatic roller screen system, which is hidden most of the time but when needed descends to transform the porch into a wide-open space. (Rob Karosis)
Before air conditioning became widely available, screened porches were the sought-after place to escape summer heat. Ceiling fans circulated cooler air, wicker and wrought-iron furniture with plump cushions offered a welcome, and the rooms sometimes became a sleeping porch when indoor heat was at its most oppressive.
While the screened porch never disappeared completely as an architectural feature, it did lose some of its cachet as other spaces gained greater appeal as hangout spots namely, increasingly larger and more roomlike kitchens and landscaped decks and terraces.
Advertisement
RELATED: TRENDING LIFE & STYLE NEWS THIS HOUR
But what's old eventually becomes new ... or at least sort of. The screened porch, also referred to as a screened-in porch, is back and taking center stage. Both homeowners and design professionals recognize that it offers the best of all worlds: a place to enjoy nature and not just its sights but also its smells, sounds and tastes while protected from mosquitoes and other annoying bugs, especially at night when lights glow. .
Advertisement
Architects and designers nationwide are receiving more requests to enclose an existing porch or build ones from scratch. Fred Wilson, partner at Morgante-Wilson Architects in Chicago, says the interest is "huge, almost 100 percent of clients want one." In fact, the house he and wife and architecture partner Elissa Morgante built and moved into last fall includes a 15-by-15-foot screened porch overlooking Lake Michigan.
Architect Terri Crittenden, CEO of the Fredman Design Group in Chicago, also has seen interest soar. Architect James Crisp, whose firm is located in Millbrook, N.Y., has found a similar uptick in requests. "Any house we design or remodel now has a porch," he says.
Wilson encourages homeowners to remember that it's still a porch. "The joy of the space is not to be hermetically sealed off from nature as you are in some other rooms," he says. Here are five key considerations before you dust off the wicker and bring out the lemonade:
Size. While there are no average dimensions, most design professionals recommend the space be large enough to accommodate a table and chairs and seating group comfortably with additional space to circulate. Elizabeth Demetriades, an architect with Demetriades + Walker in Lakeville, Conn., thinks that 10 feet by 15 feet should be the minimum, and a better size is at least 12 feet by 18 feet. The higher the ceiling, the better, she says.
Placement. Go with the best view, away from the strongest midday sun but set up for catching a sunset, or put it adjacent to a favorite indoor room. All work, depending on personal preference. Wilson likes to place it on the north side where it's cooler, when possible. Demetriades advises locating it so it doesn't block light and good views from coming into the rest of the house. In one project, Demetriades' firm took a different approach and built a screened porch as a free-standing structure overlooking a swimming pool, making it an adventure to arrive there.
Building materials. Some professionals still favor concrete or flagstone for the floor and wood for the walls and ceiling for their old-fashioned appeal, but others are going further afield with flamed granite, local stones, rot-resistant woods like ipe and teak, woods like Douglas fir tongue and groove that can be painted or stained, and composite materials that hold up well to cold and moisture. While many homeowners are content with fixed screens, some like the flexibility of systems that can be removed by hand or installed with a mechanized feature that allows them to "roll up" and turn the porch into a wide-open space. Another option is replacing screens for part of the year with glass for more four-season appeal. Heating a floor with radiant tubing underneath also helps to take away chill, especially for porches used for longer and cooler times, Wilson says.
Furnishings. Furniture and cushions that withstand inclement weather used to be the major mantra, so they could be left outdoors rather than hauled inside. Many of today's furnishings may permit that, but they've also gained a much more upscale look, says New York-based designer Marlaina Teich. Chicago designer Michael Del Piero likes to keep indoor and outdoor styles simpatico, though she's also likely to introduce some earthier touches such as a sisal or jute rug and rattan or wood furniture, along with something special and different such as, perhaps, a candlelit chandelier rather than a traditional ceiling fan.
Bells and whistles. Ceiling fans that predate air conditioning remain in vogue, but the room's enhanced status has led to other amenities that make the porch appeal for greater use. Beside good illumination from chandeliers to fans with lighting, and sconces, rooms are being outfitted with sound systems including a Sonos unit, special outdoor TVs and fireplaces, and all of today's popular cooking paraphernalia. (Before you add a pizza oven, a highly popular choice, be sure the model sits on a noncombustible surface, that the overhead surface is also noncombustible and that the room has proper ventilation, says a source with Kalamazoo Gourmet, which manufactures several pizza oven models.)
Advertisement
At the end of the day, know that one of the main joys of a screened porch is something that doesn't come from a designer's blueprint or off a shelf, but is part of partaking in a seasonal ritual. "Come fall, when I've used our new porch all summer, I'll like the idea of taking a break and retreating to other rooms," Wilson says. And then come the next spring, the porch will beckon again.
Barbara Ballinger is a freelance writer.
RELATED STORIES:
Design advice from a pro who's not afraid of color
Throw a summer solstice party with these tips
Bring summer florals indoors with hand-painted textiles from Bluebellgray
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 11 The Lolla Bootie from Sorel for women is crafted with waterproof leather (for light rain) and stylized with cutouts and a two-tone stacked heel, providing comfort and style for spring and summer and obviously for Lollapalooza, it's in the name), $160 www.sorel.com (Sorel)
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 9 A West Loop condo situated at 659 Randolph St. Unit 614 is currently on the market for $462,900. (Rick Knoell / VHT Studios)
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., center, calls for gun control legislation June 16, 2016, on Capitol Hill in Washington, in the wake of the mass shooting at an Orlando LGBT nightclub. From left are Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; the Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost her mother Ethel Lance and two cousins in the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, N.C. in 2015; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP)
In the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, the Democrats applied a law that serves them well:
"Never let a good crisis go to waste."
Advertisement
So they used the bodies of the dead as leverage for their politics and framed the national debate in terms of gun control rather than terrorism inspired by the radical jihadists of Islamic State.
It was all about protecting their presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton. They had to protect her. So they shouted about the guns.
Advertisement
All that emotion about gun control, much of it sincere and thoughtfully offered, was nevertheless used by party operatives to herd voters. It was about shaping the argument on their terms, about capturing the rage and fear out of Orlando and offering people a simple solution they could reach for.
It doesn't matter if that solution won't work. What matters to political tacticians is defending vulnerable flanks by keeping the issue on safe ground.
The law about never letting a crisis go to waste was offered years ago by a wise Democrat and President Obama's former chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Rahm understands.
And recent days have proved him right once again.
The crisis for all Americans involved the horror of terrorism and the evil of Omar Mateen, the New York son of Afghan immigrants who was inspired by Islamic State to slaughter 49 innocents at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
But the crisis for Democratic politicians was of a different sort. They didn't want to discuss Islamic State or jihad. They offered gun control.
And they had to immediately brand the tragedy to their advantage. So led by the president and aided by the American media that by and large prays on the altar of big government activism and reviles the Second Amendment, it was done.
Is it cynical to think so? No. It is cynical to insist otherwise. I don't want to drag you away from your safe space, but that's how politics works: Frame the debate so your political assumptions and buzz words are incorporated into the news narrative and the rest is all gravy.
Advertisement
And so it was the guns.
Gun control was the shield to protect Mrs. Clinton, to keep the dialogue away from terrorism, from any mention of Islam, which would invariably lead to a discussion of her many policy failures in the Middle East.
The Democrats could not allow this. Clinton and President Barack Obama could not have it. In a time of national grief, one issue would bring Clinton establishmentarians and skeptical Bernie Sanders supporters closer together. The guns.
And so the screaming ensued. It was the guns, they said, the guns, the guns. This was the mantra, not only of gun control, but of reconciliation between the Democratic tribes.
It was not what Mateen said clearly by his own hand on his social media accounts, where he said he slaughtered Americans for the glory of Islamic State.
Republicans use similar Pavlovian dark magic. There is little difference between the party tacticians. They are experts in prompting their meat puppets.
Advertisement
Instead of gun control, the Republicans often opt for patriotism and fear of all Islam.
And while Democrats used 49 bodies from Orlando, Republicans used thousands of Americans killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They used them to wage war, first on Afghanistan, then in Iraq. Many Democrats were for that Iraq war, too, before they were against it.
Out of a ruined Iraq, the Islamic State was born and so was the Syrian civil war.
As the authors of this, Republicans have paid for it in the collapse of their party. And in part because of their tone-deaf corporatist leadership, the GOP has split into three main camps:
Those belonging to the neoconservative establishment wing, many of whom lean toward Hillary because they see in her a Valkyrie willing to wage war; the constitutional conservatives; and the Jacksonian middle and working classes, who fight the wars and lose their jobs and are mocked by elites. Now they cleave to the vulgarian nationalist Donald Trump.
The president has his hands in this, too, from his disastrous Libya policy to his pathetic vacillating on that "red line" in the sand of Syria, and his abrupt military withdrawal from that ruined Iraq, giving Islamic State which he once scoffed at as mere "JV team" time to breathe and grow.
Advertisement
But how can you put all that on a tweet or in a 60-second clip on TV news?
So it was the guns, not terrorism, not Islamic State, until Obama's own CIA director, John Brennan testified before Congress.
Obama and the Democrats have been stressing that Islamic State has been weakened and that Trump and some Republicans exhibit racism by demanding a stop in immigration from Muslim countries.
But Brennan said CIA believes efforts to degrade Islamic State haven't worked as well as we'd hoped, and that the Islamic State is planning to send fighters to infiltrate refugee groups and immigrate to attack the West in guerrilla-style strikes.
He said Islamic State "has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West."
Reality isn't a slogan to fit on Republican or Democratic bumper stickers.
Advertisement
But it's out there.
Listen to a new episode of "The Chicago Way" with John Kass and Jeff Carlin at www.chicagotribune.com/kasspodcast. Kristen McQueary, of the Tribune Editorial Board, frets about Father's Day, and Kristen Hare from Poynter.org on the Orlando Sentinel's coverage of the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Twitter @John_Kass
In Malik Gillani's fantasy, here in the holy month of Ramadan, the mosques of Chicago would make a meal and invite gay people in.
Come break bread with us, the imams would say, and let us hear your stories. Tell us what it's like to be two men who love each other. To be two lesbians raising a child. To be a young gay man rejected by his family.
Advertisement
In Gillani's fantasy, the recent massacre in an Orlando, Fla., gay nightclub would turn into an opportunity for gay people and Muslims to connect with each other through their stories of struggle.
"Stories humanize us," he says.
Advertisement
Gillani's life is built on that notion. He and his husband, Jamil Khoury, run Silk Road Rising, a Chicago theater company that produces plays written by people of Asian and Middle Eastern descent. They founded it shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, convinced that people from different cultures and belief systems are less likely to hate each other if they know about each other.
Gillani was asleep Sunday at home in Chicago when his husband woke him with the Orlando news.
"Oh my God" was his first thought, "Who's killing gays?"
And then he heard the shooter's name, Omar Mateen, and he felt too sick even to get out of bed to gather with his gay friends to mourn.
He kept thinking, "Why are we killing gays?"
He felt the "we" of being Muslim as deeply as he felt the "we" of being gay. He identified with the killer and the victims. Guilt blended with sorrow.
"Collective guilt by association," he says.
Being Muslim and gay has never been easy. In the wake of the Orlando shootings, it's more complicated than ever.
Advertisement
"Muslims pride ourselves on the umma," Gillani says, "the family, the community. When someone from our family engages in an act, we're part of it."
Gillani moved to Chicago when he was 7, and for years went to the mosque twice a day. He was in his early 20s, still closeted, on the day that his family came to his house for a party. While he was in the shower, one of his brothers outed him to his parents.
"Malik is gay?" he recalls his mother saying. "What is gay?"
His big family supported him, but as he grew older, members of his mosque wondered why he wasn't married. For several years, he assured them he wasn't gay, he just hadn't found the right person, a ruse that has been used by members of many religions and also by the nonreligious.
Through the years, Gillani grew more comfortable being openly gay. Though he and his husband, an Antiochian Orthodox Christian, are likelier to go to the Methodist church, where they're welcome, than to the mosque, where they're not because Khoury is Christian, he still considers himself a devout Muslim. He says he prays all the time.
"There are people who have stopped practicing Islam as a result of being gay and being ostracized," he says. "I will not pay that price. But because I am not willing to walk away, I am left holding that bag."
Advertisement
The bag is the one that contains the beauties and burdens of being a gay Muslim.
A few days ago, Gillani wrote a piece for the New York Daily News about being both. A Facebook commenter told him that being both was impossible.
But he feels a need, an obligation, to show that it is possible. He has been heartened by the many Muslim leaders who have condemned the Orlando attacks, though he doesn't believe condolences are enough.
"We have for the longest time demonized the LGBT community," he says. "We need to invite people into our homes, into our mosques, our centers and say 'Talk to us.'"
He has discussed the Orlando attacks with a few other gay Muslims.
"There is a feeling of pain and sadness and 'how do we explain this?'" he says. "Sadly, a lot of the gay Muslims I know are in the closet and so it's hard for them to openly express themselves. My willingness to talk about who I am is my way of expressing contrition and trying to make change."
Advertisement
Gillani is just one Muslim. Just one gay person. Just one gay Muslim. Others may have other views.
They may be less optimistic than he is when he says, "We cannot bring people back from the dead, but wouldn't it be beautiful if we could use this to become better people?"
mschmich@tribpub.com
Twitter @MarySchmich
Something about the events in Orlando touched a nerve with me.
With past gun tragedies it was easy to see myself in the victims. I was at a midnight showing of the "Dark Knight" and so it didn't take much for me to imagine myself being there in Aurora, Colo. I am a teacher and so seeing myself in Sandy Hook also didn't take much imagination.
Advertisement
I am not gay, nor am I really a club going guy. Yet something about Orlando has upset me in a way that those previous events didn't.
I have come to decide it's because I feel relatively hopeless about this getting better right now. The problem is less about the politicians won over by the NRA's money, though that is a problem, than it is about the slim majority of Americans who have been won over by NRA rhetoric. This is why action is so unlikely at the federal level and not too much more hopeful at the state level.
Advertisement
Of course, at least the federal government in its own dysfunctional manner passes a budget. Considering our lack of a state budget is its own path toward depression.
Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >
Social service agencies have been wrecked and our schools' finances are further jeopardized by the uncertain funding. The state of Illinois hardly had prudent fiscal policies when we were passing budgets and the lack of one has done nothing to improve our precarious situation.
Yet before entering a spiral of despair, I can take hope from our local government. Highland Park's assault rifle ban is largely symbolic, but sometimes symbols matter and I am proud to be part of a community that has taken a stance.
I have to hope that at some point the tide will turn and we will be able to honor the Second Amendment's constitutional guarantee while having a level of gun violence similar to other developed countries.
Of course, if our local government was just taking symbolic action it wouldn't be reassuring at all. Yet when I survey what is happening in virtually every unit of government, it's heartening.
The mayor and City Council continue to move forward on a staggering number of short and long term projects. The park district is building, literally, on the success of Rosewood Beach by implementing Greenprint 2024. District 113 has an exciting new superintendent about to start work. District 112 has put together an extremely talented group to serve on its new reconfiguration committee. It seems like hardly a day goes by without Moraine Township promoting some new service it's offering for those in our community who are most at risk.
We're not ready as a nation to stop the next gun tragedy. I just have to look at the work my neighbors are doing to be reminded that humanity has a lot of good inside of it and the ability to make life better when we work together.
Lane Young is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.
A driver displays Lyft and Uber stickers on his front windshield as he drops off a fare in Los Angeles. (Richard Vogel, AP)
A Chicago City Council committee on Friday approved a ride-share ordinance that would increase regulations for Uber and Lyft drivers, but the proposal's sponsor, Ald. Anthony Beale, stressed that he remains open to negotiations on its details.
The ordinance, promoted by the taxicab industry, subjects Uber and Lyft drivers to some of the same regulations as cabdrivers, including fingerprinting as part of a criminal background check. The joint committee on transportation and licensing approved the ordinance by a voice vote with no dissent.
Advertisement
The proposed ordinance also requires drivers to undergo drug tests and city debt checks.
"We're not forcing anybody out of the city of Chicago we want everyone in," said Beale, 9th, who sponsored the ordinance, responding to complaints from ride-share companies. He said the ordinance was to protect consumers.
Advertisement
The Rideshare Reform ordinance also requires drivers to obtain restricted public chauffeur licenses and mandates that 5 percent of ride-sharing fleets be wheelchair accessible and provide equivalent service in terms of cost and response times.
Beale said he will continue to work with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on possible changes to the ordinance before next Wednesday's City Council meeting.
Emanuel has steadfastly opposed the stricter rules for ride-sharing companies, and his administration was still negotiating with Beale on a less-stringent compromise ordinance as the meeting was about to start Friday. But those talks broke down, and Beale had his version approved in a meeting that lasted less than 10 minutes.
The fact that the city tried to negotiate with Beale rather than risk an embarrassing loss at next week's council meeting in an up-or-down vote on the Far South Side alderman's original proposal is a testament to strong City Hall lobbying by the cab industry. It also shows a low ebb in the mayor's political strength and ability to keep aldermen in line as he tries to recover from several crises over the past year.
Asked Friday whether he could have gotten this far with an ordinance opposed by Emanuel a few years ago, before the Laquan McDonald police shooting fallout and his record property tax hike weakened him, Beale declined to answer directly.
"Again, this is not between me and the mayor," Beale said. "This ordinance has nothing to do with me and the mayor. I work very close with the mayor. I'm going to continue to work close with the mayor. This was about consumer protection, as well as making sure Uber and Lyft provide transportation to the disabled community."
An employee walks out of the Uber office parking lot on June 17, 2016, on North Avenue in Chicago. (Anthony Souffle / Chicago Tribune)
But getting an ordinance through a lightly attended committee meeting on a Friday afternoon in June is a lot easier than convincing 26 aldermen to look even a politically shaky Emanuel in the eye at the full City Council meeting and vote against him. Beale said he will continue to meet with the administration, aldermen and representatives of the ride-hailing industry to work on the package.
With almost a week until the City Council meets, there is still a possibility that the two sides will agree on a compromise between now and then.
Advertisement
The Emanuel administration did not respond to questions about the significance of Friday's vote or the specifics of the ride-hailing ordinance. The mayor has repeatedly argued in recent months that the roughly 90,000 registered Uber and Lyft drivers in the city give Chicagoans more options, promote competition and make it easier for residents to find rides in predominantly minority neighborhoods where it has been hard to persuade cabdrivers to make pickups.
The mayor would prefer not to adopt any new regulations on the nascent industry. It's a favorite mode of transportation for well-educated, tech-savvy, often carless young people he wants to attract to the city so the companies who hope to hire them will locate here.
Uber and Lyft officials have threatened to pull out of Chicago or greatly alter the services they offer here if the ordinance was approved. Marco McCottry, Uber's Chicago general manager, said in a statement on Friday that the ordinance would make it nearly twice as expensive to get a ride by putting up unnecessary barriers for ride-sharing drivers, who often are working part time for supplemental income.
"We love Chicago," said McCottry in a statement. "But the ordinance that advanced today would eliminate ride-sharing as we know it here."
"The ordinance passed today out of committee forces part-time Lyft drivers into an onerous, outdated model requiring hundreds of dollars in fees just to share a seat in their car," Chelsea Wilson, Lyft senior policy communications manager, said in a statement. "It would make true ride-sharing impossible."
Some drivers threaten to leave Chicago if tougher regulations pass. May 25, 2016. (CBS Chicago) (CBS Chicago)
However, Lyft driver Mattia Nanfria, 39, of Chicago, who attended the meeting, said she was glad that Beale was open to negotiations.
Advertisement
Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >
"As long as the companies and the mayor still have a seat at the table with the alderman and can work on making the legislation better, it's an OK ruling for us," she said.
Mara Georges of the Illinois Transportation Trade Association, which represents cab medallion owners and operators, applauded Beale for moving the ordinance through committee. She said the current situation is killing the cab industry, which is losing drivers.
"I think it starts to level the playing field," said Georges of the ordinance. "Both industries need drivers."
Adam Ballard, 35, of Chicago, said after the meeting that the ordinance is needed because wheelchair users like himself cannot access Uber.
"If I try to flag a ride like anyone else on the app, there are no vehicles that are accessible to me," Ballard said. Instead, Uber may refer him to a taxi, but then he would have to pay the taxi fare plus an Uber service fee on top of it.
mwisniewski@tribpub.com
Advertisement
jebyrne@tribpub.com
Two men were found shot in a minivan, one fatally, early June 18, 2016, in the 3400 block of West Madison Street in Chicago. (John J. Kim, Chicago, Tribune) (Chicago Tribune)
Five people were killed and at least 12 others wounded in Chicago shootings since Friday afternoon, police said.
At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, a 23-year-old man was shot in the South Austin neighborhood. He was found with multiple gunshot wounds in the 4800 block of West Monroe Street, where he was pronounced dead. The Cook County Medical Examiner's office identified him as Eric Smith of the 4800 block of West Adams Street.
Advertisement
At 3:40 a.m. Saturday, three men were shot one fatally in the University Village neighborhood, police said.
The shooting occurred in the 1300 block of West Hastings Street. One man, 24, was shot in the back. He was driven to University of Illinois Medical Center and pronounced dead.
Advertisement
The other two men, ages 30 and 29, are security guards with Kate's Detective Agency, a law enforcement source said. The older man was shot in the hand and the younger was shot in the legs, hand and forearm. Both went to Stroger Hospital and their conditions were stabilized.
At 1:30 a.m., a 19-year-old man was killed and another was wounded in East Garfield Park. The men were in a minivan at the intersection of Madison Street and Springfield Avenue when shots were fired. They were found a few blocks east, at Madison and Homan Avenue. One man was pronounced dead at the scene there. He was identified as Latrell McMahon of the 1800 block of South Fairfield Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The other was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound to the leg.
At 10:30 p.m. Friday, a 22-year-old man was fatally shot in Lawndale. He was in an alley in the 2200 block of South Kirkland Avenue when he was shot in the neck. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and pronounced dead. He was identified as Charles Wiley of the 4200 block of West Cullerton Street, according to the medical examiner's office.
At 9:06 p.m. a 16-year-old was killed in West Englewood. He was in the front passenger seat of a car driving through an alley in the 6500 block of South Hamilton Avenue when two males came up and fired shots. The car came to rest at the corner of 66th Street and Hamilton Avenue, and the driver fled.
The boy, whom relatives identified as Melvin Cook, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene.
Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 35 A crossing guard helps pedestrians walk across South Hermitage Avenue in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago on June 20, 2016. Salvador Suarez, 21, was killed by someone wielding an assault rifle in the Back of the Yards neighborhood near the front door of Holy Cross Immaculate Heart of Mary Churchon Sunday. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Nonfatal shootings:
About 5:30 a.m. Saturday, a 27-year-old man was shot in Lakeview. He walked into Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the foot and told investigators he had been walking on Belmont Avenue near Lake Shore Drive when a vehicle approached and someone inside fired shots. His condition was stabilized.
At 4:30 a.m. Saturday, a 28-year-old man was shot in the 3400 block of North Lowell Avenue in the Kilbourn Park neighborhood. He was in front of a residence when a vehicle drove past and someone inside fired shots. He was shot in the buttocks and went to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. His condition was stabilized.
Advertisement
At 8:35 p.m. Friday, a 23-year-old man was shot in Grand Crossing. He walked into South Shore Hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg after being shot in the 1400 block of East 70th Street. He was listed in fair condition. He was being uncooperative with investigators, police said.
Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >
At 6:30 p.m., two men ages 44 and 33 were shot in Bronzeville. They told investigators they were in a vehicle parked in the 4400 block of South Prairie Avenue when someone fired shots from a dark-colored SUV. The older man was shot in the hip and the younger man was shot in the leg. They got themselves to Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, where they both were listed in good condition.
At 5:37 p.m. a 39-year-old woman was shot in the 3100 block of West Douglas Boulevard in the Lawndale neighborhood, police said. She was sitting in a parked vehicle when a bullet crashed through her windshield and struck her left wrist, police said. She was taken to Mount Sinai in good condition, police said.
At 5:15 p.m., a 17-year-old boy was shot in the 3100 block of West Lexington Street. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in good condition with gunshot wounds to the left leg and left hand.
At 3:45 p.m., a 22-year-old man was shot in the 5500 block of West North Avenue. He was in the parking lot of a business when three men came up to him. Two of them pulled out guns and began firing. He was shot in the right hand and right leg and taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said.
At 3:12 p.m., a 20-year-old man was shot in the 7900 block of South Wabash Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood, police said. The man had just gotten out of a car when someone got out of a vehicle that had been following him and opened fire, hitting the victim in the abdomen. He was taken in serious condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center, police said.
Advertisement
In addition to the shootings, a 6-year-old girl was injured at 6:24 p.m. Friday when she was in a restaurant in the 6700 block of Stony Island Avenue and was struck by shattered glass from gunshots, police said.
Chicago police investigate a shooting June 17, 2016, in the 6700 block of Stony Island Boulevard in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. A 6-year-old girl was injured by shattered glass after shots were fired into a restaurant. (Eric Clark / Chicago Tribune)
The girl did not suffer gunshot wounds but was struck by glass, police said. She was taken in good condition to Comer Children's Hospital.
A girl charged in the 2014 killing of 14-year-old Endia Martin marked her 17th birthday Friday as Cook County prosecutors filed an appeal on a legal issue that could delay her murder trial in juvenile court for months.
Prosecutors said they appealed Judge Stuart Katz's April ruling allowing the shooting suspect to have a jury decide her fate. By law, juvenile defendants are not guaranteed a jury trial.
Advertisement
Prosecutors had argued previously that the juvenile laws allowed jury trials only for minors who had previously been found delinquent or faced extended prison sentences. But Katz said it would be improper to deny the girl a jury trial just because she had no previous convictions.
At the minutes-long hearing Friday, the judge allowed the shooting suspect's mother, grandmother and two other relatives to embrace the teen not uncommon in juvenile court.
Advertisement
The shooting suspect, who was 14 at the time of the incident, is charged with killing Endia in April 2014 during a midafternoon confrontation in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood. The Tribune is not identifying the suspect because she is a juvenile.
Nearly 40 people accompanied the girl for a confrontation with 16-year-old Lanekia Reynolds, Endia's best friend, near Reynolds' home in the 900 block of West Garfield Boulevard. The girls had reportedly used Facebook to arrange a fistfight to settle a feud over a boy.
Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >
The incident, which was captured on shaky cellphone video, escalated when the suspect struck Reynolds in the head with a gun, according to prosecutors.
Reynolds allegedly swung a lock on a chain at the girl but missed. The shooting suspect then allegedly raised a .38-caliber gun at her rivals, but the weapon malfunctioned. However, a member of her group quickly fixed the gun, allowing the girl to open fire, prosecutors said.
Endia was fatally struck in the back as she ran for safety, while Reynolds suffered a graze wound to her left biceps. The girl allegedly fired at several other people in Endia's group who were running away, but no one else was wounded.
Even if convicted of murder in juvenile court, the girl would be eligible for parole after serving five years, prosecutors have said. That means the suspect could be paroled at 19.
In March, a judge sentenced 27-year-old Donnell Flora to 100 years in prison for supplying the gun allegedly used by his niece to kill Endia. In addition, an aunt, Vandetta Redwood, faces federal weapons charges alleging she handed the gun to the girl and urged her to fire it.
nmoreno@tribpub.com
Advertisement
Twitter @nereidamorenos
Mayoral security walks ahead of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, from left, Ald. Gregory Mitchell, 7th, and Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Charles Williams as the team visits the 8900 block of South Luella Avenue in the Calumet Heights neighborhood to announce a new tree trimming program Oct. 5, 2015. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)
A federal jury quickly ruled Thursday against eight white or Hispanic Chicago police officers who contended they were victims of racial discrimination after being transferred off Mayor Rahm Emanuel's elite security detail.
The jury deliberated only about 30 minutes before deciding not to award the group any damages after the officers sued for millions in back pay and lost wages.
Advertisement
The decision came Thursday evening after four days of testimony.
"I'm just relieved that it's over," said former Chicago police Superintendent Terry Hillard, who was named in the lawsuit. "We had good lawyers. Those were good cops, and I wish them the best."
Advertisement
Hillard's attorney, Vince Connelly, echoed the sentiment.
"I'm glad the jury saw it our way," he said.
When reached by phone, Edward Fox, an attorney for the officers who sued, said he was disappointed by the jury's decision.
"We respect the jury, but we do disagree with them," he said. "We think the evidence shows there was a racial component and qualifications were not considered."
He called the decision "unfortunate."
A second phase of the court battle, however, begins Friday, during which the officers will argue they were fired for political reasons.
Attorneys for the officers had alleged in closing arguments Thursday that Hillard and his commander, Brian Thompson, only considered race when they were selecting officers for the elite security post of protecting the mayor.
But if the two decorated African-American officers were making decisions based on race, defense attorneys said, they would have added even more minorities than they did to the mayor's security detail a lucrative and prestigious post.
Advertisement
The officers accused Emanuel of taking part in selecting the new security team, which included African-American officers with less experience, seniority and who had volunteered during his campaign.
The case generated buzz earlier this week when Thompson testified that protecting the mayor and his family has become more difficult "due to current events" in Chicago, apparently a reference to the fallout over the Laquan McDonald shooting video.
"The threat level to the mayor is a lot higher," Thompson told jurors. "A lot more people in the city hate him for various reasons, as opposed to (former Mayor Richard M.) Daley."
Thompson served as chief of the mayor's security detail under Daley and Emanuel.
On Thursday, lawyers representing the officers told the six jury members and one alternate that the officers bringing the suit had served Daley and had the experience and expertise to continue serving Emanuel. Many of them were then surprised when they were removed from the security post and moved to other positions, the attorneys said.
Fox argued that when selecting the new mayor's detail, Hillard and Thompson didn't examine the officers' qualifications, didn't conduct background checks, but instead relied on race as the sole factor.
Advertisement
Hillard "said race was a factor in his decision-making," Fox told the jury. "He admitted to it ... race was a factor used in his decision-making."
Because the officers were removed from the detail, they lost wages and benefits by being placed in other positions, Fox said. He told the jury the officers were also entitled to compensation because of the emotional toll from losing such a high-ranking position.
"Did race contribute to what happened? It's the Chicago Way," Fox said.
But the attorneys defending Hillard and Thompson said the accusations of racial bias and discrimination were baseless.
Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >
The eight officers bringing the lawsuit felt entitled to positions that were never guaranteed, Connelly said. He said Hillard and Thompson selected officers who they saw as qualified. Once the selections were made, Emanuel's security team reflected the same diversity that Daley's team had, he said.
"Terry Hillard wasn't out to get anybody. Brian Thompson wasn't picking anybody to eliminate white officers," Connelly said. "The detail needed to be diverse ... that's not a word we're running from."
Advertisement
Daley's security team was made up of 15 white officers, four Hispanic officers and four African-American officers, Connelly said. Emanuel's security detail was reduced, but made up of 12 white officers, five Hispanic officers and five African-American officers.
There were nine officers added to Emanuel's security team, Connelly said. Of them, four were white, four Hispanic and one was African-American.
"These entitled folks want to score a lot of money they don't deserve," Connelly told the jury of the suing officers. "Don't give them anything. Don't give them a dime."
lbowean@tribpub.com
Twitter @lollybowean
Late-night comedian Seth Meyers, fresh off a round of jousting with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, mostly stayed away from politics Friday when he gave the commencement address at his alma mater, Northwestern University, but he couldn't resist one small jab.
After telling the grads about the soaring words offered by recent graduation speakers such as first lady Michelle Obama and "Hamilton" playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, Meyers added this:
Advertisement
"My favorite inspirational quote came from Donald Trump, who said to the graduates of Trump University, 'If you want your money back, you're going to have to sue me, you losers.'"
Meyers, 42, a 1996 Northwestern graduate who was born in Evanston, started his comedy career by joining the school's improv troupe, and after graduation sharpened his skills at the iO Theater and the Amsterdam-based Boom Chicago comedy ensemble.
Advertisement
He returned to the area in 1999 to put on a two-person show in Chicago called "Pick-Ups and Hiccups" that won rave reviews. Two years later, he joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live," where he ultimately became the anchor of the Weekend Update sketch.
He left SNL in 2014 to become the fourth host of "Late Night," the NBC franchise originated by David Letterman. He made news this week by facetiously banning Trump from the program in a gesture of solidarity with the Washington Post, which Trump has barred from his campaign events.
"We instituted this ban despite the fact that he's never been here, or asked to be here, or would ever be caught dead here," Meyers said Wednesday night. "I just think that takes an amazing amount of courage on our part."
Trump, a frequent target of Meyers' jibes, responded in kind.
"He has begged me to do the show for the last two years. I have told him emphatically 'no,'" Trump said in a statement. "I only like doing shows with good ratings, which as everybody knows, I only make better (by a lot)."
Despite that fracas, Meyers, who received an honorary doctorate of arts at the ceremony, kept the focus on his school days, joking that his new title would make him "the doctor least requested in an emergency."
He recalled struggling through a geology class his freshman year, only to take the same class, which had been retitled, his senior year, achieving the same mediocre result. He remembered blasting Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road" repeatedly on his own graduation day, much to the fury of his grad-student neighbor.
And he said he had the university to thank for his immense career success.
Advertisement
Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >
"I truly believe I would never have been on 'Saturday Night Live,' I would never have hosted a talk show, if it wasn't for my time at Northwestern," he said. "Because when I performed in the (school's improve show), I thought I just might possibly be funny, because these people are smart."
Students said afterward they appreciated Meyers' light touch.
"He was very energetic," said Kelley Park, 22, a neurobiology graduate from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. "I think it was more entertaining than other speeches I've heard."
Jeremy Meagher, who earned a master's degree in public policy, said he was impressed with Meyers' wit and humility.
"I like that he didn't try to be too wise, like a typical commencement speech," said Meagher, 25, who grew up in Paris. "I think it was a good dose of reality, balanced with humor. Not too much politics, which was good. It was very tastefully done."
jkeilman@tribpub.com
Advertisement
Twitter @JohnKeilman
A federal jury on Friday convicted the former owner of a suburban construction business of acting as an illegal front so another company could secure a lucrative city airport contract.
After a weeklong trial, the jury deliberated about six hours before convicting Elizabeth Perino on all four counts of mail and wire fraud, according to the U.S. attorney's office. U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman did not set a sentencing date.
Advertisement
Perino's company posed as a legitimate woman-owned business, allowing Chicago-based Diamond Coring Co. to meet its requirements for hiring disadvantaged businesses in order to win a multimillion-dollar runway repair contract at O'Hare International Airport. Perino, 61, of Willowbrook, did no work for the bills submitted by her company.
In 2011, Perino submitted fake documents to the city purporting to show her company, Perdel Contracting of Lockport, had rented $140,000 of equipment to Diamond Coring, including an air compressor, a dump truck, a trailer and a boom truck, the indictment alleged. She also had a "gentleman's agreement" with the owner of Diamond Coring, Anthony Cappello, to hide the fact that asphalt sweeper equipment supposedly owned by Perdel actually belonged to Diamond Coring.
Advertisement
"Perino said that the 'gentleman's agreement' had to be handwritten and not in a computer so as to avoid detection during an audit," the indictment alleged.
Cappello, who cooperated with authorities and testified at Perino's trial, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and was sentenced to two years of probation in 2012, records show.
The joint investigation by federal prosecutors and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was sparked by a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2008 by Perino's former project manager alleging misconduct in massive projects run by industry giant McHugh Construction, a century-old company that reported more than a half-billion dollars in revenue last year.
In 2014, McHugh agreed to pay $12 million to settle the lawsuit without admitting any wrongdoing. The company agreed to implement a compliance program and have an independent monitor oversee its subcontracting process for three years. McHugh also agreed to donate $2 million to the city to support government programs for disadvantaged businesses.
The probe involved about $150 million in McHugh contracts on some of the biggest recent public works projects in the Chicago area, including the reconstruction of Kennedy Expressway ramps in 2005, the reconstruction of the North Avenue Bridge in 2006 and the 2010 Wacker Drive viaduct reconstruction.
Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. >
Under laws designed to give companies with less clout a foot in the door, McHugh was supposed to subcontract out about $40 million of the work on those projects to businesses owned by women or minorities.
Most of the subcontracts were given to Perdel and Accurate Steel Installers, another firm owned by Perino, according to the charges.
Under whistleblower laws, Perino's former project manager, Ryan Keiser, stood to collect 17 percent of the settlement or $2.04 million. He told reporters at a news conference in 2014 he was forced to participate in a subcontracting scam, spending his days at Perdel falsifying purchase orders, labor hours and other paperwork to show that he was doing jobs that were actually being handled by McHugh.
Advertisement
"Instead of working with a team to build a bridge, I was forced to produce documents that were misleading," Keiser said.
He said that when he raised the issue with Perino, he was abruptly fired.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
Twitter @jmetr22b
The lengthy delay in putting in place Mayor Rahm Emanuel's police and fire pension funding plan cost taxpayers nearly $1.4 million, city officials said Friday.
The extra cost represents interest on a loan City Hall took out while waiting to see what would happen to a state law designed to give Emanuel more breathing room in making payments into the two financially ailing retirement systems.
Advertisement
The background: State lawmakers approved a bill in May 2015 that had the effect of lowering city payments into the police and fire pension funds by about $220 million this year. But the measure was stuck in limbo, given the political stalemate at the Capitol, and Democrats waited until late March 2016 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
In late May, as the clock was running out for the governor to act on the bill, Rauner vetoed it. Days later, Democrats led a successful override. The effort even attracted a handful of Republican votes from lawmakers concerned that failure to approve the bill would lead to another property tax increase in Chicago, which Emanuel had threatened would be the case.
Advertisement
In between all that action, however, the Emanuel administration borrowed $220 million earlier this year to ensure it could make what would have been a higher pension payment under the old law. After lawmakers overrode Rauner's veto, the city paid back the loan. But the cost of that short-term loan, minus investment returns on the money that was borrowed, was $1.38 million, city spokeswoman Molly Poppe said.
Although the new law allows Emanuel to pay less than he otherwise would have in the short run, it now will take the city an extra 15 years to ensure that 90 percent of the money is in the funds that are needed to make benefit payments.
As a result, the overall cost to taxpayers will increase by $3.3 billion over the next 20 years, according to an analysis by Moody's Investors Service.
The heart of Emanuel's plan to shore up police and fire pensions was a record $543 million property tax increase that aldermen approved last fall. Homeowners will see the first effects of that tax increase when property tax bills arrive in the mail in a few weeks.
hdardick@tribpub.com
Twitter @ReporterHal
The yearslong parade of multimillion-dollar payouts to settle lawsuits filed against Chicago police officers is expected to continue next week when the City Council considers three settlements with a total tab of nearly $3.4 million.
The biggest settlement is a $2 million payout for a case filed on behalf of a mother and young child after they were struck by a police squad car while walking across Belmont Avenue on the city's Northwest Side.
Advertisement
Saremm Saenz and her son, then 3-year-old Moises Motato, were walking in a crosswalk at Long Avenue when the car driven by Officer Sean Deenihan struck them while turning left, according to the lawsuit. The boy suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized for 26 days, while the mother suffered minor injuries.
The council Finance Committee also will consider two settlements totaling nearly $1.4 million in separate police shooting lawsuits further pushing up the taxpayer tally of more than $500 million since 2004 for police misconduct cases.
Advertisement
The first agreement would pay $925,000 to the mother of 15-year-old Dakota Bright, who was fatally shot in the head in November 2012 during a foot chase on the city's South Side.
Officials said at the time that Dakota had a gun in his hand and fled when police ordered him to drop the weapon. During the chase, the teen turned and pointed the gun at police, prompting officers to fire in his direction, authorities have said. The lawsuit claimed the gun Dakota allegedly was carrying was planted at the scene by police.
The second settlement for $450,000 involves an excessive force lawsuit filed by Levail Smith, who was shot and wounded by police during a chase July 4, 2014, in the Rogers Park neighborhood.
According to court records, Smith, then 45, was drinking a beer in public when police approached to question him and he took off running. After a short chase, Smith, described in his lawsuit as a former Marine who served in Operation Desert Storm, was confronted by officers behind an apartment complex in the 1500 block of West Birchwood Avenue.
Police said Smith yelled at officers that he had a gun and made a move for his waistband, indicating he would shoot them. Three officers opened fire, wounding Smith in the chest, arm and leg. At a news conference two days later, then-police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters it appeared Smith was trying to commit "suicide by cop."
In his lawsuit, Smith denied he ever told officers he had a gun.
hdardick@tribpub.com
jmeisner@tribpub.com
Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin suggested Friday that the availability of guns in the U.S. is so porous that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups are steering followers to gun shows and away from using airplanes to wreak havoc.
Still, nearly a week after the shooting deaths of 49 patrons at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub and following a nearly 15-hour Democratic filibuster in the Senate, the state's senior senator said prospects for enacting proposals to keep guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists or require background checks at gun shows was "not very strong."
Advertisement
Durbin appeared at the Chicago Urban League in Bronzeville to rally public support for the legislation, which he said would not only curb mass shootings across the country but reduce Chicago's gun violence due to an influx of guns he said come from northern Indiana gun shows.
"When a great city like Chicago has been just devastated by gun violence and gun deaths as it has over the last year or two, we've got to step up and do something about it, something significant, and we can't do it alone," said Durbin, who was joined by Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, Urban League Executive Director Shari Runner and Patrick Korellis, a survivor of the Valentine's Day 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting that killed five.
Advertisement
Dowell said the events in Orlando were "indeed tragic, but we have incidents of terrorism in our communities in Chicago every day, and so anything that can be done to tighten up the gun laws, to require background checks, to get these weapons off our streets is important."
On Monday, the Republican-led Senate is scheduled to consider Democratic-backed legislation that would set up rules barring known or suspected terrorists from buying firearms and explosives, as well as to broaden background checks for gun purchases, which is largely regulated state-by-state. Two GOP-authored measures also are up for a vote.
Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, who is seeking re-election against Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth, said Friday he had joined with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California in sponsoring a proposal aimed at preventing suspected terrorists from purchasing guns. It is similar to one Kirk backed in December when he was the only GOP member to cross the aisle when it was defeated.
The proposal would let the attorney general have the power to block the sale of guns or explosives to known or suspected terrorists if there was a "reasonable belief" the weapons would be used for terrorism. It also would flag anyone who had been subject to a federal terrorism investigation in the past five years.
Kirk also has introduced legislation that would place the names of people investigated for possible terrorism ties into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. As a result, a background check on a gun purchaser with investigated terrorism ties could be determined and the FBI would be alerted. But the bill "would not automatically bar someone previously investigated for terrorism from purchasing a firearm," Kirk's office said in a statement.
Durbin contended if suspected terrorism ties were enough to stop people from being able to board airplanes, they also should not be able to purchase a firearm.
"If there is a mistake, which side do we err on? Do we err on the side that the suspected terrorist should buy a firearm and then we'll check it out?" Durbin said. "Or, do we check it out and then decide whether or not they're entitled to a firearm? When it comes to getting on an airplane, we don't think twice about it."
Because of the so-called no-fly list, Durbin said, "al-Qaida has steered their would-be terrorists away from airports. They want to send them to gun shows where they can buy these guns, these assault weapons, without a background check. They know that assault weapon can wreak more havoc in a short period of time than any plane might, sadly, if it were sabotaged. That is a reality."
Advertisement
Some Republicans are trying to advance anti-terrorism legislation that would require the Department of Justice to prove up in 72 hours a suspected terrorist's ties as a rationale to deny someone a gun. Durbin said the proposed adjudication rule was "totally unrealistic," though due-process appeal procedures should exist.
Durbin said the measures denying suspected terrorists access to firearms and requiring gun show background checks were needed, together.
"If we said we're going to keep guns out of the hands of would-be terrorists but we're not going to close the loopholes in the background check, it's pointless. They're not that stupid. If they know they're on the terrorist watch list, they're not going to go to a gun dealer if that disqualifies them. They're going to go to a northern Indiana gun show where no questions are asked," he said.
Durbin also expressed support for hiring more FBI agents, though he declined to offer a number.
"When you look at what they're faced with international terrorism and those who are sympathetic to international terrorism we need to give them the resources to fight it," he said.
Skiba reported from Washington, D.C.
Advertisement
rap30@aol.com
kskiba@tribpub.com
Latoya Lawrence works on homework with her son Cleo, 4, in their Evanston apartment after Lawrence returned home from work on June 17, 2016. The agency that provided Lawrence and Cleo transitional housing has not been paid since July. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
As Illinois government has lurched along for nearly a year without a formal budget, women who rely on state services have been among those suffering the most.
Frozen out of the haphazard funding system that's emerged during the impasse are social service providers, many of them not-for-profit organizations whose largely female workforce deliver state-subsidized help for struggling mothers and their children as well as victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Advertisement
"It's hitting women and children disproportionally hard and in ways that lots of us are still trying to get a grasp on," said Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, who chairs the human services committee. "It's across the board. It's really sad."
Women make up nearly two-thirds of the recipients of a low-income college tuition grant program that's been underfunded. Women are also the ones seeking help through programs that have lost state funding entirely, including intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities, home visits for teen parents, and prenatal and family care management for at-risk mothers. The funding crunch has gotten so bad that low-income women seeking breast and ovarian cancer screenings are being told to wait in a long line, unless they're already displaying symptoms.
Advertisement
A bill to spend $715 million to help salvage those programs has been sitting on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's desk for a month, the result of a rare team-up by Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The state has the money it's sitting in special funds that are earmarked for social services and represents about half of what the state spends on human services in a normal budget year.
But Rauner has additional priorities. He's pushing for a six-month budget that would release the special funds for social services while also covering costs for prisons, veterans homes, road maintenance, public universities and community colleges. Plus, he wants a full-year spending plan for elementary and secondary schools.
Asked recently why he hadn't approved the bill, Rauner cast the legislation as part of a broader strategy he says Democratic foes in the General Assembly are employing to prevent an end to the budget crisis.
"It does not have essential services in it," Rauner said. "It is incomplete. And it will still this is what I need you to understand it will still create a crisis. That bill is designed to still create a government operations crisis. That's the key distinction that you're missing."
Women's lives are being sacrificed to the budget. Anne Marie Murphy, Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force
Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan responded by firing off a statement accusing the governor of putting "office supplies over life-saving services."
While the war of words rages on, service providers and their advocates say every day that goes by is causing damage to the social service network and the people it serves.
Cancer screenings
Normally, the state sets aside roughly $13 million to provide breast and ovarian cancer screenings for low-income women, a program primarily administered by local health departments or other women's service agencies. But without a budget, the only money flowing to the program is about $6 million in federal funds.
Advertisement
The state is supposed to match those dollars but has yet to do so. While it's unlikely the federal government will ask for the money back, the situation remains "a sticky wicket," said Heather Eagleton, director of public policy and government relations at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
That means many agencies have been forced to cut the number of hours they offer screenings and move to what's known as a "priority list." As a result, women who are displaying symptoms, be it a lump in the breast or abnormal bleeding, are prioritized for testing. That's created long waiting lists, and some agencies have stopped advertising their services amid concerns they will be flooded with women they can't help.
"It's scary. The longer you wait, the cancer can progress to a much later stage, and in turn it becomes more difficult and more expensive to treat," Eagleton said. "Just because you cut the program, it doesn't mean you are going to get rid of cancer."
Those who are diagnosed with cancer are then enrolled for treatment in the state's Medicaid program, though Rauner has proposed cutting spending there, arguing the Affordable Care Act has expanded health care access.
Advocates argue women are still falling through the cracks.
The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force, which connects women to health care providers, says it is owed more than $164,000 for data it collects on behalf of the state tracking the quality and effectiveness of mammograms. The program is aimed at ensuring testing and diagnosis is accurate, and without the funds, executive director Anne Marie Murphy said her group may not have the legal authority to collect the data at all.
Advertisement
"Women's lives are being sacrificed to the budget," said Murphy, whose agency specializes in finding women the care they need, including working with hospitals and doctors who volunteer their services to make up for the lack of funding.
"Right now, services are choppy. Depending on when and who you call, you might get in, but a lot of the time women are told they have to wait," Murphy said.
The bill that lawmakers sent to Rauner includes about $5 million for breast and cervical cancer screenings.
Sexual assault counseling
Illinois' network of 29 rape crisis centers are "operating at bare bones," said Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Without money to pay employees, the centers have had to lay off 16 workers while delaying hiring and furloughing some workers at centers across the state. Volunteers are chipping in to keep the 24-hour rape crisis hotlines operating, but the waiting list of people who need counseling services has grown to 175 statewide, Poskin said.
"It's further traumatizing to victims to call and ask for assistance and to have to be on a wait list," Poskin said. "When people suffer trauma, a critical piece to trauma is consistency in support. And when you interrupt that ... you're not only hurting the families of the individuals who will be without that income, you are devastating survivors and their need to recover as quickly as they can."
Advertisement
The social services bill on Rauner's desk, which includes about $2.76 million for sexual assault programs, "would be a godsend," Poskin said. With it, "we could limp along until November. And without it, we're facing the dreadful closure of some centers. It's needed, and it's needed now."
Homeless youth
At The Harbour Inc., based in Park Ridge, officials are bracing for the possible closure of a program that provides housing for young mothers as they receive training on parenting, budgeting and employment. The agency usually receives about $200,000 from the state for a housing transition program, an emergency homeless shelter it operates for teens and another program for young parents.
The agency is one of many that provides housing and services for the homeless that have not been paid since July. Normally, the state sets aside roughly $40 million for such providers. But without state funds, many have dipped into reserves, laid off staff or cut services to make ends meet.
The Harbour has been able to get by because of federal dollars and unexpected donations from a trust, but it's possible they could lose that federal money if the state doesn't provide matching funds. Program director Kris Salyards says the housing program cannot operate without state support past the end of July.
"We are faced with making some very tough decisions," Salyards said. "This isn't just impacting 12 young moms who are working and paying rent, who are being a family own their own, but it also impacts about 20 little kids who will become homeless."
Advertisement
Advocates for the homeless point to people like Latoya Lawrence as examples of how the state-sponsored services they provide can help to turn a person's life around.
Before receiving help from the Harbour, the 22-year-old Lawrence and her now 4-year-old son Cleo were sleeping in her cousin's living room. She struggled to afford rent while working as an in-home nurse and worried she would never be able to provide her son "a place we could call our own."
Latoya Lawrence looks through the refrigerator as her son Cleo, 4, noshes on a sandwich in their Evanston apartment on June 17, 2016. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)
Now nearing the end of her 18 months in the transitional housing program, Lawrence works as a pharmacy tech representative at CVS/Caremark and plans to begin a licensed practical nurse program this fall. The housing assistance initially allowed her to live rent free, giving her flexibility to work and take classes, along with training on budgeting and other life skills. She can now afford housing and will soon strike out on her own.
"It helped me and a lot of other people that I do know that were in the program, take the chance to actually experience life, and the obstacles that come our way," said Lawrence, of Evanston. "It gives us a chance to get ahead in life."
Women workers
For women, the budget impasse hurts two ways. Not only are the services that some women rely on getting cut, but women make up the majority of the home health care and social service agency workforce funded by the state.
Advertisement
The situation has led one major union critical of Rauner to declare he's instigated "a war on women."
According to figures from SEIU Healthcare Illinois, there are roughly 20,000 home child-care workers whose clients rely on state subsidies to pay for their day care services. That's down from 25,000 a year earlier, which the union chalks up to program restrictions Rauner has put in place to control costs. Roughly 95 percent of those child care workers are women, and nearly 64 percent of those workers live on the edge of poverty, earning less than $14,999 a year.
Additionally, SEIU spokeswoman Brynn Seibert estimated that Rauner's cuts to child care have pushed as many as 55,000 children out of the program, which she said could force thousands of parents to leave the workforce as a result.
That breakdown is similar for home care workers who help the elderly and disabled, with the majority of the workforce being female, poor and non-white.
"The bottom line is that they need to pass a budget that raises taxes because otherwise there is no hope of funding all of these services," said David Lloyd, director of the fiscal policy center for Voices for Illinois Children, a nonprofit child advocacy group. "Gov. Rauner has said it. The Democratic leaders have said it. Everyone knows what needs to be done, they are just unwilling to do it. That's the most frustrating part about this."
Kayla Gubov flips through her MAP grant information on June 9, 2016, in Skokie. Gubov said she plans to leave Illinois for a school that can provide more financial stability. (Annie Grossinger / Chicago Tribune)
Higher education
Advertisement
The uncertainty over higher education funding looms especially large for women. Caught in the middle is a state scholarship grant for low-income students known as the Monetary Award Program. According to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which oversees the program, roughly 80,000 of the 128,000 students who received the grants last year were women.
Kayla Gubov is among the students who has found it difficult to plan college because of the budget impasse. She was several months into what was supposed to be four years at Bradley University in Peoria when she decided to take a break and head home, saddened to be so far away from family in Skokie and overwhelmed by mounting costs.
After taking time to regroup, she enrolled at nearby Oakton Community College. This spring, she earned her associate degree, helped along in part by a MAP grant. Most schools had to pick up the cost of the scholarships during much of the budget impasse. While some funding was finally released in April, it was only enough for one semester, and it's unclear if schools will be able to afford the extra expense if there's not a full budget come this fall.
Now looking to complete her bachelor's degree, Gubov said she's planning to head out of state, where universities can offer more competitive and stable financial aid.
"It's discouraging. I am lucky that I got into a school outside of Illinois, but that was never in my original plan, especially considering that just a three-hour drive was pretty far for me," Gubov said. "I realize now how much people's futures are really in the politicians' hands, and I just hope they see how incredibly important this is."
Kayla Gubov was awarded for her contributions to student life at Oakton Community College, from where she recently graduated. (Annie Grossinger / Chicago Tribune)
mcgarcia@tribpub.com
Advertisement
kgeiger@tribpub.com
Firefighters return during a shift change after working overnight, conducting burnout operations to corral the Sherpa firein El Capitan Canyon in Goleta on June 18, 2016. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Reporting from Santa Barbara A wildfire near Santa Barbara continued to grow Thursday and spread deeper into the Los Padres National Forest as crews struggled to find hilltops and trailheads where they could mount a strong defense, officials said.
"The fuel, topography and weather have been very challenging, to say the least, with this fire," said Capt. Dave Zaniboni of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. "This has been a significant and challenging fire in an area notorious for structure loss."
Advertisement
The Sherpa fire grew in size overnight as sustained 40-mph winds pushed the blaze across areas that hadn't burned in 60 years, officials said. The flames crawled toward Highway 101 between El Capitan State Beach and Gaviota, forcing the California Highway Patrol to shut down the coastal route for a time Thursday morning.
[ UPDATE: Santa Barbara County declares state of emergency after wildfire grows to 4,000 acres overnight ]
By early evening, the fire had burned 1,700 acres and forced the California Highway Patrol to again close Highway 101 for 30 miles between Winchester Canyon Road and Highway 246 in Boulton.
Advertisement
Photos on social media show vehicles driving through the 101 was the center median on fire and a chopper dropping water onto the highway.
The blaze began about 3:20 p.m. Wednesday near Refugio Road, the site of a devastating fire in 1955 that scorched homes and farms and burned more than 50,000 acres before it was done.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office said mandatory evacuations for El Capitan, Refugio, Venadito and Las Flores canyons north of Santa Barbara remained in effect, while residents of neighboring communities such as Las Llagas, Gato, Las Varas, Dos Pueblos and Eagle canyons received evacuation warnings.
Sources: USDA Fire Service, Google Earth, Times reporting (Los Angeles Times Graphics )
See more of our top stories on Facebook >>
Among those who were evacuated late Wednesday night were Charlie and Elizabeth Hatten, who were camping at El Capitan State Beach.
The couple had heard that a small brushfire was burning to the north, and suspected things were getting worse as ash began to rain down on them later in the evening, prompting them to sleep in their car.
A park ranger woke them up and told them they had to evacuate.
"The flames looked so close," Charlie Hatten said. "You couldn't see the moon anymore."
Advertisement
The couple headed to Santa Barbara Community College, where the American Red Cross had cots and water for evacuees.
"There were a dozen RVs in the parking lot last night," said Gayle Robinson, a volunteer for the Red Cross. "This place can hold up to 120 people."
The fire is burning in steep, chaparral-covered terrain in Los Padres National Forest and spreading east where there are no roads and few trails, Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Eric Peterson said.
On Thursday, DC-10 air tankers bombarded the blaze with fire retardant. The jets were among a number of aircraft that fire crews were using in the battle. More than 400 firefighters are involved, officials said.
No injuries or structural damage has been reported, according to the U.S. Forest Service, which is directing the firefight with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
But fire officials said erratic "sundowner" winds could pose a danger to some areas such as Refugio Canyon, where 60 homes are located, and El Capitan Ranch, where 80 homes are located. And flames could pose a threat to Circle Bar B Ranch, a guest ranch in Goleta.
Advertisement
"We're going to get ... 35-to-40-mph winds tonight," U.S. Forest Supervising Chief Robert Baird said. "We have more resources going to the areas where we expect the fire to go."
More than 800 fire personnel are on scene and reinforcing fire lines to prevent the blaze from spreading. So far there is no containment of the fire.
An evacuation center has been opened at Wake Center, 300 N. Turnpike Road in Santa Barbara. Horses and other large animals can be taken to the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Hatten, the evacuated camper, predicted that the Sherpa fire would be one of a number to strike this summer.
"They were expecting El Nino, and that didn't quite happen," he said. "Fires are going to get worse this season. This weather's going to make the perfect storm."
Advertisement
For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.
ALSO
Man found with weapons, explosives before L.A. pride parade now charged with molesting Indiana girl
Parties, fights and trash fires: Signs of trouble seen weeks before arson at Westlake apartment
Daughter of Inglewood mayor charged with hiring friend to attack her landlord
UPDATES:
Advertisement
11:44 p.m.: Updated with a 30-mile closure of the 101.
9:28 p.m.: This article was updated to include the latest closure of Highway 101.
7:45 p.m.: This article was updated to include size of fire crews, containment and other details.
6:00 p.m.: This article was updated with new acreage and additional evacuation details.
2:34 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from fire evacuees.
12:09 p.m.: This article was updated with statements from Santa Barbara County fire officials.
Advertisement
8:18 a.m.: This article was updated with new acreage for the fire.
7:40 a.m.: This article was updated with information about the freeway reopening.
This article was originally published at 6:40 a.m.
Protestors stand outside to try and see Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leave a law firm Thursday after a deposition over the breach of contact concerning Trump's new hotel in Washington. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)
WASHINGTON Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to give a closed-door deposition in a $10 million breach-of-contract lawsuit he filed against famed chef Geoffrey Zakarian.
Trump gave a thumbs-up from inside a black sedan just before 10 a.m. as it pulled into a garage near the law offices of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in northwest Washington. Zakarian is represented by Deborah B. Baum, a lawyer with the firm.
Advertisement
Outside the building, protesters held up yellow "Dump Trump" signs. And dozens of other protesters at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters, across the street, joined the Trump protesters and held signs that read, "Love Conquers Hate."
Trump sued Zakarian after the chef terminated plans to open a restaurant in Trump's new Washington hotel, a $200 million makeover of the Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, after Trump launched his campaign by denouncing Mexican immigrants as drug dealers and rapists.
Advertisement
Trump's lawsuit was filed in D.C. Superior Court.
Separately, Trump also filed a lawsuit against renowned chef Jose Andres, who also terminated his restaurant plans following Trump's statements.
On Thursday, Trump and his entourage left the Pillsbury law offices after nearly 2 1/2 hours. About 100 protesters were outside and chanted, "Love conquers hate."
Workers in nearby buildings crowded against windows looking down onto Rhode Island Avenue. Trump's convoy of cars with New Jersey license plates headed down an alley, going west.
Meanwhile, according to court records, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Brian Holeman extended the discovery period in the Zakarian lawsuit through July 29 to allow attorneys to depose other witnesses.
On Wednesday, attorneys for Trump and Andres appeared at a hearing in D.C. Superior Court. Neither Trump nor Andres was present at the hearing.
The Washington Post's Dana Hedgpeth contributed to this report.
Arlington Heights Memorial Library's teen adviser Alice Son, left, and programs and exhibits manager Jennifer Czajka, right, helped organize the library's inaugural FanCon celebration, which takes place Saturday, June 18. (Karen Ann Cullotta / Pioneer Press)
Hundreds of lovers of comics, gaming, superheroes and all things pop culture are expected to gather Saturday at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library's inaugural "FanCon" celebration.
About 500 people have already registered for the free, family-friendly event, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the library at 500 N. Dunton Ave., the library's programs and exhibits manager Jennifer Czajka said.
Advertisement
"We started planning for FanCon last fall, but it's been on our radar for years," Czajka said. "We thought holding it in the summer would be perfect, because all of the kids are out of school, and we didn't want it to interfere with their other activities."
Czajka said she is anticipating that many of the visitors will arrive wearing superhero or comic-themed costumes to the event, which dovetails with the library's summer reading program, "Up, Up & Away: Superhero Summer at the Library."
Advertisement
Reflecting themes popularized by the iconic "Comic-Con International" in San Diego, the library's FanCon celebration which will offer programs for kids, as well as adults and teens will feature more than a dozen activities, including a morning "Superhero Storytime," and drawing workshops with a live model dressed as a superhero.
The event will also include visits from industry insiders, including Sun Bros Studio's co-founder Wesley Sun, a Chicago writer and professor, who will share how he successfully "crowdfunded" his self-published comics.
For Alice Son, a teen adviser at the library, the FanCon celebration resonates with the conversations she has each day with young patrons at "The Hub," who she said are wildly passionate about pop culture icons like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Dr. Who.
"Our graphic novel and comic collections are immensely popular," Son said. "When I interact with the teens every day, I hear them talking about all things fandom, so they're really excited that the library is giving them something a little extra this summer."
For more details on the library's "FanCon" celebration, visit www.ahml.info.
kcullotta@tribpub.com
Twitter @kcullotta
Michael Szot pleaded guilty to aggravated DUI after two friends died in a crash into a Naperville quarry lake. (Naperville Police Department / Handout)
A Geneva man convicted in a fatal crash into a Naperville quarry died Thursday after he was found unresponsive in the Waubonsee Community College library, the Kane County coroner's office said Friday.
Michael Szot, 23, was sentenced in March to periodic imprisonment for driving his car through a fence and into a quarry lake in Naperville after a night of drinking July 19, 2014. The car sunk, drowning his passengers, Sajaad Syed, 21, of Naperville, and Mihirtej Boddupalli, 21, of Lisle. Szot had faced up to 28 years in prison.
Advertisement
Patrons and staff of the Todd Library at Waubonsee Community College's Sugar Grove campus found an unresponsive man at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, campus police spokeswoman Amanda Geist said.
The Sugar Grove Fire Department transported Szot by ambulance to Presence Mercy Hospital in Aurora, where he was pronounced dead at 9:10 p.m. in the emergency room, according to the Kane County coroner's office.
Advertisement
The cause of death is pending further toxicology and histology results after an autopsy performed Friday at the Kane County morgue. Szot's body showed no signs of physical injuries or harm, county coroner Rob Russell said.
Szot was taking summer classes at the college, Geist said.
The college is providing counseling services for students and employees, according to a statement provided by the community college.
"Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends of this student at this time," the statement said. "As the campus community absorbs news of this tragic event, many are experiencing a range of emotions. Events such as these can often trigger feelings of distress."
DuPage County Judge Brian Telander sentenced Szot to one year of work-release and four years of probation, plus 200 hours of community service including speeches warning of the consequences of drinking and driving. Szot was to remain incarcerated unless he was giving a speech, working or attending college, as he was doing this summer.
"When Mike pleaded guilty, he admitted his horrific mistake that he made that night. I said to the judge, look, I know what he did was obviously horribly wrong and it cost two young men their lives, but based on what I knew about Mike I felt that Mike could use this mistake to help others," said Geneva High School Principal Tom Rogers, who knew Szot since he played in Little League.
Rogers brought Szot to Geneva in May to speak to juniors, seniors and any sophomores attending prom.
"We used it as an opportunity to talk to our students about being safe, not just prom weekend but making good decisions in life," Rogers said. "I believe Mike made an impact that day and my hope was that Mike would be able to continue to make an impact."
Advertisement
The Sugar Grove Fire Department was unable to answer questions about the incident Friday. No other police agencies responded and campus police will investigate, Geist said.
It was clear to Szot's co-workers that he was deeply affected by the crash and was working hard at school, at work, and to be a better man, said Tom Feltenberger, 21, who worked with Szot at Best Buy in Geneva.
"Every day he brought it up," Feltenberger said. "He thought about the impact that it had. ... He was trying to be a better person and a better man. You could see it. He never took a break, just kept on going."
Szot was the kind of guy who tried to help everyone, Feltenberger said.
"He has so much strength within him to do what he's doing and in a way you do look up to him," Feltenberger said. "I just want people to know that he was a good person to everyone he talked to."
Prosecutors suggested a 20-year prison sentence after Szot pleaded guilty to aggravated driving under the influence in August 2015.
Advertisement
But at Szot's sentencing hearing in March, relatives of Sajaad Syed and Mihirtej Boddupalli, who drowned in the crash, asked the court for leniency.
Boddupalli would want his friend to be forgiven, his brother said. Syed's mother called Szot a "good young man" and asked for compassion.
Szot and his passengers had gone from a party to a Naperville bar on the night of the crash. Szot admitted to drinking shots of rum and several beers.
At his hearing, Szot talked of his remorse for the deaths of his friends.
"I failed them," Szot said at the hearing. "I made a decision that cost them their lives. Accepting responsibility for the deaths of my friends is the most painful thing in my life."
hleone@tribpub.com
Advertisement
Twitter @hannahmleone
The Fox Valley Park District wants to find out just how much people like what it's doing.
"We want to find the overall value people place on the Park District, what programs and facilities mean to them," Jeff Andreasen, of aQuity Research, said to Park Board members this week. "You can gauge how people use and like the amenities you provide, the trails, parks, programs."
Advertisement
The Fox Valley Park Foundation commissioned the survey, and will pay for it. It is similar to a survey the district took in 2007 when formulating a referendum to ask voters for money to upgrade parks and facilities.
"We are eight years out from the capital referendum, so this will be additional public research," said Jeff Palmquist, the park district's director of planning and operations.
Advertisement
Andreasen said he anticipates having results back to the Foundation by late July or early August. He said residents will get a questionnaire in the mail they can answer and mail back. Or, they can answer the questions on a website, or by phone.
"These days it's hard to pick one way, so we're giving them three ways they can respond," Andreasen said.
The survey will be in English and Spanish. The company will compare results to U.S. Census data for the Park District's demographics "to see how it matches," he said.
Jim Pilmer, Park District executive director, said aQuity, based in Evanston, currently is doing a similar type of survey for the Illinois Association of Park Districts, which Aurora is a part of.
"That study and our own should nicely mesh together," he said.
slord@tribpub.com
A Palos Hills man accused of meeting up with a teenager to have sex oversees an emergency response agency for the city, according to police.
Steven Danalewich, 31, is accused of meeting a 15-year-old boy through a gay dating app with another man, according to police. He was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a child, traveling to meet a minor and sexual exploitation of a child, according to court records.
Advertisement
Danalewich is a sergeant and member of the command staff for the City of Palos Hills Emergency Management Agency, an all-volunteer organization that assists authorities in disaster response, according to the organization's website. He has "responsibility for overseeing the department," the website states.
Messages left with other members of the agency command staff were not immediately returned. A phone number listed for Danalewich on the agency website is no longer in use. An attempt was made to contact him through agency email, but that message was not returned Thursday.
Advertisement
Danalewich's bail was set at $200,000, according to court records, and jail records show he was released on bond.
According to police, Danalewich picked up the teenager in Cicero and drove to an apartment in Forest Park, where they engaged in sexual acts with a second man. That man has also been charged in the incident, police said, but some information about his identity was not available Thursday.
The victim's father brought the boy into the Forest Park Police Department in April after finding "questionable" photos on his son's phone, according to police. The son reportedly told his father he had sexual contact with a man in Mexico.
Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >
Around November 2015, the teenager started using the dating app "Grindr," through which he started contact with one man and arranged to meet in Cicero, according to police. The teenager was picked up, driven to Forest Park and provided with marijuana, reports said.
The teenager told police the vehicle was a small silver SUV with military veteran license plates.
Danalewich served as "a master at arms in the Navy for 3 years and he served in the Army as a Military police officer for 2 more years," according to the emergency agency website. He was a volunteer firefighter and EMT while in the military, it said.
During his military service, Danalewich suffered a "traumatic brain injury," requiring pain medication and mood stabilizers as treatment, according to court records.
Police arrested Danalewich on May 16, according to records. Several items pertaining to the emergency management agency were found in a search of his Jeep Patriot.
Advertisement
Palos Hills police requested that all police property found in Danalewich's SUV be turned over to them, police said.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Classic cars, including some driven by members of the A's R Us Model A Ford Car Club, will lead a tour through 12 south suburbs during the 15th annual Driving the Dixie historic highway tour Saturday. (Photo courtesy of the Homewood Heritage Committee)
Gas up and join a drive back through local history.
The 15th annual Driving the Dixie parade of vintage cars, classic cars and cars like yours begins at Union and Western Avenue (Dixie Highway) at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Advertisement
The 45-mile tour will wind through 12 south suburban towns, starting in Blue Island and ending in Momence. Along the famous roadway, participants will visit historic sites, enjoy snacks, tour new buildings, stop at landmarks and celebrate the story of the Dixie, which has been an integral part of local and national history since Native Americans blazed what would become the Vincennes Trail, then Hubbard's Trail and now the historic highway, according to Elaine Egdorf, chairperson of Homewood's Heritage Committee.
Stops this year include a tour of the newly opened La Banque Hotel and La Voute bistro in Homewood, a car show at Family Services in Flossmoor, an Indy car encounter in Hazel Crest, a free hot dog lunch in Steger and a walk through the historic train station museum in Beecher. At each location, participants will receive a stamp on their Driving the Dixie passport and a raffle ticket.
Advertisement
Egdorf said participants can also step inside the Markham Roller Rink, which dates to the 1950s and is something she describes as "psychedelic." They can tour the Lincolnshire Country Club in Crete. And they can do burnouts in front of the police station in Grant Park.
Each of the towns, from Blue Island to Crete, will mark the annual run in its own way, she said.
"It's all about history and fun," Egdorf said.
While it's difficult to count the number of people who come out for the drive each June, last year's parade of vehicles, which can include motorcycles and trucks, numbered 130. As many as 200 have turned out in other years, though.
In addition to the drivers and passengers traveling the highway, hundreds more head to each town's particular event, and still others simply watch the entourage go by from their porches, Egdorf said.
The Dixie Highway, completed in 1925, was the first national road linking the north to the south, running from Sault Sainte Marie, Mich., to Miami, Egdorf said. The road's western division begins in Chicago.
In Illinois, the road follows a Native American trail that later became Vincennes Trail and Hubbard's Trail, so named by trapper-trader Gurdon Hubbard, who herded wild hogs up the trail to Chicago. Egdorf said Hubbard would go on to become one of the most influential men in early Illinois history. An owner of a quarry in the village of Thornton, an advocate for the I&M Canal and a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, Hubbard was an Illinois legislator who built the Wigwam Convention Hall in Chicago where Lincoln was nominated for president, she said.
The Driving the Dixie tour has earned numerous awards, including the Illinois State Historical Society Superior Achievement Award and the Chicago Southland Visitors and Convention Bureau's Tourism Award of Merit, she said.
Advertisement
Blue Island was the first of several Southland communities to install permanent signs in commemoration of the Dixie Highway's 100th anniversary last year. (Angela Denk / Daily Southtown)
Last year, to mark the 100th anniversary of the groundbreaking for the highway, the A's R Us Model A Ford Car Club, which leads the parade, supplied each participating town with a commemorative sign featuring the history of the highway, historic photos of the individual town and a national map of the highway.
Homewood's sign is located in Independence Park at Dixie Highway and Hickory Road.
Egdorf said back when Richard Hofeld became mayor of Homewood, he started several committees, one of which was the Heritage Committee.
"I was the founding president of the Homewood Historical Society, and he asked me to run this Heritage Committee. One of my assignments was to create a hall of fame, the other was to promote Dixie Highway," she said. "I think he was thinking a festival, but I knew all of the historical societies along the route. So I called together all of the mayors of the towns and all of the historical societies and asked if they wanted to work together to promote Dixie Highway. Then the A's R Us volunteered to do a road rally."
That first year, only classic cars drove the route, she said. Organizers opened it up to cars from before 1970 for the next few years.
"But we had so many modern cars following us, and we didn't want to have an accident," Egdorf said. "So I said, 'Why can't we just open it up to everybody?' "
Advertisement
Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >
Since then, all kinds of vehicles have driven the route, and the festivities are now organized by many of the towns' chambers of commerce, she said.
The cost the day of the event is $20 per car, regardless of the number of passengers, she said. Bring a license and proof of insurance.
"For $20, you're getting snacks, a lunch, the chance to win raffle prizes," she said. "But the whole idea is to promote history and the towns."
The A's R Us organizes car registration, which begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 10:30 a.m. Registered participants receive a tour map, guide and passport. The tour ends in Momence at Island Park in the Kankakee River.
For more information or to register online, go to www.drivingthedixie.com or call Egdorf at 708-798-9535.
dvickroy@tribpub.com
Advertisement
Twitter @dvickroy
Piper Fortner (right), 9, of Oak Lawn, and Isabella Rehacek, 7, of Oak Lawn, participate in a vigil Wednesday at Pilgrim Faith United Church of Christ for the victims of the Orlando night club shooting. (Nick Swedberg / Daily Southtown)
Overwhelmed by the tragedy, Isabelle Hofer broke into tears Wednesday as she listened to the names of 49 people fatally shot in a gay nightclub in Orlando.
"The [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] community is so nice and caring," said Hofer, a 12-year-old from Oak Lawn, who has gay friends and family.
Advertisement
She said she didn't understand how anyone could be so "motivated and hateful" to wantonly kill people from that community.
Hofer and nearly 100 other people gathered at Oak Lawn's Pilgrim Faith United Church of Christ at a candlelight vigil for the victims in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history by a single gunman.
Advertisement
The June 12 shooting has been called the largest mass murder of LGBT people in the Western world since the Holocaust and the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.
"I think people are really hurting," the Rev. Peggy McClanahan said.
She said she organized the event after a posting on social media asked whether her church, known for its inclusivity, would host a vigil in remembrance of the victims.
In February 2015, the church's congregation unanimously approved an "open and affirming covenant," which essentially put out a welcome mat for members of the LGBT community to freely worship there.
McClanahan, who has been at the church for 21 years, told churchgoers and others at the vigil at 9411 S 51st Ave., that "love will win over hate."
Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >
She also read the names of the victims, each one followed by a single bell tone.
"It's an opportunity to mourn and it's a reminder that there are still members of the community who all love each other and who are accepting," said Grace Cook of the vigil.
The 16-year-old openly gay girl from Oak Lawn wore a "Pride" shirt to the vigil, where she helped hand out candles.
Advertisement
Authorities identified the gunman as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who reportedly used gay dating apps and frequented the Pulse nightclub before the shooting. He was shot dead by police following a three-hour standoff, during which he called 911 and swore allegiance to the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
"Tragedies like this make us feel so helpless," said Oak Lawn Mayor Sandra Bury, who spoke at the vigil.
"Prejudice and anger robbed the world of these wonderful people," Bury added.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Lynn Sapp, the third-generation owner of Original Rainbow Cone in Beverly, had been waiting a quarter-century for the call.
"I've always wanted to be on Navy Pier," she said last week, a month after opening a kiosk on the pier's south dock, across from Riva Restaurant.
Advertisement
"I've been trying for years to get it and it was very hard to get," she said of securing space at the tourist hot spot. "We got a call because the kiosk's space is very limited. So they fit us perfectly because all we need is a freezer."
Sapp and three of her employees squeezed into the tight kiosk on June 10, the first day of America's Cup, to sling the shop's unique five-flavor Rainbow Cone to locals and tourists alike.
Advertisement
"Just the exposure to the variety of people coming from all states and internationally, that part is really, really fun. To introduce them to what a Rainbow is," Sapp said. "When they see it they're like, 'What is this?' And they taste it and they're like, 'That's really good.' So it's fun. It's a fun time."
Original Rainbow Cone, a Chicago ice cream institution since 1926, is assured a spot at the pier both this summer and next, and hopes to continue manning a kiosk on its pedestrian walkway for many years to come, Sapp said.
For the uninitiated, a Rainbow Cone consists of the colorful combination of chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House (vanilla with walnuts and cherries) and pistachio ice creams topped with orange sherbet, as a palate cleanser.
Sapp's grandfather, Joseph Sapp, an ice cream-loving orphan who grew up on an Ohio work farm spending his hard-earned pennies to procure the frozen treat, dreamed up the quirky concoction through a process of trial and error.
In 1926, he and his wife Katherine opened an ice cream stand on Western Avenue at 92nd Place, attracting customers every Sunday as they returned home from visiting cemeteries on 111th Street.
The Rainbow Cone's hearty mix of fruit and nuts were a major selling point in the shop's early days, during the Great Depression, because customers expected something nutritionally substantial if they were going to splurge on ice cream that cost as much as or more than a meal.
"If you were going to hand him a dime for his ice cream," Sapp said, "it had to be not only good, but it had to give people some sustainability."
Within four years, having outgrown their tiny ice cream shack, the Sapps built the current Rainbow Cone store across the street, on the other side of 92nd Place. It started as a single story shop that the Sapps later added a second story to and made their home.
Advertisement
The business thrived during the war years, developing into a neighborhood gathering place and destination for family outings and dates.
"Back in the day, Rainbow was a center of information," Sapp said. "Everybody came up to see what happened in the neighborhood. [My grandfather] had a huge radio in the backyard and everybody would listen to the radio and eat ice cream and talk about who passed away."
Sapp's father, Robert, who grew up above the store, gradually took it over in the 1960s and 1970s. With his wife Jean, they raised four children in the home right behind Rainbow Cone, where all of the kids worked growing up.
Lynn Sapp, who put herself through college at Illinois State University working at Rainbow Cone, bought the store outright from her father in 1986, and has operated it for the past 30 years.
She attributes the business' longevity to its high-quality ice cream and consistent customer service.
"We have an excellent product, unique product that Joe and Katherine came up with in 1926, and we haven't varied from that product," Sapp said. "You don't mess it up.
Advertisement
Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >
"There's ways to get cheaper ingredients, and we haven't done that. We won't. No matter what happens."
Sapp said she'd like to see Rainbow Cone expand across the country, and frequently fields calls from people hoping to attract the business to new locations, but has yet to pull the trigger on anything beyond the Navy Pier outpost.
"It has to be a win-win for all of us. I'm very tight about the product because the product has to be done right," she said. "If an opportunity comes up that is good for Rainbow and good for people, then that's what we'll do."
In addition to the Beverly and Navy Pier locations, Rainbow Cones are sold at six creamery locations in the south suburbs and at local events and festivals, including Lollapalooza.
Sapp said she takes immense pride in the extended success of her family's business, and while she has yet to consider a successor among her nieces and nephews, hopes that Rainbow Cone carries on as a place where families can continue to make memories for years to come.
"For the same family to be in the same ice cream parlor at the same place through wars and depressions and a lot of hardship," she said. "I think that's huge."
Advertisement
Original Rainbow Cone's new Navy Pier location is open through September from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until midnight on Friday and Saturday. The store's Beverly location is open through October from noon to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until 10 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The image of the south suburbs and the increasing number of houses for rent were among the concerns voiced by participants at a recent regional gathering hosted by the Village of Park Forest.
The 21 participants at Tuesday's Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning meeting also weighed in on the region's housing, environment, land use and development, transportation and government.
Advertisement
CMAP is leading such meetings with residents and stakeholders in the seven counties of Northeastern Illinois the group's planning region as part of an effort to fine tune services through 2050. CMAP has dubbed the four-month-old effort "On To 2050."
CMAP Principal Jane Grover told those at the Park Forest meeting that her agency has to approach regional change as a series of revisions because the region is like a huge barge.
Advertisement
"Barges can't turn on a dime," Grover said, "so changes have to be made incrementally."
Grover encouraged the participants to discuss their own ideas and concerns, in addition to how and why they ranked the area's assets, opportunities and challenges developed at previous meetings.
Judith Gonzalez was quick to note the list of economic development challenges lacked the "ingrained" regional perception that low-income people live in the south suburbs, middle-income people live in the western suburbs and high-income people live in the north suburbs.
Because of that perception, "We get the bottom of the barrel," Gonzalez told Grover. "I don't see any of that challenged by what you're talking about."
"You're not the only person talking about that," Grover responded. "It is one of the reasons On To 2050 is going to tackle, head on, inclusive growth."
Doug Price, another participant from Park Forest, used the housing discussion to explain how the general downturn in single-family home sales has been "a golden opportunity" for investors to pick up properties.
Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >
Price, a Chicago-based political consultant, termed the rental units "a cash cow," saying some investors are getting a 20-percent return.
That prompted some participants to voice fears of subsidized housing, equating it with property neglect.
Advertisement
But Grover, a former Evanston alderman who helped change that city's ordinances to encourage developers to include more affordable units in their projects, said rundown properties are the result of poor codes or inadequate enforcement.
Ostenburg agreed, saying renters in subsidized homes "keep up their properties." Park Forest, he said, regularly inspects properties.
Still, participants were clearly skeptical about the region's future for "prosperity and quality of life."
Asked to vote for the sentiment they most agree with about the future, 37 percent agreed with "OK, but only if we avoid disaster;" 32 percent agreed with "Good, but we have work to do;" and 26 percent agreed with "We're on a downward trajectory." No one agreed with "Great!"
Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Give hope back to children with autism
It has been more than a month since Governor Rauner received SB 2038, a bipartisan measure that provides critical short-term funding for social and human service agencies. For more than 30 days, the governor has had the opportunity, with one stroke of a pen, to stop the bleeding for thousands of organizations that care for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Illinois residents. How much longer will his inaction cause suffering for innocent people?
Advertisement
For the Hope Institute, the measure includes nearly $2 million in partial funding for The Autism Program of Illinois (TAP), which hasn't received any state funding in 11 months.
The lack of state support over that time has caused the TAP network to unravel, leaving thousands of children with autism, who rely on state funding to receive this critical treatment, out in the cold. As a result, many autism centers have closed or severely reduced operations. Those that remain in operation are forced to turn away families that don't have the ability to pay.
Advertisement
Each day these children go without services decreases their chances of reaching their full potential.
For more than a decade, The Autism Program of Illinois had been a beacon of hope for families touched by autism with nowhere else to turn. The governor's signature on this bill would give them some of that hope back.
Clint Paul, president and CEO of The Hope Institute for Children and Families in Springfield and a partner of The Autism Program of Illinois
What's on your mind?
The Daily Southtown welcomes letters to the editor. Email them to letters@southtownstar.com and include your name, address and phone number. Only your name and the town you reside in will appear with the letter. Please keep a letter to no more than about 200 words. The Southtown is not responsible for the accuracy of the opinions expressed in letters to the editor.
Gino Johns, 22, of the 6800 block of Montrose Avenue in Harwood Heights, was charged with residential burglary in Riverwoods. (Riverwoods Police Department)
A Harwood Heights man has been charged in an April ruse burglary in which a Riverwoods senior citizen was distracted in the yard while two safes and jewelry were stolen from his residence.
Police arrested 22-year-old Gino S. Johns on June 9 at his residence in the 6800 block of Montrose Avenue in Harwood Heights. He is charged with residential burglary, a Class 1 felony.
Advertisement
The ruse burglary occurred April 27 on the 2900 block of Duffy Lane, police said. A ruse burglary is a scheme in which one party holds the victim's attention while one or more associates enter the home and remove valuables.
According to police, Johns allegedly distracted the male homeowner by claiming he was putting in a fence for a neighbor and needed to check the property lines in the yard. The man told police the suspect wore a yellow reflective vest or jacket similar to those worn by road workers, and spoke in a foreign language to someone using a walkie-talkie or cell phone.
Advertisement
The next day, the homeowner went to a closet and realized a safe was missing. He then found another safe missing, as well as jewelry, and called police.
"We worked with Chicago police and state police who specialize in these types of ruse burglaries, and they are familiar with a lot of the people who do it," said Riverwoods Police Chief Bruce Dayno. "We showed our victim several photographs of people who were known to engage in this type of activity."
The victim identified Johns as the person who claimed to be installing the fence, Dayno said.
"We don't have the people who entered the house at this point," Dayno said.
When police served Johns with the arrest warrant, his vehicle precisely matched the description provided by the victim, Dayno said.
Following the incident, Riverwoods police issued an alert cautioning residents not to let unexpected strangers into the home or show them around their property. Residents who suspect a ruse in progress should lock their doors and call 911, according to police.
kberkowitz@pioneerlocal.com
@KarenABerkowitz
People visit a memorial for those killed at the Pulse nightclub last Saturday night on June 16, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein cannot find the words anymore to respond to the mass shootings and terrorist attacks happening in the U.S. and around the world. The latest tragedy, the shooting in an Orlando, Fla., gay club that targeted the LGBT community and killed 49 people, made Frisch Klein take action.
It is hard to know what to do in moments like this, Frisch Klein said. But, she decided to reach out to a group of people and religious leaders to see what could be done. She felt it was important to stand together as a symbol of unity, she said.
Advertisement
A candlelight vigil will be held at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, in the plaza between Robert Gilliam Civic Center and the Hemmens Cultural Arts Center, 151 Dexter Court, in Elgin. It is sponsored by Elgin City of Peace, the Coalition of Elgin Religious Leaders and the Elgin Human Relations Commission.
"I am tired of the line 'our thoughts and prayers are with you' and yet, I am a religious leader and I live by my words," Frisch Klein said. "It's not about the words, it's not about the music it is really about giving people a safe space to express their grief and their anger and their hope in the diversity that Elgin is so known for."
Advertisement
Frisch Klein had an almost instantaneous response to the idea.
"The response has been very heartwarming," she said.
All attending are welcome to light a candle, sing a song, offer healing and hopeful prayers of peace, show support for the LGBT, the Latino and Muslim communities. Community members are encouraged to bring their own lights (candle, flashlight or phone) and bring their compassion and love of people of all faiths, all skin colors and all sexual orientations, according to a news release.
Speakers include Mayor David Kaptain, 16th Circuit Judge John Dalton, Mahzar Ahmed of the Batavia Islamic Center, Frisch Klein, Reverend Denise Tracy of the Coalition of Elgin Religious Leaders and Elisa Lara, president elect of the Elgin Hispanic Network and Human Relations Commissioner.
Batavia Islamic Center often holds interfaith events, said Ahmed, six year vice chair of the Parliament of World Religions. "This is the way we have always been, we stand as a community not individuals," she said. "If (something) hurts one person, it hurts everybody."
Ahmed read news stories about the Orlando, Fla., shooter who killed 49 people and injured 53 people. The shooter pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), she said. The terrorist group wants to "try to divide us as a community, as a country," Ahmed said. The idea of banning Muslims from entering the U.S. plays "right into their hands," she said.
"We should try to build a united front against all these radicals," Ahmed said. "We are first and foremost human beings."
Frisch Klein said the visual of people coming together at the candlelight vigil will be powerful.
Advertisement
"It's about letting people see us standing there together so you have Protestant clergy, Jewish clergy, laypeople, religious leaders, elected officials, members of the gay community, the Latino community, the Muslim community, black, brown and white," she said. "It is a great show of solidarity."
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
Sleepy Hollow resident Mona Abboud Auer has worn many hats over the years.
She sang the Christmas novelty classic, "The Pretty Little Dolly," on the Johnny Carson Show on Dec. 15, 1966. The song was later played many times on radio shows by Chicago DJs Wally Phillips, Bob Collins and Fred Winston.
Advertisement
Abboud Auer has performed voice-overs for numerous commercials. She also performed a role in Robert Altman's 1978 movie "A Wedding."
One of her most favored roles, however, has been as the founder of the Sleepy Hollow committee for traffic reduction and safety. She has lived along the winding, tree-lined Sleepy Hollow Road for many years and has been active in pushing for the preservation of its country charm.
Advertisement
"Sleepy Hollow Road is more than a road," Abboud Auer said. "It's a central showpiece that represents our way of life. People are passionate about this road. There's a kind of romance about it."
Abboud Auer once showed the road to the late actor Dom DeLuise who said it looked like a movie set.
During the Sleepy Hollow village board meeting on Monday, Abboud Auer will give a 15-minute talk about Sleepy Hollow Road and present the village with two CDs of her song: "The Ballad of Sleepy Hollow Road."
"Hopefully, the song will be sung live at the board meeting," Abboud Auer said. "In my speech, I will recap everything that has been done to Sleepy Hollow Road and talk about what hopefully will be done for the road in the future."
Denise Moran is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
Irma Pelayo said she couldn't think of a better location than Franklin Park to open her restaurant, Mai-Quesi II.
Mai-Quesi II is at 3531 Rose St. in Franklin Park, across the street from East Leyden High School.
Advertisement
"I'm doing this for my kids," Pelayo said. "We were looking to open up our restaurant downtown, but we liked Franklin Park."
Pelayo got involved in the restaurant business six years ago.
Advertisement
"My brother had a friend who wanted to go in on a Mexican restaurant," she said.
That restaurant is called Mai-Quesi, and it is located in Aurora. Pelayo and other family members helped her brother with the Aurora location. Pelayo and her husband decided that they wanted to open up their own eatery, and their grand opening of Mai-Quesi II was June 7.
"I live in Schiller Park, and my mom lives in Franklin Park," Pelayo said about why she picked the Franklin Park location. "It's a calm, nice neighborhood."
Since there was already a Mai-Quesi, Pelayo decided to name her restaurant Mai-Quesi II. In English, the restaurant name translates to Tequila seafood.
The inside of the restaurant is decorated with artwork from indigenous groups in Mexico. The artwork is brightly colored and flowing with patterns.
"We mostly serve seafood, ribs, steaks and T-bones, so we have it all right now," she said. "We have two chefs, and sometimes my husband cooks."
Pelayo said the most popular dish has been langostinos. She described it as a semi-spicy, large shrimp. Other popular dishes include molcajete Black Angus and shrimp, tropical pineapple and shrimp burritos with a special sauce.
"People have been asking for it right now," she said.
Advertisement
For the future, Pelayo hopes to open a chain of Mai-Quesi restaurants. But for now, she said that her Franklin Park location has received positive attention since opening.
"Everything's been great," she said.
Maryann Pisano is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
In a unanimous vote, the District 225 Board of Education approved annual salary increases for 350 non-union employees at its June 13 meeting.
Non-union, non-certified support staff will receive a minimum 1.4 percent salary increase and administrators will receive a minimum 1.5 percent salary increase for the 2016-2017 school year, said District 225 spokeswoman Karen Geddeis. Some employees may receive higher percentage raises based on factors that include promotions or the earning of degrees, she said.
Advertisement
The salary increases are consistent with current Glenbrook Educational Support Staff Association and Glenbrook Education Association union contracts, according to a District 225 statement.
"We feel these increases are equitable among our employee groups, consistent with previous years, and allow us to continue to attract and retain a high-quality staff for our students," District 225 assistant superintendent for business Hillarie Siena said, according to the statement.
Marian Honel-Wilson leads a vigil of remembrance for the victims of the Orlando shooting outside the Unitarian Church of Hinsdale. (Kimberly Fornek / Pioneer Press)
More than 40 people gathered Thursday for a vigil outside Unitarian Church of Hinsdale to remember and mourn the victims of the Orlando shooting. Most were members of the church, located at 15 W. Maple St.
"We have long identified as a church that is welcoming," said Marian Honel-Wilson, who led the vigil. And more than 10 years ago, the congregation took a vote to intentionally welcome people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Advertisement
To start the vigil, the participants, sitting on a circular stone wall, lit 49 candles, one for each person who was murdered in the Pulse nightclub June 12, and read the victims' names and ages aloud.
"By our presence here today, we pay tribute to the worth and dignity of all those whose lives were tragically cut short," Honel-Wilson said. "Forty-nine lives lost ... to a gunman's hate and fear.
Advertisement
"Our grief is great, but our love is stronger than even our grief."
Emily Ludwig of Downers Grove was there wrapped in a rainbow flag, with the words "Orlando Strong" written on her cheek.
She said she has a friend who lives in Orlando and learned two hours after the shooting that he was OK, when he posted a message on Facebook.
"I am very happy about that," Ludwig said.
Church member Sherrine Peyton said her father converted to Islam in 1963. She told him she was going to the vigil and asked if there was anything he wanted her to say on his behalf.
Peyton relayed her father said any intelligent person knows the shooting was not in accordance with Islamic teaching and that he gives Peyton, who is a lesbian, his full support.
Nancy Keane of La Grange attended the vigil to show her sympathy for people in the LGBT community.
"They deserve to be able to do what the rest of us do without discrimination," Keane said.
Advertisement
She thinks, in response to the massacre: "there has been a tremendous outpouring of love."
"I think we have our work cut out for us to spread love in the world," Honel-Wilson said.
Emily Ludwig of Downers Grove, with the words "Orlando Strong" written on her cheek, holds a candle at a remembrance vigil in Hinsdale. (Kimberly Fornek / Pioneer Press)
kfornek@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter @kfdoings
Arlington, Texas, police show a BB gun and fake ammunition that were taken from a drug suspect. (Arlington Police Department / AP)
When Waukegan police raided an abandoned Victory Street home this month, they found evidence related to four recent armed robberies of pizza delivery drivers.
Among the empty pizza boxes was a BB gun a toy used to force delivery drivers to hand over cash.
Advertisement
The robbery spree which ended with the raid and subsequent arrest of two men and two juveniles is not the only case in which a nonlethal weapon was used to threaten deadly force, law enforcement officials said.
Detective Christopher Covelli, a spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff's Office, said replica firearms have been used in at least two armed robberies since December.
Advertisement
The first occurred in Beach Park, where two robbers held a 19-year-old at gunpoint and forced him to hand over cash and a cellphone. When police caught the robbers, they found the weapon and determined it was a toy. Both suspects were arrested and charged as juveniles.
This month, sheriff's deputies arrested 51-year-old Scott Kisler in Antioch for displaying a BB gun and threatening a neighbor during a quarrel over a barking dog, authorities said. Kisler was charged with aggravated assault, obstructing a peace officer and disorderly conduct.
Waukegan police Cmdr. Joe Florip echoed concerns of other law enforcement officials who have encountered suspects armed with fake guns.
"It's incredibly difficult for officers who are out in the field to make a life or death decision in a tenth of a second," Florip said. "Whether a gun is a toy, nonlethal or as deadly as the handguns each officer carries, it is not normally a question on an officer's mind in armed confrontations."
In 2012, Waukegan police shot and killed 33-year-old John D. Corcoran, an honorably discharged Marine who was later determined to be carrying a pellet gun equipped with a laser sight. Corcoran was threatening suicide and pointing the weapon at a man lying on the floor of a hotel lobby, authorities said.
Corcoran pointed the pellet gun at police, who fatally shot him, authorities said.
In January, Zion police fatally shot 38-year-old Charles J. Hollstein, who authorities said was wearing a homemade tactical-style vest and carrying a BB gun when he struggled with officers after a brief foot chase. Officers initially confronted Hollstein because he was allegedly taking pictures of a school, police said.
Authorities noted gun manufacturers produce weapons in a variety of colors and designs that can look like toys and toy companies make replicas that look real. Toy manufacturers are required by federal law to place orange tips on replica guns, but those can easily be removed, officials said.
Advertisement
"Toy guns can look incredibly real, and real guns can look incredibly fake. ... The whole thing is very complicated, and it's well above a local issue. It's almost even well above a legislative issue," Florip said. "It's something that society as a whole is going to have to take a look at."
The problem isn't unique to Lake County.
In April, Cleveland officials reached a $6 million settlement in a lawsuit over the death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy shot by a police officer while playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center. The pellet gun, which Tamir borrowed from a friend, was missing the orange tip.
In Texas, some suspects have told officers they prefer imitation weapons, which can be purchased for as little as $25, and no background check is required, according to police Lt. Christopher Cook in the Dallas suburb of Arlington.
Legislation on BB guns and toy guns varies from state to state. The four suspects charged in Waukegan's pizza delivery robberies were all charged with armed robbery.
In New York, a law requires that fake or toy guns be brightly colored or have colored striping down the barrel. California adopted similar measures in 2014. Ten other states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., also have passed legislation regarding imitation firearms, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Advertisement
Despite the use of replica guns to commit crimes, it is the proliferation of deadly guns that has Florip most concerned.
"It's been happening for years," Florip said of criminals using toy or nonlethal guns in crimes. "But, if anything, it seems like more offenders now are armed with real guns."
Justin Glawe is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
It's been 400 years since the death of Miguel de Cervantes, the famed 16th century Spanish writer whose novel "Don Quixote" defiantly condemned the Spanish Inquisition. But like William Shakespeare, the novelist left behind an indelible trove of stories. With "Don Quixote," Cervantes laid the groundwork for a classic American musical and one of the most ubiquitous showtunes of all time.
"Yes, everybody knows that song," says Milwaukee native Nathaniel Stampley, who plays Cervantes/Don Quixote in Marriott Theatre's staging of "Man of La Mancha" opening June 22. "That's the beauty of it. And that's also what makes it challenging."
Advertisement
"That song" is, of course, "The Impossible Dream," the soaring anthem covered by artists from Frank Sinatra to Jim Nabors to Luther Vandross. The ear-wormy tune that celebrates those who sally forth to slay un-slayable dragons is at the heart of the musical adaptation of Cervantes' novel. The number also sums up the ethos of Cervantes/Don Quixote, the show's meta-theatrical, two-in-one leading man: The writer imprisoned for defying the Spanish Inquisition, and the fictional knight created by the writer. The plot follows Cervantes's imaginary Don Quixote, Lord of La Mancha and his squire Sancho Panza (Richard Ruiz) as they roam the countryside tilting at windmills both metaphorical and literal.
"There's an optimism to that song and to the entire character of Don Quixote that's infectious," says Stampley. "Right now we're in an election cycle obviously, and there's a lot of cynicism. How beautiful is it to see a character who is still completely in love with humanity? Who completely believes in people's inherent goodness?"
Advertisement
Stampley is based in New York, but he spent the early years of his career in Chicago. Working at the Marriott, he says, has a been goal for over a decade. "I auditioned for many shows here when I was younger. For whatever reason, it never worked out," he say. While Marriott proved elusive in Stampley's earlier career, Broadway did not. Stampley's Broadway credits include Mufasa in "The Lion King" and Porgy in the widely acclaimed tour of "Porgy and Bess."
Director Nick Bowling invited Stampley to audition. "Don Quixote/Cervantes is a difficult role to cast," says Bowling. "You need someone who can bring absolute truth to 'The Impossible Dream,' and of course to everything else. You have to have someone who can deliver the power in the music and make it their own. I saw Nathanial in 'Violet' at the Apple Tree," Bowling said of the 1999 staging at the now-defunct Highland Park venue. "He had an honesty and a presence that I never forgot."
Honesty is at the core of Bowling's concept for "Man of La Mancha," which is shaping up to be a departure from many a previous incarnation of the show. A six-time Jeff Award winner, Bowling isn't softening the squalor and brutal cruelty of the story. His blocking and his pacing are also telling: Prisoners tend to come and go from their supposedly inescapable cell in many "Man of La Mancha" stagings. The show itself is traditionally a two-hour affair, bifurcated by an intermission. Bowling is having none of that.
"One of my longtime peeves about the show is the way that cell is depicted people come and go from it throughout the show. That's not the setting, not the story. These people cannot escape. If we're going to truly portray that, we need all 12 actors on stage for the entire show."
"And it plays out in almost real time," he adds. "It's an hour and a half. You insert an intermission into it, and you diminish the intensity and the momentum."
Intermission or no, maintaining the integrity of a prison setting within the Marriott's in-the-round configuration presented a major challenge to Bowling. With the audience on all four sides of the stage, putting up walls or any other prison-life architecture is out of the question. Bowling and set designer Jeff Kmiec looked to Guantanamo for inspiration.
"I wanted to modernize the staging," says Bowling. "I like the idea of stretching the timeline, so that 16th century reaches into the 21st century. I didn't want a castle out of a fairytale. I wanted someplace real, recognizable and terrifying."
Terror factors substantially in the character of Aldonza (Danni Smith), a young woman who survives an almost unwatchable rape in the musical's most harrowing scenes. The violent degradation transitions into a song that is the dark mirror-image of "The Impossible Dream." "Aldonza," doesn't have a whisper of hope, compassion or humanity. It's a guttural self-description of someone taught from birth that she's nothing but trash. Don Quixote's insistence that Aldonza is a lady worthy of gentleness and respect enrages her.
Advertisement
"She's learned that it's dangerous to dream," says Smith, "She's got walls around her heart for good reason. If she doesn't hope for anything, no one can take anything from her. "
But by the time Don Quixote has finished his story, Aldonza's fortress of a heart has cracked open. "For me, this story has always been about embracing your dreams, even when it's difficult," says Smith, "You find your passion, and you live in that place. It's a story of life and hope, even in the middle of death and darkness."
"The notion that we can believe in things even when they seem impossible is so important here," says Bowling, "I think Don Quixote wants to help people connect to faith, especially when it seems like there's nothing to believe in. It's not about God or religion necessarily. It's about finding something bigger than yourself."
Marriott Theatre presents, 'Man of La Mancha'
When: June 22Aug. 14
Where: Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire
Advertisement
Tickets: $50-$55
Contact: 847-634-0200, www.marriottheatre.com
Michael Weaver, an attorney for a national chiropractic chain called The Joint, makes his case to the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission about granting a variance to open a first-floor downtown office. (Hank Beckman, Naperville Sun)
The Joint, a national chiropractic chain that wants to open an office in downtown Naperville, drew a split vote from the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission.
"I'm not wild about this, but I'm going to vote for it," Commissioner Bob Williams said Wednesday, summing up the commission's mixed feelings about the variance needed for the River Square shopping center location at Washington Street and Chicago Avenue.
Advertisement
The Joint, which has 280 facilities around the country 14 in the Chicago area had already paid an architect for plans and started work remodeling the first-floor office space because a construction permit was accidentally issued by the city. The permit was revoked when the mistake was discovered.
General service offices, such as those leased by doctors, insurance companies and dance studios, are not allowed on the first floor under Naperville's B-4 zoning for downtown core.
Advertisement
Michael Weaver, an attorney representing The Joint, told commissioners the business has "sort of a membership-based clientele" in which anywhere from 60 to 75 customers are treated a day. The business will include a retail component, but the details of that have not been set, he said.
The permit mistake persuaded Williams and fellow commissioners Carrie Hansen and Peter Crawford to reluctantly vote in favor of recommending the project receive city council approval. However, because commissioners Krishna Bansal, Kamala Martinez and Brett Fessler voted against it, tying the vote, the matter will go to the council without a recommendation.
"The issue for me is that a permit was issued," Hansen said.
Pending council approval in July, renovation on the space could resume in late summer or early fall, Weaver said.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
Aadil Farid, a board member of the Islamic Center of Naperville, shows messages of support given to his organization by Hope United Church of Christ on July 17, 2016. (Genevieve Bookwalter / Naperville Sun)
The relationship between Hope United Church of Christ and the Islamic Center of Naperville began more than five years ago, when center leaders approached the church about buying land so they could annex it into the city and build a new mosque on 248th Avenue.
"There was an amount of ugliness (from the public in response to that idea) at that time," said Lucas Grobe, pastor with Hope United Church of Christ. "We went to bat (for them)."
Advertisement
Naperville City Council approved the annexation in 2011, and the 14 acres south of 95th Street became part of the city.
Now, Islamic center leaders credit the ongoing relationship between the two houses of faith as well as support from other religious groups and Naperville city officials with helping their community remain steady following public backlash against Muslims in the wake of the terrorist attack in Orlando last weekend, and in San Bernardino and Paris last year.
Advertisement
"In the past two to three days we've had a lot of our friends from the churches, the synagogues to give their support," said Shoaib Khadri, president of the Islamic Center of Naperville. "It's an oasis in a desert of hate and intolerance."
Bullying at school
In the center's office, colorful messages are scrawled on a framed piece of cardboard, words of encouragement from Hope United Church of Christ members and staff. The center received the display last November after the attacks in Paris.
This week Khadri and others at the Islamic Center looked at the gift anew as they dealt with renewed threats and harassment following the death of nearly 50 people at a popular Orlando gay nightclub by a gunman who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Shortly thereafter, presidential candidate Donald Trump reiterated his call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.
While Naperville leaders have been outgoing and supportive Naperville police checked on the Islamic Center after the Orlando shooting to make sure they weren't receiving threats not everyone in the general population has shared that outlook, said Aadil Farid, an Islamic Center board member.
For example, Muslim kids of all ages have asked Islamic center officials how to deal with bullying.
"They're saying they're being called ISIS at school," Farid said. One teen, an Eagle Scout, was told by another student to sit down during the Pledge of Allegiance because he was a Muslim, he said.
Adults who worship at the Islamic center are frustrated that they are being judged by the violent actions of others, people they don't know and who often are mentally ill, the men said. About 3,500 families worship at the mosque on Ogden Avenue off Route 59.
Advertisement
'Naperville is one community'
Angry residents regularly call the center, sharing their disgust with Islam and the recent terrorist attacks. Farid said he answers every call and talks to callers, in some cases for up to 45 minutes, about why terrorist attacks are against the basic tenets of the Muslim faith.
"Some people sent us letters with bacon in there," Farid said. Most practicing Muslims do not eat pork as part of their faith because it is considered unclean.
DuPage County Board member Brian Krajewski, DuPage County Republican Party chairman and a Trump supporter, said he condemned the bullying and the discrimination. But he also said Muslims are not an exception when it comes to being singled out and the media is blowing attacks against them out of proportion, which then are shared on social media.
Police officers also face discrimination because of the actions of a few bad officers, Krajewski said. DuPage County Animal Control is hosting classes to teach about dogs that are often bullied, such as pit bulls, Rottweilers and German shepherds, he said.
"It doesn't matter if they're Muslim or what they are, (there) shouldn't be bullying," Krajewski said. "We need to stop people and educate."
Advertisement
Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico said city outreach to Naperville's Muslim community is crucial.
"We absolutely want to make sure they feel safe," Chirico said. "Naperville is one community. They're our neighbors and friends. We're one community."
Outreach is important
Farid and Khadri said they are trying to combat the attacks with outreach and relationship building. Farid regularly makes presentations to churches and recently spoke at Metea Valley High School about the basic principles of Islam, saving time at the end for audience questions. Many these days revolve around ISIS, Farid said.
The mosque holds an open house twice a year, the two men said, and the public is always welcome to observe prayers or partake in Ramadan celebrations.
At Hope United Church of Christ, Grobe said he will continue speaking up for the center and Naperville's Muslim community. As a gay pastor, Grobe said he understands what it feels like to be "ostracized."
Advertisement
"God is not limited to people who walk through our doors or believe the same way we do," Grobe said.
gbookwalter@tribpub.com
Twitter @GenevieveBook
Summer Solstice Social on the farm
A Summer Solstice Social, co-sponsored by The Conservation Foundation and the Illinois Solar Energy Association, is Wednesday at McDonald Farm in Naperville.
Advertisement
The free event will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. to celebrate new technologies in solar energy. The farm is at 10S404 Knoch Knolls Road.
Visitors can learn about solar energy and The Conservation Foundation's solar panels mounted on the barn roof. Refreshments will be served.
Advertisement
To register for the event, go to www.illinoissolar.org.
Sign up for city's National Night Out
The city of Naperville is encouraging its residents to register for the upcoming National Night Out, a nationwide event designed to increase drug prevention and crime awareness, support local anti-crime efforts, and strengthen community and police partnerships.
Neighborhoods can register through July 15 for the event at www.naperville.il.us/nno. Registration is free and includes information about local National Night Out events.
National Night Out takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 2. Residents are encouraged to turn on their porch lights and spend the evening outside with neighbors, police officers, firefighters and city workers. Cookouts, block parties and neighborhood walks are among events planned throughout Naperville.
Crayon collection underway at the library
The Naperville Public Library is collecting used crayons to support Community Access Naperville, a nonprofit organization that provides vocational and recreational programs for young adults with developmental disabilities.
A collection bin will be located in the lobby of the 95th Street Library, 3015 Cedar Glade Drive, through the end of June.
Advertisement
Community Access Naperville recycles the crayons collected to create colorful objects and animals and sell them throughout the community as a fundraiser.
For more information, go to www.communityaccessnaperville.org.
DuPage County releases flood guide
DuPage County Stormwater Management has published an online flood-proofing guidebook to help residents resolve local flooding problems.
The guidebook was developed with Bluestem Communications and helps homeowners identify the sources of their flooding and ways to prevent it. It also includes resources to help during and after a flood occurs.
To access the guidebook, go to www.dupageco.org.
Advertisement
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
The Maine Township administration's proposal to move to a half-traditional, half-block schedule format will not occur prior to the 2018-19 school year. (Jennifer Johnson, Pioneer Press)
If Maine Township high schools change how daily classes are scheduled, it won't happen for at least another two years.
That's the word from District 207 Superintendent Ken Wallace, who explained that the administration's proposal to move to a half-traditional, half-block schedule format will not occur prior to the 2018-19 school year.
Advertisement
"There's lot of if/then equations to solve," he said.
For now, the administration is preparing to conduct informational meetings with current and future parents at each of the three District 207 schools, followed by "more conversations with teachers," Wallace said. The public meetings are tentatively being scheduled for July, he said.
Advertisement
"If people understand what we're doing and why we're doing it, I really feel like it's going to be well-received," Wallace said of the scheduling change.
The proposal as it stands is being called the "Hybrid 4 Schedule" and proposes an eight-period day, three days per week, with four-period days on Tuesday and Wednesdays, according to a FAQ sheet published by the district. Classes held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays would be 90 minutes long each. Classes held on Tuesday would differ from those held on Wednesday.
A sample schedule provided by the district shows classes meeting for 50 minutes each on Mondays and Fridays and 46 minutes on Thursdays.
According to the current schedule, all three schools run on a nine-period day, with most classes 45 minutes long. Science classes are a period and a half, or 70 minutes long. Classes are shortened slightly on Wednesdays.
Wallace said the proposed hybrid schedule will increase the amount of instruction students receive in 89 percent of their classes and will give students more time for career and college counseling on the block schedule days.
"We think we can improve academic and social/emotional support for our students with this schedule," Wallace said.
Though instructional time in most classes would increase, science instruction would decrease by 105 minutes per week under the proposed schedule. But, according to the district, the schedule does allow "an extended period class of approximately 90 minutes" that can be used for "deeper inquiry learning opportunities, lab experiment opportunities, and/or extended practice opportunities in many performing fine arts classes."
Additional information provided by the district can be found on its website, www.maine207.org under "D207 Schedule Recommendation FAQ."
Advertisement
The hybrid schedule was expected to appear before the District 207 school board on June 6 for consideration, but it was removed due to what a posting on the high school websites called "inaccurate information spread through a social media campaign that has misinformed the public."
A 2014 report on scheduling published by the Maine Teachers' Association Scheduling Committee concluded that studies have found "mixed results" when it comes to whether block scheduling improves standardized test scores. But the report also says block scheduling "has adverse impacts" on subjects other than math and science.
"As a committee, we endorse the notion that the current schedule should continue at Maine Township High School District 207," the report says.
jjohnson@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter: @Jen_Pioneer
The mass shooting in the early morning hours of June 12 that left 49 people dead in Orlando has reignited the debate over the appropriateness of owning assault rifles, and local gun rights opponents and proponents held firm on their positions.
The issue remains especially sensitive and political, with local people including county politicians, local police leaders and gun shop owners refusing to go on the record with their thoughts or not returning calls seeking comment.
Advertisement
The questions of who should be allowed to own and use assault rifles originally designed for military use for sport shooting and hunting are not cut and dried.
"There absolutely has to be a balance" between someone's Second Amendment right to bear arms and public safety, said Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, "but we are a society that balances well."
Advertisement
Last year, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law legislation that effectively killed the city of Gary's lawsuit against more than 15 firearms manufacturers and retailers. The city filed the lawsuit after years of watching gun violence ravage their streets.
Assault rifles can "cut people in half," but "I think that a determination that access to certain weapons and ammunition those that can do damage with the blink of an eye is reasonable," Freeman-Wilson said in an e-mail.
Part of the problem with creating legislation that effectively keeps assault rifles out of the hands of people who would misuse them is language used to discuss the firearms, local retailers said privately.
The term assault rifle has become a catch-all description for different lines of semi-automatic rifles. Assault rifle is a real term for firearms that rapidly fire one round at a time that have become hugely popular among sport shooters and for personal protection, but they are not the machine guns many in the media and general public suspect, firearms retailers said.
The AR-15 named for Armalite brand name, not an acronym for assault rifle is the most popular rifle sold in the United States, according to media reports. AR-15-style rifles were used in mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 and San Bernardino, Calif., in 2015. Orlando shooter Omar Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX assault rifle.
AR-15s are not high-powered rifles, and "it's hugely expensive" to modify one into a rapid-fire machine gun, said one store owner.
"They're one of the more popular rifles we sell," said Alex, a firearms retailer worker who asked his last name not be used. "Who's buying assault rifles? Young and old, male female, people of all different ages and races. It can be your neighbor or someone else walking down the street. It's something they've heard of and they'd like to shoot."
Alex said he sympathized with the survivors and the loved ones involved in tragedies involving semi-automatic rifles like Orlando and last year's massacre in San Bernadino but he cautioned against enacting laws that take the rifles off the street wholesale.
Advertisement
Instead, the focus should be on enforcing laws already in place, he said.
"Any kinds of proposals of new laws is a knee-jerk feel-good reaction," Alex said. "How about we enforce the laws efficiently and effectively we already have on the books? If we do that it definitely gives us a leg up on people who plan to do bad with an otherwise innocuous object."
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, held firm an assault rifle ban that was lifted by President George W. Bush in 2004 and partisan politics surround the debate.
"The House (of Representatives) majority currently is in the practice of holding moments of silence for gun violence victims and then doing nothing," he said. "Instead, we should reinstate a ban on assault weapons and large capacity ammunition feeding devices, close the gun show loophole and prohibit the sale of firearms to individuals on the (national) Terrorist Watch List. It's past time for the House Majority to allow Congress to act."
Lake County Sheriff John Buncich, the only law enforcement leader who responded to questions on assault rifles in the area, said there is a middle ground, somewhere.
"Its a shame we always have to go through these tragedies like Orlando and other situations throughout the United States before we have these conversations," he said. "There has to be some type of tightening up and restrictions."
Advertisement
He listed better background checks, mandatory waiting periods and strict adherence to federal firearm licensing as helpful approaches.
Still, there's an active black market for ill-intentioned people, whether they are in civilian clothing or official uniforms, who want to get assault rifles for the wrong reason, he said.
Three former Lake County police officers were convicted in federal court several years ago of abusing their firearms ownership and dealing privileges to sell firearms that later were used in crimes.
"We're never going to get total control of these rifles, but we have try to do the best we can," Buncich said.
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
A Lake Superior Court jury acquitted a Merrillville man Thursday of rape, burglary and two counts of theft.
John G. Johnson II, 27, was found not guilty after about an hour of jury deliberations.
Advertisement
In closing arguments, deputy prosecutor Judith Massa acknowledged that the case is an unusual one.
"Truth is stranger than fiction," she said. The woman who reported the rape told police her boyfriend was asleep next to her on a couch when she awoke to a naked man on top of her as she experienced pain.
Advertisement
The woman testified that she, her boyfriend and others had spent the evening of April 25, 2014, and into the following morning drinking and smoking marijuana at the woman's tattoo shop and at a downtown Hobart bar, where she encountered Johnson.
The woman said she'd met Johnson around Halloween 2013 at the same bar and left with him that night and had a sexual encounter.
During the morning of April 26, 2014, Johnson and some friends dropped by the woman's tattoo shop, where drinking and marijuana smoking continued.
Massa argued that Johnson climbed in through a window at the tattoo shop with the intent of stealing items and that the rape was an afterthought. The woman and her boyfriend both told police their cell phones and money were stolen, and the boyfriend's ID also was taken.
Defense attorney Lakeisha Murdaugh, who represented Johnson with defense attorney Scott King, reminded jurors that the woman and her boyfriend consumed 12 to 15 shots in about seven hours' time. Murdaugh blasted the woman's "risky behaviors" when she initially met Johnson.
Video surveillance footage showed Johnson arrive at the business at 6:25 a.m. He went to the window seven minutes later, and was inside the business for 90 minutes before he is seen running, partially clothed, to a red SUV.
Johnson testified the sexual encounter occurred on a couch in the front part of the business andl ended when Johnson said he heard a thud and then learned that the woman's boyfriend was in the back room, Murdaugh argued.
Ruth Ann Krause is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Over the past few years, the Porter County Redevelopment Commission has put together plans for proposed tax increment finance districts that ultimately stalled, first by Porter Regional Hospital at U.S. 6 and Indiana 49, and then around Porter County Regional Airport.
With residents of Liberty Township asking the commission to reconsider the TIF district around the hospital, which is in their township, members of the RDC came up with a request of their own: to meet with the Board of Commissioners and find out what the commissioners want from them.
Advertisement
"I think it would be appropriate for us to sit down with the commissioners and say, 'What type of direction would you like to see us go?'" said redevelopment commission vice president Dave Burrus, who, with the board's president, Ric Frataccia, will meet with the commissioners.
Board members are clearly frustrated by the lack of movement for their proposed TIF districts, in which tax revenue raised within the districts would stay there for infrastructure and other improvements.
Advertisement
"We spent three years on two TIF districts," said redevelopment commission member Jim Polarek, who was recently reappointed to the board after a six-month absence. "I think the ball is in (the commissioners') court."
Board members said the commissioners' input is particularly important since this is a county election year and the makeup of the board, dependent on appointments by the county council and commissioners, could change come January. Board members want to know how to proceed for the rest of the year.
The districts can be structured to release money back to school corporations so they will not lose tax income in the arrangements; such an agreement was worked out with the East Porter County School Corp. for the proposed TIF by the airport, because it included part of Washington Township.
The proposed TIF in Liberty Township was the first put together by the redevelopment commission but Liberty Township residents, fearful at the time about the potential impact on the Duneland schools, balked and the commission pulled back, refocusing at the suggestion of the county commissioners on the area around the airport.
The TIF around the airport became a joint project with the city of Valparaiso, which awaits unified zoning for the district by the city and county, said county planning director and commission member Bob Thompson.
Liberty Township residents, meanwhile, were impressed enough by the redevelopment commission's cooperation with the East Porter schools to ask the county to reconsider a TIF there.
They want to work with the redevelopment commission to make the TIF district a reality, said Liberty Township resident Tim Cole, who is leading the effort to restart the TIF district there. Residents are open to other suggestions for prompting economic development, he added.
"We want to see our tax dollars come back to us and provide better working conditions and employment," he said, adding the hospital "has been a blessing to us and we want to keep it that way."
Advertisement
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Vietnam veteran Michael Boller hugs another veteran during a picnic to mark the 50th anniversary of the war at the Vet Center in Crown Point on June 17, 2016. (John Smierciak, Post-Tribune)
Local Vietnam Veterans received a welcome home Friday during a 50th anniversary event at the Gary Area Vet Center in Crown Point in their honor.
Army veterans William C. McDaniel and Fred R. and Ken B., who asked that their last names not be used, were among those who made their way to the barbecue for the fellowship and to receive their 50th anniversary commemorative pins.
Advertisement
Now 50 years later, they are still picking up the pieces and credit the Vet Center with helping them better transition back to normalcy and rebuild relationships.
"I graduated high school Aug. 12. I was drafted Sept. 1. I went Nov. 1 for six months of training and then I go over there to kill somebody or be killed," McDaniel said. "I was just a kid, out running the streets with my girl."
Advertisement
That girl became his wife, Joy. They married at 19 and 16 and just six months after their first child was born, McDaniel was deployed.
"You go there, see your friends killed; you're killing people. You're going to come back changed," he said.
McDaniel, like so many of the veterans who find help at the Vet Center, took out what he was going through out on his wife and children.
"I used to be very introverted. I wouldn't talk," McDaniel said of his personality in the decades following the war. "I was a terrible person."
"You're still an awful person," Ken B. joked. The men who once had trouble making friends and establishing relationships share a camaraderie that includes shooting barbs at one another.
"I'm getting better," McDaniel said.
They also share a fellowship of support.
"These are my brothers. We do things together," McDaniel said.
Advertisement
Veterans who use the Vet Center have access to individual and group counseling, couple's therapy, and other resources along with the ability to forge new friendships with fellow veterans who are coping with similar life experiences. There are more than 200 veterans who use the Vet Center's services, officials said.
The majority of the veterans using the center are from Vietnam, Lisa Patterson, the site's team leader, said. She would like to see more of the younger veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan take advantage of the services.
"When we get a guy struggling, it's all hands on deck," Patterson said.
Ken B. said he found the Vet Center about four years ago and it helped him work through his anger and depression.
"I had a couple dramatic events happen in my life. I was very, very angry, very depressed," he said.
One day he was having a bad day as he was headed to a local Home Depot store. He parked his car and waked into the building when the woman sitting at the desk said, "Can I help you, grasshopper?" he recalled.
Advertisement
That clerk was Patterson. She encouraged him to visit the center.
"I feel I'm a better person now," Ken B. said.
The men participate in scheduled activities, use the resource center and just come to hang out.
"This is a special place," Fred R. said.
The men say the most important thing about the Vet Center is the staff and their dedication to the veterans.
"They don't watch no clock," said Fred R. "That's what I call support. That's why a lot of us, in some instances, start to get better. They listen to us."
Advertisement
Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Learn more:
For more information about the Vet Center or its services, call 219-736-5633.
I don't follow everything Donald Trump says, but lately his pronouncements about public affairs have become difficult to avoid. Mostly I disagree with him, often strongly. This week, however, in response to the Orlando nightclub slaughter, Trump made a claim with which I concur, at least partly. "You have many, many, many people right now living in the United States who are worse than him, who are more hateful than him. You have thousands of shooters like this with the same mentality out there in this country," declared Trump.
Indeed, we do. Moreover, we've had them among us throughout our nation's history, or at least for the stretch I've witnessed. My dad was a pastor in an era when most everyone's troubles eventually filtered through the parsonage. Folks may long for the good old days, but they had just as much infidelity, spousal and child abuse, feuding, addiction, hatred, bigotry and mental illness as we witness today. Like many kids, I delivered newspapers and then had to "collect" from customers on Saturdays. I still cringe when recalling the verbal harassment some of the men visited upon boys like me, apparently as a way to entertain themselves. And this was among exclusively white, Christian people in a staunchly conservative community.
Advertisement
I went to college with guys who bragged of engaging in a "sport" of attacking homosexuals. They'd grown up in cities and would frequent the restrooms of bus and train stations pretending to be homosexuals looking for a liaison. When someone showed interest, they beat the person to within an inch of his life, left him lying battered and bleeding, and ran off to celebrate a score. My college, by the way, existed to prepare men for seminary and eventually for pastoral ministry.
When I got to the point of serving a church, I landed in Memphis shortly after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination there. I listened to old-timers seethe with anger as they recounted how they had to sell their homes when "the (racial slur) started buying homes and overran their neighborhood like a tidal wave." One Sunday, two young medical students from up north, who also happened to be black, showed up for services and took a seat. When one of the elders arrived and found them in "his pew," he stood in the aisle and proclaimed, "Look! Someone let (racial slur) in here. Who's going to run them out?"
Advertisement
Yes, Mr. Trump, it was, and still is, a mean, hate-filled world. Anyone who studies history knows we humans have always spent as much of our energy and creativity on meanness and brutality as we have on kindness, hospitality or poetry. The biggest difference between my childhood and today isn't the mix of immigrants, ethnicities, religions or the relative numbers of mentally ill persons. What makes today so much more dangerous is the incessant, deliberate fomenting of fear and hate on the internet, talk radio and 24/7 "news" channels, plus the bizarre reality that acquiring an arsenal of assault rifles and 10,000 rounds of ammunition is as easy as owning a lawn mower.
Only one circumstance might induce the cowards in our legislatures to tackle this problem as other nations have already done. If an angry shooter were to slaughter 49 members of Congress or National Rifle Association convention attendees, we would see action. Fast. But it likely won't happen. Those assemblies can afford massive layers of protection that folks in a school, movie theater or nightclub can't.
For now, the rest of us must be ready to die as an acceptable side effect of letting professional-grade killing machines be sold as boy-toys.
Fred Niedner is a senior research professor and associate director of the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University.
What's Quickly? It's where readers sound off on the issues of the day. Have a quote, question or quip? Call Quickly at 312-222-2426 or email quickly@post-trib.com.
Bernie Sanders opposes the power and influence of the 1 percent. Donald Trump IS the 1 percent and is trying to increase his power and influence. They are polar opposites. I know of no Bernie supporters that now plan to support Trump.
Advertisement
With Trump's way of thinking, I hope he has no Mexican-descent Secret Service agents. After all, if you apply his racist way of thinking, they can't be trusted.
I continue to find it interesting how people talk about the "rich, hedge fund Republicans" and how they only want to help their other rich friends. Hillary Clinton is worth about $15.3 million (reported in CNN, June 9). She is a member of the 1 percent that she rails against. Does anyone really think that she, or any of the other rich Democrat or Republican politicians, will do anything to jeopardize their 1 percent status? They are all going to do everything to help or at least not hurt themselves and the other 1 percenters.
Advertisement
If you want to know why this country is in trouble, it's because Republicans control the governor's office, the Senate, and the House of Representatives in twenty-three states. In almost every one of those states, public education is suffering, infrastructure is crumbling and so-called "religious freedom" legislation is taking precedent over almost everything else.
Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday >
Know how to spot a paranoid, ignorant kook? They're the ones complaining about the so-called "liberal media," which for them means everyone who isn't Breitbart or Faux er, Fox News.
Donald Trump has people worried in Quickly, always dominating the column. If a Democrat has been running the country for the last eight years, then why are you so worried, and why is it such a mess and so very important? Maybe people in high positions are going to be exposed finally, like those administrators in Munster High School and the officer in Whiting. Our officials in high places are dominating the front page.
I don't understand why Clinton had to have her own mail server. What was so special about her not following government procedure?
With all these comments about the union guy, how many of you realize that before the unions, these companies would place unsafe conditions on their workers and get rid of you for no reason at all?
Dear Illinoisans: Resist Bruce Rauner. He wants to do the same things in Illinois (my home state, by the way) that Scott Walker, Rick Snyder, John Kasich, Mike Pence, Sam Brownback and other right-wing Republican governors have done in theirs. They and the Koch brothers are the people he wants to impress, not you.
Yes, it is relaxing to ride my Harley-Davidson, so much so that I don't feel a need for loud exhaust system or a blaring radio for that matter. As for the ear plugs, pick some up for yourself if you ever ride your loud bike any distance. You'll be glad you wore them.
Read more at www.post-trib.com/quickly
Although the Skokie Public Library Board of Trustees conducted a national search for the library's next director, it ended up choosing a familiar face, Library Board President Mark Prosperi announced this week.
The Library Board June 15 unanimously voted to hire current Skokie Public Library Deputy Director Richard Kong as the next director. Kong succeeds Carolyn Anthony who is retiring after 31 years.
Advertisement
Kong has worked at the Skokie Public Library in the same role for the last three years, according to library officials..
A statement released Thursday by Prosperi said Kong received his Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan in 2006. He currently serves on the executive board of the Illinois Library Association and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Public Library Association.
Advertisement
Kong will assume his new duties July 16, the statement read.
Prosperi also expressed the Library Board's "profound gratitude" to Anthony for more than three decades of service to the Skokie Public Library.
"The Board is grateful for her astute leadership and guidance during those years," Prosperi said. "Under her stewardship, (the) Skokie Public Library has achieved national prominence for excellence and innovation."
misaacs@pioneerlocal.com
Twitter @SKReview_Mike
China's largest lender by market value has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Czech government to cooperate on a new fund to invest in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said Thursday it will spend 1 billion euros (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) on establishing a financial firm to launch the fund.
Czech will contribute 200 million euros to the fund, which will invest in CEE countries and other regions under the "Belt and Road" initiative framework, according to the ICBC.
The Czech government will support the fund's operation in its country and help identify investment opportunities, the ICBC said.
The Belt and Road initiative, proposed by China, is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.
ICBC will also set up a branch in the Czech capital of Prague to facilitate Sino-Czech cooperation under the initiative, the bank said.
China is Czech's biggest trade partner outside the European Union. The two countries saw bilateral trade reach 20.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, up 7.8 percent year on year.
Jack Ma, founder and chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, on Thursday proposed the establishment of digital free trade zones for small businesses and called for Russia to become an e-hub intersection connecting Asia and Europe.
An e-hub is a digital free trade zone designed specifically for small businesses. Ma said services including logistics, payments, financing and inspections would be provided.
"Trains have stations and aircraft have airports. We should build an e-road that connects e-hubs around the world. It would be a paradise for SMEs to sell products that serve anywhere in the world," Ma said.
"Russia has very good chance to be one of the e-hubs," Ma said.
Ma made his remarks at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that opened on Thursday and runs to Saturday.
The three-day forum is an annual international conference dedicated to the most pressing economic and business issues facing Russia and the world.
Ma's proposal is part of his ambition, raised last year, to build a global e-commerce platform, called the Electronic World Trade Platform. It would serve the interests of SMEs that have been left out of the world's free trade regime in the past.
"In most countries SMEs contribute more than 50 percent of GDP and an even higher percentage of employment. But SMEs face challenges such as poor access to global markets, complex regulations and certifications designed for big companies, and a lack of access to financing," Ma said.
"We urge G20 countries to support the growth of SMEs," said Ma, who is also the chair of the B20 SME Development Taskforce. B20 is the business advisory group to the G20.
Cross-border shopping is the fastest-growing sector in Russia's e-commerce market. Ma said in an interview in 2015 that about one in 10 people from Russia made online purchases through Alibaba's AliExpress, a site that allows shoppers around the world to buy goods at wholesale prices.
"Hundreds of thousands" of packages are sent from China to Russia on a daily basis, according to the e-commerce giant.
China has been Russia's largest trading partner for six consecutive years since 2010. But Sino-Russian bilateral trade volume fell 27.8 percent last year to 422.73 billion yuan ($64.16 billion) due to the ongoing global economic downturn and falling oil prices, according to the General Administration of Customs.
"Besides energy industry cooperation, companies from both countries should work together to jointly develop high-end products for the manufacturing, consumption and infrastructure sectors," Chen Yuan, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the forum.
"Such a partnership will create huge opportunities for trade and financial cooperation. I am confident that our bilateral trade volume will reach $200 billion by 2020," Chen said.
The trade target was first raised by the leaders of both countries in 2014.
You are here: Home
A charter route between China's northeastern province of Heilongjiang and Alaska in the United States will be upgraded to be a regular route, local authorities said Wednesday.
The round-trip, operated by Russia's Ural Airlines with an Airbus A320 once a week, will begin in September, said Hou Wei, deputy head of Heilongjiang's tourism development commission.
The route will link Harbin City, capital of Heilongjiang, and Anchorage in Alaska, with a stop in the Russian port city of Magadan.
The route, which takes six-and-a-half hours each way, is the shortest linking China and the United States.
The regular service is likely to boost tourism between the two popular destinations, Hou said.
The governments of Heilongjiang and Alaska established friendly relations in 1985. The charter route was launched in 2013.
The 7th Weihai International Food Expo and China-South Korea (Weihai) Lifestyle Expo, and China-South Korea Commodity Expo kicked off in Weihai, Shandong Province on June 17, 2016.
The event will last for four days until June 20. The main venue, Weihai International Exhibition Center, has been divided into the food exhibition area, China-South Korea trade-in-service exhibition area, South Korea Pavilion and other overseas exhibition area, providing a total of 670 exhibition berths. A total of 431 enterprises from more than 10 countries and regions and 20 provinces and municipalities are showcasing their products and services. Weihai Local Brand Products Exhibition Center, the sub-venue, will exhibit commodities of 200 local enterprises in a long term.
The 7th Weihai International Food Expo and China-South Korea (Weihai) Lifestyle Expo, and China-South Korea Commodity Expo kicked off in Weihai, Shandong Province on June 17, 2016.
The event pays particular attention to the theme of food safety as Weihai is an important food and agricultural products exporter in Shandong. The outstanding brand awareness has effectively helped Weihais export of food and agricultural products. Such exports from 88 local enterprises valued US$1.3 billion in 2015, of which exports to Japan and South Korea accounted for two thirds.
The Experience Center (Weihai) of Food with the Same Production Lines, Same Standards and Same Quality with Japan and Korea was launched specially for the food safety at the Expo.
The Expo will also highlight economic cooperation and trade in service between China and South Korea. The Expo has set up South Korea Pavilion for the first time, with 104 South Korean enterprises organized by Incheon and South Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. The South Korean exhibition area is the largest ever in terms of its size.
The Expo has also integrated elements of the China-South Korea free trade agreement (FTA), trade in service and culture and tourism, set up the service and trade interaction exhibition area, as well as specialized exhibition areas to display what have been achieved in FTA construction as well as tourist products.
Achievements on the construction of a demonstration zone of local economic cooperation between Weihai and Incheon are exhibited from the following four aspects: improving economic cooperation mechanism, increasingly smoothing trade passages, cross-border e-commerce development and intensive integration of the industrial cooperation between China and South Korea.
Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
You are here: Home
Organs of a doctor who died from a sudden illness were donated by his relatives and have saved the lives of six people.
Song Wei, 34, a trainee doctor at Shanghai Changhai Hospital, suffered an acute brainstem hemorrhage on May 31 and was pronounced dead on Wednesday.
His wife and parents decided to complete his final wishes and donated Song's liver, lungs, kidneys, corneas and skin tissue to save patients' lives and help two see again.
"He is a doctor. Healing the wounded and saving the dying was his life mission," said his wife.
According to the local Red Cross Society, Song is the city's 195th organ donor and 57th this year.
Gao Jiechun with the society said the number of registered organ donors in Shanghai exceeds 5,000.
A suspicious package spotted near the United States embassy in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon contained no explosives, just clothes and other everyday items, the Beijing public security bureau said in a Weibo posting on Wednesday evening.
The parcel, which was alleged by some netizens to contain a bomb at Liangmaqiao, Chaoyang District, drew immediate attention from police, according to Beijing Youth Daily.
A witness said riot police and vans were seen in front of the western gate of the U.S. embassy at around 5 p.m., while that section of the road was cordoned off. Several policemen were attempting to approach an electric motorcycle, said the witness, who thought it might have been part of a drill operation.
Then at around 7 p.m., the Beijing police released information about the incident via microblog, saying it had evacuated people in the surrounding area but later detected no explosives in the parcel.
As more than nine million students finish taking the national college entrance exam, or gaokao, they now become the target of businessmen and the so-called "after-gaokao economy".
Students attend a cram school in Beijing's Changping district. (File Photo: China Daily / Wang Jing)
Cram schools charge up to US$45,630
Cram schools begin to snatch gaokao students who are unsatisfied with their exam score and want to get better marks.
A teacher, surnamed Zhang, at a famous institute in Beijing, said that they will set up more than a dozen review classes this year and place students in basic, advance or key classes based on their exam scores.
"Though we place them in different classes, the tuition fees are same at about 70,000 yuan ($10,647) a year including accommodation," said Zhang.
A teacher, surnamed Hao, in another cram school said that they have 20 years of experience in running review classes. About 50 percent of their students have got admission in first-class universities in recent years.
They charge more than 60,000 yuan a year in tuition fee and for some students who require one-to-one class the fee goes up to 300,000 yuan ($45,630).
Driving schools see rush of students a week after exam
Unlike students who want to bet their future on a carefully selected cram school, some focus on improving their social skills.
Media reports show that driving schools across the country embrace a wave of student applicants who are attracted by schools' preferential policies.
An employee at a driving school in Haidian district of Beijing said that they launched a summer course for students. If they apply for the class in a group of five or above, they will have to pay just 3,400 yuan, nearly 1,000 yuan lower than the normal market price.
A driving school in Nanchang, East China's Jiangxi province, also offers students promotions such as lowering the fees by 200 yuan if they show the admission ticket for national college entrance exam and exempting top scorers from tuition fee.
"The promotions work well," said an employee in charge of recruitment. "More than a hundred students apply for the class one week after the exam."
After exam, students travel abroad to relax
"Every summer vacation, the number of students heading overseas for travel increases 10 to 20 percent," said Xu Xiaolei, Chief Brand Officer of Aoyou.com, an online-booking website under China Youth Travel Service Co.
According to Xu, a study conducted by the website shows that most students prefer Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and other southeast Asian countries. The travel cost usually ranges from thousand yuan to 10,000 yuan, but some goes up to more than 100,000 yuan.
An employee at Chinese travel agency Caissa said they see a peak in number of students traveling overseas after national college entrance exam every year. Except short line tours for South Korea, Japan and Thailand, the long line tours for Europe and North America are also popular.
Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
Designers of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System might had expected the space network would garner a wide variety of users, but disciplinary inspectors of the People's Liberation Army sound like an unlikely client.
At least one PLA unit has begun to use Beidou in its efforts to curb corruption and the misuse of public assets thanks to the system's strong positioning capability.
According to PLA Daily, a ground-to-air missile brigade under the PLA Western Theater Command has Beidou devices installed in its cars to track driving routes. Wherever the cars go, their whereabouts are submitted in real time to an orbiting satellite and transferred to the brigade headquarters.
In early May, an officer escorting a small delivery asked the driver to make a detour to handle a personal affair. Within minutes after the car left the planned route, the officer received a call from inspectors at the brigade requesting an explanation.
The use of Beidou is aimed at regulating issues that could lead to disciplinary violations, brigade commanders told PLA Daily.
In the past, official cars at some PLA units were loosely managed and some officers used those vehicles for personal purposes, which caused huge losses of public funds, earlier reports said.
The brigade is not alone in using Beidou to monitor its cars. Several local governments, including Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and Yueyang, Hunan province, also use the space-based network to manage their vehicles.
"Beidou has proved an effective tool to prevent the misuse of public assets, because it can truthfully record and report every move made by a car, plane or ship," said a researcher of PLA personnel management surnamed Li.
President Xi Jinping is setting off on an eight-day trip to a number of new destinations. He will visit Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan, the latter for bilateral talks in the context of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Hitherto, these regions have not attracted too much interest, due to their relative lack of prominence either in global strategic or global economic fields. However, this has been changing for some time. One of the main factors involved has been China's strategic decision to make the "Belt and Road" programme the central plank of Chinese economic and commercial diplomacy, which inevitably brings political diplomacy with it.
The Eastern European and Central Asian regions form a major part of the geographical linkage essential to the Belt and Road initiative, and also contain some areas in great need of infrastructural development. There are also strategic implications. Central Asia has been a focus in the 20 years since the SCO was launched, and Eastern Europe is feeling the effects of economic difficulties currently facing the continent as a whole. These issues are far from irrelevant to the dialogue President Xi will be holding with Russian President Putin later this month.
In an announcement made in Beijing before his departure, President Xi made it clear that he appreciates the position of the Balkan region as a historical meeting-place between East and West. Of his first destination, Serbia, he described it as "a country with a long history and a magnificent culture, with an important place in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. For thousands of years, the region has been a meeting place of Eastern and Western cultures, which has led to the progress of civilization." These words clearly point towards fixing his visit in the context of China's intercontinental "Belt and Road" initiative.
In Serbia, the visit from an economically powerful country's leader is eagerly awaited, with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic expressing hopes that the 24 cooperation agreements to be signed during the visit will be extremely lucrative for his country. Serbia, which emerged from a destructive civil war only twenty years ago, still faces considerable needs for the regeneration and modernization of its infrastructure. Serbia has been involved in negotiations to join the European Union for some time but is not yet a member; this means that EU funding has not yet been released in any major quantities.
But Chinese investment has already made a big difference in the country's post-war regeneration. China is deeply involved in road-building and power generation projects in Serbia, and has also built a bridge over the Danube (the first such project in Europe) which is known affectionately by the locals as the "Chinese Bridge." President Xi will also visit a flagship cooperative project, the hundred-year-old Smederevo steel mill, acquired in a US$50 million deal this year by China's massive Hesteel Group.
In building up this strong and durable position within Serbia's nexus of economic relationships, China hopes to build a lasting relationship and establish Serbia as one of her most reliable partners in Eastern Europe. It helps, of course, that there are no tricky political issues between the two countries; China supports Serbia's view on the Kosovo issue while in return Serbia sticks to a firm one-China policy. And while China has no view on the issue of Serbian accession to the EU, President Xi and his team will be careful to establish the strongest possible Chinese presence in the Balkan country, to ensure that China will have a firm supporter if and when Serbia does join the EU.
In return, China's solid commitment to the Belt and Road project, on which Serbian diplomats have been well briefed, should convince the Serbians that any agreements reached with China will not be ephemeral, but lodged within a wide-ranging and long-term context, and that they will be able to derive ongoing benefits from the country for some time to come.
Even seen in a bilateral context, this visit demonstrates that no country is seen as too small or remote by the new China, and that China is committed to extending the range of her diplomacy without aggressive intent, but aiming at win-win benefits through economic cooperation.
For a number of reasons, the Eastern end of the European peninsula has undergone a difficult time during the last thirty years, and, though Western Europe has done what it can to help lay the foundations for stronger economies, their own economic difficulties have recently imposed constraints on their capacity. President Xi's visit to Belgrade will provide Serbia with a complementary source of support, which I expect will be greatly welcomed by the Serbian government and people.
Tim Collard spent 20 years in the UK Diplomatic Service, half of that time in China, serving as a trade and investment adviser and a political analyst; he also served as British Consul-General in Hamburg. He has now retired from diplomacy and works as a freelance writer covering a variety of political and economic topics. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/timcollard.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Flash
The Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said Thursday the cockpit voice recorder of crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 has been recovered but found damaged.
"The device has been recovered in several stages as it was found damaged, but the vessel managed to salvage the part containing the memory unit, which is the most important in the voice recorder," the investigation committee said in a statement.
EgyptAir Flight MS804, an Airbus A320, went missing from radar screens on May 19 en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people on board, including 30 Egyptians and 15 French.
Later on, the Egyptian military announced the finding of some personal belongings of the victims and small pieces of the plane wreckage in the Mediterranean Sea 290 km north of Egypt's coastal city of Alexandria.
The cockpit voice recorder is to be handed to prosecution officials and investigators in Alexandria.
On Wednesday, the investigation committee said the hired vessel located several spots of the wreckage of the doomed plane, noting it was provided by the first images of the wreckage from one of the spotted sites.
Investigation is still on into the tragic fall of EgyptAir Flight MS804, with all theories like a terrorist bombing and a severe technical failure on the table yet without a strong clue.
Flash
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is well and will return to Nigeria on Sunday to resume work on Monday, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said Thursday.
"I spoke with him yesterday (Wednesday) evening and I think it is just the best that he takes the weekend off. He will certainly be back on Sunday," Osinbajo told reporters in Abuja, the country's capital shortly before presiding over the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.
The vice-president added that there was no point for his rushing back since the weekend was close by as the President needed to take the weekend off and resume work on Monday.
Osinbajo confirmed that President Buhari had fully recovered, when asked about the condition of health of the President.
"Mr President is in good condition, he is fine, and he is very well," he said.
"He should take a day or two off in London and rest a bit and come back hale and hearty on Sunday and be ready for work on Monday," Osinbajo added.
The Nigerian leader had informed the National Assembly of his medical condition and asked for 10 days off to attend to an ear infection in London.
Flash
Senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guo Jinlong has said that China is willing to further strengthen mutual political trust, deepen pragmatic cooperation in economy and trade with Portugal in a bid to raise the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries to a higher level.
Guo, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, paid a three-day visit to Portugal heading a CPC delegation.
During his visit, which concluded on Thursday, Guo met with several top leaders such as Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Socialist Party President Carlos Cesar, and main opposition Social Democratic Party President Pedro Passos Coelho.
Guo said that at the present time, China and Portugal have seen frequent contacts and exchanges at a high level and great achievements have been made in cooperation in such domains as economy and trade, investment, personnel and culture exchange.
The two countries have also had timely communication and coordination in international affairs, he added.
Guo said that China attaches great importance to the development of ties with Portugal and is willing to further strengthen mutual political trust, deepen pragmatic cooperation in economy and trade with Portugal, foster growth in the sectors of tourism, sea and third-party cooperation.
Guo spoke highly of the position of Portugal's two main parties to implement a friendly policy towards China.
He also expressed his hope that political parties in the two countries would continue to maintain the momentum of exchanges to further enhance mutual understanding and trust, value the concern of each other's core interests and safeguard and promote the healthy and steady development in China-Portugal ties as well as that of China-EU as a whole.
For his part, Portuguese President Rebelo de Sousa appreciated the achievement China has made in its development and hoped that the two countries would further strengthen political exchange, and expand cooperation in fields such as economy, trade, investment, tourism, education, and science and technology.
He also said that Portugal would continue to promote the development of ties between Europe and China.
Both Costa and Passos Coelho said that Portuguese political parties would continue to enhance exchanges and cooperation with the CPC and jointly promote mutual political trust between the two countries and friendship between the two peoples.
During his visit, Guo also inspected a program carried out by the Beijing Enterprises Water Group in Portugal and attended the Night of Beijing concert in Lisbon.
Flash
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that it is the United States and its allies, not Russia, that are responsible for the delay in seeking a peaceful settlement of the Syria crisis.
The top Russian diplomat, who is here attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, made the remarks to refute a recent statement of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who said that Washington was losing patience with Russia and Syria's Bashar al-Assad, who are "creating obstacles" to a solution in the war-torn country.
"It is not correct to demonstrate impatience referring to us," said Lavrov.
He noted that it was "due to the position of our U.S. partners who are unable, or do not want to exert pressure on their allies in the region" that led to the failure of making all parties involved in the Syria settlement to sit at the negotiating table.
Turkey was not ready to admit Syrian Kurds, while some members of the opposition, which cooperate with the United States and their allies, refuse to treat other opposition groups as equals, he added.
Lavrov said that in February Kerry himself stressed the necessity for all groups territorially mixed with the Nusra Front and Islamic State terrorist groups to distance themselves from them and leave those zones.
However, the U.S. side is now saying that they are unable to remove the "good" opposition members from the positions held by the Nusra Front, and that they still need an additional two or three months, said the diplomat.
Flash
European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday the European Union (EU) would no doubt survive if Britain were to exit from the 28-member bloc, but the price would be high.
Tusk said preparations had been made for the alternative, but he was unwilling to provide any concrete details as to what actions the EU would take.
Tusk talked to journalists at a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila. Later on Thursday he also met with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
Referring to the recent opinion polls carried out in the UK, Tusk said it was "not easy to be optimistic" the vote would be to remain in the EU, but the view of the UK people must be respected.
Tusk said that besides the economic impact, political and geopolitical repercussions would be unpredictable at a time when there is a major need for unity.
Tusk said European history had shown that unity means strength. He defined an exit of the UK as a danger for both Britain and the whole western community.
Flash
U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday again urged Republican-controlled Congress to pass stricter gun control laws during his visit to Orlando in the wake of the country's deadliest mass shooting incident.
"Those who were killed and injured here were gunned down by a single killer with a powerful assault weapon," Obama told reporters. "The motives of this killer may have been different than the mass killers in Aurora, or Newtown. But the instruments of death were so similar. Now another 49 innocent people are dead. Another 53 are injured. Some are still fighting for their lives."
At least 49 people were killed and 53 others wounded, including a police officer, early Sunday morning in a shooting spree at a popular LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was the deadliest terror attack in the U.S. history since 9/11 in 2001.
The gunman, identified by authorities as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, was found dead inside the nightclub after a shootout with the police.
"I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing. We can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. If we don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this," said Obama.
Following the 2012 school mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed 26 lives, including 20 children, the Obama administration initiated but failed to push stronger gun control laws.
The laws, whose sections included expanded background checks and bans on assault weapons, were stymied in Congress after staunch opposition from Republican lawmakers and gun-rights lobby groups.
During his presidency, Obama presided over more than a dozen of high-profile mass shootings, and in an interview last year he called the failure to reform U.S. gun laws "one of the greatest frustrations" of his presidency.
The shooting massacre was the 176th mass shooting which happened in the United States in the past 168 days so far in 2016, according to the group Mass Shooting Tracker.
Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which defines the "mass shooting" as an incident where four or more people are killed in one case, the Tracker broadens the definition of the "mass shooting" to include all incidents involving four or more people being shot but not necessarily killed.
By that criteria, the Tracker reports after collecting data from news reports around the nation that the shooting carnage at Pulse, a popular LGBT nightclub, which left 50 dead, including the gunman, was the 176th mass shooting so far this year.
According to the Tracker, as of Tuesday, six more mass shootings occurred in the wake of Orlando nightclub massacre.
So far, federal investigators had found no clear evidence that Mateen had been in touch with any terrorist groups before the attack.
However, according to Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey, the authorities were "highly confident" that Mateen had been radicalized online.
Just like his previous reactions after similar mass shooting incidents in the past, U.S. President Barack Obama this time again stressed the importance of passing stricter gun control laws on every public appearance in the wake of the incident.
Flash
Senior Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria Jan Egeland welcomed Thursday the headway made by humanitarian actors in reaching civilians trapped in besieged areas in Syria.
"After several really very bad weeks for humanitarian access in Syria, we have made progress of late in reaching the besieged areas," Egeland said after convening with humanitarian taskforce members in Geneva's Palais des Nations.
"It was very significant that we were able to reach both Darayya and Duma in recent days with a partial delivery of food and full delivery of other humanitarian items," he added.
An additional aid convoy is expected to reach the besieged town of Al-Waer, whose population has been without supplies for over three months.
This means that 16 out of the 18 besieged areas will have received life-saving assistance since relief operations kicked off in February this year, with the remaining two towns of Arbin and Zamalka located in rural Damascus scheduled to receive aid in the coming days.
In comparison, only two areas were reached over the course of last year.
The latest UN figures show that over 844,000 people living in both hard-to-reach and besieged locations in Syria have received assistance since the beginning of the year.
As fighting between warring factions shows no sign of abating, Egeland stressed more needed to be done to cater to all those in need of assistance.
"We're acutely aware that the access we have now can end tomorrow," he added.
The Norwegian diplomat welcomed the 48-hour ceasefire implemented Thursday in Syria's northern city of Aleppo.
He also called for more such truces to take effect in the country which has been at war since 2011.
Flash
The UN refugee agency on Thursday launched a global campaign calling on governments to take action for refugees.
The campaign launched through video messages in the lead-up to World Refugee Day asks the world to stand together #WithRefugees.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the campaign seeks to mobilize massive audiences, creating the largest-ever petition to support refugee cause.
"We are in a period of deepening conflict and turmoil in the world, which is causing many more people to flee their homes than before,"said Grandi in a statement received in Nairobi.
"It affects and involves us all, and what it needs is understanding, compassion and political will to come together and find real answers for the refugee plight. This has become a defining challenge of our times," he added.
In a stunning video message more than 60 global celebrities join with refugees and aid workers to echo the message, "we stand with refugees, please stand with us." The petition appeals for government action on behalf of the world's forcibly displaced.
The campaign aims to demonstrate public support for families forced to flee against a backdrop of dramatically increased displacement from conflict and persecution on the one hand, and heightened anti-refugee rhetoric and greater restrictions to asylum on the other.
The petition will be delivered in advance of September's historic UN High-Level Plenary of the General Assembly on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.
Grandi said millions of people were newly displaced in 2015, adding again to the global refugee and internal displacement totals.
"Overwhelmingly, it was countries of the developing world that were most affected, but Europe too witnessed dramatic scenes, as hundreds of thousands of people crossed the Mediterranean in search of safety and refuge. Thousands died along the way," he said.
The UNHCR said the #WithRefugees campaign and petition aims to amplify those voices of welcome and show that the world stands with refugees.
"At the same time, there was an extraordinary outpouring of empathy and solidarity, as ordinary people and communities opened their homes and their hearts to refugees, and some countries have welcomed new arrivals even while already hosting large numbers of refugees," Grandi said.
Flash
The Saudi-led Arab coalition is on the way to "deliver its core goals," and up to the Yemenis to reach an inclusive political deal between the disputing parties, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said Thursday in Abu Dhabi.
In a series of tweets on his Twitter account quoted by the UAE state news agency WAM, Anwar Al-Gargash said the UAE will continue to play its role with Saudi Arabia "until the end of the war," without hinting at a time horizon.
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led military coalition comprising nine Arab states to support Yemen's "legitimate" government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Iran-backed Shiite Houthi militia and forces controlled by former president Ali Abduallah Saleh.
The coalition has been bombing on a daily basis the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi group across Yemen since March 26, when President Hadi fled to the Saudi capital Riyadh to take refuge.
Gargash said goals of the operations in Yemen were "crystal clear and well-defined which contributed to its success: to bring the Yemen crisis back on the political track, to restore the legitimate government of Yemen, and to counter the Iranian interference in the region."
He added "now it is the responsibility of the Yemeni people and factions to build channels of communication and agree on a political solution regarding the state and its institutions."
Flash
An inter-agency humanitarian convoy is delivering humanitarian assistance to about 37,500 residents in the besieged neighborhood of Al Waer in Homs, Syria, a UN spokesman said Thursday.
"A second convoy is planned in the coming days, pending government approval," Stephane Dujarric told reporters said at a daily news briefing here, quoting information from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The two convoys combined will provide food, medicine, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, and emergency supplies for about 75,000 people, he said. The last inter-agency convoy to Al Waer was on March 3.
Also on Thursday, a UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy delivered food, health, nutrition, water and sanitation, other basic supplies and agricultural assistance for 50,000 people in Afrin city, Kafr Janneh, Rajou, Yakhour, all in Aleppo Governorate, he said.
Since the beginning of 2016, more than 844,000 people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas have received a range of humanitarian assistance through UN inter-agency convoys, he added.
Flash
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented on Thursday his government's 2016-2021 plan for "fair growth", pledging brighter days for the suffering Greek people after six years of harsh austerity introduced to overcome the debt crisis.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras delivers a speech at the Acropolis museum with the ancient Parthenon temple seen in the background in Athens, Greece, June 16, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
A painful circle closes for Greece following the completion of the first review of the third Greek bailout, he told a forum on development hosted at the Acropolis Museum. Focus will be shifted from now on to growth boosting policies to address the high unemployment rates challenge and redistribute burdens and wealth, he said.
"For first time in the past six years we have a stable macroeconomic, fiscal and investment environment. The main focus now is development and all government efforts are geared towards one strategic target: promoting fair growth," he said.
Tsipras criticized as unsustainable and socially unfair previous growth plans presented by his predecessors until the Radical Left assumed office in January 2015.
Outlining the main pillars of the Left-led ruling coalition's strategy, he talked about "productive reconstruction" and restart of major infrastructure projects across Greece which had "frozen" during the crisis.
He also referred to a series of financing tools available from now in particular to small- and medium- sized enterprises as part of efforts to attract more investments and create "long-lasting and decent" job positions.
The Greek leader pointed to the new development law the parliament approved just a few hours before the event at the Acropolis museum as a key tool in the growth process.
"The new development law foresees total investments of 13 billion euros by 2021," he noted.
The government's goal is to reduce by then to half the current unemployment rates which stand at around 24 percent of the working force, Tsipras added.
The law which was expected to come into effect in September foresees among others taxation incentives for investors and the reduction of red tape.
"It reflects the entire philosophy of our growth planning. It aims at the creation of innovative, extrovert, dynamic enterprises, the support of employment with emphasis on specialized human resources, as well as the increase of added value," he stressed.
"Our growth strategy has one goal -- to put an end to the vicious circle of recession and unemployment," the Greek premier said, closing his remarks.
During the event he also took a moment to comment on the murder of British Labour MP Jo Cox, who was gunned down and stabbed by a man earlier on Thursday, while she was attending an event at her constituency.
He called on all sides "to pay homage to a politician who died unjustly and to hope she is the last victim at a time when hatred in Europe is rekindled and strengthened against sobriety and political discourse."
Flash
The Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq is training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West, CIA Director John Brennan told Congress on Thursday, while confirming the Orlando "lone wolf" shooter had no direct links to the extreme group.
"ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West," Brennan told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, warning the group may infiltrate refugees into western nations. ISIL is another acronym for the group.
"Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach," said the spy chief.
According to Brennan, the IS has lost "large stretches" of territory in Iraq and Syria but still has about 18,000 to 22,00 fighters there and its branch in Libya is "probably the most developed and the most dangerous," echoing concerns that Libya's close proximity to Europe is a problem.
He testified to the Congress that the IS has between 5,000 and 8,000 fighters in Libya, plus some 7,000 in Nigeria and hundreds more in Egypt, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Moreover, "as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda," said Brennan.
As for the Orlando shooting which left 50 dead including the shooter Omar Mateen on Sunday, Brennan said the current investigation has not been able to uncover any direct link between Mateen and a foreign terrorist organization.
However, "lone wolf" attackers who are inspired by but not under the direct control of terror groups represent "an exceptionally challenging issue for the intelligence community," he noted.
The CIA is sharing intelligence with the FBI to help identify potential lone-wolf attackers, but the CIA's responsibility is to gather information about operations overseas, he added.
Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are expected to receive classified briefings from intelligence agencies once they officially become the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, as expected, in July.
China Aid
By Brynne Lawrence
(Guiyang, GuizhouJune 13, 2016) Documents from a lawsuit filed against authorities in Chinas central Guizhou province allege that officers tortured a detained house church pastor and threatened his life and family. The pastors two defense attorneys issued the lawsuit after their client testified on May 11 about the abusive treatment he has received in police custody.
Human rights lawyer Chen Jiangang released an exclusive interview between himself and Yang Hua (also known as his legal name, Li Guozhi), a pastor of Huoshi Church who was arrested on charges of divulging state secrets on Jan. 22 after he attempted to prevent authorities from confiscating a hard drive belonging to the church.
Yang Hua
(Photo: China Aid)
In the interview, Yang describes two incidents, occurring on March 16 and April 15, in which three and five prosecutors respectively threatened his life and family. These prosecutors include Ke Jun, Zhang Wei, Zhao Yuanpeng, Tang Jing, and a man surnamed Han.
According to Yang, Ke said on March 16, Youd better confess. Your life is in my hands. Im here to meet with you because I see you as an ally. If you refuse to cooperate, Ill treat you as a spy, as someone on the opposing side. In that case, we wont treat you this nicely. I can make you disappear from the face of the earth. Im a powerful man. Not one of the policemen [at this detention center] would stand if I asked him to get on his knees. [If you refuse to cooperate,) not only you, but your wife and your children will face problems. Im a torture expert. I know how to beat you up without leaving a mark on your body for people to see. Doctors wont be able to diagnose you. Even you wont know what you died of.
During the interrogation, the officials produced a transcript of what had been said and forced Yang to sign it. Then, they took him out of the room, forced him to re-enter, and videotaped another cross-examination, this time using less menacing language.
On April 15, the prosecutor named Zhang asked Yang to describe what happened on Dec. 6, 2015, when Huoshi Church refused to pay a fine the government inflicted on it for using office space that it purchased for religious services. When Yang refused to disclose this information, Ke became angry, stepped on his feet, and said, No one here sympathizes with you. Do you know why the pigs on the pig farm behind this building are so fat? We can turn you into food for pigs, which is one way to die. Theres another way to kill you. I can take you to an isolated place and no one will find out how you died. We can make you experience something worse than death and then make you disappear from the face of the earth, or I can make arrangements with the detention center to have three or four guys locked here rape you and torture you every night. Suing me wont work. Im the boss here.
Despite Zhangs threats, Chen and his co-counsel, Zhao Yonglin, filed a lawsuit against the prosecutors.
In response to this information, China Aids president, Bob Fu, contacted the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Congress, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Dutch government, including the Dutch Parliament, and urged them to communicate their concern about Yangs treatment to Chinese authorities.
Translations of the interview and the lawsuit documents can be found below.
China Aid exposes abuses, such as the torture and threats experienced by Yang Hua, in order to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China. If you would like to get involved in supporting Yang Hua, please consider signing the petition for his release or visiting www.freeyanghua.org to learn more.
Yang Hua Interview
The Huoshi Church Religious Case: Prosecutor Threatened to Turn pastor into Food for Pigs
A written record of an interview with Li Guozhi
Time: May 11, 2016, morning
Location: Nanming District Detention Center, Guiyang
Interviewers: Attorney Zhao Yonglin & Attorney Chen Jiangang
Recorder: Attorney Chen Jiangang
Q: At our last meeting, you mentioned that the prosecutor came here to meet with you twice. Please tell us more about these meetings.
A: Okay. The two meetings happened on March 16 and April 15. Three people came to the first meeting, including Zhao Yuanpeng and a person surnamed Ke from the Anti-Malfeasance Infringement Department of Nanming District Procuratorate. The third person was here to videotape the meeting. Only Zhao Yuanpeng wore a uniform.
Q: What did they do to you at your first meeting?
A: They interrogated me in a room with nothing separating us and secured me on a metal chair. They all could approach me. Prosecutor Ke brought up a chair to sit next to me. At the beginning, Prosecutor Ke said to me, Youd better confess. Your life is in my hands. Im here to meet with you because I see you as an ally. If you refuse to cooperate, Ill treat you as a spy, as someone on the opposing side. In that case, we wont treat you this nicely. I can make you disappear from the face of the earth. Im a powerful man. Not one of the policemen [at this detention center] would stand if I asked him to get on his knees. [If you refuse to cooperate,] not only you, but your wife and your children will face problems. I am a torture expert. I know how to beat you up without leaving a mark on your body for people to see. Doctors wont be able to diagnose you. Even you wont know what you died of.
Q: What else did they say? Did they force you to make up a confession or beat you up?
A: The first time, they produced a written record and had me sign it. They threatened me first and asked me to cooperate, and then took me out of the room and had me re-enter it. Then, they turned on their camcorder to record the interview. When the camera was rolling, they restrained themselves from any threatening words.
Q: Could you tell us about the interrogation on April 15?
A: Five people showed up for this meeting, still in a room with no furniture. The five people were Prosecutor Ke, Prosecutor Zhang Wei, a prosecutor surnamed Han, two people who had a camcorder, and another person whose name I did not know. Ke brought up a chair to sit next to me and said, Its not my job to interrogate you today. Thats my friends job, but I have come to keep an eye on you. In a moment, we will videotape your interrogation. You need to honestly cooperate and not play [tricks] by being silent.
Then he asked Zhang Wei to interview me, just to rehearse without videotaping.
Zhang Wei asked me what happened on Dec. 6, 2015. I was silent, which made Prosecutor Ke mad. He came over and stomped my feet. It hurt very badly.
Prosecutor Ke said, Theres no use staring at us. No one here sympathizes with you. Do you know why the pigs on the pig farm behind this building are so fat? [Editors note: The detention centers pig farm is right across from the interrogation room. Pigsties are right outside the hallway with many fat pigs in it.] We can turn you into food for pigs, which is one way to die. Theres another way to kill you. I can take you to an isolated place and no one will find out how you died. We can make you experience something worse than death and then make you disappear from the face of the earth. Or, I can make arrangements with the detention center to have three or four guys locked here rape you and torture you every night. Suing me wont work. Im the boss here.
Then he lifted up my chin and made me look him in his eyes. He stomped on my feet very hard and said, Not just you, your wife and two sons will be in trouble as well. Then he yelled profanities at me and said, I can kill you today!
Q: Did he stomp on your feet all the time? In the presence of these other four people?
A: He did and he stomped my feet very hard, with the four other people present in the room. The person in charge of videotaping was in another room. After swearing at me, Ke left. Zhang Wei and Prosecutor Han told me to cooperate. Then they took me out of the room and made me reenter the room, and started videotaping from 10:10am to 2:45pm. At last, they made me sign a written record.
Q: Is what you told us all true? If it is, please read this record and sign it.
A: All I just told you is true.
I certify that this record is based on what I said.
Li Guozhi
May 11, 2016
An Indictment Against Ke Jun, Zhang Wei, Zhao Yuanpeng, Tang Jing and Others from the Nanming District Procuratorate in Guiyang for Illegally Torturing a Suspect to Extort a Confession
Plaintiff (victim): Li Guozhi
The plaintiffs representative: Attorney Zhao Yonglin
The plaintiffs representative: Attorney Chen Jiangang
The plaintiff, Li Guozhi is Han Chinese and was born on March 28, 1977. He is the pastor of Huoshi Church in Guiyang. On Dec. 20, 2015, the Nanming District Sub-bureau of the Guiyang Municipal Public Security Bureau criminally detained him because he was falsely charged with illegally possessing state secrets. Because Li Guozhi was suspected of deliberately divulging state secrets, this bureau received approval to arrest him from the Nanming District Procuratorate in Guiyang. He is currently imprisoned at Manming Qu Detention Center in Guiyang.
Zhao Yonglin, the plaintiffs representative, is a lawyer from the Shandong Yueshou Law Firm. His phone number is 13905388077. He is Li Guozhis defense lawyer in the case in which [Li] is falsely accused of intentionally divulging state secrets.
Chen Jiangang, the plaintiffs representative, is a lawyer from Beijing Qianqi Law Firm. His phone number is 133381367825. He is Li Guozhis defense lawyer in the case in which [Li] is falsely accused of intentionally divulging state secrets.
Criminal suspect Ke Jun is a prosecutor at the Anti-Malfeasance Infringement Department of the Nanming District Procuratorate in Guiyang.
Criminal suspect Zhao Yuanpeng is a prosecutor at the Anti-Malfeasance Infringement Department of the Nanming District Procuratorate in Guiyang.
Criminal suspect Zhang Wei is a prosecutor at the Nanming District Procuratorate in Guiyang. He is a prosecutor in the case in which Li Guozhi is falsely accused of intentionally divulging state secrets.
Criminal suspect Tang Jing is a prosecutor at the Nanming District Procuratorate in Guiyang. He is an employee handling the investigation and prosecution of the case in which Li Guozhi is falsely accused of intentionally divulging state secrets.
Another suspect surnamed Han also participated in the crime, but his full name is unknown.
Facts on the criminal suspects:
Suspects Ke Jun and Zhao Yuanpeng are employees of the Anti-Malfeasance Infringement Department of the Nanming District Procuratorate and are members are the investigation team for the case in which the victim, Li Guozhi, has been framed with intentionally divulging state secrets. Suspects Zhang Wei and Tang Jing are employees of the Prosecution Department of the Nanming District Procuratorate who participated in handling the case in which Li Guozhi has been falsely accused of intentionally divulging state secrets. Zhang Wei is the prosecutor who endorsed the indictment paper. The above-mentioned four suspects all took part in the interrogation of the victim, Li Guozhi. Throughout the interrogation process, Ke Jun led, but all participated, torturing him to extort a confession. The facts are as follows:
1. On March 16, 2016, criminal suspects Ke Jun and Zhao Yuanpeng committed the criminal acts of threatening and extorting a confession from the victim, Li Guozhi.
On March 16, 2016, suspects Ke Jun, Zhao Yuanpeng and a cameraman entered the Nanming District Detention Center to interrogate the victim, Li Guozhi. The interrogation took place in a special [room labelled the] Guiyang Municipal Nanning District Procuratorates Interrogation Room. This interrogation room did not have welded barriers, such as the steel bars and iron wire in the lawyer visitation rooms. Suspects Ke Jun and Zhao Yuanpeng both had direct access to the victim.
When victim Li Guozhi was brought into the interrogation room by police from the detention center, the first step was to tie him to a metal chair. Suspects Ke Jun and Zhao Yuanpeng were both in the room. Ke Jun brought up a chair to sit next to the victim, and he threatened him, saying:
Youd better confess. Your life is in my hands. Im here to meet with you because I see you as an ally. If you refuse to cooperate, Ill treat you as a spy, as someone on the opposing side. In that case, we wont treat you this nicely. I can make you disappear from the face of the earth. Im a powerful man. Not one of the policemen [at this detention center] would stand if I asked him to get on his knees. [If you refuse to cooperate,] not only you, but your wife and children will face problems. I am a torture expert. I know how to beat you up without leaving a mark on your body for people to see. Doctors wont be able to diagnose you. Even you wont know what you died of.
While the suspect Ke Jun was insulting, threatening and intimidating Li Guozhi, Zhao Yuanpeng was at the side of the room and later produced a written interrogation record. He forced the victim Li Guozhi to sign it and stamp it with his fingerprint.
2. On April 15, 2016, suspects Ke Jun, Zhang Wei, Tang Jing and a person surnamed Han also committed acts of torture, intimidation and coercion against victim Li Guozhi.
On April 15, 2016, five people, including suspects Ke Jun, Zhang Wei, Tang Jing, [a staff member] surnamed Han and a cameraman, entered the Nanming District Detention Center to interrogate victim Li Guozhi. The interrogation was also carried out in the special Guiyang Municipal Nanning District Procuratorates Interrogation Room. By then, the case had already entered the prosecution stage, and Ke Jun from the Anti-Malfeasance and Infringement Department, who was in charge of investigation, had already handed over files of the case to the prosecution department. According to the law, Ke Jun was not supposed to come to the detention center to interrogate the victim, but he, as the person in charge of investigating the case, came with Zhang Wei, who is charge of prosecution, to interrogate the victim.
The same day, after the victim Li Guozhi was brought into the interrogation room and tied to a metal chair, criminal suspect Ke Jun pulled up a chair to sit next to him and said, Its not my job to interrogate you today. Thats my friends job, but I have come to keep an eye on you. In a moment, we will videotape your interrogation. You need to honestly cooperate and not play [tricks] by being silent. Then, he allowed criminal suspect Zhang Wei, who is in charge of prosecution, to rehearse the victim Li Guozhis interrogation. After they finished rehearsing, they began videotaping.
When the victim Li Guozhi did not respond to questions regarding the fabricated charge against him, criminal suspect Ke Jun began to carry out interrogation under torture and threaten him.
Criminal suspect Ke Jun stood up, forcefully and violently stepped on Li Guozhis feet and threatened him as follows:
No one here sympathizes with you. Do you know why the pigs on the pig farm behind this building are so fat? [The detention centers pig farm is right across from the interrogation room. Pigsties are right outside the hallway with many fat pigs in it.] We can turn you into food for pigs, which is one way to die. Theres another way to kill you. I can take you to an isolated place and no one will find out how you died. We can make you experience something worse than death and then make you disappear from the face of the earth Or, I can make arrangements with the detention center to have three or four guys locked here rape you and torture you every night. Suing me wont work. Im the boss here. Not just you, your wife and two sons will be in trouble as well. I can kill you today! The suspect verbally abused the victim Li Guozhi for a long time while forcefully stepping on his feet, which caused the victim acute pain.
Alibaba's Executive Chairman Jack Ma delivers a speech at an investor conference at the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province, June 14, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
Jack Ma's comments that fake products made today are "better quality and better priced" than the real goods should not be taken as a reflection of the company's failure to curb counterfeits, counterfeit experts said.
Ma, executive chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, made his comments at an investor meeting on Tuesday in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
According to reports, he said the better quality of the fake goods is due to many of them being made at the same or similar factories, sometimes with the same labor force using the same materials.
"They are exactly the same factories, exactly the same raw materials but they do not use the names," Ma said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
He also said the problem of counterfeit goods cannot be solved "100 percent, because it's the fight against human instinct", according to The New York Times. "But we can solve the problem better than any government, than any organization, than (anybody) in the world."
Ma's remarks were made in response to persistent criticism from luxury brands that the company is not doing enough to get rid of counterfeit goods on its sprawling e-commerce platform Taobao, where it is easy to find fake designer bags and jewelry.
Peter Yu, professor of law at Texas A&M University, said that counterfeits can be classified into various categories, with Ma most likely referencing "A-grade" goods that are so difficult to tell apart that they can only be verified by lab technicians or the original manufacturers.
"From the perspective of brands, when they see fake goods on Alibaba, they believe that Alibaba hasn't done enough to enforce and protect intellectual property rights, and that Alibaba should do more," said Yu, who is also co-director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M.
"But the part of the story that isn't emphasized is how much money and effort those retailing sites have already put in to the police the networks," he said.
Yu said that fake goods are also available on eBay, Alibaba's American equivalent, but the scale of counterfeiting in China is much larger, so even with the resources that Alibaba is putting into combating the proliferation of fakes, brands might still feel the efforts are inadequate.
Alibaba had been criticized by the Chinese government for failing to curb fakes, and late last year the US government issued a stern warning to the company, saying it could be added back to the "Notorious Markets List" if it does not do a better job enforcing piracy rules.
Alibaba became a general member of the International AntiCoun-terfeiting Coalition, a group that represents many luxury brands, but its membership was suspended a month after it was admitted. The organization's board of directors said the suspension was due to concerns from members, which the Journal reported included luxury brand Michael Kors.
"I think the focus of the conversation in the industry isn't to point fingers at Alibaba or any marketplace, but about making sure that our technologies are advanced and that they're easy to apply, track and trace," said Rich Cremona, CEO of OpSec Security Group Ltd, a brand protection company.
A ship designed by a COSCO unit in Nantong, Jiangsu province, on a trial sailing. It was made to operate under tough ocean conditions. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] Firm capable of carrying commodity goods to more than 100 countries, regions
COSCO Shipping Bulk Co was officially launched in Guangzhou on Thursday, forming the world's largest bulk vessel fleet in terms of both ship numbers and deadweight tonnage. The new company was formed by the merger of COSCO Bulk Carrier Co and China Shipping Bulk Carrier Co.
With a total of 382 self-operated and controlled bulk vessels and a capacity of 34.58 million deadweight tons, COSCO Shipping Bulk will be able to ship iron ore, coal, grain and other commodities to more than 1,000 ports in some 100 countries and regions. Its annual freight volume will exceed 340 million metric tons. It now has 18,500 employees, including 13,000 mariners. The average ship age in its fleet is eight years.
Sun Jiakang, deputy general manager of COSCO Shipping, said as many countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative need natural resources and commodities to support their ongoing urbanization and industrialization, the new company is keen to build more partnerships with both governments and businesses along these trading routes. COSCO Shipping Bulk also signed cooperative agreements with six domestic companies, including China Agri-Industries Holdings Ltd, China Resources Power Holdings Co Ltd and Hunan Valin Steel Co Ltd on Thursday. They will work together to further expand client networks and to develop overseas businesses, especially in emerging markets.
To improve local services, COSCO Shipping Bulk will work with representatives employed by its mother company, COSCO Shipping, to take care of sales, customs clearance and business promotion, in particular along the Belt and Road Initiative routes.
Because global bulk shipping operators continue to confront overcapacity, low carriage rates and weak market demand, the new company will deploy more resources into more than 40 of its non-shipping subsidiaries. It will seek to dig more growth from real estate, property and hotel management, road logistics, ship financing and insurance businesses. "The establishment of the new company is a flexible way to achieve business scale and synergies, particularly in the sectors of commodity shipping and other service businesses, in order to better compete with other established global rivals," Sun said at the inaugural meeting in Guangzhou.
"This move is also part of ongoing restructuring of State-owned enterprises," said Dong Liwan, a shipbuilding industry professor at Shanghai Maritime University. He said COSCO Shipping's new step will transform its businesses into a more diversified operation model that can take full advantage of the opportunities likely to come from surging demand for infrastructure development and natural resource trade in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America, as well as the in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
A graduate browses job information during a job fair in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Nov 25, 2015. [Photo/IC]
While China continues to face the realities of an economic slowdown and the challenges associated with its structural transformation, companiesespecially industry leadershave not tightened their budgets for human capital but are still making long-term investment in their staff, seeing them as core assets.
That's the message from the Best Employers China 2016 awardjointly released by global talent, retirement and health solutions provider Aon Hewitt, and social network LinkedIn Corp.
Award winners were among the 108 domestic and multinational candidate companies from 11 industries in 192 Chinese cities.
The companies winning the award included AIA China, Bayer (China) Ltd, DHL Sinotrans International Air Courier Ltd, Infinitus (China) Co Ltd, McDonald's (China) Co Ltd, MSD China Holding Co Ltd, Novartis Group (China), Pfizer China, Taikang Life Insurance Co Ltd and The Ritz-Carlton Hotels China.
Even though the country is entering the new normal of economic development, with its growth rate slowing but more sustainable, firms winning the award were able to demonstrate a higher growth rate when compared with their peers.
For the fiscal year between 2014 and 2015, the best employers managed to accomplish an average growth rate of 19 percent while the average level for the rest of surveyed companies was 15 percent.
It is the 16th year in a row Aon Hewitt has conducted the best employer research. It started to work with LinkedIn last year to identify the best employers by measuring four metrics: employer brand, high employee engagement, high performance culture and effective leadership.
Two organizers discovered in the latest survey that career opportunity, rewards and recognition as well as performance evaluation remained the top drivers to improve employees' engagement within a company.
According to Liu Yuan, chief executive officer of Aon Hewitt Greater China, career opportunity is of great importance to the younger candidates born in the 1990s, especially living in first-tier cities. Up to 40 percent of polled "new millennials" believed that they should be promoted every two years.
A company's corporate credibility, according to the research, has become the most important issue in terms of building an employer brand. About 93 percent of the interviewed employers rated credibility as No 1 in importance, up from the 86 percent a year earlier.
Aon Hewitt global partner Zhang Hong said that better localization was one key factor, which helped companies stand out. It means not only the localization of multinational companies but also the domestic companies adopting localized strategies after they have entered overseas markets.
"Local companies are booming and coming to realize the importance of building an employer brand," said Zhang.
Yu Zhiwei, vice-president of LinkedIn China, said that the Chinese job market is undergoing more changes as firms are expanding globally and the internet is playing a more important role in industries.
"Changes bring solutions and improve performance. A growing number of Chinese employers are letting go of traditional models and embracing innovative methods and technologies to attract and retain talent by leveraging social recruiting, employer brand building and big data insights," said Yu.
HANGZHOU - "If you hear Zhejiang or Wenzhou dialect in Milan, Italy, you should not be surprised," said Zhejiang businessman Lou Dengxin.
Over half of the population of Lou's hometown in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province have had started businesses overseas.
What began as a way of making a living far from their poor mountainous home, former Wenzhou residents have gradually built a reputation for diligence and integrity. The entrepreneurs have become fully-fledged members of their local communities and an economic force to be reckoned with.
Mix with locals
Zhou Xiaoyan is one of the most successful of Zhejiang's entrepreneurs in Italy. She moved there in 1990 and now owns the Milanhuaxia Group, a communications conglomerate whose diverse business interests include housing, tourism and design.
Chinese companies in Italy have traditionally been associated with restaurants, bars and hotels, but Zhou's business has moved out of this comfort zone.
Milanhuaxia Group's media center hosted several events during the 2015 Milan World Expo, including an exhibition on Chinese charities and a celebration of traditional ink painting. Zhou has also hosted activities such as China-Europe fashion month.
Not merely doing business, Chinese entrepreneurs play their parts in local social welfare through charity work, said Zhou, and the Italian government has an open and welcoming attitude towards Chinese capital.
Win-win
Wang Benshan is chair of the board of Zhejiang Rifa Precision Machinery. Half of the Zhejiang private listed company's operation has been in Italy since the purchase of two Italian digital machinery companies in 2014 to 2015.
The acquisition gave a big boost to Rifa's research and development capacity while Rifa's well-established sales network in China has helped the two Italian companies.
For the Italians, Zhejiang's businesses are seen as a positive force for creating jobs, and they pay their taxes.
Building up the brand
According to Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences, there are over 2 million people from Zhejiang living in over 180 countries, most of whom run businesses there. Their assets are estimated at over $700 billion.
In Italy for example, most of the 321,000 Chinese living there are from Zhejiang, and one in five owns a business.
Chen Zhengxi, chair of Italy Fansheng Import and Export, said that over the past 30 years, Zhejiang business people in Europe have started from nothing and have made their success mostly from importing Chinese products. Now as the economy slows in Europe, they are seeking ways to transform.
The success of Zhejiang's businesses lies in honesty and hard work, according to Qiu Yuanping, director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council.
The space for China-Europe business cooperation remains huge, with China's vast consumer market and Europe's brands.
Representatives of the Belt & Road Industrial and Commercial Alliance's founding members pose at the founding ceremony in Beijing on July 16, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
The Belt & Road Industrial and Commercial Alliance (BRICA), with 22 founding members from 20 countries, was officially founded in Beijing on Thursday.
"The establishment of the alliance will promote industrial investment and economic and trade cooperation among countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road," said Li Yizhong, co-chair of BRICA.
The Silk Road Economic Belt concept was first introduced by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013. On March 28, 2015, China unveiled the principles, framework, and cooperation priorities and mechanisms in the Belt and Road Initiative.
"Given the backdrop of the vulnerable economic recovery after the world financial crisis, China's Belt and Road Initiative strategy helps explore new modes in international cooperation and global governance," Li added.
BRICA members also jointly launched the project to establish a Belt and Road Industrial Cooperation Think-Tank to pool experts and talents in various countries for multi-field cooperation on policy studies, industrial planning, and project consulting to provide intellectual support for the development of BRICA members.
In order to provide financial support to cooperation among BRICA members, the Global Investment, Merger and Acquisition Fund Alliance was also established today.
Currently, more than 60 domestic institutions have joined the alliance, managing an asset of 300 billion yuan and covering investment in advanced manufacturing, information technology, energy, medicine and health care, real estate, infrastructure and so on.
BELGRADE - It normally takes six hours to travel to Belgrade from Budapest by train. But this will soon be history: When the planned Hungary-Serbia railway is completed by the end of 2017 as scheduled, the journey will be shortened to less than three hours.
The 350-km railroad, 184 km of which will run in Serbia, is designed for electrified passenger and cargo trains whose maximum speed could reach 200 km per hour.
Though tens of thousands of miles away from China, the railway, being constructed by a consortium of Chinese, Serbian and Hungarian companies, represents a flagship project of cooperation between the world's second-largest economy and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.
At a launching ceremony late last year in Serbia's second-largest city, Novi Sad, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stressed that the new railway significantly brings Serbia closer to the central zones of Europe and will help transform Serbia into a regional hub of transportation and logistics.
Strong partnership
The railway project is a typical example of the intensifying cooperation between China and Serbia. As the first CEE country to establish a strategic partnership with China in August 2009, the Balkan state has since witnessed a growing number of China-related infrastructure projects breaking earth on its soil.
"China and Serbia have given each other firm support on issues concerning their core interests, which shows the essence of a strategic relationship," Li Manchang, the Chinese ambassador to Serbia, told Xinhua.
Major achievements in bilateral cooperation in recent years include the Pupin Bridge over the Danube River in Belgrade, which was China's first big infrastructure investment on the European continent and has greatly improved the city's traffic conditions since its 2014 inauguration, and the Kostolac power plant, the first Chinese electric power project in Europe.
The two countries have also broadened their cooperation in areas like energy, iron and steel, telecommunication and finance. The model of cooperation has also shifted from traditional loan granting to direct investment or joint ventures.
"Such cooperation places emphasis on improving local people's livelihood, so that they can see the actual benefits from closer bilateral ties," said Li.
In 2015, China and Serbia signed a Memorandum of Understanding, pledging to jointly push ahead the Belt and Road Initiative.
"This shows Serbia's strong support of the China-proposed initiative, while the two countries have set a great example for win-win cooperation between China and the CEE countries," the ambassador said.
All-win initiative
Actually, since the global financial crisis in 2008, the CEE countries have seen steady development of their cooperative relationships with China, which reached an unprecedented level in 2012 with the establishment of the 16+1 mechanism, a cooperation platform for China and the CEE countries, and the convening of the first 16+1 summit in Warsaw, Poland.
In the past five years, the two sides have also started to reap fruits of their cooperation. In 2015, China and the CEE countries scored an overall trade volume of $56.2 billion despite the sluggish global economic growth. Chinese companies have invested roughly $5 billion in the CEE countries, which have also made investments worth an estimated total of 1.2 billion dollars in China.
Meeting with leaders from 16 CEE countries last November in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China welcomes the participation of the CEE countries in the Belt and Road Initiative.
With China having signed cooperation deals with Poland, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Slovakia, further steps were taken in synergizing China's development plan with those of the five CEE countries.
The Belt and Road Initiative, first proposed by President Xi in 2013, is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes, of which the CEE countries are an essential part as a quarter of the countries along the routes are located in the region.
Over the past three years, the initiative has achieved a good start through promoting interconnectivity construction, establishing financial platforms such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, expanding investment and trade in related countries, boosting cultural exchanges and enhancing mutual understanding.
According to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, over 70 countries and international organizations have voiced their support for the initiative, with 34 of them having signed inter-governmental agreements on co-constructing it.
Boosting European integration
"Aligning the 16+1 mechanism with the Belt and Road Initiative will provide new opportunities for China and the CEE countries to deepen cooperation in production capacity, transportation, infrastructure and finance," said Cui Hongjian, a China-Europe relations specialist at the China Institute of International Studies.
Yet China rejects comparing the Belt and Road Initiative to the Marshall Plan, or the US-led European Recovery Program launched after World War II and under the shadow of the Cold War.
"The Belt and Road Initiative opposes seeking dominance in regional affairs or sphere of influence, does not intervene in internal affairs of regional countries, and is in accord with existing regional mechanisms and cooperative proposals," said Liu Jianchao, a former Chinese assistant foreign minister.
The initiative encourages related countries to join hands voluntarily, follow market and business rules, and push ahead on an equal and mutually beneficial basis, he said.
For the CEE countries, joining the Belt and Road Initiative can benefit their integration with the European Union (EU), Wang Yiwei, head of the European Union Research Center at China's Renmin University, told Xinhua.
The China-EU 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation, adopted at the 2013 China-EU summit, has endorsed the establishment of the 16+1 mechanism and clarified its role, said Wang, citing the fact that 11 of the CEE countries are EU members and the remaining five are also applying to join the bloc.
"Some EU countries once suspected that the birth of 16+1 might be a 'divide and rule' strategy of China toward Europe," said Wang. "They have now realized that the mechanism is actually a new platform quite helpful for the European integration."
BEIJING - The Commerce Ministry said Friday that the rapid increase in outbound investment was normal, dismissing concerns that such gains would intensify capital outflows.
Concerns have been raised that increased foreign exchange demand along with surges in outbound investment added pressure to foreign exchange reserves and international payments. "We are studying whether this will pose any risk and if we need to take targeted measures," spokesperson Shen Danyang said at a news briefing.
China's outbound investment would exceed foreign direct investment in the country this year, Shen said.
Potential homebuyers examine a property project model in Yichang, Hubei province, June 4, 2016.[Photo/VCG ]
After the property market craze took first-tier cities by storm, second-tier cities are now getting hit by the phenomenon - steep housing price hikes and flash buys of new houses and land, CCTV reported Thursday.
A 150-meters-long lines of home buyers, including 2,000 qualified buyers and 20,000 who bet on a chance to buy, crowded buildings for sale in Hefei before 7 am. The developer had to adopt a lottery to allot home purchasing qualifications. Twelve candidates emerged in every lottery round, who would earn one minute to choose a home.
Within two hours, 866 new homes were sold,, yet this scene isn't anything new for cities like Hefei.
Sales representative in Hefei told a reporter that with fewer homes and many buyers, new homes are red hot once they are in the market. The next window for purchase will be in September.
Meanwhile in Nanjing, about 500 buyers are waiting under a large, temporarily-built rain shed waiting to be called so they can claim one of the 250 homes in the city's Jiangbei district. "We did our homework on what kind of apartment we like, now we'll wait to see if we are lucky enough to win the lottery," a home buyer said.
Developers have already assessed how deep the pockets of each investor is before giving out the qualifications for them to enter the lottery, according to the media
In Xiamen, even luxury houses are swept off the shelves like cheap produce. Chen Yuanping, big client manager with Longhu Xiamen Real Estate, said that most high-end clients assume that it's easy to buy a luxury house, until they see that the reality is to wait in line for three hours just for an appointment for qualification assessment.
A home buyer in Xiamen who had been looking at new homes saw prices rise from 20,000 yuan to 32,000 yuan per sq m in six months. "I didn't take the opportunity back then, and I need to take action now, even if it's expensive," the home buyer said. "Better to buy now than wait for another year when the price rises to 50,000 (per sq m)."
Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, talks with Kevin Michael Rudd, president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and former prime minister of Australia, at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that opened on June 16, 2016. [Xu Jingxing/China Daily]
Jack Ma, founder and chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, on Thursday proposed the establishment of digital free trade zones for small businesses and called for Russia to become an e-hub intersection connecting Asia and Europe.
An e-hub is a digital free trade zone designed specifically for small businesses. Ma said services including logistics, payments, financing and inspections would be provided.
"Trains have stations and aircraft have airports. We should build an e-road that connects e-hubs around the world. It would be a paradise for SMEs to sell products that serve anywhere in the world," Ma said.
"Russia has very good chance to be one of the e-hubs," Ma said.
Ma made his remarks at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that opened on Thursday and runs to Saturday.
The three-day forum is an annual international conference dedicated to the most pressing economic and business issues facing Russia and the world.
Ma's proposal is part of his ambition, raised last year, to build a global e-commerce platform, called the Electronic World Trade Platform. It would serve the interests of SMEs that have been left out of the world's free trade regime in the past.
"In most countries SMEs contribute more than 50 percent of GDP and an even higher percentage of employment. But SMEs face challenges such as poor access to global markets, complex regulations and certifications designed for big companies, and a lack of access to financing," Ma said.
"We urge G20 countries to support the growth of SMEs," said Ma, who is also the chair of the B20 SME Development Taskforce. B20 is the business advisory group to the G20.
Cross-border shopping is the fastest-growing sector in Russia's e-commerce market. Ma said in an interview in 2015 that about one in 10 people from Russia made online purchases through Alibaba's AliExpress, a site that allows shoppers around the world to buy goods at wholesale prices.
"Hundreds of thousands" of packages are sent from China to Russia on a daily basis, according to the e-commerce giant.
China has been Russia's largest trading partner for six consecutive years since 2010. But Sino-Russian bilateral trade volume fell 27.8 percent last year to 422.73 billion yuan ($64.16 billion) due to the ongoing global economic downturn and falling oil prices, according to the General Administration of Customs.
"Besides energy industry cooperation, companies from both countries should work together to jointly develop high-end products for the manufacturing, consumption and infrastructure sectors," Chen Yuan, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the forum.
"Such a partnership will create huge opportunities for trade and financial cooperation. I am confident that our bilateral trade volume will reach $200 billion by 2020," Chen said.
The trade target was first raised by the leaders of both countries in 2014.
Didi Chuxing has completed a $7.3 billion round of financinga huge chunk of money that will give China's largest ride-hailing platform a bigger war chest to fend off Uber Technologies Inc in its home market.
The Beijing-based Didi said in a statement that it raised $4.5 billion in equity funding from new investors including Apple Inc as well as existing investors, including the country's internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
In addition to the equity investment, the Beijing-based company also landed a debt package of as much as $2.5 billion led by China Merchants Bank Co and a long-term debt investment of 2 billion yuan ($304 million) from the country's top insurer China Life Insurance Co. It didn't reveal its valuation after the new round of funding but said it now has $10.5 billion of disposable funds.
The announcement came weeks after its United States rival Uber said it has raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which pushed Uber's fundraising to $6 billion.
Analysts said that both Didi Chuxing and Uber use heavy discounts and cashback coupons to build and retain a gigantic clientele in hopes of pre-empting future competition.
"It remains to be seen how long they can keep up with this business model, but it is obvious that they could use some of their investors' money to keep afloat," said Travis Wu, vice-president and research director at Forrester Research Inc.
Didi, which has already expanded to more than 400 Chinese cities, has been gradually reducing its subsidies for certain cities and certain services.
But, it needs to spend more to improve user experience to keep its Chinese users loyal, especially in face of the competition brought by Uber, said Zhang Xu, analyst with the Beijing-based internet constancy Analysis International.
Emil Michael, chief business officer of Uber, said on Wednesday that China is one of the most important markets for the ride-hailing giant globally, adding it has completed more trips in China than in its home marketthe United States.
It claimed its market share in China has surged from about 1 percent to 30 percent.
Compared with Didi's dominant position in China, Uber has expanded to more than 60 Chinese cities and it is on track to hit 100 cities by the end of this year.
Villagers in Xianfeng, at the juncture of Southwest Chinas Sichuan and Yunnan provinces face a dilemma.
Thirteen years ago, they lured wild monkeys down a mountain in a bid to attract tourists and alleviate poverty.
Now they have to keep driving the monkeys away, because the hungry animals destroy their crops.
Xianfeng, part of Taiping township in Panzhihua, Sichuan, was impoverished. When He Youliang, now 57, became its Party chief in 2001, the village had only a dirt road.
"Somebody told me if we could lead monkeys to the village, investors with an eye for the tourism sector might build a better road," He said.
In 2003, He and three villagers managed to find wild monkeys. But the animals were timid and would run away at the first sight of humans.
"We had to use corn to lure the monkeys to our village. The straight-line distance between the site in the mountain where the monkeys were found and our village was about 10 kilometers. But we spent 48 days leading 73 monkeys to the village with corn," He said.
The next year, Zhou Zhenggui, a local businessman, set up an ecological tourism company in the village to show visitors the monkeys. A road nearly 20 kilometers long was built by the company to facilitate access.
"The influx of tourists resulted in cash in villagers pockets as they could sell their homebred chicken and mutton. Each household purchased a motorcycle and many villagers drove their own cars," said He Fulin, a middle-aged villager.
"During the Spring Festival and the National Day holidays, more than 1,000 tourists flocked to the tiny village which was home to some 600 monkeys."
But in 2014, Zhou fell sick and died. His daughter tried to take over the company yet it stopped operations the next year and could not pay villagers for feeding the monkeys corn.
According to He Youliang, the company owed as much as 110,000 yuan ($19,773) when it folded.
Without easy access to food, the monkeys started to eat the crops in the fields and jump on the roofs of houses ripping up tiles.
In May, Hou Youliang and a group of villagers decided to drive the monkeys away. They waved their hands and shouted to scare the animals, sometimes using a hunting dog if the monkeys refused to withdraw.
"Each time, the monkeys would flee to a forest about six kilometers from the village in the mountain. But they would stage a comeback the next day. They have come back four times. We have to keep driving them away even though we love them they have been with us for quite a long time," Hou said.
People in the forestry sector are against feeding wild monkeys, as they argue it makes them lazy and lowers their ability to survive.
"As there were too many monkeys in the village, workers hired by the forestry sector captured some 300 monkeys and sent them elsewhere in 2015. Now there are about 300 monkeys in the village," said He Zhizhou, chief of the forestry station in Taiping township.
China is in talks with India on the transfer of cloud-seeding technology.
In the first such engagement between the Asian giants, a team of scientists and officials from Beijing, Shanghai and East China's Anhui province, were recently in Maharashtra to discuss weather conditions with the government of the western Indian state, parts of which have experienced severe droughts over the past two years.
The Chinese team's days-long tour concluded on June 2.
If the discussions are successful, Chinese experts would provide training to officials of the Indian Meteorological Department on their latest cloud-seeding technology, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
One of the sources had earlier described it as an "exploratory visit by the Chinese side to discuss with relevant Indian authorities how to go about it".
The training is expected to be given on procedures to seed clouds successfully, the source said.
The training is aimed at inducing rain over Maharashtra's Marathwada region in the summer of 2017 if needed, the source said.
While summer rains have arrived this year in India, the region has been traditionally vulnerable to drought.
The sources spoke to China Daily on condition of anonymity.
An official in the China Meteorological Administration said that arrangements are still in progress.
The development follows a meeting between Han Zheng, Shanghai's top official, and Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, in the Indian state's capital of Mumbai in early May.
Han, who is also a Communist Party of China Politburo member, had asked Fadnavis if China could do anything for drought relief in Maharashtra, one of the sources said.
Monsoons and temperatures nearing 50 C have triggered many agrarian crises in India, with poor farmers being hit the hardest.
Indian media said in April that the Maharashtra government would begin cloud-seeding experiments in June and continue through August - the period of summer monsoons.
China started to use cloud-seeding technology in 1958, and today has one of the most advanced systems in the world.
satarupa@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 06/17/2016 page4)
An emergency rescue team from Shanghai formally joined the World Health Organization's Emergency Medical Team Initiative after completing a rigorous classification process.
The recognition certifies that the team is capable of providing mobile emergency field hospitals and staff members in response to natural disasters and disease outbreaks.
"This means that when a disaster strikes and an affected country requests help we can quickly deploy medical teams that we know meet our high standards," said Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO.
China's National Emergency Rescue Team (Shanghai) has 56 core members, including medical and support staff. All are from Shanghai East Hospital's emergency, surgical, cardiac, neurology, orthopedics, respiratory, gynecology, pediatrics and anesthesia departments.
The hospital said some of the team members participated in medical rescue work in the devastating magnitude-8.0 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008, the magnitude-7.1 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai province, the terrorist attack in Kunming, Yunnan province, in 2014 and the explosion in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, in 2014.
The team has nine advanced rescue vehicles with advanced equipment.
It was established in 2010 to provide emergency medical services for the Shanghai Expo, and in 2012 became one of China's 16 National Emergency Rescue Teams.
Team leader Liu Zhongmin, who is also president of Shanghai East Hospital, said the team is ready to accept assignments from the WHO and the Chinese government, and to participate in international medical rescue missions.
Emergency medical teams often play a critical role by providing support to national health systems through the delivery of clinical care to disaster-affected populations.
By classifying the teams, the WHO can assure disaster-affected governments and their populations of predictable and timely responses by well-trained medical personnel and self-sufficient teams, the organization said.
The classification process started in 2015 with more than 200 teams from at least 60 countries participating. The Shanghai team was among the first to sign up.
Parents should show more tolerance for other people's misbehaving children and help the "problem child" improve, according to education insiders and psychologists after public attention was drawn to the negative behavior of a boy in one school class.
Dozens of parents demanded the removal of the boy in their children's third-grade class.
China Daily is withholding the boy's identity and the name of his school to avoid subjecting him to public ridicule.
"We should be aware that there is a 'problem family' behind each 'problem child', and the child is actually a victim of the environment that he or she grew up in," said Qu Tingting, a teacher at an elite school in Shanghai's Fengxian district. "Their teachers, schoolmates and parents should embrace them and help them form desirable habits and personalities."
Recently, 45 parents whose children shared a class with the troubled boy, asked that the boy be removed. They said he is often disruptive and bullies classmates.
They held their own children out of school for several days in protest, even though final examinations were a few days away. Nearly two-thirds of the school's students didn't attend.
Parents said the boy hit a classmate in the head, tore others' textbooks, spit, screamed, danced in class and raised girls' skirts.
"Four teachers had been assigned to the class within the past year," Yang Biao, the school's Party chief, told ThePaper.cn. "The situation infuriated parents."
The school declined to comment on Thursday.
Despite the parents' strong opposition to the boy staying on in the class, the principal felt the child should not be abandoned.
"Not giving up on any child is not an empty slogan at our school," the principal, Xu Jin, was quoted as saying by ThePaper.cn. "I've met quite a few 'problem' children in my career, but we cannot reject or isolate them. That will hurt them even more."
The boy's parents are taxi drivers, parents said, and the father is often violent.
Psychologists said such children are usually lonely and lack love and care.
"They are angry at the violence of parents, and they bully vulnerable children as a way of venting," Lin said.
Qu noted the case of a fourth-grade girl last year who once pulled a classmate down the stairs, breaking bones.
The girl's parents were also ill-tempered, and the school persuaded them to get psychological counseling once a week for several months.
"The girl improved a lot, along with overall family relations. Her parents took her to an amusement park last month, which had never happened before," Qu said.
Urban management officers took to the internet to broadcast themselves going about the dark streets of Zhengzhou, Henan province, to "ensure a quiet environment" for students taking the national college entrance exam.
The live webcast was accompanied by text describing what the officers, known as chengguan, were doing and where they were going.
The idea was to show a "transparent law enforcement process to the public", according to the urban management bureau of Zhengzhou's Zhongyuan district.
Chengguan have been widely criticized, particularly for violence against unlicensed street vendors. Officers have been seen as rude, starting more trouble than they stop, and using violence, sometimes quite extreme, against those who disobey.
Some welcomed the webcast, observing that while the chengguan usually supervise the public, now the public gets to supervise them.
"In the past, people who recorded the chengguan would be stopped or even beaten up by them," said a local resident, who balanced his criticism with the proviso that, "it takes courage to face public pressure".
But many dismissed the webcast as a publicity stunt. Some even said the live feed "violated human rights" by showing the faces of people, such as vendors, without prior permission.
"The officers themselves decided what to show and when, so the real situation is no more transparent than before," said another Zhengzhou citizen.
Ye Daxin, deputy head of the Zhengzhou urban management bureau, dismissed accusations of a publicity stunt, saying, "It was a challenge for us to broadcast our actions live."
"There was no editing or anything like it during the webcast, which means the entire process of law enforcement was shown, including those vendors who illegally occupied the streets, or those who behaved in an uncivilized way," he said.
Ye added that there would be more webcasts, particularly on "important law-enforcement days".
Wang Jingbo, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said that despite the supervisory aspect of the webcast, it would not eradicate the roots of public concern.
"The public needs to give chengguan officers more leeway and support, while the officers need to show more concern for the street vendors, treating them with humanity rather than violently driving them away," he said.
Chengdu will have its second international airport in operation by 2020 to become the third city in China to have two airports for commercial flights, after Beijing and Shanghai, if work proceeds on schedule.
Construction started last month and is expected to finish in 2019, according to the airport authority.
Pan Gangjun, general manager of the Sichuan Province Airport Group Co, said three runways will be built. The airport will able to handle 40 million passengers and 700,000 tons of cargo annually by 2025.
The long-term plan is six runways, 90 million passengers and 2 million tons of cargo, Pan said.
Called Chengdu Tianfu International Airport, the new facility is located in Jianyang, about 50 kilometers from downtown Chengdu. The airport is expected to cost nearly 72 billion yuan ($10.9 billion).
According to Pan, it will include international passenger routes and most international cargo routes in the future, while the existing airport, about 16 km from downtown Chengdu, will be limited to domestic flights and some international cargo routes.
The plan to build a second airport for Chengdu was no surprise. The current Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is the fourth-busiest in China, behind Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
It handled 42 million passengers last year, up 12 percent year-on-year. But industry insiders estimated an annual 62 million passengers would be using the airport by 2020, far exceeding its designed capacity of 50 million.
The expanded capacity with the new airport is also expected to further boost the city's appeal to investors. The city hosts 271 Fortune 500 companies, as well as the consulates of 15 countries, the largest number of consulates in western China.
The existing airport's current 87 international routes made it possible for iPads manufactured in Chengdu, two-thirds of world supply, to be transported to different parts of the globe in a timely fashion.
Hou Yongping, vice-president of the Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said that after the new airport opens, cargo flights from Chengdu to Europe, Africa and the Middle East will be "two to three hours" less than those taking off from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Also, as Chengdu has a strong influence on regions in Southwest and Northwest China, "the new airport will facilitate easy access to these regions for the European market", he said.
In 2015, Chengdu was the first subdivision in western China to see annual GDP surpass 1 trillion yuan. In 2015, more than 2.3 million foreign visitors went to Chengdu, up 16 percent over the previous year.
Supply problems, drug risks mean some endangered animals will go unprotected
China's giant pandas are susceptible to canine distemper virus, and surveillance and vaccinations are warranted to support conservation efforts, according to a new report.
Published by the journal Nature on Thursday, the report said that due to the limited supply of some vaccines and the potential risks associated with others, most giant pandas in the Shaanxi Rare Wild Animal Rescue and Research Center, as well as those with other organizations involved in giant panda breeding programs, are not routinely vaccinated.
CDV was reported to have caused the deaths of captive giant pandas as early as 1997 when three pandas died at Chongqing Zoo.
The most recent outbreak in Shaanxi province caused the deaths of five pandas from December 2014 to April 2015. The single panda to survive had been vaccinated.
Xia Xianzhu, one of the authors of the report and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the immune responses elicited by vaccination were not sufficient to prevent naturally-acquired CDV infection, but may have lessened the severity.
The giant panda is native to China and is categorized as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
According to the fourth national panda survey, there are 1,864 wild pandas and 375 in captivity in China at the end of 2013.
Zhang Hemin, chief of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda, said every panda in the center is vaccinated.
Zhang's center was established in the Wolong National Natural Reserve in Sichuan province in the wake of an agreement between the World Wide Fund and the Chinese government in 1980. It is home to 210 pandas.
Wang Chengdong, director of the animal hospital at the reserve, said that the vaccine came from a company in the United States.
"From 2013 to 2014, the company cut the production of CDV vaccine due to slim profits and small demand, and we had to stop giving the vaccine to pandas. Though it resumed production, we are not sure whether it will cut the production line again," Wang said.
"So the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda is working with the authors of the report to develop a CDV vaccine specifically for China's giant pandas."
Contact the writers at suzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
Viral threat
Canine distemper virus is a single-stranded RNA virus of the Morbillivirus genus and family Paramyxoviridae. Several fatal outbreaks of CDV have been reported in captive wild populations, including lions, tigers and leopards, as well as in free-ranging, wild populations of endangered species such as African wild dogs and wild Amur tigers. CDV transmission to captive animals may occur via direct or indirect contact with infected domestic dogs or wild carnivores. However, the source of the CDV that caused the outbreak among giant pandas remains unclear.
Liu Xing with her three daughters at their home in Harbin, Heilongjiang province.Wang Song / Xinhua
As the weather warms, Liu Xing is welcoming more and more customers to her grilled oyster stall at a night market in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province.
"During the past two months, I have been able to earn about 300 yuan ($46) a day," said the 28-year-old.
But the money that flows in is only a fraction of what she needs for the treatment of her 4-year-old triplets.
Liu's daughters, who were born in 2012 in Bei'an, a county 340 kms from Harbin, initially brought great happiness to the family. But the happiness turned to worry when the girls were diagnosed with cerebral palsy when they were 17 months old.
Doctors said at the time they would not be able to walk because of the disorder, which affects a person's ability to move and maintain balance and posture. Liu was comforted by the doctors' assertion that the girls were expected to have normal intelligence and language ability.
"The doctors told us that, after treatment, it would be highly possible that the girls would be able to recover the ability to walk normally. But the treatment would cost at least 600,000 yuan, which was an astronomical number for us," the young mother said.
But the family didn't give up. Although they had moved to Yantai in Shandong province after the triplet's birth, they decided to move to Harbin in order to see doctors at better hospitals.
The couple set about scraping together the money they needed for the triplets' treatment by doing odd jobs at first and then by opening their grilled oyster stall in May 2015.
Liu said more people began to know the family's story after it was reported in local media, and since then, many people have tried to help. She said they were offered the stall at the busy market without needing to pay any administrative fees. And the boss of the seafood market where they buy their oysters offered them a much lower price.
But what touches the couple the most is the kindness of strangers who drop by their stall with money or who send cash without leaving their names.
"Some people have told me that they have come to the stall from far away especially to buy our oysters, and some people have left money without even taking any oysters away," Liu said.
"So far, we have received nearly 300,000 yuan in donations."
Last year, the couple took the triplets to Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, where they received two rounds of treatment at a local hospital. "Every round of treatment costs about 180,000 yuan, and the daily rehabilitation services cost about 9,000 yuan a month," Liu told China Daily.
But she said the treatment has led to a great improvement and the triplets can now walk slowly with the help of orthopedic shoes.
Even though the couple has a heavy burden to shoulder, the smiles never vanish from their faces.
"We don't know how many difficulties we will have to face in the future, but we will never give up," Liu said.
Miao Qin (left), founder of inWe, investor Zhang Zetian (center), and one of the store designers, Wang Yuheng, at the opening ceremony of inWe store in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]
China's tea brand inWe, which targets young consumers and has been dedicated to repackaging Chinese tea as hip to the West, opened its eighth store in Beijing on Thursday night.
Unlike the traditional way of drinking Chinese tea, where delicate tea sets and complicated tea etiquette are required to brew a good cup, inWe uses modern high-tech tea machines to ensure a consistent quality and taste of tea. Besides that, the stores are designed with a simple, modern aesthetic and a green environment for young people to gather and chat.
"Tea is the daily life of 1.3 billion Chinese people, but there are no famous chain store brands yet in China, which is a pity," Miao Qin, founder of inWe, who has more than 20 years of experience in the catering management.
InWe now offers almost all kinds of Chinese tea, such as green tea, white tea, Oolong tea, black tea and dark tea. Miao says that he would expect to open more than 300 stores in Chinese cities in the next few years. Apart from the offline stores, inWe will also put its products online.
Zhang Zetian, an investor, says China's tea market is valued at more than 100 billion yuan, so investing in the tea industry is a smart choice.
"Using a modern approach to help tea culture reach to more people, especially the younger generation, is also key to the development of China's tea culture," she says.
Many tourists received tickets on discount after showing the invitation. [Photo from gog.cn]
Guizhou has made use of social media to promote tourism to more people around the country.
Chen Miner, the secretary of Guizhou Provincial Party Committee, visited gog.cn, Guizhou's official web portals, and sent an invitation on the account of the website to all netizens on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social platform on June 14.
The invitation briefly introduces the remarkable local scenic spots and welcomes all netizens to visit Guizhou.
Many local scenic spots in Guizhou immediately offered discounts on tickets in order to welcome tourists who received the invitation.
Huangguoshu waterfall, Asia's largest waterfall scenic spot, posted on its official Weibo account saying that the first 30 followers will receive a free ticket to the spot.
Dozens of local scenic spots in Guizhou had temporary fifty percent discounts on tickets.
Netizen "lee" and many other tourists visiting Guizhou Zhijindong Cave National Geologic Park, commented on Weibo about the invitation letter, saying "with the invitation, I got 50% off on my ticket. So awesome."
It wasn't just the attractions that got in the act. China Southern Airlines, Colourful Guizhou Airlines and Guiyang Railway Station also launched a wide range of campaigns to promote travel in Guizhou.
A dog to be slaughtered in a cage at a dog market in Yulin, Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on June 19, 2015. [Photo/CFP]
Most Chinese want the annual Yulin dog meat festival on June 21 to be called off, saying it tarnishes the country's image, according to the findings of a survey conducted by Chinese polling company Horizon.
Among the polled respondents, 64 percent support the end of the festival held every year in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and 51.7 percent say the dog meat trade should be completely banned, according to the poll commissioned by Chinese group China Animal Welfare Association in collaboration with Humane Society International and Avaaz, a global online campaign community.
"The vibrant campaign to end the Yulin dog meat festival is rooted in Chinese opposition to the event, supported by people from around the world who agree that this cruel trade must not be tolerated," said Qin Xiaona, director of the Capital Animal Welfare Association.
Over the past few years, as calls to end the event have gained momentum, local governments have responded by disassociating themselves from the festivals.
An unprecedented eight million Chinese voted online in support of a legislative proposal to ban the dog meat trade in China recently.
Last week, petitions signed by more than 11 million people around the world were submitted to policy makers in Beijing, demonstrating that people globally have joined their call to end the trade.
The poll also found that 62 percent of the respondents thought Yulin damages China's reputation and 69.5 percent added that they have never eaten dog meat, discrediting previous claim that Yulin festival is part of Chinese culture.
"It is embarrassing to us that the world wrongly believes that the brutally cruel Yulin festival is part of Chinese culture. It isn't and as we see in this poll, most people here don't eat dogs and believe that the festival damages China's global reputation," said Qin.
Billed as a "celebration" of dog meat to mark the summer solstice, the Yulin festival sees thousands of dogs abused and killed, many of them stolen from their homes and streets by dog meat traders.
"This poll squelches any remaining doubt about where Chinese citizens stand on Yulin's brutal beating and burning of pups," said Luis Morago, campaign director at Avaaz.
In 2014, Yulin's local government closed several markets and slaughterhouses and banned officials from eating dog meat at local restaurants.
In 2011, Jinhua Hutou dog meat festival was banned in East China's Zhejiang province.
Jiang Guozhen passed away in hospital on June 15, 2016. [Photo/thepaper.cn]
A rural teacher who donated everything he had to help students in need died on Wednesday.
Jiang Guozhen was born in Jiangjia village in East China's Jiangxi province in 1930. He was a veteran and a government official before being assigned to work at a rural primary school in 1953 due to acute shortage of rural teachers.
During his 30 years of teaching career, Jiang donated more than 400,000 yuan ($60,720) to students facing financial problems. The sum included most of his salary, the pension, and money he earned from farming and scavenging.
When he died on Wednesday, only 1.36 yuan were left in his bank card.
With no offspring, Jiang led an extremely simple life. He usually ate only sweet potato and wore worn-out clothes. He did not even spend money on his run-down house - and the house later collapsed. After he was saved from the rubbles, Jiang moved into an elderly care home.
Because of his efforts to help students, Jiang was honored the Outstanding Communist Party Member and Most Beautiful Rural Teacher, and nominated for National Moral Model.
He was hospitalized in March for nasopharnyx cancer, a type of cancer that starts in the upper part of the throat behind the nose. In the hospital, he told the staff to stop giving him injections because they were too expensive.
On April 21, Jiang signed to donate his cornea to people in need. "I am a Party member. When the country needs me, I will devote my life to it," said Jiang on his death bed.
A beekeeper and his wife have sparked controversy in Chengdu, Sichaun province after it emerged that they spend up to seven months a year hiking around China with their 4-year-old daughter.
An online poll conducted by the city's West China Metropolis Daily showed that only 31.5 percent of 3,038 respondents were in favor of the practice, with many concerned that the father was pushing the girl too hard.
Originally from Shangrao, Jiangxi province, 38-year-old Pan Tufeng started hiking with his daughter Pan Zhenwen when she was just 15 months old.
Each year, she walks with her father and mother Yuan Rui, 40, for between six and seven months. She has never been to kindergarten and the couple does not plan to send her to one.
"She will have at least 12 years in the classroom from the age of seven when she starts to attend primary school. For now, we want to teach her what she cannot get from the classroom," Pan said.
The family's story was reported by a local newspaper in Sichuan on Monday, soon after they had arrived in Chengdu with plans to walk along the Sichuan-Tibet road for two months to reach Lhasa, the autonomous region's capital. Their journey has since aroused much debate online.
A female resident of Chengdu only identified as Chen said the four-year-old girl was a role model for her son, a second grader who could not yet feed himself.
A netizen called "That is a journey yet to end" thought the young girl could learn much from the countless scenes she would see and people she would meet along the way. Her life has had an arduous but beautiful beginning, the netizen said.
"That netizens support the family's idea of 'walking to learn' reflects the mounting pressure Chinese kids face. School education is exam-oriented and students have to study all the time and have no time to play," said Li Yuanxiu, a kindergarten head teacher in Chengdu.
Nearly 12 percent of respondents to the online poll strongly opposed Pan's idea of letting his daughter experience hardship so that she could better herself, describing this type of education as too extreme.
Among the opponents were those who feared the girl was too young to cope with all the walking and those who considered it wrong not to let her attend kindergarten.
Pan said: "My daughter and I walk slowly and stop whenever we see something interesting. When she is tired, we take a rest. As a father, I would not risk her life to walk for walking's sake."
At 8 am on Friday, Pan and his daughter left Tianquan county for neighboring Ludian county in Sichuan. "The distance between the two is only some 10 kilometers. But we walk at a leisurely place and plan to arrive at a hotel at 8 pm," Pan said, adding that he would teach his daughter the story of the Battle of Luding Bridge when they reached that historically significant crossing across the Dadu River.
The 2016 Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair will kick off in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province on June 24.
The event is expected to draw more than 500 participants from home and abroad, including government leaders, Nobel Prize winners, academicians and world-renowned scientists, university presidents, diplomats, entrepreneurs and investors.
The fair aims to become an international platform that gathers innovation and entrepreneurship resources from around the world and boosts the exchange of innovative ideas and the transaction of innovative achievements, according to Gou Zhengli, deputy mayor of Chengdu.
Gou said the three-day event will include 18 major activities: 12 high-level forums that focus on the development trend of innovation and entrepreneurship, one exhibition that displays the worlds latest scientific and technological achievements, three trade fairs for innovation and entrepreneurship resources, and two innovation and entrepreneurship contests.
Lu Tiecheng, director of Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau, said top scientists from home and abroad in such fields as semiconductor lighting, fundamental particle, artificial intelligence and astrophysics will be invited to the event to discuss the worlds frontier science and technology.
The scientists expected include Shuji Nakamura, 2014s Nobel Prize winner for physics and Arthur B. McDonald, who won the Nobel Prize for physics in 2015. Also planning to attend are Wu Hequan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor Chen Yanbei from the California Institute of Technology, he said.
The 2016 Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Exhibition will cover a total area of 15,000 square meters and feature 300 exhibitors. A series of the latest innovative products will be on display, including Pneumatic Tubes, the light-field camera Lytro Illum and Lily Drone, according to Wang Xin, deputy director of Chengdu Exposition Bureau.
Three fairs are planned for the transaction of talent, equity investment and technological achievements. The Talent Trading Fair will invite 70 Fortune Global 500 companies, leading head-hunting companies, top local companies and scientific research teams and universities, all aiming to boost the exchange of top-level talents.
The 2015 Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair drew more than 200 delegates from 30 countries and regions. Some 109 deals worth 5.32 billion yuan ($808 million) were signed during that event.
Twenty-six suspects in a baby-trafficking case involving 26 infants stood trial from Wednesday to Friday in Zhejiang province, with some of them stating they were helping find good parents for vulnerable babies.
The suspects, including couples and a father and son, took on different roles including intermediaries, caregivers and transportation, and sold the infants in Zhejiang, Fujian and Yunnan provinces in the previous two years, prosecutors said.
The People's Court of Cangnan county of Wenzhou did not announce a verdict.
One noticeable suspect - a 68-year-old retired obstetrician surnamed Li from a well-known hospital in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province - denied the charge of trafficking five infants, though she admitted participating in the transactions of three newborns.
"I don't perceive it as trafficking and I didn't get a penny from the deals. I regarded my behavior as a way to help people and save the babies as they were abandoned by their parents because they were unmarried or they had economic difficulties," Li said during the trial.
Lawyers said that Li, as a doctor, must clearly understand that a police report should be made any time a woman abandons her baby.
"Even if someone leaves a baby secretly in the hospital, doctors should alert the police and children's welfare home," said Yi Shenghua, a lawyer at Yingke Law Firm in Beijing.
Clues about the case began to surface when some people in Cangnan heard babies crying in an old house, and suspected that the owner was not their father. Police captured nine people and saved the babies. More suspects were captured afterward in Shanghai and the provinces of Hebei and Yunnan.
Some of the infants were resold repeatedly in different provinces, with the price for a baby ranging from 10,000 yuan ($1,520) to 100,000 yuan, according to prosecutors.
The number of baby trafficking cases declined to 853 last year from 1,918 in 2012, as tougher penalties, including the death sentence, were introduced, statistics from the Supreme People's Court showed.
But there are still people selling their children, especially in rural areas, owing to weak legal awareness or a preference for sons, according to Chen Shiqu, a deputy inspector at the criminal investigation bureau at the Ministry of Public Security.
zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn
Desert restoration projects have developed at an incredible rate in Duolun county in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
The county currently has nearly 196,000 hectares of forests and grasslands, an increase from 36,000 hectares in 2000.
It has a 31 percent forest coverage rate, up 24.2 percent over the past six years.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Duolun suffered from severe land sandification due to natural disasters and excessive grazing.
In 2000, it began implementing plans to improve the ecological environment, such as planting trees and bans on grazing.
In 2011, the county launched an afforestation project to plant Mongolian scotch pines. With a series of supportive policies, the project attracted more than 30 companies and 55 forestry cooperatives.
As of 2015, they had finished about 70,666 hectares of Mongolian scotch pine plantations with investments of 1.46 billion yuan ($222.65 million) and built 265 tree seedling bases.
About 4,500 kilometers away from Duolun, Hotan prefecture, which sits on the edge of the Taklamakan desert in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, has also made efforts to thwart sandification.
Since 2000, it has kicked off several afforestation projects, such as returning grain plots to forests and participated in China's "sanbei" (Northwest, North and Northeast China) forest belt project.
Hotan's efforts have not only effectively curbed further land degradation, but has also enlarged oases and improved people's living environments.
The prefecture currently has 1.24 million hectares of forests, including 325,000 hectares of artificial plantations.
The total area of desertified land has been reduced by 690 square kilometers since 2004.
A group of companies have gathered in Hotan to develop local industries, such as fruits, roses, desert tourism and traditional Chinese medicine.
Left and center: A sand area in Duolun, in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Photos Provided To China Daily Right: A grassland area, also in Duolun, which currently has nearly 196,000 hectares of forests and grasslands, up from 36,000 hectares in 2000. Su Weizhong / For China Daily
(China Daily 06/17/2016 page12)
As part of the China-Latin America and Caribbean 2016 Year of Culture Exchange, a show on Fidel Castro reveals the Cuban revolutionary's legendary life through photos and videos in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]
As part of the China-Latin America and Caribbean 2016 Year of Culture Exchange, a show on Fidel Castro reveals the Cuban revolutionary's legendary life through photos and videos in Beijing.
The show, Fidel Is Fidel, features two videos and 87 photos taken by well-known photographers such as Robert Chile and Raul Corrales. It unveils the Cuban leader's important moments from the 1960s to the 21st century. It's also part of a celebration of the 90-year-old's birthday in August.
Photos such as Castro meeting writer Ernest Hemingway in 1960, speaking to his people, working until midnight and visiting the former Soviet Union for the first time are on display. Some of the revolutionary's signature portraits are in the exhibition.
The three-day show ends on June 16 at Capital Library in Beijing. Ding Li, Chinese vice-minister of culture, attended the opening ceremony.
Julio Ballester, Cuban deputy culture minister, says that the exhibition shows different parts of Castro: a politician and a spiritual leader. He says Castro has many artist friends in private life and he also is fond of books, music and films.
As part of the China-Latin America and Caribbean 2016 Year of Culture Exchange, a show on Fidel Castro reveals the Cuban revolutionary's legendary life through photos and videos in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Castro visited China in 1995 and 2003. According to Ballester, the former Cuban president values China and Cuba's friendship very much.
As of today, more than 3,000 Chinese students have studied at colleges in Cuba. A movie telling a love story between a Chinese student and a Cuban is being filmed in Cuba.
"We hope to have more exchanges in the film industry with China," says Ballester.
In 2018, Cuba will hold a big book fair and China will be the guest of honor, he adds.
Related:
Popular TV actor Hu Ge finds new passion behind camera lens
Warcraft producer Alex Gartner (right) alongside American studio Propaganda GEM CEO Ruben Igielko-Herrlich at a forum on international cooperation during the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival. [Photo provided to China Daily] Warcraft producer Alex Gartner predicts that we'll see more Hollywood films adding Chinese elements, a trend he spoke of in a recent forum during the Shanghai International Film Festival.
Warcraft, the cinematic adaptation of the popular video game World of Warcraft, has scored a box-office record in China.
In the first five days of release, it raked in more than 1 billion yuan ($151 million) on the Chinese mainland, despite only grossing $24.4 million in the first week in North America.
"Now the whole world is taking about China," says Gartner.
The cross-border film market forum was held by Nanzi, a Shanghai-based fund company, which plans to invest 23 Hollywood films in the next five years.
Garner says game fans in China appear more "loyal" than their counterparts in the English-speaking world, which makes the movie more welcome in China than some Western countries.
He also notes that multiple cultures, such as ancient Chinas myths and Europe's Middle Ages legends, have been interwoven in the film to intentionally attract audiences with different backgrounds.
China's booming market will prompt more Hollywood studios to add Chinese elements in their films, Gartner says.
Related:
'Warcraft' rules box office on Dragon Boat Festival
A courier masked as a "transformer" receives 300,000 yuan ($45,540) in cash reward for reporting a drug-related crime to the police in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, June 15, 2016. [Photo/VCG]
When the Ministry of Public Security, with the help of the "mainstream" media, tried to put an end to the public discourse about how innocent citizens should respond to police requests for personal identification information, they were not being unreasonable. Or wrong.
Not at all: for as they said, "It is a legal obligation for citizens to cooperate with the police to verify a resident's identification card in accordance with law."
Frustrated as they may be about reports of police officers abusing their powers, people generally agree that, under certain circumstances, ID verification is essential for guaranteeing public security, say for preempting acts of terror.
Each year, according to the ministry, police ferret out many criminal suspects through ID checks. From January to May alone, railway police departments caught 11,000 suspected criminals through verification of passengers' IDs, including people suspected of murder, robbery, fraud, and human trafficking.
Which is why, few will actually refuse a request by the police to check their IDs, when the reason for a check is given. Particularly if the officers involved sound reasonable.
Still, not a few have found the call for any citizen's unconditional compliance with law-enforcement activities, even when it is non-standard, unpersuasive, and indeed unpleasant, because it sounds incomplete, one-sided, even biased.
Since this whole debate originated from a case of an overbearing police officer in South China's Shenzhen abusing his authority in disregard of due procedure, wouldn't it be better for the statement to incorporate a mention of police discipline?
We know there has been a vow to regulate law enforcement, and that is to be applauded.
But it would have done no harm to reiterate it here. Especially, since this is a formal response to a matter of nationwide concern.
Otherwise it sounds problematic in terms of logic: How can a case of police misconduct end up with a high-profile reiteration of civilian compliance, with no mention even of due procedure?
True, few have openly challenged the disequilibrium between the habitual emphasis on citizens' duties and the neglect of their rights. But that doesn't mean people don't care. They do, and they keep asking questions; questions about appropriateness and about legitimacy.
In this particular case, people care more about whether there will be serious follow-up moves to rein in abusive officers, and ensure that when a police officer asks a citizen to produce their ID card, they do so in accordance with the law.
Former US president Bill Clinton talks with Jack Ma at Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York, on September 29, 2015. [Photo/ VCG]
Jack Ma, founder of domestic e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, provoked discussion online when he said in a recent speech that the e-business model enables original equipment manufacturers to sell goods of similar quality to those of international brands but at much cheaper prices. But Southern Metropolis Daily says the idea is more important than the manufacturing process and it involves intellectual property rights:
What should be discussed in detail is that some of the OEMs are ignorant of brand owners' IPR and simply copy the styles of international brands without authorization. There are loopholes in the law that can be easily exploited.
Alibaba is a victim of fake goods, too, as the credit of its e-commerce platform, Taobao.com, has suffered. Ma even said he had a team of 2,000 that sought to combat piracy and fake goods. We do not mean to blame e-commerce, but it has made it more convenient for illegal businesses to sell fake goods, especially when online policing of sales remains sketchy.
Yet fake goods are rather detrimental to the credit of both Alibaba and the whole of China. The country has long been proud of its manufacturing industry, but if illegal businesses make use of the industry to produce fake goods, that will only ruin it in the long run.
If fake goods and their makers continue escaping due punishment in China, the international brands might gradually give up their cooperation with Chinese OEMs and choose other partners instead. If that happens, China's manufacturing industry will face a major challenge.
It is time for China to improve its legislation and encourage domestic creative industries, so that more Chinese enterprises produce goods with their own brands, instead of simply working for others.
The press conference of the 2nd Ministerial Conference of China and Central and Eastern European Countries on Promoting Trade and Economic Cooperation is held in Ningbo, June 9, 2016. [Photo by Guo Rong/chinadaily.com.cn]
President Xi Jinping's visit to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan has attracted special attention because China's top leader has not been a frequent visitor to these countries. This is also Xi's first visit to the Western Balkans, his second to Central Europe within three months and his fourth to Central Asia.
These diplomatic arrangements, therefore, reflect China's determination to boost its comprehensive cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries and Central Asian countries in the context of its Belt and Road Initiative, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. They also show, from China's perspective, the significance of Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan in the regions.
In 2012, China proposed a new type of cooperation framework with Central and Eastern European countries (China-CEEC) to develop a comprehensive relationship with 16 CEE countries, including Serbia and Poland, which became strategic partners of China in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Since then, the Serbia and Poland, despite the changes in governments, have provided strong political support to the 16+1 cooperation framework as well as the Belt and Road Initiative.
There is obviously a political consensus in the two countries on the need to deepen cooperation with China. The most recent evidence of this was seen in March when the lower house of the Polish Parliament (or Sejm) unanimously ratified an agreement for Warsaw to participate in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which made Poland officially the first and only founding member of the AIIB in Central and Eastern Europe.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (9th L) poses for a group photo with leaders attending the 4th Summit of China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 26, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]
President Xi Jinping's visit to Belgrade is a big event. Unlike some other Central and Eastern European countries, Serbia is not a European Union member. Because of a dispute with Brussels on the issue of Kosovo's status, maybe it never will be. Although Serbia has signed trade agreements with the EU, political tensions between Belgrade and Brussels persist.
China has become the largest single investor in Serbia. And the geographical position of the country has made it critical to the realization of Belt and Road Initiative strategy of China. Chinese investors are no longer present only in the sectors of infrastructure and energy. In April, HeSteel bought the only steel factory in Serbia, and memorandums on further cooperation in the information technology and agriculture sectors were signed. Serbia is the only European country that has started negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union on a free trade agreement. This is significant for Serbian agriculture, which is increasingly turning toward the Russian market.
For Chinese investors, this may be an additional motive. Despite not having a big territory, Serbia still occupies an ideal position for duty-free export of all that is produced within its territory. For the new strategic positioning of Serbia, China is in the long run probably the most important partner.
LI FENG/CHINA DAILY
Despite numerous achievements over the past two decadesincluding the establishment of the 16+1 dialogue (16 Central and Eastern European countries plus China), increasing mutual trade and investment flows, direct train connection between Chengdu and the Polish city of odzzzthere still exist bottlenecks in the shape of increasing trade deficits for Poland, asymmetry in bilateral flow of investment and Polish entrepreneurs' struggle to enter China's huge market.
Notable efforts have been made by the Polish administration in the last few years, including taking measures to boost trade and investment, but they haven't necessarily borne tangible results. The trade volume between Poland and China, according to European Union statistics, reached $16.53 billion in 2015, four times more than in 2004 and over 30 times more than in the early 1990s. However, China's exports to Poland accounted for the lion's share of the trade, about $14.5 billion, with Poland exporting only about $2 billion worth of goods to China.
The visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Poland is thus noteworthy. It means that the recent change in Polish government didn't entirely turn away Warsaw from the East because China is regarded as Poland's strategic partner both in economic and political terms. This also shows Poland understands the importance of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Poland holds the strategic position in this regard. It seems the shortest land trade routes linking the West and the East, and further the Baltic, Black and Adriatic seas go through Polish territory, which constitutes a merging platform for Eurasia.
Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) also called One Belt, One Road (OBOR) appears to be confusing to many non-Chinese observers. Despite specific Chinese infrastructure projects aimed at improving transport links along the route from East Asia to Europe and East Africa, such as the building of ports in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Djibouti, Tanzania and Greece, BRI/OBOR has been called vague and nebulous by some.
Similarly, the 16+1 meetings that began in 2012 to improve relations between China and a group of 16 nations in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are perceived by certain European critics as an effort by China to drive a wedge between the western and eastern halves of Europe. These naysayers believe that the platform is a thinly-veiled geopolitical attempt to form a pro-Chinese bloc that will undermine the unity of the EU.
This week, since Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting Poland and Serbia in an effort to promote ties relating to BRI/OBOR and 16+1, there is an opportunity for China to clarify its intentions with regard to these two linked initiatives.
In March this year, on a visit to Prague in support of Xis visit to the Czech Republic, scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) insisted that the aims of the two initiatives are geo-economic rather than geopolitical. This, it was explained, means that through this pair of platforms China wants to develop win-win economic growth across the Eurasian landmass as well as East Africa, rather than attempting to increase its political influence and power in the countries concerned.
Unfortunately, coverage by a number of mainstream Czech media outlets concerning Xis visit frequently tended to convey a negative impression, meaning, despite the apparent success of the trip in boosting diplomatic and business ties, that the overall view formed by the Czech public was not as positive as might have been anticipated. With regard to the two CEE countries being visited next week, it would therefore be advisable if the Chinese delegation could take greater care to communicate the aims of the trip clearly to the local media and public, so that relations may be enhanced to the maximum extent possible.
Poland and Serbia are both key players in 16+1, being among the largest of the 16 CEE countries involved in the meetings. Xis visits to these two countries are therefore likely to be interpreted by Europeans as strategically important in some sense.
Poland, in fact, is the largest CEE nation, with a population of over 38 million. It has ports and a position between Germany and Russia that make the country influential in European trade. Warsaw, Polands capital, was the site of the first 16+1 meeting, meaning that it is certainly viewed as a key European player by Beijing.
Serbia is also a significant actor in the region, since it contains Belgrade, once the capital of the former Yugoslavia, and is arguably the most influential of the five 16+1 nations that are not members of the EU. China has already developed very positive cooperation with Serbia in recent years, with a high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest currently under construction by Chinese firms. A Chinese-built bridge over the Danube River in Belgrade was completed in late 2014.
Thus President Xis visit to these two countries can be seen as an effort to consolidate relations with key partners. On the other hand, the trip may be seen by some Europeans as an attempt at geopolitical divide and conquer tactics designed to undermine the institutions and influence of the EU.
This is why, at this important time of global economic shakiness, when stability of relations of all types between China and Europe is desperately needed, China needs to be crystal clear about the scope and limits of its intentions. Sowing the seeds of further suspicions of Chinas aims in Brussels is not a desirable outcome. The Chinese delegation must therefore make sure, through careful and clear communication, that the doubts about Chinas European ventures that already exist in not a few European minds are mitigated rather than increased.
Jeremy Garlick is a lecturer in international relations at the Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies, University of Economics in Prague.
The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and don't represent views of China Daily website.
Expanding my horizons at China Daily, and learning how to shoot a video
There are two sayings in English that are profoundly relevant to what I'm going to write about this week, with your indulgence.
One is, you're never too old to learn, and the other is, when in doubt, wing it.
These two phrases were in the forefront of my mind when I set about the latest challenge to confront me here at China Daily.
The assignment seemed pretty straightforward. Let's produce a two-minute video for China Daily to run on its social media platforms and websites, to complement our planned reporting of the momentous EU referendum facing Britons this month.
Oh no, I hear you cry, not more stuff on Brexit. Well, this is not so much about whether or not Britain will vote to remain in the European Union on June 23, but how Chinese, English, Australian, Polish and Hungarian ingenuity combined to produce what I personally feel is a cracking video. And we had a lot of laughs along the way.
I contacted Samantha Vadas, a freelance Australian-Hungarian who occasionally writes for us, and who I happen to know was a video reporter and television anchor back in her native Australia. Yes, she'd give it a shot.
So next up, I wrote a script. Easy. At which point a colleague asked exactly how we were going to shoot it. My airy comment to shoot on an iPhone was dismissed out of hand.
Enter two enthusiastic web editors, colleagues from Beijing, coming to the end of an assignment here in London. Song Wei and Liu Jing ended up wielding two heavy Canon DLR stills cameras that can shoot professional videos.
Next up, a check with the marketing department to see if they had a backdrop carrying the China Daily name. No problem, according to Tymon Strzelczyk and Jiang Shan, which meant they spent nearly an hour wrestling a canvas and aluminium frame into position in a cramped studio.
All the time I'm sitting back in the director's chair, with a slightly bemused expression on my face. The enthusiasm level, I may say, was terrific.
Now what do we need? Well, we had two camera tripods, onto which the Canon cameras slotted perfectly. Samantha, who'd been doing her own makeup and running through the script, asked politely where the autocue was. The what?
The autocue, that screen located just by the camera that presenters read from. It has to be at eye-level, she said sweetly.
A quick check with the indefatigable Alice Chen, our highly capable administrator, produced another tripod. (Alice, what else do you keep in that drawer behind your desk?)
Samantha, in the meantime, found autocue software online that allows you to read the script on your iPad as the device's camera is filming your face.
Now, how do we fix the iPad at eye-level so it doesn't fall over? Alice! Blue tack and sticky tape, please.
Crunch time. Samantha read through the script a couple of times, and then it was time for recording. Yes, readers, I did say "Action!" And yes, I did say "that's a wrap" at the end. And a wrap it was, after Tymon, our senior marketing manager, proved himself an adept video editor. Using two cameras proved to be a stroke of genius.
So forgive this indulgent bit of self-publicity from China Daily, but I wanted to say a public thank you to everyone who proved that when East meets West, it really does work.
The author is managing editor of China Daily European Bureau, based in London. Contact the writer at chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com
Staff members welcome visitors after the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Disney Resort.LIU XIN / FOR CHINA DAILY
Thousands of Chinese and overseas visitors flocked to the opening day of the Shanghai Disney Resport on Thursday.
Rain that fell during the day failed to dampen their enthusiasm for the $5.5 billion theme park.
You Xinwei, a 25-year-old who works in the logistics industry, said after taking a Roaring Rapids ride: "There were surprises at every turn the raft took and it became scarier as we went deeper into a dark cavern. The experience was fun and thrilling," added You, standing in wet shoes and clothing afterward.
Having visited Hong Kong Disneyland, You said the Shanghai park is larger and offers more high-tech attractions.
Koike Hideya and his wife Kyoto flew to Shanghai from Nagoya in Japan for a three-day trip. Compared with Tokyo Disneyland, he said the Shanghai park is bigger, prettier and its attractions are better with the use of high-technology.
The couple, who are in their 40s, were among more than 10,000 visitors to the Walt Disney Co's sixth resort and among the first group of overseas Disney visitors to the Chinese mainland.
Bob Iger, the company's chairman and chief executive officer, said on Wednesday: "When we open, we will continue construction to expand ... We've had some discussions, mostly internal, on what we would like to do next year."
The resort is the largest foreign investment to date for the California-based company.
"Nothing is as impactful. Nothing creates a connection to our stories, to our brands, to our characters, than a theme park experience," Iger was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
"The experience people have when they spend time in our theme parks is immersive. They not only hear and see our stories but they actually enter them, they live in them."
While most of the 300 theme parks in China are unprofitable, Disney is leading an incoming wave of megaparks developed by both local and foreign operators competing for a tourism industry that is set to double in size by 2020.
According to Bloomberg, about 60 more parks will open by 2020 to serve Chinese consumers, including Dalian Wanda Group's chain of 15 Wanda Cities.
Xun Xiaohong is pictured standing by a manhole on a street in Harbin, capital city of Northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province, June 12, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
One can get caught off guard by sudden summer showers. And when it pours down onto a city, problems and dangers might loom on the street.
The photo of a woman standing in knee-high water by a manhole on a flooded street on Sunday has become an Internet sensation, with netizens praising her as "the most beautiful lotus in the rain", Xinhua News reported.
The Sunday rainstorm was "rapid and heavy". For two straight hours, Xun Xiaohong, a staffer with Harbin Drainage Group in Northeast Chinas Heilongjiang province, stood at a low point in the junction of a road where the water at its highest point reached her waist, the report said.
Donned in bright colored clothes, Xun said she wanted to warn drivers of the dangers on the inundated street.
"I had to lift the sewer cover to let the flooding water go down," Xun explained. Fearing it would be overturned by the rushing water, she anchored the lid between her legs.
Xun's efforts on Sunday lasted for 8 hours. When she finally came home, she saw her photo online.
"It has taken me by surprise. But when it rains it is like my order. It's just my routine work to help drain off water in the rain," Xun said with a smile.
US President Barack Obama (L) and Vice President Joe Biden place flowers at a makeshift memorial for shooting victims of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, US, June 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]
ORLANDO, Fla.- President Barack Obama met survivors of a gay nightclub massacre and relatives of the 49 people killed on Thursday and said the United States must act to control gun violence and fight what he called homegrown terrorism.
"The last two terrorist attacks on our soil - Orlando and San Bernardino - were homegrown," Obama told reporters. "We're going to have to do more to prevent these kinds of events from occurring. It's going to take more than just our military. It's going to take more than just our intelligence community."
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Orlando, Florida, four days after a US-born gunman claiming allegiance to various Islamist militant groups carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
The United States has made it too easy for disturbed or wrathful people to legally acquire high-powered weapons like the assault rifle used in the attack on Sunday, Obama said.
"I held and hugged" grieving family members before laying flowers at a memorial for the victims of the attack on the Pulse nightclub, he said. Police killed the gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, a US citizen born in New York to Afghan immigrants.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack but US officials have said they do not believe Mateen was assisted from abroad. CIA Director John Brennan told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday that the agency had "not been able to uncover any direct link" between Mateen and militants abroad.
A married couple also claiming allegiance to Islamic State shot dead 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December.
Melissa Soto hugs therapy dog Susie near a memorial site in honor of the victims of the Orlando mass shooting outside of the Dr Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Downtown, Orlando, Florida, USA, 14 June 2016. A total of 50 people, including the suspect gunman, were killed and 53 were injured in a mass shooting attack at an LGBT club in Orlando, Florida, in the early hours of 12 June. The shooter was killed in an exchange of fire with the police after taking hostages at the club. [Photo/IC]
US President Barack Obama (R) and Vice President Joe Biden depart a makeshift memorial after placing flowers in memory of shooting victims of the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, US, June 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]
ORLANDO, the United States - US President Barack Obama on Thursday again urged Republican-controlled Congress to pass stricter gun control laws during his visit to Orlando in the wake of the country's deadliest mass shooting incident.
"Those who were killed and injured here were gunned down by a single killer with a powerful assault weapon," Obama told reporters. "The motives of this killer may have been different than the mass killers in Aurora, or Newtown. But the instruments of death were so similar. Now another 49 innocent people are dead. Another 53 are injured. Some are still fighting for their lives."
At least 49 people were killed and 53 others wounded, including a police officer, early Sunday morning in a shooting spree at a popular LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida. It was the deadliest terror attack in the US history since 9/11 in 2001.
The gunman, identified by authorities as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, was found dead inside the nightclub after a shootout with the police.
"I truly hope that senators rise to the moment and do the right thing. We can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives. If we don't act, we will keep seeing more massacres like this," said Obama.
Following the 2012 school mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed 26 lives, including 20 children, the Obama administration initiated but failed to push stronger gun control laws.
The laws, whose sections included expanded background checks and bans on assault weapons, were stymied in Congress after staunch opposition from Republican lawmakers and gun-rights lobby groups.
During his presidency, Obama presided over more than a dozen of high-profile mass shootings, and in an interview last year he called the failure to reform US gun laws "one of the greatest frustrations" of his presidency.
CARACAS - At least 408 people were arrested Wednesday after violent protests in Venezuela, which saw shops being looted.
Luis Acuna, the governor of Sucre State, called for "calm" in a press conference, after 15 shops along the Panamericana avenue in Cumana, capital of the north-eastern state of Sucre, were looted, including supermarkets, clothes shops and an optician shop.
Acuna said the "violence had left no dead and no injured", although opposition forces said that one man named Cristobal Castaneda had been shot dead.
Nelson Moreno, governor of Anzoategui state, which neighbors Sucre, also announced Wednesday that eight people had been arrested for looting, adding that two of the eight men arrested were known criminals with "a history of homicide, robbery and theft."
"This morning, we called a meeting of the state security apparatus, along with the mayors," said Moreno at a press conference. Moreover, he accused the speaker of National Assembly Henry Ramos Allup of "instigating violence" on social media.
According to opposition sources, the protests took place due to anger at the shortage of food in the South American country.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras arrives to deliver a speech at the Acropolis museum with the ancient Parthenon temple seen in the background in Athens, Greece June 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]
ATHENS - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented on Thursday his government's 2016-2021 plan for "fair growth", pledging brighter days for the suffering Greek people after six years of harsh austerity introduced to overcome the debt crisis.
A painful circle closes for Greece following the completion of the first review of the third Greek bailout, he told a forum on development hosted at the Acropolis Museum. Focus will be shifted from now on to growth boosting policies to address the high unemployment rates challenge and redistribute burdens and wealth, he said.
"For first time in the past six years we have a stable macroeconomic, fiscal and investment environment. The main focus now is development and all government efforts are geared towards one strategic target: promoting fair growth," he said.
Tsipras criticized as unsustainable and socially unfair previous growth plans presented by his predecessors until the Radical Left assumed office in January 2015.
Outlining the main pillars of the Left-led ruling coalition's strategy, he talked about "productive reconstruction" and restart of major infrastructure projects across Greece which had "frozen" during the crisis.
He also referred to a series of financing tools available from now in particular to small- and medium- sized enterprises as part of efforts to attract more investments and create "long-lasting and decent" job positions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in St. Petersburg, on June 16, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - The 20th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum opened here Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin urging more global interaction to solve economic problems.
The three-day forum attracted over 10,000 participants, including government and business leaders.
"The global economy is increasingly impacted by political and social factors ... It is vital that we work together in our search for additional drivers of development," Putin said in a greeting read at the opening ceremony of the three-day forum.
The forum is a platform for sharing best practices and proposing solutions to a wide range of issues, he told the forum.
Putin went on urging every nation to fully make use of the industrial, scientific, technological and innovative potential, as well as "the potential of international integration structures."
"We must react more swiftly to the shifting demands of the market and to the looming transformation of the global technological landscape," Putin added.
Discussions at the forum would provide guidance and consensus for Russian and global economic development, and give impetus to all-round international cooperation, Putin said.
This time's gathering also involves sub-forums of regional and international organizations like the Group of 20 (G20), BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
During the G20 Business 20 Forum, experts, business leaders and officials from various countries discussed issues including infrastructure, employment, development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as finance and investment.
At the warm-up of the upcoming G20 Summit, to be held in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in September, Chinese Internet giant Alibaba's chairman Jack Ma promoted the initiative of establishing a new global e-commerce platform, the Electronic World Trade Platform or e-WTP.
Ma said that the e-WTP could become an "e-road" that better connects global SMEs through logistics and inclusive financing.
The digital trade route would lead to the establishment of various "e-hubs" in different countries, and improve the global environment for investment and economic development, Ma said.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew talks about the US-China economic relationship on Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. [Photo by Chen Weihua/China Daily]
Chinese and US negotiating teams are talking in Washington this week about a revised negative list for a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) although the agreement looks unlikely to be concluded during the remaining seven months of the Obama administration. Jack Lew, the US secretary of treasury, said on Thursday that a sufficiently ambitious negative list -- where only exceptions to the treaty are specified -- from China could open a pathway to additional progress before the end of the year.
"Up till this last round, the negative list that we've seen has not been sufficiently ambitious to open enough of the economy for the BIT to have a successful path forward," he told a talk at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on Thursday.
He said he doesn't want to comment on something that is very much a work in progress, noting the talk had been going on over the past 24 hours.
"But they certainly led us to expect that the list will be the basis for working together going forward, even though it wouldn't be the final end result. I hope that's the case when our experts go through the list and report back," he said.
Lew hopes the Chinese take advantage of the remaining seven months of the Obama administration, noting an upcoming September meeting between President Obama and President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
He noted that leaders' meetings are very useful deadlines to focus attention, but said, "I can't sit here and warrant that it will be successful."
Derek Scissors, resident scholar at AEI, believes there is no chance for the BIT to pass the US Congress during Obama's remaining months in office. Most experts believe that the top priority for the US government is to make a last-ditch effort to push the Congress to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries that does not include China.
Scissors noted that the environment in the US now is very protectionist, and the immediate priority for the next administration will be domestic issues rather than any international agenda.
He agreed that the Chinese side should be negotiating in good faith. "But you don't want to give away everything to this administration because the new administration wants to put its own stamp on it," he said.
BEIJING - The killing of an anti-Brexit lawmaker has aroused global reaction as a June 23 referendum on whether Britain will remain in the European Union (EU) is drawing near.
Jo Cox, 41, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party and a vocal advocate for Britain staying in the EU, was attacked while preparing to meet constituents in Birstall near Leeds in northern England.
The Yorkshire Post newspaper reported the 41-year-old mother of two was shot and stabbed by a man reportedly shouting "Britain first."
The police said a 52-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the murder but his motive remains under investigation.
"Britain First" is the name of a far-right anti-immigration group. The group released a statement saying it was "obviously not involved" and "would never encourage behavior of this sort."
After the attack, pro- and anti-Brexit groups said they were suspending all campaigning for Thursday and Friday ahead of the EU membership referendum.
First Business 20 (B20) summit press conference is held in Beijing on June 16.[Photo/Xinhua]
BEIJING -- Business leaders of G20 members will focus on promoting robust, sustainable and balanced growth of the global economy during the September summit, an official said Thursday.
The Business 20 (B20) summit will gather nearly 1,000 business leaders in east China's Hangzhou city on Sept 3 and 4, said Yin Zonghua, vice chairman of the B20 2016 Host Committee and vice president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
The summit will have six issues on its agenda: financing growth, trade and investment, infrastructure, small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development, employment and anti-corruption, Yin told a press conference.
The business leaders have formed a draft report on policy advice for G20 leaders including topics such as green financing, a global e-trade platform, international investment and business transparency, he said.
The report will be submitted to the G20 summit, which will be held in Hangzhou on Sept 4 and 5 under the theme "towards an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy."
B20 attendees produce policy recommendations for the annual meeting of the G20 leaders. It brings together G20 business leaders to reflect upon the role of the private sector as the main driver of economic growth.
China formally took over the G20 presidency on Dec 1, 2015.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew talks about the US-China economic relationship on Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. [Photo by Chen Weihua/China Daily]
A revised negative list for a Bilateral Investment Treaty is being discussed by Chinese and US negotiating teams in Washington.
However, the agreement looks unlikely to be concluded during the remaining seven months of the Obama administration.
Jack Lew, US secretary of the treasury, said on Thursday that a sufficiently ambitious negative list where only exceptions to the treaty are specified from China could open a pathway to additional progress before the end of the year.
"Up until this last round, the negative list we've seen has not been sufficiently ambitious to open enough of the economy for the BIT to have a successful path forward," he told the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday.
Lew said he hopes China takes advantage of the remaining seven months of the Obama administration, noting an upcoming meeting in September between President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
On Friday, Shen Danyang, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said the momentum of negotiations on the investment treaty is encouraging, with discussions held on the negative list.
The two countries have pledged to exchange the new negative list this month to reach a win-win result, he said.
Jo Cox
Tributes flooded in on Friday for slain British politician Jo Cox, who died after being stabbed and shot in the head the day before.
Detectives are investigating whether her killing, outside her constituency office in Yorkshire, was politically motivated.
Suspect Tommy Mair, 52, was detained by police near his home in Birstall, West Yorkshire.
Prime Minister David Cameron suspended campaigning in the European Union referendum after the tragedy. Britons are due to vote on Thursday.
Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two, represented Batley and Spen in Parliament. She won the seat for the Labour Party in May last year, was a popular figure in Parliament and a passionate human rights advocate.
Cameron, on a campaign-related visit to Gibraltar, expressed his condolences to Cox's family.
"This is absolutely tragic and dreadful news. My thoughts are with Jo's husband Brendan, their two children and their wider family," he said.
"People are going to be very sad at what's happened, at this dreadful news, and it's right that we've suspended campaigning activity in this referendum."
Cox was active in the Remain campaign. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a statement, "The whole of the Labour family, and indeed the whole country, is in shock and grief at the horrific murder of Jo Cox.
"Jo was dedicated to getting us to live up to our promises to support the developing world and strengthen human rights and she brought those values and principles with her when she became an MP."
Alan Mak, an MP and the first person of Chinese and East Asian origin to be elected to the House of Commons in Britain, said on Friday:"Jo Cox was an outstanding MP and colleague in Parliament. She was warm, passionate and a strong voice for her constituents. Her death so young is a tragedy."
Cox is survived by her husband and two young children.
In a statement on Thursday, her husband said, "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now. One, that our precious children are bathed in love. Second, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her. Hate doesn't have a creed, race or religion, it is poisonous."
Yan Jin, vice-president of the School of International Studies at Renmin University, said, "It's just one week before the referendum, and the killing may impact the outcome as some people, especially those without strong opinions on staying in or leaving, may vote out of sympathy.
"But we should also consider it as an individual case, which may not influence the final outcome to any great extent."
Wang Mingjie in London and Yan Dongjie in Beijing contributed to the story.
Economic relations to be lifted to new level, says Serbian envoy
A worker adjusts Chinese and Serbian flags for the upcoming visit of President Xi Jinping, in Belgrade, on Thursday.Reuters
China and Serbia are set to seal a dozen deals in infrastructure and science when President Xi Jinping kicks off the first state visit to the Eastern European nation by a Chinese president in 32 years.
Milan Bacevic, Serbian ambassador to China, told China Daily that the two countries will also raise bilateral ties to a comprehensive partnership during the visit, which is considered by Serbia as "a crowning moment in the relations between the two countries".
"In Serbia, the government and the people attach great importance to this visit," Bacevic said.
The ambassador expects that it could be "an excellent opportunity" to make the level of bilateral economic relations as high as political relations, as there is great potential for economic cooperation.
According to Bacevic, talks about the Chanel Danube-Juzna Morava-Vardar, which would connect the network of European waterways with ports in Greece and the Aegean Sea, will also be on the agenda of the meeting of Xi and his Serbian counterpart Tomislav Nikolic.
The construction of the Serbian section of a high-speed railway linking Belgrade, capital of Serbia, with Budapest, the Hungarian capital, carried out by a consortium of Chinese companies led by China Railway, was launched in December.
In April, Chinese company Hesteel Group acquired Serbian steel company Zelezara Smederevo for 46 million euros ($51.7 million).
The deal, which offered 5,000 job opportunities, is expected to become a pilot project of international production capacity cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries.
"This transaction should noticeably boost the country's economic growth," Bacevic said.
"We expect that the successful development of these projects will attract more Chinese investors and companies to our region," he said.
The ambassador added that the economic relationship between China and Serbia should enter a new phase which will be based not only on the development of major infrastructure projects, but also on Chinese direct investment, noting Serbia's advantages in terms of taxation and customs.
For example, based on established free trade agreements, all products produced in Serbia can be exported tariff-free to a market of almost 800 million people that includes the European Union, Russia and Kazakhstan.
Serbia's tax regime is highly conducive to doing business - its corporate tax is among the lowest in Europe, while value added tax in Serbia is among the most competitive in Central and Eastern Europe, the ambassador added.
"I would appreciate if Chinese people could better know Serbian history, traditions and culture," Bacevic said. "They would be convinced very soon that the Serbian people are good hosts."
Cultural links in the spotlight
A series of cultural activities showcasing Chinese culture were held on Thursday in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, ahead of President Xi Jinping's state visit.
Six bookstores in Belgrade are participating in a book fair to promote literature about ancient and modern China. The launch ceremony of the book fair, organized by China's State Council Information Office, was held at the Delfi bookstore in Belgrade.
Among the 105 volumes on display at the fair are ones featuring information on China's history and cultural heritage, as well as others featuring China's politics and economy. The fair will last for a month, according to the organizers.
The Serbia Chinese movie week also kicked off on Thursday in Belgrade, during which six Chinese movies, including some of the latest blockbusters, will be shown in Serbia between June 16 and 22.
The movies will be shown in cinemas in Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city. Organizers said the movies are targeted at the younger generation of Serbia to let them see the latest achievements of China's movie industry.
mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn
President Xi Jinping has proposed more cooperation on major projects with Serbia ahead of his state visit to Belgrade.
A worker adjusts Chinese and Serbian flags for the upcoming visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping on the site of what used to be China's embassy, which was destroyed in NATO's 1999 bombing campaign, in Belgrade, Serbia June 16, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]
China wants to share development opportunities and achievements with Serbia, Xi said in an article published by Politika, a daily Serbian newspaper.
The two countries should increase bilateral trade and investment to benefit people in both nations, Xi said.
Describing Serbia as an "eternal friend and sincere partner" of China, he highlighted the bilateral friendship that dates to the 1950s when China established diplomatic ties with Yugoslavia.
"There is a saying in Serbia that friends are the fruits of time," Xi said in his article.
The two countries will sign a number of cooperation documents covering areas including economic affairs, trade, production capacity and finance, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Denis Depoux, deputy president of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants for Asia, said Serbia is one of the hot spots for investments in Europe, as the country seeks to join the European Union.
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia. [Photo provided to China Daily]
A photo exhibition opened on Friday in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, as President Xi Jinping starts his first state visit to the country.
The "Beautiful China, Beautiful Serbia" show features more than 70 photos taken by photographers from both countries.
It aims to help boost cultural exchanges and has been organized by China's State Council Information Office, the Chinese embassy in Serbia and Serbia's Culture and Media Ministry.
In addition to natural scenery and cultural elements, the exhibition also showcases the two countries' rich histories and the friendship between their peoples, said Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office.
"I hope this exhibition can be a window, which enables people from both countries to have a better understanding of each other," Guo said at the opening ceremony.
Sasa Mirkovic, state secretary of Serbia's Culture and Media Ministry, said Xi's visit will open a new era of relations between the two countries.
A series of cultural activities, including a book fair and a movie week that both kicked off on Thursday in Belgrade, will bring people from both sides closer together, he added.
A dozen leaders of Chinese and Serbian media organizations attend the China-Serbia Media Dialogue on Friday in Belgrade. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Serbian media organizations expressed their willingness to deepen cooperation with their Chinese counterparts, as relations between the two countries are being upgraded thanks to President Xi Jinping's first state visit to the country.
Serbian news agency, newspaper, TV station and website representatives made the remarks on Friday at the China-Serbia Media Dialogue, hosted by China's State Council Information Office in Belgrade, the country's capital. A dozen Chinese and Serbian news bosses attended the event.
Xi left Beijing on Friday for state visits to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan.
Participants at the forum said Xi's visit will have a great impact on the social and economic development of both countries.
Bojan Brkic Zamenik, deputy editor-in-chief at the Radio Television of Serbia news desk, said his organization planned to deploy several hundred journalists to cover President Xi's visit thoroughly.
"I would love to see more exchanges and cooperation with Chinese news organizations," he said, adding that his organization would sign a cooperation agreement with China Radio International on Saturday.
Ljiljana Smajlovic, editor-in-chief of Politika and the president of the Serbian Journalists' Association, said Serbian journalists harbored friendly feelings towards China, and that the Serbian people had a growing interest in the country.
Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office, said news organizations had the responsibility of pushing forward the relations between the two countries.
"I was delighted to see Serbian media covered many important issues including China's Belt and Road Initiative," he said.
Guo said compared with the cooperation in other fields, the collaboration between media organizations from two countries had much room to be improved.
"Participants proposed a lot of good ideas at this forum, including content exchange and joint interviews," he said. "I hope all good ideas could be realized."
President Xi Jinping paid a visit to the former site of China's embassy in Belgrade which was bombed 17 years ago in an air strike by the United States-led NATO.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan pay homage to the Chinese martyrs killed in the NATO bombing of the former Chinese embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in May 1999, after arriving in Belgrade for a state visit to Serbia, June 17, 2016. The three martyrs were journalists Shao Yunhuan of Xinhua News Agency, and Xu Xinghu and his wife Zhu Ying, of the Guangming Daily newspaper. [Photo/Xinhua]
Sooner after his arrival in the Serbian capital on Friday afternoon, Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan, accompanied by the couple of Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, attended a memorial ceremony for the three Chinese reporters who were killed in May 7,1999, when satellite-guided bombs from an US Air Force B-2 bomber hit the embassy during the NATO's intervention in Yugoslavia.
Xi is paying a state visit to Serbia from Friday to Sunday. It's the first state visit by Chinese president to Serbia since the country's independence in 2006.
Xi paid a silent tribute to the deceased, without giving any speech. Senior officials from both countries bowed and offered flowers in front of the memorial stone.
After the memorial ceremony, Xi attended a foundation-laying laying ceremony for the Chinese Culture Center in Belgrade.
Witnessed by Xi, Sinisa Mali, mayor of Belgrade, named "Confucius Street" and "Serbia-China Friendship Square" on the former site of the embassy.
During the visit, the two countries will sign a number of cooperative documents covering areas including economic and trade, production capacity and finance.
To show his support toward Chinese investment, Xi will pay a visit to Smederevo steel mill, which was founded in 1913 and acquired in April by Hesteel Group, China's largest iron and steel business group in terms of production capacity, said Liu Haixing, assistant foreign minister.
In 2009, Serbia became the first CEE country to establish a strategic partnership with China. In September last year, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic brought a detachment of soldiers to attend China's landmark parade marking the 70th anniversary of the World Anti-Fascist War victory.
To contact the reporter: anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn
Even though 17 years have passed, I still have deep memories on the massive grief and anger nationwide after the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed. The bombing, launched by the United States-led NATO on the evening of May 7, 1999, killed three Chinese reporters and seriously damaged the embassy buildings.
I was a 15-year-old middle-school student at that time. I still remember the video broadcasted on the TV then, as a sad elderly man cried out, "Why the US-led NATO killed my daughter and son-in-law? What wrongdoings have they committed?"
The man was father of ZhuYing, a reporter of Beijing-based Guangming Daily newspaper who lost her life in the bombing at the age of 28. Her husband and colleague Xu Xinghu, 31, was also killed in the incident that was condemned by the Chinese government as a "barbaric act."
From the TV screen, I could sense the deep grief imposed by the war to an innocent family. It was really heart-breaking.
Another journalist, 48-year-old Shao Yunhuan from Xinhua News Agency, also lost her life. Her son Cao Lei was 19 years old at that time, close to my age. Losing love from a mother is always a tragedy, especially at an early age.
For me, the bombing incident is like a textbook - before that, I have never thought of how cruel a war could be. It gave me a vivid lesson on how precious the peace is.
Today, there is no longer any gunfire or missiles in this Balkan country. However, we should not forget those whose lives were claimed by the war.
And this may be the message that President Xi Jinping wants to submit through coming to the bombing site to attend a memorial ceremony - reminding the world to cherish peace and say no to war.
President's article in Polish newspaper says China, Europe should deepen common interests
China and Europe should closely match each other's development strategy and deepen joint interests, President Xi Jinping wrote on the eve of his visits to Serbia and Poland.
"Now both China and Europe are pushing forward structural reform," Xi wrote in an article published in the major Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita on Friday.
"As two major powers, major markets and major civilizations of the world, China and Europe can closely match each other's development strategies, deepen joint interests, promote joint growth and contribute to world peace and development," he wrote.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday that Xi will pay state visits to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan from June 17 to 22. He will also attend the Meeting of the Council of the Heads of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to be held in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, from June 23 to 24.
Wang Yiwei, a professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, said Xi's visit will bring more outcomes for the China-proposed Belt and Road projects, given that all the three countries are located on the key points of the ancient Silk Road.
The Belt and RoadInitiative, proposed by Xi in 2013, is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes. Considering its geographic importance, Central and Eastern Europe marks an essential part in China's Belt and Road Initiative, as a quarter of the countries along the routes are located in the region.
"Countries in Central and Eastern Europe including Poland are keen to develop ties with China to attract more Chinese investment," Wang said.
Poland is China's largest trading partner in the Central and Eastern Europe region, while China is Poland's third-largest supplier of imports. Trade between the two countries reached $17.2 billion in 2014.
Big media today has been covering Apples BREA design patent dispute with a small Chinese competitor and I woke up this morning with our inboxes filled with emails from financial analysts and reporters clamoring to talk with us about this news. This is obviously huge news and for more on this story, check out the following:
But first, everyone calm down and let me explain.
I do not know anything at all specific about Apples case. Not a thing. My law firm does not represent Apple on its IP matters, nor do we represent the Chinese company with this patent claim. Additionally, I have not looked at a single pleading in this case, nor have I discussed this case with any of the international IP attorneys in my firm who may know more about this case than me. This post is based on what our lawyers have seen (especially lately) happening with China design patents, which is a whole lot.
In the last six months or so, we have gone from dealing with maybe one China design patent matter a year to at least one a month. We cannot pin down this massive acceleration in design patent matters on any one thing and so we simply think word has gotten out among Chinese companies regarding the effectiveness of engaging foreign companies in design patent disputes.
What exactly is a China design patent? Chinas design patent laws define a design as a shape, pattern, or combination thereof or the combination of a color with a shape and pattern, with an aesthetic appeal and for industrial application. If you think this definition is incredibly vague and potentially broad enough to drive a truck through, you would be right. On top of this, Chinas patent office does not review design patents before granting them. Or, as I love to tell our clients over the telephone, I could probably secure a China design patent on the blue socks I am wearing right now. When I say that, I am being intentionally dramatic, but I honestly believe my chances of securing such a design patent are not that bad.
The other things you should know about Chinese design patents are that the patent grants its holder exclusive use of the aesthetic features of a product, not its functioning portion. In other words, the patent is on how the product looks; its external appearance. Not kidding, but it is quite possible the small Chinese company with the mobile phone design patent could use its design patent against any cell phone company with a product that looks like an iPhone.
But lets step back and look at what it really means to have a design patent, and I will do that by explaining (in a compilation form) the design patent cases our China attorneys have recently been handling.
These cases typically start with a phone call from a Western company telling us some company (usually a company it already knows and usually either its manufacturer or a competitor) just contacted the Western company (or the Chinese company that makes the Western companys product) and said the Western companys product is violating the Chinese companys China design patent. The Chinese company then threatens to sue the Western company for patent infringement damages and to block any of the Western companys infringing product from leaving China. Needless to say, the companies that call us on these matters are more than a little bit concerned.
Though I am not going to claim these are pleasant situations or inexpensive for our clients, I will claim they are not as bad as they initially appear. I have heard China issues around ten times more design patents than the United States patent office, which reinforces my contention that I could get a China design patent for my blue socks. There is no substantive examination of a design patent application in China. Instead, all you really need to do to get a China design patent is to complete your design patent application properly. So if I complete the design patent application on my blue socks, and attach a proper and appropriate drawing of them, along with a proper power of attorney and I make the right claims regarding my having designed my blue socks and regarding their being of a new design, I almost certainly will get my design patent.
BUT, my blue sock design patent will be as weak as a kitten. And for this reason, China design patent actions are not as scary as they first appear and why I am calling for nobody to panic on Apples behalf either.
In the design patent cases my law firm has handled, nobody has yet actually had customs block their product from leaving China. The reason is because China customs generally requires a party seeking such a block to post a substantial bond. That substantial bond then becomes available to the party whose product has been blocked by customs. Again though, you want to avoid these cases if at all possible because even if you end up prevailing, you will need to incur considerable time, trouble and money to get there.
The difference between the cases we have handled and the Apple one is that in our cases the Chinese companies threaten to get an order blocking our client from having its product made in China, but they never do. They never do because they know the cost of doing so is high and the likelihood of their getting such an order and having that order stick is very low. I read somewhere once that something like 70 to 90 percent of all Chinese design patents get invalidated when challenged. These Chinese companies know that if we were to challenge their design patents we would prevail, so they are hesitant to spend big money only to lose in the end. The Chinese companys power comes from the design patent threat, not from reality.
In the Apple case, the Chinese company has brought a lawsuit and by doing so it has increased its threat value. Did the Chinese company do this because it has a valid patent? Or is it because it views Apple has having such deep pockets it has decided to go strong in the belief doing so will get Apple to pay big money in settlement to end the issue? I dont have the answers.
But based entirely on our own history with China design patents, I am guessing Apple will prevail in the end.
Whats the best way to nip design patent hijacking? Register your design patent first, before anyone else.
Update: CNBC has come out with an article, entitled, Beijings Apple ban isnt likely to stick, expert says. I am the expert who does not think the ban will stick.
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) The Huawei Honor 5A Plus smartphone is now available in China.
Advertisement
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has officially released its latest device called the Huawei Honor 5A Plus smartphone in China. This device and its sibling, the Huawei Honor 5A, were unveiled earlier this year.
Before appearing on the GFX Bench website, the Honor 5A Plus was certified by China's telecom certification authority (TENAA) in May. There are some differences its the specifications of the device on the GFX Bench and the TENAA listing.
Like Us on Facebook
Advertisement
The Honor 5A Plus is expected to sport a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. It will have an Octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz with a 2 GB of RAM and an Adreno 405 GPU. The device will have 16 GB of on-board storage and will support SD card.
As per the GFX Bench listing, the Honor 5A Plus will be an entry-level handset and have a 12-megapixel camera on the rear with support for full-high-definition videos, face detection, high-definition-resolution photo, autofocus, touch focus, and flash. It will also come with a 7-megapixel front-facing camera for selfie lovers. No information has been revealed yet on the battery size of the device and whether it will support for NFC, gyroscope, barometer, altimeter, thermometer, and a heart rate monitor.
On the other hand, according to the Honor 5A Plus listing on TENAA, the device will have a 13-megapixel camera instead of a 12-megapixel one. The smartphone will also have an 8-megapixel camera.
The battery size of the Honor 5A Plus has not been revealed, but previous leaks have hinted that it will be packing a powerful 3,000 mAh battery.
The device will likely come preloaded with the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS, with the EMUI running on top. The Honor 5A Plus is expected to support Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, compass, pedometer, proximity sensor, and light sensor.
No pricing information has been released yet for the Honor 5A Plus. It is also unclear whether this device and its sibling, the Honor 5A, will be released in the North American market.
Advertisement
TagsHuawei Honor 5A Plus, Huawei, Honor 5A Plus, GFX Bench, GFX, TENAA, huawei honor 5a
(Photo : YouTube) The ZTE Nubia Z11 smartphone will be available in China on June 28.
Advertisement
Chinese smartphone maker ZTE has announced that its upcoming device called the Nubia Z11 will be available in China on June 28. The Nubia Z11 smartphone is an addition to the "Nubia" family flagship series device. The Chinese company confirmed that this device will be unveiled at a special event.
Like Us on Facebook
Advertisement
Earlier this year, the ZTE Nubia Z11 Mini smartphone was first introduced in the series. Recently this month, another member of the series, called the ZTE Nubia Z11 Max, made its debut in the local market. The Nubia Z11 will be the third device in the series to be released.
The upcoming Nubia Z11 smartphone features a 5.5-inch display screen that supports 1080p resolution touch screen. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, along with a massive 4GB of RAM onboard.
It comes with large built-in 64GB internal memory storage, which can be further expanded via a microSD card. It also features a fingerprint scanner on the back panel of the smartphone.
The device is equipped with an all metallic body structure and is 7.75mm thin. It is allegedly going to feature a bezel-less look on the display area, which will have curved 2.5D glass.
ZTE has not made any announcement on the price of the device. It is also unclear when it will make its debut in the international market.
Advertisement
TagsZTE, zte news, zte smartphone, zte nubia z11, ZTE nubia, zte nubia z11 max
(Photo : Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Advertisement
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has stirred controversy after stating that Chinese-manufactured counterfeit goods are now even better than the genuine products they are imitating. His statement has complicated the efforts being made to weed out fakes from Alibaba's platforms such as TaoBao.
Speaking at an investor conference organized in Shanghai, Ma said, "Where there is money, there are bad guys. We don't have police or a court, we just have a group of young people using technology to fight against them. This is a war against human instinct."
Like Us on Facebook
Advertisement
He also stated that today some fake items are of better quality than the original. "They are exactly the [same] factories, exactly the same raw materials but they do not use the names," he said. Ma, however, insisted that intellectual property rights should be respected.
In 2015, Alibaba was sued by Kering, a Paris-based parent company behind luxury brands such as Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci. The company alleged that Alibaba encourages and profits from the sale of counterfeit goods on its sites.
As a result, Alibaba Group's membership was suspended by the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition in May this year. Alibaba has also been investigated by Chinese regulators over concerns about fake goods.
Alibaba has released a statement explaining that its founder's remarks were not meant to be construed as a defense of fake products.
Alibaba expects its 2017 revenues to increase by 48 percent on a year over year basis.
Advertisement
TagsJack Ma, Alibaba, Gucci
(Photo : Getty Images) China on Thursday claimed that it has never set quota on Taiwan-bound tourists.
Advertisement
China on Thursday said that recent decline in the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Taiwan is due to existing market conditions, claiming that the Chinese government has never set a quota on Chinese tourists traveling to Taiwan.
"The change in tourist numbers is mainly driven by the market and based on the willingness of tourism operators and tourists. The government has never set any quota to limit the number of tourists traveling to Taiwan," spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council An Fengshan said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Like Us on Facebook
Advertisement
Fengshan also blamed recent political tension in cross-strait relations for the fall in Chinese tourists. The tension has been particularly high since Taiwan's presidential election in January gave a landslide victory to pro-independent leader Tsai Ing-wen, who was sworn in as Taiwan's President last month.
"This year, the political situation in Taiwan and cross-Straits relations have changed, triggering concerns from tourism operators and tourists on the mainland. Thus, their willingness to travel to Taiwan has declined," An said.
Earlier this week, the Taiwanese media claimed that China is planning to significantly cut down its quota of Taiwan bond tourists in three stages. The report said that the move started in March and would continue till October.
Experts say that Taiwan's tourism sector would be the first to bear the brunt if cross-strait relation takes a hit. According to a statistics released by Taiwan's tourism bureau, the average number of daily Chinese tourists witnessed a sharp drop of 33 percent or 1,650 people since the beginning of May.
Chinese tourists have been a source of economic revenue for Taiwan. As per a rough estimate, Chinese tourists contributed NT$230 billion (S$9.7 billion) to the Taiwanese economy last year.
Advertisement
Tagschina, Taiwan, Taiwan Tourism, Cross-Strait relation
The iconic starship, USS Enterprise NCC-1701
Advertisement
The good news is, there definitely are technologically advanced alien civilizations (plural) somewhere out there. The bad news is, first contact with them might occur about 1,500 years from now.
At least, SETI will have been a rightful success. But not the iconic TV and movie franchise Star Trek, which began boldly going to where no man has gone before in the 2260s.
Like Us on Facebook
Advertisement
A new equation from two Cornell University researchers calculated this dismaying possibility based on the Fermi Paradox and the Mediocrity Principle. Combining these two equations led to the conclusion first contact might take another 1,500 years because this is about the time our radio transmissions saying "Hello" to aliens will have reached half the stars in the Milky Way.
Scientists, specifically the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), have been broadcasting radio signals into space traveling at the speed of light for the past 80 years. This persistence means every star within an 80 light year distance from the Earth has received a radio transmission from us.
These broadcasts, however, have reached only 8,531 stars and 3,555 Earth-like exoplanets in the Milky Way with its 200 billion stars. On the other hand, NASA's Kepler mission is even more pessimistic. It estimates our signals have reached just 2,326 confirmed exoplanets.
This conflicting data shows SETI still has a very, very long way to go. Perhaps 1,500 years to go.
"We haven't heard from aliens yet, as space is a big place -- but that doesn't mean no one is out there," said Cornell University student Evan Solomonides.
"Even our mundane, typical spiral galaxy -- not exceptionally large compared to other galaxies -- is vast beyond imagination."
"This is not to say that we must be reached by then or else we are, in fact, alone. We simply claim that it is somewhat unlikely that we will not hear anything before that time."
The Fermi Paradox says there are billions of stars in the Milky Way that probably have Earth-like exoplanets. Despite this probability, no advanced aliens have visited or contacted us.
The Mediocrity Principle states that since life exists on Earth, humans aren't unique. There must, therefore, be intelligent life on other Earth-like exoplanets.
Advertisement
TagsStar Trek, SETI, Cornell University, Fermi Paradox, Mediocrity Principle, aliens, Evan Solomonides, alien civilizations
(Photo : Getty Images.) Chinese media claims that Indias inclusion in Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) will create a nuclear imbalance in South Asia.
Advertisement
India's inclusion in the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) will disturb the nuclear balance in South Asia and prove to be a major deterrent for peace and stability in the entire Asia Pacific region, the latest article in the Global Times said. This is a second article in as many days by the state-owned newspaper on India's bid for NSG inclusion.
Like Us on Facebook
Advertisement
"The major goal for India's NSG ambition is to obtain an edge over Islamabad in nuclear capabilities. Once New Delhi gets the membership first, the nuclear balance between India and Pakistan will be broken," the article stated.
At the same time, the article accepted that India is inching closer to NSG after gaining support from the US, Mexico, and Switzerland. It said that Beijing may back India's inclusion in the NSG if it "played by the rules".
However, the article also reiterated China's tough stand that India being a non-signatory to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a major hindrance to its NSG ambition.
"However, as a country that has signed neither the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) nor the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), India is not yet qualified for accession into the NSG," the newspaper said, mentioning the names of countries that supported China's stance. "That's why the bloc is still divided over the case, and countries including New Zealand, Ireland, Turkey, South Africa, and Austria have expressed their firm objections to India's membership."
China has categorically stated that if a Non-NPT signatory like India is included in the 48 member nuclear club, then Pakistan must also be included. Like India, Pakistan has not signed the NPT.
India's fate regarding NSG membership will be decided in a plenary meeting that is expected to be held on June 20 in Seoul, South Korea. Experts argue that even if its membership bid is rejected at the meeting in Seoul, India's inclusion in the elite nuclear club is just a matter of time.
Experts pointed out that India's membership is supported by a very powerful bloc and that the opposing bloc led by China will have to soften its stance sooner or later.
India's Prime Minister, Narendar Modi, is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping next week at Tashkent on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting. Modi is likely to urge the Chinese President to support India's NSG membership.
Advertisement
TagsIndia, china, Nuclear Supplier Group, India and Pakistan, NSG
(Photo : Getty Images.) German based robotic company wants assurance of job protection from Chinas Midea Group.
Advertisement
German-based company Kuka wants a firm assurance on job protection and preservation of all physical sites following the proposed takeover of the robotics company by China's Midea Group, a person familiar with the matter said.
A long-term agreement to this effect is being worked out by both companies, the person said. A long-term agreement in Germany typically runs for three to five years.
Like Us on Facebook
Advertisement
At present, 4,500 Kuka company workers are based in Germany, out of which 3,500 workers are working in the company headquarters in Augsburg.
Sources claim that Kuka wants to protect the jobs of all 4,500 German workers, along with all the physical sites, including the company's research and development facility at its headquarters. The robotic company also wants Midea Group's help in promoting its products in the Chinese market.
On Thursday, China's electric appliance manufacturer officially launched a takeover of the Kuka Company, reportedly offering 33.3 billion yuan ($5.1 billion) for a more than 30 percent stake. Under German law, any company acquiring a more than 30 percent stake is obliged to bid for rest of the company.
Reports of Midea Group bidding for Kuka has already raised concerns among German politicians, who are desperate to prevent Kuka's critical technology from falling into Chinese hands. Earlier this month, Germany Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that the government is on the lookout for a European company to bid for Kuka.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during her visit to China earlier this week, said that her government won't prevent takeover, but also left the door wide open to German firms making a counter-offer. However, no European or German company has expressed interest in acquiring Kuka.
Advertisement
TagsKuka, Midea Group, china, China and Germany
(Photo : Getty Images: MCT) President Obama meets with his Holiness the Dalai Lama in the White House residence on Wednesday
Advertisement
Despite several warnings from China claiming that a meeting with the Dalai Lama will damage diplomatic relations, US President Barack Obama met with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in the White House on Wednesday.
The meeting comes at a time when relations with both nations are tense due to the recent territorial dispute between China and several US allies in the South China Sea. The United States does not approve of what they percieve as aggressive assertions by China to claim territory in Asia.
Like Us on Facebook
Advertisement
This is the fourth meeting Obama has had with the Dalai Lama since he took office in 2008. Instead of meeting at the White House oval office, where the US usually entertains world leaders, Obama met the Dalai Lama in the White House Residence.
White House Spokesman John Earnest stated that the meeting had a very "personal nature" to it. Among other things, President Obama accepted the Dalai Lama's condolences regarding the people murdered during the Orlando nightclub shooting.
Earnest further mentioned that Obama has spoken in the past of his "warm personal feelings" for the Dalai Lama and his belief "in preserving Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic traditions."
Despite Obama'swarmth, Earnest pointed out that this is by no means a change in the US stance on the Tibetan independence movement. While the Dalai Lama did admit that the situation in Tibet was part of their discussion, he claimed that he was not seeking independence for Tibet.
The Dalai Lama believes that it is in Tibet's best interest to remain a part of China. He noted in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that Xi Jinping has recognized the importance of Buddhism in Chinese culture.
Advertisement
TagsBarack Obama, Dalai Lama, Xi Jinping, china, Tibet
There are several rumors now in the online space that Super Star Rajinikanth is suffering from some serious health issues. Though he is on a family vacation to the USA, he is also consulting some USA doctors is what the Chennai media has been reporting. But the producers of Rajinis next film have been stating that nothing like that is happening, and Rajinikanth is hale and healthy. At the same time, Rajinikanth is also hoping to get back to India and kick start the promotions for the film Kabali. Meanwhile, his daughter is seen performing puja on the name of Rajini at Kalahasthi temple.
Soundarya Rajinikanth has performed all important puja for the good health of her father and the success of the film Kabali. Rajinis Kabali is expected to hit the theaters in July second week.
BREAKING: Harvard researcher admits 'Gospel of Jesus's Wife' likely a forgery 17 June, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |
BOSTON (Christian Examiner) Most biblical scholars surmised four years ago that the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife" the text fragment written in ancient Coptic that supposedly called Mary the wife of the Savior was a fake.
Now, the Harvard professor who invested nearly four years of work on the fragment and has defended it in publications and conferences has reportedly also come to the conclusion that the story may have been created out of whole cloth, or at least out of Egyptian papyrus.
The Atlantic reports that Karen L. King, who teaches Ecclesiastical History at Harvard, is tacitly backing off of her stance on the fragment's authenticity after reading the magazine's expose on the origins of the scrap of Coptic text.
"It tips the balance towards forgery," she told the magazine after reading the investigative report.
In that report, journalist Ariel Sabar dismantles the narrative of authenticity by going on a multi-state and international search to discover the fragment's provenance a term used by scholars to reference a chain of custody and, ultimately, the origin of an artifact.
King, for her part, never spoke much about how she had received the fragment, but when she first showed it publicly multiple scholars repudiated the text as a clumsy forgery based on its poor Coptic grammar, some apparent "overstrikes" (writing a new letter over an existing one), and some apparent additions. That didn't mean that the papyrus itself wasn't old, or even that the ink wasn't an ancient recipe. It simply meant that whoever wrote the text in ancient Coptic letters was likely not an ancient Coptic.
King still wanted to pursue the study of the manuscript. If authenticated, it would have enormous implications on Christian scholarship and especially on her field the study of women in the early church. King was invested in showing women played a larger role than they've received credit for in the history books.
However, there were signs from the beginning that there might be problems. King admits now that she knew little about the owner of the manuscript who had made it available for her to review.
His name was Walter Fritz, a native of Germany living in Florida who had once studied and, it turns out, written about ancient manuscripts at Free University's Institute of Egyptology. He had also studied Coptic.
Fritz presented himself to King as a well-rounded, wealthy family man, who had obtained the manuscript fragment from other parties in Europe. But he never disclosed his educational past or provided legitimate documentation to prove his reception or ownership of the text.
Sabar tracked Fritz to Florida where she found that the man was the owner-operator of an erotic art company and had worked as a pornographer (with his wife in the lead role of the films). His wife, Sabar writes, had also "written a book of 'universal truths' and claimed to channel the voices of angels."
It turns out that Fritz had registered multiple website names in the weeks before the unveiling of the text fragment, including one specifically named www.gospelofjesuswife.com. The domain name was registered when only he and King knew that the fragment would publicly be given that name.
"I had no idea about this guy, obviously," King told The Atlantic. "He lied to me."
According to the magazine's copiously detailed report, King is not ready to dismiss completely the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife." To do so, she said, she needs to build scientific consensus that the text is a forgery or obtain a confession.
Part of her, she told the magazine, still believes it is "theoretically possible" that the so-called gospel is authentic, despite the fact that its story of how it was acquired has fallen apart and the history and credentials of the man who provided it have proven fallacious.
That evidence, despite what she wants, "presses in the direction of forgery," King said.
Click here to read Sabar's full investigative article in The Atlantic on Walter Fritz and the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife."
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) announced Tennessee pastor Steve Gaines as its newly elected president following candidate J.D. Greears announcement of his decision to withdraw his candidacy in an effort to preserve denominational unity.
In the runoff between Gaines and Greear of 7,230 registered messengers, Gaines received 2,410 votes (49.96 percent), while Greear received 2,307 votes (47.80 percent). Greears announcement came after a runoff failed to result in a clear winner who would need 51 percent of ballots cast to win.
I spent a good amount of time last night praying, and believe that for the sake of our convention and our mission we need to leave St. Louis united, Greear, pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., announced to the messengers on Tuesday. One of the candidates leaving the convention with a 51-49 victory on a third ballot is just not going to serve our mission well. So I am respectfully withdrawing my candidacy as president.
Both Gaines and Greear felt the urge to pull out of the race, according to Baptist Press.
"He and I both were sensing the Holy Spirit moving in the same direction, and we had a good time talking last night," Gaines told reporters at a press conference. "We talked to the Lord, and we talked about the situation, and I really feel like what just happened was really a blessing from God, and I pray God would use it to help us go forward and tell people about Jesus Christ."
Gaines was nominated in March by former SBC President Johnny Hunt in light of our overwhelming need to get back to evangelism, personal soul-winning in our SBC, Hunt said, according to Baptist Press.
In a blog post announcing his acceptance of his nomination for SBC president, Gaines outlined his four biggest passions as president of SBC: to continue and deepen our focus on gospel-centeredness in both theology and mission; to engage our culture with both grace and truth; to call for a new era of engagement in the entities and boards of the SBC; and to platform and equip non-Anglo pastors and members."
Gaines succeeds pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Ark Ronnie Floyd, who has served as president of SBC for two consecutive years.
I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up.
The last time the 14 separate branches of the Orthodox church met, in 787, they hadnt yet split with the Roman Catholic church.
So pulling together a Holy and Great Council meeting of the global representatives of 300 million Orthodox Christians for next week hasnt been easyeven with the event being discussed since 1961.
A number of issues have cropped up in the last 1,000-plus years. The short list includes: the Archbishop of Constantinoples historical position as first among equals despite the Moscow Patriarchates superior numbers and wealth; Moscow Patriarch Kirills meeting with Pope Francis that angered Orthodox who consider Catholics heretics; and the struggle between the Jerusalem and Antioch Patriarchates over who has jurisdiction over Qatar.
The initial list of issues to discuss topped 100 items; Orthodox leaders managed to whittle it down to 6. The goal of council organizer Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I: not to settle centuries ...
1
In this regular series, we share innovative practices from the world of stock photo ministry.
The thing about a truly great awkward stock photo is that, if its framed and lit well enough, you wont even notice how little sense it makesat least not for a while. When you first glance at this weeks image, for instance, you might simply think, Hmm, thats cozy and/or terrifying. But if you look at it a bit longer, youll start to feel that something is deeply, darkly amiss.
A human skull, some rosary beads, a burlap sack, a Bible, another Bible (extra credit!), all casually sitting in front of a crackling firehave we stumbled into the lair of a Zorro villain? Are we trying to conjure a curse on the local parish priest? Maybe were just cleaning out Rick Santorums attic? Who knows? (Probably not poor Yorick there.)
Of course, there have been generations of Christians for whom the juxtaposition of the skull and the Bible wouldnt have been so strange. Many generations have lived when following Jesus could literally get you killed, and in times of persecution, the early church was rumored to have worshiped secretly in the catacombs, surrounded by decaying flesh. This macabre legacy can still be seen throughout Europe, where numerous churches, chapels, and shrines are decorated with the bones of the saints.
This decor, while unusual outside of the Hot Topic set, was easy to accomplish, considering the medieval church was basically drowning in dead bodies it didnt know what to do with. For most of their history, Christians regarded cremation as essentially pagan, if not outright sinfuldeliberate destruction of a body that God had created ...
1
Passport to Romance(tm) Goes Global Contact: Lisa Dawn, 505-433-7503, marketing@PelicanBookGroup.com
AZTEC, N.M., June 17, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Pelican Book Group has announced that two Passport to Romance novellas have been chosen by Norway-based publisher, Hermon Forlag, to be translated and published in Norwegian. Plans are to release the novellas in both e-book and paperback.
"While all Passport to Romance stories are wonderful, I wasn't surprised that 'Helsinki Sunrise' and 'Copenhagen Cozenage' got picked up," said Nicola Martinez, Editor-in-Chief for Pelican. "Both are lighthearted, fun reads that appeal to a wide audiencebut then again, so are all the PTR books! I'm hopeful the translations will be well-received and that more Passport to Romance titles will be released in multiple languages. As with our recent large-print deal with Thorndike, I credit our subsidiary rights agent Riggins International Rights with pulling the deal together."
Passport to Romance books are Christian romances in which authors must use a pre-determined set of writing prompts and locations. "We wanted exotic locations," Martinez said, "but we also wanted the writing process to challenge authors." With ten novellas available, and more in the works, "I think we succeeded," Martinez said.
"Helsinki Sunrise" by Marion Ueckermann is about Adam Carter, a missionary who goes to Finland to spend time alone. He doesn't plan to be distracted by Eveliina Mikkolaa woman who doesn't want him interfering with her impromptu trip to her family's cottage. The island isn't big enough for both of them, and Eveliina will do anything to make Adam leave!
"Copenhagen Cozenage" by Kristen Joy Wilks is the story of Morgan Ravn who travels to Denmark seeking clues about her mysterious heritage. What she finds is a flirtatious stranger who regales her with a story about a jewel thief from 1958 and then abandons her with a large unruly dog.
Established in 1983, Hermon Forlag publishes 70-80 Christian-themed titles a year.
For more on these and other Pelican titles, visit: pelicanbookgroup.com or contact Independent Publishers Group at ipgbook.com. To view the Passport to Romance video, visit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HN3CgDoPm0
For more information on Hermon Forlag visit hermon.no
About Pelican Book Group: Pelican Book Group is the first publisher to dedicate an entire new-adult romance imprint to promoting sexual purity. Headquartered in the Four Corners area of the United States, Pelican Book Group serves a global audience under multiple imprints. Founded in 2009, Pelican Book Group publishes numerous critically-acclaimed titles by award-winning authors from around the globe.
Share Tweet
home US Hillary Clinton SuperPAC ad trying to get support of conservative Christians?
A new ad seems to be trying to get conservatives and anti-abortion groups to support Democrat Hillary Clinton, or at least trying to get people's support away from Republican Donald Trump.
2017 is here! I'm excited about building a lot of great Sims 4 content. I can't wait to get stuff out to all the players. George Pigula (@SimGuruGeorge) January 3, 2017
The ad titled "Grace," released by the Democratic political action committee Priorities USA Action, features a couple from Columbus, Ohio and their daughter Grace. It begins with the husband and wife recalling how an ultrasound image revealed that their unborn daughter would be suffering from a condition called spina bifida. It then shows photos of their daughter as a baby, and then as a young girl in wheelchair.
Lauren Glaros says that her daughter "is a total blessing in our lives" while her husband Chris says that "despite all of her medical challenges, she brings out the goodness in each person."
The ad then segues to the topic of Trump, Clinton's rival for presidency. It features a clip of the presumptive Republican nominee making a speech last year where he appears to be mocking a reporter with disability.
"When I saw Donald Trump mock a disabled person, I was just shocked," says Mrs. Glaros. "The children at Grace's school all know never to mock her, and so for an adult to mock someone with a disability is shocking."
"When I saw Donald Trump mock somebody with a disability, it showed me his soul, it showed me his heart, and I didn't like what I saw," says Mr. Glaros says.
While the ad is an attack on Trump, there seems to be an underlying message of support for parents who decide to not terminate a pregnancy because their child might suffer from a disability after it is born. Clinton, however, had shown support for abortion rights. She said in a recent interview, as reported by Life News, that an "unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights," which would include the right to life.
Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said that the ad is "powerful until the very end, when one discovers that it is for Hillary Clinton," according to NPR.
"This year, the duopoly on parties have given us two horrible choices when it comes to questions of human dignity," he said.
Trump denied having mocked the reporter, said ABC News.
Bishop T.D. Jakes urges Americans to 'stand together' after Orlando massacre
Bishop T.D. Jakes from The Potter House in Dallas, Texas, weeps with the rest of America because of the tragic Orlando mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 50 people, including the slain gunman, and injured 53 others. Whenever senseless acts of violence such as this occur, Jakes says it's important for Americans to stand together as one.
"I wanted to take a moment to share a statement with you that is on my heart and on the hearts of many, if not millions of Americans around this country," he says in a short video message shared on his Facebook page. "Our heart goes out to Orlando as you face this devastation that occurred this weekend."
Jakes says the victims did not deserve what happened, adding that he considers the terror attack as "the second largest travesty to hit this country as an act of terrorism since 9/11."
The only good thing about that devastating terrorist attack in September 2001, says Jakes, was that it brought Americans together. He hopes Americans will do the same now after the Orlando massacre.
"There has been some discussion as to whether it is a hate crime or not. Really, it's both," Jakes continues. "But whether you are hated as African-Americans or hated in South Carolinasimply going in to have prayer on a Wednesday nightor whether you are part of the LGBT community and hated because you decided to go out on a Friday or Saturday night, you ought to be able to leave and go wherever you want to go and decide to go without fear of losing your lives by some extreme person who takes into their own hands to take lives senselessly."
For those who have been victimised by the Orlando attack, Jakes says he stands with them, prays with them, and loves them. He is encouraging them to continue hanging on to hope because "we will get through this in some kind of way together.'"
'Fight against the hatred that killed her': Prayer vigils held as UK mourns MP Jo Cox
Vigils have been held in churches across the UK after Jo Cox MP was killed on Thursday in her constituency.
The 41-year-old mother of two was fatally shot and stabbed outside the library in her hometown of Birstall, West Yorkshire, where she was due to hold an MP's surgery session. Tributes from fellow MPs and other politicians around the world flooded in as news of the attack spread.
The pews of St Peter's Church, Birstall, were packed full as hundreds gathered for a prayer vigil on Thursday night. Guests included Labour MPs Yvette Cooper and Dan Jarvis.
The Bishop of Huddersfield, the Rt Rev Dr Jonathon Gibbs told those gathered of Cox: "She grew up in this community, she lived for this community, she served this community and, in the end, she gave her life for this community."
An impromptu vigil was also held in Parliament Square, Westminster, and was attended by several MPs.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to a "much-loved colleague" and said the whole country would be in shock.
"[She] died doing her public duty at the heart of our democracy, listening to and representing the people she was elected to serve," he said.
Prime Minister David Cameron cancelled a referendum visit to Gibraltar after hearing the news.
"This is absolutely tragic and dreadful news," he said. "We've lost a great star. She was a great campaigning MP with huge compassion and a big heart. People are going to be very, very sad at what has happened. My thoughts are with her husband, Brendan, and her two young children."
Both sides have suspended their referendum campaign in light of the attack.
West Yorksire Police have arrested a 52-year-old man, named locally as Tommy Mair. The force has refused to discuss the motives for the killing but one eye-witness told BBC News he heard the attacker shout "Britain first" or "put Britain first".
Local cafe owner Clarke Rothwell told the BBC: "I can't say which exactly it was, but definitely 'Britain first' was what he said when he was shouting he shouted it at least twice."
The far-right political party Britain First has issued a video statement to condemn the attack and said it had no connection with the incident.
Cox's mourning husband called for a fight against "the hatred that killed her".
In a statement Brendan Cox, a former deputy director at Save the Children and adviser to Gordon Brown, said: "She would have wanted two things above all else to happen now. One, that our precious children are bathed in love, and two, that we all unite to fight against the hatred that killed her. Hate doesn't have a creed, race or religion it is poisonous.
"Jo believed in a better world and she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people.
"Jo would have no regrets about her life. She lived every day of it to the full."
The attack was the worst on a sitting British politician since a string of deaths at the hands of Northern Irish terror groups more than 20 years ago.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was among dozens to offer their prayers and condolences as the UK reeled in shock at the attack.
The death of Jo Cox is terrible, most for her family & friends, but also for what the whole country has lost. We pray for those who mourn. Justin Welby (@JustinWelby) 16 June 2016
Andy Flannagan, chair of Christians on the Left, told Christian Today he was "shocked and stunned" by her death.
"On behalf of Christians on the Left we are truly sad and will be praying for her family."
Flannagan went on to say it was "especially cruel that a public servant had died in the midst of doing the thing that nobody thanks them for doing the invisible service in their constituency that people don't appreciate happens".
Christians on the Left alongside the Conservative Christian Fellowship and the Lib Dem Christian Forum will join a prayer vigil on Friday at 7pm. A statement from the group said: "We felt it particularly important to stand with our Christian brothers and sisters from across the parties to pray for Jo's family and the nation.
"Christians on the Left, the Conservative Christian Fellowship and the Liberal Democrat Christian forum will be standing together in prayer as Christians in Politics."
MPs from all political parties also rushed to offer their prayers and condolences.
I am completely overwhelmed with sadness. My heart breaks. May your soul Rest In Peace, Jo. Your spirit and moral fortitude will live on. David Lammy (@DavidLammy) 16 June 2016
Girl in car crash says Jesus spoke to her before her miraculous recovery: 'He has green eyes and scraggly hair'
Jesus has "green eyes and scraggly hair." He also smelled like "fresh clothes out of a dryer."
That was the description of the Lord given by one blessed girl from Oklahoma who miraculously survived a horrific car crash on March 6 where she was thrown out from a vehicle with her head hitting the ground, KWTV reports.
Kyla Roberts, 14, spoke about her near-death experience where she attested to have seen, heard and even smelled Jesus while in heaven after coming out of a month-long coma at Oklahoma University Medical Center.
While she was in bed, in a coma after her brain surgery, Kyla said Jesus appeared and spoke to her.
"I was sitting on his lap and his is very big," Kyla told a KWTV reporter while sitting at her hospital bed. "He told me that he loves me and he's ready for me to come home, but not quite yet. And then I woke up here."
Kyla, who underwent two emergency brain surgeries, said she also saw heaven but could not describe it in full, noting only that "it was too bright."
Doctors called Kyla's recovery a stroke a miracle.
"Her brain bounced so hard in her head, she had temporal lobe fractures," mother Stephanie Roberts said. "[The doctors] told us we have to take her into surgery now, or she's going to die. [They said she was] probably going to die anyway."
This was not the first time that Jesus was reported to have appeared in a vision to save people on the brink of death.
A listing of the reported visions of Jesus by people who have had near-death experiences is provided in the website near-death.com.
According to that website, "some of the experiences are humorous but that all of them are profound."
Those who have had near-death experiences and seen Jesus in their mind's eye have provided various descriptions of the Lord. However, He "appears to us in a way that we can recognise him," one of those who have seen Him says.
Valvita Jones says Jesus has "dark brown and light red, wavy hair; blue, piercing, transparent eyes and olive and light golden skin."
Lorraine Tutmarc describes Him as having "auburn, wavy hair; and beautiful, large, full of meaning eyes."
A certain Susan says Jesus has "dark brown hair and dark brown eyes."
A certain Clara notes that Jesus has "dark brown, shoulder length hair; dark eyes with black around eyelids, eyes of liquid love; and olive skin."
Gods of Egypt: a brilliantly terrible film about theology and the afterlife
When you go to see a Summer 'blockbuster', try to keep your expectations low. It's a wise principle, the virtue of which is proved by Gods of Egypt Alex Proyas' sword, sandal and scarab-beetle epic, finally given a UK release this week. Critics in the US slaughtered the film when it was released there in February, panning the film's acting, writing and effects, and criticising the casting of mainly white actors for Egyptian roles. With that kind of ill wind behind it, there's a tough sell ahead for the film's British marketing team.
However, walking in to watch a film which has been roundly branded a disaster turns out to be quite a liberating experience, at least it from where I was sitting. Let's be clear from the outset: Gods of Egypt is a catastrophic piece of film-making. It's got the cinematic sensibilities of a particularly mindless video game, and it's an ugly stain on the acting CVs of cast members like Gerard Butler (his is already pretty stained) and Chadwick Boseman, (recently cast as Marvel's Black Panther) whose wonderfully awful performance in this film is Golden Raspberry-baiting stuff.
But and I don't say this lightly I sort of enjoyed it. There's something wonderful about not having to worry about whether a film is going to impress or move you emotionally, because you can then begin to enjoy it for all sorts of other reasons. One of those, of course, is enjoying the terribleness, to the point that the film is so-bad-it's-good. But another way of enjoying the film is to look at what it says, or at least tries to say about the nature of God(s). And it says quite a lot.
Set in an entirely fictional reality in which the earth is flat and Egyptian gods walk it alongside mere mortals, the plot involves a power struggle between two sibling deities for control over the earth. There's the good king Osiris, who kindly decrees that all people will enter the afterlife, regardless of their status or their lifestyle, and the evil prince Set (Butler), who wants to take over and change the rules of entry to heaven so that only the rich get through. It's like a theological argument between Rob Bell and Donald Trump, with lots of added monsters and fire.
Anyway, Set wins and takes over, casting Osiris' son Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) into exile in the process. But as Set takes power, he's not satisfied with simply being ruler over the earth; he wants total immortality and dominion over everything. If it had been intended as a portentous satirical commentary on the potential outcome of the US elections, the film would be lauded as a work of genius.
The film isn't about politics though; it's actually about theology, of sorts. While it never strays into territory that's remotely Christian, it's a movie where all the characters have heaven (and hell) on their minds; where forgiveness proves vital and where love conquers all. It's perhaps most interesting when it's exploring the idea of God. By breaking that into its component parts: wisdom, love, power and so on, it provides a woefully insubstantial image of a/the true deity. In fact, the film recognises as much: the evil Set knows that he needs to unify the various powers of the Gods in order to truly become all-powerful, because he, like all of the other 'gods' in the film, is hopelessly flawed and fallible. So while the film gives us a worldview where supernatural forces create, give life and even answer prayer, it provides an insubstantial image of a truly worthy deity to wield such powers.
Similarly, the central question of how the dead get into heaven is posed and prodded at throughout. Three ideas are presented, and none quite chime with the Christian understanding: heaven is either freely given, judged on merit, or only available to those who can afford it. Yet perhaps the truth is different again: that it is both offered freely and bought at a heavy price. It's an option the film doesn't give us, so the various theologies offered to us don't quite ring true. As such, it's a pretty good version of that Athenian altar "to an unknown God" in Acts 17. It recognises God and his purpose for all creation, yet it can't quite locate him.
While the film is surprisingly interesting on a theological level, and entertaining for all the wrong reasons, there are some problems with it which don't simply get a free pass. It's another example in the UK at least of a film which has somehow been allowed a 12A certificate when its sometimes terrifying moments of demons dragging souls into hell shouldn't be seen by the eight-year-olds that rating permits. And it's yet another case of a blockbuster which pretends feminism and the Bechdel test never happened. I'm sure talented actress Courtney Eaton was cast for her entire body, but the camera is repeatedly only interested in one part of it. Add to that some pretty severe scenes of what I can only term 'fantasy domestic violence' involving Butler, and it's not going to be winning any awards for gender justice anytime soon.
Still, I suppose there's limited point in listing the problems with Gods of Egypt. Yes, it's bad, but it's strangely entertaining. Pick among the bones of the carcass of this cinematic disaster, and you might just find surprising riches.
Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. You can follow him on Twitter: @martinsaunders
Human rights campaigners call on China to drop cases against lawyers
Campaigners have called on China to drop cases against human rights lawyers and to release those being detained in prison including Xia Lin and Zhou Shifeng.
Xia Lin, who has defended activists in court, and Shifeng, director of a prominent Beijing law firm, face prosecution because of their human rights work.
"The Chinese government's hostility toward human rights lawyers has not eased since the mass arrest of legal professionals last July," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch (HRW). "This heavy-handed campaign against lawyers can only further diminish public and global confidence in China's justice system."
Xia Lin has been charged with extortion after he borrowed money although none of the people he borrowed from complained. HRW believes he is being prosucuted in retaliation for his defense of Guo Yushan, the head of a leading Beijing think tank, in 2014.
Xia Lin has also defended a hotel worker who killed a government official in self-defense against attempted rape.
Zhou Shifeng faces a life sentence after being charged with subversion, arising from last summer when the authorities detained 300 people across the country including many lawyers and and their assistants. Some are still in custody.
HRW said the Chinese government has "dramatically narrowed space for free expression and civil society" since President Xi Jinping came to power in March 2013.
Liberal scholars and opinion leaders on social media have been targeted, and the government has asserted Communist Party supremacy and demanded increasing loyalty to the party.
In December last year, Beijing lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was convicted for "inciting ethnic hatred" and "disturbing public order" and given a three-year suspended sentence.
In January this year, Guangzhou lawyer Tang Jingling received five years in prison for promoting non-violent civil disobedience.
Beijing lawyer Zhang Kai was detained incommunicado between August 2015 and March 2016 for providing legal advice to Christians who resisted the government's campaign to remove crosses from churches in Zhejiang province.
'I felt liberated': life after Islamic State
When US-backed forces seized Souad Hamidi's village in northern Syria from Islamic State last week, the 19-year-old swiftly tore off the niqab she had been forced to wear since 2014 and smiled.
"I felt liberated," Hamidi told Reuters after swapping her black face-covering veil for a red head scarf. "They made us wear it against our will so I removed it that way to spite them."
For the last two weeks, the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by US-led air strikes, have waged an offensive against the Islamic State-held city of Manbij, near the Syria-Turkey border.
The SDF have been cutting off routes into Manbij, encircling the city by seizing outlying villages like Hamidi's, Am Adasa.
Hamidi said she woke up one morning to hear that the SDF, which includes the Kurdish YPG militia and Arab fighters, had arrived in her village.
"We saw (SDF) fighters behind our house, digging to station their snipers, we thought they were Daesh (Islamic State) fighters, who were still inside the village," she said.
"We left, fearing we would be used as human shields during air strikes," she said. The family later returned once SDF fighters had pushed out remaining Islamic State forces.
Am Adasa had been under the militants' control since 2014, when Islamic State proclaimed its caliphate straddling Syria and Iraq. The governments of Syria and Iraq have launched offensives on other fronts against the group.
Under Islamic State, life was strictly regulated, Hamidi said, including dress codes.
"They would punish people who did not follow their rules, sometimes forcing them to stay in dug-out graves for days," she said. "Since they (SDF) took control, we are living a new life."
Sitting in her family home, Hamidi said she still fears Islamic State may return one day.
"I want to erase Daesh from my memory," she said. "I hope every area controlled by Daesh is liberated, that people are free of them and can live like we do now."
Iraqi Patriarch: Militia carrying Christian symbols are causing "more suffering"
A senior Iraqi clergyman has distanced himself and the Church from groups of militias carrying Christian symbols.
Chaldean Patriarch Raphael Louis I was responding to a series of pictures that have been posted online in recent days.
They appear to show groups of armed men with crosses, statues of Jesus and other symbols. It's thought they come from Fallujah the city which is the subject of an intense battle between ISIS forces and a collection of groups, including the Iraqi Army, which is attempting to win back control.
The Patriarch said: "These are individuals who act in a bad way: displaying Christian symbols is evil, and foments clashes related to religion, spirals of revenge and more suffering."
He was responding after reports surfaced that these militia groups had been involved in violent assaults on civilians fleeing from territory controlled by ISIS.
It isn't the first time the Patriarch has spoken out against people purporting to be Christians engaging in acts of violence against others in conflict-ridden Iraq.
Paramilitary groups from various different ethnic and religious factions exist. So far, Christians have mainly been victims of the violence in Iraq and Syria, and while they seek increased protection, it seems their leaders are keen to avoid them becoming perpetrators too.
It's been a week of tragedy, but hate will not have the final say
The universe is a place of astonishing grandeur. Picture the moon spinning around us at 2,300 miles an hour. Picture our earth spinning around the sun at 66,000 miles an hour. Our sun is one of 200 million other suns and trillions more planets in the Milky Way, and each one of those suns and planets is spinning around our galaxy at 483,000 miles an hour. Picture millions of carousels all swirling round in one great luminous sea that's our galaxy. And that galaxy is just one of 100 billion other galaxies hurtling through space at over one million miles an hour.
The universe is mind-bogglingly immense. In comparison, our little earth is no bigger than a pebble, and our individual lives are no greater than a grain of sand. And yet according to Scripture, the God who keeps those galaxies spinning picks out that pebble, looks at each microscopic person on it and says: "I'm here. I care. I'm listening." King David said God attends to our every moment watching as we sit and rise, listening for every thought (Psalm 139:1-16). Jesus said every hair on our heads has been counted by God, and that he knows every word of our prayers before they're spoken (Matthew 10:30; 6:8). The One who keeps those heavenly carousels spinning knows us in intimate, caring detail.
That's all very nice to say when times are good, however. It can be much harder to believe on weeks like this when 49 people are murdered and 53 more are injured in the Orlando tragedy. When a French policeman and his wife are killed in another Islamist attack. When a young Yorkshire MP applauded by all who knew her as a wife, mother, politician and humanitarian of astounding compassion is killed so brutally. Jo Cox dedicated her life to those who needed a voice, including refugees. We can wonder how a good and loving God was caring for people like her in 'intimate detail' this week.
We know quite a bit about what motivates Islamist-style hate crimes. In days to come, we may know more about the motives of Jo Cox's killer, Thomas Mair. But many questions will be left unanswered. They always are. This tiny pebble of a world has big problems, and there are no easy answers to human suffering.
When the biblical character Job went through tragedy, losing his health, livelihood and family (Job 1-2), he was given few answers as to why those atrocities happened. Instead, he was shown the grandeur of the world as evidence of God's care and goodness (38-41). The experience left him speechless (42:1-6).
When King David spoke of God's caring attention, he did so in brutal times. "If only you, God, would slay the wicked!" he goes on to say in Psalm 139:19. "Rescue me, Lord, from evildoers; protect me from the violent, who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day," (Psalm 140:1-2). David spoke in the midst of trouble.
And when Jesus spoke of our hairs being numbered, he didn't speak as some spiritual gypsy frolicking through the daisies of some imaginary utopia. His was an era of racial tension, political turmoil and outright terrorism. It was an era of regular crucifixions.
All this is to say that when Scripture talks of God's knowing of us in intimate, caring detail, it doesn't do so out of naivete. The idea is found in the midst of a violent, rubble-strewn world.
Brendan Cox gave a brave response to his wife's murder last night. He said he, his family and friends were going to work every day of their lives against the hate that killed Jo. Many will join him, vowing to use peaceful means diametrically opposed to those of Islamists and other purveyors of violence.
For me, the immense beauty and grandeur of the universe says this venture won't be in vain. Our grand cosmos and all its tiny pebbles were not built by and for hate, but by and for a Love who is brighter than the stars, One who is reconciling all the broken pieces back to himself (Colossians 1:15-22). Jesus' resurrection from death makes that theory an historical reality, a glimpse of what he'll ultimately achieve.
That means in the end hate will not have the final say.
Love will win out in the end.
Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker and broadcaster, frequently contributing to faith programs on BBC Radio 2. His books include Resurrection Year: Turning Broken Dreams into New Beginnings and Resilient: Your Invitation to a Jesus-Shaped Life. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter, and get his free ebook Five Practices for a Resilient Life.
'Jesus Lunch' divides Americans as debate leaves city wondering how to settle issue
Not everyone in Middleton, Wisconsin likes to partake of the "Jesus Lunch," a weekly Christian gathering near a school where food is served spiced with some Christian messages.
The issue has long divided the American city with over 17,000 residents. One group supports the gathering at Fireman's Park, saying it creates a fun and safe atmosphere for students of Middleton High School during lunchtime, according to wkow.com. Fireman's Park is located right outside Middleton High School.
However, the opposing group has expressed safety concerns, saying the gathering poses security and health issues.
On Tuesday, local legislators held a public consultation on the matter but ended up where they started: still deeply divided. The two city government panels that sponsored the gathering said they were not ready to offer a recommendation to City Hall on the issue.
The Middleton council chamber was packed with residents who expressed opposing views on "Jesus Lunch."
Supporters argued that the lunches offer a choice to students.
"If some kids don't wish to attend, they don't have to," one supporter said.
"Having kids get together just off campus, sharing lunch and hearing a brief positive message from the teachings of Christ is much more appealing to me than having out kids sync into the swill of their cell phones," another parent said.
But critics said the gathering poses safety concerns, including health concerns for students who might have food allergens.
During a protest rally held last April, "Jesus Lunch" protesters argued that the lunch is "exclusive and divisive," according to The Cap Times.
The protesters called on proponents to "take Jesus Lunch to church." They also drew comparisons, saying it's hard to imagine residents tolerating a "Muslim Lunch."
Amanda Powers, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Middleton alumnus, said the issue is "dividing the student body, hurting minority students and creating unsafe spaces for those that aren't Christian."
However, Middleton student Anna Diamond disagreed, saying, "I'm Jewish and don't feel like I'm being oppressed. People think the lunch is oppressive but it's not; no one is forced to come here at all, students have a choice."
She said, "The parents are not trying to get people to convert and they are very peaceful. We should all be allowed to have our beliefs and right to preach as long as it's not offending or hurting anyone."
"Jesus Lunch" was started in 2014 by a small group of parents whose children are enrolled in Middleton High School. In this weekly gatheringheld every Tuesday in the fall and springparents give faith-based motivational speeches and positive messages. Sometimes, parents hand out Bibles and Christianity pamphlets.
Jo Cox: A tragic reminder of how much we owe our public servants
Thoughts, prayers and tributes are being offered following the death of Yorkshire Labour MP Jo Cox after an attack in her constituency. At 41 years old, she had 30 or 40 years of public service left to offer when she attended a constituency surgery yesterday. We can barely imagine the world that her family is waking up to today.
Speculating about causes isn't helpful. All we can do is pray for her family, and for the police and justice system to act swiftly and decisively.
What we can reflect on is how fortunate we are in the UK for this to be such a rare occurrence. We can also reflect on how blessed we are to live in a culture where violence is comparatively rare, where politicians are still approachable and where we have robust policing, judicial and medical systems to make us as safe, secure and healthy as we are.
During the run-up to the EU referendum, I have frequently despaired at the tone of the debate and the way both sides of the campaign have behaved. It's the latest in a long line of things which have drawn attention to the cynical, sometimes dirty nature of politics.
Yet today, I'm reminded of the overwhelming good that exists in our political system. To live in a democracy where we get the chance to vote both in the EU referendum and for our local and national representatives is a privilege known by very few of our fellow humans throughout the history of the world. Our democracy is far from perfect there is much work to be done but today isn't the day to pick holes in the system. It's a day to be grateful for our relative freedom and ability to control our own political destiny.
It's also a day to be incredibly grateful to Jo Cox and the many thousands of faithful, hard working and conscientious MPs, councilors, members of the devolved assemblies, police commissioners, mayors and other elected officials across the country. While we witness the half hour of political theatre during Prime Minister's Questions, what we don't always witness is the amount of sheer hard work, much of it unglamorous, which is done by our MPs and others, and the way they often work together across party lines.
Being an MP is incredibly tough. Long days away from the family, constant intrusions from the media, the pressure of making very hard decisions. Many of them could make more money outside of politics but they choose to serve, and to try and seek the common good. They may not always make the right decisions, but do the very best they can. Our democracy simply wouldn't work if good people didn't take on this vital role.
Virtually all MPs carry out regular advice surgeries in which the people they represent can come and speak with them face to face about issues which are concerning them. It may be the big global issues such as climate change and the refugee crisis, or it may be a local problem with a park, a school or a hospital.
Christian MP Stephen Timms is among this hardworking group. I've seen him up close on a number of occasions going above and beyond the call of duty. When he was stabbed during a surgery in Beckton in east London, he made a full recovery. Despite the fear that would have been only natural, he and other MPs continued to meet constituents and to do their jobs despite the obvious risk.
It would have been easy to hide behind the impregnable security of the Palace of Westminster, especially seeing as Timms has one of the safest seats in the country. Instead he carried on fighting hard for his constituents even those with whom he disagreed, perhaps profoundly.
Jo Cox worked in war zones for development charity Oxfam. She exemplified a commitment to service, a desire for justice and a passion for making the world a better place. These traits are shared by many of our public servants. We must remember this especially those of us who are prone to become cynical about the political process. Our approach to policies, economics and social issues may differ, but we have to recognise the huge sacrifices our politicians make in the cause of the common good. Yesterday Jo Cox made the ultimate sacrifice. We are all in her debt.
Follow Andy Walton on Twitter @waltonandy
Life sentences handed down after riots in India where Muslims were burned and hacked to death
Eleven people in India have been given life sentences after being convicted for a notorious attack on the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim residential area in Gujarat in 2002, in which at least 69 people were hacked and burned to death.
A further 13 people received shorter sentences of between seven and 10 years and 36 people were acquitted.
Former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among those killed in three days of riots, in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died overall.
The violence was sparked by a fire on a train that killed 60 Hindu pilgrims.
The Gulbarg Society was a community of 30 bungalows and 10 blocks of flats in Ahmedabad. At the time, Narendra Modi, current Prime Minister of India, was chief minister of Gujarat. He was cleared of complicity in 2012.
The sentencing brings to an end a trial that has lasted seven years in front of four separate judges. The court in Ahmedabad was told the killings took place on the "darkest day in the history of civil society".
Even those given life sentences could win a reprieve however and be out of prison after serving much shorter sentence.
"They are not a menace to society, the accused can be reformed," the court was told, according to The Times of India.
The 11 people setnenced to life were Kailash Dobhi, Yogendra Shekhwat, Jayesh Jinger, Krishna Kala, Jayesh Parmar, Raju Tiwari, Naran Channelwala, Lakhansinh Chudasma, Bharat Teli, Bharat Rajput and Dinesh Sharma.
The lawyer for the victims, SM Vora, argued for the maximum punishment and called for those convicted to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan, said she was disappointed by the verdict.
"I was there when Ehsan Jafri was killed, it's not justice at all," she told journalists after the case.
Pastors who faced death sentences in Sudan tell extraordinary stories of Christian faith in prison
Two pastors from South Sudan who were freed after a terrifying prison ordeal where they even faced a possible death sentence have spoken movingly of how their Christian faith sustained and inspired them during their time behind bars.
Pastor Peter Yen and Pastor Michael Yat preached the gospel to fellow inmates and brought men on death row to faith in Jesus Christ.
The two men were imprisoned in Sudan in December 2014 and January 2015 on six charges including espionage, "offending Islamic beliefs", promoting hatred among sects and undermining the constitutional system. They were freed last summer after a hearing in Khartoum.
The pastors now state that those who imprisoned them "blessed us mightily", according to interviews they gave to the charity Open Doors and seen in full by Christian Today.
Pastor Peter, who grew up in a non-Christian family and as a young boy attended church with friends, described how his trust in God was formed when he was a child and was accused of stealing from a shop. "I was devastated and questioned God about His faithfulness. When I went back to the village, I found that the real thief had been caught and had confessed. This taught me to trust God and it proved to me that He is real and active. I have been a believer since then."
He became a pastor in the Presbyterian Evangelical Church and worked in cross-cultural evangelism with Pastor Michael and was sent to Khartoum when civil war broke out.
He worked in outreach, discipleship, and leadership in spite of knowing the risks of doing such work in an Islamic country where Sharia is law and anyone who leaves Islam risks the death penalty for apostasy.
When Pastor Michael was arrested in December 2014, Pastor Peter went to the Religious Affairs office to inquire about him and security officers found the link between them, leading to his own arrest.
He said he was held separately from Pastor Michael in Kober prison and accused of converting Muslims.
"I told them as a pastor it was my duty to preach the gospel wherever I went but that ultimately it was God who changes human beings. They insisted that the people on the list were still Muslims because their names had not changed, but I explained that Christians are not concerned about names but about the transformation of a person's heart.
"After about four hours I was taken into a darkened cell at Kober, where I stayed for three months. This was the most difficult time for me. I did not know that Michael was in the same prison.
"The only contact I had with anyone was when food was passed to me through a very small opening in the door. I was not allowed to read my Bible or any other books.
"They would blindfold me to take me to interrogations. When the blindfold was removed, I would find four soldiers with guns pointing at me. They tried to coerce me into becoming a spy."
They were both then moved to another department where they stayed for two months in cells measuring two-by-six metres holding up to 20 people at one time.
"The heat was almost unbearable. We could not sit down, because there was no room. We also had to buy our own food and were often overcharged. But we were able to talk to our loved ones occasionally. The best part about being there was that we were able to get Bibles and preach to fellow inmates."
After being charged officially they were relocated to Omdurman Prison.
"Here we found a church in the compound with over 3,000 prisoners. This was our mission field! Pastor Michael and I worked out a schedule to preach with the permission of the prison officers who were very good to us. That is until a foreigner came to the prison and was caught taking pictures of the premises. After this the prison officers changed drastically. They ordered us to immediately collect all our things because we were being moved right away."
They were taken back to Kober prison.
"They confiscated our Bibles and chained our legs. The chains stayed on for two weeks, during which we showered in our clothes because we did not know how to remove them with the chains. We were not allowed to go out except for the daily bathroom breaks of one hour. We pleaded with them to give us back our Bibles and they finally agreed on condition that we did not preach to anyone.
"Michael and I spent only one night in the same cell before being separated again and would meet during the one hour bathroom break only.
"The conditions were very hard here. This prison was so hot that you could wring sweat out of your shirt. But it was the best place and the happiest phase for me because I was put in the same cell with condemned persons and had opportunity to preach to all.
"Most of them were Muslims. People asked me why I was there and when I told them I faced the death sentence for being a preacher, they would say, 'But if they are going to kill you, why are you so happy?'
"It gave me the opportunity to share about heaven and about Christ. They were shocked and wanted to know more. Whenever the prison officers realised that we were preaching to fellow inmates, they would take us to other cells. We did not mind this because in this way we got access to almost all the condemned persons! God surely has His ways of doing things, even using those who think they are punishing you."
They came to trust God's providence.
"We made peace with the reality that God would either get us released or let us be killed. The outcome was fully in His hands and we placed our faith in His ultimate purpose.
"When the judge read the 45 minute long ruling, we sat there in peace waiting for whatever was to be. He criticised the security agents for the way they treated us keeping us in custody beyond the stipulated 24 hours, holding us incommunicado, going to our homes without warrants of arrest but when he declared us free, I thought I was dreaming! I could not believe my ears! I looked at Michael and asked in disbelief, 'Did he just release us?!' and he confirmed that I had heard correctly."
He believes God had reasons for allowing them to go through all that suffering.
"Through our experiences condemned persons heard the gospel. Of those we led to Christ, two were hanged while we were still there. Another three were killed soon after we were released. It was comforting to know that they went to be with Christ.
"Also, the situation of the church in the Sudan was highlighted and people around the world became aware of the pressures Christians face there. If our imprisonment was God's way of exposing their suffering so that they can receive relief and prayer support, it was worth it."
Pastor Michael said: "We should not be surprised by suffering. God has prepared us for such things."
A pastor's son, he said he received Jesus when he was about 10 years old.
"A boy who stole my brother's bicycle beat me when I tried to take it back. I was very upset about the whole thing and could not eat or sleep. Surprisingly, I started feeling convicted to forgive this boy. When I did, I experienced great peace.
"That is when I decided to give my life to Christ. Until today, this principle of forgiveness has continued to play an important role in my life."
Pastor Michael studied theology in Egypt, after which he served as evangelist, pastor, and teacher in Sudan and South Sudan.
When the civil war broke out he fled to Uganda but in December 2014 he and his wife went back to seek medical care in Khartoum for their youngest child.
"On the first Sunday after our arrival, I told Mary I wanted to go to Bahari Evangelical Church because I was eager to learn how the brethren were doing in the midst of a serious conflict. She asked me not to go because she felt uneasy but could not explain why. I insisted, and I took with me my phone, iPad, memory stick, and notebook. For some reason I gave Mary all the cash I had on me. If it had not been for that, she would have been stranded."
He ended up preaching, and his sermon was recorded by security officials, which led to his arrest.
"They questioned me about our work and why we had Muslims claiming to be Christians. They also found information about the indigenous pastors we worked with and a map of Sudan where we had indicated our work. They said it was proof I was spying for South Sudan. They also planted security training materials on my laptop and claimed it had been there since 2010."
In Kober prison Michael was placed in a cell with 17 other people. Instead of complaining he said: "That was a perfect evangelism opportunity."
He said he survived in small cells by taking turns sleeping. "Six would sleep for four hours, wake up and sit while the other six slept. This is how we slept the whole time we were there. I cannot describe the heat and horror of the hygiene situation. There were no windows in the cells, yet temperatures would normally reach 50C.
"Also, all prisoners would only be allowed out for one hour per day during which we had to bath, use the toilet, and then return to the cell. But there were only three toilets. It is a true miracle that we did not get sick. It is God who protected us. During this time I held on to Romans 8:18-39."
He said they were held with all kinds of people, from petty criminals to hard-core criminals, and were able to talk to them about Christ.
During their final hearing last August, Pastor Michael was found guilty of "breach of the peace" and Pastor Peter of "managing a criminal or terrorist organisation". They were released because they had served their sentence during the previous eight months in prison.
Pastor Michael said he had been moved by the support the two received.
"The Christians in Sudan came together and prayed for us. They united across denominational barriers. Knowing this was a big blessing."
To others facing persecution, he said: "Do not be surprised by your persecution, or discouraged. Do not look for the cause of your suffering. Instead focus on the fact that Christ will never abandon you. He is called Emmanuel, God with us. Hold on to Him, and if He so chooses, He will cause you too to be freed from the suffering, as He did for us. Your testimony will serve to encourage other believers. Do not give up hope. Finally, may God comfort you the same way He comforted us while we were imprisoned."
Pastor Michael pleaded with Christians around the world to continue praying for Sudan. "Please continue to pray for Sudan. Many are weak and remain weak under the constant government pressure. They need training, prayer and support. Pray for strength to all who are involved in church ministry."
Vietnam: Church raided, congregation beaten and 14-year-old arrested
A 14-year-old Christian has been arrested in Vietnam amid a series of government crackdowns on Christians following a US delegation's visit to the country.
A local church close to the Vietnam-China border was stormed by 30 government authorities on June 13, according to International Christian Concern (ICC).
During the raid, multiple churchgoers were beaten and two were arrested, including a 14-year-old.
The priest was interrogated and authorities attempted to make him sign a statement saying the church's activities were a danger to security and disrupted the community.
The incident came almost a week after UN Officials condemned the alleged torture and arrest of the wife of an imprisoned Vietnamese pastor.
Tran Thi Hong, the wife of Pastor Mguyen Cong Chinh, was reportedly detained and tortured on April 14 by local authorities, in an attempt to gain information about a meeting with the US Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom, David Saperstein.
A US delegation, including President Obama, visited Vietnam between May 23-25, and the US lifted the weapons embargo between the two countries.
"It is appalling to see the actions by the Vietnamese government against its Christian population both before and after the President's visit. In an effort to bring forth a new chapter in US-Vietnamese relations, the President lifted the weapons embargo between the two nations in hopes of a better future," said ICC's regional manager for South Asia, William Stark.
"Unfortunately, the President relinquished the last major bargaining chip the United States had to use with Vietnam regarding their deplorable human rights record. These recent attacks on the church and the arrest and torture of an imprisoned pastor's wife shows the true colors of Vietnam's leadership."
Summer is upon us, a time for pool parties and trips to the beach.
But this time of the year is of particular significance for the Muslim population. June 5 through July 5 marks Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar in which Muslims fast to commemorate their belief in the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Rock star Meat Loaf, who has sold more than 80 million records worldwide, collapsed while performing in Canada, according to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Fans were told to leave Northern Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, Alberta, as emergency workers arrived, FOX News says.
Lindsay Sundmark told the Edmonton Journal: "He was performing 'I Would Do Anything For Love,' and all of a sudden in the middle of it he collapsed right on stage. We weren't sure at first whether it was part of the act or it was something for real."
Born in Dallas as Marvin Lee Aday, the highly acclaimed musician, 68, recently canceled two shows earlier in the week due to illness.
His condition is unknown at this time.
Meat Loaf is well known for his anthology of "Bat Out of Hell" albums, and for songs such as "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and "You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth."
The rocker has a history of scary crises. He once told Ultimateclassicrock.com in an interview:
"I got hit in the head with a 12 pound shot (when I was) a sophomore in high school at 62 feet. Yeah, I've had 18 concussions, I've been in eight car wrecks, I've been in a plane that didn't have front landing gear when we came down. I've been in a plane that lost its hydraulics on landing that was the most fun ever. We were tipping from one side to another, rolling across the grass. (I've been on) two other planes, one private and one normal that the wind hit us so hard (while landing) the wing hit the runway."
He collapsed during a 2011 concert in Pittsburgh, but finished the performance after receiving onstage medical assistance.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Not far from the River Oaks Country club stands the mansion owned by Houston trial attorney Tony Buzbee, where presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will be asking for money early Friday evening.
Guests will pay up to pay anywhere from $5,400 up to a quarter million dollars to attend the fundraiser, and the setting is definitely fitting for the sizable campaign funds Trump is seeking.
SEE ALSO: River Oaks District fetches $550M-plus in cash sale
When Buzbee bought the mansion in 2013, then listed at $14 million, it set a local price record.
"I'm all about setting records, but I'm not sure this is one I should be proud of or not," the high-profile lawyer told the Houston Chronicle at the time, though he did not reveal the home's actual sales price. "All I'll say is the owner wasn't budging that much."
He did mention that he paid cash for the estate.
Designed by architect Tom Wilson, the English cottage-style mansion has five bedrooms and a number of other high-end features. At 12,000 square feet, it's a sizable venue for this type of event.
RELATED: Trump to hold Friday rally in The Woodlands
Buzbee told the Houston Chronicle that he thinks there will be a good crowd at the fundraiser.
"It prices a lot of people out when you have a minimum of $5,400 (per ticket), but I think we are going to raise a good amount," he explained. "Some people are giving big money, some the minimum, but I think we are going to quadruple the $600,000 that Hillary raised here recently, so I'm happy about that. And people will get to meet The Donald."
After the gathering at Buzbee's home, Trump is expected to attend a 7 p.m. rally at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center.
The presumptive GOP nominee's Texas tour also included a Dallas stop Thursday night and a San Antonio event Friday at noon.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Firefighters are battling a large blaze Friday at a business center in southwest Houston.
The blaze was updated to a four-alarm fire at 2 p.m. Traffic near Gessner and Harwin will be restricted during rush hour.
The fire broke out about 12:30 p.m. at 10161 Harwin near Point W Drive, according to the Houston Fire Department.
Officials said no injuries were reported.
When firefighters arrived, they found heavy flames burning inside the building. They called for additional equipment and personnel to help battle the blaze.
Fire, smoke and water heavily damaged the structure.
Investigators are trying to determine what sparked the blaze.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3
An Amber Alert has been issued for a missing six-old girl and a woman who is possibly connected to the girl's disappearance in Yoakum.
Aaleea Parr-Colunga is considered to be grave and immediate danger, according to the Yoakum Police Department.
A man was seriously injured early Friday morning when his car slammed into the side of a pickup in northwest Harris County.
The two-vehicle wreck happened about 2:30 a.m. in the 5400 block of West FM 1960, said Sgt. S. Wolverton of the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
No charges have been filed Friday a day after a man told police he shot and killed his teenage daughter and her mother in self-defense after the pair tried to attack him with knives at a home in south Houston.
The teen's name has not been released, but the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences identified her mother as Sandtrece LaToya Ratliffe.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
MONDAY
Cara Black: Author will discuss and sign "Murder on the Quai," 6:30 p.m., Murder By The Book, 2342 Bissonnet; 713-524-8597, or toll free 888-424-2842 or murderbooks.com.
Samuel E. Karff: Author will discuss and sign "For This You Were Created: Memoir of an American Rabbi," 7 p.m., Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet; 713-523-0701 or brazosbookstore.com.
TUESDAY
Brad Thor: Author will discuss and sign "Foreign Agent," 6:30 p.m., Murder By The Book.
Marty Troyer: Pastor and author will discuss and sign "The Gospel Next Door" at an event that includes area faith leaders, 6:30 p.m., DeLuxe Theater, 3303 Lyons Ave.; 281- 783-9070. To RSVP, search eventbrite.com for "Marty Troyer."
WEDNESDAY
Candice Shy Hooper: Author will read and sign "Lincoln's Generals' Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War - For Better and For Worse," 6 p.m, Barnes & Noble, 2030 W. Gray; 713-522-8571.
Mark Z. Danielewski: Author will discuss and sign "The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle and Pain," 7 p.m., Brazos Bookstore.
FRIDAY
Taylor Anderson: Author will discuss and sign "Blood in the Water," 6:30 p.m., Murder By the Book.
Gabriel Blackwell: Author will discuss and sign "Madeleine E.," 7 p.m., Brazos Bookstore.
SATURDAY
Rick Searfoss: Author will sign "Liftoff: An Astronaut Commander's Countdown for Purpose-Powered Leadership," 1 p.m., Barnes & Noble, 2030 W. Gray; 713-522-8571.
Kristen Martin: Author will sign "The Alpha Drive," 2-4 p.m., Katy Budget Books, 2450 Fry, Houston; 281-578-7770 or katybooks.com.
Kathryn Lane: Author will sign "Waking Up in Medellin," 3-5 p.m., River Oaks Bookstore, 3270 Westheimer; 713 520-0061 or riveroaksbookstore.com.
Lark Brennan and Lily Blackwood: Brennan will discuss and sign "Irresistibly Yours" and Blackwood will discuss and sign "The Beast of Clan Kincaid," 4:30 p.m., Murder By The Book.
Alyson Ward
NEW YORK - On the second floor of a classic cast-iron building in SoHo, just above the madding crowd, there is an airy loft, all cool cream tones and Pierre Paulin chairs, oversize art books and Henri Cartier-Bresson prints. And along one wall is a rail of discreet white and black, mariniere striped linen, silk, cotton and denim; culottes, shirtdresses, tunics and cashmeres. With price tags attached.
That is because this is not actually an apartment at all. It is an experiment, and that rail is Stage Three of a long-term plan to do what has never really been done before in American fashion: create a conglomerate of brands all born, if not permanently housed, under one roof.
The experiment is being conducted by Adam Pritzker, a positive-thinking, 31-year-old scion of the billionaire Hyatt hotel family, and Vanessa Traina, the famously chic 31-year-old daughter of romance novelist Danielle Steel and stylist/consultant/BFF of designers like Joseph Altuzarra and Alexander Wang.
It started in 2013, when Pritzker founded Assembled Brands. The next year, they introduced an e-commerce site called the Line with a group of products "curated" by Traina, executive creative director. They opened a showroom in New York (the Apartment by the Line) and, after that, one in Los Angeles, with the products posed to look as if in a private house.
Peppered among those products was a new brand, Protagonist, an accessible luxury collection marked by its elegant discretion and owned by Assembled Brands, as well as Tenfold, a homewares collection that recently expanded into T-shirts. Next week, they are introducing their third line, Khaite.
Three being fashion's magic number: the one that represents critical mass, trend or otherwise.
Khaite, designed by Catherine Holstein, late of Gap, is an advanced contemporary collection that looks kind of like a Scandinavian version of Tory Burch, with a quietly sybaritic windswept mood.
Like Protagonist, now stocked in 40 other boutiques including Net-a-Porter, it will initially be sold only at the Line, and then wholesale to the wider market.
There is talk of starting a menswear brand and a childrenswear brand, all part of what Traina calls "a distinct vision focused on defining a new kind of American sportswear that is less about trend and more about lifestyle."
It all sounds logical enough. Except it has never worked before.
One of the never-ending questions in fashion is why no conglomerate has arisen to rival the French behemoth Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton (owner of Vuitton, Givenchy, Celine, Pucci and Fendi, among others) or the Swiss watch and jewelry giant Richemont (Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, and so on ).
In Italy, Only the Brave is currently making a stab at it (Maison Margiela, Marni, Viktor & Rolf, Diesel), and Tod's owns Hogan, Roger Vivier and Fay (and Tod's owner, Diego Della Valle, owns Schiaparelli). But they have nothing like the scale of LVMH and Kering. Which may be why, when LVMH swooped in and bought up Bulgari in 2011 and Loro Piana in 2013, it caused agony in Rome and Milan along the lines of, "Why can't we keep our own brands in our own hands?"
This question also comes up a lot in the United States, where name brands such as Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan are likewise owned by LVMH, and the only group even close to the European model is PVH, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger (and more mass-market names like Speedo and Izod).
All of which raises the question: What do Pritzker and Traina think they know that all of these other fashion insiders did not?
Two reasons most often given for the lack of an American group are absence of available heritage brands on which to build, and timing. When LVMH and Kering, previously PPR, were formed (in 1987 and 1999, Kering at the time being called the Gucci Group, and owned by PPR), most European brands were relatively local, family-run businesses with big names, ripe for the acquisition. Now fashion is a giant global concern, and the financial outlay required to build these kinds of groups is exponentially greater.
Which is partly why Assembled Brands is doing none of the above. It is not interested in established brands but rather in making its own, an attitude that nods to the American mythology that values the idea of invention more than the idea of saving what was.
Its backroom synergies are not in capital-intensive areas like real estate, with its fixed costs, but rather in technology, with its related access to consumer data and e-commerce. And its ambitions begin at an entirely different place from the groups that went before.
Pritzker dreams of expanding via a network of services for brands making around $1 million to $2 million a year in revenue.
He aims to use his experience and his own brands, to create an ecosystem with tentacles that provide services (financial, logistic, digital) to a host of independent emerging talent, so that the connected whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts.
As a result, one brand "doesn't need to be a breakaway success to make the whole thing work," Pritzker said.
The Latin Blue International Music Duo has been around for a long time on Houston's music scene, and tonight they will be performing at the 8th Wonder Brewery.
I talked with duo member Patricia Gras, who says their set will include 40 songs in different languages -- including Italian, French, Portuguese, Hebrew-Arabic, Spanish, Russian, as well as English. If you take a look at the video where the duo is rehearsing their performance, you will love their lively Russian "Porom pom pom." Another one of my favorites is "Bamboleo."
Dolores Huerta, a nationally respected Hispanic leader, has a message for Houstonians about Donald Trump, who will visit Houston Friday for a fundraiser at the River Oaks home of billionaire Tony Buzbee.
It's important that people take action against Trump's "hateful messages," says Huerta, who cofounded the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 with the late Cesar Chavez and has been a key organizer of Hispanic activism in America for half a century.
Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of Trump announcing his candidacy for president, and Huerta marked the day by joining the "Donald Trump's Year of Hate" campaign, organized by People For the American Way, a diverse national coalition of businesses, civic and religious groups, and civil rights leaders.
Q: Why are you taking a position against Trump?
A: This has been really a year of hate, "de odio," because since the very beginning he started attacking Mexicans, wanting to build a wall on the Mexican border. And then he went on from there and started attacking Muslims, women, making fun of people who are disabled. Then he went attacking the press.
It has been a whole year of hate that he has been propagating. ... We have a lot of unstable people in our country and they hear this kind of rhetoric coming out of a presidential candidate, it gives them license to act on the words that Trump is saying ... and then leads to something as horrible as what happened in Orlando, Florida.
Q: So you see a direct correlation between Trump and the massacre in Orlando?
A: He has aligned himself with some of the most anti-gay organizations and people in the U.S. ... and the problem is that he does it very publicly and people, if they already have feelings of anger towards gays or people of color, then they act on those feelings. It sort of made it ok to attack people publicly the way Trump does.
Q: What, specifically, are you urging the people of Houston to do?
A: My message to them is to follow the example of Cesar Chavez, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King. Act, do it, but do it peacefully. Protest peacefully. If you are provoked, try not to answer back to the provocation, because the way we have to bring this fight and we are really fighting for the soul of America is by being very disciplined. Part of that discipline is that when we do our protests, we do them nonviolently. If the Trump people are going to be attacking us, try not to react, ok? That is very, very important. Later on you could sue them. ... And the other important action is to vote. This is a very strong nonviolent action. We know we are the majority in the United States we who are of color, women, men of conscience. And if we don't vote, he is going to win.
Q: In your opinion, which is more important: protesting or voting?
A: It's ok to protest in a nonviolent way, but if you don't go to vote, then actually Trump is going to win.
This is the big message that we have to get out there. People that have not become citizens or registered to vote, they can finish this process now by voting in November against Donald Trump. We also have to vote for other positions. We have to remember that if Hillary wins, she is going to need a Congress that supports her. We are not going to pass any laws that we need, like immigration reform, or keeping the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), or improve our educational system, if we do not vote. ...
My message is "ya basta" ("enough is enough"). We cannot take these insults from Donald Trump and not act on them. Mexicanos, our revenge is our vote. So get out and vote.
olivia.tallet@chron.com
@oliviaptallet
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
A Seattle man arrested Tuesday after a brief standoff with police now faces hate crime charges related to purported threats against a mosque there.
King County prosecutors claim Houston-native Robert Kinder Farris posted a series of threats to Facebook against the Idriss Mosque. Farris, 37, is alleged to have threatened to take revenge and blow Muslims away while they are praying.
These people are animals, all of them, Farris said on Facebook, according to charging papers filed Thursday.
On Tuesday, Farriss sister called the New York Police Department to report that her brother emailed her threatening suicide. Dispatch records indicate the woman told officers her brother had an AK-47 and wants to be shot by police.
Investigators in Texas and Seattle then found hateful anti-Muslim statements they contend were posted online by Farris.
All you gotta do is kill as (many) Muslims as you can, and when the cops get there, point the gun at the cops and dont shoot, Farris said in one, according to charging papers. They will shoot you and its over. No prison.
Farris is alleged to have posted a Google Street View image showing the Idriss Mosque along with a note describing too many targets to count.
Seattle police officers responded to Farriss Bitter Lake neighborhood apartment and arrested Farris after a brief standoff.
Farris is alleged to have made numerous degrading, threatening statements about Muslims, including that the final crusade against Islam has begun. Police say Farris admitted to making several of the statements.
Writing the court, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Michael Hogan said Farris told investigators he hates Muslims. Farris, the prosecutor said, was intoxicated when police arrived.
Farris was investigated in 2015 after death threats were made against a Redmond-based Muslim association, Hogan said. Members of the mosque are afraid Farris will act on the threats if hes released from jail, Hogan continued.
READ MORE: Islamophobia 'is not Christian.' Episcopal bishop says at Seattle forum
Farris remains jailed pending arraignment on June 30. He has been charged in King County Superior Court with malicious harassment, Washingtons hate crime law.
Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.
George Parnham still talks to Andrea Yates at least once a week over the phone. He considers her a daughter. He tries to visit her at the mental hospital in Kerrville, where she is currently held, every couple months.
Parnham represented Yates 15 years ago during both trials, after she was arrested for drowning her five children in a bathtub in June 2001.
"When I call my kids on the weekends, I will call Andrea," George Parnham said.
Andrea Yates drowned her five children in her Clear Lake home, after her husband Rusty Yates left for work that morning. Houstonians were transfixed by the 2002 trial. Yates was first convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 2005, Yates' conviction was reversed due to false testimony given by a California psychiatrist.
RELATED: Mother described methodical drowning of 5 kids
In 2006, she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Finally, in July 2006 she was found not guilty and sent first to a mental health hospital in North Texas, and then to Kerrville, where she's been since 2007. The case propelled conversations about women's mental health, specifically postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. Yates suffered from both postpartum depression and a more severe form of postpartum-- postpartum psychosis.
Eleven to 20 percent of women suffer from postpartum depression symptoms after giving birth each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. On average, about 600,000 women are diagnosed with postpartum depression every year.
"I had no earthly idea before I got this case what was meant by postpartum," Parnham said.
But 15 years later, after the conversations around postpartum depression began, Houston mental health advocates still feel there needs to be more awareness.
In 2002, Parnham and his wife, Mary, created the Yates Children Memorial Fund, to help bring awareness about postpartum depression to the Houston community. Since the fund's creation, over 600,000 brochures on postpartum illnesses have been handed out around the community.
READ MORE: Mother charged with capital murder in death of infant son
"After the first trial, when Andrea was found guilty; it was a rough time for everybody. The one thing that kept illuminating in our minds was that these five children are gone and they need a legacy," Mary said.
The fund also holds trainings for medical professionals, community health workers, and others interested in learning more about postpartum illnesses. The fund has trained more than 3,000 professionals working in the Houston community. Mary said Yates keeps up with what is going with the fund in her children's name.
"She's very enthralled with what YCMF does. She's thrilled to know that good things are being done for the legacy of her children and that makes her very happy," Mary said.
Dr. Sherry Duson is a licensed marriage/family therapist and counselor, and at the time when news broke about Andrea Yates' case, she knew others needed to learn the effect of postpartum illnesses.
"The Yates case was kind of good and bad," Duson said. "It was good that it really highlighted the need. It was bad that it was so horrendous, that people worried if I have postpartum depression am I going to end up like her? That's so far from the truth. That's not the way these illnesses work."
RELATED: 20 Houston news stories that went viral in the last 20 years
Shortly after news broke about Yates, Duson started doing advocacy work for postpartum depression. She began serving on the board of the Yates Children Memorial Fund. She also continued to hold support group classes for new mothers at a local hospital. She realized there were no resources for mothers in the Houston area if they wanted to learn more about the mental illness.
Duson had her own private practice, where she would see moms dealing with postpartum depression, but wanted to expand her business. She opened the only center in Houston that deals with postpartum depression, Center for Postpartum Family Health, in 2014.
"Postpartum depression or anxiety is not a death sentence. It's just an illness that you need to recover from. Speak up and get treatment. The good news is that you'll get well," Duson said.
The Parnhams recognize how far the community has come in recognizing postpartum depression as a mental illness. They still feel change needs to continue. Duson hopes that a law will be put into place requiring doctors to screen women for postpartum depression.
"Tragedy begets change. That's always been unfortunately the case. I hope that it is also true here. That these five children did not live their lives in vain and that the community has come so far since then. That in their names we can bring about change," Mary Parnham said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Donald Trump told a large and boisterous crowd in The Woodlands on Friday night that he would be a fierce supporter of gun rights if elected president, and that an armed person could have prevented the Orlando nightclub massacre that left 49 people dead and another 53 wounded.
"Nobody will protect your Second Amendment like Donald John Trump. Nobody! Nobody!" the presumptive Republican presidential nominee declared.
Trump alleged that Democrat Hillary Clinton wanted to abolish the Second Amendment, a claim previously disputed by the fact-checking site PolitiFact. Mentions of her name drew loud boos.
He urged those in the crowd to imagine if some of those at the Orlando nightclub early Sunday had been armed and returned fire at gunman Omar Mateen, who had an assault rifle and a handgun and was later killed by a SWAT team.
"If some of those wonderful people had guns strapped right here, right to their waist or right to their ankle (making a gesture of drawing a gun), and this son of a (expletive) comes out and starts shooting, and one of the people in that room happened to have it and goes boom, boom, you know what? That would have been a beautiful, beautiful site folks," the billionaire developer and reality TV star said to the roar of the crowd.
"So don't let them take your guns away, and believe me, you put me in there, we're going to save that Second Amendment. We're going to save your guns. They're not going to take away your bullets. They're not going to shorten up your magazines. They're not going to do anything. We're going to preserve it and we're going to cherish it, and that's what we have to do."
Trump's appearance at the rally was his second in the Houston area on Friday. Earlier, he attended a fundraiser in Houston's affluent River Oaks neighborhood where couples paid as much as $250,000 to hear him. Trump is scheduled to speak at a rally in Phoenix on Saturday.
TRUMP PLAYLIST: Videos from the Donald Trump rally in Houston
KPRC reported that a man was detained by police after they found him on the fourth floor of a parking garage at The Woodlands rally site with a pistol. But a half-hour later, the man was back outside and denying that he'd brought a firearm to the event. "Make America Great Again," the man, sporting a Trump t-shirt, told the news station. "Trump is going to be our next president."
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office referred questions to the U.S. Secret Service, which had no immediate comment.
Protesters and supporters turned out for each event, but police were out in force and largely kept them separated. A Trump supporter and a protester exchanged punches and were taken into custody in The Woodlands, but there were no major clashes.
Three or four people were treated for heat exhaustion near The Woodlands rally, with no serious injuries, the county sheriff's office said.
Trump was pumped up by the enthusiastic response he received in The Woodlands, where people had waited for hours in muggy 90-degree heat to get inside a conference center with a capacity of 5,000. Many were turned away after waiting outside even though the room didn't appear to be completely full, which Trump attributed to fire regulations.
"We have tremendous support, but the biggest support of all by far, right here!" he told the gathering inside The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center.
Last weekend's massacre happened at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, and Trump has used the tragedy to tout his support for both gun rights and the LGBT community. Trump singled out an audience member and said, "Hold that up. Look at that sign. Wow. Whoa. Gays for Trump," he said approvingly.
He alleged that The Clinton Foundation had accepted contributions from countries that had enslaved women and killed gays and said he would be a better advocate for those groups than Hillary Clinton. "You tell me, who's better for gays? Who is better? Tell me, who is better for women?"
He decried the "radicalization" that he said was fueling recent attacks such as in Orlando, and added, "President Obama is trying to make terrorism into guns, and it's not guns folks. It's not guns. This is terrorism."
Trump also reiterated his support for building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. He appeared moved when he introduced supporters seated in the front row whom he said had "lost loved ones to people who should not have been in the country illegally."
"These are my friends," he said.
Trump's aircraft, emblazened with "TRUMP" in capital letters, landed at about 3 p.m. at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Authorities closed roads to ensure a smooth rush-hour trip for Trump's motorcade from the airport to downtown Houston, and then back north to The Woodlands.
REPORTS: Reports: Man with gun detained at site of Trump rally
Trump, 70, had boasted of self-funding his primary campaign but has turned to fundraising for his fall matchup against Democrat Hillary Clinton. The early Friday-evening fundraiser was hosted by local lawyer Tony Buzbee, with costs ranging from $5,400 per couple for the "Trump Train" to $250,000 per couple for the "Chairman's Circle," according to the invitation.
The event was held in a high-end neighborhood blocks from the River Oaks Country Club. Officers guided the roughly 100 protesters and 15 Trump supporters to designated areas.
SNEAK PEEK: See the River Oaks home owned by Trump's host, Tony Buzbee
Prior to the fundraiser, reporters and photographers crowded around as a protester set up a life-sized pinata of Trump's head with devil's horns.
Some protesters took aim at Trump's allegations that Mexico was sending criminals and rapists to the U.S. One woman held up a sign in Spanish that read, "We are not rapists." A placard carried by a boy next to her said, "No Human Being is Illegal!"
Protesters chanted, "Women are under attack. Muslims are under attack...What do we do? Stand up, fight back."
TRUMP RALLY 101: 30 images showing what a Trump rally looks like
"I'm just here to show that I'm just outraged about all he stands for, from economic justice and inequality to bashing Muslims and women," said Judy Graves, a union organizer.
Maryanne Delgado, a 69-year-old retired school teacher, ticked off the reasons why she dislikes Trump after joining a group of anti-Trump protestors behind barricades across the street from the mansion. "I don't like anything he says," she said. "Not one thing... He's a liar. I could go on about every horrible thing he says. He's dividing the country. He's a bigot, etc. etc."
Randy Locke, 55, was the first Trump supporter outside the River Oaks mansion, staking out a spot in the shade and carrying a sign that read "MOGUL" and beneath it "M.A.G.A," which he said was short for "Make America Great Again."
"It's kind of an acronym most Democrats wouldn't be able to figure out," he said.
Locke said he supports Trump's views on immigration, complaining, "We're all being replaced." He said he was laid off from a trucking job and enrolled in college at age 42, earning a finance degree from the University of Houston, but has been unable to find work. "Even the immigrants who got here 15 years ago, many of them are unemployed and can't find jobs because we're just flooding the country."
Among those who attended the fundraiser were Dr. Ralph Norton and his wife Miki, whose family owns The Lancaster Hotel.
He said half-jokingly that he was worried about the "anarchists" protesting. She said they agree with Trump on most everything but have some disagreements. For example, she supports allowing manufacturing to move to Mexico and Central America so people there don't join cartels.
The event lasted about an hour. Afterward, the couple said Trump had fielded questions and that former Gov. Rick Perry had spoken, stressing the importance of electing a president who would nominate conservatives for the Supreme Court.
Upon the Trump motorcade's departure from River Oaks, the candidate used Twitter to comment on a photo that had been posted of people waiting in line in The Woodlands to see him: "Thank you -- on my way!"
Outside the hotel and conference center in The Woodlands, America- and Trump-themed accessories abounded as people waited in line. One woman sported a red "Make America Great Again" cap and a pin that said, "Bomb the (expletive) out of ISIS."
By early evening, Trump supporters and foes were yelling at one another. One woman yelled at a protester, "Hillary for prison!"
Doors opened at 4 p.m. for the 7 p.m. rally, and supporters streamed into the venue. Organizers had stressed security would be tight at the event.
Inside, attendees waiting for Trump began chanting, "Build that wall! Build that wall!" Organizers played music such as Elton John's "Rocket Man" and the Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want," though the British rock band had previously asked Trump to stop playing its songs.
Mahir Sayeed, a 17-year-old senior at the Woodlands High School, said earlier Friday that he had planned to bring local Muslims to the event to shake hands with Trump supporters in an expression of goodwill. He hoped that attendees would contrast the candidate's harsh rhetoric on Islam with the friendly Muslims they met outside.
But Friday morning, elders in the Woodlands Muslim community had asked him to call it off. They said that some recent protests had grown violent, noted that some people had brought rifles to defend a Trump rally in Dallas on Saturday, and warned that Sayeed could be harmed. Sayeed said most of the people who planned to go with him dropped out.
"The fear that has been presented by the candidates has scared people from exercising their First Amendment rights," he said. "The Muslim community wanted to be there, but they felt unsafe."
Trump supporters also cited safety concerns on Facebook on Friday morning when they organized to walk to the rally together, fearing violent protests.
Sayeed said he would still be shaking hands outside the event, and in fact later was photographed thanking a veteran for his service outside.
About 300 protesters showed up at Trump's rally in Dallas Thursday night, as expected, but no major incidents were reported as police created a human barrier to keep apart Trump supporters and protesters.
The Woodlands is the most populous community in heavily Republican Montgomery County, where GOP primary voters backed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz over Trump, 48 percent to 27 percent. However, local activists said Trump would get their support by the fall.
Julie Turner, president of the Texas Patriots PAC, a local Tea Part chapter that hosted Trump at a fundraiser event in The Woodlands in April, said before the rally that she believes the candidate represents the ideals of local residents.
"He's very in tune with people in this area about the need to strengthen our immigration enforcement," she said.
Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Wally Wilkerson said he wasn't surprised that Trump chose to come to his county.
"This is a place that is the most Republican county in the most Republican state," Wilkerson said. "We are proud and happy to have a presidential nominee come to Montgomery County."
Staff writers Dylan Baddour, Mark Collette, Samantha Ketterer, Monica Rhor, Dane Schiller and Mike Tolson contributed to this report.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Already on the lookout for disaster scams linked to flooding over the last two months, Houston police have arrested an imposter FEMA agent accused of bilking at least three victims out of thousands of dollars.
Derron L. Skinner, 25, of Chicago was charged with one count of forgery on Tuesday.
Houston Police Department Lt. Chris Lohse said on Friday that Skinner was targeting people in the Near Northside area adjacent to downtown while wearing Federal Emergency Management Agency attire.
DRAMATIC FOOTAGE: Officials release video of flood victim's SUV driving into high water (GRAPHIC)
Skinner allegedly recovered $3,000 to $5,000 from the scam.
"Last week, we identified a number of cases whereby a suspect who was posing as a FEMA representative was essentially soliciting business and approaching flood victims letting them know that he could expedite and make their claims more lucrative," said Lohse, who works in HPD's financial crimes unit.
Skinner allegedly provided flood victims with fraudulent FEMA checks that they would deposit into their personal bank accounts. He would then spin a narrative that he needed cash back to secure inspections and other fee-based services to complete their claims faster. The three incidents HPD has identified included about 20 checks and all had extensive damage to their vehicles.
TAX-DAY FLOODS: Death toll in Houston-area floods rises to six
"These checks were counterfeit ... from compromised personal and commercial accounts across the country," Lohse said. "Once those checks were deposited, they withdrew their own personal monies and, of course, they were out the cash and bank fees."
HPD officials believe that there may be more people who have been scammed because Skinner's services were being advertised in the community by word of mouth.
It's important for disaster claimants to know that FEMA registration for disaster assistance is accomplished only by telephone or online at FEMA.gov but never in person.
UNDERWATER: Scenes from downtown during Houston's Tax Day Flood
"A check will never be hand-delivered by a FEMA representative," Lohse said. "FEMA disaster assistance funds are electronically deposited into a bank account and/or a check is mailed to an address. FEMA will never ask for money to receive money."
Investigators believe that Skinner or other scammers have targeted more people. Anyone with information on Skinner or similar cases are urged to contact HPD's Financial Crimes Unit at 713-308-2500 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
Lohse also warned about charity crimes and unscrupulous contractor scams related to flooding in April and May.
Acting HPD Chief Martha Montalvo and the captain of the burglary and theft division had asked the financial crimes unit to closely monitor "for incidents where victims had been re-victimized by theft, fraud or deception," Lohse said.
"Rising floodwaters bring out all kinds of filthy creatures. Included among them are criminals who use disasters as an opportunity to prey on victims whose lives have already been devastated by recent floods," Lohse said. "Anytime these crooks can use a tragedy ... they're going to do that because people are vulnerable."
Skinner, who has no local address listed in Harris County District Clerk records, also was charged on Thursday with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. He made a $5,000 bail on the forgery charge and also been released from the Harris County Jail on $50,000 bail following the gun arrest. He is scheduled for court appearances on Monday related to both
charges.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
SAN ANTONIO Democrats from Texas and beyond will gather at the Alamodome in downtown San Antonio this weekend for the Texas Democratic Convention, which will kick into high-gear at the same time presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump makes a fundraising stop here.
Trump's appearance, which is expected to ruffle opponents' feathers, will come a day after and about 12 miles away from the convention kick-off on Thursday with an opening reception at La Villita Assembly Hall at 6 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, is state convention chairman and his twin brother, U.S. HUD Secretary Julian Castro, a former hometown mayor, will speak Friday night at the Alamodome. The HUD secretary will be introduced by former state Sen. Wendy Davis, who lost the race for governor in 2014.
RELATED: Clinton and Sanders camp seek to avoid another Nevada blowup
Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said Julian Castro will be the "highlight of the night" as he is a "shining star in Texas."
Garcia said, beside the Castro twins, attendees should look forward to hearing from mayors, county judges and officials.
RELATED: Texas not in play as much as Clinton hopes, Dem leaders say
"You're really going to see mayors from several of the largest cities across the state," he said. "They're the ones getting stuff done for folks."
The convention is coming during a controversial moment in American politics, which will make for a more entertaining convention than previous years, said Harold Cook, a Democratic consultant based in Austin.
RELATED: Julian Castro directing HUD effort to reduce lead in public housing
"Well I have been to a lot of state conventions in Texas that were pretty boring," Cook said, adding the lack of excitement typically came from knowing the Democratic candidate, whoever that may be, was not likely to win Texas, a historically red state.
But, with Trump being the presumptive Republican nominee, "Democrats can smell blood in the water," he said.
Despite optimism from state Democrats, Texas will not be a "battleground state," Garry Mauro, a member of Clinton's Texas leadership team, told media Tuesday morning in Austin.
And in light of the recent massacre in Orlando, Garcia said attendees can expect speakers and elected officials to address the shooting that left 49 victims dead, including at least one from South Texas.
On Friday, the second day of the convention, Trump will be making a fundraising stop at Oak Hill Country Club. At the same time, a protest, hosted by Maestranza, a local community outreach group advocating for equality, is planned to "dump" the reality star turned presumptive Republican nominee, outside the same country club.
Garcia said it will be hard to avoid talk of Trump since the Republican has "done everything he can to push away the diversity that makes this state great."
"Donald Trump is an embarrassment of riches," Cook said. "He's kind of made himself a national buffoon and there's a lot to work with. It's going to be impossible to get a lot of enthusiastic Democrats in a room and not laugh at Donald Trump."
kbradshaw@express-news.net
Twitter: @kbrad5
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
About 10,000 people filed into the Alamodome Friday morning as caucuses began at the Texas Democratic Convention.
A sea of blue shirts and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders buttons flooded the convention floor for the women's caucus that started the day's schedule at 9 a.m. and an overflowing room of nearly 200 gathered for the Stonewall/LGBT caucus.
MORE: Traffic jams, SWAT vehicles on-scene ahead of Donald Trump fundraiser in San Antonio
Joey Cardenas, chairman for State Tejano Democrats, spoke at the Hispanic Caucus about presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, who made a fundraising stop in San Antonio Friday about 10 miles away from the Alamodome.
Cardenas had the Hispanic caucus chanting "Dump Trump!" at one point.
He said there were several Latinos in support of Trump at his private appearance today, but there were even more protesting against him.
"That's what we need," he said.
Texas Democrats, including convention chairman Joaquin Castro are expected to address Trump's visit to the Lone Star State Friday afternoon at the convention.
Earlier in the day, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and state Senators Sylvia Garcia and Rodney Ellis, both of Houston, were on hand for the LGBT caucus meeting.
State Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-Clint, the first openly pansexual legislator in Texas, invited the overflowing crowd to continue the fight for LGBT rights.
MORE: Mayor Ivy Taylor facing backlash from LGBT community ahead of Orlando vigil appearance
She also mentioned last week's Orlando massacre that claimed the lives of 49 victims inside of a gay nightclub.
"Our family has gone through so much in the last week, and in the last decade," she said, adding that the fight for LGBT rights was far from over.
Men and women alike heard from former state Sen. Leticia Van De Putte, who lost the San Antonio mayoral race to Ivy Taylor last year, and former state Sen. Wendy Davis during the women's caucus.
Davis told the crowd she has traveled to 16 states this year campaigning for Hillary Clinton because of her "unwillingness to quit."
RELATED: 5 things to know about the Texas Democratic Convention in San Antonio
"When women do better, we all do better," said Davis, who used this line during the gubernatorial race and added that Clinton knows women's rights are humans rights.
The convention goes until Saturday and features U.S. HUD Secretary Julian Castro, a former hometown mayor who will have a prominent speaking role Friday night, and his twin brother U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio. Former state Sen. Wendy Davis, who lost big to Gov. Greg Abbott in 2014, will introduce Julian Castro Friday night as well.
RELATED: San Antonians plan to 'Dump Trump' with a protest during the Republican candidate's visit
On the other side of town, roughly 12 miles away from the convention center, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is making a fundraising stop at Oak Hill Country Club. While he is not holding a rally, there will be a crowd. A group of protesters are planning to peacefully welcome the politician with signs and maybe a Trump pinata, or two.
RELATED: Texas Democratic chair: It's 'ridiculous' his party isn't winning
Former State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer took to YouTube Thursday sarcastically welcoming Trump to San Antonio.
"Enjoy your visit to San Antonio Mr. Trump. Mexican-Americans and all immigrants alike help make San Antonio great," he says in the video. On Twitter, Fischer tweeted at Trump saying the people of San Antonio "haven't forgotten (his) hateful and divisive rhetoric," and then added a quick "bienvenido."
kbradshaw@express-news.net
Twitter: @kbrad5
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
While there are some captivating sights to see, urban structures tend to skew towards the ho-hum rather than the breathtaking.
So it's nice to see there are some people out there, like Vasily Klyukin, who are dreaming up some incredibly ... unique ... ideas to architecture. The Russian businessman, philanthropist and writer maintains a vibrant gallery of concept art on his personal website, featuring skyscrapers, apartment buildings, hotels and other structures.
RELATED: High-rises under construction in the Houston area
"I was a property developer for many years," Klyukin told Chron.com. "Many projects disappointed me. I began thinking about buildings that I would want to build."
And oh, what he wants to build. One of his designs, the Top Sexy Tower in New York City, is a simple vertical column with a big twist: A sultry leg with a high-heel shoe juts out the side of the building. He claims that if it were a hotel, it would always be crowded.
I'm not a structural engineer by any means, save for a few misshapen edifices in the computer game "Spore," but Klyukin's designs appear to be unfeasible in reality.
RELATED: Does Swedish philosopher's model of beauty fit Houston
"At Fashion Weeks you sometimes see dresses which you cannot wear in your everyday life. My designs are the same case they are not all feasible," he said. "However in every city it's possible to create a project which will be a landmark showing the spirit and history of the city and its inhabitants."
Klyukin's ideas trend towards the ludicrous, but I would argue that vision is sorely needed to spice up today's skylines. If we consider the skyscraper to be reflective of a city's aspirations and ideals, then it is a sorry state of affairs when our urban cores are so dominated by stale, vertical columns of office space.
I'm looking at you, Houston.
Prepare yourself: The Trump train is rolling through Texas.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee arrived in Dallas on Thursday evening for a fundraiser at Gilleys nightclub. The following day hell make his way to the Bayou City.
On Friday, Donald Trump heads to Houston for an afternoon fundraiser hosted by lawyer Tony Buzbee in River Oaks, one of the richest neighborhoods in the metro area. The tickets for the event cost between $5,400 and $250,000. When that wraps up, Trump will boogey on up to The Woodlands for a rally at the Waterway Marriot Hotel and Convention Center.
SEE THIS: Who is Tony Buzbee, the mysterious man who is hosting Donald Trumps Houston fundraiser
What to expect? Well, youve seen the news. Trump and his rowdy rallies have been ubiquitous since he skyrocketed toward the top of GOP polls last summer.
His campaign events have been marked by chaos, Trumps theatricality and on occasion violence. At the least, one should expect brash protests, intense security, profanity-laced slurs from supporters (and perhaps bigoted remarks from the candidate himself), yuuuuuge traffic jams and, really, a political event unlike anyone has ever seen before. One hopes the city is prepared to keep everything under control.
Theres no better way to prepare for whats about to become than by taking a glimpse at Trumps past rallies throughout the country- and the surreal scenes that accompany this historic campaign.
See 30 of the craziest and most bizarre rally moments from the Trump presidential campaign.
Drivers in need of a tow on Texas 288 between Loop 610 and Beltway 8, in southern Houston, will have a new tow truck provider starting later this month.
Houston City Council on Wednesday authorized Apple Towing Company to take over emergency road services along that stretch of road, having voted three weeks ago to cancel the prior provider's contract.
Four people affiliated with that towing company, USA Auto Collision, were arrested last month, accused of participating in a scheme to charge motorists exorbitant fees after their cars were towed under the city's Safe Clear program.
Under Safe Clear, the city authorizes a group of companies to automatically tow disabled cars from the freeway for a subsidized fee, with the goal of reducing congestion and improving safety.
Apple Towing already was contracted to tow along two other road segments in Houston. It will take over for USA Auto Collision after its contract expires in late June.
"I think I can easily say that in light of all of the concerns with the last deal, this one has been under more heightened scrutiny. This one has been scrubbed," Mayor Sylvester Turner said, responding to questions from council members about the vetting process.
Apple Towing participated in the competitive bidding process last year and was second runner-up to tow along this eight-mile stretch of Texas 288.
Turner said the Houston Police Department has not received any complaints about Apple Towing and conducted background checks of personnel affiliated with the company.
Apple Towing also does not owe any outstanding taxes, Turner said.
AUSTIN -- The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is putting the federal government on notice the state will refuse to take in more refugees than it did last year and will only accept those who do not pose a security risk.
Texas submitted to the U.S. Department of State a 2017 state plan for its refugee resettlement on Friday, rejecting the federal government's proposal to increase the number of refugees moving to the Lone Star State by 25 percent.
"Texas continues to have concerns about the safety of its citizens and the integrity of the overseas security and background vetting process of the federal resettlement program," Commissioner Charles Smith wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of State. "Americans face an undeniable terrorist threat that is imported through new manipulations of our national security protocols each day."
According to Smith's letter, the federal government is proposing to place 11,020 refugees in Texas during fiscal 2017, an increase of 25 percent over fiscal 2016.
Smith wrote that the proposed funding is insufficient, as well, and concludes the state could accept a maximum of 8,605 refugees.
Governor Greg Abbott fully endorses the move to hold the line on the number of refugees settled here, said his spokesman John Wittman.
"Gov. Abbott's top priority is the safety of all Texans, and he continues to have serious concerns about the federal government's ability to conduct proper security checks," he said.
The letter follows a ruling Wednesday dealing a potentially fatal blow to Texas' lawsuit attempting to stymie Syrian refugee resettlement here. Judge David C. Godbey, of the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas, threw out the suit, finding no valid cause of action against the federal government or a non-profit aid agency settling refugees.
Godbey denied the state's earlier move to temporarily halt settlements saying Texas' justification for safety and security concerns was based on speculation and hearsay.
The state could land itself in court should it try to stop refugees from moving to Texas, said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas which represented the resettlement agency in the case dismissed this week.
"In the course of this litigation, the Attorney General's office has acknowledged the State has no legal authority to block anyone from being settled in Texas. If the State attempts to do so, its actions would be illegal," she said.
Texas' letter on refugee resettlement in Texas accentuates a week that included presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump renewing his call for a ban on allowing Muslims into the country. His comments follow the mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub by a man who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
U.S. Border Patrol agents at a Texas checkpoint rescued two people from the inside of a trunk that was more than 100 degrees on Tuesday.
In a separate incident, agents found four people under the bed of a storage compartment of a tractor trailer.
RELATED: Immigration officials accused of violating judge's order
All six are suspected of attempting to illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico.
The first incident occurred Tuesday evening after a man "became nervous" during an immigration inspection.
Border patrol agents at the Falfurrias check point told the driver to open the trunk, and found two people who were "locked in the trunk with no means of escape."
RELATED: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has an Instagram and it's awesome
According to the release, the temperature inside the trunk was 101.2 degrees.
The driver of the Chevy Malibu and a female passenger were arrested. Both are citizens of the U.S..
In the second incident, four people were discovered hiding under the bed of a storage compartment in a tractor trailer. The tractor trailer was referred to secondary inspection after a canine alert.
The driver of the trailer, a citizen of Mexico, was arrested.
RELATED: Jim Wells County votes against family detention center
"The smuggled immigrants from both cases will be processed accordingly," the release said.
It was unclear whether the drivers of the vehicles were charged in the incidents.
MMedina@mySA.com
Twitter: @MariahMedinaaa
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.
Primeste notificari pe email Nota bene: Adresele email cu extensia .ru nu sunt acceptate.
Contractare si Achizitie Bunuri Anunturi de Angajare Granturi - Finantari Burse de studiu Stagii Profesionale Oportunitati de voluntariat Toate Articolele
What motivates a politician to freeze out the press? In Harrisburg, the poverty-stricken capital of Pennsylvania, Mayor Eric Papenfuse has barred his spokeswoman from speaking with reporters for PennLive, the areas largest news outlet, and banned PennLive reporters from attending his weekly media briefings. The mayor says hes taking a stand against a news outlet that has become an illegitimate gossip blog fishing for clicks and cash. PennLive, meanwhile, says aggressive reporting on Papenfuses business and civic dealings led to the clampdown.
Weve seen the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, similarly banish news organizations he dislikes over the past year, most recently The Washington Post, which joins The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and Politico, among others. Papenfuse, a Democrat who says PennLive caters to the right, is no Trump worshipper. But given the ease with which a man running for the countrys highest office blacklists journalists, its worth asking whether this could become the new normal in towns and cities across the country.
Papenfuse doesnt view his decision to blacklist PennLive in that light. Im very much committed to the freedom of the press, but I also think there are responsibilities that the media have, but [that] have also been completely forgotten in the pursuit of collecting cash, which is what PennLive does, Papenfuse says. I see myself as ahead of the curve in standing up and pointing out this change in media.
One thing thats changed, he correctly adds, is how the local outlets reporters are evaluated. PennLive takes pageviews into account when conducting editorial staffers performance reviews, says Mike Feeley, content director of the website and its thrice-weekly print companion, The Patriot-News, which are owned by Advance Local. But he says the quality of journalists work, along with their commitment to enterprise reporting and video, carry more weight than the traffic their stories generate. Judging reporters by clicks is troubling, but that metric doesnt necessarily prohibit strong journalism in the public interest. PennLives recent stories on unpaid overtime at Papenfuses bookstore and his ownership of properties near a bar hes trying to close are fine examples of local accountability reporting.
The mayor says those stories didnt inspire his ban on PennLive. He says that in addition to traffic targets for reporters, the sites coverage is marred by a nasty, anonymous comment section, which the mayor suggests is also designed to drive traffic. Feeley doesnt buy that. Newspapers have a business model of telling good stories, protecting the First Amendment, and holding their politicians accountable to the public, and just because were doing it in an electronic format now doesnt change our responsibility.
Does the cause of this wall of silence matter? Not really. The fact remains that the leader of a major coverage area wont talk to the paper of record. Papenfuse runs the city, not the publication. Hes free to criticize PennLives business practices, reporting, and journalists all he wantsand, yes, hes also free to ignore them altogether. But this policy of silence deprives the public of the full story. And the mayors move will also surely send a message to other news outlets: Dont get on Papenfuses bad side, or you could be next.
Sign up for CJR 's daily email
Social media has made it easy for politicos to write off pesky members of the press. Trump practically runs his campaign on Twitter, using his 9 million followers to amplify his punchy, bombastic messages. And his social media prowess ultimately translates to mainstream media coverage. Papenfuse, a regular tweeter and Facebook user, says he plans to escalate his efforts to reach citizens where they live, presumably using social media. Between both personal accounts and others linked to the city itself, he has a digital audience of nearly 14,000, minus any overlap. That equates to a decent chunk of Harrisburgs nearly 50,000 residents. Im a big believer in direct communication, Papenfuse adds.
Trumps rise has foregrounded a population that has become skeptical of big institutions, including news organizations. Many of those people appear elated to cheer on a politician who sticks it to establishment media. Restricting press access rarely works in favor of politicians, says Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and a longtime political reporter who now writes columns for the Louisville Courier-Journal. But this country harbors enough distrust of journalism to make you wonder if the stage isnt already set for leaders to quickly become more openly dismissive of the press.
Since Trump launched his campaign, weve seen Tampas mayor block reporters from viewing his Twitter account. In April, a contender for Sacramentos mayoral office barred a reporter for The Sacramento Bee from attending an election event. The month before, police in White Castle, Louisiana, handcuffed a TV journalist who was looking into questions about the mayors salary and charged him with a misdemeanor. Thats an extreme form of retribution for covering an important local story.
Cold-shoulder policies have likely existed as long as journalism, and their reach across Smalltown USA has beenand still isunclear. Its the exception to the rule, but it happens enough, says Cross.
Politicians are like anyone else, in that they admire and emulate the big dogs in their business. Papenfuse may not intend to mirror Trump, but thats what his PennLive strategy accomplishes, regardless of his motivation. Time will tell if Trumps brazen disrespect for journalists trickles down to others.
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Jack Murtha is a CJR Delacorte Fellow. Follow him on Twitter at @JackMurtha
Print anachronisms had DJ Khaled ranting recently. The record producer is one of the most-followed people on Snapchat, in part for his superhuman good cheer. But in an interview last fall with SiriusXMs Sway in the Morning, Khaled was fuming about magazines being so out of touch as to leave him off their covers. Some of these people that run magazines, he huffed, theyre dinosaurs.
Then Khaled began to shake his head. The thing is that your magazine is not as powerful anymore because this [is] the magazine, he said, holding up his iPhone.
His statement has serious implications: Now that publications share a digital medium, is the power of magazine brands diminished? After all, how often these days do people remember reading something online but cant recall the publication, if they ever took note of it in the first place? Today, social media account for nearly half of referrals to mainstream news organizations. More than 60 percent of social media users get news from those platforms, according to a 2016 survey by the Pew Research Center, with Facebook, the largest social platform, dramatically expanding its news focus in recent years.
Trust is among the most sacred qualities of a news brand. But in this atomized environment, media trust has taken a hit. Just 12 percent of people who consume news on Facebook say they trust what they find there, according to a recent study by the Associated Press and the American Press Institute. Across all social networks, respondents said they trust news found there only somewhat. I think what theyre saying is, on Facebook, Im not in a safe zone, Tom Rosenstiel, APIs executive director, tells CJR. Ive got to be my own sheriff here.
Paolo Pellegrin (Magnum Photos)
In less confusing times, reliable news brands served as guidepostsand to some degree, they still do. The American Marketing Association defines a brand as any feature that distinguishes one sellers product from anothers. Thats not limited to qualities of the product, but also includes anything that contributes to its public perception. Consumers of journalism arent expected to accept a news article on its face but, rather, in the context of the outlets reputation. As the late New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger once said, Youre not buying news when you buy The New York Times. Youre buying judgment.
An experiment initiated by the George T. Delacorte Center and carried out by CJRs three Delacorte fellows sought to learn how much weight readers give to a publications brand when evaluating a storys credibility. The term magazine today is less descriptive of a particular medium than of an intimate and immersive relationship between a publication and its audience. When people read individual articles online without first encountering a print cover or Web homepageor making a purchaseits worth exploring to what extent that sort of relationship survives.
Sign up for CJR 's daily email
When readers spent longer on a story, brands mattered less.
With the help of psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist Jenna Reinen, a postdoctoral scholar at Yale, we tested 267 people to see whether and how their trust in a deeply reported story depended on the magazine in which it appearedor in which they thought it had appeared.
Each test subject read a digital version of the same story. For some readers, the story seemed to have run on The New Yorker website; for others, it appeared to have run in BuzzFeed. (As all subjects eventually learned, the article was originally published in Mother Jones.) We wondered if readers would have more faith in one version over the other. Would they even heed the brands? The results of our experiment will be published later this month.
The diversity of outlets now available on cable TV, radio, and the internet has stoked fears about consumers tendencies to seek out self-affirming perspectives on the news. But while liberals, for instance, might prefer news told from a liberal point of view, are they also inclined to have more confidence in the credibility of reporting at a liberal outlet versus a conservative one? In a separate but related study, we examined how readers interpreted a politically charged story depending on the publications stated ideological bent. Those findings will also be published later this month.
The potency of brands online is of enormous interest to many, and has been a topic of considerable scholarship. For journalistic outlets, we consider trust among the most important aspects of brand influence. We reviewed some of the research on branding and trust, which can be found here. In short, brand trust is belief in a product to deliver as promised. As a 2008 paper on Trust in digital information notes, trust only exists in the presence of vulnerability and uncertainty, both of which are fundamental to news consumption and accentuated by the dynamics of new media.
In this literature review, we evaluate what prior research suggests about the future of magazine brands online and how their stories will be consumed, especially when encountered by referral, such as via email, aggregator, or social media. We also consider that research as it relates to The New Yorker and BuzzFeed, prominent media brands with markedly different reputations. We will unpack the nature of trustwhere it originates, how its nurtured, and why it matters. And well survey some of the sprawling research and commentary on how news media contribute to political polarization and vice versa, particularly through outlets that carry a party or ideological banner.
When The Hollywood Reporter recently asked New Yorker editor David Remnick about his success extending his magazines brand, he replied, I resist that word. Indeed, many journalism veterans find the pervasion of business lingo soul-sucking. Yet consider another term from economics thats often used to describe digital publishing: commoditization, when products in an industry become interchangeable, when brands dissipate, when readers dont care where a story was published. That seems a trend worth resisting.
Whats odd about Remnicks contempt for brand-oriented thinking is that magazines are perhaps the most emphatically branded form of news media. Even The New Yorkers baroque style rules, such as including a diaeresis with words like coordinate and reestablish, are ways of signaling tradition and sophistication. Magazines are brands, Callie Jean Blackwell flatly asserts in her masters thesis at the University of Mississippi. A brand is a promise and an expectation, which clarifies how a news brand is both what a company says of itself and what consumers think of it. (For many years, the Chicago Tribune called itself The Worlds Greatest Newspaper. The totality of its brand, however, was of course more complicated.)
Brands are essential to journalism in part because evidence suggests that consumers are inept judges of quality. In 2013, researchers Juliane Urban and Wolfgang Schweiger identified six normative criteria of news quality: diversity (of sources, for example); relevance (as in, timeliness); ethics (regarding treatment of story subjects); impartiality; comprehensibility; and accuracy. Six separate experiments were conducted to assess how readers discerned each of those variables. In every case, a news article was manipulated to develop high- and low-quality versions, which were presented as if published in a respected German newspaper or a sensationalist German tabloid. The researchers found that readers struggled to evaluate comprehensibility, ethics, and objectivity. When readers spent longer on a story, brands mattered less. When it was difficult for readers to identify quality differences, pre-existing opinions of the brands became more influential to their assessments. The researchers were unsurprised. Their review of preceding scholarship had suggested that most media users have a limited understanding of news quality.
News consumers are investing their time, if not their money, and they reward an efficient experience with more of their attention.
Perhaps the research closest in methodology to ours was published in 1994 by Journalism Quarterly. In that study, college students were given a short, fictitious article that had been made to look as if it had appeared in one of three newspapers of varying repute: The New York Times, a sensationalist tabloid called the Star, and a fictional regional newspaper far from the campus where the study occurred. Like us, the researchers reproduced those publications nameplates, typefaces, and surrounding advertisements. Six fictitious stories were created for the study; they were designated easy to believe, hard to believe, or ambiguous, with the goal of testing whether readers would be more strongly influenced by the content or the publication when determining if an article was real. The researchers found that judgments of believability were based entirely on the substance of the story, with source reputation making no difference. However, the actual judgment calls required of news consumers are usually more subtle than spotting fake stories. Our hypothesis is that when unreliability is not overt, brands are more likely to influence readers faith in accuracy, as was suggested by Urban and Schweigers study.
Erich Hartmann (Magnum Photos)
One of the authors of that 1994 paper, Erica Weintraub Austin, now vice provost at Washington State University, told CJR that follow-up research revealed a generational divide: Younger test subjects seemed more likely to base their decision about whether a story was fictitious on content, while older people seemed more influenced by the sources reputation. The internet was in its infancy then; now, Austin suspects that the generational gap has only widened, and that a general disregard for the publication when gauging news credibility is more pronounced.
In marketing, response expectancies describe our tendency to experience things as anticipated. Advertising claims offer direct expectation cues, as opposed to global beliefs, like the assumption that lower price equals lesser quality, note Baba Shiv, Ziv Carmon, and Dan Ariely in a 2005 commentary on their work. In this publication, the researchers review experiments in which college students were given SoBe energy drinks, and then asked to complete a word puzzle. The students who thought their beverage was discounted performed worse. This insight suggests that news websites with a paywall, like newyorker.com, may also promote increased quality expectations. Another study at Columbia University and MIT used tainted beer to understand response expectancies. Three groups of test subjects sampled a beer to which a few drops of balsamic vinegar had been added. One group thought it was ordinary beer, one learned of the vinegar before drinking, and one learned soon after. Those who were told beforehand that vinegar had been added were significantly more likely to find the drink distasteful. This suggests that learning about a product beforehand changes the experience itself, rather than simply swaying our interpretation of the experience in retrospect.
Aesthetic elements such as name, logo, and design have also been shown to be essential to digital branding. A 2012 article in the International Journal of Electronic Business Management identified how website interactivity, security, and ease-of-use tend to enhance brand loyalty. News consumers are investing their time, if not their money, and they reward an efficient experience with more of their attention.
Design is also key to generating reader trust. In 2003, researchers at Stanford University asked more than 2,600 people to analyze the credibility of two websites. They found that visual design elements were given the most consideration, with little attention paid to content or source. People typically process web information in superficial ways, they concluded, adding that using peripheral cues is the rule of web use, not the exception.
Brands represent a substitute for informationa way for consumers to simplify the time-consuming process of search and comparison, explains a 2007 paper on i-Branding. Yet information is abundant on social media, where sharing a story usually counts as a tacit endorsement, and search and comparison is not such a great imposition. Under such conditions, are brands rendered an afterthought?
Its probably challenging to maintain brand consistency when youre this insane morphing rocket ship, as a creative director at BuzzFeed recently described the digital native. The company aspires to be a media empire, but it has never been entirely clear where news fits within that vision.
Founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti, a co-founder of the Huffington Post*, BuzzFeeds enormous success has come from embracing distributed publishing, using platforms like Facebook and Twitter to go straight to its audience. BuzzFeed proudly reports that 75 percent of its 200 million unique monthly visitors come from social platforms. As media critic Peter Kafka of Recode notes, This is antithetical to conventional Web publishing wisdom, which says that you want to keep as many eyeballs as possible looking at your stuff on your properties so you can maximize the ad dollars that stuff generates. Yet with consistent profitability, even in the face of sobering revenue growth last year, BuzzFeed is rewriting convention. News sites have realized the diminishing significance of their homepages; BuzzFeeds is virtually irrelevant.
In short, brand trust is belief in a product to deliver as promised.
BuzzFeed News is its own vertical, night-and-day different from BuzzFeeds notoriously fluffy listicles but not walled off from them. The company has aggressively recruited a top-tier investigative team led by Mark Schoofs, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former ProPublica senior editor. An analysis of BuzzFeeds journalism in The Baffler last year concludes that BuzzFeed covets recognition for having outgrown listicles and other viral nonsense. And in many respects, BuzzFeed has achieved that [recognition].
Despite admirable work by its news division, BuzzFeed is still plagued by a tenuous relationship with advertisers. Its revenue comes largely from branded content, and a vague wall between business and editorial continues to trouble BuzzFeeds image. That concern relates to BuzzFeeds enthusiasm for native advertising and its checkered history of allowing advertising interests to influence editorial decisions. Since BuzzFeeds notoriety originated from serving the junk food of internet journalism, we were eager to see whether test subjects would take an investigative magazine story by BuzzFeed as seriously as one that seemed to have been published in one of its legacy counterparts. In that regard, responses to the BuzzFeed version of our story should be generalizable to digital natives that offer, but dont necessarily prioritize, rigorous journalism.
Paolo Pellegrin (Magnum Photos)
The New Yorker, meanwhile, represents a gold standard of in-depth journalism. It is known for its thorough reporting, literary excellence, and fact-checking rigor. Whereas some legacy brands read like an entirely different publication online, original content on newyorker.com is reminiscent of the weekly print product.
Because The New Yorker brand hinges on high-quality journalism, the magazine has been shielded from many of the money-generating schemes that other outlets have, whether enthusiastically or reluctantly, embraced, The New York Observer noted earlier this year. The New Yorker recently expanded to video and podcasting, a bold bet on the durability of its brand. It also adjusted its social media strategy and bolstered its copy desk in an attempt to broaden its digital reach without compromising quality.
Theres an aura emanating from stories in The New Yorker, whether in print or online. Maybe thats due to the elegant page design, or, more likely, to the sterling reputation of the 91-year-old brand. We wondered how much the magazines cachet raises our estimation of a piece, apart from the copys merits.
Allegations of political bias in news coverage usually target outlets that proclaim impartiality. But for magazines with proud ideological identitiesThe Nation and National Review, for exampleconcerns about trustworthiness take on a different character. Such publications can still have rigorous standards for accuracy and offer news features claiming no partisan angle. Whether readers perceive a slant or question some facts might depend on their own political dispositions.
To test that hypothesis, we asked 161 subjects about their political leanings, then asked about half of them to read a longform news story in a fictional magazine of conservative orientation; the other half read a story from a fake, supposedly liberal outlet. To identify the political leanings of those fictional publicationsthe liberal American Progressive and the conservative Patriotwe provided a paragraph explaining their supposed bent and background. All subjects read the same article about a foiled plot to kill police in Las Vegas, which, they eventually learned, was originally published in The California Sunday Magazine.
The politicization of news outlets correlates with the size of their market. Local newspapers generally seek to appeal to a broad audience because they have limited competition. The same is true of network news programs. When competition increases, outlets tend to target an ideological niche, particularly with a greater emphasis on commentary. The internet allows limitless competition, thus the incentive to cater to a specific audience is at its peak. But only a small minority of Americans get most of their news from sources that are politically one-sided, according to Media and Political Polarization, a paper by Princeton professor Markus Prior. Those people tend to be the hyper-partisan, and also tend to distrust mainstream media. A 1988 study by Albert Gunther, then a doctoral candidate at Stanford, asked subjects to rate the intensity of their beliefs around three contentious topicswelfare, abortion, and Latin America policyand how much they trusted television and newspaper coverage of those issues. Gunther found that people of low and high ideological intensity, whether liberal or conservative, were less trusting of media in general than those in the middle.
We wondered how much The New Yorkers cachet raises our estimation of a piece, apart from the copys merits.
As part of an extensive examination of American political polarization in 2014 by the Pew Research Center, 2,901 people participated in a survey of media habits. Respondents were asked whether they trusted or distrusted 36 news outlets, ranging from The Economist to The Rush Limbaugh Show. Pew found a dramatic divide: Liberals, who consumed a much wider variety of news sources in general, said they trusted more than distrusted 28 of the outlets, while conservatives said they distrusted more than trusted 24 of the outlets. Perhaps most significantly, [a]ll six of the sources overwhelmingly distrusted by consistent liberals are overwhelmingly trusted by consistent conservatives.
(With our other study on branding in mind, its noteworthy that fewer than 40 percent of respondents from this 2014 survey said theyd heard of BuzzFeed. Both conservatives and liberals said they distrusted more than trusted BuzzFeed. And The New Yorker had a more consistently liberal audience than any outlet included in the survey.)
The hostile media phenomenon, as three Stanford professors dubbed it in 1985, describes news consumers inclination to find coverage biased against their beliefs. Four years earlier, those researchers had conducted a telephone survey asking 160 people to rate coverage of the 1980 presidential election between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Sixty-six percent of respondents said coverage had been fair, but among Carter supporters who thought coverage had been skewed, 83 percent said it had favored Reagan, and among Reagan supports observing bias, 96 percent said media had favored Carter. In a subsequent 1985 study, pro-Israeli and pro-Arab test subjects viewed identical network news coverage of the 1982 Beirut massacre, and both groups deemed it skewed against their perspective.
The researchers concluded that two closely related perceptions created the hostile media phenomenon. First, test subjects saw the issue as black or white, and thus rejected the notion of a grayish reality. Second, because they saw it as black or white, journalists attempt at an account that balanced both sides suggested hostile bias. But maybe most important, the researchers observed, was the tendency for both groups to assert that neutral viewers will turn against their side when they view the media coverage.
Analyzing national survey data from 1948 to 2004, University of Kansas professor Tien-Tsung Lee found that people who trust the government are more likely to trust the media, as are liberals, whereas conservatives are less likely. But what about when reading news in publications unabashedly of the opposite affiliation? It would be unremarkable to learn that conservatives and liberals are less compelled by, or interested in, liberal and conservative magazines, respectively. But as a matter of basic trust in the integrity of reporting, a divide based on political orientation could yield useful insights.
Brands, whether institutional or personal, still have power. Sixty-six percent of respondents to The Media Insight Project survey from earlier this year said their most important basis for trust on Facebook is the news organization that produced the content, while 48 percent said theyre most concerned with the reputation of the person who shared the material; most respondents claimed not to base trust on how many likes a piece received.
But that finding comes with a corollary: The more people rely on social media for news, the less likely they are to trust those platforms. Internet users are not willing to spend a lot of time and effort on verifying the credibility of online information, a 2012 study in the Journal of Information Science explains, which means that various rules-of-thumb are applied to speed up the process.
That study assessed responses to a polarizing and ambiguously sourced digital information hub, Wikipedia, and found that readers demonstrated a layered basis of trust, where each layer builds on the next. At the base is trust in the information itself, followed by trust in the source, the medium, and finally, ones general propensity to trust. Accordingly, our studys post-experiment questionnaires seek to identify whether and in what ways a subject is predisposed to be trusting.
Trust implies risk. With news, that risk is in wasting your time, squandering your money, or proliferating faulty information via social media. Most fundamentally, though, its in being misinformed. Since the era of yellow journalism, the most prestigious news brands have cherished their reputation for trustworthiness. Magazines, in particular, breed a loyal readership. If that relationship proves to be antiquated online, so too is our understanding of a magazine.
*An earlier version of this story mistakenly identified Peretti as a co-founder of Twitter. We regret the error.
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Danny Funt, Chava Gourarie, and Jack Murtha are CJR Delacorte Fellows.
Traffic officers with the Council Bluffs Police Department saw a surprising number of drivers try to beat moving trains through intersections during a couple of recent law enforcement campaigns.
Last week, during Railroad Crossing Enforcement and Education Week, the Federal Railroad Administration chose Council Bluffs, Iowa, for two law enforcement campaigns.
The Iowa State Patrol, Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Railroad joined the FRA and Council Bluffs Police Department for the enforcement efforts.
Council Bluffs police Sgt. Jason Bailey told the Daily Nonpareil that Council Bluffs was chosen because of its high number 118 of railroad crossings.
On Tuesday, June 7, an enforcement project was conducted on the local Union Pacific main line. Bailey said during the three hours of the project, officers witnessed 21 railroad crossing violations and five trespassing violations. On Wednesday, June 8, the project was conducted along the Burlington Northern line, which runs in front of the Manawa Power Center. During the two hours of that project Bailey said there were four crossing violations as well as five other citations, including insurance and speeding.
I have to say I was surprised by the number of citations we handed out in a short time, Bailey said. We know it happens, but I didnt think we would hand out 26 violations on the Union Pacific main line.
Even with crossing arms and flashing lights, drivers do try and beat trains, not always succeeding. In 2015 in Iowa, there were 44 crossing collisions between a vehicle and a moving train. Nationally, there were 1,874 collisions with 237 fatalities. Also, its not just vehicles that try and beat trains, walkers also race across tracks. In 2015 in the United States, there were 470 fatalities due to trespassing on train tracks.
The Council Bluffs Police Department would like to remind all drivers of the dangers of running a railroad crossing when trains are present, Bailey said. These trains are unable to stop quickly and the dangers are increased tremendously when trains are involved.
Remember if the lights start flashing, motorists are required to stop prior to the intersection. If crossing arms are present at the intersection, motorists must remain until the arms are up and the lights have stopped flashing, Bailey said. If theyre only flashing red lights at the intersection, motorists are required to stop and may only proceed when it is safe to do so.
In Iowa, pedestrians are not allowed at any time to be on the tracks except for crossing at designated intersections. Bailey said if someone is caught walking along the tracks or crossing them at any other location, the walker is subject to arrest or citation for trespassing.
While the Council Bluffs Police Department may not work with the Federal agencies on future law enforcement campaigns, Bailey said his traffic department would be on the lookout for drivers and walker who violate rules regarding train tracks.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Visa and MasterCard are using security measures prone to fraud, putting retailers and customers at risk of thieves, The Home Depot Inc. says in a new federal lawsuit.
Its the latest giant retailer to raise the security concerns, with a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta. Last month, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sued Visa Inc. over similar issues.
Atlanta-based Home Depot says new payment cards with so-called chip technology, rolled out in the U.S. in recent years, remain less secure than cards used in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Even with chips, U.S. cards still rely on customers hand-written signatures for verification, rather than more secure Personal Identification Numbers, or PINs, Home Depot maintains.
A Mastercard spokesman said the chips boost security.
Regardless of how the cardholders identity is confirmed, the chip makes data much more secure, rendering it almost useless to create fraudulent cards or transactions, MasterCard spokesman Seth Eisen said in a statement Wednesday.
MasterCard received the court filing Tuesday and is still reviewing it, Eisen said.
We are aware of the complaint and will respond in due course, a Visa spokeswoman said in a statement Wednesday.
A central issue in Home Depots lawsuit: Its accusation that Visa and MasterCard are conspiring to prevent adoption of more secure technology in order to maintain market dominance and profits.
For years, Visa and MasterCard have been more concerned with protecting their own inflated profits and their dominant market positions than with the security of payment cards used by American consumers and the health of the United States economy, Home Depot states in its 138-page lawsuit.
About 80 nations use cards with chips, and most of them including England, France and Australia also require a PIN, Home Depot said.
Such cards offer an extra layer of security beyond the chip itself, by requiring the user to enter a four-digit PIN, thereby ensuring that the individual using the card is the cards owner, Home Depot states in its lawsuit. Signatures can be copied or forged, and cashiers are not handwriting experts trained to identify forged signatures.
As a result, U.S. consumers and merchants such as Home Depot pay fraud-related costs that are unrivaled in the rest of the industrial world.
A chip in combination with a PIN is a form of two-factor authentication, said Craig Piercy, director of the online master of internet technology program at the University of Georgias Terry College of Business.
It basically means that you have something with you usually a physical thing and something that you know. Both together are required to authenticate a user.
If a card is stolen, even one with a microchip, a thief could still use it by inserting it into the card reader, then scribbling the name on the card on a receipt or pad near a cash register
But if the thief doesnt know the PIN, the card would be rejected.
Neither one protects against all types of fraud, but in terms of protecting against lost or stolen cards, chip and PIN is more secure, Piercy said.
Home Depot was targeted in a wave of data heists that began with Targets pre-Christmas 2013 attack. But Home Depots 2014 data breach at stores in the U.S. and Canada affected 56 million debit and credit cards, far more than the attack on Target customers. Hackers also stole 53 million email addresses from Home Depot customers.
In the world of retailing, the size of the theft at Home Depot trails only that of TJX Companies heist of 90 million records disclosed in 2007.
Home Depot pushed hard to activate chip-enabled checkout terminals at all of its stores after the 2014 attack.
Even with chip technology, the lack of PIN requirements in the U.S. could lead to rising fraud in the future, as more transactions shift to online payments where no physical card is presented, Home Depot said its lawsuit.
Last month, Wal-Mart said in a lawsuit that Visa wont allow it to let customers verify chip-enabled debit card transactions with PINs rather than the less-secure signature method.
PIN is the only truly secure form of cardholder verification in the marketplace today, and it offers superior security to our customers, a Wal-Mart spokesman told The Associated Press after its lawsuit was filed last month in the New York State Supreme Court.
(Associated Press writer Anne DInnocenzio in New York contributed to this report.)
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Michalee Christy (left) and theatre professor Marilouise "Mel" Michel watch performances by Christy's Mercer High School students, whom she brought to campus in October for a threatre workshop.
Michalee (Lopuh 99) Christy was named VFW Teacher of the Year in Pennsylvania in 2015 and has been nominated for the 2016 award.
The contest recognizes exceptional teachers for their outstanding commitment to teaching Americanism and patriotism to their students.
Each year, a classroom elementary, junior high and high school teacher whose curriculum focuses on citizenship education topics for at least half of the school day in a classroom environment can be nominated for the Smart/Maher VFW National Citizenship Education Teacher Award.
Christy, who is vocal director for Mercer High School, went up against 450 other Pennsylvania educators for the 2015 honor. She was nominated through Mercer VFW Post 6345.
We do many different types of patriotic influences in the classroom. Each year is different, Christy said.
Each year I have all 252 students learn The Star-Spangled Banner in four-part harmony, then we travel around in groups of four to 20, singing at different events in the community.
Several times Christy has organized a patriots concert to honor those who have served or are serving, and many students will take part in the USO Concert honoring veterans on the 4th of July.
I simply try to teach that the gift of voice, whether speaking or singing, can be used to honor your country, Christy said.
Mrs. Christy is more than a teacher she is a mentor and has made an incredible impact in my life, said Janalyn Miklas, a senior at Mercer High School.
"She has impeccable insight and pushes me to my limit in the vocal and theater departments. I cannot thank her enough for all the wonderful things she has done for our school and our community.
Another Mercer senior, Ryan Hamilton, describes Christy as one of the most sincerely dedicated teachers he has had.
She truly cares for every one of her students. I personally have been involved in the choir program since seventh grade and am now the president of the choir department, and every step of the way she has striven for the best that every student can put forward, Hamilton said.
She teaches us not only how to sing and perform, but she also connects music to everyday life.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The owners of Dave's Markets, who operate eight stores in the city of Cleveland, told members of City Council Thursday that a $15-an-hour minimum wage imposed only on Cleveland businesses would cripple their company and might require them to close some stores.
Steve Saltzman, vice president of Dave's, said during a Committee of the Whole hearing on the issue that some of the company's Cleveland stores meet the grocery needs of the community but are barely profitable. A voter-driven initiative to set the city's minimum wage 85 percent higher than the state's $8.10-an-hour rate would devastate the company and leave some neighborhoods without a grocery store at all, he said.
"This legislation could undo what Dave's has been doing over the last eight decades, which is provide easy access to fresh foods in the community's we serve," Saltzman said. "We take great pride in the fact that we have stayed in these neighborhoods where other retailers would not go or had abandoned. ... But without question, Dave's would not be able to operate as we are today if this type of legislation passes in the city of Cleveland."
Saltzman -- along with his brother, Dan, and his father, Burt - testified that they are not making an argument against raising the minimum wage. Rather, they are simply asking for a level playing field that would allow their business to remain competitive in the region.
The Service Employees International Union, through a newly formed local group called Raise Up Cleveland, had collected enough signatures of Cleveland voters in support of the $15 minimum wage to compel council to introduce legislation on the issue last month.
If council votes down the ordinance or adopts an amended version, the petitioners have the option of putting the original language on the ballot for Cleveland voters.
Council President Kevin Kelley opposes the issue, arguing that a minimum wage increase should be handled on the state level to avoid disinvestment in Cleveland.
Kelley said he plans on scheduling a hearing on the issue every week until council makes a decision on the legislation. The Saltzmans were invited to testify Thursday along with representatives from other area businesses. Here are some other highlights from the hearing:
Average wages at Dave's exceed $12 an hour
Steve Salzman said entry-level pay for Dave's workers is "in the $8-something range," but that employees quickly work their way into a respectable living wage with healthcare benefits and a pension.
The average full-time hourly rate is $18.27, he said. And the average among full and part-time employees is $12.60 - well above the current state minimum, but still below the proposed $15 an hour.
Dave's employee Nate Long, who has worked for the grocer for the past eight years, testified that he loves and appreciates his job and the opportunities the company has given him.
Council members took turns thanking the Dave's ownership team for all they have done to prevent "food deserts" in the community, for continuing to invest when other grocers fled and for employing Cleveland residents.
But some council members, including Jeffrey Johnson, Zack Reed, Kevin Conwell and Brian Cummins, said that despite their appreciation for the company, they believe the city's minimum wage could be increased incrementally and at a pace that is manageable for local businesses.
Survey says ... local businesses overwhelmingly reject proposal
John Colm, president and executive director of WIRE-Net, which is an economic development organization representing more than 400 manufacturing firms in greater Cleveland, said his agency surveyed its membership and found overwhelming disapproval of the minimum wage proposal.
About 90 percent of the 34 companies that responded to the survey said the new wage requirements would put them at a competitive disadvantage that would be nearly impossible to overcome. The other 10 percent of respondents already pay workers more than $15 an hour and would not be affected.
Colm said manufacturers would have to raise pay across the board to preserve the wage differential for workers with greater skills, experience and seniority. Many would turn to automation to curb costs, move their company over the Cleveland border or shut their doors altogether, he said.
He added that it's a misconception that companies can simply raise the prices of goods and services to account for higher wages. In today's global economy, customers in Cleveland can easily find more competitive prices with manufacturers around the world, he said.
Proposal would limit opportunities for youth looking for their first job
Tom Schumann, who runs the cutting tool company E.C. Kitzel & Sons on the city's East Side and serves as the board chairman at Cleveland's Max Hayes Vocational High School, testified that a $15 minimum wage would hurt young people's prospects when looking for their first job.
Schumann said that companies that would normally hire employees at entry level pay, invest in their training and promote them through the ranks, would instead look to hire more skilled and experienced workers at $15 an hour.
"The industry folks would have a hard time justifying paying someone that hourly rate to be an intern, trainee or summer help," he said.
Local businessman says he would have to close his doors
Michael D'Amato, president of Universal Heat Treating Inc., on East 93rd Street, said his family-owned business has been in Cleveland since 1965 but likely would have to shut down under the higher minimum wage.
D'Amato said his company enjoyed a 2.7 percent profit margin last year - but would suffer a 7.7 percent net loss if forced to increase wages to $15 an hour.
Moving costs would be too great, forcing the company to shutter its facility after more than 50 years, he said.
Council expresses mixed feelings
Council members unanimously support a higher minimum wage statewide. But they disagree on whether Cleveland should lead the charge by increasing the city's wages with the legislation under consideration.
Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland said she sympathizes with the plight of the working poor and poverty-stricken residents in her ward, 30 percent of whom live in public housing. But hiking the minimum wage in Cleveland alone would destroy area businesses, she said.
"It's really not the solution to the problem at hand," she said. "On one hand, an increase would help some people. But realistically, we're going to hurt the smaller businesses that probably employ most of those people. ... If you're not competitive, you're going to lay off people, cut benefits, cut hours or cut and run."
Cleveland's comments elicited boos from the dozens of demonstrators who had filled the committee room.
"The true minimum wage is zero," the councilwoman responded. "We're going to hurt the city more than we're helping people with a Cleveland-only initiative."
Councilman Jeffrey Johnson, who recently proposed an alternative plan to phase in a $15 minimum wage, argued that the city must act now instead of waiting for the state or federal government to heed the call to action.
"The core issue is adults who are raising children and continue to be suppressed in poverty while we wait for the feds and state," he said. "... The impact of poverty in many of our neighborhoods is seen every day. These are Clevelanders fighting for their future, and I stand with them."
Where did those demonstrators come from?
The standing-room only hearing was packed with supporters of the Raise Up Cleveland movement, all wearing T-shirts promoting their cause.
But just before noon - an hour before the hearing officially concluded - the entire group stood and left the committee room.
Councilman Matt Zone then said he had been talking to one of the demonstrators who told him that most of the people in the group had traveled by bus from Columbus on the urging of the SEIU. The demonstrator who spoke to Zone said he was from West Virginia.
Anthony Caldwell, director of public affairs for SEIU District 1199, said in an email that Zone was "misinformed."
"No, we didn't bus anyone in," he wrote. "We don't pay anyone to protest or demonstrate. We used a bus to transport our members and supporters of Raise Up Cleveland."
In a subsequent email, Caldwell said the people who attended the hearing were from Cleveland, though some staffers "volunteered to transport people between our office and city hall."
guns1.jpg
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the majority of firearms seized in Ohio in 2015 were firearms. Of the more than 10,000 seized and traced, 1,420 were recovered from Cleveland
(File photo)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Law enforcement from around Ohio seized more than 10,000 firearms last year during criminal investigations, the majority of them pistols, according to a report released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Of the 10,009 recovered and traced in Ohio, 1,420 were seized in Cleveland, 785 were taken from Akron, and 93 came from East Cleveland. Columbus, the state's capitol and largest city, had 2,286 firearms recovered and traced, while Cincinnati had 1,340.
The overwhelming majority of the recovered weapons, 6,359, were pistols. Revolvers accounted for 1,707 of the traced weapons, along with 1,015 rifles and 672 shotguns
In addition, more than 4,700 of the weapons were used in a crime more than three years after their original purchase. The average time between original purchase and a crime being committed in 2015 is 9.62 years.
The data was compiled by firearms seized by law enforcement and then traced back to the place or person from which it was originally purchased. Not all of the firearms seized were found to have been used in a crime, and not all cities trace every gun they seize, ATF spokeswoman Suzanne Dabkowski said.
(You can read the full report here or at the bottom of this story.)
Nationally, law enforcement seized and traced 190,538 firearms in 2015, more than 20,000 more than 2014. As with Ohio, the overwhelming majority of them, more than 150,000, were pistols.
For Ohio, the report also found that:
* Forty-two machine guns were seized, as well as 36 destructive devices.
* Many of the seized-and-traced weapons were taken as part of an investigation into whether somebody owned a weapon illegally. They were also taken in the investigation of 309 homicides and 1,214 drug offenses.
* The majority of the weapons seized and traced in Ohio, 6,174, originated from Ohio. However, the weapons originated all across the country.
* The weapons were taken and traced from among several age ranges. Of the ranges, the most came from those ages 31-40, followed closely by those ages 25-30.
If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
17DARCY-WESTLAKE.jpg
Westlake teachers vote to strike despite being the sixth highest paid teachers in the state and taxpayers voting down three levies since 2013.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Westlake teachers union has voted to authorize a strike, despite its members being the sixth highest paid teachers in the state.
The teachers have essentially voted to try to squeeze blood out of the Westlake taxpayer turnip. Since 2013, Westlake voters have voted down three school levies, sending what would appear to have been a clear message to the school district. A message that's been heeded by the board of education, but not the teachers union.
In addition to the defeated school levies, the city has lost $15 million in state funding. Despite those financial hits, Westlake teachers are still the sixth highest paid in the state. The average salary for teachers in the district is $74,000. The salary figure is an average, so there are some teachers making considerably less and teachers making over $90,000 and $100,000, but all with summers off and a good benefit package.
State rules dictate the strike as starting August 18, the first day of the next school year. After June 24, members of the teachers union will not participate in any summer programs in the district. Doing so would be tacit acceptance of the board's final contract offer, according to the union.
Monday, the board of education voted to implement its final and best offer to the union. In a statement the board said, "After more than a year of negotiations with multiple proposals and options going back and forth, it is obvious that we have come to an ultimate impasse." Board president Carol Winter said the union had "failed to present us with any viable proposal given our financial situation."
The board has a fiscal responsibility to the Westlake taxpayers to operate within its means while providing a sound education to students. Given that responsibility, it acted properly in implementing its last and final offer to the teachers union after a year of negotiations.
If the picket signs in August are followed by Help Wanted signs going up, I doubt there would be a shortage of qualified applicants for job openings in the sixth highest paid school district in the state.
It's disappointing Westlake residents were not spared a strike authorization. It would be nice if they were at least spared being told by the union they're acting in the best interests of the students, since they are not.
Every college has its most popular bar. Sometimes it's because the beer selection is good; other times it's because of concerts, trivia or karaoke nights. These college-famous bars are treasured by their students and sometimes their surrounding communities, even though the bars themselves might not be the prettiest from the outside.
For the ultimate Ohio campus bar hopping adventure, here are 37 favorite campus bars, chosen from 22 different Ohio colleges and universities.
(Photo by Jenn Manna photography)
37 of Ohio's favorite campus bars
By Anne Nickoloff
cleveland.com
June 14, 2016
The best Ohio campus bars span from dive bars to upscale clubs. Check out these 37 campus favorites, from 22 different colleges and universities in Ohio.
Don't Edit
University Of Akron: Thursday's Lounge
Thursday's Lounge offers plenty of deals throughout the week, and especially so on Thursday, which is college night. This bar embraces its popularity with the campus crowd, and brings in tons of EDM musicians and DJs for entertainment every night. (303 E. Exchange St., Akron OH, 44304)
Don't Edit
Ashland University: Riley's Night Club, O'Bryan's Pub
Riley's Night Club is known for more wild nights out; the bar has cheap drink specials for ladies' nights, holidays and various days of the week. The club celebrates its loyal student following with specials that coincide with campus events. (155 W. Main Street, Ashland OH, 44805)
On the quieter end of Ashland's bar scene is O'Bryan's Pub, which offers Irish-American food and Great Lakes beer on tap. The pub plays sports games on TV and most guests say it's a more relaxed place near campus for hanging out. (1065 Claremont Ave, Ashland OH, 44805)
Don't Edit
Baldwin Wallace University: Mike's Bar And Grille
Mike's usually offers around eight beers on tap, along with plenty of bottled beer to choose from. The bar and restaurant are geared towards Berea locals, but it's not uncommon for the building to be overrun with BW students after classes let out. (130 Front St, Berea OH, 44017)
(Photo courtesy Linda Kinsey)
Don't Edit
Bowling Green State University: City Tap, Campus Quarters
At Bowling Green, Campus Quarters has become known for its cheap beer and mixed drinks. Quarters offers a few group games with a weekly trivia night and pool tables. (107 State St., Bowling Green OH, 43402)
City Tap has options for college students that are above and below drinking age. On the second floor of City Tap is The Attic, where anyone over 18 can go to dance. Downstairs at City Tap, older college students can drink at the bar. (110 N. Main St., Bowling Green OH, 43402)
Don't Edit
Don't Edit
Case Western Reserve University: The Jolly Scholar, Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern
The Jolly Scholar resides in a building which also hosts classes during the day. At night, students arrive in hordes for karaoke and trivia. It's the only bar that's technically on Case Western's campus. (11111 Euclid Ave., Cleveland OH, 44106)
Just down the street, Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern combines over one hundred hot dog topping choices with a selection of local beers, too. On the weekends, Happy Dog has cheap concerts, usually only charging $5 entry. (11625 Euclid Ave., Cleveland OH, 44106)
Don't Edit
University of Cincinnati: Uncle Woody's, Murphy's Pub, Ladder 19
Uncle Woody's isn't known for being a clean place, but it is known for cheap drink prices and its popularity with nearby college students. The dive bar is particularly popular with Greek and law students. (339 Calhoun St., Cincinnati OH, 45219)
Competing with the cheap prices at Woody's is Murphy's Pub, which also offers game nights. Though Murphy's attracts many college students, it also welcomes community members into the small bar room. (2329 W. Clifton Ave., Cincinnati OH, 45219)
Ladder 19 is a little pricey, but it still offers some specials on drinks. The bar and grill is sought after for its large and bottomless drink offers more than their range of breakfast and brunch foods. (2701 Vine St., Cincinnati OH, 45219)
Don't Edit
Cleveland State University: Burgers 2 Beer, Becky's
Burgers 2 Beer attracts CSU students involved in Greek life. The bar hosts fraternity and sorority parties, with donations going towards Greek philanthropy. As the name implies, Burgers 2 Beer offers a large selection of food and beer, and it's directly across the street from CSU's academic buildings. (1938 Euclid Ave. #100, Cleveland OH, 44115)
Unlike some of the other options in CSU's downtown Cleveland location, Becky's has cheap drink specials. The dive bar hosts live music, often bringing in musicians that performed downtown earlier that day. (1762 E. 18th St., Cleveland OH, 44114)
Don't Edit
University Of Dayton: Timothy's and Milanos
Two night spots -- Timothy's Pub and Grille and Milano's -- dominate the bar action on Brown Street at the University Of Dayton. Tim's is late-night a campus favorite, where the dance-and-drinking action really gets started after 10 p.m. (1818 Brown St., Dayton OH, 45409)
Milano's is a popular Italian restaurant specializing in pizza and subs. But its bar action is legendary, too. (1834 Brown St, Dayton, OH 45409)
Don't Edit
Denison University: Taco Dan's, Broadway Pub
Mixing tacos with alcohol can lead to a strong fan base in the college student demographic. Taco Dan's has done just that, and is a popular destination for students because of its drinks and food. (121 S. Prospect St., Granville OH, 43023)
Broadway Pub offers a more traditional blend of bar food with hamburgers and wings. It also has a constantly changing selection of tap beers that shifts every week. (126 E. Broadway, Granville OH, 43023)
Don't Edit
Don't Edit
John Carroll University: O'Reilly's
O'Reilly's is a popular bar for John Carroll University students after mass; it's a five minute walk away from Saint Francis Chapel on JCU's campus. (13914 Cedar Road, Cleveland OH, 44118)
(Photo by Phaedra Singelis, PD)
Don't Edit
Kent State University: Zephyr, Rathskeller, 157 Lounge
Bars and pubs abound at Kent State and student favorites range from dive bars to upscale clubs. Zephyr leans towards the dive bar type of establishment, but it's one of the most crowded places when it comes to student visitors. (106 W. Main St., Kent OH, 44240)
KSU students don't even have to leave campus to visit Rathskeller. The bar is slightly more expensive, but draws large crowds for karaoke nights and sports games. (1075 Risman Dr., Kent OH, 44242)
157 Lounge is a little more upscale, and offers a more unique bar menu than the typical burgers and French fries--instead, 157 sports a menu filled with sushi and seafood. When it comes to drinks, the place has over 20 different flavors of martinis alone. (157 S. Water St., Kent OH, 44240)
Don't Edit
Kenyon College: The Village Inn
For Kenyon College students, there aren't too many options for drinking or going out in the small town of Gambier, Ohio. Out of everything around, the Village Inn is a popular choice. Students hang out in the booths of the small restaurant and bar and choose from a variety of beers and burgers. (102 Gaskin Ave., Gambier OH, 43022)
Don't Edit
Miami University: O Pub
The dim lighting and relaxing music in Oxford's O Pub gives it a cozier feel than most college bars. This speakeasy style bar has a large selection of drinks, beers and shots and its ambiance attracts college students to relax with friends rather than party too crazily. It's located in the uptown Oxford neighborhood, along with other bars and restaurants. (10 W. Park Place, Oxford OH, 45056)
(Photo by Oxford Visitor's Bureau)
Don't Edit
University Of Mount Union: Chives
Chives has food and drink specials for every day of the week, and 50 different types of beer to choose from. Chives is a dive bar that is beloved by students for its cheap prices and short walking distance from Mount Union's campus. (2355 S. Union Ave., Alliance OH, 44601)
Don't Edit
Don't Edit
Oberlin College: The Feve
By day, the Feve is a quirky hamburger shop, but in the evening it transforms itself into the most popular bar at Oberlin College. Plus, on the weekends the restaurant breaks out an award-winning brunch menu which features mimosas and Bloody Maries. (30 S. Main St., Oberlin OH, 44074)
(Photo by Flickr user Edsel Little)
Don't Edit
The Ohio State University: Out-R-Inn, Chumley's, The O Patio And Pub, 4th Street Bar
With an enrollment of over 40,000 undergraduate students every year, Ohio State University has its fair share of bars.
The Out-R-Inn has been around for years; the bar has established itself as a classic, and it remains popular today. Named for its variety of smaller rooms inside the building, it's a crowded place to be during sports games. Plus, with $1 mug refills and cheap well drinks every night, it's generally a hit with students trying to go out on a budget. (20 Frambes Ave., Columbus OH, 43201)
Chumley's is a relatively new addition to Ohio State's bar scene. It opened its doors in 2012, and since then has embraced OSU's love of sports. The bar has tons of TVs playing games and offers drink specials for each significant sport event. (1918 N. High St., Columbus OH, 43201)
With both an indoor and an outdoor portion, The O Patio and Pub is a popular option for students during warmer months. The O offers unique events like egg hunts and beer pong tournaments, open to all visitors. (12 E. 15th Ave., Columbus OH, 43201)
4th Street Bar is known for being a little less traditional than other college bars, and having a hip atmosphere. That might be because of the bar's massive list of craft beers on tap; it's one of the largest selections in the OSU area. (1810 N. 4th St., Columbus OH, 43202)
Don't Edit
Ohio University: The Smiling Skull, Jackie O's, Lucky's Sports Tavern
When it comes to top partying schools, Ohio University usually appears somewhere high on the list. It's no shock that the university has a few campus bars that students love.
The Smiling Skull Saloon is beloved among students for its small-town feel. The bar brings in local bands for performances, and has a selection of both craft and commercial beers for the college crowd. The place isn't the prettiest, but it's affordable. (108 W. Union St., Athens OH, 45701)
Jackie O's, a pub and brewery, is known for having the best beer near campus. With a selection that changes based off of what's brewing, students can try something new each weekend. (24 W. Union St., Athens OH, 45701)
Lucky's Sports Tavern offers liquor pitcher nights and $1 Jell-O shots. The bar is most popular with undergraduate students at OU, but they also attract billiards enthusiasts with their well-kept pool tables. (11 N. Court St., Athens OH, 45701)
Don't Edit
Ohio Wesleyan: Clancey's
Clancey's is a popular option for students at Ohio Wesleyan because they allow in undergraduates who are both above and below 21 (but if you're under 21, there's a $5 charge). Clancey's is a popular place for students to dance. In the show How I Met Your Mother, character Ted Mosby attended Ohio Wesleyan, and probably would have gone to Clancey's to party. (40 S. Sandusky St., Delaware OH, 43015)
(Photo via CBS)
Don't Edit
University Of Toledo: Jed's, Chaser's
Jed's offers a traditional sports bar environment, with beer, wings and fries to order. It's a popular place for students after a game, or as a place to watch Toledo play against other Division I schools. (3534 Dorr St., Toledo OH, 43607)
Chaser's is a completely different environment; the nightclub is a common place for students to dance to different DJs each night, amidst flashing lights and TVs. (3529 Dorr St., Toledo OH, 43607)
Don't Edit
Don't Edit
College Of Wooster: JAFB
The College Of Wooster is so small that most students have to go downtown to get to a good drink. The JAFB brewery is popular with both Wooster students and the local community for its locally made brews. (120 Beall Ave., Wooster OH, 44691)
Don't Edit
Xavier University: Dana Gardens
Dana Gardens, more commonly known as just Dana's, is managed by Xavier grads and known as a Xavier bar. The dive bar is decked out with Xavier memorabilia, and also plenty of handmade signs to tease the university's rival, University of Cincinnati. Students go to Dana's for some of their drink specials. This includes the shot wheel, where bar goers must spin the wheel and drink whichever shot it lands on. (1832 Dana Ave., Cincinnati OH, 45207)
(Photo by AP)
Don't Edit
Youngstown State University: Rust Belt Brewing Company
YSU students tend to go to fraternity parties or walk downtown to find a drink. Rust Belt Brewing Company serves up craft beers and hosts concerts; it's known as one of the best downtown Youngstown bars. (112 W. Commerce St., Youngstown OH, 44502)
Virtual schoolhouse.JPG
The Virtual Schoolhouse charter school in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland ost support of its sponsor and can't find another, so it will likely close at the end of this month.
(Patrick O'Donnell/The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio's new charter school reform laws seem to be having at least one desired effect - blocking poor-performing schools from finding new backers to keep them afloat.
The Ohio Department of Education reports that 11 charter schools lost the support this year of their sponsors, the organizations that authorize the schools and oversee them. That puts them in danger of closing this summer if they cannot find a new sponsor.
Though the schools have been searching since mid-January, none of them has had any luck.
Schools could still find a backer by June 30, but that's unlikely at this point and the schools will probably close.
Six of those schools even asked the Ohio Department of Education this spring to back them, but the state said no to all six.
Among them were the Cleveland-based Virtual Schoolhouse and OAK Leadership Institute. OAK leaders made a desperate pitch to the state school board this week to stay open.
Here's why they are out of luck: The House Bill 2 charter reform law blocks schools dropped by a sponsor because of poor academic performance from signing on with another. That part of the bill is aimed directly at stopping "sponsor hopping" - schools bouncing from overseer to overseer as soon as one starts holding them to standards.
This is also the first year that the Department of Education can reject applications from schools with poor academic records. In the past, the department had to sponsor any school that applied, without making any judgment about the ability of a school to educate children.
"It's working as we intended for it to," State Sen. Peggy Lehner said of House Bill 2, which she co-sponsored.
State school board President Tom Gunlock said this week that he agrees that the law appears to be working. Though he supports charter schools, Gunlock said the law requires them to perform or else they lose the ability to stay open.
"That's what happened," he said, specifically referring to the OAK case. "House Bill 2 was a really good thing."
Steve Dyer, a former state legislator and regular charter school critic, also said that what happened with OAK - losing backing because of its poor state report cards and then not finding a new backer - to be what House Bill 2 aimed at.
"I don't think you could have had a better example of what House Bill 2 was supposed to do," Dyer told the board.
In addition to the 11 that lost sponsor support, another eight schools agreed to close voluntarily. It is unclear how many were in danger of losing their sponsor and just closed pre-emptively.
Two of those eight, the Imagine Cleveland school and Imagine on Superior, a Canton school, had been closed for 2015-16 and had stayed in limbo in case they could reorganize. They are now officially closed.
Look below for a list of all the schools expected to close.
The number of schools closing is not any increase over previous years. The 19 is fewer than the 30 closing in 2015 and the 27 closing in 2014. The lack of second chances for struggling schools is what separates this year from others.
In 2013, for example, the Ohio Department of Education accepted one of the two applications for existing schools to switch to the department and five out of eight requests in 2014. This year, it accepted none.
Angela Thi Bennett, superintendent of the OAK charter school in the Hough neighborhood, said she had hoped to find another sponsor when the school's longtime sponsor, the Richland Academy of the Arts, dropped the school in January.
"The climate of sponsorship now is making it a challenge," Bennett told the board.
That's because the state is starting to evaluate and rate charter sponsors for the first time and subject them to penalties, including shutting them down, if they rate poorly. With the academic performance of schools making up a third of those ratings, schools with poor test scores are on the chopping block.
"It's really important that schools get really busy about improving their scores, or we're going to see more of this happen," Lehner said.
Richland dropped seven of the 10 schools it oversees this year, all for poor academic performance, though Executive Director Marianne Cooper said sponsor evaluations were not the reason.
"While certainly that is an impetus, all of the schools were at the end of their contract," Cooper said. "With declining scores, it was the right thing to do."
The new state laws did not lead the sponsor of the Virtual Schoolhouse, the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West, to drop that school, said Apryl Morin, that center's charter school director.
But the laws probably hurt the school's chance of finding another backer, she said. The school applied to the state, to the Cleveland school district and a few other sponsors, Morin said, but was rejected by all.
Morin said the school, jn the Glenville neighborhood, that combines classroom and online work has had poor report card results for a few years and did not improve even after she put it on probation last year.
Calls to the school late Thursday were not answered.
"They had not made gains in four or five years," Morin said. "They had consistently been going down and down and down."
Here are the charter schools expected to close this summer, according to the Ohio Department of Education. Note that Lakewood Digital Academy is located in Hebron, Ohio, not the Lakewood in Cuyahoga County.
Marines Killed
Two Marines at Camp Pendleton in California are being investigated because of a post on Facebook with a threatening message toward gays.
(Lenny Ignelzi, Associated Press file photo)
SAN DIEGO, California -- A photo posted on Facebook showing an active-duty Marine holding a rifle with a threatening message toward gays has resulted in trouble for two service members.
The Marine Corps Times reports the I Marine Expeditionary Force is investigating two Marines at Camp Pendleton in connection with the photo, which was posted on the Camp MENdleton resale Facebook page.
The post has since been deleted and the person who posted it has been banned from the closed group, NBC News reports.
West Coast Marines under investigation for alleged threat to gay bars https://t.co/96V8fes8ZA pic.twitter.com/oETfGyHM8G Marine Corps Times (@Marinetimes) June 17, 2016
The photo shows a corporal holding a military rifle pointed toward the camera with the words "Coming to a gay bar near you." Also written underneath the photo was "Too soon?" in a reference to the attack at the bar in Orlando that killed 49 people dead and 53 wounded.
Maj. Staci Reidinger tells CBS News that other Marines reported the photo to authorities. The Marine in the photograph and another one who reposted it were then tracked down.
The two Marines are from from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in California.
I MEF spokesperson First Lt. Thomas Gray tells the Marine Corps Times the incident is being taken "very seriously."
"The Marine Corps does not tolerate discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, gender or religion," a statement says. "...This type of behavior and mindset will not be allowed, and it is not consistent with the core values of honor, courage and commitment that are demonstrated by the vast majority of Marines on a daily basis."
President Barack Obama had finally had enough. He could no longer remain silent.
A couple of days after a soldier of radical Islam perpetrated one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, a president saddened by the loss of life -- but mostly angered at being called out for refusing to speak the words "radical Islam" -- finally unburdened himself.
It was the argument of a man who truly believes that words create reality.
"That's the key, they tell us: We can't beat ISIL unless we call them 'radical Islamists,'" the president complained at a news conference after Tuesday's meeting of the National Security Council.
"Not once has an adviser of mine said, 'Man, if we really use that phrase, we're going to turn this whole thing around.' Not once," he continued.
And, "So there's no magic to the phrase 'radical Islam.' It's a political talking point; it's not a strategy. And the reason I am careful about how I describe this threat has nothing to do with political correctness and everything to do with actually defeating extremism."
So there. He knows the magic phrases. His critics do not.
In reality, though, the people he describes as being "on the other side of the aisle" realize that words won't defeat Islamic terrorism or, more to Obama's way of thinking, make it cease to be.
They understand that identifying this nation's primary enemy as radical Islam is the first step toward fighting it effectively, not the last. And they realize that a president who will not take that first step cannot devise a focused, coherent policy to engage radical Islam here and abroad -- a fact the Obama administration has repeatedly proved.
Obama's say-no-evil approach to radical Islam has certainly blunted his administration's anti-terrorism efforts here at home.
An administration that was serious about battling radical Islam would be furiously surveilling, profiling, infiltrating and analyzing metadata. But this administration is even less serious than the previous one. Both have been far too concerned about the good opinion of Islamic organizations, legitimate and otherwise. That kind of public relations gets innocent people killed.
"If you see something, say something," Americans are told. But the subtext is abundantly clear: If you're mistaken, you'll pay the price in bigotry accusations or worse.
Now apply that subtext to someone whose government paycheck depends on keeping track of terrorist threats in a word-conscious administration that has purged "jihad" from the bureaucratic vocabulary.
The result is that a lone wolf like the Orlando terrorist can howl loud, long and often, get himself reported to the authorities, become the subject of 10 months of FBI attention and still shoot up a soft target.
In the aftermath, CIA Director James Brennan tells us the Islamic State has "a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West." People just like Orlando's Omar Mateen.
"We've gone through moments in our history before when we acted out of fear -- and we came to regret it," Obama said during Tuesday's finger-wagging session.
Yes, but what's frustrating is that the man who won't say "radical Islam" unless he's explaining why he won't say "radical Islam" apparently can't see himself in that statement. There's plenty of fear going around, and it starts in the White House.
Since the day he took office, Obama has been acting out of fear of radical Islam. It's hardly an irrational fear. In fact, any sane person shares it, whether Christian, Jew or Muslim. The question is how best to act on it.
Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Senate Democrats who filibustered this week would tinker with gun laws, thus affecting only those Americans who choose to obey laws. Obama proposes reinstating an "assault weapons" ban to "make it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on weapons of war."
Sure.
Because if we could just get rid of scary-looking guns that perform in exactly the same way as less-scary-looking guns, we'll be safe. And because people willing to commit mass murder to convert the entire world to their religion won't attempt things that are hard.
Before Americans can defeat radical Islam, we're going to have to defeat our illusions, starting at the top.
O'Brien is The Plain Dealer's deputy editorial page editor.
vote.jpg
Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed a controversial bill that Democrats and other critics said would have imposed a poll tax on voters seeking additional voting hours in county courts.
(John Kuntz, The Plain Dealer/file photo)
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich on Friday vetoed a bill that critics said would have imposed a poll tax on voters seeking to keep polling places open due to emergencies.
The bill would have required voters seeking an extension for voting hours in county courts to post bond equal to the estimated cost of keeping polling places open, which could total tens of thousands of dollars. If the court decided against keeping the polls open, the voter would lose the bond.
GOP lawmakers said the requirement and others in the bill were needed after cases in which Southwest Ohio judges kept the polls open, in their opinion, unnecessarily.
Kasich, in his veto message, agreed there is a need to create a uniform process for county common pleas judges considering such requests. But he said the provision that eliminated a judge's discretion to waive the bond went too far.
"I look forward to working with the General Assembly in the future to see this process become law," Kasich said.
Kasich rarely wields his veto pen as fellow Republicans control both the Ohio House and Senate. The bill was only the second vetoed by Kasich since he took office in 2011. That year, he vetoed Republican lawmakers' first attempt to regulate water withdrawal from Lake Erie under the Great Lakes Compact.
Secretary of State Jon Husted supported legislation to set rules for common pleas courts reviewing requests to extend voting hours but said before the bill passed that he didn't support the bond requirement.
In a statement Friday, Husted said he respected Kasich's veto decision and will work with him and the legislature to address last minute changes to voting rules by state judges.
"In both of the past two major election cycles, Ohioans have had to deal with last minute changes to the state's election laws after judges have modified the rules, citing only politics, tweets and traffic jams as justification," Husted said. "These decisions came with little to no time for election officials to react, which adds the threat of chaos to otherwise well-run and smooth elections."
Why was the bill passed?
GOP lawmakers supporting the bill focused on two recent cases where polls were kept open:
In November 2015, Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge kept the polls open an additional 90 minutes after Issue 3 backers complained voting problems experienced earlier in the day kept voters from casting ballots. The judge's order was issued about 30 minutes before the polls closed statewide. The decision delayed reporting of statewide election results.
In the March primary election a Cincinnati federal court judge ordered Hamilton County polling places to remain open for an additional hour because a car crash had closed the Combs-Hehl Bridge for several hours during the day. Husted's office wasn't notified of the order until after 7:30 p.m., when the polls closed. Husted said last month there was no official complaint filed.
Senate Bill 296 set conditions that must be met to extend voting hours,such as requiring evidence to support the claim beyond media reports. It would not have affected the March order, only decisions made by state-appointed judges.
Sen. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican who sponsored the bill, said Friday that Kasich's reasoning behind the veto was incorrect. Seitz said judges already ignore a rule requiring judges to set a bond amount, and his bill would explicitly allow them to waive bond for people who could not afford it.
"In vetoing Senate Bill 296, the governor has subordinated the interests of Ohio taxpayers and poll workers to the interests of those who want to game Election Day voting hours for political purposes," Seitz said in a news release.
What did critics say?
Democrats and voting rights advocates said the bond amounted to a poll tax that voters -- especially minority, poor and elderly voters -- would not be able to afford.
Rep. Kathleen Clyde, a Kent Democrat, said Kasich made the right call vetoing the bill, which she said was an attack on voters and their access to the voting booth and the courts.
"Emergencies happen and our officials need the ability to respond to ensure access to the polls," Clyde said in a statement.
Sen. Mike Skindell, a Lakewood Democrat, said Kasich's veto leaves the door open to future legislation targeting court access.
"We are grateful for today's veto, but we need to remain vigilant to ensure that other troubling portions of this bill do not resurface in future legislation," Skindell said in a statement.
Donald Trump
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Gilley's in Dallas, Thursday, June 16, 2016.
(LM Otero, The Associated Press)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis will be among the social conservative leaders huddling next week with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the anti-abortion group announced Friday.
"After seven long years of pro-abortion policies and hundreds of millions of our tax dollars poured into Planned Parenthood's coffers, it is critical for Mr. Trump to understand the positive impact a pro-life president can make to save lives," Gonidakis said. "Ohio is the key battleground state and engaging our state's social conservatives must be priority number one for Trump to win Ohio."
Trump's position on abortion has been inconsistent and at times confusing.
Years ago he was "very pro-choice." As a presidential candidate, he has embraced anti-abortion views, with exceptions for cases of rape, incest and when the mother's life is at stake. Trump caused a stir earlier this year when he said women who have illegal abortions should be punished -- and then quickly backtracked.
Time reported last month that Trump planned to convene a meeting with evangelical and other Christian conservative leaders in the coming weeks -- a move aimed at assuaging concerns they might have with his positions on key social issues.
The summit is set for Tuesday.
"As we consider the candidacy of radical pro-abortion nominee Hillary Clinton, the pro-life community is looking for assurance that they have a pro-life alternative," said Gonidakis, an ally of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who was the last Republican standing against Trump in this year's presidential primaries. "Human lives hang in the balance. Ohio Right to Life is committed to getting Election 2016 right, and we believe this meeting will go a long way in ensuring that we do."
Republican National Convention Spring Walk-Through
Fundraising challenges continue for the upcoming Republican National Convention.
(Mary Kilpatrick, cleveland.com)
Storm clouds are circling over the fundraising for the Republican National Convention. And the ritual Tim Ryan speculation begins a little early. Read more in Ohio Politics Roundup, brought to you by today's guest tipster, Andrew J. Tobias.
Big corporate donors out for RNC: "A growing number of prominent U.S. corporations are opting to drop or scale back their sponsorship of the Republican national convention next month in Cleveland, as the nomination of Donald Trump promises a level of controversy rarely seen in such gatherings," Bloomberg's Zachary Mider and Elizabeth Dexheimer reported on Thursday.
Among those staying out: "Wells Fargo & Co., United Parcel Service Inc., Motorola Solutions Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Ford Motor Co., and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.," Mider and Dexheimer wrote. "All of those companies sponsored the previous Republican conclave, in Tampa, Florida, in 2012."
None would say Trump played a role, and all said they also would not give to the Democratic convention.
Fundraising update: Emily Lauer, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee, told the Bloomberg reporters her nonpartisan group had raised about $57.5 million of the group's $64 million goal for the GOP convention.
(For comparison's sake, the host committee reported having raised $55.5 million in early April, weeks before Trump had emerged as the GOP's presumptive nominee.)
"The sky is not falling," Lauer said.
Always a bridesmaid: Tim Ryan, the Youngstown-area Democratic congressman, is among those being considered as vice-president for Hillary Clinton, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
"Ryan's name often is linked to higher office," cleveland.com's Henry J. Gomez pointed out. "He has been seen as a future governor or senator for years. But this VP speculation is a first for the seven-term congressman."
In a statement to Gomez, Ryan said: "Regardless of who is chosen as vice president, I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States."
Democrats take a stand: Sherrod Brown was among the Democrats in the U.S. Senate who took part in a "filibuster" this week to get Republicans to consider new gun laws.
Cleveland.com's Steve Koff breaks it down: "Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy started it. Then the majority of Senate Democrats, including Ohio's Sherrod Brown, took turns Wednesday and early Thursday, joining the 'filibuster' to make their point clear: They want anyone who might be linked to terrorism to be denied the right to buy a gun."
Why the quotes around 'filibuster'?: "Technically, a filibuster is a procedure used to talk, and talk, and talk some more on the Senate floor and delay consideration of a bill... There was no specific gun bill up for a vote Wednesday," Koff explained.
Relax ladies: Just because the Senate passed a bill that would require women to register for the draft doesn't mean it will happen yet, cleveland.com's Sabrina Eaton wrote Thursday.
Eaton explains why, but here it is in a nutshell: "After all, this is Washington, where constant bickering keeps much from getting done."
We have less time to get ready for Hillary: Hillary Clinton moved up an appearance in Columbus next week from June 22 to June 21, cleveland.com's Jeremy Pelzer reported.
A Clinton spokeswoman said she wasn't immediately aware of the reason for the rescheduling.
It was hard to pick just ten: But cleveland.com's Robin Goist did it while compiling ten surprises from the 2016 election.
"After all," Goist wrote, "who would have thought that the final two Republican contenders in the 2016 race would be a former reality show host and a governor who only won one state?"
Voinovich remembered: "Former U.S. Sen. and Ohio Gov. George V. Voinovich was remembered today as a throwback to when such phrases as 'public servant,' 'principled' and 'father figure' still meant something," the Columbus Dispatch's Darrell Rowland wrote in his report from Voinovich's Cleveland funeral.
From mayor to mayor: "He was a servant. He served us all," Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said at the event, according to Rowland.
Voinovich, 79, died in his sleep last weekend.
Convention CEO blasts Loomis: Jeff Larson, the top official for the 2016 Republican National Convention on Thursday said Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Steve Loomis is "inciting fear" and unfairly harming the city's image by repeatedly saying Cleveland is not ready to host the event, I reported on Thursday.
Welcome to Cleveland: Larson, who has spent more than a year in the city, wouldn't be getting a true Cleveland experience if the outspoken Loomis didn't get under his skin at least once.
New Republic writer calls for march on RNC: "Cleveland, the convention, is where we must begin to make our stand against Trump and the malignancy he represents," writes Michael Eric Dyson, a contributing editor to The New Republic.
He later continues: "I know that these words can be read as a call to violence unseen at a national political convention since Chicago in 1968. So be it."
Old pro: The Republican National Convention won't be the first high-wire act overseen by the man responsible for the look and feel of the event, I wrote on Thursday.
Phil Alongi, the executive producer of the GOP convention in Cleveland, held a similar title for a 2013 Discovery Channel TV special in which daredevil Nick Wallenda crossed the Grand Canyon while precariously balancing on a 1,400-foot-long, two-inch-thick tightrope without a protective net below to catch him.
Alongi's experience will serve him well as he oversees a quick conversion of Quicken Loans Arena to get it ready for the July 18 convention.
By the numbers: Cleveland.com's Mary Kilpatrick dug into some of the particulars of The Q conversion.
Our favorite: 100,000 balloons. Because who doesn't love balloons?
From QVC to RNC: Erin Elmore, a former "Apprentice "contestant, is spending her summer in Cleveland to help with the Republican National Convention, philly.com reported Thursday.
Her role? Serving as "the liaison between the convention and [former host of "The Apprentice"] Donald Trump."
Get Battleground Briefing, our FREE politics newsletter, delivered to your inbox: Sign up here. Tips or links? Send here. Follow along on Twitter: @HenryJGomez.
An earlier version of this post incorrectly described Clinton postponing a fundraiser. The event that was postponed was to have taken place June 15, not June 22.
Prominent party figures mostly unhappy about Trump
Ohio Sen. George Voinovich retired in 2010. The Cleveland politician has taken rebellious stands during his career, which has spanned more than 46 years.
(Lisa DeJong/Plain Dealer)
Carole F. Hoover is president and CEO of HooverMilstein
I will always remember George Voinovich as a champion of social justice. He was forever bringing people together -- across racial, religious and political lines, across labor and management, across urban and suburban. George Voinovich believed in collaboration. And he acted on that belief. He made things happen.
When he was a candidate for mayor in 1979, we discussed whether Cleveland should have an urban coalition that would focus on what united rather than divided us.
He embraced the idea and said he would make it a priority if he became mayor, and he did. He traveled with a small group of civic leaders to Detroit, Chicago and Atlanta to learn what those cities were doing to improve multicultural relations, and then went on to help establish the Greater Cleveland Roundtable in 1981. Comprised of the senior-most leaders from business, labor, education, government, and religious organizations, the powerful group worked together to improve racial and cultural relations and foster minority economic inclusion across Northeast Ohio. Mayor Voinovich also worked tirelessly with then-Cleveland City Council President George Forbes to improve race relations, presiding over one of the most peaceful periods in the city's history.
Later, I was a member of the executive committee of The King Center, working closely with Coretta Scott King to build momentum for the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. Mrs. King and I sat down with Mayor Voinovich, who at that time was a member of the National League of Cities, to discuss our desire to make the holiday not just a day off for federal employees, but also an observance of the practices and principles of Dr. King. He agreed wholeheartedly and, once he became president of NLC, he used his position to personally influence other mayors across the country to make the holiday a day of service.
When the first ecumenical service was held to observe the King holiday in Atlanta in 1986, Mrs. King invited the Voinoviches to attend as our guests, where she publicly expressed her appreciation for George Voinovich's leadership. He saw it as a great honor.
Voinovich said he did things because they were the right things to do, often tying his commitment to social justice and human rights to his deep religious beliefs.
My last conversation with him took place by phone about two months ago. He was still working on bringing people together, wondering aloud whether an urban coalition might again be needed.
Now more than ever, we need leaders like George Voinovich -- leaders who believe that when people respectfully share their diverse perspectives and opinions, and work together toward a common good, we all benefit. The whole is greater than the sum of our parts, no matter which side of a particular divide we may be on.
It breaks my heart that George Voinovich is no longer with us, but we can honor his legacy by embracing the principles he cherished: fairness, justice and, above all, collaboration.
Carole F. Hoover, former head of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association, is president and CEO of HooverMilstein, a partnership with philanthropist and businessman Howard Milstein of New York.
voinomexico.JPG
In this April 1994 file photo, then-Ohio Gov. George Voinovich checks out Ohio-made auto parts in a Chrysler assembly plant in Mexico as he and his wife Janet tour the plant in Toluca, state of Mexico. Thomas Suddes writes that among Voinovich's gifts as governor was a talent for picking top-rate staff.
(Marco Ugarte, Associated Press, Special to The Plain Dealer, File, 1994)
Some people knew George Voinovich, mayor of Cleveland. Others knew George Voinovich, devoted husband of ever-gracious Janet Voinovich.
But George Voinovich, governor of Ohio, manager in chief - that was the George Voinovich I knew. Correction: That was the Voinovich I watched, because someone in this line of work can't ever really "know" - in the way people usually mean that word - someone in his line of work.
George Voinovich's unexpected death last Sunday, at age 79, brought to mind the old saying, "Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you what you are," and what might be an Ohio Statehouse corollary: "Tell me who's on your staff - and I'll tell you what kind of officeholder you are."
That is, slogans ("Jobs and Progress," "Harder 'n' Smarter") are nice, but results are better. No officeholder can get results, though, unless he or she hires the right people to do things - and to communicate things.
And Voinovich knew how to hire the right doers and the right communicators. That can't be said for every governor, even allowing for the fact that Ohio politics is always more a list of suspects than a Litany of the Saints.
True, Voinovich's being mayor of a big Ohio city, especially a city with Cleveland's financial challenges, was a great apprenticeship for being governor. What's more, his being the Republican mayor of a Democratic city amounted to in-service training for bipartisan horse-trading in Columbus, because, at least during Voinovich's first term, Democrats had clout on Capitol Square.
Today, given the iffy circumstances of Statehouse Democrats, it's worth recalling that, when George Voinovich began his first term as governor in 1991, also in office were a Democratic state attorney general; a Democratic state auditor; a Democratic state treasurer; and an Ohio House run by wily Speaker Vernal G. Riffe, a Portsmouth-area Democrat, who on some days, and on some issues, had as much power as any Ohio governor, Democrat or Republican.
Still, Voinovich, maybe in ways he likely couldn't foresee, was extremely fortunate, in that pre-term-limits era, to be faced with a Democratic House speaker who'd been in the legislature for 32 years on inauguration day 1991, and with a Senate president, Cincinnati Republican Stanley J. Aronoff, who, also on that January 1991 day, had been in the legislature for 30 years. For one thing, the three officeholders weren't strangers. (Voinovich had been an Ohio House member from 1967 through 1971, and lieutenant governor in 1979.)
Did that mean Voinovich, Riffe and Aronoff would agree on most things? Not at all - and initially, there were Statehouse quips that what Riffe and Aronoff, who'd each accumulated an ocean of informal power at the expense of Ohio governors, really wanted to do was to send the new governor to obedience school. Voinovich likely thought it should be the other way around.
Still, those factors - Voinovich's gift for politics and numbers; seasoned legislative leaders of both parties, including Riffe's Republican successor, Jo Ann Davidson, of suburban Columbus, and Aronoff's, Richard H. Finan, a suburban Cincinnati Republican - plowed the ground for constructive government. What guaranteed a harvest from those furrows was the kind of talent that George Voinovich spotted - and hired.
To cite specifics would be to unintentionally slight lots of people. Bottom line: A governor with a so-so staff and so-so appointees will have a so-so governorship. George V. Voinovich's governorship was anything but so-so. It was a success.
Footnote: The 1924 Democratic National Convention met in New York. Last week's column said (wrongly) that Democrats' convention had met in Cleveland.
Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.
To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@cleveland.com, 216-999-4689
RNC
The Ohio delegation has booked a number of Cleveland sites during next month's Republican National Convention.
(Mary Kilpatrick, cleveland.com)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio's delegation to next month's Republican National Convention has booked multiple prominent sites for its week in Cleveland, according to a draft event schedule obtained by cleveland.com.
The roughly 700 delegates, alternates, GOP staff, donors and others that will make up Ohio's delegation will kick off their week in Cleveland with a July 17 event honoring Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger. As previously reported by The Plain Dealer and others, the event will feature a performance by Lynyrd Skynyrd, the classic southern rock band.
Later that night, the delegation will attend a Cuyahoga County Republican Party reception on the Goodtime III, the Lake Erie cruise ship. (A private lakefront party for delegates and media members is planned for around the same time by the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee, the nonpartisan group that's helping organize the convention.)
Brittany Warner, an Ohio Republican Party spokeswoman, said the delegation calendar is still in flux, so some details could change. Ohio Republicans will be split between two locations during their time in Cleveland -- many will stay at the Doubletree Inn on Lakeside Avenue, but the party also has secured some overflow space at Case Western Reserve University.
Still, here are some of the highlights on the tentative calendar:
MONDAY, JULY 18
- An early afternoon "Chairman's Circle Luncheon" at Lola on East Fourth Street
- An evening reception in Little Italy featuring Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The event has yet to be confirmed.
- A late-night "Buckeye Welcome Bash" at Public Auditorium
TUESDAY, JULY 19
- A lunch honoring Republican candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court at Squire Patton Boggs in Key Tower. The law firm / lobbying outfit also plans a reception featuring former U.S House Speaker John Boehner for Ohio elected officials late Sunday afternoon.
- An evening reception at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoring Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
- A post-convention event honoring Ohio Senate President Keith Faber
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20
- An afternoon reception honoring Sen. Rob Portman at the Cleveland Science Center
- A late-night reception at Grays Armory, near downtown, honoring Ohio Auditor Dave Yost. Yost, an amateur musician, plans to play a set at the armory with his new band, he wrote in a Wednesday Facebook post. (He's soliciting ideas for band names -- any suggestions?)
THURSDAY, JULY 21
- An afternoon reception is planned for Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted at the Doubletree Inn, the state delegation's hotel.
- A late-night 'grand finale' reception is planned, also listed as being at the Ohio delegation's hotel.
Likewise, each day will begin with breakfasts at the Doubletree. A different Ohio GOP elected official -- Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor -- will each get their own event.
steve-loomis-cppa.jpg
Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association.
(Scott Shaw / The Plain Dealer)
Jeff Larson, CEO of the 2016 Republican National Convention
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The top official for the 2016 Republican National Convention on Thursday said a Cleveland police union leader is "inciting fear" and unfairly harming the city's image by repeatedly saying Cleveland is not ready to host the event.
Jeff Larson, the CEO of the Republican National Committee's convention-planning arm, pushed back against ongoing public comments from Steve Loomis, the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, over the city's convention planning.
"We have complete confidence in the city of Cleveland, the Cleveland police department, the federal and state agencies that are working on this, and Cleveland is going to be a safe place," Larson said in an interview. "It's not going to be the place where officers are going to get hurt. It's an effort he's making to diminish the hard work that hundreds and hundreds of people are putting into this."
"He's not involved in the planning on a day-to-day level," Larson added. "He's misrepresenting the preparedness of the city, and it's having repercussions, I think not just in the city of Cleveland, but for people elsewhere who pick up his stories."
Loomis, an outspoken and sometimes controversial leader, has been a consistent, public critic of the city's preparations for the GOP convention. In interviews with local, state and national media, Loomis has said city leaders have failed to provide timely equipment, training and outside help to Cleveland police who will provide security for the convention.
Cleveland has been the subject of ongoing media scrutiny over its readiness for the GOP convention, scheduled for July 18-21, particularly in light of the controversy surrounding the emergence of Donald Trump as the Republican Party's nominee. The event is expected to draw an estimated 50,000 people plus a significant number of protesters.
In an interview, Loomis stood firm. He said he has spoken with his members, their supervisors and others in the community who feel city leadership is ill-prepared for the convention. He said his members still haven't received certain equipment the city ordered for the convention, much less been trained in its use, and just have begun to receive their general orders for the event.
He also said it's telling that many police departments in Ohio and throughout the country have refused to send officers to Cleveland. One department, Greensboro, N.C., in part cited a perception that Cleveland was not prepared when it decided last month to back out of a commitment to send officers to help with the GOP convention.
"I want to hold their feet to the fire to get us the things my members need to do their jobs," Loomis said. "And if this thing goes bad, we will be well on record on why it went bad."
In an interview with the national Sinclair Broadcasting Network's "Full Measure" that aired Sunday morning, Loomis made a dire prediction.
"There's definitely going to be guys that are going to get hurt," Loomis said. "But the city has a responsibility and a duty to make us as safe as possible by providing us the gear that we need to do the job, the training we need to do the job, and the numbers we need to do the job."
Larson, the Republican National Convention leader, said Loomis' comments are making their way to Republican delegates who plan to come here and, the comments are putting the city in a bad light.
"I can't say that nobody is going to get hurt, but I don't think it helps anybody's dispositions that he's out there saying people are going to get hurt," Larson said.
"I just think that it's unfortunate that he's representing something and instilling fear in people when I think this is a great time for Cleveland," he added. "It's not going to be filled with hundreds of thousands of protesters streaming through the streets."
Larson did not share any specific information illustrating the city's preparations. Cleveland city officials have maintained they will be ready for the GOP convention, but have been tight-lipped about specifics, citing security concerns.
In an email, Dan Williams, a spokesman for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, declined to comment for this story. He pointed to a news conference in late May during which Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams and others detailed some of their planning efforts, and repeatedly stated the city will be ready.
Larson said he's in regular touch with the Secret Service, which is overseeing security for the event, and Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba, who is coordinating the city's RNC security planning.
"I'm not into specific numbers or where they're coming from, but he's told us straight up that every post is going to be covered, And that's what we care about," Larson said. "They're not short of officers. They have plenty of people who are coming in from out of state and from within Ohio."
WILLOWICK, Ohio -- Bond is set at $750,000 for a man accused of breaking into a Willowick apartment, threatening another man at gunpoint and stealing a car.
Dustin L. Wilkinson, 31, of Mentor, is charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping, fleeing and eluding and three counts of thefts in the Tuesday incident.
He is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing June 22 in Willoughby Municipal Court.
Wilkinson forced a man into an upstairs bathroom at gunpoint shortly before he stole the man's car, according to court records.
The incident happened just after 2 p.m. at the Bayridge Condominiums on North Marginal Ride. The man is not a resident but went there to check on a friend's dog, police said.
The man found Wilkinson stealing two guns that were inside the apartment. Wilkinson threatened to kill the man as he forced him into an upstairs bathroom, court records say.
Wilkinson left in a 1998 Oldsmobile Cutlass the man had left running outside the apartment.
Officers responding the apartment spotted the car and tried to stop it on North Marginal Road. Wilkinson led the officers on a short chase that ended when he crashed into a utility pole near the intersection of Worden Road at Phillips Avenue in Wickliffe, police said.
Neither Wilkinson nor the man required medical treatment.
If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
The tragic death of pro-European Union (EU) politician Jo Cox has shocked the U.K. and could sway public opinion towards the safety of a unified economic bloc, analysts say.
Cox was stabbed and shot on Thursday in an attack that halted campaigning over whether the U.K. should leave the EU. Police said they arrested a 52-year-old man, but did not know of a motive for the killing.
Numerous media reports cited witnesses who claimed the assailant shouted "Britain first," a factor potentially linking Cox's murder to the June 23 vote, although the alleged comments are yet to be verified. Britain First, an anti-immigration right wing group which backs Brexit, distanced itself from the incident.
The attack comes amid heightened global security fears following numerous terrorist attacks in the U.S. and Europe, including Sunday's attack at a Florida nightclub that left 49 dead.
"It [Cox's murder] may change the psychology of the campaign. Those who are pro-EU may benefit from this tragic event...it could boost their chances," said Fariborz Moshirian, director of the Institute of Global Finance at the University of New South Wales.
Markets seemed to believe that too. The pound was half a percent higher at around $1.4273 in early Friday trade, a sharp turnaround from its two-month low of $1.4013 hit earlier this week, The recovery of riskier assets, including the sterling's rally, was due to the perception of a higher probability of a Remain vote, said Alan Ruskin, global co-head of FX research at Deutsche Bank.
The fear of a Leave vote saw the currency fall in recent sessions amid fears over the potential economic damage Britain would endure in that scenario.
Speaking to CNBC's Geoff Cutmore, he argued that the appeal of Trump was more complex than is often reported.
Vladimir Yakunin, the former chairman of Russian Railways and a founding president of the World Public Forum, was attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum ahead of the launch next month of a new international think tank which aims to facilitate conflict resolution and ease worldwide tensions.
A key ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin has expressed his approval of presidential hopeful Donald Trump, saying the presumptive Republican candidate could improve international relations.
"Firstly, he is a smart guy; he lost two times everything he had and raised himself up," Yakunin said. "He is addressing some internal failings of the American people."
"The establishment are trying to curb the Trump phenomenon by supporting Mrs (presumptive Democratic candidate Hillary) Clinton. That is, to my mind, too simple."
Yakunin also suggested that, historically, it has been Republican presidents who improved relations between the U.S. and Russia.
"It was always Republicans when, in the old days, some of kind of bridges were constructed," he added. "If Mr Trump is coming into power, that will be more facilitative to faster establishing new kinds of relations."
Yakunin also discussed how relations between the Russia and the West had deteriorated in recent years, especially since the Ukrainian crisis which led to the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
He called for both sides to stop sending out propaganda, to collaborate and to restore bridges of communication.
He also criticised recent comments made by European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker, which said Russia had illegally annexed Crimea and Sevastopol, as being unhelpful.
"There isn't any glimpse of a positive addition, any positive direction of how we can overcome [differences]," he said. "That is not correct communication at all."
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
In July 2015, Reddit was in a crisis. Volunteer moderators, the heartbeat of the site that look after pages known as "Subreddits", were revolting over the firing of a key member of the online community . Nearly one year on, the site which bills itself as the "front page of the internet", is trying to put the controversy behind it and grow up. "We're in a much better place than we were a year ago, and I think a year from now we'll be in an even better place," Steve Huffman, chief executive and one of the co-founders of Reddit, told CNBC in an interview at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam last month. Reddit boasts 234 million unique users and hosts links posted by people which are grouped around Subreddits - categories for just about anything. But the site hasn't had the best reputation for reasonable debate and Reddit often being seen as a Wild West with often-offensive comments.
Reddit allows users to access its Subreddits to upload interesting links, clips and comment.. The dispute centered on the firing last July of Victoria Taylor, a senior manager at Reddit who organized the Ask Me Anything series (AMAs) on the site, where celebrities and high-profile public figures answered questions submitted by users. The site has managed to draw in people from Barack Obama to Bill Gates, highlighting its reach and importance. Taylor was seen as the link between moderators of Subreddits and upper management. Reddit never commented on why Taylor was dismissed but at the time, the volunteer moderators blamed the then CEO Ellen Pao, who eventually resigned later in July. At the time, Reddit issued a statement saying the resignation was done under "mutual agreement".
watch now
But following Pao's resignation, Yishan Wong, Reddit's former CEO and Pao's predecessor, accused one of Reddit's co-founders Alexis Ohanian, of firing Taylor. The site was in turmoil and Subreddits were shut down. At this point, Huffman took over the reigns to steer the site back on course.
Reddit founders Alexis Ohanian (L) and Steve Huffman (R) Reddit
Since 2010, Huffman had started and worked at a travel site called Hipmunk. He is one of the co-founders and was brought in to put out the flames at Reddit So far, things appear to be going well. "Our relationship is much healthier. Our community team is much larger and they're talking to moderators every day and I'm in those very often," Huffman told CNBC. "We can still provide them better tooling and there's a lot we are working on."
The community team which works with the moderators has "doubled or tripled", Huffman said. A new mail system for moderators to communicate with their community is in the works.
India the fastest-growing market
Reddit has a user base many sites would be jealous of. Its visitors are highly engaged, spending over 13 minutes on the site, something that will please advertisers. Even with 8 billion monthly page views, Huffman said the potential to grow more is huge. "I think it could be 10 times larger than we are right now, that would be very very large, but I think we can get there. We haven't even internationalized," Huffman told CNBC. "Our fastest growing market now is India which is a completely different culture from the United States obviously. So the fact that Reddit works in other countries is very heart warming. But we have to put in the actual on the ground effort, which will very likely happen next year. I want to get through the fundamentals, make sure Reddit is growing and healthy in the U.S.. As soon as we get that phase, internationalization will begin for us."
Becoming a real business
In the meantime, Reddit has taken steps to stop the turmoil which it saw in 2015 from happening again. Huffman admitted advertisers sometimes feel "skittish" about the platform, something Reddit is trying to counter. To that end, the company improved its feature to block users with "more to come", Huffman said, adding that user-quoted abuse is down a "double-digit percentage" in the last month and a half. It has also taken steps to ban certain offensive communities, moves that analysts said would be positive for its potential to monetize.
watch now
And it recently introduced its own photo uploading tool. Before people would upload a picture to Reddit via a third party service. This could pave the way for the introduction of video which is an "obvious next step", according to Huffman. Video has been a focus for companies like Facebook as it can command higher ad rates. "Reddit is already moving in the right direction with regards to monetizing its user base it has been exploring opportunities for mobile monetisation, introducing native mobile ad formats, as well as apps (a big departure from its browser-based history)," Richard Broughton, research director at Ampere Analysis, told CNBC by email. "Part of the challenge will simply be convincing advertisers that the changes it has made to its policies are having an effect, and that Reddit is now 'brand-safe'." But Reddit has a long way to go as Huffman said, but recognizes where the gaps are. "The challenge we have is helping brands have a home on Reddit. What brands do is they either pay or they try to be more sneaky about it and pretend to be users and when they get outed that doesn't go so well. So I think there is a product in that that doesn't exist yet to give brands a legitimate organic home on Reddit, that could go a long way of reducing some of that tension so brands can have their own communities they can moderate," Huffman said, discussing potential future ad products. Reddit also employs a team of strategists to help brands figure out ways to monetize the site.
Multi-billion dollar business?
Sanders said in a capstone address to his political followers online that the major task they face is to "make certain" Trump is defeated. The Vermont senator said he plans to begin his role in that process "in a very short period of time."
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Thursday in an address to his supporters that he will work with Hillary Clinton to transform the Democratic Party, adding that his "political revolution" must continue and ensure the defeat of Republican Donald Trump .
"But defeating Donald Trump cannot be our only goal. We must continue our grassroots efforts to create the America that we know we can become," Sanders said in remarks prepared for delivery. "And we must take that energy into the Democratic National Convention on July 25 in Philadelphia. where we will have more than 1,900 delegates."
Sanders spoke from his Vermont hometown a week after Hillary Clinton secured enough pledged delegates and superdelegates to become the presumptive nominee. He has not yet conceded the race or referred to Clinton as the likely nominee. But the two rivals met Tuesday night in a Washington, D.C., hotel along with advisers to discuss policy goals and future plans.
In the speech, Sanders thanked his supporters for providing more than $200 million in donations, most in increments of $27, and rattled off the work of his loyalists: 1.5 million people who attended his rallies and town meetings and more than 75 million phone calls from volunteers "urging their fellow citizens into action."
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
Investors may be wary of Apple 's recent patent dispute in China, but the Beijing's move likely won't work, a legal expert told CNBC.
"Apple can flip around and shut this whole thing down," said Dan Harris, lawyer at Harris Moure and author of the China Law Blog. "I'm predicting this, in the end, is going to have zero impact on Apple in China other than the fact that this is a messed up situation in the short term."
Apple shares held lower Friday morning as investors received head-scratching news that sales of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices were banned in Beijing.
Intellectual property regulators ruled those iPhones were too similar to an existing Chinese phone, and production would soon be halted, sending shares almost 2 percent lower in pre-market trading. But Apple told CNBC that all iPhone models 6 and higher were for sale today in China, and that it had appealed an administrative order from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month.
"As a result the order has been stayed pending review by the Beijing IP Court," Apple told CNBC, as the stock leveled off, down 1.8 percent mid-day.
"News of China iPhone bans greatly exaggerated, New York Times reporter Paul Mozur tweeted. "They're still on sale at Apple stores in BJ. Low-level ruling...so probably not huge deal."
The phone in questions is Baili's 100C (which is also branded as 100+), which is central to the design patent infringement dispute. (Information about that company is, to put it mildly, hard to come by.) Though Harris doesn't know the details of that case, he said that design patents, unlike the patents most Americans think of, are simply based on an aesthetic look, and can be invalidated by showing that Apple was using the design first.
"I don't know, the iPhone exterior has been pretty similar for years and years, so I don't know what it is that this person is claiming," Harris said. "Basing this on what we have seen, Apple will just crush this company. Maybe the Chinese company wanted money or publicity, maybe it's legitimate. But if everybody were super confident that the Chinese company had a strong design patent the order probably would not have been stayed."
China is the world leader in patent filings and litigation, according to researchers at the Santa Clara University School of Law, with roughly 80 percent more patent suits filed than the United States in 2012, and 40 percent more patent applications than the U.S. in 2014, for instance. Indeed, Harris said, he's seen patent disputes against his clients go from one yearly to about one monthly, because design patents in China are not substantively reviewed.
By making it this far, the 100C has gotten farther than most Chinese design patent disputes Harris has dealt with. Still, he said, "the lower court order oftentimes never has any real impact."
Wall Street has become highly sensitive to Apple's maneuvers in China after the tech titan's second quarter earnings were hurt by sales in Hong Kong. Greater China sales, once the tech giant's fastest growing market, fell to $12.49 billion in the second quarter, the company said, a 26 percent year-over-year decline.
Frank Gillett, an analyst at Forrester, said that the news will obviously raise concerns for investors, especially those prone to "conspiracy theories," as by focusing on a local area and a prior iPhone generation, the move could be viewed as a low-intensity warning from the Chinese government. But given the uncertainty around China's intentions, he remains focused on Apple's product offerings.
"Apple wants to be there [in China], they believe they offer a premium product, they're doing their best to offer the market something within in the confines of their core beliefs," Gillett said. "The actions that are taken against or with Apple are symbolic of the interactions the Chinese government will have with other foreign companies. Chinese actors are probably conscious of that symbolism."
Tom Cridland is nervous about next week.
The 25-year-old entrepreneur says a UK vote on whether to leave the European Union could destroy the business he has worked hard to build, and he's speaking out as the Brexit referendum draws closer.
Based in Cambridge, England, Cridland two years ago founded eponymous company Tom Cridland, which sells sustainable clothing and is perhaps best known for its "30 Year Sweatshirt." The company's apparel is manufactured by a Portuguese supplier and then imported to the UK. If the United Kingdom votes to leave the EU, Cridland fears that higher import tariffs could cripple his business.
The impact of a Brexit on his company is emblematic of the potential problems that could crop up for many small businesses in the UK that rely on imports. A split between the UK and the EU would scrap long-standing trade pacts between the United Kingdom and the European continent.
"We're very apprehensive and extremely worried that a potential Brexit could destroy our business," Cridland said. "If you start adding those import tariffs, and our markups don't work, then we go out of business."
Founded with the help of a small loan from the British government, Cridland says his business has grown to over 600,000 ($856,035) in annual sales. The company's signature sweatshirt costs about 40 ($57.07) to make and sells for 65 ($92.74).
According to Cridland, his company imports hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling worth of clothing from Portugal. But it's more than just the company's relatively affordable prices for "luxury" clothing that are on the line for Cridland. He is half-British and half-Portuguese, and says the very ethos of the brand is at stake.
Polls last week began to indicate a shift among UK voters toward leaving the European Union, but booking odds continue to show the "remain" camp as a majority. The shooting death of a Labour member of Parliament, Jo Cox, in Northern England on Thursday resulted in a temporary suspension of campaigning by both sides.
As a flotilla of fishing vessels on the River Thames arrive outside the Houses of Parliament, protesters gather to cheer them on as part of the Vote Leave Campaign, to make the case for Brexit in the EU Referendum on June 15th in London, United Kingdom.
Legions of economists, policymakers and political grandees from around the world have warned of the economic threat of Brexit. These voices lack credibility. None of the Remain economists, to my knowledge, anticipated the global financial crisis. The UK Treasury claims that British incomes will be lower for years after leaving the EU. The same Treasury, however, has consistently had problems forecasting next year's UK GDP. Not long ago, many politicians and business people argued that Britain would miss out if we didn't join the European single currency. We now know that the real calamity would have been joining the euro.
On June 23, Britain votes on whether to remain in the European Union . Being out of the country on that date, I applied for a postal vote. I have marked my ballot paper, with a certain trepidation, in favor of leaving the EU, or Brexit. At first I worried this vote conflicted with my cosmopolitan leanings. On reflection I decided that by rejecting the EU I showed greater fellow feeling for the citizens of Europe, and was more faithful to the continent's highest ideals than those who wish to remain.
In truth, the greatest economic risk posed by Brexit comes from the threat of retaliation by our erstwhile European "partners". Given that Britain runs a large trade deficit with Europe, a trade war would be irrational. It is a poor reflection on the EU that such a threat should be credible.
Of course, leaving the single market creates uncertainty - a state of affairs which repels the modern breed of policymaker. In the past, developed economies have withstood far greater shocks. The growth of the U.S. economy, for instance, was only temporarily set back by the Great Depression. Nor did it take many years after 1945 for Germany's output per capita to return to its pre-war trend. It's inconceivable, in my view, that Brexit could by itself permanently damage Britain's economic prospects.
Even if the economic arguments are overblown, doesn't a vote for Brexit reveal an unattractive petty nationalism at odds with modern progressive values? Doesn't my vote put me in bad company?
I don't believe so. At university, I read 18th-century European history. The ideals of the Enlightenment - a preference for reason over tradition, for economic individualism over state control, for tolerance over bigotry, and a belief that relationships between nations should be governed by the rule of law - remain close to my heart. The same notions guided the founding fathers of the post-war European project.
The EU has since betrayed those ideals. In 1795, Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher who coined the term "Enlightenment", wrote "Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch". In this essay, Kant showed profound respect for a state's separate identity: a state "like the stem of a tree has its own root to incorporate it as a graft on another state, is to destroy its existence as a moral person." The consequence of bundling states together, even when done peacefully through dynastic alliances, would be that the "subjects of the state are used and abused as things that may be managed at will".
Kant defined a republican government as one that gained the "consent of citizens as members of the state". He preferred this to despotism, characterised by "the irresponsible executive administration of the state by laws laid down and enacted by the same power that administers them". While Kant proposed an international federation of states to avoid war, this "would not have to take the form of a State made up of these nations". Such a superstate would not allow the existence of a free state, which by definition both made and applied its own laws: "Each state," wrote Kant, "places its majesty (for it is absurd to speak of the majesty of the people) in being subject to no external juridical restraint".
Since its inception in the 1950s, the European project has morphed from Kant's ideal of an international federation into something akin to the late Habsburg Empire - a sprawling and fractious conglomeration of nations struggling against centripetal forces. The EU's form of government, in Kantian terms, can be described as "despotic", since the public's consent has not been gained.
During the interminable years of the euro crisis, unemployment in parts of Europe has exceeded Great Depression levels. The citizens of Greece, Spain and elsewhere have been force-fed austerity by the EU with little prospect of eventual economic recovery. If the EU cared for its citizens, or was properly accountable, substantive reforms would have been enacted. This hasn't happened. As a result, discontent across Europe is fostering political extremism of the 1930s variety. Sooner or later something must give.
A vote for Brexit, I believe, puts me in the best company. It shows solidarity with the long-suffering European public and complies with the principles of Kant, the greatest of Enlightenment philosophers.
Commentary by Edward Chancellor, contributor Reuters BreakingViews.
For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
watch now
With palpable fear in the market that Britain could vote to leave the European Union next week, this whole situation is starting to feel a little Greek to Jim Cramer. "Even if that unknown event happens, it won't lead to the chaos that many seem to be expecting," the "Mad Money" host said. The last time Cramer went through a possible Europe break-up was when Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy were threatening to default on their debt in 2011. That situation would have been felt all over the world, though the European central bank was ready for the worst. "If the U.K. leaves the European Union, it will be dealt with. Whatever happens, it likely won't drag out the way Greece did," Cramer said. He expects the pajama traders to come out of the woodwork, of course, which means hedge funds will trade in lockstep with Europe. However, even if the U.K. voted to leave, it won't break-up the euro. This isn't as bad as the European debt crisis. However, he did recommend avoiding the financials like the plague. Instead, Cramer will be focused on stocks that have robust yield and growth, like AT&T, Gneral Mills, Bristol-Myers or American Electric Power.
Cramer has a hard enough time trying to figure out the trajectory of a stock when it isn't a battleground. But with Viacom , there are simply too many questions. Who is running the company? Who will be fired? Who is really on the board? Is Sumner Redstone capable of running the company? "Sometimes there is just no good way to value a stock. That is how I feel about Viacom," the "Mad Money" host said. Cramer found the earnings just as puzzling. In an update on its June quarter financial expectations on Friday, Viacom reported that it only expects to earn between $1 and $1.05 a share for the third quarter of 2016. This was below the $1.38 per share expected by Wall Street. "I say stay away, it is just too crazy, too murky, and way too hard to put a price tag on this soap opera's outcome," Cramer said.
Another place Cramer looked for opportunity was the initial public offering (IPO) market, though it has been practically non-existent in 2016. With only 38 companies going public so far this year, Jim Cramer said that's downright anemic compared to the 170 deals in the first half of 2015. Additionally, there haven't been many opportunities for IPOs that Cramer would consider even worthwhile until now. "Unlike so many IPOs we have seen in the past year, SiteOne has actually gotten off to a pretty good start," the "Mad Money" host said. SiteOne Landscape Supply is the only nationwide wholesale distributor of landscape supplies in the U.S. Locations that span 44 states, and it distributes more than 90,000 different products. Essentially, it's a one-stop-shop for anything a landscape design.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Brendan McDermott | Getty Images
With palpable fear in the market that Britain could vote to leave the European Union next week, this whole situation is starting to feel a little Greek to Jim Cramer.
"Even if that unknown event happens, it won't lead to the chaos that many seem to be expecting," the "Mad Money" host said.
The last time Cramer went through a possible Europe break-up was when Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy were threatening to default on their debt in 2011. That situation would have been felt all over the world, though the European central bank was ready for the worst.
"If the U.K. leaves the European Union, it will be dealt with. Whatever happens, it likely won't drag out the way Greece did," Cramer said.
He expects the pajama traders to come out of the woodwork, of course, which means hedge funds will trade in lockstep with Europe. However, even if the U.K. voted to leave, it won't break-up the euro. This isn't as bad as the European debt crisis.
Shanghai will officially welcome its first "seven-star" hotel on Saturday, located smack dab on the famed waterfront known as The Bund, news site Shanghaiist.com reported this week.
Built by 28-year-old Wang Sicong, better known as the son of Chinese real estate billionaire Wang Jianlin, the 3.4 billion yuan ($516 million) Wanda Reign on the Bund hotel was designed by award winning British architect, Norman Robert Foster.
While Wang the younger has long been in the public eye, it wasn't necessarily for any previous signs of business acumen.
The junior Wang and his dog became social media celebrities for engaging in extravagant antics of the type commonly associated with China's second-generation rich kids, known as fuerdai. Wang blew 2.5 million yuan in a night out at a Beijing KTV earlier this year.
In May of last year, the junior Wang went viral, managing to outrage Chinese social media users by posting photos to his dog's Weibo account after he strapped two gold Apple watches to the pet's legs.
To be fair, junior Wang is also the chairman of private investment firm Prometheus Capital.
The hotel, which officially opens on Saturday, featured opulent installations and a French fine-dining restaurant by Michelin chef Marc Meneau.
Global hotel rating systems, including China's official ranking, stop at five stars, but hospitality marketers and commentators have been sticking extra stars on luxury properties they think outdo prevailing standards.
Dubai's Burj al Arab hotel, among the world's tallest hotels, has also garnered the seven-star status. Its features include revolving beds and a fleet of chauffeur-driven Rolls Royces and it reportedly charges as much as $20,000 a night.
To read the full Shanghaiist.com story, click here.
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
Take a look at some of Friday's early movers:
Viacom The media firm updated its earnings guidance for the current quarter to a range of $1.00 to $1.05 a share, below FactSet expectations, due to the "theatrical underperformance" of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows." Viacom also forecast a decline in domestic ad sales declines to about 4 percent.
Earlier, RBC upgraded the stock to "sector perform" from "underperform" and raised its price target to $45 from $34 after Sumner Redstone's National Amusements removed five Viacom directors, including CEO Philippe Dauman, from the media firm's board. Seemingly inevitable management change removes a major overhang, RBC said, while competition in a changing media business remains an obstacle to unlocking further value in the near term. BTIG also upgraded the stock late Thursday. Viacom closed more than 6.5 percent higher at $45.05 a share Thursday.
Lumber Liquidators The firm has agreed not to sell its existing inventory of laminate flooring previously sourced from China, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission said. Lumber Liquidators discontinued sale of the product in question in May 2015, and the regulator said any sale or disposal of remaining inventory is subject to its approval.
Oracle The business software maker reported quarterly revenue that topped expectations, helped by an increase in cloud service customers. Reported revenue of $10.59 billion did mark a 1 percent decline from the same period last year, while ex-items earnings of 81 cents a share were in-line with expectations and rose from 78 cents per share the same period last year.
Smith & Wesson The firearm manufacturer reported earnings that beat on both the top and bottom line, and issued a forecast that was above expectations.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals The embattled drugmaker announced its wholly owned subsidiary Valeant Canada is investing $27.5 million in manufacturing facilities in Canada.
Finisar The optical communications products supplier reported revenue of $318.8 million that topped expectations. Current-quarter forecast was at the higher range of FactSet expectations.
Revlon , Elizabeth Arden The two beauty and cosmetics firms will merge with Revlon's roughly $419.3 million purchase of Elizabeth Arden. The deal is expected to close this year.
"These opportunities come along once in a generation where people actually get to vote on what they want."
He believes the Brits should not squander the opportunity, noting that the last referendum the country held was in 1975.
"They haven't even made progress on their mission, which was fiscal responsibility, banking reforms, defending the external borders. They're just not doing the job."
"The EU is just too big. It's too expensive. It doesn't work," the president of Encima Global said in an interview with CNBC's " Power Lunch ."
British citizens vote next Thursday on whether the U.K. should exit the union.
The European Union is too big and is "sinking," and the United Kingdom should take the chance to get out while it can, economist David Malpass said Friday.
However, Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist for Oxford Economics, believes a Brexit would be negative for the U.K. economy, as well as the EU economy.
"It might not have that much of an impact on the U.S. economy per se, but overall I think it would be a negative, especially in the short run," he told "Power Lunch."
"It would hamper trade. It would also hamper investment."
The U.S. stock market will also not be immune to next week's vote.
David Seaburg, head of sales and trading for Cowen and Company, believes if the vote is to leave, the trade will be risk-off. If the vote is to leave, it will be risk-on.
"We're looking at a market right now that is teetering on, I'd say, a massive pullback either way," he said.
"If they vote to stay the market's going to take off. It's going to ignite, it's going to be a risk-on sort of event that is going to be very short-lived."
Todd Colvin, senior vice president of global institutional sales at Ambrosino Brothers, said if the U.K. leaves, it will open Pandora's box a little bit.
"We're going to see bonds continue to rally. We'll probably see equities sell off and gold. Don't forget gold is out there it's been rallying very strong and that's been a great indicator for the risk-off trade."
So what should investors do to protect against a possible Brexit?
Robert Luna, CEO and chief investment officer for Surevest Wealth Management, would look at companies with little or no exposure to the EU. Specifically, he likes Amerco , Nordstrom and Travelers .
Mark Yusko, CEO and chief investment officer for Morgan Creek Capital Management, isn't betting on a leave vote, calling it "much ado about nothing."
However, if the U.K. did vote to leave, he would want to be very defensive in the United States and hold things like gold, gold miners and Treasuries, because things could get "ugly."
That said, even playing offense going into the vote could be "interesting," he added. He would look at European banks, as well as U.S. financials, since a stay vote would give the Federal Reserve the green light to discuss raising rates again.
Disclosures; Luna and his family own UHAL.
Disclaimer
Big luxury hotel brands face a big new challenge in attracting high-end travelers: boredom. That's according to hospitality industry veteran Filip Boyen. "Luxury is evolving all the time, I think what is important to us is to understand what the customer feels luxury is," says Boyen, chief executive officer of industry player Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH). Now, those travelers have become "a little bit bored with the predictability of big brands and standards, so what they're looking for now is a more personalized, unique, boutique style experience," he tells CNBC's Managing Asia. Luxury has become less about frills -- many of which have become standardized across the industry -- and more about an experience of simplicity where "people feel incredibly connected with the destination and the local way of life," says Boyen, who began his 30-year hospitality career as a commis chef.
Small Luxury Hotels of the World CEO Filip Boyen. SLH
As an example of a less cookie-cutter experience, the Belgian CEO recalls that in 1997, when he was a general manager for Orient Express' Bora Bora Lagoon Resort, the hotel introduced a unique luxury picnic experience for two. The outing included a speed boat to take the couple out to sea to snorkel with sharks and stingrays, followed by the boat driver preparing a barbecue lunch on a private island. To cement the luxurious experience, only fine tableware were used, Boyen says. To be sure, Boyen has a vested interest in playing up how smaller luxury hotels can offer a more varied experience for high-end travelers. His company, SLH, is a hospitality brand affiliation company offering smaller luxury hotels a marketing platform and access to a members-only loyalty club and a database of over 25,000 travel agents. That helps the smaller luxury hotel players compete internationally with bigger brands that can offer loyalty programs globally. But U.K.-based SLH's 520 member hotels across 80 countries certainly appear to aim at offering a less standardized luxury experience, with associates including Tokyo-based historical train station hotels and an 11th century military fortress in Italy's Tuscan hills. But Boyen emphasizes that acquiring SLH's brand affiliation isn't easy or cheap. The average annual membership fee for hotels is $27,800 (19,500), and Boyen says SLH only accepts 4 to 5 percent of the around a thousand applications they receive yearly.
watch now
The theme was "capitalizing on the new economic reality," but the leaders of both Italy and Russia veered off topic to discuss the U.S.'s presidential fight at a joint conference on Friday.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi dropped a clear hint on his favorite for next U.S. president, speaking on stage with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
"I certainly hope the next person to be elected will be Madame President," he told the packed hall, in an apparent indorsement of Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate.
Putin, meanwhile, expressed approval for Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate.
"Mr Trump said he is ready to restore Russia and American relations. What can be bad about that? We welcome that," Putin said
"He is a bright person," he added separately.
The U.S. election will take place in November. The most recent NBC News poll shows Clinton leading Trump by 49 percent to 42 percent. The poll was conducted online last week among 9,355 adults.
The Italian prime minister also turned his attention to next week's referendum in the U.K. on its place in Europe, warning that there would be no turning back if it voted to leave.
"If the United Kingdom leaves Europe, it is forever," he said, according to Reuters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin extended an olive branch on Friday to the European Union (EU), whose sanctions on Moscow are up for renewal in July.
"The European Union remains the key trading partner of Russia. It is our closest neighbor and of course we do care about what is happening in our neighboring states," Putin said in a conference at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Russia.
Relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated since the EU and U.S. imposed sanctions on Moscow after its incursion in Crimea in 2014 and its alleged role in the pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine. Russia responded with counter-sanctions on European and U.S. food imports.
"Russia did not initiate the downturn in relations We do not hold a grudge against anybody," Putin said.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi shared the stage with Putin on Friday, in a move that was criticized by some EU countries typically those on Russia's border that strike a hard line on Moscow.
"It is obvious there are problems in the relation between Europe and Russia ... and each has their own opinion of where it stemmed from," Renzi said in his own speech on Friday.
Come July, EU diplomats say sanctions may be softened but extended by a further six months, according to media reports. There are signs of disagreement among EU members, with Baltic countries on Russia's borders typically keener on maintaining tough sanctions, while countries like Greece have flagged the possibility of tailing them off. Consensus between all 28 EU member states is necessary to extend sanctions before they expire in July.
A day after Sumner Redstone moved to fire CEO Philippe Dauman and four other directors from Viacom's board, the embattled media giant said Friday its fiscal third-quarter earnings will fall short of estimates.
It was the first time since October 2008 that it has put out such guidance, Reuters said.
The company also said it expects domestic sales to decline about 4 percent in the quarter, better than the last quarter's 5 percent drop.
Its stock price was up nearly 1 percent late Friday morning, but later reversed and ended the session down 1.4 percent.
The company issued its guidance a day after the board shakeup announcement. Dauman remains CEO for now of the $40 billion media giant and he and the four others will stay on the board until a Delaware court affirms the changes.
After the board moves, analysts at RBC Capital Markets said Friday that Viacom's future looked brighter. "Coming change to Viacom's management removes a major overhang," they said in a note to clients, titled "A New Hope."
RBC upgraded Viacom shares to sector perform from underperform and raised the price target on the share price to $45 from $34.
"When we initiated coverage on Viacom with an Underperform rating, we felt that strategic and earnings risks existed, and embattled management was unlikely to change due to the controlling interest of National Amusements (NAI)," the analysts said, referring to Redstone's privately owned holding company. "A lot has changed on the management front, ... which we believe paves the way for his eventual removal."
National Amusements owns 80 percent of Viacom shares.
Questions have been raised about whether the 93-year-old Redstone is making his own decisions or whether he is sound enough to do so. , a California judge dismissed a lawsuit questioning the media mogul's competency.
Viacom's Class B shares have done well this year, trading nearly 8 percent higher, yet remain more than 33 percent lower over the past 12 months.
VIAB 12-month chart
Source: FactSet
Disclosure: RBC makes a market in Viacom shares.
Clarification: This story was revised to clarify that Dauman and the four other board members will remain as directors at least temporarily, pending a court decision.
"Without a doubt, (a Brexit) could have an effect on the volatility of the market and foreign currency exchange rates. To what extent this volatility will occur, nobody knows," Siluanov said, speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
Financial markets and sterling might be rattled by the forthcoming referendum on European Union (EU) membership, but Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told CNBC that his country was not too worried about the result either way.
U.K. opinion polls suggest that the gap between "Leave" and "Remain" voters is razor thin and that the vote could go either way. There are concerns among financial markets that a so-called Brexit could upset Britain's economy, trade and investment relationships with the wider world.
Siluanov said a U.K. vote to leave or remain in the 28-country economic and political bloc would not have much bearing on Russia's economic position, as long as Europe as a whole wasn't adversely affected.
"For Russia, I don't think it will affect our situation with the money markets, nevertheless we are interested in a stable situation with our trading partners because Europe is our main trading partner and it's important for us that the trading conditions that have developed are not fundamentally changed."
"Therefore whatever the decision taken in Britain about leaving or remaining in the EU, we believe that the most important thing is that there won't be any serious consequences for the money markets."
European sanctions imposed on Russia two years may be lifted by the end of 2016, the chief executive of Russia's sovereign wealth fund told CNBC on Friday.
The U.S. and the European Union introduced sanctions against Russian companies and individuals with links to Moscow after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. The 28-country EU will meet next month to decide whether to renew them.
EU diplomats say sanctions may be softened but extended by a further six months, according to media reports. There are signs of disagreement among EU members, with Baltic countries on Russia's borders typically keener on maintaining tough sanctions, while countries like Greece have flagged the possibility of tailing them off.
watch now
One in twelve men and one in 200 women have some form of color vision deficiency. There are different types of colorblindness but a common issue is distinguishing between red and green. The iconic blue color of Facebook was chosen by Mark Zuckerberg because he has red-green color blindness. Berkeley, CA-based EnChroma accidentally found a fix that can help people see more color.
It started more than a decade ago when glass scientist Dr. Don McPherson was making protective glasses for laser surgery. He learned that the surgeons were actually stealing the glasses from the operating room and using them as sunglasses. When he tried a pair out for himself, he noticed the world looked more colorful. He has normal color vision, but he didn't learn they could help color deficient people until a friend tried them on at an ultimate Frisbee game.
"My friend borrowed my glasses and said, this is a quote, 'Dude I can see the cones!' and he was referring to the fluorescent orange marker cones that define the field," said Don McPherson, now the chief scientist at EnChroma.
Being unable to see orange cones on green grass, is common for red-green colorblind people.
"It turned out that one of the unintended consequences of the technology I developed is that it also absorbs some other wavelengths that benefit people who are color deficient," McPherson said.
The creator of EnChroma, Don McPherson, says he wears the glasses everyday even though he has normal color vision. He said they turn up the saturation of the world. Jeniece Pettitt | CNBC
So he got a grant from the National Institute of Health and after years of research and clinical trials, he teamed up with Andrew Schmeder and they co-founded EnChroma in 2010. The company has since sold nearly 30,000 sunglasses and indoor glasses to people around the world. A pair cost about $300 and up depending on whether a prescription is added.
There are countless unsolicited videos on YouTube where users are trying on the glasses and seeing color for the first time. Many people are moved to tears as they see the vibrant world around them. The company said it could take several minutes for the effects to kick in, but when Berkeley software developer Farhan Sareshwala tried the glasses on for the first time, the change in his vision hit him immediately.
"I think understanding what you were missing before is the most important part," Sareshwala said. "My favorite color used to be blue. Now it's red without a doubt. Red it is just such an intense and wonderful color."
EnChroma sells glasses for outside and inside and they have a variety of frames to choose from. Jeniece Pettitt | CNBC
But the glasses do not work for every type of color deficiency. Only about 80 percent of users notice a difference. So what about the other 20 percent? "Unfortunately we can't do anything to help them currently," McPherson said. "What's bad about that is that they're the ones most in need of an expanded color palette."
EnChroma is working on new technology to help all types of color deficiencies. McPherson said they are also in the process of developing contact lenses.
EnChroma CEO Andrew Schmeder said the company has partnered with L'Oreal, 1-800-Flowers and Valspar Paint to help get the word out. And they are in the process of getting more optometrists on board to sell the glasses, which has taken some convincing.
"[Optometrists] have been trained that there's nothing you can do to help someone who is color deficient," McPherson said, "But once they get a lot of feedback from patients and from other doctors, there has been a shift. And we can feel that there's less suspicion and less disbelief and more acceptance"
Farhan Sareshwalas new favorite color is red now that he has EnChroma glasses. Jeniece Pettitt | CNBC
The fatal attack on a pro-European British lawmaker just a week ahead of the key Brexit referendum vote has shaken politicians and voters across the U.K. While this is the first time in nearly a quarter of a century that a U.K. politician has been murdered, the case bears startling similarities to the assassination 13 years ago in Sweden of pro-EU Anna Lindh.
Flowers surround a picture of Jo Cox during a vigil in Parliament Square on June 16, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. Dan Kitwood | Getty Images
Days before Sweden would vote on whether to join the euro in 2003, a 46-year-old lead campaigner for Sweden's to adopt the euro was stabbed while shopping in a Stockholm department store. She had been shopping for clothes for a euro zone debate scheduled that evening. The next day, on September 11, Social Democratic foreign minister Lindh died from her injuries. Both sides of the Swedish political campaign suspended their activities following the news, with TV ads campaigns cancelled and billboard and print media ads withdrawn. On the following Sunday, Swedes rejected proposals to adopt the common currency.
Solemn tone
Back in Britain, the death of Labour member of parliament (MP) Jo Cox has set a similarly solemn tone around the otherwise raucous Brexit debate. The 41-year-old was shot in the small town of Birstall in the north of England while on her way to meet with constituents in a nearby library Thursday afternoon. According to reports of unconfirmed eyewitness accounts, the attacker shouted 'Britain first,' potentially referencing a right-wing, anti-immigration and eurosceptic group in the U.K.. It has led to speculation that the politician's murder may be linked to the upcoming June 23rd referendum. Media reports have identified the suspect as a 52-year-old local man Tommy Mair, who is said to have lived alone in a nearby estate. A full investigation is underway by authorities to determine the motives of the suspect, who is believed to have acted alone. Though it's unclear whether there was any political intent behind Cox's murder, both sides of the EU referendum have since suspended campaign activities.
watch now
The political pull-back is in stark contrast to a debate that was otherwise reaching fever pitch less than a week before Brits headed to the polls. Just on Wednesday, Cox's husband and children were on a boat on the River Thames in support of the 'Remain' camp, as Brexit supporters took to their own flotilla. Both sides trading insults over loud speakers and in one of the stranger moments, protesting fishermen deployed water hoses. Since news of the attack, the tone has darkened. On Thursday night, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, who has been criticized for making comments on the economic risks of the upcoming referendum, changed direction in a speech to London City bankers, taking the opportunity to pay tribute to the slain politician. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund, which has warned about the consequences of leaving the EU, delayed the release of a report on the impacts of a Brexit.
Political impact
In the wake of the suspended campaigns, markets rebounded, sending sterling and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 higher. There are suspicions that the attack on the pro-EU politician may temper the momentum of the pro-Brexit camp and reduce the prospects that voters will want to leave the European Union. However, while the attack on Sweden's minister in 2003 didn't beckon voters towards closer ties to the EU, voters notably opted for the status quo. "It is difficult to know whether or not a specific incident such as this will have a decisive impact on the overall result of the referendum," Matthew Goodwin, a politics professor at the University of Kent and senior visiting fellow at Chatham House told CNBC via email. "We currently know little about the event, individual and his potentially political motivations," Goodwin stressed.
A woman adjusts the candle next to red roses and a portrait of late Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh who was attacked with a knife and later died of her injuries. Sven Nackstrand| AFP | Getty Images
How much would you pay for unlimited flights to London or Paris? For Frantz Yvelin, CEO of boutique airline La Compagnie, $35,000 is the magic number.
On Saturday, Yvelin's business-class only airline will sell 10 unlimited flight passes for travelers flying between New York and London or Paris.
The airline is looking to collect $350,000 in revenue on the idea that $673 a week is a great deal for New York-area travelers making numerous round-trip flights to London or Paris, which can easily cost in the thousands of dollars.
"Numerous," however, is key. Though business travelers who fly every week or two between New York and London or Paris would surely get their money's worth, those flying less frequently would likely be better off shopping around.
"We are very confident in this offer," Yvelin told CNBC. "We thought this was a good way for us to celebrate our second birthday."
Based in Paris, France, La Compagnie has been flying since July 2014. Its fleet consists of two Boeing 757-200 planes filled with 74 business class seats. And while its offer is sure to garner plenty of attention, it's also a sign of how competitive international business class travel out of New York has become.
The aviation research and consulting firm OAG said the number of overall business class seats available between New York and London has jumped 35 percent in the last six years. Delta is one major carrier that is targeting business class flyers out of the Big Apple. Its increased presence at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport has contributed to that airline's 54 percent increase in business class seats between New York and London since 2010.
The tech industry is close to being caught up in another bubble of roller coaster valuations, the chief executive of Russian investment giant Sistema told CNBC.
Mikhail Shamolin, board director and chief executive of Sistema, an investment company holding majority stakes in a number of Russian telecommunications, media, utility and retail businesses, said he was seeing a repeat of the pattern of the tech bubble of the early 2000s.
"Now it is the era of so-called unicorns," Shamolin told CNBC at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, referring to the large-scale tech companies with billion-dollar valuations.
"And people believe unicorns are going to make money no matter what because they are unicorns and there (isn't) that much competition around. And they're so much about scale that, no matter what, they are going to start making money."
"And maybe they're right. I mean no one has got a crystal ball. But I would definitely say from my perspective that risks are increasing of a bubble being formed and eventually bursting."
Sistema has seen a turnaround in its fortunes over the last two years, with the conglomerate reporting a 2.5 billion ruble ($37 million) net income for the first quarter compared to an underlying net loss a year ago, Reuters reported at the start of the month.
The potential risk of a Brexit after the June 23 referendum on European Union (EU) membership is "a concern for the whole world," International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde told CNBC.
"It's a concern not just for the U.K., by the way, it's a concern for the world," she told CNBC on Friday when questioned about the potential impact of the U.K.'s referendum on EU membership next week.
" I have not attended any meetings in the last three or four months with any leader, any policymakers or any body where the question of the impact of the U.K. withdrawing was not asked."
"There has been a huge focus on the downside and not much on the benefits and upside," Lagarde said on Friday. "There have been significant benefits (for the U.K.) arising from being part of a single market."
`"It's a pretty overwhelming case when you have a huge body of economists (that agree) that it's going to cost (the U.K.), it's going to be negative for income purposes, it's going to reduce trade most likely as a result of uncertainty and those are blatant facts When one economist disagrees with another, that's life, but when they all agree ... that's a pretty compelling situation."
"The U.K. has been, is, and I hope will continue to be a champion of (doing things in a) faster, quicker, less bureaucratic and more efficient (way)," she said, adding that she hoped Europe would continue to try to perfect itself.
Lagarde was speaking to CNBC in Vienna where earlier in the day she had presented a speech on European unity.
The speech, entitled "Unity in Diversity: The Case for Europe" is timely given rising populism and Euroskepticism in the 28-country European Union (EU), a continuing refugee crisis, economic uncertainty and a forthcoming U.K. referendum on EU membership.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump reportedly paid little to no taxes for at least two years during the early 1990s, according to Politico, citing records it obtained from New Jersey gambling authorities.
The news organization said that the billionaire's avoidance of income taxes during those years was not illegal because Trump's hotel and casino holdings sustained "significant losses" in a tough economic environment.
"Welcome to the real estate business," Trump said in an email to Politico. A spokeswoman for Trump declined to comment further to CNBC.
The presumptive GOP nominee has come under fire for not releasing his income tax statements during the course of his presidential campaign. The Washington Post previously reported that Trump did not pay income taxes in 1978 and 1979. It was also reported that Trump received a small tax credit, $302, intended for those with incomes below $500,000.
Read the full report on Politico.
Italian firms still operating in Russia have not damaged the international sanctions placed on the country, one of Italy's top business leaders told CNBC on Friday, as Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries.
"We generate and sell energy in the country ... I do not believe that we have jeopardized, in any way, the sanctions," Patrizia Grieco, chairman of Enel, an Italian multinational utilities company, told CNBC.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Sasha Mordovets | Getty Images
She spoke from the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia, where Renzi and Putin are meeting. The 28 European Union (EU) countries will meet in July to decide whether to renew sanctions against Russia. The country's relationship with Europe has deteriorated since the European Union imposed sanctions on Moscow after its incursion in Crimea in 2014 and its alleged role in the pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine.
There are signs of disagreement on the matter among EU members, with Baltic countries on Russia's borders typically keener on maintaining tough sanctions, while countries like Greece have flagged the possibility of tailing them off.
"We have been staying in Russia since 12 years, since 2004, and so it's a long lasting relationship for Enel in the energy sector. I guess that the approach of the Italian government to keep a bi-lateral relationship with the Russian government was, let me say, a proper one," said Grieco.
ROMULUS, N.Y. The Seneca County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) selected business owner Earl Martin as the winning bidder for the approximately 7,000 remaining acres of the former Seneca Army Depot.
The IDA voted unanimously to select Martin at its board meeting on Wednesday, the Seneca County IDA said in a news release issued Thursday.
Martin owns Seneca Iron Works of Seneca Falls and Deer Haven Park, LLC.
The IDA selected Martins bid for its economic impact and environmental considerations, Bob Aronson, executive director of the Seneca County IDA, said in the release.
This is the best chance in a long time to revitalize the Depot property, Aronson said. We look forward to working with Martin and helping him to create a brighter future for Seneca County.
The agreement calls for Martin to pay $900,000 for the property, according to an article on the website of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
Martins proposal, detailed in the IDA release, calls for a $13 million projected investment in the expansion of his existing company, Seneca Iron Works, and other developments with a potential to create more than 200 new jobs over a 10-year period.
The website for Seneca Iron Works displays a company called Seneca Dairy Systems, which specializes in manufacturing and distributing dairy equipment. Seneca Iron Works in 1999 purchased Seneca Dairy Systems, LLC, a firm that was originally known as Green Valley Welding, according to the website.
Martins project would mean less reliance on Chinese suppliers, with the expectation of bringing many of those opportunities to Seneca County, the IDA said.
It would also result in taxable land use, making the property an economic asset to Seneca County, the towns of Varick and Romulus, and the Romulus and South Seneca school districts.
In addition, Martin has indicated a willingness to have a much-desired east-west road through the depot. The project would also mean the development of about 20 Amish homesteads to live on and farm the land.
Martin also plans to dedicate Depot land for wildlife preservation, specifically for the white deer for which the property is known. Hell also work with Seneca White Deer, Inc., and/or other organizations on the preservation process, the IDA said.
Martin said he was pleased that the IDA selected him as the winning bidder.
Our plans will enable Seneca Iron Works to continue growing, and will pave the way for additional industrial, agricultural and tourism development over the next 10 years, Martin contended in the IDA news release. With support from the community, our plans could have far-reaching effects that will strengthen the countys economy as a whole, as well as the entire Finger Lakes region.
The depot has been for sale since the Seneca County IDA called for property bids on Dec. 15. Potential developers submitted a total of 16 bids for the property by the submission deadline of Feb. 29.
The facility is a former World War II ordnance depot and one of the largest developable properties in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, the IDA said.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
SYRACUSE, N.Y. Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner on Thursday signed the Syracuse Resident Employment Ordinance.
It mandates the hiring of city residents for at least 20 percent of a projects workforce on City of Syracuse contracts worth more than $100,000, Miners office said in a news release issued Thursday.
The citys department of neighborhood and business development will be responsible for overseeing business compliance with the new ordinance.
Additionally, the law creates a resident employment-advisory committee to assist the departments office of minority affairs in establishing recruitment protocols for employers.
Syracuse will monitor compliance with certified payroll data and a web-based tracking system, Miners office said.
Understanding the only way we will end the pernicious poverty that permeates the City of Syracuse is to create opportunities putting men and women to work, enabling them to provide for their families, I am proud to sign this ordinance into law, Miner said in the release.
Khalid Bey, a member of Syracuse Common Council, had sponsored the measure.
This legislation is a move in the right direction in the effort to strengthen the financial health of our families and our city. It is an example of what can be done when the Council, the administration, business and constituents work together for the benefit of everyone, Bey said in Miners release.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
If you could please tell me how, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks in advance.
Copy Code var x = engine.Evaluate( " x <- rnorm(100, mean=50, sd=10)" ).AsNumeric();
returns 100 data points in x, yes ? what I dont know, is if x is a 2-d array or a dataframe - once you can determine that - I'd single step in debug mode until that step has been executed, then use the mouse and hover over 'x' and see what the debugger says its type is .... (I dont have 'R' installed) it surely is a simply matter to
a) open a file for writing - use a 'using' block
b) iterate 'x' by rows
c) for each column in the row, build a comma separated string
d) write the comma separated string to the file
e) {end-for}
really b & c are the bits that will differ depending on what it is (array, dataframe)
How would I use an int array in RDotNet?
Currently I have this: Copy Code public void variance(REngine e, string[] x,int[] y) { var var1 = e.GetSymbol( " var" ).AsFunction(); var1.Invoke(x).AsNumeric(); } How would I use an int array in this function I am trying to call?
I am trying to use this as a method.
I think what I have to do is convert the array into a dataFrame, but I just don't know how.
modified 24-Jun-16 12:31pm.
I wrote this new version of a function to replace an older version, which reads a HTML file, replaces some values, and sends it back out for emailing.
I wrote an earlier post in which I said the HTML didn't persist, but that was an easy fix. I currently just don't understand why the replace is not working. It worked before when html_Template was a string builder.
I really don't want to use regex to replace the values, I'm not good at writing regex.
And I'm sure not if what I wrote is kosher and efficient. Maybe I can move the replace outside the using filestream.
Copy Code private static string read_HTML_Template( model_crm_contact_request cm) { string html_Template = string .Empty; using ( var htmlStream = new FileStream(cm.smtp_templatePath_customer, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)) { long htmlLen = htmlStream.Length; byte[] bytes = new byte[htmlLen]; htmlStream.Read(bytes, 0 , ( int )htmlLen); if (!(htmlStream == null )) htmlStream.Close(); var enc = new UTF8Encoding( true ); var preamble = enc.GetPreamble(); if (preamble.Where((p, i) => p != bytes[i]).Any()) html_Template = enc.GetString(bytes.ToArray()); else html_Template = enc.GetString(bytes.Skip(preamble.Length).ToArray()); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.WebsiteUrl %>" , cm.smtp_websiteUrl); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.HeaderImage %>" , cm.smtp_headerImage); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.CustomerName %>" , cm.Name); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.WebsiteName %>" , cm.smtp_websiteName); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.CustomerComment %>" , cm.Query); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.TimeStamp_GMT %>" , DateTime.UtcNow + " GMT" ); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.TimeStamp_UTC %>" , DateTime.UtcNow + " UTC" ); } return html_Template; }
Copy Code private static string read_HTML_Template( model_crm_contact_request cm) { string html_Template = string .Empty; using ( var htmlStream = new FileStream(cm.smtp_templatePath_customer, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)) { long htmlLen = htmlStream.Length; byte[] bytes = new byte[htmlLen]; htmlStream.Read(bytes, 0 , ( int )htmlLen); if (!(htmlStream == null )) htmlStream.Close(); var enc = new UTF8Encoding( true ); var preamble = enc.GetPreamble(); if (preamble.Where((p, i) => p != bytes[i]).Any()) html_Template = enc.GetString(bytes.ToArray()); else html_Template = enc.GetString(bytes.Skip(preamble.Length).ToArray()); } html_Template = html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.WebsiteUrl %>" , cm.smtp_websiteUrl); html_Template = html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.HeaderImage %>" , cm.smtp_headerImage); html_Template = html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.CustomerName %>" , cm.Name); html_Template = html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.WebsiteName %>" , cm.smtp_websiteName); html_Template = html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.CustomerComment %>" , cm.Query); html_Template = html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.TimeStamp_GMT %>" , DateTime.UtcNow + " GMT" ); html_Template = html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.TimeStamp_UTC %>" , DateTime.UtcNow + " UTC" ); return html_Template; }
This is the old version Copy Code private static string read_HTML_Template( model_crm_contact_request cm) { FileStream htmlStream = null ; htmlStream = new FileStream(cm.smtp_templatePath_website, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); long htmlLen = htmlStream.Length; byte[] fileData = new byte[htmlLen]; htmlStream.Read(fileData, 0 , ( int )htmlLen); if (!(htmlStream == null )) htmlStream.Close(); byte[] byteLine = new byte[0]; string[] strArray = new string[0]; for ( int bdx = 0 ; (bdx <= (fileData.Length - 1 )); bdx++) { byte byteVal = fileData[bdx]; if (!(byteVal == 13 )) { Array.Resize( ref byteLine, byteLine.Length + 1 ); byteLine[byteLine.Length - 1] = byteVal; } else { Array.Resize( ref byteLine, byteLine.Length + 1 ); byteLine[byteLine.Length - 1] = byteVal; char[] charLine = new char[0]; Array.Resize( ref charLine, byteLine.Length + 1 ); for ( int cdx = 0 ; (cdx <= (byteLine.Length - 1 )); cdx++) { charLine[cdx] = AsciiByteToChar(byteLine[cdx]); } string value = new string (charLine); Array.Resize( ref strArray, strArray.Length + 1 ); strArray[strArray.Length - 1] = value ; Array.Resize( ref byteLine, 0 ); bdx++; } } StringBuilder html_Template = new StringBuilder(); for ( int idx = 0 ; (idx <= (strArray.Length - 1 )); idx++) { int integerRead = 0 ; char characterRead; StringBuilder htmlBuilder = new StringBuilder(); StringReader charReader = new StringReader(strArray[idx]); while ( true ) { integerRead = charReader.Read(); if ((integerRead == -1)) { break ; } characterRead = Convert.ToChar(integerRead); if ((characterRead == ' \t' )) { } else if (((characterRead == ' \r' ) || (characterRead == '
' ))) { } else { htmlBuilder.Append(characterRead); } } string htmlString = htmlBuilder.ToString(); htmlString = htmlString.Substring( 0 , (htmlString.Length - 1 )); html_Template.Append(htmlString); } html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.WebsiteUrl %>" , cm.smtp_websiteUrl); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.HeaderImage %>" , cm.smtp_headerImage); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.CustomerName %>" , cm.Name); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.WebsiteName %>" , cm.smtp_websiteName); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.CustomerComment %>" , cm.Query); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.TimeStamp_GMT %>" , DateTime.UtcNow + " GMT" ); html_Template.Replace( " <% smtp.TimeStamp_UTC %>" , DateTime.UtcNow + " UTC" ); return html_Template.ToString(); }
I followed the tutorial here:
Importing and displaying a Data frame with C# and R.NET | Psychwire[^]
and I got errors on the code, here: Copy Code REngine.SetDllDirectory(dlldir); REngine.CreateInstance( " RDotNet" ); REngine engine = REngine.GetInstanceFromID( " RDotNet" ); engine.EagerEvaluate( " dataset<-read.table(file.choose(), header=TRUE, sep = ',')" ); DataFrame dataset = engine.EagerEvaluate( " dataset" ).AsDataFrame(); saying that it couldn't find the methods inRDotNet.Engine.
This is the code I am using: Copy Code using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.IO; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Threading.Tasks; using System.Windows.Forms; using Microsoft.Win32; using RDotNet; using RDotNet.NativeLibrary; using Microsoft.Win32; namespace RScript { public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1() { string dlldir = @" C:\Program Files\R\R-3.3.0\bin\x64" ; bool r_located = false ; Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable( " PATH" , Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable( " PATH" ) + " ;" + dlldir); InitializeComponent(); while (r_located == false ) { try { REngine.SetDllDirectory(dlldir); REngine.CreateInstance( " RDotNet" ); r_located = true ; } catch { MessageBox.Show( @" Unable to find R installation's \bin\i386 folder. Press OK to attempt to locate it." ); /if (folderBrowserDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { dlldir = @folderBrowserDialog1.SelectedPath; }/ } } } private void button1_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { REngine engine = REngine.GetInstanceFromID( " RDotNet" ); try { engine.EagerEvaluate( " dataset<-read.table(file.choose(), header=TRUE, sep = ',')" ); DataFrame dataset = engine.EagerEvaluate( " dataset" ).AsDataFrame(); for ( int i = 0 ; i < dataset.ColumnCount; ++i) { dataGridView1.ColumnCount++; dataGridView1.Columns[i].Name = dataset.ColumnNames[i]; } for ( int i = 0 ; i < dataset.RowCount; ++i) { dataGridView1.RowCount++; dataGridView1.Rows[i].HeaderCell.Value = dataset.RowNames[i]; for ( int k = 0 ; k < dataset.ColumnCount; ++k) { dataGridView1[k, i].Value = dataset[i,k]; } } } catch { MessageBox.Show( @" Equation error." ); } } } } can someone please help me out, since I really need your help?
I am new to R.Net.
I am using the newest version of RDotNet (1.6.5).
Thanks in advance!
If you look at the bottom of the page you link to, there is a "Thoughts on..." area, which is there for people - like you - to comment and ask questions.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
Hi,
I'm creating code to select monitor in a multi-monitor configuration. I was wondering if someone with many monitors could help me understand what is happening once you have 5-6 monitors connected to your PC by running this script and just reporting results it prints out.
C# Copy Code using System; using System.Drawing; using System.Windows.Forms; namespace Scr.Tests { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Rectangle desktop = SystemInformation.VirtualScreen; Console.WriteLine(desktop.ToString()); Screen[] screens = Screen.AllScreens; for ( int i = 0 ; i < screens.Length; i++) { Console.WriteLine(screens[i].Bounds.ToString()); Console.WriteLine(screens[i].DeviceName); Console.WriteLine(screens[i].WorkingArea.ToString()); } } } }
Sincerely,
Tomaz
to do ?
Given that more than one Screen can have (one or more) TaskBar objects, what does that mean in this context.
You are aware that 'ScreenPrimaryScreen() will return the current active device Window, and if you are enumerating multiple Screens, the Screen.Primary method will return a boolean value for a given Screen indicating whether it's Primary.
In any case, I think there's code on this post, and on this thread, on StackOverFlow you may find useful: [^]
There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it. Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008
- which monitor is monitor 1 (is it always left, top?),
- can coordinates be negative,
- what if one monitor is "missiong" and hence rectangular virtual desktop has "holes" in it, how does mouse behave then,
...
Configurations such as this one: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c4/2f/90/c42f908f046399f8d097a7ecc6cf8bf4.jpg[^] are not that uncommon in the financial industry anymore. And my apps must follow the trend. So I really need a printout of this program. Then I can use the coordinates in my test program to simulate multi- monitor environment and draw it correctly.
^].
This may be useful: [^].
There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it. Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008
I want do show my gps cursor in Mapwingis by C#. I want to show red cursor when gps stop and show green cursor when gps is running? I want to do it in C# please help me.
This space for rent
programming language is C#.
This space for rent
support center[^] which is full of helpful information?
This space for rent
Hello,
I just want to find out if the tollbaricon or the notifyicon ist clicked. I know how to do that in a own class. My problem is, that I have a while-loop and in this one, I must check if one of the button is klicked. (Because only then the while have to break.)
May you help me? May you have other ideas how i can realize it?
The problem is that unless you are explicitly threading your app, the while loop is executing on the same thread as the rest of the UI elements - so the click action won't get honoured until after the loop has finished and the event handler that started it has returned control to the system.
It's like a man who is so busy concentrating on what's in front of him while he is driving, that he doesn't notice the fire engine trying to get past!
You can do it, but you have to change the way your application works, and move the loop into a separate thread. You can then set up an "terminate" variable which you check in the loop, and set in the Click event handler. Have a look at the BackgroundWorker Class (System.ComponentModel)[^] - it provides a safe and easy way to do this, but be aware that you cannot access any UI elements except on the same thread they were created on - if you try to do that inside your loop using a BackgroundWorker you will get a "Cross thread exception" and that means you need to use Invoke to move the access back onto the original thread. This isn't a simple subject and it's probably an idea if you do some background reading on Threading first before you get too complicated.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
Hi,
C# Copy Code I need to access my gmail contacts to upgrade an Access database. A program in C # manages this basis. I checked on the Internet and appeared several ways, but none worked. I found a video that the speaker creates the code step by step and in the end he managed to access the gmail contacts. I typed the code and is giving an error in word in of code: foreach (Contact contato in f.Entries)
C# Copy Code The following code:
C# Copy Code using System; using System.Data; using Google.Contacts; using Google.GData.Client; using Google.GData.Extensions; namespace ContatosGmail { public partial class Default : System.Web.UI.Page { protected void btnObter_Click( object sender, EventArgs e) { DataSet ds = new DataSet(); ds.Tables.Add( " GmailContacts" ); ds.Tables[0].Columns.Add( " EmailId" ); RequestSettings rs = new RequestSettings( " Taveira" , txtUsername.Text, txtPassword.Text); rs.AutoPaging = true ; ContactsRequest cr = new ContactsRequest(rs); Feed Professor Ian Roberston